twenty-three
ANGELINE SHIVERED WITH anger and worry as she put a fresh, damp cloth on Royston’s feverish forehead.
Thank goodness he’d stopped casting up his accounts and trembling. Whatever the physician had given him, it was working. Royston was sound asleep in his bedroom, covered by layers of thick quilts and warmed by a hot water bottle.
It had taken three people to carry him out of the parlour in Lady Redvers’s house, lay him in a cab, and then tuck him in his bed.
After Mama had the horrible idea of drugging him, Angeline had found Royston lying on a sofa in the parlour and her mother whispering to him. Angeline had faced the most intense, albeit brief, argument of her life with her mother. Then Royston had started to convulse, his skin turning purple.
She’d left him for a handful of minutes, desperate to fetch a physician who could help him, only to return to the parlour and find Miss Taylor all over him in a promiscuous attitude.
Lady Redvers must have organised the whole scandalous scene. The viscountess had barged into the parlour with two other matrons and caught her daughter in a compromisingsituation with Royston. A delirious, almost-dying Royston, that is.
Chaos had ensued. No one had listened to Angeline when she’d said that he had been drugged, and she hadn’t cared much at the moment, worried about him. But then again, she couldn’t explain what had happened to Royston without exposing Mama and raising questions that might reveal she regularly drugged gentlemen to blackmail them later.
Royston casting up his accounts on Lady Redvers hadn’t helped his case.
But no matter. The most important thing was that he was all right now and asleep.
“Miss Haywood.” Enright, the butler, entered the bedroom, carrying a tray with a steaming cup of tea. The man had been a godsend, helping Angeline take care of Royston. “Your mother is here.”
“I don’t want to see her.” She wrung the cloth in the basin before wiping Royston’s forehead again.
“I apologise, but she’s quite insistent. She won’t leave until you see her.”
Angeline sighed and sagged in the stuffed chair. “All right. Thank you, Enright.”
He cast a worried glance at Royston before leaving.
Mama walked inside without her usual cockiness. Her cheeks were pale, and her capelet was askew.
She paused next to the bed. “How’s Lord Wharton?”
“As if you cared about him.”
“I’m sorry. I really am. I had no idea he would have that… what did the physician call it?”
Angeline placed a fresh cloth on Royston’s forehead. “Adverse reaction. No, actually, the physician said that Royston had asevereadverse reaction, life-threatening. It’s a miracle he’salive. If he hadn’t cast up his accounts, he would have died from poisoning.”
Mama shivered. “I tried the potion on many men, and none of them became so sick. It has always worked.”
Angeline checked Royston’s pulse. The physician had told her to check that his pulse remained strong and steady. “You almost killed him, and for what? To prove to me that he isn’t a good man after I expressly told you not to give him anything. But did you listen? No, because that’s what you do. You only do as you please without listening to anyone.”
Mama had the decency to lower her gaze. “I apologise. I didn’t want any of this. I just wanted to prove to you that he would leave you once he took you to bed.”
“Well, you were late.” She breathed hard. “I’ve already given myself to him, and he still wants to marry me.”
Mama blushed. Angeline hoped it was shame.
“On top of that,” Angeline said, “Lady Redvers demands he marry her daughter because she claimed he ruined her.”
Mama held up a hand. “That wasn’t my doing. I had no idea that awful woman had planned to throw Miss Taylor at Lord Wharton, only to force him to marry her. That was an unfortunate event.”
“Unfortunate?” She tossed the cloth into the basin. “Lady Redvers acted desperately because she knew Royston meant to marry me. Someone must have told her the news, and you were the only one who knew about his proposal. You drug him and leave and she comes in with her daughter? It’s too convenient.”
Her eyes flared wide. “It wasn’t me. I don’t even like the woman. Why would I tell her about Lord Wharton’s proposal?”
“Because you disapprove of him. You knew she would have done something reckless, like trapping him in a forced marriage.” She barely suppressed her tears. “And now he can’t marry me. Congratulations. You ruined everything.”
