Page 6 of The Marquis, the Minx, and the Mistletoe
"Lady Somers," Tia rasped, so overcome with relief that she thought she might faint, her knees going so far as to begin to buckle beneath her. "Oh, thank God you are here, Lady Somers."
"Miss!" the butler cried, catching her before she could fall to the floor.
It was embarrassing, perhaps. That was to worry about later.
Her head had gone so light and her body so limp in that moment that she was not sure how she had been walking and riding only moments before. It seemed the entire world was spinning around her now, a mélange of candlelight and concerned voices. She was not unconscious, but somehow her facilities had simply declined to continue for the moment, opting instead to flounder in the arms of the butler as Lady Somers instructed him with urgency to transport her to the sitting room.
Perhaps she did lose a moment or two of time, for when she was able to focus her hearing again and take stock of her surroundings, there was a cool cloth on her brow and Gloriana had entered the room, her voice gone high-pitched with emotion. "Should we send for Dr. Garber?" she cried. "Has someone gone to fetch Heloise at the very least?"
"Glory, you must be calm," Lady Somers said, her voice soothing and smooth. "We do not know that anything ails Miss Everstead but hard travel, and it is late to be sending for help lest we truly need it."
"She was supposed to be married some days past," Glory moaned, the brush of her slippers pacing on the floor giving Tia an idea of her location. "Something must have happened. Oh, Alex, come in here. Will you help to get her boots off?"
"Only if I may make a jest about cold feet," her husband responded, then quickly issued whispered apologies at the exasperated sounds of his wife and sister-in-law. "Fine, fine! Just a bit of levity to lighten the moment. Honestly."
The boots slipping off her feet, exposing her damp woolen stockings to the open air, made her shiver violently enough that she stirred from her state of conscious quagmire. She groaned, turning her head to the side, painfully aware of her layers of clothing in this warm, fire-heated room. A dull pain sounded in her temples, as though to punish her for what she'd put her body through these last days.
"Tia!" Glory flung herself to the floor at the couch's edge, cupping Tia's face in her hands, her bright blue eyes searching for any sign of injury or ailment. She was also in her night clothes, her long platinum hair braided over her shoulder, body wrapped in a velvety blue robe. "My goodness, I was so very, very worried!"
"Miss Everstead, are you quite all right?" Lady Somers asked, hovering a few feet away. "I shall send for the doctor if you require it."
"No," Tia croaked, her voice gone raspy with dryness. "Just water and a bed, I think. I am so sorry to have arrived like this. I must explain myself."
"You may explain yourself in the morning," Lady Somers said gently. "You must give us a few moments to have a room turned down for you, but if there is nothing direly pressing, I expect the most important thing for you to do right now is sleep."
"She can sleep in the green room," Alex said immediately. "And we can move her on the morrow."
"Ah, yes, good idea," Lady Somers said with a relieved sigh. "Thank you, Alex."
"I will take her, and help her into bed," Glory said in a tone that brokered no argument, still looking intently at Tia's face. "Can you walk, my love?"
"Yes, yes, of course I can," Tia said thinly, because she was not all that certain she could. With effort, she pushed her legs over the side of the couch and allowed Glory to help her to sit. She gave a grateful, if weak, smile and took her time rising to her feet, flanked on either side by Alex and Glory Somers.
She avoided even looking at Alex. She did not know her friend's husband very well, and it was fairly humiliating that he had not only seen her like this, but had been forced to remove her boots because she couldn't do it herself. His strength was necessary, however, and she found herself clutching at his forearm as she found her balance.
For now, he would just remain a red-topped blur at her side, until she could regain enough of her dignity to look him in the eye again.
"You may borrow a night rail, of course," Lady Somers was saying, her flaxen brows pulled together in concern.
"My horse..." she remembered with a flash of horror.
"Is fine," Lady Somers assured her, ever tranquil. "She is enjoying oats in the warm stables as we speak. Come now, Miss Everstead, you must get some rest. Hastings, would you please fetch a pitcher of water for Miss Everstead's room, and perhaps some dry biscuits as well?"
The butler, who had been standing unseen in the corner of the room, gave a sharp nod, apparently relieved to be sent out, and beat a hasty exit.
Once she had her bearings, certain that her knees were not going to fail her again, she nodded to Glory, and the two of them made their way out of the room and into the hall, leaving behind hushed whispers between those in their wake.
Glory was silent until they had scaled the stairs, stealing glances behind her once or twice to ensure their privacy before she spoke. Her face was grim, her arm around Tia's waist solid and tight. This was not the Glory many people ever saw, for she rarely allowed anyone to see her do aught but sparkle.
"You are just as reckless as Nell, coming here all alone," she hissed, steering them down one hall and then another. "What might have happened to you on the road? A woman like you, in the cold, and unprotected! I should like to box your ears."
"Please don't." Tia grimaced. "I thought of all people, you would be least likely to chastise me."
"Well, I don't know why you'd think that," Glory scoffed. "I would never do such a thing on my own and you know it."
"I could not marry him," Tia said miserably. "What else was I to do?"
Glory made an irritated noise, but did not otherwise respond.
