Page 103 of His Duchess in Disguise
“Oh, deary me! Mrs. Noddicott, she was very careful with the glassware and the table settings. I didn’t even think to check how she was cutting up the carrots. And I can’t think that she wasn’t being careful. Just look at all the carrots she has cut up.”
Well, she will not be cutting anything more today and will have to be on light duty until the hand heals,” Mrs. Noddicott said, pressing firmly at the base of Emma’s thumb in an effort to slow the bleeding.
As she was speaking, Captain Arnault and his troop’s surgeon hurried in from the back door.
The doctor, a grizzled old fellow who looked as if he had been placed out in the sun to dry for several days, slipped in beside Mrs. Noddicott and took over putting pressure on the wound. “Carrots, eh?” he asked. “You’d be amazed at how many young men I’ve tended for a similar wound. Let me guess: you used the old wives’ method of cutting the carrot slices against your thumb?”
Emma nodded, tears of pain and humiliation running down her cheeks. “Well, now,” the doctor went on jovially, “I certainly do recommend placing those recalcitrant tubers on a cutting board and slicing down on them from this time on.”
Emma cried out as the doctor did something that pinched horribly, but the bleeding slowed. “Ah, there we are. Now, if someone would be so good as to bring me some of that flour…yes, that will do nicely.” He held the edges of the cut together and dusted it lightly with the flour. The bleeding slowed and stopped.
Without being asked, Captain Arnault opened the doctor’s bag and took out a roll of bandaging. The doctor wrapped the hand, then tied off the bandage securely. “You come and get me if it starts bleeding again. You might have the village doctor up, just in case it needs more attention after I leave since I’ll be going with the Company.”
Emma noticed that the captain was staring at her. He looked so familiar. Cold panic shot through her as she realized that he was Mrs. Pearthorne’s friend, the one she had danced with. Emma dropped her gaze to her hand, hoping that he would not recognize her.
Chapter 17
Leo and Captain Arnault rode out on two of the newly purchased horses, intent on putting them all through their paces before Arnault’s company were called out for duty. The sergeants and other officers were keeping the men occupied with training games disguised as recreation. Wise to the ways of off-duty soldiers, Leo had requested that they not be allowed to spend a lot of time in the local tavern or hobnobbing with the locals.
Leo noticed that the captain was unusually silent as they rode, even when they were walking the horses on the paths near the standing stones. “Something on your mind?” he asked.
Captain Arnault held the bay gelding he was riding steady as it shied at the shadows from a bush blowing in the wind. “Spooky beast,” he commented. “Not at all sure it will stand under fire.”
“Arnie . . .” Leo drawled in a reproving voice.
The captain drew alongside Leo and turned in his saddle, causing the gelding to sidle and fidget. “Leo, what do you know about your kitchen maid?”
“Absolutely nothing, really. I witnessed her standing up to a burly stevedore who would have made three of her, and she bought a horse from the lot that was to be auctioned off. I sold it to her for one pound, along with the tack, because I knew that neither the mare nor the equipment was going to be worth so much as a shilling for you.”
“And then she shows up here. Doesn’t it seem a little suspicious to you?”
“Not really. She had a heck of a shiner when she bought the horse, but she wasn’t afraid of any of us. Far from it. She was mad as fire about the way the mare was being treated, and I honestly can’t say that I blame her.”
“Did you turn off the man who did it?” Captain Arnault asked.
“He wasn’t my man, but had he been, yes, I would have. The girl was just a little closer and quicker than I was. Is this all apropos of something, Captain?”
“Actually, it is. Rumor has it that the Baron of Calber has significantly run aground financially, to the extent that he pledged his daughter’s hand in marriage at a card game. It seems that he put up a paste signet ring as collateral for a bet, then lost the bet.”
“I did hear something to that effect. But what does that have to do with the kitchen maid?”
“Your Grace, I am virtually certain that your ‘kitchen maid’ is a young woman that Mrs. Pearthorne introduced to me as Emma Hoskins, daughter of the Baron of Calber.”
Leo studied his horse’s ears for a good while. “She certainly didn’t look like a baron’s daughter when I saw her. But she does have an air about her.” He studied the horse’s ears for a while longer. “I don’t believe I shall make inquiries. That bruise was genuine. Nobleman or not, no man should treat his daughter in such a manner.”
“You aren’t concerned about her showing up here, Leo?”
“Arnie, where was she going to show up? She might have made it to Bath if she’d stuck to the highway, but she’d almost certainly have run into that young idiot, Reggie. It is sheer chance that her horse went lame near one of the rental farms and that the woman of the house was willing to lend her a donkey.”
“Why is that, Your Grace?” Captain Arnault put a little teasing emphasis on the address.
Leo flapped a hand at him as if waving away an annoying insect. “Hamilton sent Robbie over to the farm this morning to take the donkey back and to check on the mare. He went back along the young lady’s track and discovered that about a hundred yards back from the sheep shed, the earth caved in. One of those old barrows, I suspect. Robbie told Hamilton that he could see where the donkey had refused to go on. The girl and the dog made it across by all signs, but the donkey would have fallen in if they had continued.”
“So, if she had been riding the horse . . .”
“They would have like all fallen in, and Robbie would have only been able to retrieve a corpse.”
“Why Robbie?” Captain Arnault showed genuine curiosity.
