Page 101 of Marry in Secret
Cal considered it, then nodded. “A reasonable strategy. You’re welcome to stay at Ashendon Hall.”
“I thought we’d go to Brierdon Court.”
“Why there?”
“I grew up there and I think I’ll be welcomed as the earl. Rose has never been to Brierdon, so nobody there could bear her any ill will. And it’s to be our future home. Nowthat Wilmott is taking on the rescue of my men, I need to think about becoming the Earl of Brierdon.”
***
Once she’d turned the corner, Rose’s recovery was rapid. The doctor insisted on a week at least of bed rest, lest she reopen her wound, and it was driving her mad. But everyone was so attentive, so kind, she could not complain. Every day flowers and fruit and books and notes arrived from well-wishers.
She and Thomas had decided to remain at Ashendon House for the duration of Rose’s convalescence because of the constantly available company there. Lily came every morning and spent most of the day with her, talking and sewing. George kept her entertained with scurrilous tales of the various callers who ostensibly came to inquire after Rose but were really there to nose out gossip and to meet the new earl.
Finn came too, of course, padding across to place his big muzzle on the bed and eye her lugubriously, silently pointing out that people might be injured but dogs still needed to be scratched behind their ears.
They played cards with her, did puzzles with her, read to her, sang to her, and in general could not have been sweeter. But Rose wasn’t used to enforced inactivity, and she was finding it very frustrating.
“Take me out in the carriage, please, Thomas,” she begged him one morning, when the rest of her family went for their usual ride. “If I can’t ride, at least I can watch them and get some fresh air.”
But he and Cal considered it still too dangerous. “We don’t know if that fellow is still out there, lurking. And until we know who he is, and who he’s after—you or me—we’re not going to risk it.”
She pouted. “But if you knew for certain it wasyouthis horrid man was after, you’d go out riding, wouldn’t you? It would be perfectly all right then, because you’d claim you were setting a trap for him. But you can’t possibly usemeas bait—oh, no—because it’s too dangerous.”
He refused to comment on that, mainly because she was one hundred percent right. He didn’t mind risking his own neck but he was damned if he’d risk hers.
The day he met Radcliffe and Wilmott was a day they both celebrated. “So you won’t be going to horrid Barbary after all?”
“No, I’m staying here with you, always.”
“I’m so glad we’re not going to that place. It really would have been dangerous, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes. But I wouldn’t have let you come with me, you know.”
“Oh, and how do you think you could stop me?”
So in the spirit of full disclosure, he confessed his plan.
She bridled. “You were going to lock me in that horrid little cellar?”
“Not for long—don’t look so horrified—just until my ship had sailed. Your brother promised to come along in good time to let you out.”
“Calknew about this?” she said wrathfully.
He made a placatory gesture. “I needed someone reliable to let you out. And it’s not horrid, I had it cleaned out especially, not a cobweb or spider left. I put in a comfortable chair, and even provided you with some food and drink. And a chamber pot.”
“Achamber pot?” she repeated unsteadily. “Thomas, that’s outrageous! Ludicrous! Absurd!”
“What’s absurd about a chamber pot? Very useful things. You’d have been mighty put out if you’d found yourself caught short in there without one.”
“No, I meant your plan to imprison me in the cellar. How iniquitous! How diabolical!” She darted him a mischievous glance. “How coincidental.”
He frowned. “Coincidental?”
She giggled. “I told Briggs to mop out the cellar and put in a comfortable chair and table and a little rug. I was planning to ask you to fetch me some wine just before we were due to leave, and then keep you there for hours, until yourship had well and truly sailed. But”—peals of laughter spilled from her—“I didn’t even think of a chamber pot.”
***
A week after the attack on Rose the doctor inspected her wound, pronounced it to be healing beautifully and said she could get up the following day and walk around a little, but told her to keep her movements gentle and undemanding. “Definitely no riding for at least another week, probably two,” he said when Rose asked him when she could ride out again.
