Page 90 of Avenging the Earl's Lady
Chapter 22
Jane gazed up at the canopy overhanging the bed.The drop of laudanum the surgeon had pushed on her had made her woozy.The details of her arrival here were equally unclear, but she knew they’d been heading to Shaldon House.
Lady Sirena hovered nearby, and Lady Perry gazed at her from the foot of the bed.
“Has Shaldon arrived yet?”she asked.
“Not yet,” Sirena said.“Nor Bakeley.Charley is back, though, and Gracie is tending to him.”
“Quentin?”
“In a guest chamber moaning and heaving.The surgeon’s man looked in on both him and Charley after he sewed you up.One of the footmen is with him now.”
She lifted her head and looked around.This wasn’t her old room at Shaldon House, but another bedchamber, decorated in spring greens and with silky curtains; a feminine room.
She sat up and pain stabbed her.She’d refused more laudanum, wanting her wits about her for what was to come, whatever that might be.
And how was she to deal with Shaldon?For all she knew, he’d been taken up by the authorities, all for protecting her honor and her son’s.
And managing his feud with the Duque too, she must not forget that.
Her stomach roiled.She’d shot a Spanish nobleman.The Duque’s wound could fester.He could lose his foot.He could lose his leg.He could die, and she’d be his murderer.
Lady Perry came around the bed.“Let me help you, Lady Jane.Remember how many times you scolded Kincaid about ripping his stitches?”The younger woman slipped an arm under her, helping her to sit up fully and swing her legs off the bed.“You must be mindful of your injury.But what excitement you’ve had, taking part in a duel.”
Sirena laughed.“After filching his lordship’s painting right under his nose.”She waggled a finger.“And not letting us in on the secret.”
The painting.Oh, blast it.“I left the painting there.”
“Father will see it comes home,” Perry said.
“That was a copy.Shaldon already has the original.”
Sirena laughed out loud.“Of course, he does.You must tell us everything.”
“Almost everything,” Perry said with a sly grin.
Heat rose in Jane, pounding through all of her aching muscles into her cheeks.They knew about her night with Shaldon.How, she didn’t know.
“Do I have clothing here?I want to be dressed when the men return.”And when Quentin was recovered enough to talk.“Help me into a gown and I’ll tell you almost everything.”
“But we just managed to get you into the nightgown, and the surgeon said—”
“It is only a deep cut.My arm is still intact, my hands and fingers work, and I want to dress.I must speak with your father, and I’m not going to entertain him in any part of this house wearing a nightgown.”Especially one as filmy and revealing as the one they’d dressed her in.“If he is too ill to come downstairs, once I am fully clothed I’ll go along to his bedchamber.”
Sirena and Perry exchanged a glance.“You won’t have far to go, Jane.”Sirena walked to a door and opened it.
Jane stumbled to the doorway on Perry’s arm.The room beyond held a grand bed with rich dark blue hangings.Books and papers littered a table, and a massive wing chair sat near the fireplace, a padded hassock bumped up against it.
Her pulse quickened, her wound picking up its throbbing, and she remembered: the bed she’d shared with Perry at Gorse Point Cottage had been Lady Shaldon’s, hung with the same green-patterned cloth.
“You put me in your mother’s room?”She pressed Perry’s arm.“How could you?”
She must get out of here.
“Call us hopeful,” Sirena said.
Perry squeezed her free hand.“And, if you but allow it, we will call youMother.”
