The Rakehell Regency Romance Series Boxed Set 4 (The Rakehell Regency Romance Series Boxed Sets)

by Sorcha MacMurrough

  "Is there any more broth? She's almost finished this."

  "I'll go get more."

  Althea was shivering intermittently, so Matthew piled on more blankets, and rang for additional hot water bottles.

  "I'm so cold," she stammered between chattering teeth.

  Matthew stroked her hair back and looked around futilely for more blankets.

  Dr. Herriot returned with the broth a moment later.

  Matthew looked at his friend. "Warm bricks, the heating pan, more hot water bottles?" he requested.

  "They're all coming, I promise."

  Antony pulled the blankets up to her chin. She was shaking so badly that Matthew swore under his breath, then laid himself over her chest to chest, putting his arms around her loosely.

  She made no protest, but rather seemed to relax, and soon the trembling eased.

  "Just stay there with her," the doctor advised. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Shout if you want me for any reason."

  "Thanks for all your help. I won't forget this."

  "A nice donation to the clinic will be most welcome if you feel obliged to thank me. And talk to Oliver. I know you think you're a bad man, but he might put things into perspective about what he and his brother did. He never stopped to think either. Treated women like objects. Refused to take no for an answer. Watched while his brother Adam abused them.

  "He discovered the error of his ways and thinking. It's all too common in our society, for all we claim to be so civilised. He can tell you that you never meant to hurt Althea, or any woman. I wish it had never happened, Matthew. But don't let this one error in judgement and startling turn of events when you found out she had been brought to that wretched place by force ruin your whole life."

  "I will try."

  Antony left to go about his errands.

  A short time after his departure, Matthew felt some movement under him.

  "I did, you know," Althea said suddenly.

  "Did what, dear?"

  "Enjoy you, Matthew. Very much."

  He jumped, his cheeks flaming. He wondered how much of the various conversations she had heard?

  He peeped open one eye, but there was no sign of consciousness. He let the lid close and resumed holding her until the shivering stopped completely and her breathing told him she was in a deep but more natural sleep.

  Antony returned a few minutes later with some hot beef and barley soup and more blankets. The tea tray arrived a short time after, and he poured three cups.

  "You can give it to her when it's cooler. In the meantime, go on and drink up yourself."

  Matthew made a moue of distaste. "My stomach still feels as though it's been turned inside out."

  "Then come over to the sink and use a brush and some toothpowder. Wash your face as well. You look like hell, mate." He laid out the spare toiletries as he spoke. "And I have a couple of spare sets of my own clothes as well."

  Matthew grinned and shook his head. "Thanks. Just the wash-up will be fine. And by the way, you look like hell too."

  "I know I do. Too many late nights trying to change the world."

  "For me it's too many late nights swiving like a sailor, and now this poor child has paid the price."

  "Now now, that's not the reformed rake I know. And she's a strong woman to have survived what she did, fought back like a tigress, I'll be bound. She may look cute and fluffy, but I'll lay you any odds you like that she'll be more than a match for you, Matthew Dane."

  He looked completely incredulous. "She was always so delicate and gentle. I can't tell you how appalled I feel."

  "You can tell her when she's ready to hear it, but don't ever tell her you're out for revenge. She'll never be honest with you if she's afraid of your emotional reactions. Just listen to her talk about it if she can bring herself to."

  Matthew paled. "I don't think I could bear-"

  "You need to try. You both need to be honest. I'm going to suggest she talk to a woman as well and a couple of former opium addicts-"

  "Oh, no-"

  "It's all right. They're good people, and it will help them put things into perspective for her. The worst thing she can do is lock it all away, feel like she's done something wrong, something to be ashamed of."

  "I understand, I think. It's just so hard to even grasp what they did to her."

  "I know. But you don't have to in some senses. She does."

  Matthew considered this for some time and then said quietly, "The opium addiction. You need to tell me what I'm dealing with."

  Dr. Herriot sighed. "I can't be entirely sure. I don't know how much or how long Althea's been like this, and what form of the drug she's been taking. But any of the opiates would appear to have given her have the same effects. I can't see any redness around her nostrils, or staining on her teeth, so I'm going to guess they simply drugged her food or water.

  "Opiates tend to relax the user. They can also make them restlessness, nauseous and cause them to vomit. She certainly seems to be very thin. If she vomited they would have had to carry on giving her more to keep her in a state of torpor, thus making her even more ill. The drug can cause a person to alternate from alert to drowsy, unless they drugged her so heavily as to render her unconscious.

  "She's still looking a bit blue, so I'm inclined to think they did. The pupils also become smaller, the skin becomes cold, moist. The breathing slows down and death can occur from an overdose."

  "She could hardly breathe when I found her, and by the time I looked in her eyes I could see the pupils were like pinpricks, even with a candle shining right in them."

  "We're lucky they didn't kill her off completely, then."

  Matthew tried to fight back the wave of nausea which crashed through him. "Is she in a lot of pain?"

  "No, I don't think so at this stage," Dr. Herriot said in his most reassuring tone. "Opiates produce a tranquil and euphoric effect. They slow breathing, heart rate and brain activity. They also depress appetite, thirst and sexual desire. The body's tolerance to pain is increased."

  "She was very thirsty, though."

  The doctor moved over to touch her hand. "If you look at the slackness of the skin you can see how dehydrated she is. They might have been giving her food and water, though I doubt it. And if she was suffering from nausea and vomiting, she would only have made her condition worse. Without water, the body becomes imbalanced, and she can have a whole host of other symptoms. I think we're seeing some of them now."

  "For instance?" Matthew asked worriedly.

  "Leg cramp, severe anxiety, confusion, or an inability to stay awake. Faintness that isn't relieved by lying down, or lightheadedness that continues for two minutes. Weak, rapid pulse. Cold, clammy skin. So we need to keep getting liquids into her, and need to build her up as much as possible in the next twenty-four hours before we have our next set of problems to deal with."

  "And they are?" Matthew asked, feeling more and more hopeless with every passing moment.

  "Opiates are addictive. The body comes to hunger for them much as it would regular food. Take them away suddenly, and she is going to start to go into what's called withdrawal. It's going to begin four to six hours following the last dose. I don't know when her last one was, though."

  "Can we give her more laudanum just until she starts to improve in other respects?"

  "We can, but I have no idea how much to give her."

  "Even a small amount might be better than nothing, right?"

  "I suppose. But I don't like dosing her with a dangerous narcotic."

  "Cruel to be kind?"

  He sighed. "Yes, that's what it boils down to. But you're going to need to prepare yourself for the cruel too."

  Matthew looked appalled. "What do you mean?"

  "If you ever want to wean her off the opiates, she's going to have a whole host of symptoms, none of them pleasant. She is going to be little better than a raving mad woman at times if her dependency is as bad as I think it is."

  "She's not mad, damn
it! They abducted her! This isn't her fault. How can you-"

  Antony shook his head. "I'm not, Matthew, believe me. I pity her. I'm not judging her. The intensity of the withdrawal symptoms so far as I can gather from what I've seen really depends on how much of the drug was taken, how often and for how long. I have no way of knowing any of those things."

  Matthew put down the washrag and soap he had been using to clean his face and the back of his neck. "Well, I last saw her eight weeks ago. I had a thank you note from her on her mourning stationery about seven weeks ago. She was certainly not ill or raving or in some drug-induced torpor when I left her. I'm going make her step-brother taste my fist when I-"

  The doctor gripped his shoulder hard. "Never mind that now. The last thing you need is to stir up a hornet's nest over this. Not if you're in earnest about helping to nurse her."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Just that it's going to take at least a fortnight to get her back to something even approaching normal, and you can't fight effective battles on so many fronts. Not to mention the fact that you don't want to go blundering in and make things worse."

  "Aren't they bad enough? I deflowered her, for God's sake--"

  "Someone grabbed Althea and treated her barbarously. With any luck they didn't know who you were when you rescued her. Do you really want to let them know you have Althea, and run the risk of them seizing her again to either complete whatever bizarre plans they had for her, or make sure that she can't testify against them?"

  He sighed and shook his head. "All right. I see what you mean. I burn for revenge, of course, but even more than that, I need her to be well and safe. Can you note down for me all the things I'm going to have to look out for?"

  Antony smiled patiently. "Surely. They include uneasiness, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, chills, sweating, nausea, runny nose and eyes, irritability, weakness, tremors and insomnia. She can also have sneezing and yawning fits. These symptoms are usually strongest one to three days after the drug has been withdrawn. They can persist for seven to ten days. Her confusion and lassitude can persist for several months even after all the other symptoms have disappeared."

  Matthew shook his head and sighed. "Damnation! I had no idea."

  "No reason for you to."

  "Those bastards."

  "I can give her some laudanum now just to make it easier for you, so you can prepare yourself for what's to come, but-"

  He set down the toothpowder tin with a decisive click. "No! I'm not going to give the girl more poison while I come to terms with her desperate state. Don't ever give it to her for my sake. Do it for hers. She needs to get a bit stronger. Just give her a tiny amount, and let's try to get some more broth or beef tea or something into her. Water, anything. If the er, dehydration I think you called it, is as bad as you say, let's deal with that first."

  "I can check her urine, see what she is producing, how much, how dark it is. Those are usually indications that the body is in trouble. I had one teacher at medical college who swore by urine."

  "I'm sure," Matthew said, lifting one corner of his mouth in a smile at Antony's small attempt at levity. "Do you think we need to worry about pregnancy?"

  The young doctor sighed. "Not a pretty prospect if we do, but we need to hope for the best. An opium addict is much more likely to have a miscarriage, a breech delivery, premature birth or stillbirth. The babies born to opiate-addicted mothers often have withdrawal symptoms similar to adults."

  "My God, how awful." Matthew shook his head.

  He checked her again and found she was sweating and shivering. "You need to give her some now. She seems to be getting worse."

  "All right, if you're sure."

  He ran the fingers of one hand through his thick dark hair. "No, I'm not sure of anything. I haven't been since I put my hands on her in the brothel. But we need to do something to stop her suffering."

  Antony took out a small bottle and gave her one drop of the liquid in a glass of water.

  "No, really, I don't want any more," she protested.

  "You're going to be really ill in a few hours if you don't take it now. We'll just give it to you until you start to heal. And your ribs must be really sore."

  She nodded. "I feel like I've been run over by a team of horses. But I don't want to get all confused, disappear into the blackness again. And I don't want to lose Matthew. Not when I've only just found him."

  Matthew felt the tears springing to his eyes. "You're not going to lose me, lass. I'm right here. We're going to be married, and I'm going to stay by your side always. You just need to be a good girl and take all the medicine, and rest."

  She looked at him for a moment, and then did as she was told. A moment later, Althea lapsed back onto the pillow and closed her eyes again.

  Matthew sat with her patiently, stroking her hair, feeling more wretched than he ever had in his life.

  Oliver returned from his quest a short time later.

  Both men stared at him in surprise.

  "Back so soon?" Antony commented.

  "Aye. There was nothing to find."

  Matthew scowled. "Maybe if you tried harder to get one of the girls to talk-"

  "No, you don't understand," Oliver said, raising his voice to be heard. "There's nothing left. The whole place has been burnt down to the ground."

  Chapter Six

  Matthew sat dumbstruck at what Oliver had revealed. The icy trickle of fear was back with a vengeance, gripping him fiercely as he gazed at Althea.

  "We can try to shift through the ashes of the brothel when they're cool," Oliver suggested, "but I have no real hope of finding anything. The fire brigade tells me they never saw a house fire burn so brightly. Fortunately it was detached from the other houses in the row and on the corner, and the wind was light this evening. Otherwise, who knows how much damage could have been caused."

  "Damn. They might even have killed someone. If not in that house then the one nearest. How could they just burn the whole place down like that? I mean, it was a noted establishment."

  Oliver shrugged one shoulder. "No one was injured, and the street was alerted when all the tarts did a flit. The fire brigade was on the scene in minutes, and they evacuated the whole street just to be on the safe side."

  Matthew looked at him. "Oliver, I need you to go back up and down the street. We need information. Everyone in that street must have known the place was a knocking shop for all it had pretensions to being posh and exclusive. Servants always talk. Try to find me anyone who was working there. Chances are some of them might linger with a friend for a rough lie down if they have nowhere else to go. Try to find out names, if anyone saw who brought a woman matching Althea's description there this evening.

  "And we'll need to keep tabs on any new houses opening up for trade. The girls won't suddenly stop. They'll set up elsewhere sooner or later. Then we can try to find the right price for some information."

  Oliver looked tired, but when Antony assented, he nodded.

  "All right, I'm going back now, sir. I'll see what I can do."

  "Good man. Thank you."

  "Not always so good, but doing my best," he said with a sigh, and departed once more.

  "Damnation. They were one step ahead of us," Matthew gritted out, pacing up and down in front of the doctor.

  "They must have been scared witless to torch the place. And whoever had it done has to be pretty powerful. A regular patron and an important man."

  "What could they be trying to hide?"

  Antony shrugged one shoulder and handed Matthew another cup of tea. "Apart from the chap's identity, I'm not sure. I pray we'll have some idea once we can get into place to have a look around."

  "We?" Matthew echoed in surprise.

  "Aye. We need to know who's responsible. I know we both suspected white slavers at first, but this fire proves it's a lot more than that. Alistair knows all the top Bow Street Runners-"

  "I don't want the Robin Red-breasts involved in this," Matthew insisted.


  "Think about it, though," Antony said as he stirred a lump into his own cup. "Someone is going to want to know who torched the place. We don't have to tell Alistair the whole story if you're worried. We can just say we wanted to track down a friend of Philip's who worked there, make sure she was all right. He would know a discreet man to try to get information through the proper legal channels. We get the name of one girl who worked there, and they can do the rest.

  "Or who knows, maybe the building was insured, in which case the company is going to send someone to determine culpability for the fire if they try to collect on a policy. The very fact that it went up so quickly means that someone doused the place and set it alight."