by Jaimey Grant
Lord Connor appeared satisfied. Adam had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. What the devil was the other man up to?
“Good. I have need of your services.”
“Just what the devil are you doing?” Adam asked then in a fierce whisper that was actually pointless since Raven was standing right in front of him and could hear every word anyway.
Giving his friend a look of supreme annoyance, he said, “You have a patient whom you desperately need to keep secret. Miss Emerson would never dare gossip about the situation.”
Returning his attention back to Raven, he asked, “Are you willing to see my patient and attempt to help in any way you can?”
Raven looked from one man to the other, her dark and perfectly arched brows drawn down in a V of confusion. “I suppose I can meet your patient, but beyond that I cannot promise anything.”
Adam listened with mixed feelings. On one hand, Connor had a point. Raven would be the perfect candidate for such a position. She would help Bri to the best of her ability while keeping her mouth firmly shut. Society might be unhappy with him bringing his mistress into what was more or less his family home, but Society could go hang for all he cared.
On the other hand, Bri was a countess. Despite her past, she should not be subjected to the company of a kept woman.
With that thought, Adam glanced at Raven and immediately changed his mind on the last point. Raven was more of a lady than Brianna, Countess of Rothsmere. Bri’s past put her beyond the pale.
Realizing he was being stared at, he nodded once.
“Would tomorrow afternoon be too soon to meet her, my lord?”
“Perfect,” Connor replied with a smile. “Three o’clock?”
She nodded.
“Shall I send a carriage to you tomorrow?” Connor asked quietly.
“Yes, thank you,” she replied, dismissing them as regally as a queen.
Adam spent an unusually sleepless night, tossing and turning, unable to get comfortable. His mind whirled with thoughts of his guest, worry over her health and sorrow over her actions.
Rising earlier than was his wont, he visited his ward, found nothing to have changed, and sequestered himself in his study to catch up some much neglected paperwork. When the hour neared three, he rose and relieved the housekeeper of her post at the countess’s bedside.
His expected guests arrived promptly and were shown into Bri’s room. He rose to his feet and greeted them stiffly before retiring into the corner to await the outcome of Raven’s meeting with her potential patient.
They spoke in hushed voices by the bed as Connor explained everything that was wrong with the countess and the treatments he recommended. He listened attentively to any opinions or questions Raven had and offered his own in return. They were both very professional. Mrs. Campion returned and joined them there, adding her two pennies worth with a confidence Adam had never before seen her display.
It was at the very moment Connor turned to say something to him, Adam, that Bri awoke.
“Adam?”
Her voice came out as a pathetic croak and Adam rushed to her side. He picked up a glass of water and sat down on the bed beside her. He slid one arm beneath her and gently lifted her so she could drink. She still felt hot to the touch but she seemed to be coherent at least. He hoped it was a good sign. It had to be. The thought of her dying caused a distinct and very uncomfortable pang in the region of his heart.
“Adam?” she said again, a little stronger but still a pathetic whisper.
“I’m here, Bri,” Adam said softly, still holding her up. She let her head fall against his shoulder and he set the glass aside. He brushed a few strands of dark red hair from her face.
“I’m scared,” she admitted with a catch in her voice. A strange feeling of protectiveness welled up inside of him at her faintly spoken confession.
“I’m here,” he said again as he held her against him and stroked her hair.
He remembered the way she was before. She had been vibrant and beautiful, full of life and willing to fight anyone unwise enough to set her off. She had proven to be quite a formidable prey to track and he had always secretly admired her fortitude and inner strength. He hoped she was physically strong enough now to beat the illness holding her. It would be a sad loss if she were to die.
She was soon asleep and Adam became aware of his surroundings once again. He looked up into the amused face of his best friend and the blank expression of his mistress. He wondered what she was thinking. He knew what Connor was thinking. And Adam very much wanted to hit him for it.
Laying the countess gently back into her bed and tucking the covers up around her, he turned to glare at Connor and Raven. The former grinned back and the latter offered a hesitant, fleeting smile as well.
“So are you willing to help, Miss Emerson?” Connor asked the actress then.
“It is up to Adam, I think, my lord. It is his home after all and his…secret.”
Her voice had very little of the husky note it usually carried and Adam became aware for the first time of her appearance. She wore a dark blue wool gown of very modest—one might even say strict—cut with long tight sleeves and a high neckline, although the waist was up around the armpits as fashion dictated. Her hair, that glorious mane of shining black silk, was pulled severely away from her face and actually gathered into a knot, a knot! at the nape of her neck. She still had the seductively exotic eyes but with the severe hairstyle, she appeared a little less like she’d just emerged from a bedroom after a particularly energetic session of lovemaking. She looked so very professional, less like an actress and more like a governess.
Except for her lips. Her lips were made for kissing and she would never be able to escape that fact.
Perhaps Bri need never know that her nurse was an actress?
“Very well,” he capitulated with a slightly mocking bow. He turned and left them to their plans.
Chapter Seven
She came awake slowly. She heard a husky but decidedly feminine voice coming from somewhere far off to her right. The voice was asking her how she felt and if she wanted some water.
Water, yes. Bri opened her eyes and tried to nod. She felt her body lifted and a glass was pressed to her cracked lips. The water was cool and tasted subtly of barley. She must be sick, she thought suddenly. What happened?
The glass disappeared, she was laid back against the pillows and she turned to ask the voice where she was and what had happened. The owner of the voice had gone, however, and she was forced to wait.
She felt tired and achy all over but her mind was restless. She drew every ounce of strength she possessed into her arms and back and resolutely pushed herself up to rest her head weakly against the headboard.
She must have dozed lightly because she suddenly became aware of voices speaking quietly together right beside her.
“You didn’t lift her up?” said a male one sharply. Adam, she knew.
“No, I didn’t. She must have done it after I left to fetch you.” It was the husky feminine voice again. She sounded quite amazed and Bri felt very proud of herself for accomplishing such a mundane feat as raising her tired body up.
“Does she have the strength to do that?” Adam again, incredulous this time. Bri felt unaccountably hurt by his disbelieving tone.
“I don’t see how she possibly could,” replied a wondering third voice, male. She recognized Verena’s husband, Lord Connor.
“I think she’s waking up.” The woman this time. Amusement was rife in her voice.
Bri swallowed hard and opened her eyes. She must have moved in some way to indicate she was awake. How else would they have known?
The countess studied her three visitors with a blank stare. Adam, she remembered well. She seemed to dream of the man constantly. He haunted her. Lord Connor looked the same as she remembered him except his hair was a bit longer. His eyes were just as blue as always but the laughter was missing. They were cloudy with concern.
The woman, exotically beautiful and seductive even in prim brown serge and a severe hairstyle, was a complete mystery to her. She had never seen her before, of that she was sure. Any woman that beautiful would be indelibly marked in any woman’s brain as the ideal one wants to be but will never achieve.
She looks like a whore, said a jealous little part of her brain. Bri immediately castigated herself for such an uncharitable thought. The woman was obviously there to help her get over whatever illness had confined her to her bed.
Her bed? No, it wasn’t her bed, she thought, glancing around with interest. Where was she?
“Where am I?” She whispered since it was all she could do at the moment.
Adam stepped forward and locked eyes with her. “You are at Lockwood. My house in London.”
The last was unnecessary. She suddenly remembered everything. The fear dogging her every footstep; the certainty that tonight was the night the master would come to take his pleasure of her; the realization that she had nowhere to go and night was falling; the intense hunger pangs that resulted in months of stealing to avoid starvation; her eventual capture and arrest; the cold stone of Newgate Prison; and the acceptance that she was going to die.
But she didn’t die. Adam rescued her.
Only to turn her over to the very ones who intended her harm.
She knew she should be grateful to Adam Prestwich for saving her from hanging but she couldn’t get past the fact that he was part of the reason she had ended up there in the first place. If he hadn’t been tracking her so assiduously for over a year, she could have stayed in the last tolerable position she’d held. She could have stayed with Verena, Lord Connor’s wife. They were friends. Bri badly needed a friend.
She felt so betrayed, by Adam, by her family, by everyone and anyone who should mean something to her. It was a depressing thought.
She realized Lord Connor was speaking.
“I’m sorry. What?”
He smiled and placed the back of his hand on her forehead. The fever had definitely broken. He was relieved. It had been fully five days since he had introduced Miss Emerson to her duties until this exact moment occurred. He had begun to wonder himself if she would recover.
“I merely said that your fever has broken and you should be right as a trivet in no time,” he replied cheerfully. “The only challenge now is to get you back to a healthy weight.”
“I will take care of that, my lord.”
Adam bestowed a warm smile on Raven. She had been a godsend for the past five days. After telling the manager at the theater that she needed a vacation, Raven had actually moved in. She had not been from Bri’s bedside for longer than a few moments at a time. She even slept on a cot by the bed at night.
He had been tempted to coax her into his bed at least one of those nights but even he knew better than to offend his servants in such a way.
Bri caught the look that Adam sent the mystery woman and she felt a fierce urge to slap her face. Her feeling of pique was suspiciously like jealousy. But that was impossible! That would suggest that she wanted Adam Prestwich for herself. And she most certainly did not!
The woman turned to her then and smiled with genuine friendliness and an awareness of something in her dark eyes that the countess couldn’t even begin to understand. Lord Connor took the woman’s hand and dropped a light kiss on her cheek before taking his leave. Adam followed him out, leaving Bri alone with the stranger.
“Who are you?”
Raven smiled again. “I am Raven Emerson.” She dipped the most graceful curtsy Bri had ever seen.
“Why do you curtsy?” Bri asked curiously. She hadn’t been curtsied to in over three years. It was something she had been used to at one time, but not anymore.
“I am not exactly sure who you are—Adam has left it up to you to tell me if you so choose—but I know that you are my social superior.”
“If you don’t know who I am, how do you know I’m your superior?” Bri whispered with a frown. She felt a strange pang that this goddess referred to Adam by his given name.
“I am nothing but an actress,” Miss Emerson replied in her strangely husky voice. “Everyone is my superior. I am of that breed that is studiously ignored by the ladies and secretly loved by the gentlemen.” She laughed lightly.
“You’re a wh—” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the word. Which was very strange considering the less than ladylike way she had spoken to Adam less than a week ago.
“A whore? Yes, I am. It is a fact I must contend with for the present.”
There was a thread of self-loathing in her voice that Bri could understand very well. Circumstances and desperation had caused her to make some decisions of which she was not proud. But she was raised to believe that a young lady does not do certain things. What was this actress taught that made her unaccepting of her role in life?
“You need to rest.”
Adam stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame. A lock of black hair lay across his brow just begging to be brushed away. He had a look of relief and amusement on his handsome face but his eyes were concerned. She realized the concern was all for her and felt a warm glow deep inside. She smiled at him.
“I’m a little hungry, actually.”
Raven glanced at Adam and he gave an almost imperceptible nod. The actress disappeared through the doorway.
Adam sauntered into the room and sat on the bed, facing Bri. “Does she know who you are?”
“No.”
“Did she tell you who she is?”
“She did. And her tone said far more than her words.” There was censure in her tone. “Why do you keep her as your mistress when she clearly does not want to sell her body?”
Unsure how to respond to this revelation, he retorted lamely, “She is an actress.”
The countess cocked one delicately arched brow at him. “Indeed?” was all she said.
He refused to be drawn. He could tell she was very quickly regaining her fighting spirit and he had no desire to be her first victim.
“How are you feeling?” he asked instead.
“I feel tired, hungry, and restless. I’m bored, Mr. Prestwich. And I like Miss Emerson. Or is it Mrs. Emerson? It doesn’t matter. I don’t care if she pleasures every man she comes across. I like her.”
He was absurdly glad that Bri liked Raven. It made no sense. “Good, because you will be spending the next few weeks with Raven at your beck and call. And it’s Miss Emerson.”
“Why have you hired an actress as my nurse?”
“Truthfully, I didn’t,” he answered. “Con did so against my better judgment and she accepted.”
Bri gave him a speaking glance. “You were reluctant to bring her here. Why? Were you worried over my sensibilities? I am speechless with shock.”
“Doubtful,” Adam muttered sarcastically. He studied her for a moment while she fidgeted with the coverlet.
“So,” Bri finally said more to end the silence than in any true desire to know, “why has she agreed to play the part of my nurse?”
“She is doing more than playing a part. She has experience nursing the sick. And for the time being, we are keeping your presence a secret,” he added reluctantly.
“You haven’t contacted my family?” Her tone was frankly incredulous.
“No. I felt it would be best to make sure you are healthy before I take you there.”
Bri closed her eyes and sighed. “And to think I had believed you almost human.”
He stiffened. “Excuse me?”
“You’re still taking me back. Do you have any idea to what you are turning me over?”
He relaxed. “Tell me,” he requested gently.
“Maybe later,” she replied without opening her eyes.
Raven entered the room then. She smiled at Adam and said, teasingly, “Would you like to do the honors, Adam?”
He grimaced. “No, thank you, my dear. I will leave the nursing to the professionals.” He stood and moved towards the door.
As he passed Raven, she whispered, “I thought you were doing quite well, sir. She loves you, you know.”
That stopped him. “She…what?” He turned hard pale eyes on her.
Raven smiled at him, her black eyes twinkling with secret mirth. “And you are in love with her.”
Connor checked his patient for the last time the following day. He pronounced her to be well on the road to recovery. Provided she continued to hold down the little that she managed to eat, she would be fit as a fiddle in no time at all. Then he had smiled, kissed her affectionately on the cheek, wished her well, and took his leave.
Adam had watched the whole impassively until his friend had leaned down to kiss her cheek. He knew it was the most innocent gesture imaginable since Connor loved his wife and was completely faithful to her. But Adam could not stop the stab of unreasoning jealousy that caused thoughts of cheerfully strangling his best friend to leap into his mind.
He squashed the urge and was able to bid the other man a civil goodbye. Connor seemed to think something in his salutation was quite funny. He was still laughing as he mounted his horse and rode away.
Raven was still in residence, of course, but Adam had successfully avoided her since she had voiced her henwitted opinion on something about which she knew absolutely nothing.
He most certainly did not love the Countess of Rothsmere!
He found her to be irritating, headstrong, willful, and a royal pain. He was NOT in love with her.
And she wasn’t even pretty, he thought maliciously in an attempt to dissolve the image of her he had stored in the back of his mind when searching for her. She was too thin, and too wispy, and too pale, and her hair too dull to be pretty. He diligently ignored the voice of logic in his head reminding him that up until about a week ago she had been starving to death.
Raven noticed the intense look in Adam’s eyes and asked Mrs. Campion to help her with something. The two women exited the room, leaving Adam alone with Bri.
“That was very elegantly done, was it not?”
There was a smile in the countess’s voice as she said this and Adam found he had to suppress an answering grin.