Escaping Notice

by Amy Corwin

  His life was about to change dramatically. She hoped he viewed it as a change for the better.

  Unfortunately, given his aunts, it might be infinitely worse.

  She would not want to be left in the care of Miss Elvira, or Miss Esther, either.

  Ahead of her, Hugh boldly kicked open the green baize door. He headed across the wide marble foyer and up the grand stairway to the second floor.

  “Hugh!” Helen called, thinking dismally of the Leigh sisters. They would have palpitations. “Where are you going?”

  “I'm taking Edward to a proper bedroom.”

  “Oh, dear,” Helen sighed.

  At the top of the stairs, Hugh turned left only to stop as Miss Eloise, dressed in her nightdress and shawl, confronted him.

  “You found him? What happened?” she asked, her glance taking in Edward, Hugh and Helen's bedraggled condition. Before Hugh or Helen could answer, she peered more closely at Edward and moved out of the way. “He may use the earl's — no, my nephew Lionel's — bedchamber. Has the doctor been sent for?”

  “Yes, Miss Leigh,” Helen answered. “And you should know, Ned is actually Edward — apparently he ran away from, ah, your sisters. He wanted to go to sea,” she hastened to explain. “He would not tell me who his family was. I could not leave him to wander London, alone.”

  “So you adopted him?” Miss Leigh asked, eyeing Helen with a strange look.

  “Yes. I'm terribly sorry. If I had known, I would have brought him back immediately.”

  “Just as well,” Miss Leigh replied. Then a bemused expression wrinkled her face. “I suppose he's the heir now. And my sisters will be impossible.”

  “Perhaps they need not stay?” Helen asked delicately. “If you are here ….”

  “My health ….” Miss Leigh touched her chest, her eyes sad. “They will insist.”

  Helen touched Miss Leigh's arm when the older woman stood aside to let Hugh carry Edward into a spacious, masculine bedroom. “Stand firm, Miss Leigh.”

  “If you are here to assist me to care for the boy, perhaps I can make do.”

  “Oh, dear,” Helen said, touched but conscious of a crushing burden of guilt. “Miss Leigh, I must tell you —”

  “Please do not,” Miss Leigh interrupted. She brushed past Helen and strode into the chamber as Hugh bent to lay Edward on the bed. “One moment!” She pulled back the coverlet before standing aside and gesturing for Hugh to place the boy on the bed. “You, Mr. Caswell, will wait here for the doctor. You do not appear injured. I trust you have no other pressing engagement.”

  Helen glanced at her, surprised at the glint of sardonic humor in Miss Leigh’s eyes. “And you, Helen, will come with me.”

  “But, I —”

  “Do not argue. You are a most impertinent maid.”

  “Yes, Miss Leigh.” With a last glance at Edward and Hugh, she followed Miss Leigh to the door.

  “There will be enough work for the doctor with Edward to care for,” Miss Leigh said as they walked the short distance to her bedroom. “And I cannot have you bleeding all over the carpeting.”

  Helen glanced down, appalled to find her dress torn and besmirched with dirt and blood. Every inch of her ached. “There is no need to worry, Miss Leigh. It looks much worse than it is.”

  “Nonsense. I have a good eye and tolerably steady hand. You must have those splinters removed.” Again, that strange glint appeared in her eyes. “After all the pain you have caused me, I feel it only fair to return the favor.”

  Helen laughed tiredly. Unfortunately, her situation did not seem quite so amusing when Miss Leigh opened a drawer and removed a small blue bottle and her wicker sewing case.

  Catching Helen's unhappy gaze, Miss Leigh gave a small smile. “Tincture of lavender. I have never had a wound grow putrid when I have used this.”

  “Lovely,” Helen replied in a faint voice.

  Nothing she could say would dissuade Miss Leigh from plying one of her sharps to remove the splinters. She attacked the one just under Helen's collarbone first. It was everything Helen could do not to scream as Miss Leigh bent over her and scraped the skin away with her needle to free a tiny piece of wood.

  When Miss Leigh finished removing the slivers on both sides of Helen's hips, Helen felt shaky with exhaustion. She watched with dull interest as Miss Leigh saturated a handful of lint with the astringent tincture of lavender, filling the room with the fresh, floral scent. With a surprisingly gentle touch, she washed each wound, before dressing it with a clean wad of cotton.

  “You will not leave now, will you?” Miss Leigh asked, re-assembling her sewing kit.

  Helen got the distinct impression that Miss Leigh was using the activity to avoid looking at her.

  She touched Miss Leigh's tremulous hand. “I am sorry, Miss Leigh. I wish I could stay, I really do. I wish we could all continue on as we have — you don’t know how desperately I would like to do just that.”

  “Then do so,” Miss Leigh said. “Edward will be grateful, I am sure. It will not be easy for him. He must be trained for his new responsibilities.”

  “I wish I could. But you see, I did something very silly.”

  “A wager?”

  Helen blushed. “No. Not that.”

  “However, you are a lady and not a lady's maid.”

  “Is it that obvious?”

  “While you are a kind girl, you are not precisely obedient. Or self-effacing.”

  “I — I ….” Helen's words wobbled to a halt as she remembered all the times she had bit her tongue and pretended she was not in the room. If that was not being subservient, she did not know what was.

  “Oh, you tried.” Mrs. Leigh laughed. “But you were not bred to it. One can tell, even if one has not had a lady's maid for a number of years. So if this was not a wager, what was it? Just a grand adventure, I suppose.”

  “No.” Helen shook her head, wishing she had waited to confess in the morning. She shifted, tiredly trying to ease her aching muscles. “I wish I were bold enough to dream up such an adventure. No, it is quite dismally foolish. I attended the earl's ball. And while I was here, I lost the Peckham necklace — that emerald necklace I found the other morning.” It seemed years ago since she had discovered the jewels.

  “But why not just ask for it?”

  Helen smiled and shook her head. “The silliest of reasons. I did not want anyone to know I was so foolish as to lose the necklace the first time I was allowed to wear it. After begging my sister for an entire season, she finally lent it to me. And I lost it. I could not face confessing to her. I just could not.”

  “You could have come and asked. It is not the sort of thing we would have advertised.”

  “I know.” Helen blushed and glanced down at her torn dress. “However, I was afraid everyone would think I had set my cap at the earl if I returned with so obvious an excuse.” To her surprise, she felt the strong urge to cry. “Particularly after I heard Miss Peyton had eloped. Everyone was so sure the earl would announce their engagement.”

  Miss Leigh reached out and grasped Helen's hands, giving them a squeeze. “And now?”

  “I don’t know,” Helen admitted, her chest tightening.

  “And I suppose Mr. Caswell is not really your brother?”

  A hot tear escaped, stinging a path over her cheek. “No. He is an inquiry agent. And I am afraid I may never see him again.”

  “Well, you can hardly —” Miss Leigh halted abruptly, her eye searching Helen's face. “He is an inquiry agent, not a gentleman. You are a lady. You cannot ruin yourself, unless ….” She gave Helen's hands another squeeze. “Are you worried for your reputation? There is nothing to fear. You have been visiting me the whole time. No one shall say otherwise.”

  “No, that's not it. I am — I love him.”

  “You love him?” Miss Leigh replied as if the concept was beyond her understanding. “That is unfortunate. It will ruin you, you know. Socially.”

  “My family would never approve.
”

  “They could hardly approve of what you are doing now, so I fail to see how that could possibly weigh with you.”

  “Oh. Well, this is not permanent, you see. And they were never to discover where I had been. I told them I was visiting a relative.”

  “And you can hardly 'visit relatives' for the rest of your life. It is too bad the earl did not meet you prior to his infatuation with Miss Peyton. You might have suited one another. Neither one of you has the least sense.” She paused before mumbling a correction, “Had.”

  Helen shook her head. “I have never wanted to marry a peer, although my family was desperate for me to do so. In fact, truth be told, I would be happier living in the country with a farmer. No witty, sparkling dinners to host, no social standing and reputation to worry over. While I have not precisely enjoyed being a maid, I have grown to appreciate the complete absence of any requirement to be intelligent or charming.”

  “I cannot say that I have ever worried overmuch about being either witty or charming.” Miss Leigh laughed bitterly. “Though I suppose one might claim that is also why I am an old spinster living on sufferance in the earl's household. However, you, young lady, need never worry about charm. And what, pray tell, is your name?”

  “Helen Archer.”

  “So. How shall we proceed?”

  “I don’t know,” Helen replied. “I don’t want to leave any of you, but I honestly don’t see an alternative.”

  “Then you shall just have to remain here for a few days as my guest. At least until Edward is out of danger. You know that child loves you. He will ask for you when he wakes up.”

  Helen turned away, blinking rapidly to hold back the tears. “I hope so. I sincerely do.”

  Chapter Forty-One

  “… he ought to be a man of great experience in household affairs ….” —The Complete Servant

  Hugh studied Edward's pallid face as the doctor worked on him. Then Hugh picked up the torn, dusty jacket and folded it before placing it on the chest of drawers. Something clanked in one of the pockets.

  The necklace.

  Blocking the doctor's view with his back, Hugh slipped the jewels out of Edward's pocket and into his own. Then he put the tattered garment back on the chest. He turned back just as the doctor finished probing Edward's leg with his thick fingers. Thankfully, the boy remained unconscious while the physician ruthlessly jerked his ankle back into alignment.

  It was odd to think he had not recognized Edward Brown-Leigh as his nephew. He had certainly received enough letters over the years with long, detailed descriptions of the lad's misbehavior. The boy even had the mischievous eyes of Hugh's much-missed, younger sister.

  He should have sent for him long before this and not left him to the merciless, bitter care of the two Leigh sisters. Experience with Miss Eloise should have warned him that women were not always the best guardians for an orphaned boy.

  He ran a hand through his hair. So many careless mistakes. Thoughtless.

  Then he remembered the unexpected humor in Aunt Eloise's eyes. Things were not entirely hopeless. She had certainly changed, thanks to Helen's beneficial influence. Or had he misread his aunt all along?

  Lionel had always been pleased to sit with her and talk or play cards. Maybe that was why she had loved Lionel so much. His patience was certainly to his credit, and Hugh always believed it was a good sign for Lionel's choice of profession.

  Except for his weakness for gambling.

  And as he studied Edward, Hugh’s shoulders slumped with sudden weariness. He rubbed his face, wishing he could rub away his memories.

  He had missed so many things. He sat heavily in a chair near the bed. He should have realized it earlier. If he had, he would never have involved Second Sons.

  But something in him refused to believe he knew the answer now. Not until he spoke to his aunt. Unfortunately, no matter what came out of the interview, one thing was clear: he had failed in his duty to almost everyone around him.

  He had failed to listen to their concerns, failed to recognize when things grew unbearable. His own peaceful, well-ordered existence had held all his attention. No wonder Miss Peyton had left him, just as Helen would soon enough.

  His gaze went to Edward.

  If the boy lived, Hugh would not fail him.

  Finally, the doctor straightened and began collecting his wicked-looking implements.

  “What is the extent of it?” Hugh asked, as he drew the heavy bedclothes up to Edward's bruised chin.

  At least the lad's breathing was steady.

  “A few broken ribs, a broken ankle and, judging by the swelling, he may have a sprained wrist. You saw the contusions and bruises. No need to list them all.” He closed his leather case and glanced at the small form in the bed with a frown. “The worst is going to be fever. Exposure.” He said the word as if he blamed Hugh. “Watch him for a few days. Keep him in bed if you can, although with that ankle it should not be too hard.” He smiled grimly. “What about you?”

  “I am well.”

  “Just a spot of near-drowning, eh?”

  Hugh stiffened and then realized the doctor was not referring to the loss of the Twilight, but tonight’s storm. “Only rain. I'll live.”

  “Well, if he is to be my only patient, I have finished here.” He strode to the door. “Shame about the earl and his brother. I understand you are the new steward here — good thing. Miss Leigh will need help. Ormsby is a large estate to manage alone. Let us hope the new heir does not die within a month of the previous earl.”

  Hugh nodded. The doctor had always had a gallows humor, but Hugh was in no mood for it. Then, he remembered Helen and the blood staining the bodice of her dress.

  “My aunt's maid assisted me. She sustained some injuries ….”

  The doctor laughed. “A maid? Those women are resilient. A few bruises, or even a scratch or two, will mean naught come morning. If you are worried about her catching a chill, give her a nip or two of brandy if she has not already found the bottle.”

  Hugh stiffened, but kept his thoughts to himself. There was no point in arguing about why a physician would think the rich required more attention than the poor.

  After escorting the doctor out, Hugh hesitated in the foyer. The urge to return upstairs to see Helen was almost more than he could resist. Most likely, she was already in bed in the cubbyhole in his aunt's room. And although he’d have liked to speak to Aunt Eloise one more time, he could not face it tonight.

  He pressed his thumb and forefinger against his eyelids, trying to relieve the grainy, itching feeling. It felt like he had gone without sleep for weeks and unfortunately, Gaunt would return tomorrow. By then, Hugh would have to reveal his theory and decide what course to take.

  He just hoped a few hours of rest would give him some notion of what to do.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  “Quarrels are much more easily avoided than made up ….” —The Complete Servant

  Early the next morning, Hugh went to his Aunt Eloise's tiny office. The door was open and the sounds of a hushed argument trickled out into the hallway.

  “Miss Leigh, please!” Helen pleaded. “I don’t want a larger room.”

  “It is unsuitable for a young lady to be living in what amounts to a closet. You cannot expect me to believe you wish to remain in a space so small that you can touch both walls while standing in the middle of it. It is improper,” Aunt Eloise asserted. “I will not allow it. You will move to one of the guest rooms this very morning.”

  “No — please. How could we explain? You cannot suddenly install your maid in one of the upstairs bedrooms. How would it look?”

  “My dear girl, that is precisely the issue. It seems to me you put more weight on what others may think than is appropriate. The fact is, most people do not think at all, and those who do will accept that Miss Leigh has lost her mind due to her recent grief and leave it at that.”

  Helen giggled. The sound lifted Hugh's heavy heart and induced a smile
. She was so warm and easy to please that even his dragon of an aunt had fallen in love with her.

  “Miss Leigh, I would never allow anyone to say, or even think, such a thing about you —”

  “You are several years too late, young lady,” Aunt Eloise replied drily. “I suppose I should consider myself lucky that the earl only considered moving me to a cottage, instead of sending me to one of those places for the mildly deranged.” She sighed heavily.

  Hugh gripped the doorknob, his heart twisting. How he wished he had paid more attention to her over the years, let her know how much he appreciated her care of Lionel. Their life, while dreary enough, would have been infinitely worse without her.

  “Miss Leigh, may I have a word with you?” he asked, standing in the doorway.

  Both women glanced up at him. To his surprise, their eyes reflected similar expressions of apprehension.

  “I apologize, but I have a few questions. If you don't mind,” he added.

  Helen rose from the slender chair wedged against Aunt Eloise's desk. “Perhaps I should go.” Her glance went from Hugh to Aunt Eloise. A silent question passed between them as Helen waited for his aunt to decide if she needed Helen's presence.

  His aunt shook her head. “You may collect your belongings, since you will be moving to the bedroom next to mine. This morning.”

  “But —”

  “Thank you,” Aunt Eloise said, the note of finality in her voice effectively ending the discussion.

  Hugh had to smile as an expression of frustration crossed Helen's face. She truly appeared to prefer to stay where she was, sleeping on a narrow little cot in a cubbyhole.

  After she disappeared down the hallway, Hugh stepped into the room. He eyed the spindly chair Helen had vacated. While he hated to loom over his aunt, it seemed preferable to crushing the chair and landing at her feet.

  “Well? What is it now?” she asked.