by Mary Brendan
‘There now. Get that down you. And stay away from sour apples; you’ve probably taken in a maggot as well,’ Mrs Gideon scolded, handing over a tumbler of milky liquid. She picked up the bowl. ‘I’ll dispose of this and be by tomorrow as usual.’
‘Thank you, Mrs Gideon.’
Meekly Michael did as he was bade, sipping the brew with a grimace before allowing his sister to tuck him up.
Faye was still mulling over what Michael had said about telling tales on Claire. Before quitting his chamber, she asked, ‘Is there something going on that I should know about, Michael?’
‘I’m tired,’ her brother said, pulling the covers right up and closing his eyes.
‘You can rest in bed tomorrow to get over this.’
‘I was going to meet my friends at the fairground.’ Michael made to sit up but fell back, exhausted, against the pillow.
‘We’ll see about that in the morning.’ Faye closed the bedroom door.
A pearly glow was painting the walls of the corridor and she felt drawn to the window to gaze up at the silvery orb decorating the sky. There was still a faint summer light on the horizon and she leaned her warm forehead against the cool glass, observing a fox prowling in the shadowy garden below.
Peter had gone; there was no sign of his horse tethered by the gate. But it was the image of another man and another stallion that was imprinted on her mind as she stared into the twilight.
The look Ryan Kavanagh had given her as he sat on the grass with the superb steed close by was annoyingly unforgettable. She suspected that if he were to discover how affected she had been by clashing eyes with him just twice, that half-smile of his would turn to laughter.
She pivoted away from the moonlit scene, feeling ashamed for having allowed a stranger to push her fiancé from her mind. And there was something else: the niggling anxiety that her brother had been on the point of disclosing something important about Claire. Faye didn’t want to seem to be prying unduly into her younger sister’s life...but she was her guardian and the memory of the guilty look on Claire’s face earlier that day now seemed to warrant further investigation.
With a sigh Faye resolved to speak to her sister in the morning. Feeling suddenly quite weary, she went downstairs to check the locks, as she always did, before retiring.
* * *
The following morning Faye was seated at the parlour table, penning an invitation to Peter to dine with them later, when her housekeeper hurried in to the room.
‘You’d best come and take a look at your brother, Miss Shawcross.’
‘Why? What is it, Mrs Gideon?’
‘I took him up a breakfast tray. Master Michael’s still feeling poorly and I’d say there’s more to it than scrumping.’
Quickly Faye followed her housekeeper’s plump figure up the stairs. Michael had seemed fine when she checked on him before turning in for the night. He’d been sleeping soundly so Faye had blown out the night light she’d left burning at the side of his bed. This morning she’d risen early and gone straight downstairs, not wanting to disturb him.
‘He’s got a fever and I asked him to show me his chest as it occurred to me that when folk congregate at fairs, infections can spread.’
Nelly Gideon had acted as nurse to both of Mr Shawcross’s youngest children and had no hesitation in pulling open the lacings on Michael’s nightshirt to display a patch of red skin on his breastbone. ‘That rash tells me a doctor needs calling.’ Nelly had lowered her voice to an ominous whisper.
A burst of anxiety flipped Faye’s heart over. She sat on the edge of her brother’s bed and put a hand against his forehead. He felt very hot and clammy and she knew that if he did have scarlatina they should get a doctor to examine him straight away. Faye knew enough about infections to suspect the doctor would tell them to keep themselves to themselves for a week or two to prevent it spreading.
‘Would you ask your husband to fetch Dr Reid, please?’ Faye turned her blanching face up to her housekeeper’s furrowed countenance.
Nelly nodded and hurried from the room. The fact that stoic Mrs Gideon seemed alarmed increased Faye’s anxiety and she tried to block from her mind what Bertram Gideon had told her about folk dying of the disease.
Faye got to her feet and smoothed strands of lank fair hair back from Michael’s brow. He seemed half-asleep, but his breathing was noisy. He was young and strong, Faye impressed on herself. And there was a possibility that something less serious could be ailing him.
She rushed to the window and gazed out, seeking the doctor’s pony and trap although she knew it was far too soon for a sighting of the vehicle. But somebody was coming and she recognised the horse and rider...
Quickly she bolted down the stairs.
‘I’m sorry, Peter, but I think it best you don’t come in.’ Faye stood behind the half-closed door.
‘What on earth’s the matter?’ Peter demanded, taking a stride forward as though he might force entry.
‘Michael might have scarlatina. He’s very unwell and has a rash on his chest...’ Faye’s voice tailed off.
Peter immediately stepped off the doorstep. ‘I see; have you sent for the doctor?’
‘Mr Gideon has gone to fetch him. He should be back soon.’
‘I came over to apologise for being grumpy last night.’ Peter raked a lock of brown hair back from his forehead.
‘Well, if you were, it would be understandable,’ Faye said with a strained smile. ‘I hope I did not seem unwelcoming. I look forward so much to seeing you. It is just a shame circumstances are what they are.’
‘I shall leave earlier than planned for London. I had hoped we might dine together again this evening, but it seems we won’t.’
‘I had written you a letter inviting you,’ Faye said ruefully. ‘When will you be home again?’
‘In a few months, I hope. I’m off to Malta. But my application for an admiralty position is under review so nothing is certain.’
‘That’s wonderful!’ Faye pulled the door open, but remembered at the last minute not to rush forward and congratulate her fiancé with a hug.
‘I am only flesh and blood and I want a wife,’ Peter said. ‘You are not a children’s nanny, my dear, but my fiancée.’ He paced to and fro, fingers flexing at his sides. ‘As soon as I have the time I am going to Ireland to find that confounded woman. I’ll search everywhere for her and make her look after her children.’
‘You cannot do that, Peter,’ Faye said, stifling her annoyance. ‘The children don’t want to go to Ireland...and I won’t make them—’ Faye broke off at the sound of a vehicle rattling along. The hunched figure of Bertram Gideon, pipe clamped in his mouth, hove into view. And he was alone.
Faye immediately pushed open the door and sped to meet him. ‘Is the doctor coming soon?’ she gasped.
‘He’s been called out already this morning. Gone to the big house so his servant told me.’ Bert climbed down from the cart and lifted up one of his horse’s back legs, tenderly prodding it.
‘Dr Reid is at Valeside Manor?’
Bert nodded. ‘I’ve left a message with his housekeeper to send him right over when he do get back.’
‘Perhaps they have scarlatina at the manor as well.’ Faye paced to and fro in agitation. ‘Oh, how long will he be, do you think?’
‘I was on me way to Valeside to tell the doctor he be wanted here urgent, but Daisy threw a shoe so I turned around. Getting her and the cart down that hill and up again would have crippled her to bits, poor lassie.’
‘You mustn’t worry too much, my dear.’ Peter clasped Faye’s hands, giving them a comforting squeeze. ‘Your brother was fit as a fiddle just yesterday and eating like a glutton.’ He sighed. ‘I can’t be of much help to you so I’ll leave you be.’ He gave Faye a lingering look. ‘Write to me and we’ll speak
more about a trip to Ireland when I return next time.’
‘I will write...and you must take care, Peter.’ Faye smiled weakly. ‘Good luck with your promotion.’
Mr Gideon also watched Peter mounting his stallion and waving farewell. He removed the clay pipe from his mouth. ‘That horse ain’t lame then,’ he said sourly.
Faye knew what Mr Gideon was hinting at: Peter could have offered to go to Valeside Manor and give the doctor a message to save time. People were always wary of coming into contact with disease and would avoid it if possible. Nevertheless, Faye felt disappointed that her fiancé hadn’t offered his assistance in that small way.
‘I’ll get the smithy to take a look at Daisy, then I’ll set off over to the manor and catch the doctor there if there’s still no sign of him.’
‘No! You can’t walk that distance, Mr Gideon.’ Faye frowned at the elderly fellow’s bowed legs. He had difficulty climbing up on to his cart at times due to his swollen joints; he’d never manage to walk over three miles. ‘I’ll go. I can run and perhaps the doctor might turn up in the meantime. I’ll be back as soon as I can.’
Chapter Four
Valeside Manor was set at the end of a meandering avenue of lime trees that widened, after about half a mile, on to a circle of gravel with a central fountain and wide flagstone treads leading to the house.
It was an imposing crenelated edifice flanked on either side by heavily timbered wings, extending like arms to embrace manicured lawns and parterres.
Determined not to be spotted dashing up to the front steps like a hoyden, Faye had kept to the shelter of the ancient limes. When so close to the manor’s huge oaken doors that she could feel a cool mist on her hot face she came to a standstill, catching her breath.
Leaning her back against the bole of the nearest tree, she watched the fountain droplets glistening with rainbow light as they sprayed high into the air. Her body was trembling with the exertion of running up hills and down dales, her chest rising and falling rapidly. She dried her perspiring hands on her skirts, then attempted smoothing her wild fair hair into the pins at her nape. Her bonnet had long ago loosened to drape down her back on its ribbons. She guessed she looked a fright, but something more important than that was bothering her. There was no sign of the doctor’s pony and trap in front of the house; she prayed she’d not had a wasted journey and that he had parked in the stable courtyard at the back of the building. With a deep inhalation she set off to find out because she had no intention of banging on Mr Kavanagh’s door for no reason.
‘Is it me you’re looking for, Miss Shawcross?’
Swinging about with a startled gasp, Faye stared up into a pair of the deepest blue eyes she had ever seen. For a moment she was tongue-tied, overwhelmed by the striking sight of him astride his magnificent horse. He was handsome...breathtakingly so...but it was the awful knowledge that he must have been watching her for some while that made colour flood her complexion. He had come up through the trees as she had and the blood pounding in her ears from running had deafened her to his approach. The idea that he’d seen her haring in and out of the woodland with her skirts lifted high about her knees was mortifying.
‘Do you want me?’
His lilting Irish accent was making his rephrased question seem more intimate than it was, Faye imagined as she felt her blush deepen.
‘I’m looking for the doctor, sir,’ she managed to utter crisply. ‘We were told he came here earlier. Is he inside?’ She skittered backwards as Mr Kavanagh dismounted and started towards her. ‘You should keep your distance, sir; I think my brother might have scarlatina. It spreads quickly, you know.’ She glanced at his house, wondering if those inside were under quarantine. ‘Has somebody here got scarlatina? Is that why you sent for Dr Reid?’
‘The physician was called to treat a groom who’d tumbled off a nag. There’s no infection that I know of.’ He plunged his hands into the pockets of his long leather coat, continuing to pace her way.
‘I see; is Dr Reid still here? I must speak to him urgently.’
‘He’s gone. I’ve just passed him on the road to Wilverton.’ He jerked his dark head towards the town.
Faye felt her heart sink. ‘Thank you, sir, for telling me.’ She gave a farewell nod, but it seemed he had no intention of letting her go yet and changed direction as she did.
She avoided him, feeling overpowered by his thrilling virility, but then swung about, angry at herself for allowing him to fluster her. She was a betrothed woman of twenty-five years, guardian to two children, not a green girl acting shy with a boy. ‘You should stay back from me, sir...scarlatina is a nasty illness,’ she said firmly.
‘I know it is. I had it when a lad and lived to tell the tale. It holds no fears for me now.’
‘You are indeed lucky, then. The idea of one of my family having the disease terrifies me.’ Faye sketched a little bob. ‘I’m sorry to have bothered you, sir.’ She set off again, walking, but intending to break into a run as soon as she was out of sight.
‘Are you going to Wilverton to find Reid?’
‘I’m heading home, sir.’ Faye sent that over a shoulder, then turned about, pacing backwards. ‘The doctor already has a message to come immediately to Mulberry House.’ Whichever way she stepped either his muscular body or that of his stallion seemed to be blocking her path, preventing her marching on.
‘I’ll give you a ride home on horseback. It’ll be quicker; you look too exhausted to run another step.’
‘No! That is, I thank you kindly for the offer, sir, but there is no need.’ Faye felt her face prickle in embarrassment; he had watched her haring about then.
‘Surely there is a need; you must be gravely concerned about your brother to risk visiting this den of iniquity in search of the physician.’
So he was aware the neighbourhood was agog with talk about his domestic arrangement. From the arrogant slant to his mouth Faye gathered he was quite impenitent about it.
‘My brother’s health is all I care about, sir; nothing else is of any consequence.’ Having piously implied uninterest in his affairs she felt a fraud; just a day or so ago she’d avidly listened to Holly describing Valeside Manor’s roguish new owner.
‘That’s settled then; you’ve no time for gossip and I’ve the time to get you quickly back to your brother’s side.’
His velvety Gaelic drawl made goosebumps prickle on Faye’s nape; she couldn’t deny that the prospect of the three-mile hike, when she was already weary, was a daunting one.
When he beckoned she hesitated only fractionally before going to him, barely flinching as he touched her forearm and drew her closer. Now she couldn’t avoid looking at the expanse of tanned skin exposed by his loose shirt collar, or becoming aware of a pleasing male scent of leather and tobacco. Fleetingly she raised her eyes to the thin white line that crossed his cheek, marvelling that it was less of a disfigurement than an enhancement to his raffish character.
Two large hands abruptly girdled her waist, lifting her atop the stallion with such ease and speed that she gasped. Seconds later he’d swung up behind her and turned the mount’s head in the direction of her home.
Had she wanted to speak to him on the cross-country gallop that took them flying over streams and hillocks it would have been difficult with the breeze whipping the breath from her mouth. Her stiffly held torso gradually relaxed and she allowed herself to nestle against his chest with her bonnet brim protecting her face from the elements. She had never ridden on a horse capable of such acceleration and she felt in equal part terrified and exhilarated by the thrill of it. As though guessing her mixed emotions, he put a knuckle beneath her chin and tilted up her face, displaying a flash of white teeth in a smile as he read her expression. One strong arm came in front of her and encircled her shoulders in a way that was oddly possessive as well as protective.
&nbs
p; Reining in the horse to a slower pace, he pointed to the east. The doctor’s pony and trap was on the skyline, heading in the direction of her home.
‘Take me to him, if you will, sir. Dr Reid will let me ride with him and save you the remainder of the journey,’ Faye said while constantly pulling strands of fair hair away from her face, whipped there by the wind.
‘You’re not a bother to me... I’ll gladly take you all the way...if you want...’ His lips were close to her ear, his breath warm against her skin.
Her hesitation was enough to make him spur the stallion to a trot. A short while later Mulberry House was visible and Faye felt a peculiar pang of sadness to be almost home.
‘Thank you for your assistance, sir.’
‘My pleasure...’
He reined in the coal-black stallion at the top of the garden and dismounted. Without warning he lifted her down, keeping his hands fastened on the tops of her arms.
Feeling awkward beneath his brooding stare, Faye managed a little bob, then wriggled free. His long fingers encircled her wrist, stopping her turning away.
‘Don’t believe all you hear about me, will you now, Miss Shawcross?’
‘How do you know my name, sir?’
‘I made it my business to find out.’
Faye moistened her lips with a tongue flick. He’d owned up to being inquisitive about her with a boldness born of arrogance, she imagined. It had been good of him to bring her home, saving her legs, but she knew nothing about him other than what two people she trusted had told her. According to Anne Holly and Mrs Gideon, Ryan Kavanagh was rumoured to be a shameless reprobate. And she would do well to remember it, Faye impressed upon herself. Handsome and charming he might be...but she should heed her housekeeper’s words and keep a safe distance from him. She certainly couldn’t trust Kavanagh. And neither should his young mistress. Fleetingly Faye met his dark blue gaze; the hint of sultriness that she’d heard in his voice was reflected at the backs of his eyes. He didn’t know her, yet he desired her, despite having his concubine waiting for him at the manor.