“No, but…”
“They have to wait then. Amy look at me.”
She rubbed her sad eyes and did so. He tightened his grip upon her hands. “Amy, I need you to be strong. There is a young girl in Ann’s kitchen that has been injured and she needs your help. I know you are hurting right now, but this girl needs you. Can you do this?”
“How bad is she?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her yet, but from the look on Dodson’s face I would say it is very bad.”
“Is she one of my servants?” Ann asked in shock.
“No, Yardrow brought her. He arrested the predator that harmed her, but the man was released an hour later and Yardrow was ordered to return his property.”
“Dear God, did you get this animal’s name?”
“Dewy Barthemore. Do you recognize the name?”
“I do. I’ll review my diaries and let you know what I find.”
When they reached the house, Ann ordered Amy to help the girl in the kitchen; Domnika to work the logistics of fitting twenty-six children onto the third floor; and Catherine to purchase ready-made clothes in various sizes. Ann gathered her diaries and skimmed them for the name Dewey Barthemore.
***
Amy entered the kitchen prepared for the worst, but her protected life gave her little preparation for exactly how ugly life could be. She stared in horror at the girl for so long that Mrs. Campbell suggested perhaps she wasn’t up for this. Amy pulled herself together. “I have to be,” she whispered and approached the battered and broken girl.
“I’m Amy,” she said, studying the girl’s purple and blue swollen face. “What is your name?”
It took the girl seven tries to say her name clear enough that Amy was able to guess it was Diana. “Diana, I’m like a doctor and I will help you heal.” She sensed wrongness everywhere on the poor girl. “What hurts the most and we’ll start there.”
The girl shook her head violently.
“We’ll start with any wound you like.”
The girl nodded to her right arm. Besides being black with bruises, it was also dislocated at the shoulder and broken at the wrist. Amy suddenly felt overwhelmed by the daunting task before her.
Mrs. Campbell seemed to sense her thoughts. “Anything you can do is better than nothing.” She then leaned down and asked the girl if she’d like a cup of cocoa.
The problem was that anything Amy would do would cause the girl excruciating pain. She excused herself and went in search of Antonio. He was just on the other side of the kitchen door.
“I need a powerful painkiller: morphine or opium.
“Which do you want?”
“Which do you know more about? The books only discussed them in general terms. I do not know how much to use or how to administer it.”
“Then let’s use opium. I am all too familiar with administering that.”
Perhaps that admission should have shocked her, but she was beyond shock at the moment. She was simply relieved one of them would know what to do.
Oddly, Diana did not seem frightened by Antonio. In fact, she appeared to trust him more than she did Amy. Diana breathed the fumes in deeply as he instructed and soon she fell asleep. It was not a restful sleep, but it allowed Amy to pull her arm out and then pop it into place. The wrist would take hours, and Amy decided to triage Diana’s wounds while she slept. Amy felt overwhelmed as she assessed all the damage, most of it internal where it would be hard to fix.
She rolled the girl over onto her stomach and gasped.
Antonio’s arms encircled her from the back. “Amy, you can do this. It’s just like war wounds.”
Amy knew it was nothing like war wounds. Yet, pulling from Antonio’s strength she took a deep breath and began the slow and nearly impossible task of healing the life-threatening injuries first.
She felt as if she had been working on Diana a lifetime when Mrs. Halloway entered the kitchen. “Dear God,” she whispered and looked at Antonio. “I found this beast in my notes. His name is actually Prince Raul Montero of Spain. He travels under several aliases to keep the scandals from tainting the Spanish Government. He was forced to leave twenty years ago when he abducted a young lady of the ton. It was carefully hushed up.”
“And our government allowed him to return?” Antonio exclaimed.
“He entered under a different alias. Once here, it would be hard to remove him without causing an international rift.”
“How much of an international rift will his death cause?” Antonio asked.
“Depends on how he dies. If it’s by accident due to his own vices, I would say the government of Spain would sigh a happy relief to be rid of him. If you must make a statement, then we will probably need to get approval.”
“I’ll settle for the certainty of an accident.”
“I hate to overload those broad shoulders of yours, but there are twenty-six miserable children that need to be retrieved and you are the only one who may retrieve them. Shall I send Domnika and Catherine to assist Amy?”
“I’m assisting Amy.”
“Well, I can assist Amy, but I cannot retrieve the children. I’m sorry, Antonio, if I could split you in two, then one of you could stay here, but those children must be retrieved.”
Antonio seemed to ignore her command as he stroked Amy’s back.
Amy could tell Mrs. Halloway was losing patience with him. Before she bellowed and possibly woke Diane, Amy spoke. “I can manage on my own.”
“Are you sure?”
She wasn’t sure at all, and she found it impossible to lie and say she was. “I will still be here when you return, and you can rescue me then.”
He kissed her forehead, holding his lips to her for so long Mrs. Halloway growled his name.
He broke away and promised to return as soon as possible.
“Men! They think nothing can be done without them,” she declared once he was gone.
“He really does help me focus. He’s so strong and certain. It gives me the courage I need to try the impossible.”
“Is that what you are doing?”
“If I can heal Diana, I figure I can heal almost anyone.”
While not the comforting support of Antonio, Mrs. Halloway was a good assistant and finally the two worst injuries were healed as well as Amy could make them. Knowing that soon the girl would be coming out of her stupor, she focused on resetting the bones in Diana’s wrist. She was still working on that when a heavenly warmth eased into her tense muscles.
“Did you get the children?”
“They are being herded upstairs. It’s a good thing Domnika and Catherine went with you today. Without the fondness they had established with the children, I would have never gotten them out of the cart. They were convinced I was the devil come to take them to hell.”
Amy could feel his pain. “When I am done here, I will give you a well-deserved present.”
He spent the next half hour guessing what the present might be. Some of the guesses were amusing and some just silly, but it helped lighten both of their moods. Amy finally had the last bone healed when Diana came out of her stupor sufficient to panic and try to escape her torturers.
Once again, Antonio proved to be better at calming the young girl. She was still in a confused haze seeing strange things, but he seemed to know exactly what to say to ease her mind.
“What did you mean when you said you had experience with opium?” she asked as she tended to the razor cuts over the girl’s breasts.
“I was beginning to think that hadn’t registered.”
“It did, I was just a bit too busy to interrogate you until now.” She looked up and smiled at him.
His face relaxed at her reply and he returned her smile. “One of my many occupations as I grew up was working at Madame Celeste’s. It’s a fine establishment for gentlemen with a taste for young boys and opium.”
She stopped healing for a moment and turned to him. “I never gave you your present and I really think you need it
, and you certainly have earned it.”
He stroked her face. “Whatever it is, I promise you I will love it.”
She pulled his lips down to hers and kissed him.
She had dreamed about their first kiss, but nothing prepared her for the surged of delight that charged through her body. Her willpower sapped away, just as Catherine had described, but she wasn’t the least bit concerned. In fact, she was disappointed when he finally broke the kiss without devouring and ruining her. Antonio stared at her with an odd expression that almost looked like pain.
“Did you not like your present?”
“I’ve never loved a present more,” he assured her as he held her tight against him.
She could feel a hot hardness pressing into her, just below her stomach. The image of him naked and erect came to her mind. “But you stopped kissing me.”
“And how long were you planning that kiss to continue,” he teased.
“Forever.”
Mrs. Halloway spoke from the door. “Does this mean the two of you are done here?”
Antonio released Amy and stepped back. “Just receiving a reward for outstanding duty.”
The grand dame glanced down at his pants and then to his face. “Well, just don’t let that reward go to your head. You’ve got serious work to do.”
He looked at his timepiece. “I probably should be going. A good accident takes time to set up.” He leaned over and kissed Amy on her forehead. “I’ll see you in the morning.” He turned to leave.
“Antonio,” she cried out, not wanting to let him go. As both he and Mrs. Halloway turned to look at her, she struggled for something to say. “If you get injured, you have to wake me the moment you get home.”
“I’m not planning to get injured, but if I get even the slightest scratch, I will awaken you from your peaceful sleep to tend my wound. I can be annoyingly persistent when keeping my word.” He then winked and left.
Mrs. Halloway waited until she heard the clatter of horse hooves come around the house before speaking. “I hope you are not simply dallying with that poor boy’s heart, because he’ll never recover if you are.”
Amy smiled. “I would have asked him to marry me by now except Uncle John, I mean Gunter, suggested I give him time to show me his dark side first, so he won’t live in constant worry that I will leave him when I discover he’s not just joy and playfulness.”
“Given the discussions we’ve had in your presence, I would say you’ve proven that.”
“Thank you for noticing. I wish Antonio would do as much. Instead, every time he mentions something from his past, he states it in the worst possible light and then watches me, waiting for me to react in horror. It’s beginning to annoy me. It’s as if he has no faith in me whatsoever.”
“That is not the problem. But you better than most may understand what he suffers. He hates being called Satan of South End. It broke his heart that those children thought him Satan come to take them to hell. While he has a few friends who love him unconditionally, most people fear and revile him. In fact, the only friends he has are people who knew him as a boy. His reputation is so bleak that no matter how honorably he treats a person, once they learn of his reputed past, any chance of a friendship is lost, and his every action is questioned.”
“In a way, I also knew him when he was a little boy, through the Antonio Bandito stories.”
“He knows that and he’s counting on it to save him.”
“How long do you think it will take?”
“One or two balls I should think. Seeing you pursued by other men will drive him so crazy he won’t care if you know every single horrible thing he has done. It will force him to take a leap of faith that you will love him regardless. I hope you weren’t planning a long engagement because once he makes the leap he will be most eager to enjoy his wife in great moments of pleasure.”
“Would you be terribly disappointed if we did not wait?”
“Have matters progressed further than I am aware?”
“No, you just witnessed our first kiss…only…”
“Only what?”
“I was completely overwhelmed with pleasure and had no desire for it to stop. I think it will be very hard not to rapidly progress from this point forward. I don’t want to disappoint you, but in all honesty, when I’m in his arms, all thoughts of propriety dissipate. There’s only this amazing rush of pure delight that sets my whole body on fire.”
Mrs. Halloway seemed shocked. “All that from a first kiss…”
Amy nodded.
“Well, it sounds hopeless on your part. However, Antonio is determined to see matters in the traditional order of marriage first and bedding second, so you may not be progressing quite as quickly as you think.”
“But if we do, you won’t be too disappointed, will you? Not so much that you would want me to leave?”
Mrs. Halloway’s face softened as she pulled Amy into her arms. “Oh, my sweet dear, no. There is nothing you could do short of breaking Antonio’s heart that I could not forgive, and even if that happened, I would somehow find a way. I have grown to love you immensely in these few short weeks. I only resent all the years I missed. Your companionship would have certainly helped Catherine. I doubt she would have fallen prey to Count Velaski if you had been with her.”
“I don’t know about that. The feelings I have for Antonio are similar to what she described. I fear I would have lacked willpower just the same as she did. I fear this still might happen. I have all this passion inside of me and what if I meet someone like the count who knows how to use it against me?”
Mrs. Halloway frowned. “I see your point. Well, I cannot cancel the parties now; besides it wouldn’t be fair to poor Domnika. No, I believe the best course of action is to break Antonio’s willpower and begin your marriage rites a bit early. Once that occurs there will only be one man who controls your passion and no other suitor will stand a chance. And the worry about you becoming pregnant will motivate Antonio to propose with less danger than the motivation of jealousy.”
“Danger?”
“There would always be the possibility he decides to simply remove a suitor if he becomes concerned that you are being mesmerized. I can assure you if Count Velaski dares attempt to take you in the garden, he would not live the night.” Mrs. Halloway stared at her. “Did I shock you, dear?”
“When you just called them suitors, yes. But when you gave the suitor a name, it suddenly seemed a just ending to an evil man’s life.”
Mrs. Halloway smiled. “Among all your other fine qualities I find you to be most practical and logical in your understanding of how justice can truly be served. We cannot live in a world of black and white, for life is not so clear-cut. True justice is usually found somewhere in the grey.”
Chapter 37
Amy dressed in her prettiest nightgown and sat on the edge of the bed waiting for Catherine and Domnika to do the same. The only problem was that they seemed in no hurry to go to bed. They remained full of energy and talked about their impressions of the children and the terrible stories some of the children had revealed.
Amy yawned loudly enough to catch their attention.
“Oh Amy, how will you sleep with all our chatter. We’ll leave the room,” Catherine offered.
“No, let me leave,” Amy insisted. “I’ll go sleep in Antonio’s bed.”
“Antonio’s!” Catherine repeated in shock. “Amy, are you and he lovers?”
“Not yet, but I am certain we soon will be.” Amy smiled and hugged herself. “We had our first kiss tonight and it filled my body with such wonder I cannot wait to experience more.”
“Were you under his thrall?” Domnika asked.
“Completely,” Amy replied with rapture.
“And you believed yourself to be in love with him?” Domnika added.
“I am in love with him. In some ways, I’ve been in love with him all my life. But my love for the little Antonio Bandito is nothing compared to what has grown inside my heart
since we’ve arrived here in London.”
Catherine came and sat down beside her, taking her hand. “Amy, I will agree that Antonio is a good and wonderful man, and he has been so happy and charming since you’ve arrived that I find myself halfway in love with him as well, but there is another side to him…”
“I know. He is like Gunter and the Silent Three.”
Catherine shook her head. “Not exactly. They are retired. He is still very much employed in the King’s service. He does things that regular soldiers cannot. He takes incredible risks to his life all the time. He probably has more deaths on his hands than even Gunter. Someday he might even go mad from the guilt as Gunter almost did.”
“No, he won’t,” Amy assured her. “I won’t let that happen to him.” She squeezed Catherine’s hand and smiled at Domnika who looked worried as she huddled on the other bed.
“I already knew everything you said, and it just makes me love him more. It takes a very good man with strong courage to do what he does for our country. I know his life is dangerous, but at least with me as his wife, he will have a fair chance of staying alive with the help of my doctoring. While he and I would suit almost no one else, I believe we suit each other perfectly.”
“She has a point,” Domnika said. “While Antonio is not entirely perfect, his job being the concern, he fits her in all other ways very nicely. And he would never find anyone half so perfect. After all, what could be more useful to a man with a dangerous life than a wife who can heal?”
Catherine sighed and then hugged her friend. “Go on to Antonio’s bed then, but you know he will not return for many hours?”
“He promised to wake me if he came back injured. I’m just making it easier for him to find me.”
Catherine looked shocked by her forwardness. “Amy, when you said you had your first kiss, who initiated that kiss?”
Amy laughed. “I did. It was my present for all his support while I healed Diana. And don’t look so shocked. It doesn’t matter who initiated it. It was thoroughly enjoyed by both of us.”
Chapter 38
Antonio returned to the house at four a.m. Dodson waited up for him. “I’ve set your bath up in the kitchen, sir.”
Love's Betrayals (The Extraordinary Life of Amy Winston Book 2) Page 19