Loving a Fearless Duchess

by Abigail Agar

  “You are guilty of nothing. He would have found a way to get to her no matter how closely you watched her. She’s a fourteen-year-old girl. She didn’t understand the true danger she was in.”

  Edward’s voice was shaky. He was trying not to cry. “Mother, I hope she comes through the door after an enjoyable time in the village.”

  Cecilia sat and hugged a pillow. “That menace not only makes our lives miserable but puts our lives in danger.”

  She was looking into the empty fireplace when the door opened. She stood. “Avery, have you heard any news?”

  He shook his head and put on a fake smile. “No, Cecilia. I have not. I just wanted to check on you and Edward. I can’t imagine the angst you are going through, but I will do everything I can to help.

  “I understand all our men are searching the property, and the servants are searching the house. Is there anything else, anything at all I can do for you?”

  Cecilia closed her eyes to stem the tears. “No, thank you, Avery. Your staff is wonderful, and they have put my mind at ease with all they are doing.”

  Edward cleared his throat, “I hope you don’t mind, Uncle, but in my haste to search for Penelope, I asked your servants to help without first coming to you. I apologize.”

  “No need, Edward. Anyone would have done the same thing in your situation.

  “I also wanted you to know that I talked to Henry to see if he knew anything. He mentioned bumping into you near the meadow. He knows nothing either and is also panicked by the accident.”

  Cecilia raised her head, “Accident? She has been in an accident? What do you know Avery?”

  Avery quickly backtracked, “I didn’t mean to say she was in an accident. It is just one of the theories running through my head when I wonder what could have happened to her. I am sorry to alarm you. I meant nothing by it.”

  Cecilia and Edward exchanged glances.

  “Well, I will leave you. I’ll check in soon to update you on any progress I might hear. Dear Cecilia, I am hopeful for a good outcome. You need to be too.”

  Edward sat and stared at the ceiling. “Why did Uncle say she was in an accident?”

  With tears running down her face, Cecilia choked out, “Because Henry might have done something to her.”

  Edward was sixteen, and he thought he was too old to cry, but tears streamed down his face. “Yes. He is capable of anything.”

  Cecilia sobbed. She thought so too. And he would get away with it. Her brother was already covering Henry’s tracks. She was in an ‘accident.’

  Cecilia and Edward sat in silence, the only sound in the room the tick of the clock. Edward wanted to throw it out the window. It was a reminder of how much time had passed since Penelope went missing.

  Cecilia and Edward didn’t speak; they didn’t eat. Every hour, Edward went out to talk with Waters. He knew Waters would come to him immediately if there was something to tell, but he felt the need to go anyway. After the initial flurry of news about the village and the inside of the house – she was not in either location – news only trickled in.

  Edward had to tell himself they were being very thorough and that’s why the wait was so long. He had to tell himself that repeatedly.

  After over six hours since Edward realized she was gone, Cecilia and Edward heard the urgent voices of several men. They quickly looked at each other and ran to the door.

  In the hallway, Penelope was unconscious and bleeding heavily from her head, in the arms of Old Robbie. He ran up the stairs two at a time and kicked in Penelope’s bedchamber door. He gently laid her on her bed.

  Cecilia and Edward were right behind him. They knelt by her side. She was white and laboured to breathe. Cecilia looked at Edward. “She is close to death,” she whispered.

  Edward went to Old Robbie.

  He put a hand on Edward’s shoulder. “I sent a man into the village for the healer. She’ll be here soon.”

  Edward closed the door and took Old Robbie to a corner of the room, all the time watching Penelope. “Is she going to make it?”

  Old Robbie shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s bad. We’ll see what the healer says.”

  Edward choked, “What happened?”

  Old Robbie told Edward about how and where he found her. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” Old Robbie’s eyes were wet.

  The healer, Cara, burst in carrying two large bags of her potions. She asked who knew what happened, and Old Robbie told her what he knew.

  Cecilia wailed then buried her head in Penelope’s neck when she heard. The healer rubbed her back.

  “Everyone but Lady Balfour out. Get Penelope’s maid, tell the kitchen to boil water and bring empty basins as well as basins full of hot water. Tell her maid to bring fabric we can cut into strips. Now out with you. That means you too, Lord Balfour. No men.”

  He nodded. “I’ll be on a chair outside the door. I’ll get anything you need.”

  *****

  Old Robbie put up his arm and turned. He was only able to stop his horse because he was going so slowly while he searched.

  “Hold up, hold up,” he yelled.

  He got down from his horse and tied him to a low branch close by.

  The other three in his search party did the same. They all leaned over the ledge. Some gasped while others groaned. No one was silent. “We need to find a way to get down there now,” Old Robbie said.

  The cliff dropped off twenty feet and didn’t have a gently rolling slope in sight. Even the boulders that sat grouped and gradually cascading from the top weren’t of any use.

  The men looked side-to-side thinking the cliff would even out around the bend.

  “We need to follow this cliff to the sides to see if it gets any easier to traverse,” Old Robbie said.

  “You’re right,” Jamie said. “Two us to the left, two to the right. Let’s find a way.”

  They walked until they could walk no longer. A wall of boulders stood in their way.

  “What about a rope? Jamie asked as they walked at a brisk pace back to where old Robbie was inspecting the other end of the cliff.

  “Does anyone have one in their saddlebag? I don’t,” Will said.

  They caught up with old Robbie and Ned on the other end, inspecting a dangerous drop onto boulders that would lower someone down deep, smooth steps. Possible? But then they would have to manoeuvre up them again with an unconscious or dead girl, climbing those same boulders.

  “A rope?” Jamie asked old Robbie, watching the man look at the boulders from every angle.

  Old Robbie didn’t look up. “Ned, go to my saddlebag and get me the rope.”

  He turned to Jamie and Will, shaking his head. “The rope won’t be long enough. We might need to go back for a longer one.”

  “She’s already been down there too long.”

  Jamie looked up into the sky. “I want to be the one to wring his neck. I want to watch the life drain from his eyes as I squeeze tighter.”

  Ned came back and handed the rope to old Robbie. He wrapped an end part around his hand and then threw the other end over the cliff. The four men leaned over.

  Jamie said, “It’ll work.” The others nodded. The rope was short of the ground but by only five feet.

  Old Robbie turned around. “I need something to strap her onto my back.”

  They all went through their saddlebags but came up with nothing.

  Jamie sighed then took off his belt and his plaid, handing them to Old Robbie. The others did the same.

  Old Robbie looked around. “Just what we need, three naked clansmen pulling a rope. I’ll take yours Jamie, and give me one more belt then get dressed.”

  Old Robbie made a sling out of Jamie’s plaid and tucked the two extra belts in his own. The three men held the rope, and Old Robbie backed down the cliff of rocks just above Penelope’s body.

  He hopped down to the ground and rushed to Penelope to check for a pulse. He had to check three times before he found it; her pulse was so we
ak.

  “She’s alive,” he yelled. The others remained subdued. Old Robbie had started moving her to carry her on his back, and when he picked her up, the men saw puddles of blood.

  Jamie whispered, “If she were here all night, there would be nothing left to her when the wolves were through.”

  Old Robbie could hear what Jamie said. Sound bounced off the rocks without being distorted. As he belted Penelope in, he thought, Hell, they wouldn’t even have to wait until after dark.

  Old Robbie had to balance Penelope on his back so that she didn’t flip to the left or the right and take him with her. He had to tie part of Jamie’s plaid around his waist and anchor her before he could begin.

  Unconscious people are dead weight, he decided. He knew she didn’t weigh nearly as much as it felt like she did.

  The climb was slow. Grabbing rope, uphill, with one hundred pounds on your back is hard. More than once, he looked at the palms of his hands to see strips of blood with fragments of rope sticking out.

  “I’m up far enough you can pull on the rope, not just anchor it. Help me along.”

  Ned, Jamie, and Will started stepping backwards as they pulled.

  “Slow down, slow down,” Old Robbie said. They stopped, and Old Robbie told them to pull, just slower.

  Jamie saw Old Robbie’s head coming up over the cliff. “Keep holding. I’m going to see if I can help him over the edge.”

  Jamie knelt at the edge and grabbed one of Old Robbie’s hands.

  Once over the edge, Old Robbie rested on his hands and knees, breathing as if he just ran ten miles. Jamie and Ned unwrapped Penelope from his back. Will ran to Old Robbie’s saddlebag to grab his flask of whisky.

  Chapter 25

  When Edward wasn’t sitting on the chair outside Penelope’s door, he was sleeping in front of her door. Cara would come out with things she needed, and he gladly did her bidding.

  Sometimes he wondered if Penelope’s maid, Helen, could have completed the task he was asked to do. He concluded Cara was deliberately keeping him busy.

  He kept an empty chair next to his for when his mother came out to give him news or to take a moment outside the room. That’s when he would get his information.

  “Can I get you tea or something to eat Mother?”

  “No, thank you, Edward.”

  He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him. She closed her eyes, but she was afraid to sleep. What might happen if she slept when Penelope needed her?

  “If you rested and something happened, you know you would be up and awake and through that door faster than you could stand up from your bedside chair and look down at her.”

  “I’ll just close my eyes for a minute.”

  Edward would have held her tight except he was afraid he would wake her, so he left his arm loosely draped around her shoulders and let her sleep.

  What a nightmare. If Penelope ever woke and were able to speak of it, she would only confirm what they already knew. Henry pushed her off the side of the cliff.

  Henry was acting his usual self, no doubt not losing a bit of sleep over trying to kill Penelope. But Avery was nervous. He had come to ask about Penelope. A lot of people did, but a lot of people didn’t ask if she said anything in her sleep.

  Penelope wasn’t awake yet, but Cara said her pulse was stronger. She wasn’t in pain. Cecilia stood next to her while she changed Penelope’s bandages. Cara cut the bloody bandages on the left side of Penelope’s face. When she did, Helen gasped. Cara turned to her and gave her a withering look. Cecilia had a lot of questions but decided to wait until Cara finished her job.

  “Cecilia, hold this?” she asked as she wrapped strips of fabric over Penelope’s head, down to her chin, and back up again.

  When the wound was cleaned and bandaged, Cecilia pulled Cara aside.

  “Will the wound look as large when the stitches come out?”

  “Typically, what you see now is what you can expect to see later.”

  “Why isn’t she waking up?”

  “Lady Balfour. If your daughter woke up this minute, she would be in excruciating pain. I would give her enough laudanum to put her back in a coma again. Her healing is not far enough along for us to pray for her to wake.”

  Cecilia nodded. Tears came to her eyes. Excruciating pain. She was a fourteen-year-old girl. Cecilia left the room to see Edward.

  During the following week, Cara knew Penelope was coming out of her coma by the movements and sounds she made.

  Her hands went back and forth. Her hands lifted up and fell back down. She cried out, and her body seemed agitated.

  “Prepare yourself, Lady Balfour. When she wakes up, she will be in too much pain to talk to you. I’ll give her laudanum, and she’ll slowly adjust to being awake with less pain.

  Cecilia nodded. Now she was much more alert when she waited. But still, time went by slowly.

  Cecilia went to Edward and told him what Cara said. She was going to wake! There were times when neither was sure that that would ever happen. They hugged, but Edward’s voice was too thick in his throat to speak. He rocked his mother in their hug.

  Avery stopped when he reached the top step and saw Cecilia hugging Edward.

  Cecilia opened her eyes while still hugging Edward. “Avery,” she called. “Come hear the good news.”

  “Well, that’s the best greeting I’ve received in a long time. What is the good news?”

  When Cecilia told him, he smiled and nodded. “That’s wonderful news. But, she could still never wake, couldn’t she?”

  “Pardon, Uncle Avery? What kind of question is that? We just told you she will wake.”

  Avery’s colour drained from his face. “Oh, I’m sorry. That didn’t sound right, did it? Apologies. When can we expect this exciting event?”

  Cecilia shrugged. “She gets more active every day.”

  “Active?” Avery asked.

  “Moves her hands, her head, makes noises,” Cecilia said.

  “Noise? Does she say anything?”

  “Not yet, but she will,” Edward said in an accusatory tone.

  *****

  Avery summoned Henry into his office. When Henry got there, Avery was looking out the window, drink in hand.

  “Shut the door, Henry,” he said without turning.

  Henry shut the door and leaned against it, arms crossed.

  Avery turned, half leaned, and half sat on his desk. “Sit in a chair, Henry.”

  Henry gave an exaggerated sigh and sat. He waited and then got up to leave. “Sit in the chair, Henry, Avery repeated.” Henry sat.

  “If you’re trying to train me like a dog, be careful I don’t pee on your carpet.”

  “I’m sure you think all of this is very funny, but I don’t. Your cousin is on the verge of waking up. She is no longer on her deathbed; she is in her sickbed. She will be fully awake and talking shortly. Which means we have a problem.”

  Henry lifted one finger in the air, “Pardon me, but you have a problem.”

  Avery’s eyes bore into Henry’s. “You are right. You know why you’re right? Because half the time you can’t find your way to the dining room and the rest of the time you show so little respect for the servants that they despise you.

  “I’m not charged with covering up your pushing the neighbour’s visitor off of a horse, I’m charged with covering up attempted murder. Do you have a clue as to the seriousness of this?”

  Henry gave his father an exaggerated grimace. “You’ll figure it out. You always do.”

  “I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but if something like this ever happens again, I’ll let them lead you off in chains.”

  Henry breathed out and let his lips make a noise. “Yeah, right.”

  “Try me,” Avery said to Henry’s back as he walked out the door.

  ***

  “She’s awake,” Cecilia said, sitting next to Edward.

  He rose, “Let’s go see her.”

  “We can’t. I said
hello, and she said hello back, but Cara needs to check her out head to toe, and if Penelope’s distracted, Cara won’t get everything she needs to treat her from now on.”

  “So we wait?” Edward asked.

  “Yes, although I don’t know how we are going to do it,” Cecilia said, walking in a circle in front of Edward.

  Cecilia and Edward waited a long time to go in. Helen brought them tea, and the footman brought up a table for them.

  “Has it been over an hour?” Cecilia asked Edward.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you think something is wrong?” she asked.

  “I don’t know, but it’s not a good sign.”

  Cecilia stood. “I’m going in.”

  Edward looked up. “You should. Let me know if I can too.”

  Cecilia gave a short, light knock, walked in, and shut the door. She didn’t wait for permission.

  “Hello, darling. I’ve been waiting what seems like hours to see you.” She hugged and kissed Penelope gently.

  “Hello, Mother. Cara and I were going over the accident and how my face will look from now on.”

  Cecilia looked at Cara. Cara said, “Penelope’s clear on the severity of her fall and the outcome. Your daughter is remarkable. Her acceptance of this life-changing event is inspiring.”

  “Yes, well, I’d very much like to visit with my daughter now if that would be all right,” Cecilia said.

  “Yes,” Cara answered, “and I apologize for taking longer assessing Penelope than I thought would be necessary.”

  Cecilia turned to Penelope, “Are you tired? Would you like to visit after you’ve rested?”

  Penelope looked at Cara. She nodded. “Can you keep it to less than a half hour?”

  Cecilia smiled. “For today, that’s fine. You won’t get away with a short visit with me tomorrow, Penelope.”

  Penelope smiled.

  “Do either of you mind if I clean up my things here or do you need privacy?”

  “That’s fine,” Cecilia said.

  Penelope said nothing.

  Cecilia got up, opened the door, and pulled Edward in.

  “Hello, Sis. How are you? Only you could get me to sit in a chair in the hall for a week. I felt like I was being punished.”