If He's Dangerous

by Hannah Howell

  He did not like to think about how long he had clung to the idea of a curse. It was embarrassing now that he sat and actually thought it out. Worse, he had left Lorelei to think that he saw what they shared as no more than an affair. That was something he would have to deeply apologize for.

  It was also embarrassing to think he had to see her on the ground bleeding before he understood what she meant to him. He had even just silently accepted her words of love when they had made love, as if somehow they were his due. Something else he would have to apologize deeply for, as it must have hurt her.

  Sitting back and putting his feet up on the bed, Argus watched her sleep. She was beautiful to him in so many ways he feared he might get maudlin if he tried to list them. The biggest thing was that she accepted him for all he was, just as she accepted his family. She even accepted Darius and Olwen. Leopold was right; Iago was right; every one of his family who had talked to him was right. He was an idiot.

  Well, no more, he decided. He needed to get a few things sorted out, but then he was coming after Lorelei. Argus thought it a little amusing that after she had given him her innocence and whispered her love several times he was now feeling nervous about trying to offer her his.

  A soft moan from the bed tore him from his thoughts and he leaned over her again. Argus cursed when he saw the little flags of red on her cheeks. He touched her forehead and cursed again. The fever was coming on. Stefan had helped ease the bleeding and the pain, but it would take some hard work to banish the fever.

  He rang for Vale and ordered the woman to bathe Lorelei’s face with a cool cloth. Argus brushed a kiss over Lorelei’s forehead and, as he pulled back, was startled to see her eyes open. She gave him a smile that was a weak shadow of the one he loved to see.

  “Only the bad men died, right?” she asked.

  “Right,” he replied. “Everyone else is hale save for you and poor Old James.”

  “Ah, yes, poor Old James. He was such a nice man. You should probably not get too close to me as I am feeling rather poorly.”

  “Lorelei, Cornick stuck a knife in your back, remember?”

  “Oh, of course. I can feel that wound. No, it is the rest of me that is feeling very poorly. Is that because of the wound? Do I have a fever then?”

  There was a slight hint of panic in her weak, husky voice, and he brushed his hand over her hair. “A touch, that is all. I am about to go and find someone to help with that. It came on suddenly, so I suspect it will leave just as suddenly, especially with a little help from my family. Vale is here and she will bathe your face, mayhap your arms too, in cool water and that will make you feel better. As you and Max told me often enough, rest. That is the best cure.”

  “You will be back?” she asked even as her eyes closed, but her hand tightened around his with a good strong grip.

  “Yes, I will be back.”

  Argus hurried out of the room and ran down the stairs. It was not just the fever that worried Argus, but the fact that Lorelei had it when she had not had any time to regain her strength after such a wound and the blood loss. He intended to go to the duke’s library to write a few messages to some of the more experienced healers in his family when he nearly ran into the man.

  “There is a visitor for you in the parlor,” the duke said and grabbed him by the arm to steer him that way.

  “I was going to send out messages for a few of my family.”

  “Healers?” asked the duke as he stopped abruptly and looked at Argus. “Why the running? She has grown worse?”

  “She is already showing signs of a fever. I think it might be because she lost so much blood. Vale is bathing her down with some cool water right now, but I wanted to get one of our stronger healers here as soon as possible.”

  “Well, first come and see if what you want is already here.”

  Argus stepped into the parlor behind the duke and nearly cheered when he saw the two people who stood up to bow to the duke as Argus hastily introduced him. “Septimus, Delmar, I am so glad you have come.” He glanced at Stefan, who shook his head, then looked back at Septimus. “How did you know?”

  “Chloe sent word that you might need us and told us to come here. She was very persistent,” said Septimus.

  “You know what our trouble is?” asked the duke as he wandered over to look at the food Max had set out for the guests and helped himself to a small cake.

  “Someone is hurt and ill,” replied Septimus, and then he looked at Argus. “She said we must come and help you or you will be lost, but you look quite hale to me.”

  “I am, but Lady Lorelei, the duke’s daughter, is not.” Argus briefly explained the situation and tried not to flush beneath the intent and slightly amused look Septimus was giving him.

  “Then we shall all go and see what we can do. Delmar and I have discovered that, by working together, we can ease a lot of pain and cure serious injuries or disease without hurting ourselves. I think that, together, we ought to be able to suit all her needs.”

  “Do you mind if I watch?” asked the duke.

  Argus noticed the unease Septimus and Delmar could not hide. “It is fine. Truly. The man knows a lot about us and I trust him.”

  Within moments they were in Lorelei’s room and Argus had to stand aside as Stefan, Delmar, and Septimus encircled the bed. He quietly ordered Vale to leave, knowing the woman was the type to become upset by some of the things she might see. Standing beside the duke, Argus watched as his cousins touched Lorelei, stroked her brow, and fought to heal her.

  “Knife was dirty,” said Delmar.

  “Very dirty,” agreed Septimus. “Infection has already begun and the fever is because she is fighting it tooth and nail.”

  “Deep wound, so the infection goes deep, too.”

  Argus listened to the three talk as they kept their eyes closed and their hands on her. Septimus had clearly been training young Delmar, and that was what Stefan needed. Since they lived in the same house, the youth needed to pick himself up and ask for the training. He suspected he would now, for he had badly wanted to do more for Lorelei.

  When they were done, all three looked a little pale as they stood by while the duke went to stroke his daughter’s forehead. Argus desperately wanted to do the same, but knew he had to wait his turn this time. The soft look on the duke’s face as he stroked Lorelei’s hair told him that, for now, the father needed to be with her.

  She was sleeping so peacefully that they all stepped out of the room to talk only to find the hallway crowded with boys, a few adult women, and a few girls who were either just out of the schoolroom or soon would be. Some standing, some sitting on the floor. Argus even saw his sons sitting with the twins, Axel and Wolfgang. The duke just smiled at them all.

  “She is much better. These fine young men have come to help heal her,” the duke said and made a gentle shooing motion with his hands. “No need to lurk out here. Now I have to get these young men something to eat and drink for their kindness in coming all this way to help us.” He looked at Aunt Gretchen. “You know what rooms are empty, do you not? Or who to ask? We shall need a room for these fellows.”

  Aunt Gretchen hurried off to see to the sleeping arrangements and the others soon dispersed. Argus decided that Sundun House was like a small village. He wondered if the duke knew how to say no.

  “She is healed now?” asked the duke as they all went down the stairs to the parlor.

  “Not quite, Your Grace,” said Septimus. “She is healing. You may have heard us say that there was some dirt or the like on the knife he used and that is now deep in the wound. It and the fever have weakened, retreated a little if you will, but they will try to come back depending on her state of health before the attack. We can better judge then how long she may take to fully recover.”

  “I suppose it should not surprise me that a man like Cornick did not even keep his weapons clean.” The duke shook his head as they all found seats in the parlor, where food and drink awaited the healers. “Eat, eat. I
have learned from Stefan that it is needed. So what happens now?”

  “We shall keep an eye on her, and at the first sign of the fever returning we will do it again. And again. Until all the poison bleeding into her wound, and through her wound into the rest of her, is gone.”

  Argus listened to them talk about the wound for a while and then quietly slipped away. He had to be with her, had to watch her, as if his presence would keep the danger of such a wound away. It was foolishness, but it was not something he could fight.

  “Your Grace, if you would excuse my impertinence . . .” began Septimus.

  “Son, I was a father by the time I was fifteen and have sired seventeen children. I hear impertinence all the time.”

  “Very well then. How do you feel about Sir Argus and your daughter, Your Grace?”

  “Ah, been sent to gather some information, have you?”

  “Some. Mostly to heal. It was our cousin Chloe speaking of how Argus would be lost if we did not get down here to heal someone. Watching him look at your daughter made me certain who that someone is, but he is only a knight while she is . . .”

  “My daughter. Yes, I am well aware of it. I do not care whom any of my children marry so long as the match is right for them. I do believe Sir Argus is right for Lorelei. She certainly thinks so and that is more important. I think that, somewhere between the kidnapping of my daughter and the knife shoved into her back, your cousin had an epiphany.”

  “Ah, yes, the marriage-to-a-Wherlocke-or-Vaughn curse. I am pleased that he appears to have shaken that off his shoulders. None of us plan to repeat those mistakes. Secrecy, Your Grace. Many of them did not tell their spouses exactly what they were until they had to explain why the children were so different. It is obvious that those secrets are not hidden here.”

  “No, I have raised my children to be rational, open-minded, ready for new things. They will be a match as surely as I am a duke.”

  “And your certainty is such that you allow him to go to her bedchamber?”

  “She is three and twenty, and your cousin is the very first man she has ever had any real interest in. Her eyes shine when she speaks his name. A wise man does not get in the way of that shine.”

  Argus sat down by Lorelei’s bed and took her hand in his. She was sleeping peacefully, a hint of healthy color in her cheeks. He kissed her hand, grateful for the sight of her even breathing. The boys would heal her. He knew it might take several times, for fever and infection were tough enemies, but they would do it. Now he had to plan what he needed to do.

  “You will heal,” he told her. “And we will celebrate your good health in the apple orchard.”

  “Rogue,” she whispered, but her eyes only fluttered for a moment and he knew she was more asleep than awake.

  “You inspire me.”

  “Do I? How lovely. I will have a big scar on my back now.”

  “I will kiss it.” He was pleased to see her sleepy smile. “Rest, Lorelei. Even with healers here to help fight that fever, you will need a lot of rest.”

  “I know. Thank them for me, please.”

  “I will, and your father already has.”

  And that easy acceptance of the fact that his cousins had healed her with their touch was one reason he knew he would be a fool to let her go, no matter how disparate their births and financial situations. When her hand went completely limp in his, Argus knew she had gone back to sleep and tucked her hand under the blanket. The sun shone through the window of her bedchamber, shining on her glorious hair, and he knew he had to do all he could so that he could be privileged to see that sight every morning for the rest of his life.

  Chapter 19

  “Left? What do you mean he has left?”

  Lorelei wondered if she sounded as confused, outraged, and uncertain to Olympia as she did to herself. She was finally feeling almost completely healed after two long weeks. She knew it was only due to the help of Septimus, Delmar, and Stefan that it had taken just two weeks, but she was tired of spending day and night in her bedchamber. She had a lot of guests as everyone in Sundun House and an assortment of Wherlockes and Vaughns meandered in to speak to her, but she was able to walk around now and the man she wanted to walk with was gone. The way he had stayed near her bedside while she was so ill, talking to her, reading to her, and kissing her forehead just before she went to sleep, had made her hopes for the future soar.

  And now he was gone, without any explanation. It was as if he saw that she was all healed from the wound his enemy had inflicted upon her and decided his job was done. So he left to go and do whatever it was he did. Yet, why was his family still wandering around? she asked herself.

  “You are working yourself up into a state of nerves for nothing,” said Olympia. “He had a lot he needed to do because he had sat around here for a fortnight, watching you like a hawk to be sure you healed.”

  That was true. Almost every time she had opened her eyes he had been there. She had not even seen her father as much as she had seen Argus. Along with the other things he had done for her, he had spoon-fed her, bathed her forehead with cool water, and just kept her company. She did not think she had seen him so much since the first two days when she had rescued him and brought him here to Sundunmoor. She supposed that was why his desertion was such a shock.

  No, she told herself firmly, it was not a desertion. He just had things he had to do. Olympia was right. The man had not done the things that earned him a living since the night he had been abducted by Cornick. For all of his reading and being lost in his own little world, her father put a lot of work into keeping them all housed, clothed, and fed. As he liked to say, the wood sprites do not print money, one has to actually do something to get it.

  “I am certain I heard him mention that he had some work that he needed to do,” said Olympia.

  “You are right, for now that I think back, he did mention that. He just did not say what he needed to work on and I think I just assumed he meant around here.”

  “Oh, no, he is in London.”

  Lorelei tried to ignore the painful twinge in her heart when Olympia mentioned that. She did not really like to think of Argus in London with all its experienced and beautiful women. A few days there and he would see her for the sheltered little country girl she was. It was too horrible a thought to contemplate, yet, now that it was in her head, she could not shake it out. All she could see in her mind’s eye was Argus escorting some fashionable beauty through the streets of the city.

  “If you are quite done imagining my brother involved in some sort of orgy with half a dozen London ladies, mayhap we should go for a walk. It will clear the nonsense from your head.”

  “Half a dozen? Surely you cannot, I mean, with half a dozen?”

  Olympia shrugged, stood up, and brushed out her skirts. “I have heard that things can get very wild, very unseemly at an orgy.”

  “Just how is it that you have heard of orgies when I thought they were only done in Rome or Greece in the ancient days? I read about them in one of Father’s books that he thinks are well hidden.”

  “Everything old becomes new again eventually. And anything old that concerns men slaking their lusts on a bunch of women, will continue to be reborn in one way or another. And it is never one, but always a bunch, for they do have delusions about their stamina.”

  “Ah, good point. Wicked little rotters,” she mumbled as she stood up and was pleased to feel no dizziness. Those boys were true miracle workers. “It would serve men right if women decided they should have themselves an orgy or two.”

  Olympia paused at the door. “Oh, what a lovely idea.”

  “I was jesting, using a hypothetical comparison, if you will.”

  “Still, what an intriguing thought. An orgy for women where the women decide which men may be invited and they are all up for grabs and bound to do as we insist.”

  Lorelei frowned as she tugged on her boots. “Odd. Just a while ago I would have been plotting away with you, but now it does not hold
much interest.”

  “That is because you are madly in love with my brother.”

  “I would not say madly,” Lorelei protested as she followed Olympia out of the room. “And, well, I have a bit more information now, shall we say, and I am not sure I would like so many seeing me naked. On the other hand, there are some very pretty men. . . . Oh, what am I saying . . . ?” She shook her head. “You can drag me into the most ridiculous, and usually improper, conversations.”

  “But those are the best kind.”

  “What are the best kind?” asked Septimus as he stepped out of the parlor just as they were walking toward the steps that led to the front door.

  “Improper conversations,” replied Olympia.

  “Ah, may I join in?”

  “You are too young.”

  “I am as old as Lady Lorelei.”

  “Women mature faster than men, who stay little boys until they are into their thirties. And then only for a short while as they begin to turn back until they are little boys again by the time they are in their fifties. This is a known fact. So, you may join us during that short interlude when you are a full adult.”

  Septimus laughed and kissed her cheek. “You are a wretch.” He then looked at Lorelei. “Feeling stronger?”

  “Much stronger. I needed to get out of that room. I think that, if you had not aided me in healing and I had had to stay abed for the full time, I should be drooling mad by the time I left.” She smiled when he laughed.