“Luther, old boy, come here!”
Linette gasped at the sudden commotion beyond the library in the foyer. Luther? Had she heard Donovan correctly?
Her heart lodged in her throat, she ran out of the room, very much aware that Dr. Whitaker followed not too far behind her. Nothing would have prepared her for the sight of Luther—very much alive!—wriggling and barking in Donovan’s arms. Her father, Corie, Paloma, and Miss Biddle encircled the lively scene while stunned servants appeared as if from every corner of the house. Even Cook, the older woman nearly as wide as she was short, hurried from the kitchen wiping flour from her hands onto her apron.
Everyone was talking at once, asking questions, staring in wide-eyed amazement, until at last Joseph Easton raised his hand to speak.
“The strangest thing occurred, really. Almost to the house, a young man rode up alongside the carriage and signaled for us to stop. I’ve never seen him before, but he had Luther wrapped snugly in his cloak! Said he found him on the beach and wanted to return him to his young mistress. He handed Luther to me through the window and then he was gone, galloping away.”
“He spoke English?” Donovan asked, grown suddenly serious as he handed Luther to Paloma, who laughed with delight as Luther licked her face.
“Why, yes he did, quite perfectly, my son.”
“English or French, what does it matter, husband?” Corie asked him, coming close to hug his arm. “Whoever he might be, we’ve our dear Estelle with us, safe and sound thanks to him, and now Luther, too! Truly, it’s a happy Christmas!”
Linette saw that her sister’s teasing words seemed to ease Donovan, who glanced behind him at Adam standing further back from the family gathered there.
“What say you, Whitaker? Should we let Estelle know straightaway that her beloved mutt is safely returned? I know you’ve prescribed rest and quiet for her.”
“I have, Your Grace, but such news will greatly encourage her recovery—”
“Luther!”
All eyes turned to the top of the staircase where Estelle stood in her nightgown, and none too steadily, either, as she burst into tears at the sight of her little dog. With a yip, Luther jumped out of Paloma’s arms and ran barking up the stairs, Corie hastening after him, followed by Donovan.
They reached Estelle only an instant after she’d sunk to her knees to gather her dog to her breast, laughing, crying, while Luther squirmed and whimpered and licked her wet face.
Linette’s eyes were clouded with grateful tears, too, as Donovan lifted Estelle into his arms and carried both her and Luther back to her room, Corie leading the way.
Linette wanted to run upstairs to join them, but she knew Estelle had experienced enough excitement without having the rest of the family adding to the commotion. Instead, she stood in the foyer with her father and Paloma while the servants, Cook, and Miss Biddle went back to their preparations for Christmas dinner.
“Oh, Grandpapa, it’s so wonderful!” enthused Paloma as Linette gestured for Dr. Whitaker to come forward so she might introduce him to her father.
“Papa, may I present our new doctor, Mr. Whitaker.”
“Ah, yes, we met after the service today,” Joseph Easton said warmly with a slight bow of his head.
“A pleasure to see you again, Mr. Easton, and under happier circumstances than when I first arrived here, I’m very pleased to say.”
“Yes, happier indeed, though not so for one of my parishioners, Mrs. Polkinghorne. She’s an excellent seamstress in the village and made our Corie’s wedding dress to Donovan six years past. I received a message from her husband asking for prayer right before I left to come here. She’s taken ill, you see.”
“Ill? Then I must go to her at once.”
“Yes, some bad fish pie, I believe. A dear woman, but a frightful gossip, God bless her. If you’re able to help her, I’m sure her recommendation would fly like the wind about the parish. A very good thing for a new doctor, yes?”
Dr. Whitaker nodded, while Linette felt a sting of disappointment as he went to gather his black bag and top hat from a footman.
Of course he couldn’t stay, she knew that, and why it seemed to matter to her so much that he wouldn’t be dining with them was a strange revelation to her. She scarcely knew the man!
“Miss Easton, if you’ll give my regrets to the Duke and Duchess,” he murmured, his gaze lingering upon her after saying his goodbyes to her father and Paloma. “Please tell them I’ll return every afternoon to visit your sister until I’m assured she has made a complete and full recovery.”
“Yes, of course.” To Linette, his expression had grown serious as if his thoughts were already upon his soon-to-be patient, Mrs. Polkinghorne, and he didn’t appear to want to delay any longer. She scarcely spoke the words, “Merry Christmas,” and he turned to leave them, when suddenly, to Linette’s surprise, Paloma ran after him and jerked the end of his coat.
“You haven’t kissed her, Dr. Whitaker!”
“Paloma!” Stunned, Linette felt as if her cheeks had burst into flame as her niece pointed to the ball of mistletoe, festively ornamented with red ribbons, hanging from the chandelier right above her head. She glanced at her father, who shook his head, chuckling, while Dr. Whitaker slowly walked back toward them.
Her heart slamming in her breast, she could not believe what was transpiring as he stopped right in front of her, standing so close that the buttons on his coat grazed her bodice. Oh, Lord, oh, Lord! So close that she couldn’t help noting that he smelled like the out-of-doors with a faint hint of orange and sandalwood, the masculine scent undeniably appealing. He stared at her for the longest moment—or was it only an instant, how could she say?—and then lifted her chin and brushed his lips ever so lightly against hers.
“Merry Christmas, Miss Easton.”
Her eyes fluttered open to find him looking down at her with a curious half smile, and she realized in utter mortification that she had just sighed against his mouth. Sighed!
“Another kiss!” Clapping her hands, Paloma danced around them with delight. “Oh, Aunt Linette, another kiss!”
“That’s enough kisses, child,” Joseph Easton gently broke in. “Let’s go see if Cook has something for us to nibble.” With an indulgent smile, he steered Paloma toward the back of the house in the direction of the kitchen, nodding his goodbye.
As if that was his cue, Dr. Whitaker stepped abruptly away from Linette. Without a word he bowed his head to her and then turned and left her standing in the foyer, the clatter of carriage wheels a minute later carrying him away.
Still, Linette didn’t budge an inch, her trembling fingers to her lips, her heart still hammering harder than she ever remembered.
Her shock still overwhelming that their unexpected kiss had happened at all.
Only when the young footman by the front door coughed with some embarrassment did she start in surprise, and spin on her heel to flee toward the kitchen after her father and Paloma.
Chapter 5
“I remember it all so clearly now, Linette! Like I’ve awaken from a fog. The older man called him Prince Valentin—yes, I would swear it!”
“No swearing is necessary, Miss Easton,” Miss Biddle said firmly to Estelle, and then she glanced with some reproach at Linette, who sat beside the bed. “She’s to stay snug and warm under the blankets, Dr. Whitaker’s orders! Not flitting about the room or playing with Luther. It’s only three days since she nearly drowned—three days! One would think from her antics that it hadn’t happened at all—”
“But that’s a good thing, wouldn’t you say, dear Miss Biddle?”
Linette’s soft-spoken words had the desired effect as the housekeeper’s tense shoulders seemed to relax, and she smiled grudgingly at Estelle.
“Indeed, it is, one cannot argue it. Safe and whole with only a few healing bruises and that lump on your head, scarcely noticeable any longer, to lend credence to the tale. If you’ve need of anything, Miss Easton, just let me know.”
As Este
lle nodded, pulling the blankets more tightly beneath her chin to please their long-time housekeeper, Linette murmured her thanks and waited for the woman to leave the room. Yet Estelle’s meek compliance lasted no longer than the door clicking shut and she threw back the covers and sat up to face Linette.
“His hair was the color of gold, almost like Lindsay’s Jared, and he was so handsome! And the other man…yes, Robert was his name. Robert said Prince Valentin was in danger. Danger! What could it all mean, Linette?”
“It means that perhaps you hit your head so hard that you dreamed this incredible tale. Now lie down and take a nap like Luther, will you?”
Estelle glanced at her little dog snuggled deeply into the blankets at the foot of the bed, not rousing at all no matter his mistress’s restless fidgeting. If she had bounced back quickly from her misadventure, Luther had preferred to sleep the days away with occasional bouts of play, though he ate and drank normally.
Apparently, Dr. Whitaker had tended to Estelle’s beloved Luther as well during his daily visits, though Linette wouldn’t be one to attest personally to it. She had kept to her room until he had come and gone, still stunned by his unexpected Christmas kiss and its effect upon her.
It seemed she couldn’t stop thinking about him, but she didn’t want to think about him! He wasn’t the man of her dreams, he couldn’t be.
She wouldn’t meet the man of her dreams until she went to London for her much longed-for Season when she would be dressed from head to toe in shimmering satin and he, in the finest evening apparel worn by a gentleman of the ton. Just like Marguerite when Walker Burke, then Lord Summerlin, had swept her off her feet at Almack’s, and Corie’s friend Lindsay when Jared Giles, the Earl of Dovercourt, had swept her into a waltz.
Corie hadn’t ever wanted a Season and Donovan had swept her off her feet right here in Porthleven, but that wasn’t what Linette wanted at all! She didn’t want her heart to flutter every time she thought of that serious-minded Dr. Adam Whitaker with his striking hazel eyes, tall stature, and unforgettable smile that made her insides melt just remembering it now. Or the warmth of his lips grazing hers when she thought she might swoon dead away in the middle of the foyer.
Ridiculous! Preposterous! The man of her dreams wasn’t in Cornwall at all but somewhere far away in a noble castle or a hunting lodge or his family’s stately country house—
“Linette, didn’t you hear me? I’m not allowed out of bed so you must go to Donovan this very minute and tell him what I’ve told you! Prince Valentin is in danger! There must be something we can do to help him. I’m sure they were staying in a cottage atop the bluff by my favorite beach. I saw smoke curling from the chimney when Luther and I were running across the sand—Linette?”
Her fingers pressed to her lips, Linette found it difficult to focus upon Estelle’s rush of words, and she had to shake her head to clear her thoughts. That made Estelle sink back upon her calves for she had climbed out from under the blankets to kneel on the bed in front of Linette.
“You weren’t listening to a thing I said, were you?”
“Yes, yes, I heard you—oh, Estelle, you must get back into bed.” Linette rose and gently pushed her younger sister backward so she might cover her up again. “Please…and I really have to go now. Dr. Whitaker will be here any moment to see you—”
“And you, if you’ll only stay here with me. But you won’t because he kissed you under the mistletoe and it’s upset you, though I don’t know why. You should see how you’re blushing, Linette! I know you were thinking about him just now when you weren’t listening to a thing I was telling you.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
“Yes, you were! You can’t lie to me or me to you…and I’m telling you, the young man who saved my life is in danger! I remember Robert saying they were going to find other lodging or a ship to take them north along the coast. That they hadn’t wanted to draw attention to themselves. Why else would Prince Valentin not carry me into the house rather than leaving me on the step? Or deliver Luther to me himself?”
“I don’t know, Estelle, now please stay under the blankets! You’ll catch a chill and then where will that leave you?”
“Right here for another few days while I try to convince you to speak to Donovan. Prince Valentin is trying to elude some terrible trouble, I’m certain of it! Perhaps they’re aboard a ship even now and far away from Porthleven, but if they’re still here, Donovan might be able to help them. Linette, Prince Valentin saved my life!”
So he had, Linette thought, sighing heavily, and she didn’t have any more time to argue with Estelle about a fairy-tale prince, a sailor, or whoever the young man might have been. She glanced anxiously at the mantel clock.
Ten minutes to three. Oh, Lord. Dr. Whitaker had arrived punctually at three o’clock each afternoon, something Donovan had remarked upon as a very fine quality in their new physician.
Linette had known of his arrival because she’d hidden behind her bedchamber door, listening to his footsteps upon the carpeted hall as he made his way to Estelle’s room with Miss Biddle. His remarks low and polite, the deep sound of his voice sending shivers racing through her unlike anything she’d ever known before…
“Very well, Estelle, I believe I’ve time enough to speak to Donovan before Dr. Whitaker arrives—”
“When you’ll go hide in your room? Miss Biddle said she saw you peeking through the crack in the door yesterday, which means Dr. Whitaker must have seen you, too.”
“Oh, Estelle, you’re insufferable!” Linette said with frustration at her sister’s teasing, though she couldn’t help smiling herself.
Her behavior was ridiculous, but there it was. She didn’t want to see their handsome new doctor, not today or tomorrow. She wanted everything to go back to how it was before he’d come to their house on Christmas Day, when all she had on her mind was counting the days until she left for London!
“Lie down now and rest,” she murmured, pulling the covers to Estelle’s shoulders. “It won’t do for Dr. Whitaker to think you might be taken with fever when he sees your pretty face all pink and flushed—”
“Like yours?”
Linette sighed with exasperation as she bent down to give her grinning sister a kiss on the cheek.
A cheek as thankfully cool as her own felt overwarm at the thought of running into Dr. Adam Whitaker if he arrived early. Oh, dear, she hoped not…
***
“Prince Valentin, you say.”
Linette nodded at Donovan, who sat behind a paper-strewn desk.
Christmas had barely come and gone and already the house was a flurry of activity as preparations were being made for Donovan, Corie, and their family’s move to Arundale Hall in Hampshire within the next few weeks. Donovan, in fact, so hale and strapping a man with his midnight hair and dark good looks appeared fatigued to her, but how could he not be?
He was a duke of the realm now, with more responsibilities than any man might wish to shoulder along with the great wealth and position his title now afforded him. And here she’d gone and poured more cares upon him with Estelle’s fantastic story, although Linette really didn’t doubt that it might be true. Estelle had made a remarkable recovery, for which they were all so grateful, her mind clear and sharp again after her near brush with death.
Now, as Donovan leaned back in his leather chair, mid-afternoon sunlight spilling across his desk on an unusually fine winter day, Linette knew he was pondering everything she’d just told him.
“I suspected, actually, that some sort of trouble had kept Estelle’s rescuers from revealing themselves to us. By God, but a prince? From where? He speaks French and perfect English, with the looks of Adonis and golden hair. Surely not too difficult to find if he and this Robert are still hiding out somewhere in Porthleven…”
Linette kept silent, certain that Donovan was thinking out loud rather than talking to her, though suddenly he fixed his dark gaze upon her.
“It’s about time, isn’t it?”
“Time?” She stared at him in confusion, until realization slowly dawned at his cryptic smile that made a blush race to her forehead.
Dear Lord, did the entire household know she’d hidden in her room the last three days when Dr. Whitaker had come to call?
Donovan glanced at the grandfather clock against the opposite wall, then leaned forward in his chair. “Thank you for sharing Estelle’s story with me…but you’ve only a few minutes to make it upstairs. You’ll have to run.”
“I’ll not run anywhere,” Linette said stiffly, knowing now that her childish reaction to Dr. Whitaker’s visits would have to stop. “When the doctor arrives, I’ll accompany him to Estelle’s room, well, with Miss Biddle, too.”
“Excellent. He’s a fine young man, Whitaker. I’m very impressed with him. A bit restrained for my taste, aloof, even—”
“Aloof? I didn’t find him aloof,” Linette interrupted him, Donovan raising a black brow at her.
“Really? Yes, I suppose not. If he’d been aloof, I doubt he would have turned around and met you under the mistletoe for a kiss. Paloma can’t seem to talk of anything else these past three days.”
“Oh, dear.” Linette sank into a chair opposite the desk and looked down at her lap, plucking unseeingly at the linen folds of her rose-hued gown. “I should have declined, Donovan—”
“Not at all. It was an innocent thing done to humor a young girl. A Christmas tradition, after all, the mistletoe. Corie would tell you she enjoys the custom very much.”
Linette glanced up to find Donovan smiling at her, and she found herself praying again for a husband like him who remained as captivated by his wife as on the day they met.
Well, perhaps not the first day, she amended. She smiled now, too, as she remembered the hilarious story of Corie with her pitchfork stabbing at the straw for Donovan’s hapless agent, Henry Gilbert, until Donovan had wrested it from her. Thankfully, Corie’s renowned temper had eased since those days, which made Linette long again for a marriage as loving and ardent as theirs.
Kissed at Twilight Page 4