It was dry, and it must be warm but all she could feel was the intensely biting cold.
Rose wanted to thank him but couldn’t make her lips obey. “S–s–s–orry!” was all she could manage as violent shivers set in. Her eyes half-closed, she stared out at the lake. Something black floated atop the surface, as though embarking on a great journey.
“Your hat.” She pointed a shaking finger.
“I’ll buy a new one.” His voice rumbled over her. He went to speak again but only made a harsh strangled sound. She buried her face in his neck.
So stupid of her! To walk so close to the water when she didn’t know how to swim. And not to have watched where she was placing her feet. She’d nearly gotten both of them killed. If he got ill because of her and then died, she’d never forgive herself.
“S–s–s–orry. So–so—”
“Hush.” He was carrying her now, heading for the path that led to the street. “You foolish girl! What in the hell were you thinking?” But he didn’t really sound angry. He sounded as though he’d been scared. He squeezed her even more tightly against him.
He must be so very cold himself! He’d jumped into the water and then given her his coat. And now, he was carrying her, and she’d never considered herself a small girl.
“Too many sweets,” she managed, her face tucked against his shoulder. “Too heavy. I can walk.” But she didn’t really think she could. She didn’t feel like her body would ever obey her again. “Just need a minute.”
His response was to increase his pace. Not until he stopped did she realize the carriage had pulled up beside them.
The door flew open and Lady Hawthorne peered out, gesturing wildly. “I’ve blankets. We’re lucky, he’d just loaded the heated bricks.”
The viscount shuffled her inside as though she was a child. Lady Hawthorne removed Lord Darlington’s coat from Rose and threw a blanket around them both. “You need to warm up too, Rome.” As she dropped a second blanket on them, the carriage shifted and then lurched into motion. “The water… I couldn’t see where she went! She just disappeared! I don’t know how you discovered her. Oh, Rome. You saved her life.”
Those were the last words Rose heard.
Rome hadn’t been able to locate her at first. His only indication that she’d even gone in were a few ripples swirling on the surface. The water had been dark, shadowy, as though she’d disappeared into a brown merciless void.
He couldn’t remember the last time such terror had gripped him.
He’d removed his coat without thinking and dived in, forcing his eyes to remain open in the cold and gritty water.
Then he’d seen the red of her scarf. Barely. It had been just close enough for him to grasp the back of her coat.
“You saved her life.” Natalie’s voice broke into his nightmare.
His sister’s face was flushed. She must have run the entire distance to get the driver to them so quickly. Wisps of blond hair had escaped her normally perfect coiffure and a bead of perspiration glistened on her forehead.
“You did well, Nat.” Rome fought to maintain his composure.
Rose had gone limp tucked against his side, but he could feel her breathing. Occasionally, a shudder ran through her. He rubbed a hand up and down her arm beneath the blanket.
“Penelope and Lady Asherton will have a room readied.” She looked as though she might begin crying. “Penelope nearly jumped into the water herself before you arrived.”
Rome shook his head. He didn’t know what he would have done if both of them had gone in. “You shouldn’t have been walking so close to the water.” He wanted to blame somebody. He knew it made no sense. “The ground was icy in places.”
But his sister knew him well enough. Instead of arguing, she shifted the brick closer to his feet. “Thank God you were there.”
Beside him, Rose’s eyes fluttered and she made an attempt to push herself up just as the door flew open. Natalie’s husband, Hawthorne, and Rome’s younger brother, Stone, reached in to assist him in getting Miss Waring of the carriage.
All three of them ignored her attempts to apologize.
“No one is blaming you, Rose,” Natalie reassured her. “We’re going to get you out of that wet dress and into something warm and dry.” She turned to her husband. “Penelope has a room?”
Hawthorne nodded, reaching in to take the majority of Rose’s weight. “The physician is waiting.”
“I’m going to Pinkerton’s to purchase you a change of clothing. Wait for me by the hearth in the taproom,” Stone ordered Rome.
They’d pulled right up to the front of the town’s most prominent inn, so it did not take long for Hawthorne to disappear inside with Rose, all the while Natalie fussing and a footman holding the door.
Left standing in the sudden quiet outside, Rome didn’t move. God in heaven, but he’d barely managed to get to her. Had he arrived even a minute later… He waited for relief to set in, unaffected by his own sodden state.
“Get inside by the fire before you catch your death. I’ll return shortly with something dry and warm for my fashionable brother, the viscount. Pierce would hate to see you in anything but Exeter’s finest.” Stone nudged him. “I’d rather not take on your duties at this stage of my life. And grab us a bottle of something strong, will you? You rather look as though you can use it. I know that I can.”
Fashionable! It was just like Stone to make jokes at a time like this.
“I’m fine. It’s the lady I’m concerned about.”
Stone turned back to stare at him with a funny expression. “She’s Penelope’s maid, isn’t she?”
Rome nodded. “Her lady’s maid.”
Only she hadn’t felt like a maid to him.
In his arms, she’d felt like a woman.
Chapter 8
A gift
“You’re a good man.” Lady Sheffield, the duchess’ aunt, was hopefully the last person at this infernal house party who would offer Rome some form of congratulations or thanks for saving that “poor maid’s” life.
They’d remained at the inn well into the afternoon, whereupon Rose herself had insisted she was fine, and they must all return to Summers Park before dark. After changing into the most unfashionable trousers and coat his brother had purchased for him, Rome had made a trip to Pinkerton’s himself. By the time he’d completed his purchases and returned to the inn, all but his brothers had already taken to the road.
He’d not seen her since Hawthorne had carried her away.
“Any one of the gentlemen here would have done the same.”
“I don’t know, My Lord,” said Lady Asherton, who’d spent most of the evening sitting beside the elderly woman. “That water looked awfully foreboding. I’m simply grateful you were there. I don’t know how you found her. Did you realize Lady Danbury was about to go in after her?” The widow shuddered.
“Lady Danbury does seem inexplicably fond of her maid,” Lady Sheffield observed.
“They’ve known one another since childhood,” Rome offered without really thinking. “If you’ll excuse me?” He rose without making eye contact with any of the other guests in the salon, slipped into the corridor, and closed the door behind him.
Was she sleeping? Resting? Penelope had not come down for dinner that evening. Miss Waring’s lips had turned almost blue, and she’d been incoherent from the cold. Had she taken ill?
Of course, Pen and Danbury would make certain she was well cared for. He could not go to see for himself. Not when he’d determined so recently to avoid her.
“Pierce, where’s that package I left on the table earlier?” He’d entered his chamber, experiencing all manner of discontent.
His man looked up and frowned. “I sent it to Lady Hawthorne’s chamber, My Lord. I assumed you had it by mistake—”
“Damn it. Ask me before you make such decisions.”
“I’m terribly sorry, My Lord.” Pierce began fussing with Rome’s cravat. “I couldn’t imagine why you’d ma
ke such a purchase.”
Rome swiped the valet’s hands away. “Retrieve it at once.”
Pierce stepped back, looking bemused, which immediately sent a wave of regret through Rome. “Of course, My Lord. My apologies.”
Rome clenched his fists. It was below him to treat his valet thusly. “No, Pierce. It is I who am sorry. But the package isn’t for my sister. I don’t want her getting any ideas.”
“For Lady Asherton?” his valet asked stiffly, his back to him.
“Someone else,” Rome responded. And since the man had not made any move to do as he’d asked, added, “At once please.”
“Of course.”
A glance at the missive sitting on the desk reminded him he had other duties to attend to. He ought to leave for Wales sooner. Perhaps just after the new year. Wesley may or may not prefer to remain with his great-uncle, but Rome wanted to hear it for himself.
Just then, a knock sounded and his sister pushed the door open without awaiting an answer. “Rome?” She caught his eye, stepping in tentatively.
He was too relieved at seeing the package to chastise her for entering without being bid to do so. “This was delivered to my chamber, and I doubt very much that it was meant for me.” A gleam lit her eyes. “It’s not at all appropriate for you to be giving her gifts, unless you have some news for me? Regardless, I believe Lady Asherton will be pleased you thought of her.”
At that moment, Rome quite easily could have banged his head against the wall and felt less frustration. “It is not for Lady Asherton.” But he could not explain who he had purchased it for. Was a little privacy too much to expect?
His sister frowned in such a way that her perfect features only managed to look more adorable. Of course, she would give in to her curiosity. “Who then?”
Without answering, Rome strode across the carpet, relieved her of the gift, and with a hand at her shoulder, gently, but leaving her no opportunity to oppose his will, backed her out of his chamber. “I do thank you for the gift’s prompt return. Now run along, Little Nat. Your husband is likely wondering where you’ve gone off to.”
He closed the door firmly.
“I am so very sorry, My Lord.” Pierce brushed at a jacket hanging on the dressing room door. “I merely do my best to make your life easier and I could not imagine—”
“It’s done,” Rome interrupted him. Pierce had been with him for all of his adult life. He wouldn’t ruin the working relationship they’d built by chastising him over this.
Besides, Rome had something else on his mind.
Someone else.
Tucking the package beneath his arm, without a word of explanation, he exited the room and marched toward another wing of the large house, toward the doorway of a chamber that was beginning to feel all too familiar.
“She’s sleeping.” Penelope opened the door. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
Rome lifted the package. “Will you give this to her?”
“To Rose, Rome? You expect me to hand over some gift you’ve purchased to give to my maid? Do you know what people will think if they discover you’re sending my maid gifts? Do you know what that will do to her reputa—”
“No one need find out, Pen.” Perhaps he ought to have thought this through more carefully. Penelope was correct in that such a gift was not appropriate under any possible circumstances. And yet… “Please? Pen? It’s nothing much. I simply…” He moved his gaze away from hers to look toward the long end of the corridor. “Felt badly for her.”
Penelope shook her head but took the package from him, nonetheless. “Very well. But this is to be the end of your association with her. I won’t have you leading her on and then hurting her.”
“I won’t hurt her.” He ground the words out between clenched teeth.
“I mean it, Rome.”
“Thank you.” He stepped back. “She is well? She isn’t fevered?”
Genuine relief showed in Penelope’s smile. “She is not fevered. I did not get an opportunity to thank you. Rose never learned to swim. I could hardly believe it when I heard the splash and turned around to see that she’d disappeared. She told me she tripped on a tree root. It was all my fault; I was the one who led us to the walk along the shore. And then I told her—”
“You mustn’t blame yourself. These things happen.” It was easy to say this now, knowing that Rose was unharmed. He only wished… Hell, he wasn’t sure what he wished. “Tell her I’m pleased to hear that she is on the mend.”
He stepped back again.
“Rome.” Penelope sent him an expression of both sympathy and warning. “She is my maid.”
He nodded. She was right. Of course. “Good night.”
“You’re to remain in bed today and that is a direct order. Not only from me but Danbury as well.”
Rose pushed herself up to sit. “That’s not necessary, Pen. It’s the day before Christmas Eve.” She could not believe she’d slept as much as she already had. “There must be a million things the duchess’ servants need help doing, what with the dinner this evening and then the banquet tomorrow.”
“Precisely why you are not to set foot outside of this room. They’ll have you cutting vegetables or washing pots or some other undignified task outside of your duties.” Penelope sent Rose a scowl. “I insist.”
“But—”
“I’ve pilfered this from Cortland’s library. Personally, I think its drivel, but I realize you’ve been wanting to read it.”
Rose immediately recognized the cover of the book she’d wanted to purchase since before she and Penelope first traveled to Land’s End. “It isn’t drivel, Pen! It’s Jane Austin!”
“Emma.” Penelope smiled smugly.
“You’ve read it already,” she accused, knowing Penelope all too well. It was the only one of Miss Austin’s works that Rose had yet to read.
Smoothing her skirts, Penelope turned to a tray resting on the side table and poured out two cups of…
“Chocolate?”
Chocolate wasn’t something usually allotted for servants. Throughout their stay, the kitchen had been deliberately careful to only send enough up for Penelope.
“You might as well take advantage of this ordered rest.” Penelope handed over the second cup, steam rising slowly from the hot, rich liquid.
Rose couldn’t help but grin.
“Oh, and there is this.” Penelope reached to the floor and presented an oblong package. Rose didn’t have to ask where it was from. It was wrapped in the same packaging as the candy she’d purchased for Viscount Darlington the day before.
“You didn’t have to buy me anything, Pen. I wish you would not.” Already, other servants were quick to point out special treatment bestowed upon her.
Penelope pinched her lips. “It is not from me. Darlington asked me to give it to you.”
Rose froze. What on earth was he thinking?
“You aren’t—” Penelope began.
“I’ve done nothing.” Rose stared at the package, half of her yearning to see what he’d purchased for her, the other half terrified to open it in front of Penelope.
She did not really have a choice.
“It’s just that after this past summer, I’d hate to see you get hurt again,” Penelope said.
This surprised Rose as well. She truly had thought she’d hidden it from Penelope. “I was not hurt—”
“I know about Baron Linde.” Rose hated to hear the pity in Penelope’s voice. “His mother’s version anyhow.”
Rose had been so very careful not to let on anything. It had been difficult. In the beginning, when she’d been in the throes of what she’d thought had been love, and then again, when she had made such a ghastly mistake.
Despite warnings from Penelope, Rose had allowed herself to be fooled by the good-looking baron. How could she not, when he swore that he loved her and wanted to run away and marry her? He’d told her he couldn’t wait that long to make love to her, and if she truly loved him… She’d hesitantl
y consented but then changed her mind…
She’d been such a fool.
After it was over, he’d taken leave of the area for London.
“You didn’t eat for three days,” Penelope pointed out. “Anytime you refuse pastries, I know something dreadful has happened.”
Rose dropped her gaze and studied the package sitting on her lap. Suddenly, it seemed as torrid as everything that had happened last summer. Shame swept through her at the possibility that Penelope knew all that Rose had allowed. The thought nearly turned her off the chocolate.
“I was stupid. Is this why you wish to send me away?”
Penelope’s hand covered hers affectionately. “No, oh, no, Rose. But I want more for you.” She grimaced. “Obviously, I don’t expect you to land a viscount, but there are a few good gentlemen out there. And perhaps if you were to spend time with people who do not know you as my maid, a few opportunities will come your way.”
Rose felt sick inside. Penelope had already done so much for her. “I was such a fool, Penelope! Elias Grayson is no gentleman. He’s a liar, a bounder, and a—” She’d almost admitted that he was a seducer. “But I should never have trusted him. I was so gullible. I ought to have seen him for what he was.”
She’d considered herself smarter than other ladies. She’d not thought it possible that she could be fooled so easily.
Penelope squeezed her hand again. “It’s over.” Then she grinned. “And although such a gift from Lord Darlington is highly inappropriate—I did tell him as much—I’m absolutely dying to know what’s inside!”
As was Rose. Although she had an inkling…
Setting her cup aside, she began to carefully untie the ribbon.
Lady Be Good: Lord Love a Lady Series, Book 5 Page 7