The Regency Season Collection: Part Two. Кэрол Мортимер
‘My bed here never holds much attraction without you in it, Chloe, but I can’t tell you how often I have wished for a faster way to get to you these last few days.’
‘Or how many times I wished you were here,’ she told him with promises of all they would be heady between them. ‘How is the patient?’ she asked absently, doing her best to tear her fascinated gaze from his smoky dark one in the dim light at the top of the stairs to the nursery wing they hadn’t got round to descending yet.
‘Revereux refuses to sleep. Unless we convince him Verity’s quite safe until he can guard her like a mastiff with a bone again, he’ll be running a high fever by morning.’
‘Exasperating man,’ Chloe said, fear that the Captain would insist on claiming his daughter still haunting her like a bad dream.
‘As you have accused me of being one of those so often, I hope you don’t expect me to condemn him for it. You do know Virginia’s elder sister wed a Revereux though, don’t you, my love?’ Luke asked gently.
‘I thought his name sounded familiar. Then I’m surprised he hasn’t visited whilst I’ve been here, although I’m very glad he didn’t. It would be hard to deny my daughter is related to him now I’ve seen the strong resemblance between them. Do you really think Virginia knew who she might be and didn’t tell me, Luke?’
‘I doubt it. Can you see my darling great-aunt resisting such a wonderful chance to interfere in so many lives if she did?’
‘Not really—it does seem an odd coincidence, though.’
‘They do happen and Virginia and her eldest sister never did get on. Lady Revereux was rigidly respectable and even I have to admit Virginia was outrageous in her youth. Virgil was no saint either and I doubt the stiff-necked old stickler approved of their marriage. The current earl is a downright prig, so we’ll have to wait and see if this fellow takes after him or has a bit of humanity in him to leaven all the Revereux starch he’s probably inherited. Until we know how Revereux found Verity we won’t know if Virginia knew or not, though, so we’d better keep the man alive for now.’
‘Don’t even joke about it, Luke,’ Chloe replied with a shudder at the thought of Verity losing her father as soon as he’d found her.
‘It was in poor taste, but what do you expect from a barbarian? It’ll be your job to civilise me.’
‘Maybe I like you as you are,’ she said with a witchy smile.
‘Hell cat,’ he responded with a hot glitter of masculine interest in his eyes she’d thought he was too weary to feel after his epic journey south.
‘Wolf,’ she countered huskily, all the temptations of loving him fully running like a hot tide through her heart and mind.
‘Mr Revereux refuses to take the potion the doctor left for him,’ Culdrose interrupted them from the bottom of the next flight of stairs and Chloe stared down at the ladies’ maid blankly for a moment.
It was a timely reminder there were other things to do than find Luke Winterley’s faults fascinating and his wonderful qualities even more unique than she’d realised.
‘It’s quite like old times for Culdrose, I suppose,’ she informed the patient crossly when she entered his bedchamber with Luke sauntering in her wake and openly enjoying the view.
‘Why so, ma’am?’ the patient asked with an impatient frown.
‘Our late employer was every inch as stubborn as you are proving to be.’
‘Sensible woman,’ he muttered glumly.
‘There are those who would argue, but did you never meet the lady yourself, sir, related to her as Lord Farenze believes you to be?’ Chloe couldn’t help asking.
‘Only as a boy and I’ve been at sea since I was thirteen with very little leave spent in this country. I recall her telling me then that she might like me better if I didn’t have such a high opinion of myself. She said if Bonaparte was to be defeated by vain boys I would be an admiral before I was thirty.’
‘That sounds very like her, I should try not take it too much to heart, sir.’
‘It’s very difficult to remain a spoilt brat as a midshipman in the senior service, your ladyship,’ he admitted with a rueful smile that tempted Chloe to like him more than she wanted to.
‘Then why not take your medicine and prove it, Mr Revereux?’
‘Slyly done, Lady Chloe, but if those rogues could get so close to abducting Verity in Bath, how can I risk fogging my wits when she’s in the middle of an isolated country estate miles away from authority?’
‘Because I know how to protect my own, Revereux,’ Luke stepped forward to tell him and there was enough challenge in his deep voice to tell the man he was on shaky ground. ‘Our enemies are now too busy avoiding their creditors to bother scheming against us.’
‘Foreclosed, have you?’ Revereux asked as if he understood the true facts of the matter far better than Chloe did.
‘This very morning a friend of mine delivered a detailed account of Crowdale’s past sins to the City merchant who almost let him wed his only child.’
‘Heaven knows, they’re heavy enough,’ the Captain said with a restless movement against his pillows, then a quickly suppressed gasp at the pain it caused him that made Chloe flinch in sympathy.
‘Heavy enough to finish him in this country; he’ll have to flee if he’s to avoid being imprisoned for debt, as well as various sins we won’t broadcast for the sake of Lady Chloe and your daughter. ‘
‘Since we’re being so protective of my sensibilities, why don’t you take this draught, sir, before I succumb to hysterics after such a long and trying day?’ Chloe asked, glaring at both men as she tried to understand their veiled references.
‘You don’t fight fair, do you, Lady Chloe?’ the patient asked with a wry smile that made her see why Daphne fell so deep in love with him.
‘How can I when there are so many unfair advantages on the other side, sir? Gentlemen have a monopoly on dashing about the country engaged on adventures you refuse to explain to us dim-witted females. If I can wait until tomorrow to find out the facts of my sister’s tragic love story, you can sleep and recover from your injuries and show a little patience as well. Verity and I wait on the whims of annoying males who feel they have a right to dictate our lives without asking us.’
‘I feel sure half that tirade was directed at me, Revereux. It would be diplomatic to restore your strength before she takes you on again though,’ Luke cautioned.
‘And you’ll swear to me my daughter is safe?’ he asked with such painful anxiety that Chloe softened a little and even smiled when he directed his question at her, instead of dominant, masculine Viscount Farenze.
‘I kept her so when nobody else cared a tinker’s curse what happened to her, Mr Revereux, I will do so for as long as she needs me to,’ she promised.
‘Very well, do your worst then,’ he murmured grudgingly and finally allowed himself to feel wretched.
Chloe nodded at the waiting Culdrose, who managed to tip a healthy dose down the gentleman’s throat when he opened his mouth to argue he’d do it himself.
‘No better than a stubborn babe,’ Culdrose muttered grimly.
‘Nor much more use than one right now,’ he admitted wearily.
‘Then you’ll sleep like one if you know what’s good for you,’ Culdrose told him severely and sat in the chair by the bed as if settling in for the night to make sure he did as he was bid.
‘I think we can safely leave her to it,’ Luke whispered as he urged Chloe out of the room. ‘The poor fellow doesn’t stand a chance of stirring from that bed until he’s healthy as a horse once