Diane Gaston - The Mysterious Miss M

Now his manly face filled her with excitement. The memory of his gentle kiss and peace-shattering lovemaking returned and agitated her. It was acceptable to dream and remember, but to let herself feel again? To hope? No, her only hope was to contrive to support Linette and Sophie, two people she could depend upon because they needed her so.

Linette tore out the folds of Devlin’s neckcloth as he leaned down. His lips came closer. Madeleine’s heart thudded against her chest.

‘I settled the lass in my cot.’ The voice of Devlin’s servant, Bart, broke in, full of indignation.

Devlin smiled at the man. ‘In your cot, Bart? Quick work.’

‘I’ll harbour no insults, if you please.’ This man did not speak as servant to master. ‘If you’ve managed to get us any funds, I’ll see about some food. Some milk for the wee one.’

Devlin marched over to the table and emptied his pockets. ‘Good news. We shall eat well.’

Bart picked up a few coins and shoved the rest back to Devlin. ‘See you try to hold on to these for a bit.’ He reached for a coat on a hook and went out the door, closing it silently.

‘He is your servant?’ Madeleine asked, conscious of being alone with him once more.

As if reading her thoughts, Devlin regarded her with smouldering eyes. ‘More than that, I suppose. We managed through Spain and Belgium together.’

‘Belgium,’ she murmured. After news of Waterloo, for days she had pored over the names of the dead, weeping in relief when she finally found him listed among the wounded.

No matter. Now that his servant had absented himself, her lieutenant would soon wish payment for her rescue.

Her heart pounded. She must not feel this excitement at being near him. She must expect him to be as selfish and capricious as other men. Madeleine adjusted her hold on Linette, who rubbed her eyes and flopped her head on Madeleine’s shoulder again.

Devlin came near to her again. ‘The child must be getting heavy for you. Come. It is time for bed.’

Devlin led her into his bedchamber, acutely aware of blood thundering through his veins. By God, she was more desirable than that first, magic time with her.

As she regarded the room with dismay, he saw it through her eyes. A smallish room, furnished with a tall double chest of drawers in a style long out of fashion and a large four-poster bed with faded curtains. His old trunk was tucked in the corner, clothing spilling out.

Her gaze rested on the bed. What might it be like to share that bed with her? To tangle with her in its sheets?

This would not do. She appeared as if she would collapse at any moment. The child was no infant, nearly three years old, he’d guess. A sturdy bundle, and Madeleine had not let go of her for nearly an hour.

‘Where shall Linette sleep?’ she asked nervously.

‘In the bed, where else?’

She straightened, her defiant chin lifting. ‘My lord, I am prepared to repay you for your generosity, but I must insist on privacy for Linette. She must not be in the same room, let alone the same bed.’

He raised his eyebrows. Did she think him unmindful of the child? Did she think him so base as to take advantage of her?

‘And I’m loath to leave her alone in a strange place,’ she continued, her mouth set in firm determination.

He stared into her blue eyes and the breath left his lungs. He let his gaze travel down the length of her. Her red silk dress clung to her form and the weight of her daughter pulled its low neckline down lower. The attire was pure tart, but her bearing regal. The combination set his senses aflame, though he had no intention of acting upon them, ill timed as they were.

A smile not absent of regret spread across his face. ‘I meant for you and the child to share the bed. Did you think I meant otherwise?’

She blushed, bringing a most innocent pink to her cheeks, her eyes downcast. ‘You know very well what I thought.’

He stepped behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. The little girl’s curls tickled his fingers. For a moment he let his fingers caress Madeleine’s soft flesh. He held her against him, inhaling the scent of lavender in her hair. From behind her, he planted a chaste kiss on her cheek and gave her a push toward the bed.

‘Sleep well, Madeleine.’

T he damp chill seeped through Devlin’s clothing. His twisted limbs would not move. Pain had settled into a constant ache, made worse with each breath, worse still by the rancid stench of blood. Of death. Moans of the dying filled the night. The sounds grew louder and louder, until they merged into one piercing wail. An agonised sound. The sound of fear and horror and pain.

Coming from his mouth.

He woke, his heart pounding, breath panting. His vision cleared, revealing faded red-brocade curtains made moderately brighter by sunlight. What were brocade curtains doing at Waterloo?

He sat up, his mind absorbing the round mahogany table in the corner with its decanter of port, the mantel holding one chipped porcelain vase. His back ached from contorting himself on the settee. It had been the dream. He hung his head between his knees until the disturbing images receded. Had he cried out in his sleep?

The wail again sounded in his ears, coming from the bedchamber this time, not from his own soul.

He leapt from the settee and flung open the door. Madeleine paced the room, clutching her little girl. The child cried and struggled in her arms. Madeleine’s red dress was creased with wrinkles. That she’d not bothered to undress before sleeping moved him to compassion. How exhausted she must have been.

The child gave a loud, anguished cry, and Madeleine quickened her pace.

‘What the devil is going on?’

She spun toward him, her youthful face pinched in worry. ‘She is feverish.’

‘She is ill?’ Devlin’s head throbbed from the previous night’s excess of brandy.

‘Yes. She coughs, too.’ Her voice caught. ‘I have never seen her so ill.’

‘Good God,’ Devlin said. ‘We must do something.’

‘I don’t know what to do!’

Tears glistened in her eyes. The child’s wailing continued unchecked. He had not bargained for a sick child.

‘Bart!’ he yelled, rushing back into the parlour. ‘Bart! Where are you?’

Bart emerged from his room, Madeleine’s small companion like a shadow behind him. The sergeant, his craggy eyebrows knitting together, protectively held her back. The gesture irritated Devlin. Did Bart think him dangerous to young females?

‘What in thunder?’ A scold was written on Bart’s face.

‘The child is sick. We must do something.’ He stood in the middle of the room, doing nothing.

‘The wee one is sick?’ parroted Bart, standing just as paralysed.

‘Linette!’ Sophie rushed past Bart and ran to Madeleine, who had followed Devlin into the room. She frantically felt the child’s forehead.

‘She is burning up!’ she exclaimed. ‘Maddy, sit down. Let’s loosen her clothes. Mr Bart, if you please, some cool water and some clean rags.

‘Clean rags?’ Bart said, still immobile.

‘Make haste!’

At Sophie’s words, Bart sprang into action, drawing water from the pump and bringing it to the women, both fussing over the child. Finding clean rags was more of a challenge. He finally brought a stack of towels and bade them to cut them up, if necessary. Sophie dipped one towel in the water, wrung it out and placed it on the child’s chest. Madeleine mopped the little girl’s brow with another.

The child seemed to settle for a moment, but, before Devlin could relax, broke out in a spasm of coughing.

‘Deuce,’ said Devlin, barely audible and still rooted to the floor.

Madeleine flashed him an anxious look. ‘I am attempting to quiet her, my lord.’

‘I did not complain,’ he protested.

Her eyes filled with tears. ‘I am at a loss to do more.’

‘I would be honoured to assist, if someone would instruct me.’ No one heeded him.

Madeleine sniffed and patted Linette’s head with the damp cloth.

Her friend regarded him with a wary expression. ‘We could try to give her a drink of water.’

Before Devlin could move to the small alcove that served as the kitchen, Bart delivered Sophie a cup of water.

‘Let me try to give her a sip,’ Madeleine said.

Linette flailed her arms, jostling Madeleine, who spilled the water on her daughter and herself. Devlin walked to the cupboard, removed another cup, and placed in it a tiny bit of water. He handed this to Madeleine.

‘Try a bit at a time,’ he suggested.

She did not look up to acknowledge his act, but she was able to pour a small amount into the child’s mouth. He took the empty cup and poured a bit more from the fuller one. Again the child accepted the drink.

Devlin was feeling rather proud of himself at having been so useful, when the child began another spell of coughing. Madeleine sat the little girl on her knees and leaned her over to pat her gently on the back.

The child promptly vomited the water all over Devlin’s stockinged feet.

‘Damn.’

Madeleine gasped. Sophie grabbed the wet towel and wiped his feet, kneeling like a slave girl. Bart glared at him as if he were somehow solely responsible for the child’s ill health.

‘Enough. Enough.’ He stepped away from Sophie’s ministrations. She burst into tears and ran from the room.

Bart glared at him. ‘Now look what you’ve done. You’ve frightened the lass.’ He rushed after her.

Devlin reached for his head. Bart, he supposed, would not be inclined to brew the remedy for his excess of brandy. The child wailed again.

The sound triggered memories. Voices of dying men. His knees trembled, and he feared them buckling underneath him. The dream of Waterloo assailed his waking moments. With it came the terror that had only been too real.

Clamping down on his panic, he rushed into his bedchamber and pulled fresh stockings from the chest. He shrugged into his coat, and retrieved his boots from the parlour where he’d left them. Without a word, for he could not guarantee his words would be coherent, he rushed out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him.

Madeleine flinched at the sound and held her coughing daughter against her shoulder, still patting gently. Well, good riddance to Lieutenant Devlin Steele, she told herself, battling the disillusionment of his abandoning her at such a time.

‘Was that the door?’ Bart asked, coming back into the room.

‘He left,’ she said, shrugging her shoulders.

‘Hmmph.’ The man pursed his lips.

Linette settled into a fitful sleep. Though her skin burned like a furnace, Madeleine could not let go of her.

The stocky man surveyed her. Not as tall as the lieutenant and a good ten years older, he seemed solid as a rock.

His gaze softened when lighting on Linette. ‘Ma’am, would you and the lass be all right if I went out for a bit? I’ve a mind there are some things we may be needing.’

A rock that easily rolled away. She sighed inwardly. It was foolishness to hope for assistance from any man.

But Devlin had assisted her in the most consequential way. He had rescued her from Farley, when he need not have done. He was under no obligation to assist her further, however. After Linette’s distress he would surely wish them speedily gone. Madeleine’s lips set together in firm resolve. He would have to put up with all of them until Linette became well.

If Linette became well.

Her throat tightened. Her child meant everything to her. She’d risked Farley’s wrath to give birth to Linette and to keep her. Her daughter was the only worthwhile part of her life.