Chapter Nineteen
Winsome had just overheard the doctor claim that Lord Manderbey must be kept awake and moving. Thank heavens her father had sent for Philips, else they would have allowed the lord to go to sleep.
“Won’t he get cold if we’re making him walk around while he’s not wearing anything?” Thomas asked.
“Probably,” Phillips said, “but that will be a help rather than a hindrance. His being uncomfortable will help keep him conscious. Let’s get him up but be warned, he’s likely to be bad-tempered about it.”
They must have roused Lord Manderbey as he shouted, “Get off me, you rogues!”
“See what I mean about the temper, very usual. All the way up, that’s the ticket,” Phillips said.
“Unhand me!”
“Calm yourself, Manderbey. You are at my house,” the duke said. “I thought you might sleep off your dose of laudanum, but Phillips said you’ve got to be up and walking.”
“Phillips?” Lord Manderbey said with a note of disdain. “Who is Phillips?”
“My personal physician.”
“Your Grace. It’s you,” Lord Manderbey said, as if just recognizing him.
“It’s me, all right,” the duke said. “There now, let’s get you walking.”
There was the sound of shuffling. “Excellent,” Phillips said. “Let’s keep him awake for several hours and then we should be in the clear.”
“Who are you?” Lord Manderbey said accusingly.
“Phillips,” the physician said with a sigh. To the duke, he said, “Do not expect much sense out of him for now.”
“Excuse me,” Lord Manderbey said, “you don’t make sense! Why am I here?”
“Manderbey,” the duke said, “try to concentrate. You are at my house. You’ve been dosed with laudanum and now you have to walk it off.”
“Did Phillips do it?” Lord Manderbey asked.
“No, Phillips did not do it. Now keep walking.”
Winsome heard shuffling. Then Lord Manderbey said, “What’s his first name?”
This, apparently, was in reference to her father, as Charlie said, “The duke?”
“That fellow right there.”
“Um, well, it’s Roland,” Charlie said, “though I never in my life said it out loud before now.”
“Roland,” Lord Manderbey said, “I’m going to marry your daughter and I’ll have no complaints about it.”
Winsome slapped a hand over her mouth. Gracious, she did not know how much laudanum Lord Manderbey had consumed, but it was having some unintended consequences. She counted on her father’s good humor to avoid getting offended about it.
“I see,” the duke said.
“I said no complaints!”
“My God this is going to be a long night,” the duke said.
And so it was a long night. Lord Manderbey had, for two hours, had all sorts of pronouncements to make as he was walked back and forth.
He rather routinely forgot who Phillips was and asked him why he was there.
He swerved from calling the duke Roland and then duke and then back to Roland again.
He even proposed Rolly as a nickname. He at one point was very suspicious about Charlie, for reasons only known to himself.
At another point, Mr. Wicket must have stepped out of the shadows and Lord Manderbey had cried, “A specter!”
When informed it was Mr. Wicket, he said, “Don’t know why anybody would have a fellow named Wicked in their house.”
As the hours passed, he quieted though Winsome could hear them trudging back and forth in the room.
His complaints began to be much more centered on reality, namely that he was cold, would like his clothes back, and would like to go to bed.
Very suddenly, he said, “Your Grace, have I said anything…odd?”
He sounded much more like himself.
“Odd?” the duke said with a snort.
“I seem to recall, that is, it is a bit hazy.”
“Best forgot is how I would look at it,” the duke said.
“There now, I think we’re out of the woods,” Phillips said. “Let’s put him to bed and I’ll stay for another hour or so to make sure his breathing does not slow after he falls asleep. I can show myself out once I am assured there is no further danger.”
Winsome crawled into bed herself. She was exhausted. Happy though. Certainly, Lord Manderbey would say the words at his first opportunity on the morrow.
After all, he’d been very determined to brook no complaints about it from Rolly.
*
Leland woke in a strange bed in a strange room with not a stitch of his clothes on. It took him some minutes to piece together what could have happened. Slowly and by degrees it came back to him. He’d gone to St. John’s house, and his butler had given him a glass dosed with laudanum.
His memories were more disjointed after that.
He recalled Lady Winsome leaning over him as he lay on the pavement, though he was not certain how he’d got there.
Then he leaned against her in the carriage and she smelled like roses, then there was some fellow named Phillips telling everybody what to do and making him walk when he wished to be abed.
Leland sat up. Bits and pieces of the walking part of the evening drifted across his mind. Had he called the duke Roland?
He was fairly certain he had. He’d asked a footman what the duke’s name was and then used it.
Why in the world would he address the duke as Roland?
He threw off the covers. It was early morning, the sun just coming up.
He must find his clothes. He must be dressed.
He must be presentable and see the duke at the earliest opportunity.
The Duke of Pelham was liberal, but even a liberal duke might be mortally offended by being called by his given name.
And then, what else had he said? Something about not wishing to hear any complaints about his idea to wed Lady Winsome…He would brook no complaints, Roland…Leland had a horrible idea come over him and hoped he’d only imagined it. Had he called the duke Rolly? No, he could not have.
He heard a quiet sound in the hallway. With any luck, it was a footman and he could send the boy to fetch his clothes from wherever they’d been taken. He jumped out of bed and jogged to the door, cracking it open and peering down the corridor.
An earsplitting scream assaulted his ears. He turned and saw Lady Valor standing there. He quickly shut the door and leaned against it.
Then Lady Winsome’s voice. “Val! What’s happened? Gracious you look white as a sheet—was it a spider? Come into my room before you wake the whole house.”
Leland thought it likely that Lady Valor had already woken the whole house.
He did not know how the roof had not blown off from that shriek.
Of all the people to be in the corridor.
What was she doing roaming the house at such an early hour?
He’d been under the impression that ladies stayed abed until late morning and had their breakfast brought to them.
How could he be expected to have known one of them would be wandering about just after dawn?
He heard a door close and realized that Lady Winsome’s room must be the next door to his own. He hoped she’d not heard any of his babbling last night. Or worse, she’d heard him address her father as Roland. Or Rolly, if he’d really done that.
“What’s happened, Valor?” Lady Winsome said.
“Winny,” Lady Valor said, her voice full of desperation, “that man is here! I just saw him!”
“Yes, Lord Manderbey was ill last evening and Papa brought him here so Phillips could treat him.”
“He’s here with no shirt on, did you know that? Why is he in there with no shirt on?”
“Oh, as to that, well I believe Thomas or Charlie would have taken all his clothes to Reynolds to be brushed and set in order.”
“All his clothes? He has no pants on, either?” Lady Valor asked, sounding very disturbed to hear it.
“Never mind it, Val.”
“Never mind it? I haven’t even said the worst of it,” Lady Valor said. “Oh, I don’t know how to even say it!”
“Say what?” Lady Winsome asked, her tone full of alarm.
“It’s too terrible.”
“Valor. Tell me.”
“I saw his chest.”
“Well I’m sorry for that,” Lady Winsome said. “But I’m sure it was just an accident.”
“You don’t understand,” Lady Valor said. “There was hair on it. Hair, Winny. Black hair all over it. Not like on your head, but patchy. I never saw anything so bad in my life. It was horrible.”
Leland wrapped a sheet around himself and sat on the bed, really not having the first idea of what he should do next.
He heard the sound of a door and then the housekeeper’s voice. “What’s this now? Thomas said he heard a shriek up here—is it another spider?”
“Mrs. Right,” Lady Valor said, “did you know Lord Manderbey has hair on his chest?”
“Not specifically, no.”
“It’s horrible.”
“He was looking out his door as Valor came down the corridor,” Lady Winsome said by way of explanation.
“I was just coming for Sir Galahad and I had to see that,” Lady Valor said. “You would not even believe what it looks like.”
“Ah, I see,” the housekeeper said. “Well I’d best have Thomas bring his clothes back to him. Reynolds was putting them in order. Now, Poppet, put the whole thing out of your mind.”
“Out of my mind!” Lady Valor cried. “I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life! I’ll have nightmares about it!”
Leland did think nightmares was going a bit far.
“Lower your voice, Val,” Lady Winsome said.
“I feel like my eyes are burning!” Lady Valor cried, not lowering her voice one decibel.
Her eyes were burning? Now that definitely was going too far.
“Your eyes are perfectly fine,” the housekeeper said. “Forget you ever saw it.”
“Why, though?” Lady Valor asked. “Why is he like that? Is there something wrong with him?”
Leland heard the housekeeper sigh. “Valor, men are different. That’s all. Some of them have hair on their chest. Perhaps most of them, though I cannot say that for certain.”
Lady Valor gasped. “I would positively die if I had that living on me. Winny, you cannot wish to ever see that. I thought Mr. Stratton staring at Felicity while she was sleeping was the worst of it, but it’s not.
You really could not bear the sight of it, trust me. What I saw will haunt me forever.”