Chapter Fourteen #2
Linus was a man of the military; he knew when a retreat was called for.
With speed that likely robbed his flight of any grace or subtlety, he made directly for the music room door and walked quickly down the corridor.
He slipped around the corner, then the next, quickly taking the stairs two at a time and reaching the landing above without a pause.
The library was on this floor. He could slip in there, grab the book on land management that Lord Lampton had recommended, and retreat to his bedchamber, where he could lock the door, perhaps even push a chair under the handle.
An overreaction, likely, but any prey that wished to survive understood the importance of hindering its assailant.
He’d only just stepped inside when his ears perked at the sound of a cough. He turned in that direction, moving toward the fireplace and the sofa set in front of it. Another cough told him he’d not imagined the first.
Stepping around the sofa, his stomach sank. Arabella was lying there, curled in a ball. He might have thought she was sleeping if she weren’t coughing so much.
He knelt on the floor beside her. “Arabella?”
He lightly touched her hand. It was quite warm. A quick check of her cheek and forehead revealed the same. Was this the same fever the children had?
“Arabella.” He gently moved her damp hair away from her face. She was clammy and sweating and, upon closer look, he realized, shivering a bit.
Her eyelids fluttered open. He offered a reassuring smile; awakening in an unexpected place could be worrying and disorienting. She coughed again but didn’t speak.
“Are you feeling poorly?” Only after posing the question did he realize how obvious the answer was.
“Quite.” Her voice was not hoarse, neither was her response nonsensical. That was a good sign.
She wrapped the fingers of one hand around the bead on her necklace. It was such a simple adornment yet clearly held particular importance to her. She wore it every day without fail.
“My lungs hurt when I breathe,” she said.
“Dr. Scorseby is here this evening. I think perhaps he’d best check on you.”
A rattling cough. “I haven’t anything to pay him with.”
Linus slipped his hand around her free one. “Lord Lampton will not require that of you.”
“I don’t want to be a burden.” Her fingers wrapped around his, and he felt the gesture clear to his heart.
“I doubt you could be a burden even if you tried.” He rubbed her hand between his. “Though I would enjoy watching you make the effort.”
Her smile was weak but genuine.
“I am sorry you are ill,” he said. “I wish there were more I could do.”
“What is this?” Mrs. Blackbourne arrived on the scene, eyes taking in everything on the instant.
Linus did not permit even a moment’s speculation on her part. “Miss Hampton is quite ill. Will you ring for a servant? Quickly?”
To her credit, the widow changed course without objection. She tugged on the bellpull while Linus kept his position.
“Dr. Scorseby will be here soon,” he reassured Arabella. “He’ll have you feeling well again.”
“If only I’d felt this way earlier,” she said quietly. “He could have made his diagnosis while I was at his home.”
“You were at his home?” Mrs. Blackbourne asked the question on Linus’s mind.
“On an errand for Lady Lampton,” she said.
Relief surged through him. For just a moment, he’d thought she had visited the doctor for personal reasons—Dr. Scorseby had not exactly made his interest a secret—and the possibility had not sat well at all.
Into the momentary silence, a fourth voice sounded. Lord Lampton. “What errand were you seeing to on my wife’s behalf?”
He stood at the foot of the sofa, having somehow silently entered the room. One would never expect the flamboyant Earl of Lampton to arrive anywhere without drawing attention.
Arabella’s eyes were closed once more. Her coloring had worsened in the last few moments, and she’d begun to shiver more.
“Is there a blanket or a shawl or something nearby?” Linus asked Lampton.
The earl nodded and crossed to a small trunk in the corner. He pulled out a light throw and returned, handing it to Linus, who had stood in anticipation of receiving it. Carefully, he spread the blanket over Arabella, hoping to alleviate some of her misery.
“I saw you running for your life,” Lampton said in a barely audible whisper, “and then Mrs. Blackbourne following close on your heels. I thought I’d come and save you from her.” Lampton’s amusement dissipated when his gaze returned to Arabella. “She does not look well, does she?”
Linus shook his head. “She felt feverish.”
“Mater has been worried about her,” Lampton said. “We all have been.”
Had Arabella shown signs of illness before this? Linus hadn’t noticed any.
One of the maids stepped inside. Lampton took charge, not a hint of his dandified mannerisms in evidence. “Send word to the dowager and Dr. Scorseby that they are both needed forthwith here in the library.”
The maid dipped a curtsey and hurried from the room.
The earl was not yet finished. “Mrs. Blackbourne, I believe you can return to the music room to enjoy the remainder of the evening.”
Linus had all but forgotten about the other lady present.
“I would not wish to leave Miss Hampton unattended.” Mrs. Blackbourne moved a bit closer.
“She is in no danger of being abandoned or mistreated.” Lampton spoke sternly, something that seemed to surprise the widow as much as it did Linus. “This family has cared about her all her life. I will not give you leave to doubt our loyalty to her.”
“I hadn’t intended to imply that you would neglect her.” Mrs. Blackbourne had, in fact, heavily implied exactly that.
Lampton dipped his head. “I should hope not.”
“I will see if I can help locate your mother or the physician.” Mrs. Blackbourne shot Linus a look that was far more uncertain than the ones he was accustomed to receiving from her. Had their frivolous host managed to quell the unquellable?
“You were nearly as fearsome just now as my brother-in-law,” Linus said once the lady had slipped from the room.
“I am absolutely certain no one is that fearsome. Not even him.”
Linus studied him out of the corner of his eye. “You doubt the dangerousness of the duke?”
Lampton laughed. “I am not so foolish as that. Still, we all have roles to play.”
Linus had come to Nottinghamshire expecting to find the shallowest of gentlemen acting as host of this gathering. He was discovering, instead, a man every bit as complicated, nuanced, and, he suspected, misunderstood as the brother-in-law from whom Linus was charged with protecting him.
Arabella coughed again. Linus knelt once more, taking her hand in his. Still warm. She was no longer shivering though. The light blanket seemed to have helped.