Chapter 28 #2
For now, she was simply glad that he had gone.
She was home, and Dacian was nearby. She hurried along the sloping, uneven stones, anxiously making her way into the castle.
The Blue Drawing Room was closest to her, so she rushed to it first, in the fear that Dacian might still be there, recalcitrant.
He was not there, but the drawing room looked like a whole troop of soldiers had Travelled into it and then undertaken a mock battle.
A table had been splintered and lay twisted on its side, the rug was askew, a settee bumped out of place, and the shards of smashed porcelain was swept into a pile by the fire.
“Good Lord.” Judith pulled up short. “What happened here?”
Trebellow was sweeping the porcelain, looking rather askew himself, and sporting the beginnings of a large bruise on his left eye. He started guiltily. “Ma’am! We did not expect you so soon.” He cleared his throat. “There was a bit of a skirmish when his grace arrived.”
“He resisted his rescue?”
“Aye, and I couldn’t really tell what was going on,” said Trebellow apologetically, “so I leapt into the fray myself.”
“Oh dear.” That explained the general scene of disaster, if Trebellow had been rolling around with the duke, wrassling Cornish-style through the drawing room. “You couldn’t pass up the opportunity to wrassle his grace?”
“Indeed, ma’am.” Trebellow straightened his shoulders.
“He’s a right strong one, and real twisty too.
I had to use my Gift to restrain him, which I didn’t like to do, being against the usual rules, as I told you.
But I also had to contend with your boy, Perry, and the other one, Robert, who were also in the tussle. ”
Judith grimaced. “And how did it all end? Were you strong enough?”
“No,” confessed the butler, ashamed. “His grace responded in like, and it all…escalated, you could say. But then Mrs Ulrich cast a dampening spell. It is hard to keep brawling when icy despair and doom fall upon your head, ma’am.
It took the fight out of all of us, and I snatched at the opportunity to restrain his grace properly.
I’m a bit more accustomed than his grace to Mrs Ulrich’s melancholic moods, you could say. ”
Judith nodded, grateful for her housekeeper’s intervention, for otherwise she might not have a drawing room anymore. “And? Where are they all now?”
“I escorted the duke to his hidey-hole—he was a bit reluctant, so I had to force the matter. I wouldn’t have done it,” said Trebellow apologetically, “except that I thought that your villainous captain might be here any minute. Between my strength, Mrs Ulrich’s imprecations, and Mr Robert’s explanations, we managed to corral his grace into the secret room.
And I’ve reversed the Defence spells on it, in case his grace decided that he didn’t like it there anymore.
” He paused. “The boys have gone to the breakfast room, as you ordered.”
Judith sighed. “Thank you, Trebellow.”
She turned on her heel and left the Blue Drawing Room. Her steps were quick, but when she arrived at the eastern bedroom, she pushed the door open slowly and quietly, trying to gather her resolution.
The last time she had been alone with Dacian had been in the master bedroom at Garvey House. There he had kissed her, with a passionate enthusiasm for her presence.
She well remembered that kiss, even if he had now forgotten it.
It had become very heated, only to be dampened by the necessity of Dacian emitting snores like a drunken donkey at regular intervals.
They hadn’t even been able to talk properly with the fear of being heard.
This time, however, there was no such fear or necessity. She finally had him all to herself.
Except that he was not himself.
Creeping inside, she heard no sound emanating from the secret sitting room.
The stripes of the wall were neatly in place, the hidden door invisible.
She could even believe that she had come into the wrong room.
As she stood there, the Humdrum Spell calmed her nerves, and she let her shoulders drop.
He was safe now. It would only be a matter of time before his memory returned.
She must have patience and offer him the same.
Really, it was quite an ordinary matter, so very ordinary it was quite boring.
..she didn’t even know why she should bother with it after all.
She shook herself sharply. Damn Mrs Ulrich, with her powerful Diplomacy. Crossing the room, Judith tapped softly.
“Dacian? May I enter?”
“If you can open the damn door.” His voice was harsh.
She winced, remembering that Trebellow had locked him in with Defence spells.
Yet at her touch, the door handle became visible and turned easily.
She pushed through, stepping into the sitting room, and out of the Humdrum Spell.
All her emotions crashed back: relief, joy, and fear at the sight of him.
He stood with his back to the window, his face grim, his hair disordered.
His posture was tense, and he still wore half of that dreadful uniform: a loose white shirt and tan breeches, but the red jacket had been discarded, and the black hat flung on the floor.
His arms were folded across his broad chest, his stance wide.
“Who the hell are you?” he demanded. “And where in damnation am I?”