Captivated by the Viscount (The Captivating Debutantes Series Book 1) (6 page)

“A loyal man,
like a loyal dog is to be cherished, as long as they don’t bite the footman. It
can be the very devil to get good ones…..men that is, not dogs.” Aunt Augusta

Lucy heard
shouting. A couple were arguing and it made her head hurt.

In fact
everything hurt.

 The curtains
were still drawn but they were rather threadbare and daylight peeped in at her.
She drew the blanket over her head, but it didn’t help. Now she felt suffocatingly
hot. She threw it off and attempted to get up. The world span in rather a nasty
way as she swung her legs to the ground. Bloody brandy, hideous, disgusting
devil’s brew, she thought viciously.

Her mouth
felt like her Aunt Augusta’s old pug Blinky had stuck his tongue in it. She
catalogued other feelings. Her head was pounding, her throat hurt and she felt
generally…bleugh. She registered that the voices were still at it, so she
bumbled her way to the window.

“You’ll
regret this Jasper. You men are all the same, you think you can use and discard
me at will.”

“Eloise, you
were using me as well to do your dirty work and there is no discarding going
on. We were and still are friends.”

“And yet you
want to abandon all our plans, and then what? You will go and live happily ever
after with Miss sheep eyes, not if I have anything to do with it. I know things
Jasper and I’ll be damned if I’m used again by a man.”

“Don’t
threaten me Eloise. I would advise you to leave it all well alone now.” Jasper
said in a steely tone.

“To hell with
you….you...you dandyprat,” she heard Eloise shout. A door slammed shut followed
by the sounds of a carriage charging away.

Lucy wasn’t
sure what to think. He’d sent Eloise away and had ‘abandoned’ his plans….that
was good, but where did it leave her.

What did
Jasper plan to do with her now?

Lucy ambled
slowly to the mirror and scowled at her reflection. “Miss sheep eyes” she
repeated. “I have never looked at anyone with sheep eyes in my life.” Her
appearance, she had to admit to herself was…awful. Her face was white, her eyes
shadowed. Jasper would probably think she did look more like a sheep today -
all white with back woolly eyes. Still at least she wasn’t a dandyprat. She
wasn’t entirely sure what one was but it sounded like a very good insult – one
her aunt would have liked.

 The maid had
left some soap and a ewer of water at some point and Lucy gladly poured some
into the pretty rose painted basin. She towelled her face and neck, enjoying
the coolness of the water.

She then
spotted the mark on her neck. Good god, it was huge. What on earth had he done
to her? She remembered the incredibly sensuous sensation of his lips, tongue
and teeth on her, but she never realised it would look like someone had punched
her. Good grief. She wondered if the same thing would happen to a man. Would he
bruise as easily? She thought about doing that to Jasper. Suckling at his neck,
biting the browned skin, drawing it into her mouth till he moaned.

Lucy looked
at her flushed features and dunked her face in the basin wishing the water was
colder.

She made her
way downstairs and had a very late breakfast, telling the maid that she didn’t
require lunch. Jasper had left her a note. It had merely said that he had to go
to the village urgently and see a tenant whose roof had fallen in. He’d
explained last night that his father had gone into a rapid decline after his
younger son’s death, Apparently he had considered Jasper as good as dead
fighting the French and without direct heirs had let the house and land fall
into disrepair.

It looked
like he had a lot to do.

She spent the
rest of the morning in the library, but the words blurred before her eyes and
she finally admitted to herself that she might have caught a chill. At the very
least she was exhausted.

She made her
way to bed. A short rest and she’d be fine, but the nap was agitated, her
thoughts jumbling together till she awoke with a start.

It was four
in the afternoon and the sound of horse’s hooves had disturbed her. She
staggered up, and felt the bedchamber spin. The monstrous furniture was bad
enough, but when said furniture span it was even worse.

Her thoughts
had left her feeling agitated - she needed to see Jasper, she needed to ask him
things, she needed to know if he cared at all for her. She was practical enough
to realise that although he may feel lust, that wasn’t enough for her. She
opened the door and made her way to the top of the stairs.

She leaned
over the railing and then really wished she had not. The height made her head
thud and she had to close her eyes for a moment. She heard a voice speaking to
the maid; it was very low and slightly raspy, as though speaking gave him pain.
Not Jasper then. She opened her eyes to see a man enter the hall. He was
incredibly tall, taller than Jasper and she’d thought him big.

He’d given
his beaver hat to the maid and she could see a mop of dirty blonde hair. He
turned to shrug off his great coat and she saw his face for the first time. It
was a handsome visage, but also a tired and worn one. Lines of fatigue rode
across his face and the shadows under his eyes looked worse than hers. He
turned again and Lucy saw that at some point he had been in a fire, as burns
marked his left cheek, trailing down his throat to go under his cravat.

What pain, Lucy
thought. She had once burned her hand on a hot kettle as a child. She’d thought
to sneak into the kitchens to try and steal some biscuits. A kettle had been in
the way and she’d simply put her hand round the handle to move it to one side.
The pain was excruciating and she still had a slight scar now. The doctors
seemingly could do nothing but dose her with laudanum until the skin had healed
itself.

This poor man
must have been incapacitated for months.

She had
better go and greet him, perhaps Jasper had returned as well. She stood up from
bending over the rail, but the sudden movement made her headache abruptly roar back
into life. The pain almost made her retch and the hall revolved before her
eyes. She moved away from the banister as she knew she was going to faint. Her
body felt hot and heavy. Unconsciousness took a while, she could feel it
descending like a black fog, but rather than fight it she welcomed the drugging
darkness and crumpled to the floor.

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Jasper
finally made it home at around six. He was utterly exhausted. After taking Lucy
to bed the previous night, he had been unable to sleep. Images from the day had
flitted behind his eyelids. And worse, images of Lucy in the forest, except his
mind filled in gaps and seemed to miss the part where Lucy had protested his
attentions.

He had
finally dozed but woken up hard and aching. His hand had reached down to take
care of the problem when he had heard Eloise screeching at the maid. That alone
had doused his ardour and he got ready for the day.

Breakfasting
with Eloise and telling her he had no intention of just abandoning Lucy had
been…..freeing. Simon would have approved. However Eloise had not gone without
a fight and what she might do now worried him.

He’d been
about to find Lucy when Samuel the estate manager had arrived, telling him that
one of his tenant’s roofs had collapsed. Normally he would have left Samuel to
deal with it, but the tenant’s daughter had also been injured and the job
required men and direction.

As luck would
have it a decent doctor was nearby as his old school friend Mainwaring was
staying at a neighbour’s house and he sent a rather worn out looking Bill to
fetch him. Mainwaring had trained in medicine when he’d got back from France a couple of years ago.

Jasper was
never quite sure what the man’s role was in the war. He was officially a Major
but Jasper was fairly sure he’d been some kind of spy. However one didn’t just
ask that type of question of a gentleman, especially considering he had been
horrifically injured during his time there.

Jasper had
been still serving in Spain at the time of Mainwaring’s recuperation in England, and he wished he had been there to help keep his spirits up. During his recovery
they had dosed him up with laudanum and then the man had spent another
substantial amount of time recovering from the addiction. However whilst holed
up for the best part of a year, his friend had read everything he could about
doctoring and now he was a damn fine one, even if his family didn’t approve.
He’d come into the title of Earl at a cousin’s death six months ago but he
still preferred ‘Major’ or ‘Doctor’ to his title, much to his mother’s
vexation.

Mainwaring
was able to cast a splint for the girl’s leg in no time at all and had
displayed a care and tenderness that Jasper rarely saw.

With the injured
parties fixed Jasper sent his friend to his home for dinner and to stay the
night – the least he could do. It did mean another night he wouldn’t be able to
talk to Lucy properly. He had thoughts of going to her chamber later, but
Mainwaring was a decent drinker and invariably they became bosky.

Seeing his
tenants resettled and a promise to fix the roof from the thatcher had taken
another couple of hours and Jasper was keen to at least see Lucy. He called for
a bath to be drawn and then went to the study for a quick nip of whisky to
drink in the bath. Mainwaring was facing the window, also with a drink in his
hand.

“Lucas, good
to see you’ve started without me. Can’t thank you enough for helping me out
today.” Lucas turned his face tight with anger.

“What’s
wrong?” Jasper felt his throat tighten with worry. “Is it Lucy?”

“In a manner
of speaking,” Lucas rasped.

Jasper
frowned “Where is she?”

Lucas placed
the glass down gently on the table, but Jasper could tell that the man was very
upset.

“Is she
well?”

“I arrived to
find the young lady had fallen down in the hall upstairs, we heard the thud
from the entrance. Probably fainted from the chill she seems to have contracted,
and exhaustion.”

“God, will
she recover? I must go and see her.” Jasper turned quickly. Christ, he couldn’t
bear it if anything happened to Lucy.

 However he
went nowhere as he was suddenly hauled back by his shirt collar and thumped
back against the wall.

 He looked at
Mainwaring, “what the hell...”

“You’ll go
nowhere till I get some answers,” Lucas spat at him. He struggled against
Lucas’ grip. Jasper was strong and wiry but Lucas had taken him by surprise and
he had a firm grip on him. He could kick him in the ballocks, and although he’d
have no hesitation doing that in battle, to do it to Lucas seemed downright
ungentlemanly. He also wanted to know what the hell was going on.

“I know war
can change a man Jasper. I, better than anyone else. So tell me now if it was
you that put bruises on that little girl upstairs?”

Jasper
frowned; did he mean the bruise on her neck? Surely not. She could have been
bruised from the kidnapping but Bill had promised that there had only been the
knock on the head. The tumble they took in the forest came into mind, but again
he had rolled so that Lucy merely fell on him. If anything it was his arse that
was bruised. He felt Lucas thump him against the door again at his hesitation.

“I haven’t
hurt Lucy physically at all Lucas, I promise. Tonight is only her third night here
with me.”

“She’s only
been here two nights so far?” Lucas questioned.

“Yes, since
Tuesday.” Lucas’ brow cleared and he released Jasper.

“I’m sorry I
thought ill of you Jasper, but battle can alter a man – even the best. I will
explain.”

“Don’t worry
Lucas, you always were protective of the women. But tell me of Lucy, what’s
wrong?”

“She is fine,
that’s the first thing. As I can tell you are worried for the little one. She
has a chill, nothing serious that a day in bed won’t fix. She’s got a slight
fever but I do not expect it to develop. Sleep is the main thing. She looks
very tired,” Lucas said accusingly.

He then
hesitated. “She has a large amount of bruising all down one side - her thigh,
hip and right arm. She could have fallen but if you ask me she was pushed
violently into something. The bruises are healing fine; they are currently
yellow which means it happened more than three or four days ago.”

“Could she
have fallen from a horse?” Jasper interrupted.

“Stop
interrupting Jasper,” Lucas smiled at the man – he was chomping at the bit for
news on the girl. “She also has bruises on her upper arms, made the same time…
finger type bruises.”

Jasper felt
rage course through him. “Fuck it,” he spat out. The only person he could think
that would lay hands on Lucy was her brother. A glass was pressed into his
hands and without looking at it Jasper downed the contents of a very large
brandy.  He shuddered “don’t give me that French swill, give me a decent
drink.” Lucas passed him a whisky, and Jasper merely sipped this time, just
enough to rid him of the brandy taste.

“It must be
her brother, he’s an utter bastard.”

“Tell me
more,’’ Lucas requested.

“I will
tonight, but I need to see Lucy myself first and then bathe.”

“I agree,”
Lucas nodded. “But do the latter first, you stink man, and don’t wake her up.
She’s had a sleeping draught made of herbs but even so, the stench may wake
her.”

“Very well
you lob-cock,” Jasper retaliated, “I will see you in about an hour.”

“Oh by the
way,” Lucas called out. Jasper looked back, “Looks like she was also attacked
by some type of animal, nasty bite on her neck, savage if you ask me.”

Jasper made a
rude gesture over his shoulder and left the study to Lucas’ laughter.

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