Slightly Tempted (14 page)

Morgan shook her head.

"We are going to take him home to England," Rosamond told her. "Mama wants to have him tended by our own physician in London. Papa has procured two carriages and we are to leave early in the morning. Is not that delightful news?"

Morgan nodded.

"You look tired, Lady Morgan," the earl observed. "The worry, I daresay. But all has ended well."

Rosamond, her own news exhausted, took a step back and appeared to notice her friend's less than pristine appearance for the first time.

"There isblood on your dress," she said. "Whatever have you done to hurt yourself, Morgan? Do come and sit down. I thought you stayed at Mrs. Clark's last night."

"I did." Morgan sank down onto the chair a servant pulled out hastily from the table. "I tended the wounded there. There are so many, Rosamond-hundreds upon hundreds. I daresay there are a thousand more still on the battlefield or on the road back to Brussels. There are twenty at Mrs. Clark's alone. There were twenty-one, but one died in the night. I have been relieved for a few hours, but I must go back before noon. There is so much to do and so few hands."

Rosamond sat on the chair beside hers and gazed at her in wide-eyed fascination.

"Tending the wounded?" she said. "How splendidly brave of you. I'll come with you when you return even though just the sight of the blood on your dress makes me feel faint. I have almost completely recovered from my migraine."

"You will not go anywhere, miss," her father said firmly. "The battle may be over, but the streets will be filled with all sorts of ruffians today. You will remain indoors where your mama and I can keep an eye on you. I have no doubt Lady Caddick will require the same of you, Lady Morgan. I would have expected Mrs. Clark to behave more responsibly."

Lady Caddick herself arrived on the scene at that moment. She looked haggard, but as her eyes fell upon Morgan, they lit up with happiness.

"Wonderful news, my dear Lady Morgan!" she exclaimed. "I daresay you have heard that the French have been soundly beaten. Gordon has become a great hero. He is dreadfully wounded, the poor boy, but he is suffering bravely-and gladly too. His wounds are no more than badges of honor, he tells me. Can you imagine such nobility of mind?"

"I am very relieved that he is safe, ma'am," Morgan assured her.

"We will be taking my boy back to England tomorrow," Lady Caddick said. "You will be delighted to return to the bosom of your family, Lady Morgan."

"Did Alleyne call here last evening?" Morgan asked.

"Lord Alleyne Bedwyn?" the countess said. "I do not believe so. Did he, Caddick?"

The earl grunted, a sound Morgan interpreted as a negative. "Like you," he told his wife, "Lady Morgan has been up all night. I would suggest toast and tea for both of you and retirement to your beds. Rosamond will sit with Gordon."

"He has just taken another dose of laudanum," the countess explained, seating herself at the table, "and will sleep for a while, I daresay. He will certainly wish to see you when he awakes, Lady Morgan. He spoke of you several times during the night. I must warn you, though, that you may find the sight of him too much for your tender sensibilities. He has numerous other wounds besides his broken leg."

Morgan's heart sank-he had spoken of her. He would wish to see her. But at least he was safe. What about Alleyne? And there were twenty men at Mrs. Clark's who all needed almost constant tending. Many of their lives hung in the balance. More than anything else at that moment, though, she needed to sleep. She was silently thankful that Lord Gordon had taken laudanum and was in no condition to receive a visitor. Later she would have to see him-and later too she would deal with the prospect of going back home and abandoning all the misery here.

She ate a slice of toast and drank a cup of tea, more because she felt she ought than because she was hungry. Rosamond took her arm then and led her up to her room. She kissed Morgan's cheek before leaving.

"I am so very proud of you," she said, "for tending the wounded. Oh, Morgan, I do sohope we will be sisters."

Morgan smiled wanly as she went into her room and closed the door behind her. Her maid helped her off with her dress and she sank onto her bed and closed her eyes. But just before she drifted off to sleep, she remembered something.

She had kissed the Earl of Rosthorn on the cheek last evening. Not because they had been flirting or dallying. Not because he had challenged her or because she had felt challenged. But because he had shown compassion for her and for Mrs. Clark. Because he had been at the Namur Gates for hours earlier in the day, trying to make sure that all the wounded had somewhere to go to recover and be comfortable.

Because she had felt his kindness.

Because he had somehow been transformed in her eyes from a potentially dangerous rake whose flirtations it had been a challenge to resist to a friend.

Was that a fanciful thought?

She fell asleep before she could answer her own question.

GERVASE CALLED ATMRS.CLARK'S AFTER AN EARLYbreakfast with the intention of escorting Lady Morgan Bedwyn back to the Caddick house on the Rue de Bellevue. He had, however, missed her by ten minutes. He spent the rest of the morning doing his best to help organize the huge influx of wounded from the battlefield south of Waterloo. The number of casualties was truly staggering, yet he realized he was seeing only those who had been removed from the battle site. There must be thousands more still out there.

He called at Lord Caddick's house at noon and sent in his card.

"It was good of you to come, Rosthorn," the earl said, coming into the hall in person to shake hands with his visitor, "especially when all must be chaos out in the streets and it is safer to remain indoors. My son is doing as well as can be expected, you will be pleased to know. His leg has been set and his other wounds treated. We have hopes that he will make a full recovery as soon as we have him home in England."

"You are leaving soon, sir?" Gervase asked. The very best thing for Lady Morgan Bedwyn was to be taken out of such an insalubrious environment. Yet he realized that he would miss her-strange thought.

"We will make an early start in the morning," the earl told him.

But at that moment Lady Morgan herself came hurrying into the hall. She was looking somewhat pale, but her hair had been freshly brushed and coiled, and she wore a clean dress.

"Lord Rosthorn," she asked as he bowed to her, "have you heard anything of my brother?"

To his shame he had scarcely given a thought this morning to Lord Alleyne Bedwyn, who could, he supposed, look after himself.

"I am afraid not," he said.

Some of the light went out of her eyes.

"I daresay," she said, "he was so busy with yesterday's emergencies that he forgot he was supposed to be coming to take me away from here. He would have known after the victory that I am safe here in Brussels, anyway, and that there is now no great hurry to leave."

"I would not say that, Lady Morgan," Caddick told her. "Lady Caddick is afraid that if our own physician does not see Gordon's leg within the week and ascertain that it has been properly set and splinted, he will limp for the rest of his life after all."

Gervase kept his eyes on Lady Morgan and saw her frown slightly.

"Permit me," he said, "to find Sir Charles Stuart and ask news of Lord Alleyne from him. I will bring word back here to you as soon as possible in order to relieve your anxiety."

"How very kind of you," she said. "But would you please bring that word to Mrs. Clark's? I must return there immediately. I slept longer than I intended."

"Return?"Caddick sounded genuinely shocked. "To Mrs. Clark's, Lady Morgan? When she has twenty wounded men occupying her house? That is not a proper environment for a lady."

"Or for anyone else, my lord," she agreed. "But those men are suffering as Lord Gordon is suffering, except that they are without the ministrations of a fond mother and sister and father. Yesterday they fought as fiercely and as bravely as Lord Gordon did.Someone must tend them."

"But not Lady Morgan Bedwyn," he said. "It is unfitting. Besides, we will be leaving early tomorrow, and you will need to rest today."

"I have rested this morning, my lord," she assured him briskly. "I will do what I can today at Mrs. Clark's and then return tonight in order to be ready to travel tomorrow."

"But the streets are unsafe," the earl protested.

"They are not, sir," Gervase assured him. "But if it will relieve your mind, I will undertake to escort Lady Morgan and her maid to Mrs. Clark's myself and bring them back here this evening."

She looked gratefully at him and left quickly to fetch her bonnet while Caddick blustered with indecision, muttering about his wife's being still asleep in her chamber.

Five minutes later they were out on the street, the two of them, her maid a decent distance behind them.

"You have seen Lord Gordon?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "He was sleeping when I arrived home," she explained. "He had a restless morning but was sleeping again when I awoke. I will see him this evening."

He wondered how much she cared for the boy. Her feelings during the Richmond ball had been confused and in tumult. Perhaps knowing him wounded had aroused her affections for him. She looked up at him with that characteristic direct glance of hers and appeared to guess his thoughts.

"Captain Lord Gordon is just one of thousands of wounded," she said. "He has a loving family, a houseful of servants, and a quiet, luxurious home to contribute to his comfort. I am needed more elsewhere."

"You do not pine for a sight of him?" he asked with a smile.

She frowned. "He was talking about me last night," she said, "and wanting to see me. Heis wounded, though not half as desperately as most of the men at Mrs. Clark's, I daresay, and so I must not say anything to upset him unduly if I can avoid it. But I must, of course, see him." She sighed. "I suppose I should have made my sentiments clear long ago. But I was staying with his parents and his sister."

"Tomorrow," he said, patting her hand, "you will be starting your journey home. You will be back with your family and will be able to tell young Gordon to go to the devil if you wish."

"And what will you do when you leave here?" she asked him. "Are you still banished?"

He laughed softly. "My father is dead,chérie, " he said, "and my mother has begged me to return home. Perhaps I will oblige her before the summer is over."

"Do you have only your mother?" she asked him.

"I have a married brother," he told her, "who is vicar of the church at home in Kent. And two sisters, both married and living away from home. And a second cousin, my father's former ward, who still lives at Windrush Grange with my mother."

"I am pleased for you," she said. "Family is very important. I do not know what I would do without mine. I love them all very dearly."

"Including the Duke of Bewcastle?" he asked. "It is said that he is a humorless tyrant."

She visibly bristled. "Both those words are unkind," she said, "and do not capture the essence of Wulfric at all. He does not know how to laugh, it is true. But he has had the weight of many responsibilities on his shoulders since he succeeded to the title at the age of seventeen-younger than I am now. He takes his duties very seriously and rules those in his care or employ with firm discipline."

"Including you,chérie ?" he asked.

"Oh, we Bedwyns are made of stern stuff," she said. "We are not awed by Wulfric, though we all respect him. And love him."

It was hard to imagine anyone loving Bewcastle-though he himself had once admired him and aspired to be one of his small inner circle of friends.

They had reached Mrs. Clark's house by that time, and it was immediately apparent from the open doors and general bustling air that new wounded were being moved in.

Gervase took one of Lady Morgan's hands in both of his and raised it to his lips.

"I will bring you word of Lord Alleyne within the hour," he told her. "Do not wear yourself quite to a thread,chérie ."

She turned away and ran lightly up the steps.

When, he wondered, looking after her, had she become in his eyes a person in her own right and not just the sister of the Duke of Bewcastle? Yesterday? And that person was someone he liked and even admired. Even the age difference between them no longer seemed so huge. She was a woman of principle and compassion-compassion without sentimentality.

He felt more ashamed than ever of his earlier dealings with her. And yet without those he would not even have met her and got to know her, would he?

THE ONLY WORDGERVASE WAS ABLE TO BRING ATthe end of the hour was that Lord Alleyne Bedwyn had not reported back to Sir Charles Stuart yesterday-a serious omission, given the fact that he was to have brought an immediate reply to the important letter he had undertaken to deliver.

Neither had he reported back this morning.

The rest of the embassy staff appeared half annoyed, half concerned-but not concerned enough, it seemed, to have initiated any active inquiries. Gervase announced his decision to take a ride down through the forest as far as Waterloo to see what he could discover of the whereabouts of the missing man.