Twice Tempted (20 page)

Chuffy pushed the door open before they had fully stopped and hopped down, lowering the steps. “Well, Lady Bea,” he said, hand up to her. “Join the party?”

The old lady stepped down into the early morning chill and assessed the building. “Bastille,” she pronounced with pursed lips.

“Wound me, ma’am,” Chuffy protested, hand to plump chest. “Not prison at all. Jewel box, ready to hold only the most precious gems.”

Lady Bea patted his cheek and stepped aside as her maid followed her out.

And then it was Mae’s turn. “Are you going to behave now, Lady Mae?” he asked, hand up to her. “If you don’t, can’t share my surprise.”

“Really, Chuffy,” Fiona protested, gathering scarves and reticules. “Could you let it wait until we get in out of the cold? I, for one, am fractured.”

“Beast,” Mae protested.

Fiona took her sister’s free hand. “Go on, sweetings,” she begged. “He won’t eat you.”

Mae’s laughter cracked through the early morning air. “He should be more worried that I shall eat him.”

Her movements did not echo the force of her words. She climbed out as if she were exiting a cave, stiff-legged, her movements halting, her eyes squinted against the frail light. At least she exited on her own, Fiona thought, perfectly happy to remain behind for a moment longer in the quiet and shadowy coach. After the upheavals of the last few days, Fiona had expected to have to carry Mae out of the coach over someone’s shoulder kicking and screaming, using the pillow as a weapon.

Maybe Chuffy had done a good thing after all.

When she looked around to gather the detritus left behind, it was to see that Mae had forgotten the pillow entirely. Grabbing hold of it, she clutched it to her own chest, the comfort far outweighing the size of the poor old thing. She was just thinking that maybe she could avoid leaving the coach altogether when Alex stuck his head inside. He was tousled from riding alongside, his cheeks wind-roughened and his eyes an almost unearthly gleam in the dim morning chill. Fiona’s heart did an odd flip at the sight of him, and she knew she blushed.

“Brace up,” he greeted her with a commiserating grin, his hand out. “You have to get down sooner or later.”

She did her best to smile. “Do I have to? It is so nice and quiet in here all of a sudden.”

Even so, she took hold of his hand. His fingers closed around hers, and she fought the heat of them, the sharp sense of comfort.

“I believe your friend Chuffy is more diabolical than he seems,” she said, letting Alex help her down the steps, the pillow still in her arms.

The air was heavy with moisture, the movement creating eddies. Lennie had hopped off the coachman’s perch and stood hunched in his too-small coat, hands in pockets, the hat crushed over jug ears. Another problem Fiona needed to deal with.

“Your sister did seem uncommonly testy this morning,” Alex said, dragging her attention back.

“Just a fair warning,” she said. “I do not believe she will be moved again. At least not ’til she gets some sleep.”

“I don’t believe it will be necessary,” Alex promised. “Besides, now that she’s out she seems better pleased.”

“I promised you a treat if you came along, didn’t I?” Chuffy was saying as he walked Mae away from the coach, her hand on his arm. “Close your eyes.”

Mairead did just that. Fiona couldn’t believe it. Mae followed no one’s guide except hers when she was lucky. Especially when she was already in high dudgeon.

Chuffy guided Mairead to the center of the drive. “Now. Go ahead and look.”

They all looked. There where a fountain should have sat was a plain stone one-story building with what looked like a pipe sticking out of the roof. Except that Fiona knew that it was no pipe. She sucked in her breath at the sight.

“Is that what I think it is?” Mairead breathed in wonder.

Fiona knew Alex was watching her, but she couldn’t help but smile.

Not as brightly as Chuffy, however. “Promised I’d make up for taking you away from the observatory, didn’t I? Well, like to present you to the Wilde stargazer. Only way Grandmama could get the pater to visit. Put a telescope on the lawn.”

There were tears tracing down Mairead’s cheeks. Fiona made an instinctive move to comfort her. Alex held her back. She glowered at him, but before either could speak, Mairead launched herself into Chuffy’s arms and kissed him, almost lifting him off the ground in her enthusiasm.

Lady Bea chortled and clapped her hands. Alex grinned. Fiona gaped.

“Might want to close your mouth, old girl,” Alex said. “You look like a landed trout.”

She looked over at him, completely unnerved by Mae’s behavior. This simply wasn’t like her. Not even with Fiona.

“You don’t like Chuffy’s treat?” Alex asked, his face crinkled with good humor.

She opened her mouth a couple of times before turning back to watch her sister jabber with Chuffy about azimuths and declinations. “If he hurts her…”

Chuffy was beaming like a child as he reached up to right Mairead’s tilted bonnet. There was no question how gently Chuffy held Mairead’s hand, or how attentively Mairead stood with her head bent over his, smiling.

“You obviously don’t see what I see,” Alex said.

She did. But she had seen it before when men were smitten with Mae’s looks. She had seen men do any number of surprising things to get her sister’s attention. But she had never seen Mae respond this way before.

“You don’t know Mairead like I do,” she insisted. “This is all new territory for her. And the only place she handles new territory well is a dark sky.”

Alex grinned. “She seems to be handling this well.” Then he leaned close and whispered in her ear. “Although if you haven’t had
that
talk with her, now might be the time.”

Fiona almost boxed his ears. Mairead was patting Chuffy on the head like a precocious child. Chuffy was chuckling. Lady Bea patted them both on the arm. And suddenly Fiona was worried that Mairead might be more at risk than she’d feared.

“‘From sullen earth, sings at heaven’s gate?’” Lady Bea suddenly asked.

Chuffy blinked. Mairead let go of him and stepped back as if she’d been chastised. Bea beamed at her. “The river flows.”

“Oh!” Chuffy said, laughing. “Exactly. Need to get inside. Come along, then. Let’s see who’s home.” And putting out two elbows, he led the ladies up the low steps.

Alex turned back to the carriage where the grooms were setting down Bea’s trunk and the coachman sat quietly in his red-banded top hat. “All right, John,” he said up to him. “Make a show of picking up ladies on Bruton Street and then off to the North Road with you. I don’t want to see any of you in London for at least a week. And if you’re stopped, you don’t know anything but that you were told to take the ladies to Selby.”

Fiona saw a brief flash of teeth beneath the top hat’s shadow before the man lifted a finger to it. “Moi pleasure, m’lord. Lads ’n I’ll toast y’r good ’ealth in every tavern along the way. We’ll take good care o’ Minnie an’ Poppy.”

Alex nodded. “All right, then. You’ve dealt with this lot before. Have a care.”

Fiona waited for the carriage to pass before Alex noticed her. “I’m sorry,” he said, stepping up. “I thought you’d followed the rest of them.”

She wrapped her arm around the little pillow. “I just wanted to say thank you for going to all this trouble. I know it wasn’t easy, especially in such a short time.”

For a moment Alex just looked down at her, his bittersweet brown eyes near black, his forehead pursed. But the mood seemed to quickly pass.

He held out an elbow. “Don’t think of it,” he said, smiling down at her as she laid her hand on his arm. “Chuffy lives for things like this. It really is too bad he couldn’t join up. He would have been a brilliant quartermaster. I should warn you, though. The staff is new to the house. They are all members of our group.”

She looked over toward the somnolent house. “Rakes?”

“After a manner. One of our members, Diccan Hilliard, recruited a group of servants and waitstaff who took to calling themselves Diccan’s Household Army. They are placed in some very high-level homes and have brought some of the best information we’ve received.”

She nodded, thinking of the servants she’d known and their infallible grapevine. “I can imagine.”

“The only person we’re missing is their ringleader. Woman named Barbara Schroeder. I understand she’s on another assignment.”

Fiona was staring. “Schroeder?” she echoed. “But our headmistress at Last Chance was…”

He grinned down at her. “Barbara Schroeder. Amazing woman, isn’t she? I couldn’t think of anybody better to take over when we tossed out that martinet who had been in charge.”

“Miss Chase,” Fiona said, shaking her head. “I don’t believe it. I’m amazed Miss Schroeder allows herself to work as a domestic. We always thought she came to us from a German riding academy. She’s a whiz on a horse.”

Alex chuckled. “It would have been more likely that Diccan met her at a dance hall. Great…er, well…”

It was Fiona’s turn to chuckle. “She’s a beautiful woman. I’m sorry we couldn’t meet again.”

“I’m sorry as well,” he said. “No one else knows you are here. It means you won’t be able to go outside except to the small walled garden in the back. No one can even suspect.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “Then please remind Chuffy to impress upon the staff that they are not to mention Slough.”

Alex frowned. “But we’re not in Slough. We’re near Burnham.”

Fiona chuckled, even with her pounding head. “Mairead knows the geography of Berkshire like her prayers. We are no more than three miles away.”

“It’s so important?” Alex asked.

“If you want her to stay here it is. As you might remember, Last Chance Academy is no more than a few miles west of here. The reason they asked Mae to leave there was that she kept running away.”

“To Slough? Why?”

“Because that is where William and Caroline Hershel live.”

“The astronomers?” They’d come to a halt just outside the door.

She nodded. “With all of their telescopes. Mae considers them minor deities. One of the only ways I could get her away from Hawesworth was to promise we would move closer to where they lived. She yearns to simply sit at Caroline’s feet and let brilliance drip onto her head like nurturing rain.”

Alex shook his head. “I had no idea. You don’t have any more surprises like that in store for us, do you?”

She frowned and looked to the door, but Lennie was gone, probably hiding somewhere. “Actually…”

Alex dropped his head. “I knew it. You’re actually frauds. Actresses sent to bedevil us. Spies for Prinny. Spies for our mothers.”

She wanted to grin. “We are nothing of the kind. In fact, we aren’t the surprise. Lennie is.”

He frankly stared. “Lennie?”

“Yes. Lennie will not be sleeping in the stable with the lads.”

“Why?”

Finally she found a smile. “Because Lennie’s name is really Adeline. She’s a girl.”

Alex gaped. “A…How did you know?”

That actually made her laugh. “Don’t be silly. Mairead and I disguised ourselves as boys for years. It was far safer on the streets. Lennie doesn’t know it yet, but she will not return there. I won’t allow it.”

He nodded, still wide-eyed. “Of course.”

They turned back to the house. “How did I miss that?” he muttered.

“Don’t feel bad,” she said, waiting as he held the door for her. “I would never have guessed if I hadn’t used the same tricks. Big hat, bigger clothes, exaggerated swagger.”

“Did she tell you how old she actually is?”

“Twelve. That is why I will keep her. Twelve is a dangerous age. Her disguise won’t hold out much longer.”

She didn’t know how she would afford another mouth to feed, especially after the fire, but that didn’t matter. She would not leave another child to the despair of the streets.

Alex still stood in the door staring at her. “Does she need a dress or…something?”

Fiona found herself really grinning. He looked so suddenly uncomfortable. “No. Until we sort out this business, I would rather she protect her disguise. I just wanted you to know.”

He nodded. “You sure there aren’t any other surprises I should know about? Pets hidden in bandboxes, jealous beaus following on horseback?”

Fiona’s heart lurched. Yes. There were surprises. But not the kind that could be shared in an entry hall full of witnesses.

“No beaus,” she said, stepping past him. “No pets.”

“Excellent. Then I can manage an hour or two of sleep before I must head out again. Shall I show you to your room? You can meet the staff after you’ve had a rest.”

She looked around in surprise to see that they were the last ones in the entry. There were only three night candles on the drop table by the ornate wooden staircase to light the way, even though the dawn had begun to seep through the windows beyond.

“How do you know where I’m going?”

He grinned. “Chuffy assigned your suite first.”

Handing off a candle, he laid his hand against her lower back, setting off a fresh shower of chills. Fiona was so tired. She couldn’t remember the last time she had actually been nauseated with exhaustion, and the headache she had been brewing in the coach was setting in. She should want nothing but to become horizontal on a bed. A couch. The floor. Whatever she could find.

But she didn’t. She wanted more time with Alex. She wanted the warm strength of his hand against her back and the encouragement of his smile before her. She wanted to talk with him and listen to him and just sit with him.

Which meant she should send him off as fast as she could.

“Will you be all right?” he asked, opening the door into the sitting room she and Mae would share.

“I’ll be—”

“Fee?” she heard behind her. “Fee, do you have it? I can’t sleep.”

And there, just as she should have expected, stood Mairead, rocking from one foot to the next, her arms wrapped around her waist. Fiona found she could still smile.

“Here, sweetings,” she said, handing over the pillow. “I have it. Now get into bed before your feet get cold. I’ll be in to make sure you’re settled as soon as I talk to Alex.”

But Mae didn’t move. She just leaned a bit to see out the salon window.