“There are six of us and two of them,” Winsome said. “We can overpower them.”
The rest of her sisters nodded in solidarity. Patience even pushed up her sleeves to be at the ready.
The carriage skidded to a stop and Winsome leapt out of it. “Lord Manderbey!” she cried.
St. John and his butler froze. Lord Manderbey shook them off and turned.
“Lady Winsome,” Lord Manderbey said. He bowed and then promptly dropped to the ground, lifeless.
“What have you done to him?” Winsome said, running to him and pushing St. John out of the way.
“Nothing!” Lord St. John cried, in a voice an octave higher than his usual. “It’s not my fault he overindulges!”
The duke took Lord St. John by the coat collar. “And yet, somehow, I believe itisyour fault. Now listen here, you rogue, I understand you are shortly to be off for Brazil. You are to take yourself out of London tonight. If you do not, you will lose that ambassadorship faster than a strong wind takes a hat.”
“But I—”
“There is no further need for conversation. Go inside, pack, get out. This house had better be empty when I return on the morrow.”
“Come, my lord,” St. John’s butler said. “Come inside.”
Presumably, the butler did lead St. John back into the house. Winsome did not see it, as she was wholly focused on Lord Manderbey.
He slowly opened his eyes. “Oh, how do you do?” he said to Winsome.
“Are you all right?” she asked, grasping his hand.
“Fine, fine, say, do you want to get married?”
“Hold on, now,” the duke said.
“Papa!” Winsome said. Why on earth was he interrupting at such a moment?
“It’s a fine sentiment, Manderbey, but it cannot be said in the condition you are currently in. You must say it when you are not under the influence of…whatever you are under the influence of.”
“Laudanum, Your Grace,” Lord Manderbey said, his head lolling back.
“As I suspected,” the duke said. “Winny, we’ll take him home and have the physician give him the once over and then I imagine he’ll need to sleep it off.”
“Winny,” Lord Manderbey said, laughing to himself. “You called her Winny. That’s how I knew. The letter.”
“Yes, Valor’s unfortunate letter,” Winsome said.
“Cheeky minx,” Lord Manderbey said, before his eyes closed entirely.
“All right now, girls, we have one very tall and sturdy gentleman currently incapacitated. Lady Wilton’s coachman and the groom can help me get him in the carriage and then we’ll all have to find a way to get in too. It will be a tight squeeze.”
“I could stand on the running board, Papa,” Patience said.
“You’ll do no such thing,” the duke said. “We’ll all pile in somehow.”
Winsome vaguely listened to these arrangements. She was far too busy holding Lord Manderbey’s hand, watching his eyes slowly open and close as if he were trying to wake up, and thinking of his proposal. It might not have been flowery, but it was very much to the point. He must say it again on the morrow when he was not so…indisposed. She only hoped he’d remember that he’d done it.
Her father moved her gently out of the way so the coachman and footman could assist Lord Manderbey into the carriage. “Come now, my girl, get yourself inside the coach.”
Winsome climbed in the carriage, and found Serenity back on Felicity’s lap and Patience on Grace’s lap.
“See Winsome, we have arranged it all,” Grace said. “You sit thereand Lord Manderbey can sit between us, and Papa across.”
