As the hours passed, he quieted though Winsome could hear them trudging back and forth in the room. His complaints began to be much more centered on reality, namely that he was cold, would like his clothes back, and would like to go to bed. Very suddenly, he said, “Your Grace, have I said anything…odd?”
He sounded much more like himself.
“Odd?” the duke said with a snort.
“I seem to recall, that is, it is a bit hazy.”
“Best forgot is how I would look at it,” the duke said.
“There now, I think we’re out of the woods,” Phillips said. “Let’s put him to bed and I’ll stay for another hour or so to make sure his breathing does not slow after he falls asleep. I can show myself out once I am assured there is no further danger.”
Winsome crawled into bed herself. She was exhausted. Happy though. Certainly, Lord Manderbey would say the words at his first opportunity on the morrow.
After all, he’d been very determined to brook no complaints about it from Rolly.
*
Leland woke ina strange bed in a strange room with not a stitch of his clothes on. It took him some minutes to piece together what could have happened. Slowly and by degrees it came back to him. He’d goneto St. John’s house, and his butler had given him a glass dosed with laudanum.
His memories were more disjointed after that. He recalled Lady Winsome leaning over him as he lay on the pavement, though he was not certain how he’d got there. Then he leaned against her in the carriage and she smelled like roses, then there was some fellow named Phillips telling everybody what to do and making him walk when he wished to be abed.
Leland sat up. Bits and pieces of the walking part of the evening drifted across his mind. Had he called the dukeRoland?
He was fairly certain he had. He’d asked a footman what the duke’s name was and then used it. Why in the world would he address the duke as Roland? He threw off the covers. It was early morning, the sun just coming up. He must find his clothes. He must be dressed. He must be presentable and see the duke at the earliest opportunity. The Duke of Pelham was liberal, but even a liberal duke might be mortally offended by being called by his given name.
And then, what else had he said? Something about not wishing to hear any complaints about his idea to wed Lady Winsome…He would brook no complaints, Roland…Leland had a horrible idea come over him and hoped he’d only imagined it. Had he called the duke Rolly? No, he could not have.
He heard a quiet sound in the hallway. With any luck, it was a footman and he could send the boy to fetch his clothes from wherever they’d been taken. He jumped out of bed and jogged to the door, cracking it open and peering down the corridor.
An earsplitting scream assaulted his ears. He turned and saw Lady Valor standing there. He quickly shut the door and leaned against it.
Then Lady Winsome’s voice. “Val! What’s happened? Gracious you look white as a sheet—was it a spider? Come into my room before you wake the whole house.”
Leland thought it likely that Lady Valor had already woken thewhole house. He did not know how the roof had not blown off from that shriek. Of all the people to be in the corridor. What was she doing roaming the house at such an early hour? He’d been under the impression that ladies stayed abed until late morning and had their breakfast brought to them. How could he be expected to have known one of them would be wandering about just after dawn?
He heard a door close and realized that Lady Winsome’s room must be the next door to his own. He hoped she’d not heard any of his babbling last night. Or worse, she’d heard him address her father as Roland. Or Rolly, if he’d really done that.
“What’s happened, Valor?” Lady Winsome said.
“Winny,” Lady Valor said, her voice full of desperation, “that man is here! I just saw him!”
“Yes, Lord Manderbey was ill last evening and Papa brought him here so Phillips could treat him.”
“He’s here with no shirt on, did you know that? Why is he in there with no shirt on?”
“Oh, as to that, well I believe Thomas or Charlie would have taken all his clothes to Reynolds to be brushed and set in order.”
“Allhis clothes? He has no pants on, either?” Lady Valor asked, sounding very disturbed to hear it.
“Never mind it, Val.”
“Never mind it? I haven’t even said the worst of it,” Lady Valor said. “Oh, I don’t know how to even say it!”
“Say what?” Lady Winsome asked, her tone full of alarm.
“It’s too terrible.”
“Valor. Tell me.”
