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"What happened? Why did you go into the maze?" Tony demanded quickly. Instead of
responding, I started to cry. His face softened instantly. "Are you all right?"
"I'm freezing," I said. My legs felt numb and my toes ached. I felt a strange combination of heat and cold in my cheeks, and that frightened me.
"Let's get them inside," Tony snapped. He put his arm around my shoulders and he and Miles and Boris, still carrying Troy, hurried back through the snowstorm to the big house. Momma came out of the music room the moment Curtis opened the front doors. She looked distraught and confused.
"They got lost in the maze," Tony explained quickly.
"The maze!" Her face contorted and looked pained.
"Mrs. Hastings, please take Troy up to his suite and get him into a warm bath," Tony commanded. "He's very susceptible to colds." Momma was staring at me, her face still twisted in disbelief, her eyes wild, her mouth slightly opened. She shook her head as if to deny what was happening. "Jillian," Tony said seizing her hand, "you should get Leigh into a warm bath too. She wasn't properly dressed to be out in a snowstorm for hours."
"I can't believe this. Why did you go into the maze, Leigh?" she grilled.
My teeth were still chattering. My gloves were soaking wet, as were my shoes and stockings, and melted snow was trickling off my hair and down the sides of my face and over my forehead and down the back of my neck. It felt as if Troy's snowman had come to life and was running the tips of his fingers over my body to torment me.
"I . . . we . . went to look for pieces of trimmed hedges and . . ."
"Jillian, you should get her into a warm bath," Tony repeated.
But Tony warned you about going into the maze, and this wasn't the time for such things. All these people here," she said turning about as if we were surrounded by the wedding party. "We were getting frantic, looking for you. How embarrassing," she said, bringing her hands to her face just like someone who wanted to hide behind them.
"The girl's freezing in her shoes," Tony prodded.
"What?"
"Jillian, get her into a warm bath and into a change of clothing."
Momma shook her head. "I can't believe you did this to me, Leigh. I can't believe it," she repeated, her voice growing shrill.
Tony seized my left arm at the elbow and started me for the stairway. I looked back at Momma, who was still gaping at me in astonishment. One of the bridesmaids, Cecilia Benson, was standing just behind her. Momma turned to her.
"Do you believe this?" she asked her. Cecilia looked my way, but said nothing as Tony hurried me up the stairs. He rushed me to my suite and helped me take off my cold, wet coat quickly in the sitting room. Then he tossed it over the settee and moved
immediately into the bedroom and toward the bathroom.
"You'll find a terry cloth robe with the Farthinggale Manor emblem on it in your closet," he said gesturing. "Get out of those wet clothes as fast as you can."
A moment later, he was running my bathwater. My fingers trembled as I peeled off my soaked mittens. The effect of the warmth in the house was to make me aware of just how cold I had been and still was. I shivered even more and heard my teeth click.
I started to pull my sweater up and over my head, but my arms were shaking so, I couldn't manipulate well. Just as I had it over my face, I felt Tony seize it and help pull it off.
"Are you all right? Your lips are so blue."
I nodded, dazed by all that was happening and happening fast. Momma hated me now. She was sure to think I had done it all deliberately, and I was still so cold I couldn't think straight and speak quickly enough to e
xplain.
"Sit on the bed," Tony commanded. After I did, he squatted before me and pulled off my shoes and took off my stockings. "Your feet are soaked and your toes are so red," he said and held my right foot between his hands, rubbing it vigorously and then rubbing my left. "You have to get into that water or you'll catch pneumonia." He got up and went back to check the bath.
I slipped my damp skirt down and stepped gingerly out of it. My slip felt cold and damp too. My arms ached and it was still hard to control my fingers, but I got my slip off and sat back on the bed. Where was Momma? Why didn't she come up to help me? Why was she leaving this to Tony? Was this her way of punishing me?
"It's ready," Tony announced in the bathroom doorway. I brought my fingers to my blouse, but the buttons felt so big and secure and the tips of my fingers itched so madly, I fumbled helplessly.
"Let me help you," Tony offered.
''No, I . ."
