should help with any dizziness. If you need to vomit again, tell me. Try not to
worry about Small Bess. I’ll send Rucker out to get her as soon as we return.”
“I’m glad I was with you,” I said into his neck. “I fear my derringer wouldn’t
have been much help this time. I would have just expired there by the daffodils.”
“I know you, Andy. You would have managed something.”
“Do you really mean that or are you just trying to make me feel better?”
He leaned down and kissed my forehead, then he cursed. “I’m sorry about that. It
won’t happen again. Forget I did that, all right?”
But I wouldn’t. His mouth felt nice and warm against my skin.
“Yes, I meant what I said. You have grit, Andy, and a brain. You would have
managed something. Now, what do you want to tell my uncle?”
I thought of my father’s letter, safely locked away in my Italianate letter box.
I had said nothing to Lawrence about that. I hadn’t said anything to anyone. Why?
Because anyone could be the someone who was doing this. The only thing was, I
couldn’t think of a single reason for anyone, particularly my husband, to want
to harm me. I had never done anything to him or to anyone else living in this
house. Lawrence hadn’t even known me. He hadn’t had to marry me once he had met
me. He had not been forced to return to Grandfather’s house after that first
condolence visit. It made no sense. I said, “No, I don’t want anyone to know
anything. Let the person who is responsible just wonder what we know or don’t
know about any of this.”
“I agree. What then? A rabbit hole?”
“It will be obvious to Rucker and anyone else who bothers to look that those
deep cuts on Small Bess’s back had nothing to do with stumbling into any damned
rabbit hole.”
“I will tell Rucker the truth. He will take care of her himself. I will also
tell him to keep it all mum. Rucker is a good man. This is going to make him
very angry. I know he will keep quiet. The only person who will know the truth
is the one who placed the barbed wire beneath the saddle.”
“I don’t like it,” I said, and pressed my face into his shoulder.
“Your vanity is showing. I won’t let anyone believe you’re incompetent. No, I
will tell everyone it was a very deep, utterly unavoidable rabbit hole that
yawned right up in front of you, no possibility to avoid it. Even if everyone
believes you bungled things, I will continue to defend you.”
I wanted to punch him, but I couldn’t even make a decent fist.
I heard him chuckle, felt his arms tighten around me.
He had to stop Tempest one time for me to be sick again, something he handled
well, I suppose. I felt so rotten I really didn’t care.
There were too many people, all of them hovering over me, all of them talking,
all of them with an opinion, and if I’d had the will, I would have told them to
all to go to the devil. As it was, John eased me down on a very soft settee. I
kept my eyes closed and weaved in and out of the ether.
It was Thomas’s beautiful soothing voice that I finally recognized, and I didn’t
want to kill him, which meant I just might be feeling a bit better.
“Here, Uncle Lawrence, place this wet cloth on her forehead. Amelia always
places a wet cloth on my forehead when I have one of my headaches.”
The wet cloth felt wonderful. “Thank you,” I managed to get out.
“Just lie still, Andy,” my husband said. I felt his warm breath against my ear.
I smelled something else, brandy, and it was soothing and familiar and I
breathed in deeply.
“I am all right, Lawrence, truly, just give me a moment longer.”
Then Amelia had to stick her oar in. “Uncle Lawrence, I think you should fetch
Dr. Boulder.”
“I don’t want a bloody doctor anywhere near me, Amelia,” I said. “Mind your own