Page 63 of Dare to be Wicked

She sighed as Cassius kissed the top of her head. “As would I. Come along, though. I bet you’ve not eaten a thing all day. I’ll take you back to the house.”

Ten days later and the doctor appeared pleased with Eliza’s progress. To their relief and delight, she had woken for brief intervals, only a few seconds at a time, but she had smiled at Lottie and squeezed her hand. It was enough to make Lottie sob with happiness.

Later that same day, on making her way down the stairs, Lottie was irritated to discover a close neighbour to Holbrooke House, Miss Dudley, had come to call. The earl and his wife were not at home, but the butler informed her that her mama wished Lottie to join them at once. Lottie could well understand it.

Miss Dudley was a lady of middling years and very kind. For this reason alone, Lottie knew she ought not be impatient with her, but she was an odd duck with romantic sensibilities and was prone to swooning fits over dead birds or a cat carrying a struggling mouse. An epic poem could see her bedridden for days. Lottie found the weeping and overblown sentimentality vexing and incomprehensible in a woman who’d lived her entire life in the countryside. How she would carry on over Eliza she could only imagine.

“Oh, and here is Lottie,” her mama said as Lottie entered the parlour.

She held her hand out to Lottie who went to her and took it, sitting down beside her. The duchess sent her a look full of apology, but it was clear she needed support, so Lottie pasted a smile to her face.

Half an hour later and Lottie was contemplating crowning the lady with the elegant Limoges teapot. At least she had stopped crying now. No matter how often Lottie and her mother reminded the exasperating creature they had just received the news they had been praying for, and her sister was waking up, she kept maundering on as though Eliza was on the brink of death. Lottie wanted to scream, and she knew her mother was holding onto her temper by a thread.

“And for her to be in such a romantic place when she fell, I did wonder, only…. No. You know I am no tattlemonger, so I should not say.”

Lottie forced her attention back to the conversation. This much was at least true. Unlike some ladies—and gentlemen—of her ilk, Miss Dudley’s heart was in the right place. She might act as though every trifling affair was worthy of a Greek chorus, but she never had a bad word to say of anyone, nor would she spread gossip. It was for this reason the St Clairs always made time for the lady and welcomed her into their home, even when she tried everyone’s patience.

“What did you wonder, Miss Dudley?” Mama asked, frowning, for none of them had understood how Eliza had come to fall.

Lottie had been reckless enough to climb the walls in the past, but even she had never done it wearing a heavy riding habit, and certainly never alone.

“Well, I saw her at Bayham Abbey, you see, perhaps two weeks before her accident. It was just before I went away to stay with my sister in the Lake District. Such a beautiful place. Have you ever been?”

“Yes, it’s very lovely,” Lottie agreed, striving not to sound impatient. “But you said you saw Eliza at Bayham Abbey? I know she often rides out that way when we are at Holbrook, for she thinks it romantic and peaceful.”

“Yes,” the lady said, lowering her eyes. “But….”

“But?” Mama pressed.

Miss Dudley bit her lip, her expression troubled. “Well, I should not like to cause dear Eliza any hurt or… or damage her reputation.”

“Her reputation?” Lottie said, aghast. Her heart thudded behind her ribs. “My word, Miss Dudley, you cannot believe I would do or say anything—”

“No, of course you wouldn’t. I never meant to suggest…” Miss Dudley sighed and shook her head. She shifted closer to Lottie and her mama and lowered her voice. “It is only that I saw her there… with a man.”

Lottie’s jaw dropped. She looked to her mother to see she too was astonished.

“Alone?” she squeaked, finding it incomprehensible that Eliza should do such a thing.

“You must be mistaken,” Mama said briskly. “Eliza would never….”

But Miss Dudley nodded, her tone firm now. “Yes, your grace. I know I am believed to be a silly, frivolous creature, but I am not so shatter-brained as all that. She was there, alone, with a man. Such a wickedly handsome fellow he was, too, just the kind to seduce an innocent girl. Oh, n-not that I am suggesting for one moment that he succeeded.”

Miss Dudley turned a dull shade of red as her mother stared at the woman in outrage.

“No. Of course not,” Lottie said, moving the conversation on quickly as she remembered the day Eliza had left their picnic and ridden off in a state of high agitation, and that she had not returned home until ages after Lottie. She had been in a strange mood, too, and… and she had not been the only one who’d left the picnic early.

“What did the gentleman look like, Miss Dudley?” her mama asked, though Lottie wished she had not, as she had a fair idea.

“Oh,” Miss Dudley said, her expression growing wistful. “A big, strong fellow with fierce features. Such shoulders he had, and so tall. Dark, too. Hair as black as a crow’s wing.”

Lottie swallowed as Mama stiffened beside her.

“Thank you, Miss Dudley,” she said, giving the woman a gracious nod and proceeded to lie through her teeth without batting an eyelid. Lottie was rather impressed. “I believe the gentleman is a friend of the family, so there was no impropriety. Indeed, I believe they just got ahead of the rest of the party. If you had stayed, the others would have arrived not long after. But we have taken enough of your time. Thank you for your visit. You’ve been very kind, and I know I can rely on your discretion….”

Miss Dudley’s kind eyes crinkled as she smiled. “Ah, well. I remember what it was to be young, and I would never do or say anything to hurt such a lovely girl. It was only when I heard of her accident and thought how strange it was that she fell, and….”

She trailed off and something cold and anxious wrapped about Lottie’s heart. Mama did not allow Miss Dudley to remain long after that, though, and herded her out with as much haste as she could politely manage.