Page 71 of So Wild A Heart

Leona offered her a brittle smile and left the room abruptly, leaving the other women to follow her. Rachel glanced at Miranda and grinned.

By the time they rejoined Lady Vesey, she had recovered her pleasant demeanor, although Miranda, walking beside her down the stairs, could feel the tension radiating from her.

“So now Dev has gone on to other objects to paint?” she asked Miranda.

“Yes, the rest of the day. I can only pose for an hour or two a day. It gets rather tiring.”

Leona’s grin was a baring of teeth. “No doubt. And where is he sketching today?”

Lady Ravenscar, on the other side of Miranda, made a noise, but Miranda ignored her. Looking straight at Leona, a challenging light in her eyes, she said, “The ruins of the abbey. It is a very scenic spot.”

“Yes. Of course.”

Leona left as soon as they got back to the drawing room, practically pulling Vesey’s elderly aunt from her chair and out the door. Miranda felt sure that she would divest herself of the aunt in record time and would soon be riding from Vesey Park to the abbey.

Almost as soon as Leona left, Miranda excused herself to go check on her stepmother. She walked out of the room, humming under her breath.

Lady Ravenscar looked at her daughter, a smile as broad as she ever allowed herself curving her lips. “I must say, Rachel, that was a splendid suggestion, going to look at Devin’s pictures. I had no idea he had done such a number of Miranda.”

“I did.” Rachel smiled like the cat that had got into the cream.

“Very clever of you. I do wish, though, that Miranda had not told her where he was painting today. You know the witch is certain to go over there.”

“Somehow,” Rachel commented confidently, “I have a suspicion that our Miranda knew exactly what she was doing.”

Miranda was not as confident as she had acted in front of Leona. The truth was, she had her doubts as to what Devin would do if Leona showed up at the abbey today. She knew she had taken a gamble by telling Leona where Dev was, but she needed to know what Dev would do. She had to let it play out, no matter what the consequences.

Lady Vesey’s visit had raised her spirits, though. Miranda had not known for certain that Devin had not gone to visit Leona at Vesey Park since their marriage, although from the amount of time he had spent on his painting, she did not see how he could have managed it. But the fact that Leona had come here, transparently hoping to seek him out, indicated to Miranda that he had not seen his former mistress at all. Such a lack of interest was heartening, even if it did stem more from his new passion for his art than passion for herself.

She went up to her stepmother’s room to check on her, as she had told the others. She met a maid slipping quietly out the door just as she approached.

“Oh!” The maid stopped abruptly when she saw Miranda and bobbed her a curtsey. “My lady.”

“Is Mrs. Upshaw sleeping?” Miranda asked. Her stepmother had not looked well when she left her earlier, as well as having been acting very strangely. Miranda was a trifle worried about her.

“Not yet, ma’am. I think she is about to fall sleep now, though. She felt terrible sick when she came upstairs, ma’am. Her whole breakfast came back up, it did.”

“Oh, dear.” Miranda went past the girl into Elizabeth’s room.

Elizabeth was in bed, her face rather gray against the pristine white of the pillow, her eyelids closed. They fluttered open when Miranda came to her bedside, and Elizabeth regarded her groggily.

“Miranda…”

“I heard you had a rather bad time of it,” Miranda said, taking her hand and squeezing it. Her stepmother’s skin was cool.

“Yes, it was an awful mess,” Elizabeth murmured, stumbling over her words. “So silly—I didn’t feel ill earlier this morning. But suddenly, just as I came into my room…” She shuddered.

“Perhaps now you will feel better,” Miranda told her reassuringly. “I am sure if you take a nap, it will help.”

“Yes. I can hardly keep my eyes open. I hope I will be able to sleep. I don’t think there is anything left to come up.”

Miranda patted her hand and sat down on the side of the bed. Elizabeth turned on her side, smiling faintly, and curled her fingers around Miranda’s. She soon slipped into sleep.

Miranda looked down at her stepmother, a small frown on her forehead. She did not typically worry overmuch about Elizabeth’s illnesses; she was always in the throes of some complaint or other, and they were usually brief and not very severe. Elizabeth certainly looked ill today, however.

“I think that I will sit with her for a while,” Miranda told the maid. “Until she’s feeling better.”

Devin rode to the abbey ruins first and left his sketch pads and paints. He would come back afterward, he thought, and do some sketches. It was important, somehow, that what he had told Miranda not be a complete lie.