Page 98 of A Stolen Heart

“We need to get her back into bed,” Sebastian said practically. “Let me carry her there, and Miss Ward can clean and bandage her burns.”

“Yes. Yes, of course.” The women stepped back as Sebastian bent and picked up Rhea.

Alexandra walked behind Sebastian as he carried her mother down the hall. Although she still felt groggy, her brain was beginning to work.

“What happened?” she asked as Sebastian laid her mother on her bed.

“What do you mean?” Aunt Hortense said as she poured water into the washbasin and carried it to the bed.

“I mean why was my bed on fire? Why was Mother in the room?”

“I don’t know.” Aunt Hortense dipped a cloth into the water and wrung it out, then began to wash Rhea’s face and, very gently, her arms and hands. “All I can think is that for some reason Rhea finally came out of her coma. Perhaps she smelled the smoke and that was enough to snap her out of it.”

“Remember how she squeezed my hand today when I was talking to her?”

“She must have been close to the surface,” Aunt Hortense reasoned. “Tonight she woke up. Probably she smelled the smoke and followed it to your room.”

“That’s how I came to find you,” Sebastian added. “I began to smell smoke, and when I went into the hall, I saw the smoke coming out around the door.”

“But what happened? Why was it on fire?”

Sebastian shrugged. “I don’t know. I presume you must have left a candle burning. You were very sleepy tonight, remember.”

“I didn’t have a candle burning. I had an oil lamp, and I distinctly remember blowing it out.”

“Are you saying—you think this was another deliberate attack on you?” Sebastian’s eyes flashed silver in the darkness, and he turned, and strode to the door and threw it open. “Murdock! Murdock! Dammit, man, where are you?”

Murdock appeared in the doorway a few moments later, coatless, his hair disheveled, breathing hard. “Fire’s out, my lord,” he reported. “Bed’s ruined, and it damaged the room a bit, but no major harm.” He cast a glance toward Alexandra. “Is Miss Ward all right?”

“I’m fine, Murdock,” Alexandra assured him, going to the door. She had become rather fond of the square-set man over the days he had been guarding their house. He was intensely loyal to Sebastian, and thereby, she had found, intensely loyal to her. He was hardly what one would picture as a valet, but Alexandra felt sure that he was, as Sebastian had said, a good man to have on your side in a fight, and certainly that was more important than any refinement of manner. Even Aunt Hortense had approved of the man, saying that if she hadn’t heard him speak, she would have sworn that he was an American, not a Britisher.

Murdock nodded toward her. “Glad to hear it, Miss.”

“Murdock, could someone have gotten into the house tonight?” Sebastian asked. “Miss Ward is certain that she did not leave a light burning. That would mean that someone must have sneaked in and set the bed curtains on fire.”

“No, sir. Couldn’t nobody have got into this house tonight—or any other night since I’ve been here.” He turned toward Alexandra somewhat apologetically. “I’m sorry, miss, I’m sure you’re right about the lamp, but I don’t see how anyone could have got past me and my men. I have a footman patrolling the outside of the house continuously, three shifts of them, three hours each, so they don’t get sleepy. To keep things right and tight, I patrol, too, half a lap behind him, just to make sure and keep the footman on his toes. Halfway through the night, Punwati relieves me. Ain’t nobody getting past us, miss.” He patted his side, where a pistol was stuck through his belt. “We keep a watch during the day, too.” He paused, frowning. “Not so tight, of course, but a footman makes the circuit every few minutes. And the house is full of servants. I don’t see how anyone could sneak in during the day and hide till nightfall, either.”

“No,” Alexandra agreed. “It sounds very thorough. I am sure you and Mr. Punwati are doing a wonderful job.” Alexandra frowned. “But I know I blew out the lamp.”

She thought of her mother in her room. It seemed so odd that Rhea had awakened just at the moment that her bed curtains had caught on fire. She thought of tales she had heard of madmen setting things afire, their warped minds drawn by the crackling flames. They could not know, after all, what had been fermenting in her mother’s confused mind during the long period of unconsciousness. And perhaps, she thought, Rhea had not been unconscious the whole time. She remembered her mother gripping her hand this morning.

But, no! What was she thinking? Her mother was a trifle off, perhaps, but she wasn’t mad in that way. She would never try to hurt Alexandra, no matter how fevered her mind might turn. Besides, she reminded herself, Rhea had tried to save her from the fire. She had awakened Alexandra and pulled her from the bed, had beaten out the fire with her bare hands when it lit on Alexandra’s sheets. Alexandra felt ashamed for thinking such a thing even for an instant.

“Perhaps Mrs. Ward woke up.” Willa spoke, surprising everyone. They all turned to look at her, and she blushed but went on. “Of course she would want to see her daughter. So she lit a candle and went down to Alexandra’s room. Maybe as she leaned over to look at her, her candle caught the bed curtains on fire. They would probably have been in flames in an instant. So she tried to awaken Alexandra.”

Alexandra felt a wave of relief wash through her. “Of course! That makes sense. Much more so than that someone could have sneaked into the house past the guards.”

It was also much more reasonable than the coincidence of Rhea awakening at the precise time that Alexandra’s room caught on fire.

“Yes, that explains it.” Alexandra could hear the relief in her aunt’s voice, and she wondered if she had had the same doubts about Rhea that Alexandra had. “A simple accident.”

“It was my fault,” Willa went on, her voice laced with guilt. “I should have kept better watch over Mrs. Ward.”

“You cannot possibly stay awake watching over her all night,” Alexandra pointed out reasonably. “You sleep in her room so you could hear if she needed something. No one could expect you to do any more.”

“Yes, but I was so heavily asleep,” Willa said. “I generally don’t go to sleep that early. But tonight, my head was incredibly heavy. I could scarcely keep my eyes open. Then I slept so deeply that I did not even hear Mrs. Ward leave the room! I should have heard her. I should have awakened.”

“Nonsense,” Aunt Hortense said stoutly. “You had no way of knowing that Rhea would awaken tonight, or that she would take it into her head to go visit Alexandra. None of us did. After tonight, we shall make sure that someone is up with her all night. We shall take shifts.”