Page 128 of An Inconvenient Vow

There, lying in the middle of Isemay’s bed and propped up on one elbow, was Leland Ellis.

*

“What are you doing here?” Sabina gasped, falling back against the door.

“It is not what it looks like,” he warned, “whatever that may be.” He still looked pale, but then perhaps he always had, with those coal-black curls and that tall, slender frame. He certainly did not look like he was on death’s door anymore.

What in heaven was he doing in Isemay’s bed? “Where is my sister?” she asked suspiciously gazing about the room as though he might have stashed Isemay somewhere.

“Off mixing me another draught of foul medicine,” he answered with a shudder. “A good thing her revenge did not include poisoning me, though at times,” he added darkly, “I have wondered!”

Her revenge? Sabina stared at him. So then he knew?

Leland shot her a speculative look. “Close the door behind you unless you want Hildeth or the good Samuel to know everything.” He leaned forward and poured himself a draught of whatever concoction Isemay was dosing him with, drank it down, and pulled a face. “You see, I accept my punishment. I take it you knew about Isemay finding me half-dead in the forest.”

“Yes, but…” Sabina sucked in a shocked breath. “Is it possible—?” she began, her head reeling, “that your memory has been returned to you?”

Leland shrugged his shoulders. “I was really only confused for a couple of days,” he admitted. “Bruised and battered. Hendry’s thugs practically stove my skull in, gods rot them.”

“Hendry?” Sabina covered her mouth with consternation.

“He that lieth with dogs…” Leland shrugged. “It was inevitable I suppose. Do you know, an old hag told me only last month that I would get what was coming to me.” He tipped his head and reflected on the matter a moment. “She cackled about it too, despite the fact I had tipped her quite handsomely.”

“I think that is just stock in trade for wise women,” Sabina answered without thinking. Leland laughed, then winced. “I think a couple of my ribs are broken,” he admitted. “Do not tell Isemay.”

“But why did Alfred Hendry’s thugs attack you?” she asked as Leland cautiously rearranged his long, spare limbs, moving up the bed into a sitting position.

“I think it was a card debt,” he answered. “Or simply because things did not turn out favorably that day at Ganford Chase, thanks to you. One or the other, take your pick.”

Suddenly Sabina remembered the back bedroom at Morecotte had had a mattress on the floor and recent signs of an occupant when they had cleaned house. “You were staying at Morecotte!” she gasped. “After you left the duke’s residence.”

An expression of disgust passed over Leland’s face. “For two nights only,” he muttered. “What a filthy hole that was! That abandoned hovel your sister stashed me in was a distinct improvement.”

“Excuse me!” Sabina objected. “Morecotte happens to be my rightful home. It is no longer filthy, and if it makes you feel any better, Jeffree dealt very roughly with both of Hendry’s henchmen and threw them into the water trough.”

She tried not to dwell on the fact that Lancer must have been one of Leland’s attackers. Penny had never said he was a good man precisely. “The best of a bad bunch,” was how she had described him. Lancer had turned over a new leaf, Sabina told herself uneasily. Besides, Leland had more than deserved a good kicking after his dreadful behavior that day at Ganford Chase.

His eyes drifted shut as though moving around had given him a headache. “Did he really?” he murmured.

“Yes,” Sabina nodded slowly. “And if you remained at Morecotte for two nights, then it must have only been a matter of mere hours after they assaulted you that we turned up there.”

Leland’s eyes sprung open at that. “To think I must have missed you by so short an amount of time. How funny.” Sabina did not know about that; she eyed him curiously. “It is certainly strange how things turn out, to be sure,” Leland mused.

“And yet, if I had not cheated Hendry at cards, then I daresay I should still have been there the next morning and then Jeffree would have thrown me in the water trough.” He laughed softly. “More than likely it all turned out for the best.”

“All turned out for the best?” Sabina echoed disbelievingly. “I think you are mad, Leland Ellis! Your father is beside himself, and as for my poor sister…” She trailed off distractedly. “The gods only know how this is going to turn out for her. How has she managed to keep you hidden here?”

“Hidden? My dear, I am here under official sanction, have you not heard?”

“What do you mean? My parents are aware you are here? I don’t believe you!”

“Oh, but it is true. After all, we are man and wife now.”

“Man and wife?” Sabina shrilled.

Leland winced. “My head, my dear Sabina, it is splitting.”

“How can you and Isemay be… man and wife?” she asked with horror.