Suzanne Robinson by Lady Hellfire

Author:Lady Hellfire
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Kate untied the ribbons of her bonnet and lifted it from her head. She hoped the action would convince the physician who blocked her way that she wasn’t going to leave. She’d tracked the marquess to the Dower House, and no pompous old grouse was going to stop her from seeing him.

“You might as well tell me where he is,” she said. She put her bonnet on a side table and tossed her gloves into it. “I’ll go through every room if I have to.”

“Miss Grey, the marquess is with a sick man who may not live through the day.”

“Oh.”

Having satisfied himself that she was properly chastened, the man left her standing in the entryway and disappeared up the main staircase. Kate hesitated while two doctor’s assistants walked by and a maid dusted the banister. She’d come to light into Alexis de Granville for exposing her to the ire of thwarted females. There wasn’t a woman in the castle—except Mama and Lady Juliana—who didn’t hate her after Alexis’s announcement last night. Mrs. Beechwith hadn’t come out of her room all day, and one of the Dinkles had tried to kick her. The kick was what had sent her looking for de Granville.

He was with a dying man, though. Somehow she’d gotten the idea that the marquess ran the Dower House from afar. It never occurred to her that he would interest himself in the individuals under his roof. Kate glanced casually at the maid. The girl was bent over a railing, dust cloth rubbing madly. There wasn’t anyone else around.

On tiptoe, Kate sidled past the stairs and cracked open a pair of sliding doors. Before her lay a room lined with windows and full of single beds. Set close together, each bed contained a patient. Several women dressed in black with white aprons moved among the rows. Kate slipped inside the room, closed the doors, and bumped into a woman carrying a stack of linens.

“Excuse me,” Kate said in a low voice. “The marquess?”

The woman craned her neck to see over the linens. “Oh, Miss Grey. His lordship is in that alcove.”

Following the woman’s nod, Kate spotted a recess at the back of the room. She thanked the woman and approached the alcove slowly. Most of the men she passed were asleep. Some tossed and turned; some watched her with curious eyes. She smiled at them and crept close to the single bed set in the alcove.

The occupant was young, hardly more than a boy. His face was the color of dough and beaded with perspiration. Where his legs should have been, there was only sheet. He lay still with his eyes shut, but he was whispering to the marquess. Alexis was sitting on the bed beside the young soldier, on the side opposite Kate. His head was in profile to her, and she could see that he was having to lean close to hear what was said.

She wedged herself behind one of the supports of the archway that separated the alcove from the rest of the room.

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