Touch of a Scoundrel by Mia Marlowe

Author:Mia Marlowe [Marlowe, Mia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-07-29T14:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

There were no servants in residence, so the dark windows of Devonwood House peered onto the street like empty eyes. The town house seemed like a being whose spirit had flown. It was such a morbid thought, Emmaline’s throat ached and tears pressed at the back of her eyes.

Stop that, she ordered herself sternly. She followed Devon as he carried her father up the three flights of stairs to the Blue Suite. Monty wouldn’t be helped by a show of weepiness. She swiped her eyes.

“Turn up the gas sconce in the hall,” Devon said quietly.

“Of course.” Why hadn’t she thought of that? Instead she’d indulged in maudlin thoughts while she let him carry Monty in the dark. She skittered around Devon and hurried up to the next landing. She stretched to reach the knob that cranked up the amount of gas feeding into the fixture.

When yellowish light flooded the hall, the butler Baxter emerged from the shadows, brandishing what appeared to be a chair leg above his clumsily bandaged head. Emma drew back in shock.

“Oh, your pardon, miss,” he said as he lowered his unlikely weapon. “I thought the burglar might have returned with a few of his friends. Lord Devonwood, I am most relieved to see you. Oh, dear, has Dr. Farnsworth taken ill?”

Emmaline noticed Baxter was upset enough to set aside his stiff use of “one” for himself and spoke to them almost normally.

“Yes, he’s ill. Dr. Trowbridge is behind us, so don’t bash him on the head with that chair leg, Baxter,” Devon said. The butler dropped the offending leg as quickly as if it were afire.

Emmaline heard the doctor’s labored breathing on the landing below as he hauled his impressive girth up the three stories. “Did you say there was a burglary, Mr. Baxter?”

“In Dr. Farnsworth’s room, in fact,” the butler said, straightening to his usual ramrod posture and wrapping himself in his accustomed dignity. “When one returned from one’s evening off, one interrupted the brigand in the middle of his theft. The professor’s room is quite ransacked, milord. We’ll have to move Dr. Farnsworth into the Green Room for the time being until the rest of the staff returns and we can set things to rights tomorrow.”

“This way, doctor,” Devon said over his shoulder to Dr. Trowbridge who was still puffing up the stairs behind them. He started down the hall toward the Green Room.

“What did the burglar steal?” Emmaline asked Baxter, knowing Monty would fear that the Tetisheri statue was gone.

“One doesn’t know, miss,” Baxter said. “It was dark. One didn’t get a very good look at him. He was devilishly quick about giving one a clout to the head. A big chap, he was. An enormous big chap.”

“We’ll have the doctor take a look at your head after he sees to Dr. Farnsworth,” Devon said as he laid Monty down on the jade coverlet. Then he shepherded Emmaline from the room so Dr. Trowbridge could complete his examination.

“There’s nothing more you can do for him at the moment.

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