“I beg your pardon?”
He laughed softly as he went and pulled the wine shelf in place then shut the door before returning to her. “Sit and undo your gown. You will not shock me and you need to help those wounds on your back heal.”
“How do you know I have any wounds upon my back?”
“Because she used to do the same to me, several times before I grew too big for her to easily do it and make me sit still for it. Is she still upstairs?” he asked as she undid her gown and, while holding it close in the front to try to maintain her modesty, tugged it down to her waist in the back.
Simeon winced. Augusta had not lost her touch. The marks of the caning were long, criss-crossing the woman’s smooth, slender back from shoulder to waist.
“Nay,” the woman whispered in reply. “She came looking for answers and I gave her none she wanted to hear. Somehow they knew that you had come into the alley and wanted to know if I had seen you. They did not trust my reply when I said I had not.”
“Did you tell her any of the other things you can see or know about her?”
“Nay, I wanted to. I wanted to tell her she would never win, to describe the twisted evil inside her, and even how the one person she hates more than she hated your father will see to the ending of her but I knew better. She will leave none alive.”
“I have guessed that myself. You are lucky she left you alive. And so am I for there was no way for me to escape from here without you and the key to the door.” He caught the sound of her soft gasp as she looked over her shoulder. “I would have died in here, slowly, if anything had happened to you.”
“I will not lock it again.”
“Thank you. Just why are you still alive? You have become a witness to the fact that Augusta is not the genteel lady of the manor she pretends to be. No matter what you told her she may still think you have some knowledge, and that would mean you have to join the rolls of the dead she has left in her wake.”
“She left her men to tend to the finishing of me. I scared them away.”
Done treating the cane marks with the salve, Simeon moved to sit on the table facing her. “You scared them? How?”
“I told them how they would die.”
“Then they will go and kill Augusta. That would only be a help to us.”
“Nay, not yet. I did not tell them it was she who did the killing, although they believe she will in the end. She only orders it and then she will end the killer last. I did not tell them that. I only told them how they would die in great detail.” She turned sideways to keep her modesty as she redid her gown. “It near to made me vomit to do it as their deaths could be bloody and vicious, but I did it. They ran.”
“And I think that is what you should do. Run. As far and as fast as you can.”
“That is my plan. We head to your uncle George’s on the morrow before the sun fully rises. I just need to collect a few things.”
“I truly appreciate what you have done for me, except for locking me in of course, but I can get to my uncle’s on my own.”
“Nay, we cannot change what I have seen. I saw me with you so be ready.” She stood up and started to open the doors.
“I will try to be but I can promise nothing. There is so much to pack for the journey, you know.”
“You are behaving very badly, my lord.”
Simeon laughed. He waited to hear the locks turned but there was no sound and he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he sat at the table to eat the meal she had brought him and tried not to think too much on all the mistakes he had made concerning his aunt Augusta, mistakes that may have cost him his father.
Bened groaned his disappointment when he woke to find himself alone in the bed. After last night he had hoped to enjoy a romantic morning, to have some time to show Primrose that he could actually be romantic instead of just a rutting goat. Bened knew what others thought of him. Big and strong, a man of few words and little humor. He was the one they all called on when they needed someone to watch their backs, protect someone they loved, or help them hunt down the enemy. He was dependable, the protector, occasionally the hunter.
Lying on his back and lightly scratching his belly, Bened now wanted to be seen as a lover, as someone who knew how to laugh. He wanted people to see his strength but also his softer side. The trouble was he was not all that certain he had one. What he was sure of was that he wanted a touch of the courtier at the moment. He wanted to be able to woo Primrose with sweet words, the kind of words that touched a woman’s heart.