The Heart's Companion

"Royce!" shouted Sir Helmsdon.

Jane screamed, spilling wine down the front of her gown.

Straining and bunching his muscles, the earl twisted, throwing himself sideways. He came down on his left side, landing on his leg. His face twisted in agony as pain shot up his leg. Edward fell forward from the force of the earl’s movement to save him, his little body sprawling across Millicent as she landed on Royce’s chest. The earl’s breath went out in a whoosh, leaving him stunned and gasping.

Millicent screamed hysterically and batted at Edward, pushing at him. "Get off, you little monster! Oh, you’ve smashed my bonnet! It’s all your fault, you miserable brat!" she sobbed, clasping the earl’s broad chest. The earl winced and gulped air, his head shaking negatively, though no words would come.

Edward scrambled off her. "I didn’t do anything!" he cried. His lower lip trembled.

"Of course you didn’t," Jane snapped, her face white, her eyes glittering angrily. She grabbed Millicent by the arm and yanked her off the earl.

"Wha—Oh, my arm! Stop that, you’re hurting me!" Millicent wailed.

Jane ignored her, finally letting go of her arm when she was clear of the earl. Millicent landed smartly on her posterior and let out another screech. Jane gathered her skirts and hunkered down next to Royce.

"My lord, don’t move," she said earnestly. "Are you hurt?" She quickly scanned his body.

He nodded. "My ankle. Sprain, I think," he rasped out.

"Let me see," said Lady Elsbeth, coming up behind Jane. "Jane, we need to get him to lie back. Put his head on your lap and support his shoulders." She knelt down next to him and began to gently prod his legs. With the marquis’s assistance, she carefully lifted one leg off the other, then straightened the left leg, which had taken the brunt of the fall. The earl stiffened, his face white. Jane bit her lower lip as she watched him stoically accept Lady Elsbeth’s ministrations.

"We’d best cut that boot off," Lady Elsbeth said, raising her head to call out to Jeremy to fetch a knife.

"No!" protested Royce. "Pull it off."

"But my lord, your leg is already beginning to swell."

"Don’t cut the boot, damn it! Pull it off! I’ll not die, woman."

Lady Elsbeth raised an eyebrow at his rough manner, then pursed her lips. "Very well. Bertram, Edward, fetch cloths from the picnic hampers then run down and dip them in the lake. We’ll need the cold water to relieve some of the swelling. Millicent, have Jeremy bring the barouche down here. Sir Helmsdon, please help Jane hold Lord Royce down while John and I pull the boot off."

Jane’s eyes flickered upward at the use of Lord Conisbrough’s Christian name, but she made no comment. She felt Lord Royce’s muscles bunch as he prepared himself for the agony of having his boot removed.

Millicent opened her mouth to protest, then thought better of it. She flounced out of the Folly, meeting Jeremy halfway as he came to ascertain if there was anything he could do. Rudely she ordered him to bring the carriage about, then flung herself at her mother, sobbing of her aches and pains.

Serena requested Burry to bring her daughter a glass of wine to settle her poor nerves. "A fine mess you’ve made of this," she hissed, perfunctorily patting Millicent’s shoulder.

"But Mama—" Millicent protested, her brown eyes wet with tears.

"Anyone can see he’s dotty for those boys. Probably out of guilt for the way he treated his own son. You’d have done better to pretend a similar interest."

"In those brats?!"

"Hush! Yes. Your behavior was disgraceful! You’ll never win Royce now. We’ll have to arrange another situation."

Millicent brightened and sat up. "When?"

"Not until we’ve taken care of Jane. In the meantime, I want you to very prettily apologize to Lord Royce and Edward. Probably to your cousin, as well. Play up ill health, or whatever."

Millicent slouched back, mutinous. "I told him I felt faint. That’s why I leaned on him."

"Good. We’ll use that. Here’s Burry with your wine. Drink this, then I want you to lay back here and look interestingly pale and wan. When we return to the manor, stay in your room for the rest of the evening."

Down in the little temple, everyone was slowly relaxing. The earl’s boot was off. Carefully Lady Elsbeth wrapped the cold cloths the boys had brought up from the lake around the swollen ankle. Jane used an extra cloth to wipe away the perspiration beading on the earl’s forehead.

"I advise you to rest for a moment before we jostle you further to get you into the carriage."

The earl smiled thinly. "At this point. Lady Elsbeth, I do not think I could do anything but rest."

Lady Elsbeth rolled back on her heels and allowed Lord Conisbrough to help her to her feet. She shook out her skirts. "I have some salves I should like to put on it when we get back to the house. They will help relieve the pain and take down some of the swelling. You will, of course, remain at Penwick overnight. Lord Conisbrough is welcome, as well. We shall send a groom to Royceland with a message to your people. They can send over anything you’ll need."

Lord Royce opened his mouth to protest, then closed it. He turned his head to look at Conisbrough. "Wellington could have used her on the peninsula," he observed, faintly smiling.

Everyone laughed, the tensions broken. Lady Elsbeth blushed.

Royce struggled up on his elbows. "If I must get up sometime, we might as well get it over with."

Helmsdon and Conisbrough each grabbed an arm and hoisted him up, then they put his arms about their shoulders and half carried, half led him to the carriage. Lady Elsbeth got in first and instructed Jane to get in as well and sit opposite her. "Do not try to get up on a seat, my lord. Just slide backwards on the floor. The less weight you try to place on the ankle, the better." She looked up at Conisbrough and Helmsdon. "Please see that the others get back safely. Give them our apologies, of course. We’ll meet you back at Penwick," she said, waving her arm at the groom and signaling him to set off.

At Penwick two strapping grooms carried the earl into the house. Lady Elsbeth directed them to take him to the third bedroom in the ground floor family apartments. Jane looked at her quizzically.

"It is fortunate we had these rooms cleaned. The stairs would be much too difficult to maneuver," her aunt responded.

"I agree. But won’t the others think it a trifle. . .odd?"

"I am more concerned with Lord Royce’s speedy recovery than I am the glib tongues of our guests."

Jane laughed. "Just remember the quote about gossip you copied in your journal and made me read."

"Touché, my dear. It is always easier to preach than to practice. But what would they expect a man with a game leg to be able to do? Let alone wish to do, under the circumstances," she said, a hint of acerbic humor coloring her words. "I have to go to the stillroom for my salves. Would you please request Mrs. Phibbs to get some clean linens to wrap the ankle in? Then you’d best see about taking his lordship a large medicinal glass of port. After the jarring the ankle has taken already, it will hurt when I touch it, but we have no choice."

"Lord Royce was correct. You would have been an able commander!" Jane wryly observed before she went off to do her aunt’s bidding.

The guests and the children arrived at Penwick as Elsbeth was preparing to slather one of her salves on the earl’s ankle. Lady Serena insisted on visiting with the earl to offer her sympathies. The rest of the picnic party followed, trooping through the small bedroom in order to see for themselves that he was not seriously hurt and that Lady Elsbeth could be trusted to bandage his ankle. While their questions ruffled Lady Elsbeth, they served to amuse the earl. Soon he was laughing and exchanging quips with the marquis and promising Sir Helmsdon he’d serve him a like turn.

Lady Serena came up beside her younger sister, her back pointedly to the earl. "Elsbeth, a word, please." she said, sotto voce.

"Not now." Elsbeth turned toward Jane, who stood at the side of the bed cutting linen bandages. "Hand me that piece of cloth, would you please? I want to put it over the bedclothes before I put the salve on. This mixture stains dreadfully."

"Elsbeth! This is important!"

"Then talk to me while I rub salve over Lord Royce’s ankle," Lady Elsbeth returned, her attention on her work.

Lady Serena looked at her, disgusted. "I don’t think the earl should be in this isolated wing with you and Jane. It’s unseemly! He should be moved upstairs with the rest of the guests. Frankly, I can’t see why you stay down in this drafty old set of rooms. There are plenty of rooms upstairs."

"Why do you want the earl upstairs?" Jane asked softly, not caring if her aunt knew she eavesdropped. She made a mental note to chastise herself later for succumbing to Jeremy’s failing. "Would it be so Millicent can conveniently walk in her sleep again?"

Lady Serena glanced disdainfully at Jane, as if she were unworthy of notice. Lady Elsbeth looked at her sister, and then at Jane. "Mr. Hedgeworth?" she asked, amused. She suddenly understood how Millicent had captured her husband.

Her sister’s nostrils flared and her jaw grew rigid. "Don’t be ridiculous!" she snapped. She spun away and stood stiffly by Mr. Burry.

With mock gruffness, Lady Elsbeth shooed everyone toward the door so that she could bandage the earl’s ankle.

Ignoring her sister, Lady Serena folded her hands in front of her and sighed theatrically for the benefit of the others. "Two invalids from an outdoor entertainment. I warned you how it would be, Elsbeth." She was outwardly calm, but anger colored her words.

"Two?" Elsbeth repeated, puzzled.

"My poor dear Millicent is right now upstairs, alone, prostrate from the heat."

Jane glanced up, astonished. She exchanged smiles of surprised amusement with the earl.

Lady Serena saw Jane’s astonishment turning to laughter. "Millicent is a delicate, refined creature," she said archly, implying that Jane was not. "She is devastated by the accident her fainting spell caused. Though I understand, after listening to the boys' ceaseless chatter, that the actual fault must lie with you, Sir Helmsdon. It was your toy that Lord Royce so unfortunately slipped on. Ah, well," she continued quickly, refusing to allow Sir Helmsdon an answer, "there is no coin in consideration of what might have been. Now my poor Millicent bears two burdens: her ill health and her guilt. Not to mention the dreadful bruises I fear will show by morning. Poor child. Elsbeth, do you have some medicine that might also relieve my daughter’s suffering?"

Lady Elsbeth nodded. "When I’ve finished here," she said shortly, not trusting herself to say more.

Lady Serena smiled. "Of course. Now, everyone out so my sister may tend to Lord Royce and afterward, dear Millicent." She held the door open and looked pointedly at the others. All but Jane and Lord Conisbrough moved to obey. She pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow. "Do you think it wise, Elsbeth, for Jane to stay in a man’s room?" she said for all to hear.

"I have need of Jane’s assistance. The only problems I could foresee would be those created by malicious, unwarranted gossip. Be that as it may, Serena, what is it you expect the earl to do in his present state?"

Lady Serena spasmodically opened and closed her mouth like a landed fish. Then color rose up her neck and her eyebrows pulled together. "There is no need to be crude, Elsbeth," she said austerely, tossing her head in the air and leaving the room. The door closed smartly behind her.

Those left in the room were silent a moment, then burst into laughter.

"We should not laugh," Lady Elsbeth said, taking a strip of cloth from Jane and winding it around the earl’s ankle. "Millicent may indeed be ill."

"Elsbeth, I can assure you the only illnesses Millicent is suffering from are jealousy and embarrassment. "

"You should be flattered, Miss Grantley," said the earl, toasting her silently with his port glass.

Jane flushed. "Oh, not of me, my lord. Of my nephews. You were paying more attention to two ‘scrubby schoolroom brats’ than to her."

The earl sighed heavily. "I knew it would somehow come around to being my fault," he said ruefully.

"You would have done better to hit your ankle with a cricket bat," Lord Conisbrough offered as he held up the injured member to allow Lady Elsbeth to bandage it.

"Oh, but this was so much more dramatic, I think!" Jane declared, her green eyes glinting. "I do have a complaint with you over this, Lord Royce. You have quite spoiled my plans for tomorrow’s entertainments. We were planning games and recreations for tomorrow. My brother-in-law is a great sport and game enthusiast, consequently Penwick is furnished with all manner of equipment. Court tennis, pall mall, battledore and shuttlecock, shovelboard, archery—"

"Enough, Miss Grantley!" Royce said, laughing. "I perceive my clumsiness was well-timed. Lady Elsbeth, how long will you have me trussed up in this manner?" he asked, waving his hand to indicate the thick bandage wrapped about his ankle.

Lady Elsbeth rinsed her hands of the salve. "Not for long, my lord. You will be surprised, come morning, to discover that the ankle will begin to bear weight, though it will be best to avoid walking and to keep it as immobile as possible. The salve will take down most of the swelling and should soothe the ankle. I must apply the salve twice a day as long as any swelling exists, then once a day for two to three days more. Now I suggest you rest. Come, Jane, we’ve left our guests to their own devices far too long."

Jane nodded and began to move away from the bed only to feel her hand captured by a strong, masculine one. She looked around in confusion.

Royce smiled. It was a smile that reached his eyes, lighting the darkest, shadow-haunted, corners. It was the roguish smile that gave truth to his sobriquet, the Devil’s Disciple. Jane felt a rush of liquid warmth surging through her body. It was followed by those strange, prickly tingles.

"Thank you," he said softly. He grinned, then released her hand.

She nodded and turned to follow her aunt out the door, an unreasoning disappointment settling in the vicinity of her heart.