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  Warning bells clamored in his head.

  “A landau,” Mrs. Addison repeated. “Someone to help with the children. What happens at the abbey is not your problem.”

  True. And Bridey had said the deerhounds had pups ready to train and sell. He could leave the women to their own devices. In the interest of looking after his own business, he stifled the warning of his instincts. “If you can convince the lady,” Will agreed grudgingly.

  He didn’t have to ride in the carriage with the lady, he told himself as messages flew back and forth between the inn and the castle. She would have footmen to help her in and out so he needn’t experience any more bolts of unseemly lust like last night, when he’d helped her off the cart and felt as if a choir of angels sang. That had probably just been the result of pure gratitude for the arrival of help.

  If he hadn’t made a rule about swiving the wenches in his mother’s inn, he’d occupy himself more usefully while he waited for a duke’s carriage to arrive. But his mother had suffered the village’s contempt for bearing his father’s bastard, and he wouldn’t submit another woman to the same. Besides, he could ill afford to support one. His savings were destined for a better purpose than a child he didn’t want. Miranda understood that, he thought.

  So Will spent his time badgering Butler by going over the inn’s books, suggesting changes, then criticizing the maids on their lazy housekeeping skills. He’d toted buckets and mops and polished every damned piece of furniture in the place in his youth. Maeve had beat cleanliness into his soul, and he’d discovered a penchant for it. It had kept his hands and mind busy last night, when he’d been helpless to do anything for the babe and its mother.

  By the time the lady and the landau arrived, he’d bathed and put on fresh clothes from the trunk he kept here. They weren’t fancy clothes like his half-brothers wore, but they were sturdy enough for riding in the steady rain and good enough for visiting Pascoe.

  He barely glimpsed Lady Aurelia while the grooms carried Mrs. Crockett down and the women settled her inside the carriage. He could hear Rose making her strange cries and suffered the sick realization that the child’s deafness could have been caused by a beating. It was a good thing to remove the family before Crockett returned from wherever he’d gone. If the world was lucky, the scoundrel had fallen off a cliff in a drunken rage.

  “The stagecoach said the London Road was clear and still solid,” he told the carriage driver. “We should make decent time.”

  “As long as we arrive before nightfall and there’s a stable for the team,” the driver said prosaically. “The lady don’t go out often. It’s good to take the cattle out every oncet in a while.”

  A fortune in carriages and horses and no one ever used them, Will mused, swinging onto his gelding. At least such waste kept carriage makers in business and the grooms employed.

  He caught a glimpse of Lady Aurelia inside the landau as he ordered the team into motion. She was a vision in blue velvet and lace, so far removed from his rough countryman’s world that he could only admire her like a painting on a wall. While he watched, she placed a hand on the window, and he could swear she mouthed a thank you.

  What the devil did she have to thank him for? Irritated that the gesture had buoyed him as if she’d given him his heart’s desire, he dug in his spurs and rode ahead to scout the road.

  As the daily noises of the village faded in the distance, Aurelia could let down her guard and pay more attention to her companions. Mrs. Crockett was too tall to comfortably occupy the rear-facing seat lying down, but they’d folded her up and covered her with blankets. That she was still fevered and unconscious was not a promising sign. Aurelia suspected childbed fever for which there was no real cure.

  Addy held the mewling babe. Rose sat between them, anxiously watching her mother, paying no attention to her new brother. A child that age had little understanding of childbirth, and it was almost impossible to communicate to explain. Rose clung to a doll that Phoebe had given her. Her puppy slept in a basket at their feet.

  “Are you certain that Mr. Madden wanted us to come?” Aurelia asked, hearing his horse riding far in the distance. “He seems to be avoiding us.”

  “He’s scouting the road ahead as a gentleman does,” Addy said reassuringly. “You know Lord Rainsford does the same when we go to London.”

  “Rain rides ahead to avoid our chatter,” Aurelia said in scorn. “He’s too toplofty to speak to mere females.”

  “And Mr. Madden isn’t?”

  Aurelia thought about it, remembering the clean cottage last night. Toplofty gentlemen did not bathe poor women, babes, and scrub floors. “Mr. Madden prefers the company of dogs, perhaps, but I don’t believe he’s toplofty.”

  “There you are, then. Hang Tiny out the window and see if that brings him,” Addy said with a chuckle.

  The woman on the far seat moaned and stirred feverishly. Aurelia dug into another basket for the sweetened water they’d brought to put between her lips in those brief moments she woke. Addy handed her the babe, transferred to the other seat, and held Mrs. Crockett’s head to persuade the liquid between her lips.

  “Mmmmaaaa?” Rose asked in concern, glancing from her mother to Aurelia.

  “Sleeping.” Bouncing the babe in one arm, Aurelia hugged the little girl, then imitated rocking the babe to sleep. She tilted her head, closed her eyes, and opened her lips in a mock snore. Straightening, she placed Rose’s fingers against her mouth as she’d seen her do the other day. “Ssssslllleeeeping.”

  Rose offered a tentative smile. “Ssssseepng.”

  “Good girl.” She pressed a kiss to the child’s curls and wondered if anyone knew how to teach the deaf to communicate. Rose was so smart, she deserved a chance in life.

  Reassured, the child snuggled down in the fur blanket covering the seat and slept. Whatever she’d suffered these past days had undoubtedly not allowed her to rest peacefully.

  Aurelia heard Will riding back at a gallop a while later. Anxiously, she watched out the window for a sign of him. When he appeared, he was mud spattered and looked impatient and unhappy. The coach driver slowed. Will cast a glance toward her, apparently worried that she would hear him. She could have told him that if he was upset, she’d hear him had he been miles down the road. Unfortunately.

  “Water has risen over the road about two miles out. A coach hit it taking a curve too fast and overturned. There’s baggage and people all over the place. We won’t drive through for another hour. There’s a decent inn at the next crossroads. We might as well stop and rest the team there.”

  An inn, oh dear. Aurelia grimaced. She’d certainly tolerated busy inns before, but it had been so peaceful rolling along open road with no people about. She’d hoped to have a long, quiet journey to prepare herself for the chaotic evening. She’d not met Bridey’s new husband. It would have been nice to be introduced while she was calm and not reacting like a halfwit.

  The landau pulled into a small inn that was probably more tavern than resting place. At this hour, there were no other carriages and only a trio of horses in the paddock. Aurelia breathed a sigh of relief. Her acute hearing picked up little more than men grumbling.

  Mr. Madden was waiting when the footman opened the carriage door. “I’ve had a word with the innkeeper. There’s a private salon available. Should I carry in Mrs. Crockett? There will be no bed.”

  “I’ll stay out here with her,” Addy offered. “The children need a fire and something warm in them.”

  “You’re the governess,” Aurelia protested. “You’re the one who should be with the children.” Then she could avoid the inn and its inhabitants.

  Mr. Madden impatiently offered his hand. “I’ll carry her inside. We’ll see what we can do about a pallet. The footmen deserve relief from this mizzle.”

  The servants would have had to huddle on the back of the carriage looking after her otherwise. Aurelia grimaced at her lack of understanding, took his hand, and stepped onto the planks over the s
ea of mud in the coach yard. Even though they both wore gloves, she could feel the heat and strength of him—and nickering horses and talking people faded into the distance. Strange, but restful.

  He released her to help Addy and Rose down, and she had to follow her footmen inside.

  The innkeeper hovered anxiously at the entrance. His eyes grew wide as Aurelia stepped out. She couldn’t pull her bonnet over her face and hold the babe at the same time. He wiped his hands on his apron and nearly fell over his feet to assist her over the planks and into the dreary tavern.

  Trying very hard to focus on the babe she carried and not the chaos in her head, Aurelia paid no attention to the men at the bar until one shouted, shattering her concentration.

  “Lady Aurelia! We thought you were ill!”

  She winced. She could stalk by and cut them cold, but she didn’t like being intentionally cruel when she was often inadvertently so. She glanced nervously for Addy, but her maid was following a serving girl down a dark corridor to the promised parlor.

  Aurelia hesitated near her footman, as far from the tavern seats as she could arrange. “Lord Clayton, Lord Baldwin, Lord Rush,” she acknowledged. “My sisters are ill. I’ve had the mumps before. Now, if you don’t mind. . .” She started after Addy again.

  “What are you doing here with him?” Lord Clayton demanded, throwing an angry look at the entrance.

  Oh dear. She hadn’t heard Mr. Madden enter. The man was a blessed wall of silence—except when he was not. His boots echoed loudly on the wooden floor as he caught up with her.

  “Excuse us.” She hurried down the corridor. She disliked argument even more than she disliked being cruel. She prayed Mr. Madden wasn’t a combative sort of man. Since he carried their patient, he could not get into too much trouble, she hoped.

  Even after escaping into the dark parlor and shutting the door, she could hear her suitors grumbling complaints. The babe cried. Rose made anxious sounds. The puppy yipped to be let out. Addy ushered orders to the inn maids for a pallet for their patient. And Aurelia could still hear her suitors’ low growls and epithets from the front of the tavern. Their anger, curiosity, and fear? carried their voices, but not as clearly as expected. Interesting. Did the castle carry sounds better than a tavern? She rubbed her temple and wished for ear muffs.

  A footman took out Tiny. Mr. Madden settled his burden on a pallet the maids carried in. Addy led Rose behind a screen to a chamber pot. The innkeeper arrived with a tray of tea and hot chocolate. How had Mr. Madden ordered all this so quickly? Shouldn’t she have been the one to order the servants about?

  But she didn’t have the experience, and Mr. Madden was a traveling gentleman who did. She offered him a tentative smile. “Thank you for seeing to our comfort.”

  He removed his wet cap to reveal his unruly tangle of bronze hair and bowed. “I’m the one who caused the discomfort in the first place. It’s the least I can do. I’ll wait in the tavern until we hear word that the road is open.”

  “Is that a good idea?” she asked worriedly. “They are saying very unpleasant things out there. I had no idea gentlemen could be so crude.”

  He quirked a wicked eyebrow. “You hear them? Then I should remind them that there is a lady present.” He bowed and walked out before she could stop him.

  Oh dear, she didn’t like the sound of that.

  “I think we need to start shouting again,” she said when Addy and Rose emerged from behind the screen.

  She winced as male voices carried more loudly through the walls.

  Chapter 6

  “Who the devil are you?” the drunker of the three lords shouted as Will entered the tavern. That would be the cad who had grabbed the lady after she’d ignored his proposal.

  Will signaled the innkeeper to serve the footmen and driver, placing a sovereign on the counter to quell any protest over what he was about to do.

  He’d learned early on that his aristocratic half-brothers might demand respect with their titles, names, and family crest, but a bit of gold commanded equal deference.

  Will picked up his ale, saluted the wary innkeeper, and took a warming sip.

  “I demand an answer, sir,” the lout insisted. “You are in the company of a peer of the realm and your obedience is expected.”

  Will snorted and took another drink. Did that lordlier-than-thou trick really work with other men? Maybe with those whose livelihood depended on the prick. That wouldn’t be him.

  Setting down his mug, Will straightened and grabbed the front of the drunk’s waistcoat. While the man with the book and the other with a lavender pocket handkerchief watched in shock, Will hauled the drunken lout’s muddy boots off the floor, and carried him out the front door. The peer of the realm squealed like a stuck pig, kicked, and threw futile punches, since Will’s arm extended well beyond the lord’s puny reach.

  He could explain that he was the son of a marquess, but he seldom saw good reason to bother when his name, character, and the company he kept should have the same effect. He flung the sot into the yard muck and placed his big boot on his chest to hold him down. “One does not accost the daughter of a duke in a public tavern. Sober up and call on her at her home with the duke’s permission.”

  While his holy lordship screamed and flailed, Will rummaged in the man’s coat and found his last coin wrapped in a handkerchief. “Your host deserves to be paid for his ale and trouble.”

  Out of habit, Will stuffed the linen in his pocket. Flipping the coin in his palm, he returned inside to lift his eyebrow at the other two lords, who didn’t appear inclined to help their friend. One of them, the older and more foppish of the pair, merely pulled on his mug and ignored the shouting in the yard.

  The other removed a pair of spectacles to peer at Will. “I say, you have the look of an Ives, except for the goldish hair. Are you a relation?”

  Will slapped the coin on the counter and returned to his ale. “One of the bastards,” he said, just because he felt like it. Anger simmered below his surface, but he had learned to deal with it.

  “Ah, that is why the duke trusts you with his daughter. You had only to explain.”

  “No, I had not. You and yon sot had no right to question the lady.” Ah, there was the reason he was simmering. He’d lived with insults to himself often enough not to care, but they had shouted at Lady Aurelia and thought her incapable of choosing her own companions. For some reason, that angered him, even though he considered her half-witted most times.

  The bespectacled lord had sense enough not to argue the point. He set down his mug and fumbled for his coin.

  “If you take away your friend out there, your drink is covered,” Will said, downing his ale. He knew he had the duke’s men at his back, but he didn’t see any reason for them to dirty their livery.

  “That’s generous of you,” the talkative lord said with a hint of wryness. Obviously, he wasn’t as drunk as the other. “Give the lady my respect, if you please, and tell her I will call again soon.”

  “After Rainsford returns,” Will suggested. “The lady will be visiting her cousin until then.”

  The lordling didn’t appreciate that, but he put on his high top hat and cloak and walked out. With a sigh of resignation, the older fellow did the same, cutting Will without a word of greeting. Bastards, after all, could be ignored by toplofty gentlemen.

  “Gentlemen like that often do not bother to pay, and there is naught I can do about it.” The innkeeper said, watching them ride away.

  Will had a lot of opinions on wealthy aristocrats who never paid their bills but expected the honor of their custom to be sufficient recompense. He didn’t express them aloud.

  His lips curled in amusement as he finally noticed the ladies shouting in the back parlor. Someday, he would like to understand the intriguing Lady Aurelia, who appeared to have more acute hearing than his dogs, but bastards weren’t welcome in the parlors of duke’s daughters.

  A stagecoach dropped off passengers a half hour later, signify
ing the road was open again. Aurelia eagerly escaped the increasingly noisy tavern for the silence of the road. She watched the enigmatic Mr. Madden with fascination as he arranged her entourage without speaking more than a word here and there.

  How had he silenced her suitors? She had known the instant they’d departed the building. Some men jangled restively simply by existing. No wonder she could hear nothing in their presence.

  She knew that her fascination with an itinerant dog handler was most likely due to his indifference and her boredom. Still, she had to wonder why other gentlemen couldn’t be as noiseless as he was.

  The rain let up as they drove south, and they arrived at Alder Abbey without further incident. Eager to see her cousin, fearful of the bedlam Mr. Madden had warned about, Aurelia leaned out the window to observe Bridey’s new home. She frowned as they traveled past the impressive entrance and down a side lane. Studying the medieval stone walls they passed, she realized this had once been an actual abbey with a cloister and a village of its own outside the walls. She could hear the shouts of children and the low chatter of voices inside beneath the closer sounds of the carriage horses. From the cries of excitement, she thought someone had seen them.

  The landau rolled beneath a stone arch and into a paved courtyard apparently added in more modern times. Judging by the mixed sounds, Bridey did not have a large household. Aurelia could hear people and dogs in a growing roar as they approached, but she wasn’t overwhelmed. Did the thick abbey walls muffle them a little? Or perhaps their happiness did not cause the pain of anger. Or unfamiliarity reduced her ability? She really must study the phenomenon more—should she ever leave the castle again.

  Recognizing her cousin running from one of the low stone buildings, Aurelia breathed a sigh of relief. Bridey had been married to her first husband when Aurelia was still playing with dolls, so they weren’t close. But she knew her cousin had been an unhappy countess and widow before meeting Sir Pascoe. Bridey had always been tall and strong, but now she looked radiant. Her cheeks and her rich auburn hair glowed in the last light of sunset.