Proper Scoundrel (10 page)

“Eloisa,” she said. “Eloisa Haw ... Higgins.”

Jade and Marcus noted her hesitation and regarded each other.

“Hello Eloisa. I’m Jade. And this is Marcus. Will you let him carry you to a room where you can rest more comfortably?”

Eloisa nodded weakly.

“How do you feel,” Marcus asked, shifting Eloisa’s ratty hair from her eyes.

The smile she gave him transformed her, making one forget anything about her except her beauty.

Good Lord, Jade thought, Eloisa was already half in love with Marcus. If she fell that fast, no wonder her present delicate condition.

Eloisa grimaced in discomfort. “They said to come here and the crazy lady would help me.”

Marcus muffled his chuckle.

Eloisa scanned the faces around her. “I only need a warm place to have my baby. I won’t be a burden. If I could sleep for a bit, I could work for my supper.”

“Shh,” Jade soothed. “Don’t worry about that. You’ll stay for as long as you need, eat three nourishing meals a day and have a fine healthy baby. We needed some excitement around here. No payment necessary.”

“Are you the lady?”

Jade nodded.

“You don’t seem crazy.”

“That’s curious, because today I feel especially so. But don’t be frightened. I’m harmless.”

Eloisa’s torso trembled with an amusement too weak to express as her threadbare shawl slipped to the floor revealing arms riddled with bruises.

Jade gazed at Marcus who’d seen them too. “Did somebody hurt you?” Jade asked her.

“I fell,” she said. “Really.”

“Where the devil is Beecher?” Marcus shouted.

“This cold floor can’t be doing you any good,” Jade said. “Marcus will bring you to a nice room with a warm bed and I’ll be right there to tend you.”

Jade looked up at Marcus. “Why don’t you try to move her now. But stop if she cries out.”

Impressed at the way Jade took matters in hand, Marcus nodded and began to lift the pregnant woman, hesitating only when she gasped. “Are you sure you’re up to this?” he asked her.

When Eloisa nodded, he pulled her fully into his arms, then he got to his feet and looked to Jade for directions as to where to take her.

Voices from another direction had him turning in time to see Ivy push Garrett’s wheelchair through the door. Pleased to see his brother, Marcus was nevertheless amused by the look on Garrett’s face, which was nothing short of stunned.

Garrett’s gaze shifted from him to the very pregnant woman in his arms and back again. “Marcus Fitzalan,” he said in his haughty aristocratic voice. “What wild scrape have you gotten yourself into this time?”

Marcus swept Jade and the members of her household with a glance. “Jade, ladies and gentlemen, I’d like you to meet my brother Garrett. He’s going to be staying with us for a few weeks.” He raised a brow his brother’s way. “Unless I kick him out sooner.”

Garrett grinned.

“My armful, by the way, Garrett, is Eloisa Higgins. She may be barely strong enough to hang on, and pardon me for saying this, Eloisa, but why your condition is referred to as delicate is beyond me. The more appropriate description that comes to mind right now is ... weighty.”

“Chivalrous as always,” Garrett drawled, a gleam in his eye.

Marcus seized the gauntlet in a blink. “Show us true valour, then,” he said, placing Eloisa in his astonished brother’s arms.

Eloisa safely settled, Marcus stepped back and flexed his arms, appreciating the sight of his knave brother with a pregnant young woman in his lap. “Much better, and vastly amusing,” Marcus said.

No sooner had he said it than Garrett’s eyes widened and he gasped in surprise. “Something is warming my ... I’m wet!”

“I couldn’t help it!” the mortified woman wailed hiding her face in Garrett’s coat. “Something ... broke,” she added, her voice muffled.

Marcus fell back against the wall laughing. Every time he tried to catch his breath, he’d look at Garrett’s aristocratic indignation and start laughing again.

As fascinated by Marcus’s unbridled laughter as by the obvious bond between him and his brother, Jade saw love, there, between them, in their banter and laughter. Even in the fact that Marcus wanted Garrett here, and Garrett came.

Marcus accepted his brother’s limitations without making him seem limited. He didn’t take the wheelchair as a problem. He managed to employ it by making Garrett a necessary part of their activity.

He’d initiated Garrett into the household with a vengeance, actually, but not in such a different way as when a woman like Eloisa usually arrived. The experience was always traumatic, especially to the new arrival, but she was swept quickly and naturally into the household, though never as humorously.

“Er, excuse me,” Garrett said. “Jade, is it? I believe this young lady is ... uncomfortable.”

“Oh!” Jade snapped to attention.

Marcus jolted to action as well. “Does anybody know where Beecher is?”

“Town case,” Lester said. “Didn’t think he’d be back tonight. Old Lady Murray’s got pneumonia.”

“Wonderful,” Jade said. “Marcus, will you take Garrett with Eloisa to ...” She mentally considered rooms accessible to a wheel chair. “The fourth door off the east wing hall, this level.” She pointed. “The hall off that one. It’s the biggest bedroom down here—big enough for a cradle. And the room next to it will suit Garrett admirably, I believe. Oh and Marcus, don’t leave them too soon; you’ll need to lift Eloisa from Garrett’s arms and put her into the bed once it’s made up.”

“Right.”

“Sofia, do you mind seeing to linens, soap and towels enough for Garrett’s and Eloisa’s rooms, then see if you can find Frederick to make up their beds? Garrett will want to change into some clean and dry clothes and put his things away. I’d appreciate it if you’d also help Eloisa wash up.”

Sofia nodded and left.

Jade regarded the members of her household who were milling about. “I don’t suppose any of you ever delivered a baby?” Silence.

“I have,” Garrett said. “But I’d rather not do it alone.”

“I can help,” Marcus added, noting her surprise. “A carriage broke down near our place in a storm a few years ago. The woman, birthing her seventh, thank God, told us what to do. Garrett took charge, and saved the day.”

“Marc served as my babbling-idiot apprentice.”

Marcus gave a rueful half-smile. “It’s true.”

Jade laughed, rattled out of countenance. Of everyone, the seditious Scoundrels were the last she’d expected to come forward.

“Actually,” Garrett said. “I was thinking of a woman.”

“Naturally,” Marcus said.

Garrett ignored him. “When the time came, Marc settled down nicely and served as a great help, so between us, we can do it. But we’d do better, and so would Eloisa, with a woman who has experience delivering a child.”

Jade turned to a slight touch on her arm, surprised to see Abigail standing beside her. “I ... I can help,” Abigail said. “I have a little experience.”

Jade looked from the two most virile men she’d ever beheld to the frightened woman beside her and couldn’t believe Abigail had spoken in their presence.

“Are you certain, Abigail?” Jade asked.

Abigail’s nod professed willingness, though it could not be termed a wholehearted eagerness.

Nevertheless, Jade accepted with gratitude. “Garrett, this is Abigail Pargeter.”

Garrett extended his free hand toward Abigail, as Marcus had done with Emily.

Two gentlemen, Jade mused. A double paradox. Were they unique? Or were there more like them? If so, would that make her grandmother wrong?

Abigail regarded Garrett’s big strong hand as if it were a snake about to strike.

Expecting her to bolt, Jade wondered who among the women could possibly—

“Abigail,” Garrett said softly. “We need you. Eloisa needs you.”

Abigail’s breath shuddered out of her. She straightened her shoulders, stepped forward and—most surprising—placed her trembling hand in Garrett’s.

He squeezed it. “Thank you. I can already see that you’re a generous and brave woman.”

“Lead the way, Abigail,” Marcus said normalizing the fraught moment and pushing Garrett’s chair forward.

Every soul in that foyer stood still as stone watching the unlikely group depart, each face reflecting stunned amazement.

Jade released her breath. “Lester, since Beecher is away, would you mind putting some water on to boil? Kettles on every burner, I should think, and keep it coming.”

People drifted back to work, or to lessons or offspring. Lester, or one of the women, must have taken the children away some time before, Jade realized.

She noticed Ivy sitting on the bottom step of the main staircase watching her. Dropping down to sit beside him, she pulled her knees up, wrapped her arms around them, and allowed the tense muscles in her shoulders to relax, the sigh that escaped her, rife with responsibility.

“You did good, little girl.”

She lay her head on the shoulder of the man she rather thought of as a surrogate father. “Thanks Ivy, though I feel as if I’ve made fifty horrid mistakes already today, but I’m not sure what they are.”

“Nothing that can’t be fixed, I’d warrant. You certainly welcomed some interesting new members into this incredible household of yours today.

She chuckled.

Ivy pointed with his chin. “Look, here comes another.”

Mama cat was moving in after all, her poor kitten still dangling by its scruff. “Has she been there all this time?” Ivy chuckled. “No. That’s a different kitten. Look over there.”

Tweenie, not much bigger than the mother cat, curled up between an umbrella stand and a bootjack, was giving a kitten a licking-wash while Mama cat placed kitten number five into her red-puppy protection.

“I don’t believe it,” Jade said.

“Like doesn’t always seek like,” Ivy said. “It’s called balance. What are you going to do now?”

Jade kissed his cheek and stood. “I’m going to go up to the attic and fetch a lovely old cradle to welcome a new baby into the household. And then I’m going to think about fixing at least one of my mistakes. Add some balance to my life.”

“That’s my girl.”

Jade managed easily enough to locate the cradle, more dusty and cobweb-draped than lovely at the moment. She was having a devil of a time getting it down the steep, narrow stairs from the attic, however, when someone wrestled it from her grasp.

“Oh, it’s you Marcus.” She placed a hand to her heart. “Thank you. The cradle blocked my view and I didn’t see you.”

“Or the steps, I gather. When Ivy told me where you’d gone, I feared you’d break your neck. And you were close.” He mumbled something about damned foolish females getting themselves into dangerous situations.

Jade didn’t think he referred solely to the danger of stairs. “Your frustration is because of your need to rescue damsels in distress, is it not?” she asked.

“Business is shot for today,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

Disappointed he didn’t react to her tease, she waved away his protest and followed him down another flight. “Work at Peacehaven Manor is different from the more conventional places of employment. We do what we’re called upon to do whenever and wherever. I suppose I should have made that clear your first day, but you’re adapting well enough. Emily, for instance—”

“Is not work!” Marcus threw her a thunderous scowl.

Nevertheless, a few silent minutes later, he placed the cradle gently on the floor in a quiet corner of the kitchen and picked up a rag to help her clean it.

“Thank you,” Jade said after a bit. “Emily is fortunate to have you.”