terrible ordeal!"
"Elsbeth, I cannot put off maudlin missishness, as you call it, if I am relegated to this bed. Besides, I have business with the true author of this little fiasco. "
Lady Elsbeth sighed and stood away from the bed to let Mrs. O'Rourke help Jane into her wrapper. "I’m afraid you’ll not get satisfaction there. I don’t know how, but she feels entirely justified in her actions. How can one chastise another if that other sees no wrong? Believe me, I have tried. All I get from her is how she wished to free me."
"Free you? I don’t understand."
"Neither do I," Lady Elsbeth said grimly. "But, if you insist on getting up, I’ll order you something to eat."
"Fine, only I want coffee, not tea."
"Now Jane, an herbal tea—"
"No," Jane said, laughing. "I know you swear by your herbals, but please, I’d prefer coffee."
"All right, coffee," her aunt grumbled, pursing her lips in displeasure. But she couldn’t keep the expression long. Her lips began to twitch and soon she was laughing with her niece. "I cry craven! Mrs. O'Rourke, please order Jane something to eat,with coffee!"
"Laugh if ye will, but know it is the devil’s oon work afoot. And that trickiest of tricksters, he’s not done yet, mark me words. "
They watched the Irish woman shuffle toward the door muttering words and curses.
"Seriously, what are we to do about Serena?" Elsbeth asked once Mrs. O'Rourke was safely out of the room.
"I don’t know, though I would very much like to know what is behind her little machinations."
"I wouldn’t call kidnapping you and nearly forcing you into a distasteful marriage little! But neither can I keep her locked in a storeroom indefinitely."
Jane laughed. "Elsbeth! Is that where she is?"
"Yes. I locked her in yesterday. And it really isn’t a storeroom. I locked her upstairs in that disused antechamber at the end of the hall. I understand from the servants who have taken her food that she has stripped the furniture of Holland covers and made herself comfortable, though she is calling down all manner of curses upon your head."
"My head?"
"As you would call her the author of this fiasco, so she would call you," Elsbeth said dryly.
Jane sighed. "I suppose you’re correct." She went to the wardrobe and pulled out a green spring muslin dress ornamented with pale pumpkin braid and yellow embroidery. She held it out in front of her, turning from side to side as she judged its effect in the tall mirror. "I feel as if I should wear black. However, under the circumstances, I don’t wish to dress the Ice Witch part. Spring is much more in keeping. What of Conisbrough and Royce?"
"What of them?"
"Are they still here?"
"Gracious, yes. At a minimum it would take an order from the regent to dislodge them! Between them they have decided to be our protectorates, and no amount of argument will nay say them. Not even Lord Royce’s ankle will come in the way of what they see as their duty," Lady Elsbeth said, laughing lightly.
"Lord Royce is situated, or I should say holding court, upon a settee in the parlor. I argued for his room and bed. He answered that would be unseemly for private discourse with yourself. Something he is anxious to pursue?" she suggested archly, an amused laugh hovering on her lips.
"I really don’t know," Jane said, startled at how that admission hurt, like an ill-timed blow to the stomach. Was she merely some duty he’d assumed—or something to relieve the tedium of the country? Either answer lowered her spirits further, though she was careful not to reveal that to Lady Elsbeth.
"His ankle is the worse for wear," her aunt was saying, "but has not, thankfully, suffered lasting injury. I have rebandaged it and instructed him not to pick up objects larger than his boot!"
Jane blushed, for she knew it was his arms that had caught her as she’d swooned. And it was toward his body that she had contentedly curled.
"Mr. Nagel has kindly offered the earl the use of his crutches for the day; his activities, being limited to his small apartment, do not demand extensive walking. His only request was that the boys come to visit him to regale him with the events of the past few days."
"The old softie," Jane murmured. "He just will not admit how much those boys mean to him."
"And he was not happy to hear that the boys were not available today. "
"Oh?" Jane asked, pausing as she pulled up