The Countess Page 0,30

affected her after al ," Lisa said with concern, taking her other arm as the world tilted again and Christiana stumbled in her direction.

"Surely two drinks wouldn't affect her this much," Suzette protested.

"Two drinks on an empty stomach might," Lisa reasoned.

"Three drinks," Christiana muttered.

"Three?" Suzette peered at her with surprise. "When did you have a third one?"

"A firsht one," Christiana corrected and paused to frown at the slur. She spoke with more care as she explained. "I drank Dicky's whiskey earlier." She frowned when whiskey came out as "whishkey," but then decided it didn't matter and admitted, "It's okay though, I actual y feel good."

"Oh dear," Lisa said.

Suzette merely shook her head. "Wel , at least she feels good, probably for the first time since marrying that odious man. No doubt he did make a deal with the devil to return."

" 'S what I said," Christiana pointed out, stopping to wave her finger at Suzette.

Unfortunately, Suzette's grip on her arm prevented it.

Lisa sighed pitiably. "What are we going to do, Suzie? We can't let her stay married to him."

"Oh don' worry. I'l fix it," Christiana assured her, wondering why they were stil standing there in the entry.

"How?" Lisa asked dubiously.

"I'l get to the bottom of it," Christiana answered blithely, and then burst out laughing at what to her seemed a very clever play on words. Her sisters were less impressed and merely watched her cackle, and then exchanged a worried glance.

"Perhaps we'd best get her to bed," Lisa murmured. "She appears to be getting worse."

"Aye," Suzette said dryly and they urged her to and up the stairs.

"Never fear, Chrissy," Lisa patted the arm she held as they reached the upper hal . "We wil see you tucked safely in your bed so you can sleep off the effects."

"I can't sleep," Christiana protested, tugging on her arms. "I need to see Dicky.

Where's Dicky?"

"Now I know I shal never drink," Suzette said dryly. "If it affects the mind to the point that she would actual y want to see that blasted man, then I shal never touch a drop."

Christiana blinked in surprise. "I don't want to see Dicky."

"But you just said you did," Lisa protested as they reached the door to her bed chamber.

"Did I?" Christiana asked a bit befuddled as they urged her into the room. She then shook her head and explained, "Wel , I don't want to see him."

"That's good," Suzette muttered as she closed the door.

"I just want to see his bottom," Christiana explained and frowned as see came out "shee."

"What? "

Christiana scowled at the screeched word, noting that the loudest screech of al came not from her sisters, but from Grace, who was pushing herself out of the chair by the fire where she'd apparently been awaiting her return.

"What what?" Christiana asked, perplexed by their upset as the maid rushed across the room to join them. It al made perfect sense to her. "I half to get Nicky naked," she explained and then frowned and corrected herself. "Dicky daked. No, that's not right either." She heaved a sigh and pul ed free of her sisters to weave her way across the room, waving one hand expansively as she added, "Wel , you know what I mean."

"Not real y," Suzette said dryly. "Why do you not explain it to us?"

Christiana turned back to her sisters, most distressed to find her earlier good cheer suddenly replaced with a deep depression, and then blurted mournful y, "Do you know I've never seen Dicky daked? A wife should see a naked Nicky."

"Or even a naked Dick," Suzette put in dryly.

"Suzie!" Lisa gasped, blushing furiously.

"What? It's his name," Suzette pointed out.

The words were innocent enough, but mirth was curving the corners of her sister's lips and Christiana was sure there was a joke there she was missing. However, she was rather consumed with the need to see Dicky's bare bottom, not to mention a bit distressed that the room would not stop swinging about her. It seemed to her that her room had never moved before and shouldn't be now. She'd heard that rooms on ships moved though, so perhaps they'd brought her to a ship rather than home, she reasoned as she sat on the edge of her bed. "I don't feel good. Can you make the boat stop pitching about?"

"Oh dear, are you going to be sick?" Lisa asked and Christiana noticed that she took a step or two back. Lisa never had been good with il ness.

"She probably wil