“Oh, I just . . . the leg is an old injury. As for the head, well, I took a blow earlier,” he admitted reluctantly, and quickly added, “But that was hours ago and I’m sure it’s fine. I’ll just—”

“Sit down and I shall take a look at it after I tend Daniel and Suzette,” Lady Catherine ordered firmly.

Cedrick Madison sighed, his shoulders slumping, and then moved to sit in one of the chairs by the fire.

Suzette, Christiana and Lisa had been watching this all rather wide-eyed, but as Lady Woodrow moved to a now topless Daniel they all glanced at each other and suddenly burst out in grins. They had grown up pretty much without a mother, and really, Lady Catherine Woodrow was a revelation of sorts.

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Suzette opened her eyes to a warm fire-lit room and glanced sleepily around, wondering where she was.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

The comment drew her gaze to a chair by the fireplace and the woman getting up from it. Daniel’s mother. Lady Woodrow had tended Daniel’s back and let him leave, with a firm admonishment to be careful, as he’d headed out to help Richard and Robert search the area for Danvers. She’d then tended Suzette’s head wound, cleaning it but deciding it didn’t need stitching, before giving her something absolutely vile to drink and telling her to sleep. Suzette had obediently lain down and closed her eyes as Lady Woodrow had moved on to tend to her father. She’d been sure she wouldn’t sleep though. Her head had been pounding horribly. However, she had drifted off in the end, though she wasn’t sure for how long.

“How are you feeling?” Lady Woodrow asked, pausing beside the bed and bending to press the back of her hand to Suzette’s forehead. “You don’t have a fever. Does your head hurt?”

Suzette shook her head slowly. “No. Thank you.”

“Good.” She nodded with satisfaction.

“Did they find Jeremy?” Suzette asked, glancing toward the door.

“You haven’t been asleep very long. They are still looking,” Lady Woodrow said and then grimaced. “I suspect they won’t find him though. He must have spotted us at the inn and judging from that letter he sent supposedly from Daniel, he seems smart enough to go to ground like a fox in the hunt. I’m sure it’s not the last we’ll see of him though.”

“The letter? You read it?” Suzette asked weakly, her stomach turning over when the woman nodded.

Lady Woodrow considered her expression, and then settled on the side of the bed and took one of her hands in her own. “That letter was meant to make you feel shame, but you shouldn’t.”

“Shouldn’t I?” Suzette asked on a sigh. It hadn’t exactly been proper behavior as the letter had pointed out.