“We start by coming up with a way to get me out of here.”
“Where do you need to go?” Belle asked. “Perhaps, I could go for you.”
“No.” Elisa shook her head. “I must see to this myself. Besides, I’m not completely certain what I’m looking for. I must search with my own eyes.”
Belle nodded and looked around the room. She twisted her lips slightly. “Your brother has his house protected like a fortress. He’ll never let you out. We could slip away while you’re at a party during the Season.”
Elisa shook her head. “I don’t want to do anything that would worry my father.” She’d already caused him enough turmoil as it were.
“This seems like the most impossible thing to accomplish.” Belle got to her feet and moved to the window. There was a smile on her lips.
Elisa frowned. “You think this impossible?”
“Yes, and I adore impossibilities. Finding a way through them is what I do best.” She turned to Elisa. “You were always quite good at charades. Tell me, Elisa, are you still any good at acting?”
∫ ∫ ∫
4 1
* * *
“Will Lady Elisa and Lord Reddington not be joining us?” Nicholas asked as the men settled into the parlor before dinner. It was the first thing he’d asked after introducing Dr. Sparrow to Lord Upton. Being a part of Van Dero’s private society, Sparrow had already been told everything everyone knew about Lord Upton.
He’d been anxious to meet the man.
Avery brooded by the empty hearth. “No, unfortunately, my father is not up for the occasion. The ball took most of his energy and my sister… Lady Elisa is not feeling well.”
Nick narrowed his eyes at Avery. “Isn’t she?”
Upton turned to Avery with concern as well. “She’s not? We spoke earlier today. Surely, she isn’t that ill.”
Nick fought back the urge to tell Upton to keep his concerns to himself. Elisa was his to care for. Only his.
Avery glared, though the expression was subtle and would likely not alert anything to their squabbling. “She is ill. I would not lie about it. I went to see her earlier today, and she was coughing terribly.”
Dr. Sparrow groaned with concern. “Should I check in on her?”
“No.” Avery lifted a hand. “I’m sure whatever she has will pass. We shall have dinner, as planned.”
They left the parlor when they were informed that the meal was ready.
Upton and Sparrow did most of the talking, leaving Nicholas and Avery to either comment when they could or glare at one another when no one was looking.
Nick was still trying to figure Avery out and studied his face as for a clue from the past. Had they met before just as Elisa suggested? When? Had Nick tripped him up at a ball? There was still the possibility that Nick had stolen the heart of some woman Avery liked. Nick had had his fair share of admirers as a young man.
But Avery, for all his faults, didn’t seem like a man who made a big deal out of small matters. To work so hard to see his sister married to someone else led Nick to believe that whatever he’d done— or whatever Avery thought he’d done— was of grave importance.
They were halfway through the meal when a footman came in and whispered in Avery’s ear.
Avery’s head whipped around to the servant and then he was on his feet. “Dr. Sparrow, could you come with me?”
Sparrow stood immediately. He was used to emergencies. “Is it your father?”
“No, my sister.”
Nick stood as well. “What’s happened to Elisa?”
“This is none of your concern.” Even as Avery said the words, he was already leaving the room.
Nick didn’t correct him and simply trailed behind while Sparrow spoke to the footman.
Smallpox, Nick heard the man whisper.
Upton stopped in the middle of the hall. “Perhaps I should go home.” He’d heard the footman and now he was worried, just as he should be. The disease was deadly and could spread quickly.
“Yes,” Avery called to his friend. “Go. I’ll write to you later.”
Upton turned to Sparrow. “I pray we meet again soon.” Then he said his farewells and well wishes for Elisa and turned back from where he’d come.
Nick continued on behind Avery and Sparrow.
Sparrow turned to Nick. “Nicholas, if the lady has what the footman says the maid claimed to see… It is deadly. Perhaps, you should leave.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“Lord Nicholas, please,” Avery said, looking more stressed by the minute. Nick almost felt bad for him. “My sister could be—”
“We’re wasting time,” Nick said. “You know why I will not turn back.”
Their gazes burned as they stared at one another.
“Very well.” Avery opened the door that led to Elisa’s room and Sparrow rushed in.
Avery and Nick had barely crossed the threshold when Sparrow came back with his hands up.
“Don’t come in. It’s the pox. Anyone who touches her can get it.”
Avery paled and stumbled back against the wall. His hand went to his chest and he began to breathe hard. “No.”
It was then that Nicholas did feel bad for him.
Especially since Nicholas knew that Elisa’s illness wasn’t real. He didn’t know why Elisa had decided to put on this act, but Belle had told him her plan. Sparrow was in on the plot as well. Nicholas hadn’t been certain the doctor would go along with him, but then he’d remembered just how charmed he’d been by Elisa.
He doubted there were any moral laws the doctor wouldn’t break for his dear friend, Lady Elisa.
“I’ve caught it early enough,” Sparrow assured Avery. “But given your father’s weakened state, it would be best if I took your sister under my own care, at my home—”
“Yes, yes, whatever you can do to save her,” Avery said. His eyes were full of tears as he looked past Sparrow.
Elisa lay in the bed. Her eyes were closed. Her skin was covered in a rash he knew Belle had painted on her. She truly looked ill. With her lips slightly open, she seemed to struggle to breathe.
Nick stepped back into the hall, and as they’d all suspected, Avery noticed the move.
“I should go,” Nick said, pretending to be cowardly. “I don’t wish to get whatever it is she has.”
Avery frowned, just as he was supposed to. “Go then.”
Nick looked at Elisa again and then he left.
With a smile.
* * *
Elisa listened as Sparrow spoke to her brother, continuing to encourage him to not get any closer. Under the hoods of Elisa’s eyes, she noticed the frightened maid in the corner. The woman had come to check on her, and Elisa had given the performance of a queen on her deathbed. There had been great coughing and even some blood on a tissue by the bed. Belle had pricked one of Elisa’s toes to get the blood.
Finally, Elisa’s arms were covered in spots.
The maid ran immediately for help and hadn’t ventured toward Elisa since.
The only true pain Elisa felt was from her throat. The coughing would likely cost her voice, but otherwise, there was emotional pain as she listened to her brother beg Sparrow to save her life.
Avery did care.
The repeated affirmation of his love made Elisa wonder if she were being a spoiled little brat for putting him through all this.
But then she remembered the freedom she’d begged for. She could not go back. There was only forward from here.
Eventually, Avery left to see to Elisa’s transportation to Sparrow’s home. The maid followed and Elisa doubted the woman would come near again.
Sparrow closed the door behind them both and then came over. “I’ve a feeling your brother will wish to carry you downstairs in spite of my warning that he could become ill. Therefore, we must dress you well and hastily before he returns and discovers your spots can be wiped away.”
Elisa jumped up and ran to the screen. “Thank you fo
r this.”
“Anything you need,” he whispered with a smile. “You should have seen Avery’s face when Nicholas pretended to care for himself more than you. I think it all worked. Your brother will likely send fewer servants with you now that he thinks Nick will not venture near.”
Dressed, Elisa came out and then rushed back to the bed. She resumed her position and whispered, “This escape isn’t about Nick. It’s about me.”
Sparrow took her hand. “I know.” Belle had told him everything. Nick only knew that she wasn’t ill. Sparrow knew why Elisa was pretending. “I, like Astger, know you aren’t mad. You are a very intelligent woman and I hope you prove the world wrong.”
She grinned. “You are starting to become one of my dearest friends.”
He chuckled. “It is an honor.”
“I’m surprised you did this for me.” She’d been unable to speak to Sparrow before now. Belle had planned it all. “Many say you are far too serious to engage yourself in such a plot.”
“Perhaps, working for the duke is rubbing off on me.”
She was still surprised by all the people who worked for Van Dero. He was truly an immense force, giving his title duke a new and heavy meaning. She didn’t wish to imagine what her brother would have done with such power or anyone else for that matter.
She wondered if he ever had trouble sleeping, a man with his wealth and capabilities. He’d helped her the other night and had asked for nothing in return. It was a demonstration of great character to have so much and show such restraint. Her brother could learn a thing or two about that.
Avery showed up a second later, and as Sparrow had predicted, her brother made it his duty to not only carry her down but hold her through the ride to Sparrow’s home and settle her in the bed that would be her own for a while.
Elisa had pretended to be delirious through most of it. She’d shed real tears as Avery had softly encouraged her to live and spoken of his love and fondness for her.
When he left, she wept and prayed her brother would not be terribly upset with her if he ever learned the truth of their scheme.
He’d left her without servants at Sparrow’s suggestion. He’d told Avery his own staff was good enough and that he didn’t wish the servants to carry anything back to Lord Reddington. The maid who’d attended her had also been sent away to stay with her sister for a time.
The servants had been warned not to tell Reddington of the illness. Thankfully, only the maid and the footman had been informed of the smallpox possibility.
They’d been sworn to secrecy.
Elisa hoped it would all be worth it in the end.
When her door opened again, she was not surprised to find Nick there.
“Have you done all of this so you can go outside?” he asked as he put his arms around her.
Elisa shook her head. “No, I did this for another reason.”
“Have you done it so we could wed?” he asked.
Again, she shook her head. “No, it’s something else.” She didn’t want Nick trying to stop her.
Her fiancé narrowed his eyes. “Won’t you tell me what it is?”
“No, I’m afraid I won’t.”
∫ ∫ ∫
4 2
* * *
“No?” Nicholas thought she was teasing, but when Elisa said no more, he began to worry. There were only so many dangers a young woman could get into in London, but he suspected a woman like Elisa could get into many things, especially when she had a lady like Belle helping her.
He’d gone without her for far too long. Now she wanted to do something that would divide them once more.
“You’re not going to tell me why you and Belle came up with this scheme and why Dr. Sparrow agreed to help you?” Nick asked.
She took his hands. “I will tell you later.”
“Later? Does Sparrow know the truth?”
She lowered her gaze, hiding her bright brown eyes from him. “Not all of it.” But more than Nick, he surmised.
Nick was not usually a jealous man, but then he was not one who felt all he did for a woman. The way Elisa pulled him in was a stronger emotion than he’d felt for any woman before.
It made him dangerous, he realized. Speaking with Cassius had shown him that.
“Does this have anything to do with me?” Nick wondered aloud.
“No.”
“Does it have to do with someone else?”
There was a knock on the door and Elisa moved away to answer it. Belle was there.
“Well, that went smoothly. Just like I planned it...” Belle breezed into the room, but her words and steps trailed off when she noticed Nick. “Oh! I suspected you would come.”
Nick approached the women and looked from one to the other. He’d never had any issues with Belle, but the thought of the two women working on anything together was unsettling. “Just how long have you two known one another?”
“Since forever.” Belle grinned. “Now, you must go.” She patted his arm and began to usher him away. “Elisa and I have much to discuss.”
Nick got to the door, spun around, and placed his hands on either post, which stopped her from closing it. “What’s going on? I won’t leave until I know.”
“Oh, yes, you will,” Belle insisted. “If Elisa has chosen to tell you nothing then that is that.”
“Was it Elisa’s decision or yours?” He knew how Belle worked. Her life often moved like gears in a clock, and she fit everyone to rotate around her as she saw fit.
“It was my decision, Nicholas,” Elisa said. She stood in the middle of her new room with her hands folded on her lap. “But you have nothing to worry about.”
“Nothing to worry about?” He moved around Belle and approached her again. “Elisa, whatever you’re up to, you should rethink. At least let me help.”
“No, you can’t.”
“I can’t?” Where was her trust in him from earlier?
She frowned. “Please, Nicholas, don’t make a big deal out of this.”
“And should you get hurt doing whatever it is you’re attempting to do? Would you have me make much ado about it then?”
“We won’t let her get hurt,” Belle said.
We. Why was he not included in this ‘we’?
He grabbed Elisa’s chin and opened his mouth to say all he was feeling, but the words got tangled in his emotions. Instead, what came out was, “You can trust me.”
Elisa held his eyes.
Belle cleared her throat. “Elisa.” Her voice was laden with warning.
“I’m going to prove I’m not mad,” Elisa said.
Nicholas’ hand fell away. He didn’t know where to start with his questions, but he knew he had to be careful about what he said.
But what he wanted to tell her was that her mission wouldn’t end well. She was who she was. Why couldn’t she accept that? He had. He’d talk her out of this right here and now. “Are you doing this for us? Because if you are, it isn’t necessary.”
She lowered her brows. “No, I already told you that I’m doing it for myself and… yes,” she whispered. “It is necessary, even for us. I refuse to live around people who think I cannot think for myself.”
“I never said you couldn’t think for yourself,” he said.
Elisa placed her hands on his chest and moved toward him. “Listen to me, Nick.”
“I love your mind,” he told her. “You are one of the kindest women I know. I only wish to be there to assist you in thinking out your actions, like this plan you are making with Belle. It is not a good idea, Elisa, neither will it end well.”
He wanted to shout at Belle for encouraging Elisa, but he wouldn’t do so now.
Elisa’s face wrinkled as though in pain. She let him go. “You said I could trust you.”
‘Yes.”
“Then don’t tell my brother what you know.”
“Of course, I won’t.”
“I need to speak to Belle now,” she said. “Thank you for coming.” Her brown
eyes lacked all her earlier emotions. They were blank, as lifeless as still water.
She was asking him to leave.
He’d hurt her somehow, though he didn’t understand what it was that he’d said to offend her. “Elisa, you and I should talk.”
“Later.”
He frowned. He’d never begged a woman for attention. He’d not start now.
His back was to her when she spoke again.
“I can trust you, can’t I?”
He looked at her one last time. “I already told you that you could.” Then he went downstairs and stormed into Sparrow’s office. “What’s going on?”
“Elisa hasn’t told you anything?” The doctor had a book out. He was reading on the couch in the corner. He closed it once Nick entered the room. Had he been waiting for him? Did he wish for him to leave just as quickly as Elisa did?
Well, she may not care for her safety, but he did, and he would make sure her plan didn’t ruin the rest of her life… or his. Being without her wasn’t an option. He’d already made his decision to have her and have her he would.
Nick didn’t bother sitting. He had a feeling he wasn’t entirely welcomed. “She told me what she’s trying to do but not how.”
Sparrow shrugged. “I’m not entirely certain how she plans to go about it either. She’s told only a few people how it would go. It’s likely only Belle knows exactly what’s happening.”
Nick crossed his arms. “Who did she ask for help?” Who did she trust more than him?
“Astger,” Sparrow said. “And speaking about the general, don’t you think it more appropriate if we call him by his title? He is a viscount, after all.”
“Astger has chosen what he’ll be called.” She trusted the general over her own fiancé? Was he even that to her anymore? Did she wish to marry him?
He recalled her warning for him not to overreact, but that seemed impossible given the circumstances. She had no idea how he’d felt to have her ripped from his home. It took great restraint every time he saw her brother not to cross the room and hit him in the face.
How dare he come into his home unannounced and take that which was precious to him?
A Knight of Vengeance: (The Valiant Love Regency Romance) (A Historical Romance Book) Page 20
