Proper Scoundrel (13 page)

Garrett clearly thought he’d leapt off the edge of sanity.

“But it’s not Jade’s,” Garrett said.

“It’s not?” Relief. Hope.

“Spread it out on the bed and see for yourself.”

Marcus complied and stared blankly at it. “So?”

“I should think you could tell at a glance that it’s several sizes larger than Jade.”

Marcus sat at the foot of Garrett’s bed. “Lord, I’m glad you know women’s bodies so well. I never would have realized it.”

Garrett gave him a knowing look. “I’m of the opinion that you wouldn’t be thinking with the male portion of your anatomy, Marc, and would have realized it yourself, if you knew Jade’s body better.”

“Stuff your opinions, Garr.”

Garrett raised a brow but he remained silent, a fact which Marcus appreciated as he sat in the wheelchair and walked it in circles. Garr was probably right. If he took Jade to bed, he might be able to think straight, except she didn’t want him, yet. She might not be ready for him, until he discovered why the railroad frightened her senseless.

Marcus steepled his hands and tapped his fingertips together, as he pondered the dilemma. “Ah.” He stopped the chair. “I have an idea.”

“An invariable forewarning of calamity,” Garrett said, brow raised.

Marcus chose to ignore the caustic comment and sat forward. “When’s the next time something significant is due to happen concerning construction?”

“Tomorrow night. Why? We’ve been determined to keep it a secret.”

“In my mind, I’ve gone over and over the events before that dress got left on the tracks. I remember telling Jade how well the railroad would do and how odd she reacted—well, odder than usual, so odd, she left to search for something she inevitably needed my help to reach.”

Marcus remembered their intimate interlude in that storeroom as well. He rose to pace again. “Suppose I tell Jade that the railroad’s up and running again and what’s supposed to take place tomorrow night. She’ll be the only one who knows, other than us and the workers. I’ll go to the site and keep a look out to see if she shows up.”

“It’s a good idea. But, Marc, consider. What are you going to do, if you’re right?”

“If Jade’s the person responsible for the construction accidents, then she must have a good reason for it.”

“You’re joking?”

“We have to help her. That’s why I invited you to come here.”

“I thought you invited me because of your foolish guilt over my accident. When are you going to get over it, Marc?”

“When you get over pretending the accident didn’t happen.”

“I can hardly forget that my legs don’t work.”

“But you’re excellent at pretending life is wonderful.”

Garrett scowled. “So you invited me to help Jade and to the devil with the railroad?”

Marcus squeezed Garrett’s shoulder. “I need you, Garr, and I truly believe helping her will help us.”

Garrett sighed, reached up, and squeezed Marcus’s hand. “Explain what you need me to do.”

Marcus ran a hand through his hair and swallowed the welling of emotion choking him—his love for Garrett and his remorse over his condition combined suddenly with a new and irrational fear for Jade. He cleared his throat. “Jade doesn’t prevaricate well. She rarely has to; she’s honestly sincere and trusting. But when I mention the railroad, no matter how she tries to hide her fear—which is driving me crazy—she can’t.”

“Given all that, what’s my next step, oh master sleuth?”

“Mock me if you will, but your job is important. I want you to learn everything about Jade and her grandmother that you can. I wanted you here because Jade’s downtrodden women will be more comfortable with a man who’s safe.”

“Ouch, damn it!”

“Because you’re confined to a wheelchair, for heaven’s sake. You saw the way Abigail trembled earlier. Most of Jade’s charges are used to savages who beat them and throw them down stairs. They’ll assume you’re incapable of overcoming them—with brutality, I mean—because you seem weaker than they are. You’re sure to inspire any number of feminine instincts. They’ll want to give you their attention, protect you, see that you’re comfortable, listen to you, talk to you. They’ll want to give you whatever you need.”

“Oh?”

“I threw that in to cheer you up.”

Garrett tempered his frown with a near smile. “Thank you for explaining.”

“I intended no insult.”

“I’m less piqued, given your logic.”

Marcus thought it a healthy sign that appearing weak disturbed Garrett, which might make him want to fight his way out of that wheelchair. Marcus believed that having a reason to overcome his physical impairment would matter to Garrett in the end. “I also have a good idea of how to introduce you to everyone tomorrow that will get you as easily accepted by the children as the women.”

“Fine, tell me what you already know about Jade and her family and then tell me how you’re planning to introduce me.”

“Fine, start by telling me what’s supposed to happen with the railroad tomorrow night. Did you bring a copy of Jade’s land option, by the way?”

Having crawled into bed at two, Marcus disliked being awakened at three by a pounding on his door. However, when he opened it to find Jade sleep-mussed and inviting in a ruffle-necked nightshift and robe, his body woke with a vengeance.

“Eloisa has childbed fever,” she said, clearly distressed. “Beecher is with her, but the babies are screaming and Garrett and Abigail need help. I ... I can’t face this without you.”

 
Marcus had already tied his dressing gown and grabbed his slippers. “Let’s go.”

It wasn’t long before they were told by Beecher that Eloisa should recover in a day or two, though Jade continued to worry. “She’s in good hands,” she told Marcus, to reassure herself, as they approached Garrett’s room. “Beecher’s an excellent doctor.”

Marcus’s brother didn’t look quite so dangerous sitting in bed, his hair at odd angles, and trying, uselessly, to calm two screaming babies. The grateful look he bestowed on them, when he spotted them, humanized him further.

“Where’s Abby?” Jade shouted over the babies’ screams.

“Finding bottles and preparing pap. I hope.”

“I’ll go help her.”

“No!” the brothers shouted in unison, but nothing of her lingered except her honeyed scent.

Marcus swept the bedroom-turned-nursery with a sceptical eye. “Honest, Garr, if anyone ever told me I’d find you playing nursemaid, I’d snuff their lights.”

“I’ll snuff your lights, if you don’t pick up one of these howlers and try to quiet him.”

“Which one’s ours?”

“We are not keeping one!”

Marcus chuckled at Garrett’s measure of stress. “Which is the one named after me?” Marcus shouted above the din. “The one Jade and I will care for tonight? You know,” he said when Garrett just stared at him, brows furrowed. “Little Garrett will be yours and Abby’s to tend, and Little Marcus will be ours. Doesn’t that make sense?”

“We’re not playing bloody house, you know, and I can’t bloody well tell them apart!”

Jade breezed in and plugged one tiny mouth with a bottle, Abby, the other.

Silence.

Marcus and Garrett released their collective breaths.

“I met Abby on her way back. You two were screaming so loud, the whole bloody house must have heard.” She raised a brow at Garrett and he had the sense to squirm.

Marcus hid his smile.

Jade examined the babies’ faces. “That one’s Garrett, so this one’s Marcus.” She lifted Marcus in her arms. “I think we should call him Mac.”

Abby unplugged Garrett’s bottle long enough to pick him up. “We’ll call this one Garth.”

“Perfect nicknames for the hatchlings. What do you think, Garr?”

“I think you’ve all run off your tracks. Shouldn’t we ask Eloisa?”

“She’ll agree,” Abby said. “It’ll be easier than designating which Marcus and Garrett we’re talking about.”

Garrett conceded with a half-shrug. “Jade, how do you tell them apart?”

“Garth has a small notch at the top of his right ear. I noticed that when you handed him to me, Abby. And later I noticed that Mac has the same notch on the opposite ear.”

“You’re brilliant,” Marcus said, thinking that the two of them caring for Mac would be difficult enough, never mind with Garrett and Abigail looking on.

The babies finished eating and burped like a couple of Saturday-night sots, before they finally became content. Marcus thought Jade, all tussled from sleep, with Mac on her shoulder, the most beautiful sight he’d ever beheld.

He covered her hand on Mac’s back. “What do you say to moving to the room we used yesterday. It’s crowded in here with four adults and two babies. Separating will give us all more space, and a bed in each room might allow for at least one member of each team to catch a bit of sleep before the night passes.”

With the approval of everyone concerned, Marcus collected supplies enough for a month, and he and Jade bid Abigail and Garrett goodnight.

In the vacant bedroom, Jade set Mac on the bed.

“Let’s unwrap him to make certain he’s got enough fingers and toes to go around,” Marcus said. “I would have liked to do that earlier, and I wanted you to see his tiny feet.”

Jade unwrapped the mite, her face a study in wonder. “He’s perfect. Oh and you’re right; his feet are precious tiny.” Jade bent down to kiss the tips of five tiny little toes. “Uh, Marcus, he doesn’t smell very good all of a sudden.”

“Oh, I never considered that. Change him?”

“You change him. He’s named after you.”

“But you’ve done it before? Please say yes.”

At her negative shrug, he sighed. “Guess we’ll learn together, then.” He untied the nappy and stepped away.

“Praise be, it’s not as bad as I thought,” Jade said.

“Looks bad to me,” Marcus said, observing from a distance. “Smells bad too.”

Jade grinned and washed the baby’s bottom and got him all dry and sweet-smelling again, without Marcus’s help, praise be. “You’re such a man,” she told him when she finished.

“That’s why you love me?”

“Hah! But men do come in handy at times, like now.”

“Oh?” He came closer and tested the mattress, remembering how she’d felt in his arms in this very bed, wishing he’d not been so lightheaded at the time.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Oh. How else can I be of service, though I must warn you that my best skill—”

“Kindly name Mac’s boy parts for me.”

Wide awake after being washed, Mac lay there bare bottomed and kicking in joyful freedom.

“You’re joking.”

“I’m not. My grandmother raised me. I had no brothers. I never saw a male human being naked, before Mac here. My male education consisted of observing stallions, and I’m sorry to say that Mac doesn’t seem of stallion quality to me.”

“Hey, give the boy a chance.” Marcus lifted Mac in his arms as if to protect him from her. “He has to grow some. He’ll get there. Don’t go insulting his manhood his second day on earth.” He turned his back on Jade and kissed Mac’s little head. When the baby shivered, Marcus tucked him beneath his dressing gown and walked away, cuddling him close. “Don’t you worry about her. You’ll be stallion quality and chasing pert-tailed fillies before you know it.”

To his champion, Mac awarded his highest honour. He piddled on him.

An hour later Marcus walked the screaming baby in nothing but his dressing gown, his nightshirt having been discarded due to rain.

Jade was in love, but determined to get over it.

She lay on the bed, as Marcus insisted, but couldn’t sleep. She watched him croon and cuddle that baby boy.