Rebel Enchantress (46 page)

“I tried to make her walk, but she’s too weak.”

“She doesn’t need walking. She needs to be warm. The heat’s all drained out of her.”

“I told Tommy to lay in enough wood to keep the fire blazing all night. I’ve got ten quilts on her now. I can’t see how any more could help.”

“Whatever you do, she’s got to be as warm as you can keep her.”

“I’m giving her all the brandy she can swallow.”

“That ought to help.”

But Mrs. Stebbens didn’t seem so sanguine when she came up again with fresh hot water bottles.

“I don’t like the looks of her. She ought to have come around a bit by now, have some color. She’s pale as skimmed milk.”

Nathan picked up Delilah and all the bedclothes and put her on the floor as close to the fire as he dared. She’d hardly swallowed any brandy the last two times he’d tried to give her some. He was frightened.

“You’ve got to do something else or she’s not going to make it,” Mrs. Stebbens said when she came up again. “I don’t like the sound of her breathing.”

“What can I do?”

“She needs body heat, somebody to lie down on each side of her and keep her warm. Pity she isn’t at home.”

“Keep bringing up hot water bottles every thirty minutes,” Nathan said. “If you get too tired, wake Lester and tell him I said he’s to take over.”

I’m not going to bed, sir. Not while Miss Delilah’s still got a chance.”

The minute the door closed behind Mrs. Stebbens, Nathan began stripping off his clothes. Then he crawled between the sheets next to Delilah. Even with the hot water bottles and the overpowering heat from the blazing fire, Delilah’s body felt like ice. He opened her gown and pressed as much of his body against hers as possible.

That’s haw Mrs. Stebbens found them when she came in half an hour later. Nathan had been afraid she would shriek in shocked surprise, but she took it all in stride.

“She’s not looking any better, but at least she’s not any worse.”

“Put the bottles against her back and make up the fire before you go,” Nathan asked. He was so hot rivulets of perspiration ran down his forehead.

The long night hours brought no comfort to Nathan. If he had been worried that lying next to Delilah might ignite passions he couldn’t control, he was mistaken. He was too afraid her slow breathing might stop altogether to think of anything but her next breath, the warmth of her body, whether she moved even the slightest bit.

Odd how simple your wants become when they are reduced to the most elemental level. He had wanted money, security, friends, success, recognition, any number of things aver his lifetime. Now he would have traded all of them just to have Delilah wake up.

He couldn’t think of a future without her. If she didn’t marry him … There was no completion of that thought. Just a void. He hadn’t realized until now that everything he had done in the last two months had been prefaced by or predicated on the assumption she would become his wife. He had come to believe that was the only way things could end.

But now he knew there was another way. He knew the fragile woman in his arms was not immortal, not invulnerable to the vicissitudes which affected everyone else. He hadn’t given much thought to the consequences Reuben’s death might have on his family. But now he understood what hurt that could cause, and he swore he would do everything in his power to see that no harm came to Delilah’s brother.

It struck him as ironic that Delilah could be so cold and he could be so warm. This seemed a reflection of their lives. Always on opposite sides, always pulling in different directions, always looking at the same thing with different eyes. He wondered if it would be different after they were married. One thing was certain. He’d see to it she didn’t go out in any more blizzards. If he ever found out who had let her place herself at the mercy of yesterday’s storm, he’d choke the life out of him.

Mrs. Stebbens returned several times before she saw a change in Delilah.

“She’s got some color, Mr. Trent.” She felt Delilah’s forehead. “And she doesn’t feel so clammy cold.”

“I noticed the change just after you left last time,” Nathan said, so exhausted from worry and heat he could hardly keep awake. “I thought one time she even moved a little, but I guess I was mistaken.”

“You stay right where you are. Go to sleep. You look like you need the rest. I’ll look after the both of you.”

“But you’ve been up all night, too.” “No matter. I can go to sleep when she gets better. You’ve got to be awake then, so you’d better sleep now.” She winked and grinned. “And don’t you worry none about Lester or Tommy popping their heads inside to see how she’s doing. I told them I thought she was sickening from the influenza. I said you might send the first one you saw out for a doctor.”

“Nobody could survive in this blizzard.” It was still snowing as fiercely as it had been when Nathan found Delilah.

“They know that.”

Nathan laughed. “Thank you.”

“No need to thank me. You’re doing exactly what the doctor would have ordered had he been here. I can’t help it if their minds are too small to understand.”

Nathan didn’t know whether Mrs. Stebbens’s mind was any larger than Lester’s or Tommy’s, but it was certainly of a more romantic bent. She was seeing a wedding in the future. And Nathan was going to do everything he could to make sure she wasn’t disappointed.

Delilah fought to open her eyes, but she felt so tired she gave up. She couldn’t move. Her whole body seemed weighted down. She tried to think, to remember what had happened, where she was; but she kept wandering in and out of consciousness. She finally gave up. She was warm and comfortable. That was enough.

Delilah felt something rough against her cheek. She moved and it hurt. She tried to move away, but she couldn’t. Why? What was hurting her cheek? With a great effort, she overcame her lassitude and opened her eyes.

She recognized Nathan’s room. She had only been in it a few times, but she knew it as well as she knew her own. And she was lying, wrapped in what must be a dozen blankets, before a blazing fire. It was Nathan’s unshaven face that had scratched her cheek, the weight of his body that kept her from moving.

My God! They were both naked! They lay in the middle of the floor like man and wife. Delilah couldn’t immediately recall how she’d come to be there, but she was certain she wouldn’t have forgotten her awn wedding.

When the door opened and Mrs. Stebbens entered, Delilah flushed crimson from head to toe.

“Praise be!” Mrs. Stebbens cried. She
was
so overcome she had to sit down on a chair to wipe the tears from her eyes. “There was a time I thought you’d never blush again in this world.”

“How did I get here?” Delilah asked. She was mortified to be caught like this by anybody, even kindly Mrs. Stebbens who didn’t seem to find anything unusual about it, but there was no use being modest now. She had to know the truth.

“Mr. Trent found you on the river road well-nigh frozen solid. We wrapped you in quilts, put you next to the fire, and poured brandy down you, but nothing worked until Mr. Trent lay down beside you. It would have been more proper with another female, but I didn’t figure he would do you any harm, not with you cold as a mackerel and me popping in with hot water bottles every half an hour.”

“Not to mention the fact I have an aversion to taking advantage of women when they’re lying at death’s door,” Nathan muttered, still half-asleep. “I know you’ll say it’s just the English coming out in me, but I can’t help it. We’re funny that way.”

Delilah blushed furiously all over again.

“I’ve got to get up. I can’t stay here, she protested.

A wicked, teasing light came into Nathan’s eyes. “Do you want to go first, or shall I?”

“Seeing as you’re both mother-naked, I can’t see that it makes any difference,” Mrs. Stebbens remarked.

“Since you’re the invalid,” Nathan said to Delilah, “I shall rise first.”

Both women reacted to his throwing off a layer of quilts with shocked protests.

“Does this mean you want to get dressed while I watch?” Nathan teased.

“No, it doesn’t,” Delilah assured him.

“You’re a wicked man,” Mrs. Stebbens said with a chuckle.

“It means you have to cover your eyes while I get up,” Delilah explained. “Once Mrs. Stebbens has helped me dress, she will leave, I’ll cover my eyes, and you can get dressed.”

“How do I know you won’t peep?”

“As if I would,” Delilah replied hotly.

“I was warned about American women. I was told they could be shockingly familiar.”

“It would be hard for any woman to be shockingly familiar around yo,” Delilah stated. “By the time you were done with
your
familiarizing, there’d be nothing left to shock.”

“Give over you two. You’re not getting dressed, Miss Delilah. You’re getting in that bed and you’re staying there until I say you can get up. You came as close to dying as a mortal can and still be in this world. Mr. Trent will turn his eyes away while I help you into the bed.”

“Am I not to have even a tiny peep?”

“Not a one,” Mrs. Stebbens told him, punctuating her comment with an indulgent chuckle.

“After sleeping on the floor and giving generously of my heat, I think myself sorely used.”

“If you want to really be sorely used, you just peep,” Delilah threatened.

It took just a moment for Mrs. Stebbens to help Delilah into a thick, flannel gown and get her into the bed. She immediately pulled all but one of the quilts off Nathan and spread them over Delilah.

“Now that I’m of no further use, you don’t care if I freeze to death,” Nathan said.

“You’re more like to suffer a heat stroke,” said Mrs. Stebbens, fanning herself. “I don’t know how you stood it all night.”

“Neither do I,” Delilah said, no trace of amusement or mock seriousness in her voice. “I owe you my life.”

“If you keep me lying on the floor, you’ll have my life in exchange” It was easier to joke than to yield to the emotion which threatened to overwhelm him. Relief and happiness that Delilah was well made it difficult for him to speak.

“I’m going,” Mrs. Stebbens said. “Don’t be long in dressing.”

“How will I be sure she won’t look?”

“Because she’s a decent woman,” Mrs. Stebbens declared. “And decent women don’t have any interest in men’s bodies. Make sure you keep your eyes closed good and tight, Miss Delilah. I wouldn’t put it past that man to do something disgraceful just to shock you.”

Chapter Twenty-four

Delilah was deliriously happy. For two days Nathan had barely left her side. Though he had temporarily moved into the room he had used before his uncle’s death, he treated his own room as though it were still his. He came in and out at any hour upon the flimsiest excuse. If Mrs. Stebbens thought Delilah might like a thick soup, nothing would do but for Nathan to inquire personally. He checked the fire every few minutes to make sure it never fell below a roaring blaze. If Delilah wanted to take a nap, he had to tuck her in. If she wanted to sit in the drawing room, he would wrap her in twice as many quilts as she needed and carry her downstairs so she wouldn’t tire herself.

“I never thought I could be cossetted too much,” Delilah told Mrs. Stebbens after Nathan had spent ten minutes deciding the room was too large to heat properly and that a screen he remembered seeing in the attic would help protect her from drafts. “After being the one expected to do the cossetting, I find it surprisingly uncomfortable. And I thought I would like it so much.”

“Fair unsettles you, doesn’t it? Don’t worry. It won’t last. He’ll come to himself soon enough.”

But he didn’t. The weather made going out impossible, so nothing prevented Nathan from giving Delilah his full attention. She finally decided if she didn’t soon find something for him to do, he would set her recovery back a week.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you something, but I don’t know if I should,” Delilah said.

“You know you can ask me anything.”

“It’s about that painting of me, the one in the other room. I found it when I was putting away your things.”

To her surprise Nathan wasn’t angry at all. Rather, he looked like he’d been caught in a guilty secret.

“Why didn’t you tell me you could paint?”

“I suppose it’s something I wanted to forget.”

“Why? I can’t wait for you to finish it.”

“I doubt I’ll touch it again.”

His tone of voice upset her. It wasn’t angry or petulant. It was final, as if after a long struggle Nathan had finally put something behind him.

“I don’t understand.”

Nathan pulled his chair up to the bed. He took her hand and squeezed it tight.

“I guess it’s about time I told you a little about myself.” From the expression on his face, Delilah decided he wasn’t going to enjoy making these revelations.

“My father decided if his sister could marry the son of an earl, his son could marry the daughter of one. When he found I could paint, he decided I should become a portrait painter. Gainsborough and Reynolds were making huge amounts of money just then. More important, they had entree into almost any house in London.

“He sent me to an expensive school and hired the best art teachers he could afford. By the time I was twenty-two, I was being asked to paint portraits for people who couldn’t afford Gainsborough or Reynolds. Mother decided I was to marry one of the Earl of Glencoe’s daughters. Fool that I was, I didn’t see anything wrong with the prospect. I even obligingly fell in love with her.”

“Who was she?”

“Lady Sarah Mendlow. She was the fourth daughter and even more beautiful than you. She was willing to marry me as long as I was rich. Unfortunately, my father chose that time to lose his business and with it the only reason Sarah had for marrying anyone like me. I would have understood if she had simply broken off our engagement. I was never so deeply in love I didn’t realize she wouldn’t have married me without the money. But she felt shamed, and she determined to ruin me. She chose a time when the house was full of guests to accuse me of attempting to force myself upon her. She even ripped her gown to make it appear I had tried to take her against her will.”