She cut him off with her hand and with a smile. “Don’t worry, Dr. Treath, I know what I’m going to do. You’ll see. Incidentally, both Alice and I kicked Bennett in the ribs but good. I’m very pleased he hurts.”
Then she laughed and hugged him, kissing his cheek. “Don’t worry.”
Bess Treath said from the door, “Alice is just fine. No cramping, just a bit of nervousness, natural, of course. Would you like to give her a tonic?”
“No, just a drop of laudanum in milk. That will send her right off to sleep.”
After Bess and Benjamin Treath had left, Caroline, with a very awake Mrs. Trebaw at her heels, made certain the front door and all the first-floor windows were secured. “Of course, since Mr. Penrose lives here and has a latchkey, this is rather silly,” Caroline said. “But it does make me feel better.”
She sent Mrs. Trebaw to bed. She tucked Alice in and sent Miss Mary Patricia and Evelyn back to their bedchambers. She sighed deeply when she came into her bedchamber and quickly closed the door. She stretched and rubbed the back of her neck. She felt exhaustion pull at her. She began to untie the sash of her dressing gown when she heard a man’s low voice say from behind her, “Please don’t disrobe, Miss Caroline.”
She whipped about and stared, clapping her hand over her heart. “Oh! I nearly jumped out of my skin! Flash Savory, how did you get in here?”
“Oh, I’ve been here for some time now. I didn’t want to show myself because the good doctor just might not understand. I’m here to search Bennett’s bedchamber. You coshed him, Caroline? Did I hear aright?”
“Yes, he was trying to rape Alice. She’s only fourteen, Flash, only fourteen years old and she’s with child. I had her kick him hard in the ribs. It made her feel better, gave her some power.”
“That was very well done of you. Now, where’s Owen?”
“Owen. Goodness, I sent him after Dr. Treath, but I forgot about him. He isn’t here?”
“I didn’t see him.”
Caroline gave Flash a crooked smile. “I know where he is. In fact, we should be hearing—”
She paused, grinning, at the sound of men’s voices.
“He fetched his lordship,” Flash said. “Smart young man, that Owen. Your betrothed sounds on the ragged edge.”
North was beyond ragged. He flung open the door to Caroline’s bedchamber, saw her standing there in her dressing gown, her hair wild and loose about her face and down her back, and yelled, “What the holy hell are you doing, Caroline Derwent-Jones? Damnation, I can’t leave you alone for an hour without you getting yourself into messes that will surely turn my hair gray before I’m thirty. Oh, you, Flash? What the devil are you doing in Caroline’s bedchamber? You little bastard, if you have touched—”
Caroline laughed and walked right into him, wrapping her arms around his back. Actually, it took him a moment before he raised his arms and hugged her to him.
“It’s all right, North. Everything’s all right. I wish Owen had told me he was going to fetch you. I would have talked him out of it. But it’s nice of you to come. Goodness, you’re still breathing hard.” She kissed him, there in front of Flash and Owen, a sweet kiss, a chaste kiss, but it went through him like lightning.
He took her arms in his hands and set her away from him. “Tell me what the hell happened here. And tell me what this smiling bastard is doing in your bedchamber.”
“All right. Why don’t we go downstairs and I’ll pour you a brandy.”
It required two brandies and many questions on North’s part before he was satisfied. He stood there by the fireplace, frowning down at his boots, then said, “Let’s go, Flash. We’ll both search that bloody little sod’s room. If we find something, we’ll just dump him out the window.”
“Sounds like a fine plan to me,” Flash said. “The miserable bugger, trying to hurt that little girl.”
“I’ll help,” Owen said.
“All right, Owen. Caroline, you go to bed. By God, we’re getting married in six hours. I would appreciate my bride not snoring during the ceremony. Or after, as a matter of fact, at least until we’ve—”
“North!”
Flash Savory just grinned. “The captain is always trying to put Lady Victoria to the blush, and she yells at him and turns red and sometimes punches him in the belly.”
“Hear that, North? Best be careful, you and your outrageous tongue.”
“Ah, Caroline, you—”
“North, be quiet.”
Flash, Owen, and North spent a good thirty minutes searching Bennett Penrose’s bedchamber. There was no sound save for Bennett’s snores, but Flash did find a small square box on top of which was a pair of Bennett’s evening shoes. “Hi ho, what’s this, I wonder?”