Midnight's Wild Passion

“I’m feeling better now,” Cassie said sullenly, tugging her night rail over her head.

“Maybe you can go downstairs tomorrow.” Antonia had said the same thing yesterday.

With a heavy sigh, she turned away. She was deathly tired. Most of the household were still incapacitated so she and Bella continued full-time nursing. Although with every hour, a relapse in Cassie’s health seemed more unlikely. Antonia began to think the greatest threat to Cassie’s recovery was the possibility that her faithful companion Miss Smith would throttle her with a curtain rope.

“I want to go downstairs now.”

“Nobody is around. The people who weren’t sick have left and everybody else is in their rooms, ill or recovering. You’ll be as bored downstairs as you are up here.”

Thankfully, apart from an unlucky housemaid, there had been no deaths at Pelham Place. The village hadn’t fared as well but even there, the epidemic receded.

“I’m bored altogether.” Cassie flopped against the bed and stared discontentedly at the ceiling. “When are we going back to London? I’m sorry we came. Did Lord Ranelaw get sick?”

Antonia hid another sigh. It was the first time Cassie had mentioned her rakish suitor since she’d fallen ill.

“No.”

Cassie still eyed the ceiling. “I suppose he went back

to London.”

“I don’t know,” Antonia said with perfect honesty, turning her back to tidy the gear from Cassie’s bed bath. She didn’t dare meet Cassie’s eyes in case she betrayed that she and Ranelaw were no longer hostile strangers. Although for the life of her, she couldn’t say just what they were instead.

“I’m sick of the country,” Cassie said fretfully, plucking at the sheet beneath her.

“If you’re better tomorrow, we’ll go. You’re up to traveling in short stages and I’m sure Lady Humphrey is weary of having her house turned into a hospital.”

Cassie looked brighter. “That would be wonderful, Toni.”

Antonia dared to mention something she knew wouldn’t meet with approval. “Perhaps we should go back to Bascombe Hailey. You’ve been dreadfully sick, Cassie. I thought you were dying. I can’t remember being so worried.”

With an irritated gesture, Cassie brushed Antonia’s concern aside. “Of course I wasn’t dying. I’m going to dazzle the ton.”

“You’ll need to get considerably better than you are now before you start dancing yourself into a stupor,” Antonia said repressively.

As expected, Cassie didn’t take that well. “Go away, Toni. Bella will be here soon and I’m sick of your scolding.”

“I was going to read to you. It will pass the time.”

Cassie looked away with a pout. “I can read for myself.”

Yesterday, even this morning, Antonia would have ignored Cassie’s spoiled behavior. But she couldn’t help feeling that if Cassie was well enough to be surly, she was well enough to manage with Bella’s sole attention for a few hours.

Cassie wasn’t the only one bored with the room. Although at least this chamber was airy and light and furnished with every luxury, unlike the tiny cupboard assigned to Antonia.

Briefly she closed her eyes as the image rose of Lord Ranelaw’s powerful body making her room seem even smaller. She’d tried not to dwell upon that encounter, but it was impossible. Especially since Cassie started to recover and nursing no longer occupied Antonia’s every thought.

One thing was clear. Ranelaw wasn’t quite the evil reprobate she’d once judged him.

Of course he wasn’t. His complexity was part of his fascination.

Her attraction to Ranelaw made her girlish infatuation with Johnny seem a fickle fancy. That fickle fancy had destroyed her life. What disaster, then, did her interest in Ranelaw threaten?

“Toni, I said go away,” Cassie repeated when Antonia didn’t immediately respond. “I want to be alone. Between you and Bella, I haven’t had a minute’s privacy.”

“If we’d left you alone when you were sick, you mightn’t have lived to see another day,” Antonia said with a hint of acid. “You could express a little gratitude. Poor Bella left in tears yesterday.”

Cassie, to her credit, looked uncomfortable. “She fidgets like an old woman.”