The Reluctant Widow Read online

  ‘It’s here, if Francis has not drunk it all!’ Nicky said.

  ‘Then pour some into a glass,’ Carlyon said, lowering his burden on to the sofa, but keeping one arm under Elinor’s shoulders.

  Nicky hastened to place a glass into his imperatively outstretched hand. He put it to Elinor’s lips, carefully supporting her head, and said: ‘Try to swallow this, ma’am! You will feel very much better if you do.’

  Her eyes, blurred at first, began to grow clearer; she looked up in a dazed way into his face, and whispered: ‘My head! Oh, my head!’

  He obliged her to drink some of the brandy. She choked over it, but it revived her. She was trembling convulsively, and one of her hands clutched his wrist. ‘Something struck me!’ she said hoarsely. ‘Oh, I am glad you have come! Do not leave me!’

  ‘No, certainly I shall not leave you,’ he responded. ‘But you will do better to be quiet for a little while. There is nothing to alarm you now.’ He laid her down on the cushions as he spoke, and she cried out as her head came to rest on them.

  ‘By God, someone did hit her on the head!’ Nicky exclaimed. ‘Cousin Elinor, who was it?’

  She was lying with closed eyes, and a hand pressed to her brow. ‘I don’t know. I heard a noise. Then something struck me. I don’t know any more.’

  ‘For heaven’s sake!’ said Francis, in a shrill voice, ‘will no one go out to make sure that somebody is not lurking in the garden? How can you be so inconsiderate, Nicholas? Have you no regard for the nerves of others less insensible than yourself? If you will not go, then Crawley must do so, but tell him to arm himself with my sword-stick, for it would be a shocking thing if he were to be injured by some ruffian! I cannot bear to have strangers about me, and if he were to be incapacitated I should be obliged to do so.’

  ‘Well, I will go out to look, but you may depend upon it there is no one there,’ Nicky said. ‘If there was ever someone he will have made off long since!’

  ‘Go and see,’ said Carlyon. He nodded to Mrs Barrow, who had brought in a bowl of water, and some strips of old linen. ‘Thank you, Mrs Barrow: that is all.’ He waited until she had left the room, and then bent over Elinor again. ‘Where does it pain you?’

  She had turned her head sideways on the pillow, and now moved her hand cautiously to the back of it, just above the neck. Her own touch made her wince; she opened her eyes, saying: ‘Oh, I have such a bruise! I can feel the bump already!’

  ‘Will you let me raise you, so that it may be attended to?’ he said, slipping his arm under her shoulders again.

  She bore it mutely, but her senses seemed to swim, and she was obliged to lean her brow against his arm. Miss Beccles was already soaking a cold compress, and would have laid it to the back of her head had not Carlyon taken it out of her hand, and gently applied it to the bruise. Elinor sighed with relief, and murmured: ‘Thank you. You are very good.’

  ‘If someone would call Crawley to me again, I will desire him to mix a glass of hartshorn and water,’ said Francis. ‘Two glasses, for I think I should take a little myself. My hand is shaking dreadfully still, and I feel quite unwell. The thought of this horrid violence, following, as it does, the shock I have already sustained, has been too much for me. If it were not that I do trust I was able to be of some slight assistance to Mrs Cheviot, I should be almost inclined to wish that I had not left my room. But I thought it right to make the effort, and so I did. The windows in my room fit very ill: there is a shocking draught, and no good could come of my remaining there.’

  ‘Take a little more brandy, Mrs Cheviot,’ Carlyon said, picking up the glass again, and wholly disregarding Francis’s remarks.

  ‘Oh, I had rather not!’ she begged.

  ‘Yes, I dare say, but it will do you good. Come!’

  She lifted a wavering hand to take the glass, and sipped a little, murmuring between sips: ‘I am sure my skull is cracked!’

  ‘I am even more sure that it is not,’ he replied. ‘You are feeling very dizzy, and I dare say your head aches sadly, but it is only a bruise.’

  ‘I might have guessed you would be odiously unfeeling.’

  ‘Certainly you might, for you know I have not the least sensibility. Come, you are better already! You begin to talk more like yourself.’

  ‘If my head did not swim so there is a deal I have stored up to say to you! You have used me abominably!’

  ‘You shall tell me in what way I have done so presently,’ he replied, in a soothing tone.

  ‘I warned you that I should very likely be found murdered in my bed!’

  ‘Very true, but you have not been so found, and I cannot suppose it probable that you will be.’

  ‘I am sure,’ said Francis, rising, and tottering to the table, ‘I am happy to hear you speak so confidently, Carlyon, but I cannot share your sanguine persuasions! When I reflect that this, according to what I have been told, is the second time some ruffian has broken into this house, and committed a brutal act of violence, I wonder that you should remain so cool! I envy you your happy disposition, upon my word, I do!’ he refilled his glass, and had just raised it to his lips when Nicky came back into the room.

  ‘What, still recruiting your strength?’ Nicky said scornfully. ‘You may be easy! There is no one in the garden, and Bouncer is not come back. How do you do now, Cousin Elinor? Do you feel more the thing?’

  ‘Oh, yes, thank you! I am better. There is not the least need for you to hold that pad to my head, my lord, for I can very well do it myself.’

  ‘My love, let me wet it again, and then I will fashion a bandage to hold it in place,’ said Miss Beccles, who had been hovering anxiously behind the sofa.

  ‘Cousin Elinor, was that window open when you were struck down?’ demanded Nicky.

  ‘Oh, no! That is, I have no recollection that it was. The wind was blowing in at this side of the house, and I am sure I must have noticed. Why, did you find it open?’

  ‘Yes, wide open, and the curtain partly torn down!’

  She gave a nervous start, and looked fearfully towards the window. ‘Do not say so! Did someone escape through it? But how did he come in? I heard nothing, until a board, as I thought, creaked just behind me. Becky, you shut the door when you left me, did you not? Surely I must have heard it if anyone had opened it!’

  ‘Oh, no, my love!’ said Miss Beccles, tenderly binding the pad in position again. ‘I wonder you should not have noticed that I had been rubbing soap on the hinges! It squeaked so horridly, you remember, but there is nothing like soap to cure a creaking door!’

  ‘Has anyone thought to see if anything of value is missing from the house?’ enquired Francis. ‘I do not wish to appear to be putting myself too much forward, but it does seem to me – However, if it does not strike you as being of consequence, pray do not allow any suggestion of mine to weigh with you!’

  As nobody was paying the least heed to him, this recommendation seemed unnecessary. Nicky was frowning portentously over thoughts of his own; Miss Beccles was busy tying a knot to her bandage; the sufferer lay with closed eyes; and Carlyon stood beside the sofa, looking down at her.

  It was Nicky who broke the silence. ‘I do not see how it can have happened!’ he announced suddenly.

  ‘I dare say I imagined the whole,’ murmured Elinor.

  ‘Well, I mean I do not see why anyone should hit you on the head, cousin. What were you doing?’

  ‘Nothing,’ she replied wearily. ‘I had been writing a letter, which I laid by in the hope that Lord Carlyon might frank it for me.’

  ‘I will certainly do so, but do not tease yourself now, Mrs Cheviot.’

  ‘Yes, but there’s no sense in it!’ persisted Nicky. His eye alighted on the folded inventory, still lying on the hearthrug. He instantly pounced on it. ‘What’s this? Six pairs linen sheets, monogrammed, in good order. Four ditto slightly darned –’