As You Wish Read Free Page B

vigorously.  “Oh, you poor thing, your fingers are like ice!”
    A meeker, girlish voice said, “Beggin’ your pardon, ma’am, but I just stoked up the fire in your sitting room.”
    “Perfect, Molly.”  The more mature woman took on a tone of urgency.  “Let us move her in there.”
    Leah had no choice but to open her eyes in order to be led through the house.  David held her one arm, and at the other was a mahogany-haired beauty, noticeably pregnant and also dressed in costume.
    The costumes bothered Leah.  The employees she’d seen earlier had been wearing normal clothing.  And how could she explain the changed appearances of the manor and the springhouse?  Could she trust her perceptions at all?
    She began to tremble, making out only bits of the others’ conversation as they talked above her head: “nearly drowned” . . .  “her shift only” . . . “an American” . . . “coach waiting” . . . “brain entirely addled” . . .
    They directed her toward a blazing fire, and the heat comforted her a little, but she felt a pang of uneasiness when David left the room.  A girl in an old-fashioned maid’s cap helped her undress and slip into a flannel robe, then the hostess had her stretch out on a backless sofa, wrapping her in a thick down comforter.  She propped two big feather pillows behind Leah and handed her a steaming cup that smelled like some sort of herbal tea.
    Leah sipped the somewhat bitter drink, hovering over the cup while the two women fussed with the pillows and comforter.  The tea soothed her remarkably--more than she imagined possible under the circumstances.
    Her body began to thaw, and the frightening images in her “addled brain” grew murky.  A strange contentment settled upon her, and she sank back deeper into the pillows.  Gradually, she realized her fear had melted right along with the chill she’d felt.  Now she felt warm, relaxed, almost blissful.
    “The tea,” she murmured, gazing into the empty cup.  “What
    was in the tea?”
    “Her ladyship put in a black drop, I reckon, miss.”  The maid took the cup from Leah’s limp fingers.
    “A black drop? . . . Sounds exotic.”  Smiling faintly, she let her head fall back into billowing down.  Wonderful, warm, secure.   She felt as though she’d been cold all her life and now, for the first time, had a toasty blanket to warm her.  Her strange experiences took on the hues of a fantastic adventure.  She felt as though she’d never known what it meant to be alive, and now she stood at the brink of ultimate knowledge.
    David Traymore–where had he gone?   She had to thank him . . .  for saving her life.
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
    David Traymore rode up to his father’s residence for the second consecutive morning, setting a personal record in the frequency of his visits.  During his childhood, his mother had brought him to Solebury House quarterly, dropping him off at the back door, where she collected him again several days later.  As he grew, his service-door entry gained significance, and when he got old enough to understand his position in the family, he stopped coming altogether.  He had believed nothing would ever coax him back, especially after his mother, the only person much concerned in the matter, died.
    He slowed his horse at the front entrance, mulling over the event that had changed his mind.  Phoebe, the only daughter of his late army mentor, Colonel Albert Sheffield, had married the Marquess of Solebury.  She had played big sister to David since his father purchased him a commission in the cavalry for his sixteenth birthday.  When Colonel Sheffield lay on his deathbed, David promised him to look after her.  If he had known the girl would end up marrying his own father, he might have hesitated.  But these days, the need to ensure the marquess treated her decently outweighed his own wish to avoid the man.  Hence, once again, he found himself visiting Solebury House.
    Swinging down from the