Trapped by Scandal Read Free Page A

apparently.” Despite his anxiety, Alec grinned. Great-aunt Emily was always developing something or other. “Anyway, she has no idea the house is in an uproar.”
    â€œHardly an uproar,” Hero said with a responding grin.“Jackson would never permit it, baby or not. I’ll go up and see Marie Claire. Will you come?”
    He shook his head miserably. “Nan told me to stay away. She said I was agitating Marie Claire.”
    Hero couldn’t help a chuckle. Nan had been their nursemaid and the person most responsible for bringing them up. Their parents had had little or no interest in their offspring, once the heir was assured, much preferring the giddy whirl of London Society life, with frequent travels to Paris and Italy, over any form of domesticity. The twins had scrambled into adulthood under Nan’s direction and the rather ineffective schooling of a series of governesses, who did not last very long in the twins’ schoolroom, and rather more effective tutors, who remained for as long as they could hold their pupils’ interest in their subjects. Since both Hero and Alec had decidedly lively minds and much preferred to direct their own lines of educational inquiry, the tutors who did succeed in teaching them were those who were prepared to follow their lead. As a result, they were very accomplished in some subjects and woefully ignorant in others.
    â€œWell, I’ll run up and see what’s going on. I’ll report back.” She hastened from the parlor and up the narrower staircase to the bedroom floor. She heard voices and soft moaning from behind the double doors to Lady Bruton’s bedchamber and opened it quietly, slipping into the room, where a fire blazed in the hearth and candles illuminated the large canopied bed. It was insufferably hot in the room, the windows closed tight against drafts and blocked by the long damask curtains.
    An elderly woman turned from the foot of the bed at the sound of the door. “Ah, ’tis you, Lady Hero. Now, don’t you get in the way.”
    â€œI wasn’t going to, Nan.” Hero stepped quickly to the bed. “How are you, darling?” She smiled down at the white face on the white pillows.
    Marie Claire struggled to find a responding smile. “Well enough until the pain comes.” She put out a hand, and Hero took it in a firm clasp. “Is Alec all right?”
    â€œNo, he’s tearing his hair out, poor love,” Hero said. “He looks half demented. You know how he can’t bear not to be able to control things.”
    Marie Claire smiled feebly. “Just like you, Hero.”
    â€œTrue enough,” she said, then stopped as the other woman’s grip on her hand intensified and her face contorted with pain. Hero didn’t wince, although her hand felt as if it was going to break, but then Marie Claire’s grip weakened and she fell back against the pillows with a little sigh.
    â€œLeave her be, now, Lady Hero,” Nan instructed. “There’s things we need to do.”
    â€œI’ll come back later,” Hero said, bending to kiss her sister-in-law’s damp brow. She moved away from the bed, and the doctor followed her to the door.
    â€œâ€™Tis likely to be a long night, my lady,” he informed her with appropriate gravity, his somber black suit and the pince-nez swinging from a chain around his neck giving him a reassuringly professional air. “But everything is going as it should. Try to reassure his lordship.”
    â€œI’ll try.” Hero moved aside as a maid came in with a pile of linen, followed by another carrying two jugs ofsteaming water. The landing was cold after the heat of the bedchamber, and she turned aside to her own room to fetch a wrap before returning to her brother.
    Alec was standing in front of the fire when she entered the parlor. “How is she? Is it over?”
    She shook her head. “No, love, it’s