Good girls don't go snooping where they don't belong.
But Lady Delia Scarborough never claimed to be a good girl.
Lady Delia Scarborough wants her sister back from the grave.
Since that can't happen, she'll settle for the next best thing...
Making...
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Kieran wasn't sure he had ever been so very tired in all of his life, and yet at the same time, he didn't think that he would ever sleep again. He had spent most of the day wishing that Alice would only open her eyes and ask to paint again, but right now, he blessed the fact that she slept like the dead.
At first, Delia protested everything, his carrying her, his call for the doctor, even being taken to one of the guest rooms close to his own chambers instead of her own small place by the nursery. So quickly, however, it seemed as if she wearied, and before he had even put her in the bed, she curled up his arms as if she had been lost all her life.
Can't protect my daughter, can't even protect the woman who... the members of my household. What the hell good am I?
Kieran knew that the servants were staring, and he knew that there would be a great deal of talk regarding what he and Delia were to each other. He couldn't bring himself to care about that, even a little. He would deal with the matter when it arose.
He had a guard posted at the nursery door, and he prowled the fitfully drowsing Delia's room like a ghost himself. One by one, the footmen returned to report their failure, and then the doctor came by, much put out to be drawn to Brixby Hall on such a terrible night.
He was gentle at least when they woke Delia, and that kept Kieran from wanting to strangle the man. He checked her over with a calm care, and in the end, concluded that it was only a lack of sleep and the shock that had left her in such bad shape.
"Some rest, some safety, that will see her to right."
Kieran promised him triple his usual fee and a bed until the storm lessened, and then he was alone with Delia again. Now, however, she was sitting up in the bed, and he could feel her eyes on him, weighing him, judging him.
"I'll go, if you want. While you recover, you should stay in this room. It is more comfortable than your own."
"Will you stay with me? Just for a short while?"
"The doctor said you should get some sleep."
Delia's laugh was tired, but there was a liveliness to it that comforted him. If she was laughing, surely that meant she would heal from tonight's events.
"Honestly? I never want to sleep again. But if you wish to get back to Alice, I understand."
Kieran came to sit next to the bed, shaking his head. "She's dead to the world, and I have a guard on her door."
"That is good. I didn't even think she could come to harm in all of this."
"She shouldn't, but better safe than sorry, I suppose. I am so sorry that you came to harm in my house."
Delia was silent for a long moment, looking down at her hands folded in her lap. She was smaller than she seemed when she faced him in the study or even when she played with Alice in the nursery. Kieran wanted to destroy anything that made her look that small, that afraid.
