Page 28 of Heiress Gone Wild

Marjorie wasn’t quite satisfied by that explanation, nor did she have any intention of being stuck here with Lady Stansbury on her own. “Perhaps,” she murmured. “But if you will forgive me, ladies, I think I should go with the baroness and make sure she’s all right. After that, I shall retire to my own cabin for the night.”

“If you’re going after the baroness, you’d better hurry,” the countess advised, glancing past Marjorie’s shoulder.

Turning her head, Marjorie was surprised to find the baroness already starting up the grand staircase. She rose, slung her wrap around her shoulders, and reached for her bag, then mumbled a quick farewell, dipped a curtsy, and followed as quickly as she could.

Ascending a staircase in a tight-fitting gown, however, wasn’t easy, and by the time Marjorie reached the top of the stairs, the baroness had already turned down the corridor that led to the first-class staterooms. Marjorie quickened her steps, but she was only halfway to the corridor before she heard a voice calling her name, and when she turned her head, she saw Jonathan coming through the doors that led out onto the promenade.

“Hullo,” he greeted as he joined her. “What are you doing up here? I thought you’d be with the other ladies in the dining room.”

“I was, but the baroness seems to have taken ill, and I want to be sure it isn’t anything serious.”

They turned into the corridor together just in time to see Baroness Vasiliev stepping into her room.

“Baroness?” Marjorie called, causing the other woman to pause in the doorway. “Are you all right?”

“I shall be,” she answered, giving them an abstracted smile. “I’m sure I soon shall be.”

“We all hope so, of course,” Jonathan murmured.

“Is it a headache?” Marjorie asked. “If so, a poultice of ice and salt applied to the head works wonders. Shall I call a ship’s maid to make you one?”

“No, no.” Baroness Vasiliev shook her head. “That is very sweet of you, but all I need is sleep.”

“Then we shan’t keep you,” Jonathan said politely. “Good night.”

With a nod of farewell, the baroness went inside her cabin.

“Well, that was awfully sudden,” Marjorie commented as the door closed behind the other woman. “I do hope she’ll be all right.”

“She’s probably just tired. What about you?” he asked before she could reply.

“I think I’ll go to bed as well.”

“You don’t wish to rejoin the other ladies?” he asked, falling in step beside her as she started down the corridor to her own room.

“Did you think I would?” she asked, giving him a wry look. “If you are going to set watchdogs upon me, you might at least make them interesting company.”

A smile twitched his lips. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Well, yes, perhaps, I do,” he conceded as they paused before her door and she opened her evening bag to retrieve her passkey. “And since we’re on the topic of the company you keep, there’s something I need to tell you.”

He sounded so grave that Marjorie paused in unlocking the door and looked at him. “Something about the baroness?”

“Yes, indirectly, but I’m actually referring to that scoundrel, de la Rosa.”

“Him again?” She groaned and resumed unlocking her door. “Just because he ‘makes your boot itch,’ as you put it, that doesn’t prove he’s a scoundrel.”

“No, but what I witnessed earlier this evening does.”

With an air of long suffering, she returned her key to her bag and snapped it shut. “What did you see him do?” she asked. “Drink too much wine with dinner? Lose too much money at the card table?”

“He paid the baroness for an introduction to you, and for her to arrange the seating so that you would be beside him.”

“He did?” Marjorie laughed. “How clever of him. And what a compliment to me.”

He blinked as if disconcerted, making it clear her reaction wasn’t quite the one he’d been expecting. “You think what he did was a compliment?”

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