Page 66 of The Curious Story of the Missing Lady
“So be it. He’s coming to dinner tomorrow evening. You can discuss it with him then if you like.”
“Sister, you are wicked. Get out.”
Emily rose with a mischievous giggle. “Rest well, dear sister.”
She paused at the door, and then turned. “I love you, Madeline, with all my heart.” And she walked out.
Chapter 49
The next morning, there was a hand on her shoulder. “M’Lady ... M’Lady, wake up, dear.”
She roused awake slowly. She’d been sleeping a dreamless sleep. It was Lizzy shaking her.
“M’Lady, please, wake up. You have a visitor. Mr Foster is away on an errand. Oh, I thought of telling the gentleman you were asleep but he’s had such a journey and is only recently back to full health. I couldn’t bear turning him away. Oh, wake up, M’Lady.”
“A visitor?”
“Lord Oliver, you delicate little mouse. Come, let’s get you fixed up.”
Madeline straightened herself quickly as best she could, feeling waves of dizziness have their way with her. After a moment, she noticed she was smiling.
“Well, said Lisbelle, brush in hand, “look at you beaming like Elijah’s chariot.”
“Oh, tosh.”
“Oh, I know it when I see it, M’Lady.”
Madeline ignored her. “Do I look alright?”
“You look like an angel come down to earth to show us the model for true ethereal beauty itself. Let’s just get your face cleaned up though, shall we?”
After a wet cloth and a liberal dose of ginger essence, she felt fit to be introduced to society all over again.
When Lord Oliver entered, he was thinner than she had last seen him, and her heart went out to him. Still, he was dashing in striped trousers and waistcoat with an expertly-tied cravat topping off the ensemble like a dash ofcrème Chantilly.
“Lady Madeline,” he said with a bow.
Her tears flowed freely then. She wanted nothing more than to leap out of bed.
“She’s ill, M’Lord,” Lisbelle admonished. “I’d beg you to go easy with your manner in this room. Keep a nice, soft voice, and no sudden moves, if you please, M’Lord.”
“But of course,” he said softly. “May I sit?”
“Please,” said Madeline, drying her eyes with her ever-present lace handkerchief.
“How are you feeling, Madeline?”
“I was going to ask the same of you!”
He put his head down with a crooked smile. “Fit as a horse.”
“An odd expression.”
“It means I am ready to tackle life once again. It was touch and go for a while there.”
“Touch and go?You speak like my sister. She’s always throwing out these cosmopolitan phrases.”
“She’s a wise girl, Emily is. You two should be friends.”
