Page 48 of The Highwayman's Bite

“And my niece?” Aldric demanded. It wasn’t that he was unsympathetic to Renarde’s plight, but his hope for Vivian’s return could not be quenched.

Jeffries shook his head. “I did not see her.”

Aldric rose from his seat. “Take me to Madame Renarde, and then organize the servants to search the grounds.”

They went down to the kitchen and Aldric gasped at the sight of Vivian’s companion. Renarde’s face was gray and gaunt, her eyes glazed, and her frame trembled as if she’d been overtaken by palsy.

“Lord Thornton,” Renarde said with a crooked smile. “I have been released due to my illness.” Then she doubled over with a hoarse, racking cough.

“And Vivian?” he asked, though he suspected the answer.

Renarde shook her head sadly. “He will have his two hundred pounds, or die in the effort. But I assure you, Vivian is doing quite well under the circumstances.” She swayed in her seat and grasped the table for balance. “There is one other thing that I must tell you in confidence.”

Despite the feverish glaze, Aldric sensed an urgency that couldn’t be denied. He dismissed the cook and the scullery maid.

Once they were alone, he leaned forward. “What is it you wish to tell me?” he asked, and that’s when he smelled the answer. Beneath the stench of sweat and sickness, there was the unmistakable odor of something familiar. Something that chilled his blood.

Madame Renarde had been in close company with a vampire. A vampire who’d known precisely who he’d stolen from when he’d taken Vivian.

A low growl built in his throat. That was how Vivian’s captor had carried off the abduction and managed to evade Aldric’s hunt for so long.

But what Madame Renarde said next was not the information Aldric already gathered by scent, but something far worse. “I know what you are, Lord Thornton.”

Aldric bared his fangs. “The bloody whoreson told you?”

The companion nodded, then exploded in another fit of coughing. Her pallid flesh whitened further aside from the crimson flags of fever on her cheeks. “Yes, and I will tell you all I know of him and where he keeps your niece if you will promise me one thing.”

For a moment Aldric was tempted to tell the brazen companion that she was in no position to demand anything because he could simply drain the truth with her blood. However, he held back. In such a weakened state, to feed on her could kill her. Especially if the vampire that had held her and was still holding Vivian had already been feeding from Madame Renarde.

“And what promise would that be?” he asked, with a note of warning.

Despite Aldric’s bared fangs and menacing tone, Madame Renarde reached forward and grasped his hand. Sweat beaded on her brow and she spoke in tremulous gasps. “That... the... doctor... you summon... will be... discreet with regards to... my secret.”

The moment Madame Renarde finished her request, her eyes rolled back in her head and she toppled forward. Aldric caught her with a muffled curse and carried her out of the kitchen. “Jeffries!” he called.

The footman emerged from the parlor. “Yes, my lord?”

“Fetch Doctor Rosenfield at once,” Aldric commanded. “And tell no one about this.”

When Jeffries departed, Aldric carried Madame Renarde up to her room, silently praying that the companion’s malady was not fatal. He needed the information she had about the vampire who held Vivian captive.

As he waited for the doctor, Aldric shuttered all the windows on the second floor and closed the curtains. Then he built a roaring fire in Madame Renarde’s room and lit several lanterns. When Doctor Rosenfield arrived shortly after sunrise, he still complained about the lack of light.

“I am sorry, Doctor, the curtains must remain drawn.” Aldric rubbed his temples. “The sun gives me a terrible headache. I can have more lanterns brought in.”

“That is quite all right, my lord.” Rosenfield shook his head and moved the lanterns closer. “I will examine the patient now.”

“There is one more thing,” Aldric said quietly. “There are certain attributes about this... woman... that require discretion should you encounter them. I do hope I can trust you in this matter.”

Doctor Rosenfield stroked his chin and regarded him with a curious glance, but he nodded. “I am always discreet.”

Aldric examined him for signs of a lie and found none, though his evaluations sometimes proved false. “Thank you, Doctor,” he said and left the room.

Ten minutes later, the doctor met Aldric in the corridor. “Madame Renarde is suffering from pneumonia. If the fever breaks within the next day or two, ah, she should survive, but I recommend that... she ...remain in bed for at least a fortnight. I gave her laudanum for the cough and chest pain. Watered wine and broth should do for the next couple days, along with tea, honey, and soft foods.” Doctor Rosenfield stepped closer and whispered, “She will also need a shave soon, if you wish to remain discreet about...her... ah... attributes.”

“Of course.” If Renarde was too weak to accomplish the task, Aldric would have to attend to it. “Is she conscious?”

Doctor Rosenfield shook his head. “She is delirious from fever. I was only able to rouse her long enough for her to tell me her name and where she felt pain before I gave her medicine. Then she fell unconscious again. That is a good thing, however. Sleep is the best of cures. Her heart sounds strong, and I have high hopes of a full recovery.”

Aldric thanked the doctor and paid his fee as well as a little extra. He ground his teeth in irritation that his questioning would have to wait. As he retired to his chambers and undressed for the day sleep, the gravity of the situation weighed on his heart. Madame Renarde knew that Aldric was a vampire. Did that mean that Vivian had also discovered that fact?

The blasted cur who took them had broken one of the principle laws of their kind: never tell humans of the existence of vampires. If the Elders found out that Vivian and Madame Renarde knew, they would order the women to be killed or Changed.

Aldric was most certainly unwilling to kill either one of them. But the alternative wasn’t much more appealing. Renarde already felt trapped in the wrong body. Would it be fair to consign her to an eternity in that form?

And Vivian... Aldric’s shoulders slumped in despair. His niece was supposed to have had her whole life ahead of her. A future full of sunlight, happiness, and hopefully children.

And now the whoreson who took her had cheated her of all that.

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