Chapter 4

Lord Crane entertained Miss Talbot for several days. A wicked storm had swept through right after her arrival, and the master would never send a lady out in such conditions. Though when Nico found himself alone with her one afternoon in the study, she seemed eager to be on her way.

Nico was dusting a bookshelf, pretending that Elisabeth’s sighs and mutterings weren’t a distraction, when she came to hover next to his ladder.

“How can you stand it here?” she muttered, pulling a book off the shelf beneath him.

“I beg your pardon, Miss Talbot?”

She flipped absently through the pages, waving away the dust motes that floated out. If she had asked, Nico would have told her that the book in her hands was two centuries old, and that it included some rather lovely prose. “Lord Crane seems to control everyone and everything here. I told him I wanted to leave this morning and he forbade it. He said he’d tie me up if I even tried.”

She was nineteen, the same age as Nico, but there was a childish, petulant tone in her voice. “I’m sure he only wants to keep you safe. The forest will be a swamp by now, and if your horse goes lame, you’ll be stranded out there.” He stepped down from the ladder as she tried to stuff the book back into the wrong place on the shelf. “Here,” he said, taking it from her and placing it reverently in its proper slot.

“I made it this far on my own, didn’t I?” She plopped down on a sofa and folded her arms across her chest. “Eldridge Hall is only five more days from here, if I can make good time. And Locket would never let me come to harm.”

Nico barely heard Elisabeth’s comment about her gray mare, who, though docile and sweet, was still just a horse. His attention had snagged on something else. “Your family is at the castle?”

Elisabeth sighed and played with the golden fringe on a velvet pillow. “My brother was, the last I heard. But it’s been years with no word.”

Nico set down his duster and took a seat on the sofa across from Elisabeth. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but all the rumors say the mad king locked the nobility up inside with him. They didn’t have nearly enough food to last this long.”

Worry flickered over her brow, but she set her chin at a stubborn angle. “If that’s true, I’ll continue to our home and see if anyone is left. Mother and Father sent me away as soon as they got word of the plague. They were supposed to come along after me, but it’s possible they decided to stay and wait it out. Maybe they’re all together now.”

Nico wondered if she realized how deluded she sounded, but he decided not to press her. If there was any hope that some of his family members were still alive, he’d do the same thing. “I’m sure another day to wait for the weather to clear won’t hurt,” he said. “And another night in a warm bed can’t hurt, either.”

She glanced up at him, her eyes even wider than normal. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I—er, nothing, Miss Talbot. Only that if you’ll be sleeping in the woods on your way to Eldridge Hall, then staying at the manor one more night will give you some much-needed rest. Won’t it?” The more he spoke the harder he blushed, but he wasn’t alone. Elisabeth’s cheeks were the same shade of mauve as her gown. Perhaps Branson was onto something when he insinuated that Elisabeth wouldn’t need her own room.

Elisabeth was the picture of a virtuous young lady, the kind of girl he would marry if he was lucky enough to find his match, but he wasn’t naive. Or at least not completely naive. The plague had changed everyone, like she’d said. When it felt like you were the last person left, you clung to other survivors like lifeboats in a stormy sea. It didn’t matter that Colin was a chimney sweep, or Crane was Nico’s master now, or that Branson was insufferable. The Bloody Three had made them family.

“What is it like out there?” he asked, to change the subject. “Is there any commerce? Are things...” He didn’t want to say normal; normal had no meaning now. “Are they better?”

Her eyes met his, and for the first time he could tell that she was haunted by the things she had seen. “The plague is gone,” she said quietly. “As far as anyone can tell. I left Glendale alone, but I met others on the road. We were a small group by the time we reached Esmoor. They weren’t nobles, but they were good, kind folk. I started to feel hopeful. But Esmoor was...” She swallowed thickly. “The people who are still there live like rats in the shadows, scurrying about, fighting over scraps. We didn’t stay long. It wasn’t safe.”

Nico hung on her every word, trying to imagine Esmoor so changed. He’d only been a few times as a child, but it had been a lovely city. He should have gone back himself, seen these things with his own eyes. Helped someone.

Before he could ask more questions, Lord Crane entered the library. “There you are, Miss Talbot. I was afraid we’d lost you.”

Nico hurried to his feet. “Apologies, sir. I was just finishing up in here.”

Crane’s smile crept across his face lazily, like wine down the bowl of a crystal goblet. If Miss Talbot was the quintessential lady, then Crane was everything Nico imagined a nobleman should be: handsome, generous, powerful. He was also the most intimidating man Nico had ever met, other than his father.

“Miss Talbot has good taste,” Crane said, still smiling at Nico. “The library is one of my favorite rooms in the manor.”

Elisabeth rose and took Crane’s arm, casting an unreadable glance at Nico. “The sun is finally out. I should like to see the gardens before I go.”

“It would be my pleasure.” He tossed the next words over his shoulder like salt. “Mott, I believe the silver needs polishing. See to it, would you?”

***

“Polishing the silver?” Colin asked when he found Nico in the dining room, sweating over an elaborate candelabra. “Whatever have you done?”

Nico puffed his hair out of his face and bent back to his task. “Lord Crane found me alone with Miss Talbot. I made the mistake of sitting on the sofa.”

Colin let out a low whistle. “Can’t say I haven’t let a pretty face get the better of me in the past, but Miss Talbot is the master’s guest.”

“I wasn’t trying to woo her. I was trying to console her. She thinks her brother is at Eldridge Hall.”

Colin raised an eyebrow. “Alive?”

“So it would seem. I was trying to tell her that the odds of that are...”

“Nonexistent?”

“I put it a little more delicately than that.”

Colin picked up a silver dish and a rag. “Hardly seems worthy of punishment, then.”

“He didn’t catch the conversation, I don’t think. Just me sitting down like I own the place.”

“You are a gentleman.”

“Not in this house. And I’m glad of it. I don’t think I could handle the responsibility of all those lives. But it is hard to remember sometimes.”

“And Miss Talbot?”

“What about her?”

Colin smoothed his bushy brown hair off his forehead as he bent down to pick up a cup. “Do you think she likes you? Perhaps the master was jealous.”

“Of me?” Nico laughed. “Don’t be a fool. He’s a decade older and infinitely wealthier. I’m hardly a threat.”

“Don’t underestimate the power of a pretty face,” Colin said, flicking Nico on the chin. “I’ll finish up here. Branson’s on digging duty today.”

Nico sighed. “I should lend him a hand.”

“Why? He wouldn’t help you.”

“That’s what separates the men from the beasts,” Nico said with a wry smile.

“What is?”

“Generosity. Kindness. The ability to rise above petty differences.”

“Really? I thought it was our fancy clothes.” Colin plucked at his waistcoat for emphasis.

Nico laughed. “You’re polishing the silver for me, you realize.”

“Only so I don’t feel obligated to help Branson.”

Nico arched an eyebrow as he backed out of the room. “And so the wheel turns.”

He changed into his digging clothes and headed out to the fields, following the deep ruts in the mud left by Branson’s wheelbarrow. If nothing else, it was nice to be outside, enjoying the fresh air. When the plague first came, everyone had stayed hidden inside, just like those poor fools at Eldridge Hall.

Something rustled in the trees ahead and Nico froze. Since the plague, predators had come down from the mountains, their fear of hunters forgotten. He’d seen a wolf only once—on its own, fortunately—sniffing around a corpse. Even the animals wouldn’t touch the plague-ridden bodies, but they had found other evidence of predation: deer and sheep with their throats torn out, along with desiccated squirrels and rabbits.

“Help!” someone called, and Nico sprang forward, wishing he’d brought a weapon with him. He broke through the brush and into a clearing, where two men were wrestling on the ground.

“Where is she?” one of the men demanded, his hands wrapped around Branson’s throat.

“I don’t know,” Branson sobbed. “I swear it.”

Nico rushed forward without any real plan. “Unhand him!”

It had sounded more gallant in his head. The man on top of Branson turned to look at him, and Nico immediately recognized the stranger who’d come to the door so unexpectedly the other evening. Adrien Arnaud. There was a wild look in his eyes that made Nico feel far less brave than he had seconds before.

“You!” the man shouted, dropping Branson and moving swiftly toward Nico. “Tell me where the girl is!”

“I’ll do no such thing.” Nico leaped out of his grasp, heading for the wheelbarrow. The shovel was the closest thing they had to a weapon, and Branson didn’t seem inclined to help.

“You don’t understand,” Arnaud said, a note of pleading in his voice. “I need to find her.”

Nico looked closer and saw that the man was clad in the same fine clothing as their last encounter, though it was now tattered and filthy. Nico imagined it was close to what he himself had looked like when the master found him. Thank goodness Crane had taken pity on him, because he hadn’t spared any for this gentleman.

“I’m sorry,” Nico said, “but the lady is a guest of Lord Crane. Even if I knew where she was at the moment, I couldn’t tell you. I suggest you leave these lands before he sees you again. I don’t think he’ll take kindly to your presence.”

“I can’t leave without the—”

A scream sounded at the same time as the gunshot. Nico covered his head on instinct, but Crane was an excellent marksman. The bullet had gone straight through the man’s back. He fell forward into the mud, dead.

“Good heavens!” Nico cried. “What did you do that for?”

“The man was raving,” Crane said coolly, dismounting from his stallion. Miss Elisabeth sat astride Locket behind him, her mouth a little O of surprise. “I put him out of his misery. It was a favor, believe me.”

Nico wasn’t sure anyone could call a bullet in the back a favor, but he did his best to compose himself. Another reason he couldn’t be a master; he didn’t have Crane’s resolve. But at least he wasn’t cowering on the ground like Branson.

“Get up, Branson,” Crane said, toeing the dead man with his boot. “The good news is you already have everything you need to bury him. Hurry up and see to it. Mott, you’ll come with me.”

“Don’t leave me alone out here,” Branson whimpered. “Please, sir.”

Crane waved his gun at the body. “There’s nothing to fear now. I need to get Miss Talbot to the manor.” He glanced back at her, a strange expression on his face. “She’s had quite a shock.”

Elisabeth was indeed pale, and Nico noticed there was a small trickle of blood coming from her nose. He passed her a handkerchief, explaining how to tip her head forward to encourage clotting, but he was reeling a bit himself, trying to understand how a man who had saved him from certain death could be so unfeeling toward a stranger.

The first time Nico ever saw Crane, he’d been lying on the forest floor, sure he was hallucinating again. Crane had been riding his black stallion, Bane, with a hunting rifle across his lap. Bane snorted, likely at the discovery of Nico’s half-unconscious form, and the man dismounted, his polished boots winking in and out of Nico’s vision.

The next thing Nico remembered was Crane’s strong hand on his wrist, checking for a pulse.

“Lucky I found you when I did,” he muttered, picking Nico up as though he were a child. “Another few hours and you’d be finished.” Crane had helped Nico into the saddle, then mounted behind him. He slept for most of the trip to Crane Manor, but Crane spoke to him quietly as they rode, telling him that he was safe now, that there was a warm bed and plenty of food waiting for him. It had all felt like a dream, one Nico was astonished to find was real once he recovered.

When Nico’s duties were laid out for him by Colin, he had accepted his new position gratefully. It was only right that he should repay Crane for saving him. And when the occasional traveler passed by Crane Manor, Crane always treated them just as kindly as he had Nico. Surely, it was concern for Elisabeth that had prompted Crane to kill Arnaud. Still, it left Nico unsettled to see his benefactor behave so violently. Once again, he had the feeling that the two men had a history.

At the manor Nico was asked to escort Elisabeth back to her chambers, fetch Abby, and to keep Elisabeth there until Crane sent for her. He disappeared into another wing of the house as soon as they returned. As Nico and Elisabeth walked down the corridors together, he couldn’t ignore her muffled sobs.

“Don’t cry, Miss Talbot. You’re very safe here in the manor.” He gently pulled her hand, which was still pressing the handkerchief to her nose, away from her face. He was glad to see that the bleeding had stopped.

“That’s just it,” she said, sniffling. “What if I encounter another lunatic in the woods when I leave tomorrow? I won’t have anyone there to protect me.”

“Perhaps someone could escort you, at least part of the way.”

“Oh, would you?” Elisabeth embraced him suddenly, burying her face in his chest, the light reflecting off the crown of her dark, silky hair. “I would be forever indebted to you.”

“Oh.” He stood frozen for a moment, unsure what to do. Bloody noses he could deal with, but he’d never learned the remedy for a weeping maiden. “I doubt I’d be permitted to leave. But perhaps Lord Crane could take you.”

“He makes me uneasy,” she whispered as they reached her chamber. Before he could turn and leave to fetch Abby, she grabbed his arm and pulled him into the room, closing the door behind him.

“Miss Talbot, please. This is most inappropriate. Lord Crane is a gentleman, I assure you.”

She scoffed. “Does a gentleman go shooting men in the back? I think not.”

A prickle of unease crept down his spine, but he shook it away. “Arnaud was raving, begging to know your whereabouts. He’d already pretended to be your husband. Lord Crane was protecting you.”

She dropped to her knees and took one of his hands. “Please, Mr. Mott. Nico. I’ll never make it all the way to Eldridge on my own. I need you. The way Crane looks at me...”

Nico felt the flush creeping up his neck and willed it back down. “You’re a lady, so perhaps you don’t understand—”

She shot him a cutting look that made him feel like a child. “I know what desire looks like. This is different. There’s a hunger in his eyes that frightens me.”

There was no stopping the blush now. Hunger, desire—weren’t they one and the same? “What do you mean?”

She rose to her feet, now only inches away from Nico. Her eyes reached to the hollow of his throat, and he swallowed audibly. Gently, she laid her palm on his chest, her fingers fanning out across his shirt, just above his heart. There was no chance she didn’t feel how fast it was beating.

“That, Mr. Mott. That’s desire. But Crane... It’s like he’s a wolf and he wants to...” She bit her lip and looked up at him, her brown eyes huge in her blood-streaked face. “Like he wants to devour me.” Her fingers trailed down his chest to his stomach, where they gripped the fabric of his shirt and pulled him closer still. “Please, help me.”

Nico glanced at the closed door, convinced Crane was going to enter any moment and shoot him in the back. If Elisabeth was sick or injured, he would do everything in his power to help. But even if he was allowed to escort her home, he would do a miserable job of it. He wasn’t a good marksman. He didn’t know the roads. He had barely survived on his own out there.

Besides, if Crane thought Nico was overstepping, he could exile him from the manor. Nico didn’t want to go back to living alone in a house full of ghosts. He wasn’t sure his sanity could withstand it.

“I can’t, Miss Talbot. I’m sorry.” He broke free of her grasp and moved to the door. “I’ll send Abby right away. Try not to worry. You’ve had a scare, but everything will be all right.”

He found Abby and sent her to Elisabeth’s room, warning her that the lady was distraught. Crane had told him to wait outside her chambers, but Nico didn’t think that was wise, given her behavior. Instead, he went to his room and tried to clear his head. He couldn’t go with Elisabeth; that much was clear.

But he also hated the idea of sending her out into the woods on her own. Perhaps if he spoke to Crane, he could convince him to escort her at least part of the way. Nico and the others could take care of the manor in his absence.

He was heading toward the kitchen when he heard the master speaking with another servant, a young boy named Gavin who worked in the stables.

“Miss Talbot and I will leave at first light,” Crane said. “Tell Mrs. Horner to prepare enough food for ten days of travel. I don’t think I’ll be gone that long, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. We’ll take the carriage.”

“Yes, sir,” the boy said.

Nico sighed in relief. Elisabeth would be taken care of, and he hadn’t even needed to intervene. He kept to his room for the rest of the night, avoiding Elisabeth. It was best for everyone that she left.

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