“Oh!” cried Caroline, as pain ripped through her.
She opened her eyes and attempted to sit, but found that her arms would not move. Through her blurred vision she could see that her right arm was bound to her body by a leather strap. Panicked, she looked to her left arm. It too was bound, but someone had hold of her left hand and was busy stitching it.
“It is alright, Caro, you are safe,” said Francis. Her brother appeared beside the bed. He bent down and gave a tender kiss to her forehead.
“What happened?” she replied.
“You cut your hand badly out on the road. Something quite sharp, by the depth of the cut.”
She turned to where the unfamiliar voice had spoken, and found herself staring up into a pair of pale grey eyes. They held a kindness which went straight to her heart.
Lord Newhall smiled back at her. “We had to bind your arms while you were unconscious, just in case you came to and struggled while I had the needle deep in your hand.”
“I remember reaching the castle, and your servant opening the door. I’m not sure what happened after that,” she replied.
“You fainted. It was fortunate you did not have to walk too much farther to find help. You could have easily bled to death outside in the dark,” he said.
She looked at her hand, watching as he continued to stitch the skin together. Her stomach turned at the sight. Memories of the coach accident and her fall on the dark road flooded back into her mind. “What about Master Cook, the groomsman—is he alright? He looked to have a very nasty cut on his face,” she said.
“The castle steward is looking after Master Cook. He did indeed take a nasty blow to the face and needed quite a few stitches. His nose is broken and several of his teeth are still out on the roadway, but he will survive. Help arrived just in time, thanks to you,” said Francis.
Caroline lay back in the bed as her mind cleared. She flinched in pain as the needle went back into the soft flesh of her hand. A bottle of laudanum would have been most welcome. “I remember now. The road was deadly with ice and I fell. The lantern broke and I cut my hand on the glass when I tried to get back to my feet.”
What a night. It was not how she had intended to arrive at the house party. With the host seated beside her bed, holding her hand while he tended to her wound, she had missed the opportunity to make the understated arrival which she had intended. No doubt the other guests would be sitting downstairs talking about her. Caroline Saunders had once again stolen the attention of the party.
“Did the other guests arrive unscathed?” she asked.
Lord Newhall reached over and picked up a pair of embroidery scissors. He tied off the silk thread in a knot then cut off the loose end. She noted that he avoided her question but put it down to his concentrating on the task at hand.
“I’m sorry, I am having to use silk rather than catgut as my steward used the last of it on the young lad from the coach. If you keep the wound bandaged and clean, the stitches should hold. I will send someone into Burton-on-Trent hopefully in the morning to secure some more catgut. I can re-stitch your hand if necessary,” he said.
It took a little while longer to bandage her hand. It was only as Lord Newhall began to pack up his small surgeon’s field kit that Caroline was able to think about trying to get some sleep.
A footman brought up a large hot toddy, which she downed with relish. Anything to take the edge off the pain.
“I would offer you laudanum, but you did bang your head rather hard on the floor when you fell. A nip of whisky is enough for your brain to handle, rather than strong opiates,” said Lord Newhall.
After Lord Newhall and Francis left, a maid helped Caroline into a clean nightgown and comfortably back into bed. As the strong whisky worked its magic on her, she drifted off into a deep sleep.
“Would you like to get settled into your rooms and then join me downstairs for a spot of supper?” asked Julian.
Francis and James both nodded.
“Excellent idea. I expect we might have already missed supper with the rest of the guests,” replied James.
“Yes,” said Julian.
When Julian left the room, he immediately went in search of Lady Margaret. She was waiting for him in the main drawing room. As soon as he opened the door, she got to her feet. She looked over his shoulder and, seeing he was alone, gave voice to the question that had been sitting at the forefront of Julian’s mind for the past hour.
“We didn’t invite them, did we?” she whispered.
“No. But my darling mama knows how little Caroline Saunders and I think of one another, so I expect this was another of her sweet little parting gifts. She probably thought it most amusing to send Caroline to the party and not tell us,” he replied.
Lady Margaret picked up her diary and took out the piece of paper that the countess had given her. She ran her finger down the list of names, but none of the recent arrivals were on it.
“At least the Saunders party is a half day early. I still have time to add them to all the lists for the dinners, balls, and games. I suggest we say nothing to them over the issue of invitations. They obviously were invited by your mother, and it would be deeply embarrassing for all concerned if they discovered the truth,” she said.
Julian stood and listened, but he was not paying full attention. The sudden arrival of Caroline Saunders and her kin on his doorstep should, by rights, have put him in a filthy temper. Once more his mother had tried to get the better of him. Yet, he found himself to be oddly calm about the whole situation.
He was genuinely surprised at Caroline’s heroic effort to find help for her travelling party. The Caroline he thought he knew would have remained in the warmth and dry of the travel coach, refusing to step out into the storm. Yet the girl whose hand he had stitched together had bravely ventured alone into the dark and dangerous night. He admired her pluck.
“We will need to find some supper for Francis and James. I gave Caroline a country-sized hot toddy, so I do not expect to see her again until the morning. In the meantime, we shall simply tell them that they have arrived a day early, which is the truth. Hopefully by this time tomorrow, the house will be full of guests and we won’t have to make mention that some of our guests were not actually expected,” he replied.
Lady Margaret nodded, and tucked the guest list back into her diary.
“Caroline Saunders will soon be lost in the crowd, and I doubt you will have much more to do with her after tonight.”
“Exactly.”