Heiress Without a Cause

CHAPTER FIVE

Madeleine loved them both - and didn't want to face either of them. Her cousin perched on the side of her bed, deep lines creasing her forehead. "Are you feeling alright, Maddie? You never stay abed this long."

Madeleine tried to pull the covers over her head, but Amelia's position kept them in place. "I don't see why you had to come in so early," she muttered.

"Early? It is nearly noon. Mother's holding an at-home this afternoon - did you forget? You surely aren't planning to make me face the wolves alone."

If anyone could handle the wolves, it was Amelia. "Tell her that I am ill again."

Amelia shook her head. "If you keep pretending to be ill, she will be very worried. She said this morning that we should remove to Bath so that you can take the waters. Not that I would mind escaping for the season, of course, but Bath's entertainments are even more hideous than London's."

"I can't go to Bath," Madeleine exclaimed, finally sitting up against the headboard.

Amelia reached out to squeeze her hand. "I know you detest the place as much as I do. I'm glad the play is over so you can 'recover.'"

Madeleine sighed. In her waking moments, obsessing over Ferguson, she forgot Madame Legrand's demands. "The play isn't quite over, Mellie."

Her cousin's grip on her hand tightened. "I thought last night was the final performance? I was sorry to miss it, but you know Mother would have had kittens if neither of us accompanied her to that dinner party last night."

"Madame Legrand has other ideas," Madeleine said.

When Madeleine finished sharing the details of Madame's threats, Amelia stood to pace the room, sidestepping Josephine on every pass. "I cannot believe that woman has betrayed you! You must tell Alex at once. If anyone can find a way to change Madame's mind, it is he."

"Unless Alex wants to kill her or burn down the theatre, I see no alternative," Madeleine said. "Can you imagine if Alex knew? He often says he is too lax a guardian - this would just give him proof. He would probably send me off to rusticate for the next twenty years."

Amelia grinned. "Rustication would be preferable to London, though. I have begged him to let me stay in Lancashire for at least the last five seasons."

"Yes, but you have your writing," Madeleine retorted. "What would I do in the country? Put on theatricals for the pigs?"

Amelia did not respond. Josephine took the opportunity to order Madeleine out of bed. While Amelia paced, the maid gave Madeleine a cold compress for her head and tea for her dry mouth.

"You know I am not truly an invalid," Madeleine said to Josephine.

"Yes, but with the poor sleep you've had, you look as sallow as an Englishwoman. You are not yet an Englishwoman, are you?"

Madeleine laughed despite herself. "I have lived here for twenty years, and my mother was English. Perhaps a sallow complexion is to be expected."

"You are French. And you will get out of bed in case the red-haired duke calls for you today. At least his mother was Scottish. The Scots are allies of the French, are they not?"

"That was decades ago, Josephine. There are no more Jacobites, and if there were, they would not like Napoleon."

"Pfft." Josephine did not like Napoleon any more than she had liked the revolutionaries.

Amelia stopped pacing. "What does Rothwell have to do with this?"

Madeleine pressed the cold cloth to her eyes, closing herself off from Amelia's suspicious gaze. "He could call. I am chaperoning his sisters, after all."