When she came to, Karen was in a warm bed, in dry clothes and was looking into the face of Mrs Brown.
"You're awake now? Good."
"What happened?" Karen croaked.
Mrs Brown frowned. "Don't you remember? There I am reading at home when Jay comes and rings my doorbell, asking me if he could disturb my evening!" she said it as if she had hardly needed to take time off. "His trousers were wet from the knees down and he told me you'd fainted."
"I didn't faint," Karen protested weakly.
"Ah, so you do remember. I came back with him, he told me the house was flooding and you must have fallen." She chuckled. "And he kept complaining about 'that blasted dog'."
"Uffizi?"
"The poor thing was trembling and terrified. If it weren't for her I don't think Jay would have followed you up."
Karen recognized the room she was in as Jay's.
"Where is Jay?"
"Calling Veronica or the plumbers, most likely."
"And the floor?"
"Don't you worry, child." Mrs Brown put a restraining hand on Karen's shoulder. "I've done what can be done tonight."
"Already?"
Mrs Brown smiled. "Let's just hope you don't catch pneumonia."
Karen wrinkled her nose at the prospect.
"No need to make funny faces at me," Mrs Brown told her. "Have some tea and keep warm. That's all you have to do."
"You're a magician," Karen told her only then seeing the tray next to her beside the picture of a mousy looking girl with happy eyes.
Mrs Brown spoke first. "That's my niece's daughter Rachel."
"Oh. How old is she?"
"She's eight years old, next month."
Karen watched the older woman speak as she poured the tea and placed a cookie on the side of the saucer.
"Thank you."
She wondered why Rachel would be on Jay's night stand, but she didn't ask. Wasn't sure she wanted to know.
A snuffling sound to her left made her look down beside her. Uffizi was wrapped in a small blanket- she and Prado were fast asleep nestled beneath the duvet on Jay's bed.
"You do spoil my puppies, Mrs Brown."
"Nonsense. They're still babies those two."
A door closed somewhere on the landing.
Jay knocked before entering his bedroom.
"Ah, you're up."
"Yes." She saw he had changed into sweats and a blue t-shirt that matched his eyes. His hair was mussed and he looked irritated. Inexplicable guilt filled her. She was becoming a guest with so many issues surrounding her visit.
"How's your head?" he asked her.
"I'll be ok. It doesn't hurt much," she told him.
"You have a lump on the back of your head, you know."
"Uffizi jumped into my arms and I slipped," she said by way of explanation.
Finishing her tea, she turned too quickly to thank the housekeeper. Then she experienced an agony that brought tears to her eyes.
"You should get some rest dear."
Mrs Brown picked at pieces of lint on the bed cover, pushed hair off Karen's face. After that, she stood up and picked up the tray.
"Good night, Lord Ravenscar."
"Good night," he said. "Thank you."
He waited for the older woman to leave before taking her place on a chair beside the bed.
"I'm sorry," Jay said quietly.
"For what? We should have made sure the faucets were closed, that's all."
"You could have broken more bones while Prado and I baked cookies."
Karen laughed and immediately regretted it.
Jay winced. "And because of me, you're hurt again."
"It's not your fault the faucets were open Jay... besides you're a lord, you're not used to taking care of people."
Self-disgust crossed his face. "You're the second woman to tell me that. And yet you sound more understanding than she did. And you shouldn't be! I do care about people- I'm not spoiled."
"I never said you were spoiled Jay Madison," Karen reassured him, a bit dismayed that she'd stung him. "Please don't be upset."
He looked up from his hands. "You understand, don't you? I don't consider myself one of those upper class citizens who feels no need to work. I'm actually used to taking care of myself."
She nodded.
"I reckon you work quite hard, Lord Madison."
At that, he laughed. "I'm not Lord Madison, love."
Karen frowned. "What?"
"I'm Lord Ravenscar. My name is Jay Madison but my title is Earl of Ravenscar, therefore I'm called Lord Ravenscar."
"I was wondering when Mrs Brown called you that."
He smiled and ran a hand through his hair. "Yes, that's what they call me. My parents are Lord and Lady Lyveden, the Marquis and Marchioness of Lyveden. My brother's just Lord Owen, lucky bastard."
"Oh," Karen groaned, "my head is reeling now."
"I'm sorry. It's just that not many of my friends actually take serious note of the title. Lord Madison is wholly derogatory nickname. Mrs Brown happened to reveal that I was an earl. I've been ribbed ever since."
"You poor dear."
"You're teasing me."
"I can't help it," she chuckled. "An earl, self-exiled to America, can't bear to reveal that he has a British title lest he intimidate plumbers into committing faux pas."
Karen yawned.
"Mrs Brown was right, you should go to sleep. I'll take the bedroom across the hall if you need me."
"Thank you for the bed, Lord Ravenscar."
He smiled and watched her snuggle into his covers.
"You don't know how enticing you make my bed look."
"Haha. I'd let you in but you might suffocate my dogs."
He gave her a small smile. "Good night, Karen."
"Night Jay."
Just before he left the room, she called out to him.
"Jay!"
"Yes?" he turned back to her.
"What does the H in your name stand for?"
He smiled and said, "Huntley."
She smiled back. "Nice. G'night."
"Night Fox."
The following morning, she didn't hear Prado and Uffizi run downstairs with Jay after he came to get swimming trunks. She didn't hear him when he came in after showering to collect clothes to wear.
He glanced over from the doorway.
She was on her back her hair covering part of her face. Mrs Brown had put her in a fresh t-shirt which was bunched up around her waist, her legs were half-covered by the covers.
Jay put his clothes on a chair and went over to the bed, pulling the duvet back up to her shoulders. She turned her face toward him as he straightened to leave.
Karen was captivating even in repose, but he didn't consider waking her up.
He called her at lunch just to check on her. Mrs Brown spoke to him afterwards and listened carefully then said, "Yes, Jay," before ringing off.
"You're going be living in Jay's room until they check out the wiring and flooring up there. I'll bring your clothes down for you."
"Oh... alright." Pause. "I won't need too much, though. We've cancelled my classes 'til late summer because I can't draw." She was wearing another of Jay's shirts.
"Are you going to go home, then?"
"Oh, certainly not. I have to go when I am completely whole. I can't resist my family, especially my dad when I'm broken in any sense."
Mrs Brown seemed to understand. Karen had spoken at length about her awkward relationship with her family.
"I might go to Europe, though. Visit some galleries I haven't seen since my gap year after I left Radcliffe."
"How lovely."
"It would be lovely, wouldn't it?" Karen said, warming to the idea.
Since she didn't have anything to do, Karen decided to accompany Mrs Brown to select what to bring down.
The top few stairs before reaching her landing had been stripped of their carpeting and there were water marks on the dark wood underneath. Karen knew that Veronica had ordered the replacement and it would be here in a week or so.
The floorboards had water stains as well, proof that there had been quite a bit of water on the normally dry surface. They were in a work in progress Mrs Brown told her. Every afternoon, the housekeeper would take wax and the polisher to refurbish her pristine floors until they glowed like all the other wooden surfaces in Jay's home.
All Karen's lingerie, her shorts, a few gowns, some of her shoes, her perfume and jewellery case all found space in Jay's enormous closet. Mrs Brown assured her that there was certainly enough space for both of them.
Her perfumes were placed on the chest of drawers and then Mrs Brown shooed Karen into the library to rest.
"It's naturally warmer in there. After the cold you nearly caught last night, you need it. Go sit in the sunlight and read a book."
Having never been in the library, Jay's house guest decided to obey the gentle orders.
The room was L-shaped with over-stuffed chairs and ottomans under each window which, on the one side, had a clear view of Mrs Brown's house. The books were organized on shelves that lined the walls almost up to the ceiling. Like the library in her father's ranch house, it had a mobile ladder. Towards the centre of the room was a very expensive looking game table. It looked like something one might find in a prestigious gentleman's lounge. Amused, Karen pictured the room full of cigar smoke with girls in burlesque wear serving whiskey and snacks.
She went to the far corner, overlooking the back of the house. There she found a door. It was locked. This piqued her interest because she knew it couldn't be the service doorway. It wasn't back far enough and the guest room was the only way to the back staircase on the first floor.
Without a key and no Jay, Karen decided to leave the mystery door alone. She curled up with a book by Heather Kells and got absorbed in the story before falling asleep.
She didn't hear her dogs barking or the numerous voices that drifted up from the kitchen.
Jay came home in his Bentley and his friends followed in his truck. They all came in through the back entrance- Basil making a fuss over Mrs Brown as he always did.
The men grabbed the trays of food the older woman had made and then headed up the stairs to the library.
Jay had just told them about the water incident and Basil was scoffing at his cousin.
"I think I should take her back under my wing, Lord R," he said, pushing open the door to the library, "before she loses her teeth in some freak accident. I can't live without that smile."
Laughing at his cousin, Jay went to change.
Sanders hit the light switch and the first thing he said was, "Shh!!"
"What?"
They stopped in their tracks as Sanders pointed towards the window. Curled up in an armchair, a book between her head and knees, was Karen Fox.
Fast asleep, she didn't hear the three men close the windows and draw the curtains then crowd around her.
"She looks like a baby when she sleeps. So cute." Mark.
"I know, she's so small." Sanders
"Shouldn't we put her to bed? She's probably as light as a feather." Mark.
"Put her to bed? I'd most likely take her to bed," muttered Basil.
Sanders and Mark laughed softly.
"What are you guys doing there?"
At the sound of Jay's voice the trio whirled around like guilty schoolboys caught with a Playboy magazine.
Jay strode casually across the room, looking over their shoulders.
"She's asleep," Mark said lamely.
"So leave her sleeping," came the reply.
Clearly, the answer seemed that simple to him.
With that they sat down at the game table and began to play poker.