Regency Christmas Wishes(103)

The door opened, and Lord Trevor stepped barefoot into the hall. “Fire, my lord,” the footman said, breathless from dashing up the stairs. “The central chimney!”

Cecilia hurried back into her room, grabbed her traveling case, and threw it out the window. She snatched her cloak, stepped into her shoes, and turned around to see Lord Trevor right behind her. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into the hall. “Stay here,” he ordered. “You don’t know this manor.”

Smoke wafted up the stairs like her vision of the last plague of Egypt. She pulled a corner of her cloak across her face to cover her nose, and watched Lord Trevor go in the bedchambers and awaken his nieces and nephew.

He pulled David out first, and thrust him at her. She locked her arms tight around the sleepy child. “We’ll wait right here for your uncle,” she whispered into his hair.

Lucinda came next, her eyes wide with fear, and Janet followed, wailing about her clothes. “Shut up, Janet,” her uncle ordered. “Take Lucy’s hand and hold mine.”

With his free hand he grabbed Cecilia around the waist and started down the stairs. David coughed and tried to pull away, but she clutched his hand. She put her other arm around Lord Trevor and turned her face into his nightshirt so she could breathe. No one said anything as they groped down the stairs and across the foyer. In another blessed moment the footman, who must have been in front of them in the smoky darkness, flung open the front door. They hurried down the steps into the cold.

Still he did not release her. She kept her face tight against his chest, shivering from fright. If anything, he tightened his grip on her until his fingers were digging into the flesh of her waist. He must have realized then what he was doing, because he opened his hand, even though he did not let go of her.

She forced herself to remain calm, if not for herself, then for the children, and perhaps for Lord Trevor, who surely had more to do now than hold her so tight on the front lawn. She released her grip on his waist then, and stepped back slightly, so he had no choice but to let go.

Before he did, he leaned forward and kissed the top of her head. Because he offered no explanation for his curious act, and no apology, she decided that emergencies did strange things to people who were otherwise rational.

“Keep everyone here, Cecilia. No one goes back for anything.” He turned and hurried up the steps again.

What about you? she wanted to call after him as he disappeared inside. She gathered his nieces and nephew around her. “We’ll be fine, my dears,” she told them, reaching out her arms to embrace them all. They stood together and watched the manor. Although smoke seeped from the front door, she saw no flames.

They endured several more minutes of discomfort, then Lord Trevor and the household staff came around the building from the back. The footman, more dignified with trousers now, carried the grip she had thrown out the window. Lord Trevor had also taken the time to find his own pants and shoes, although he still wore his nightshirt. To her amusement, the housekeeper was fully dressed. I’ll wager you would rather have burned to a crisp before leaving your room in a state of semi-dress, she thought.

Lord Trevor hurried to her, the housekeeper and footman following. “Mrs. Grey will escort you and the children to the dower house for the night. It’s in that little copse.”

“Can you save our home, Uncle?” Janet asked, clutching his arm.

He kissed her cheek. “I rather think so. The servants are inside the kitchen now, where the fire appears to have originated. We’ll know more in the morning, when it’s light.” He looked over Janet’s shoulder at Cecilia. “If you can keep things organized, I’ll be forever in your debt.”

They followed Mrs. Grey to the dower house, which she hadn’t even noticed yesterday when they arrived at Chase Hall. All the furniture was shrouded in holland covers, which made David cling even tighter to her. He relaxed a little when the footman flung away the covers, and then dumped coal in the grates and started fires.

She decided that the dower house gave new meaning to the word cozy. A trip upstairs revealed only two bedchambers, one with a small dressing room. Since it was so late, Cecilia directed Mrs. Grey to pull out blankets. “I think proper sheets and coverlets can wait for morning,” she explained as she handed each girl a blanket. “You girls take the chamber with the dressing room, and I will put David in the other one. Come, Davy,” she said, resting her hand on his shoulder, “I think that you and your uncle will have to share.”

“He snores.”

Cecilia laughed. “Then you will have to get to sleep before he does, won’t you?”