Free Proper Scoundrel by Annette Blair Page B

room.” Rather than kneeling to help, Lacey backed away.
     
    Jade saw the pain in her eyes. “Millie, take Lacey into the kitchen and make her some tea, would you? I think she’s feeling faint. Marcus, I may need your help.”
     
    Marcus nodded and handed Emily to Lilly. Then he came to kneel beside the woman.
     
    Jade felt better having him there, and damn it, hadn’t she just finished telling herself that needing him had to stop.
     
    Angry with herself for thinking of herself, Jade gave her attention to the young woman with a swollen belly, prostrate in the middle of her floor. Alive, thank God, and watching them.
     
    Jade lifted a dirty hand to hold it, to tell the soon-to-be mother she was among friends. The poor thing looked as if she’d been starving, likely living on the street. “Can you tell me your name?”
     
    “Eloisa,” she said. “Eloisa Haw ... Higgins.”
     
    Jade and Marcus noted her hesitation and regarded each other.
     
    “Hello Eloisa. I’m Jade. And this is Marcus. Will you let him carry you to a room where you can rest more comfortably?”
     
    Eloisa nodded weakly.
     
    “How do you feel,” Marcus asked, shifting Eloisa’s ratty hair from her eyes.
     
    The smile she gave him transformed her, making one forget anything about her except her beauty.
     
    Good Lord, Jade thought, Eloisa was already half in love with Marcus. If she fell that fast, no wonder her present delicate condition.
     
    Eloisa grimaced in discomfort. “They said to come here and the crazy lady would help me.”
     
    Marcus muffled his chuckle.
     
    Eloisa scanned the faces around her. “I only need a warm place to have my baby. I won’t be a burden. If I could sleep for a bit, I could work for my supper.”
     
    “Shh,” Jade soothed. “Don’t worry about that. You’ll stay for as long as you need, eat three nourishing meals a day and have a fine healthy baby. We needed some excitement around here. No payment necessary.”
     
    “Are you the lady?”
     
    Jade nodded.
     
    “You don’t seem crazy.”
     
    “That’s curious, because today I feel especially so. But don’t be frightened. I’m harmless.”
     
    Eloisa’s torso trembled with an amusement too weak to express as her threadbare shawl slipped to the floor revealing arms riddled with bruises.
     
    Jade gazed at Marcus who’d seen them too. “Did somebody hurt you?” Jade asked her.
     
    “I fell,” she said. “Really.”
     
    “Where the devil is Beecher?” Marcus shouted.
     
    “This cold floor can’t be doing you any good,” Jade said. “Marcus will bring you to a nice room with a warm bed and I’ll be right there to tend you.”
     
    Jade looked up at Marcus. “Why don’t you try to move her now. But stop if she cries out.”
     
    Impressed at the way Jade took matters in hand, Marcus nodded and began to lift the pregnant woman, hesitating only when she gasped. “Are you sure you’re up to this?” he asked her.
     
    When Eloisa nodded, he pulled her fully into his arms, then he got to his feet and looked to Jade for directions as to where to take her.
     
    Voices from another direction had him turning in time to see Ivy push Garrett’s wheelchair through the door. Pleased to see his brother, Marcus was nevertheless amused by the look on Garrett’s face, which was nothing short of stunned.
     
    Garrett’s gaze shifted from him to the very pregnant woman in his arms and back again. “Marcus Fitzalan,” he said in his haughty aristocratic voice. “What wild scrape have you gotten yourself into this time?”
     
    Marcus swept Jade and the members of her household with a glance. “Jade, ladies and gentlemen, I’d like you to meet my brother Garrett. He’s going to be staying with us for a few weeks.” He raised a brow his brother’s way. “Unless I kick him out sooner.”
     
    Garrett grinned.
     
    “My armful, by the way, Garrett, is Eloisa Higgins. She may be barely strong enough to hang on, and pardon me for