Scandalous by Candace Camp Read Free Book Online Page B

breakfast and eat it. She thought about making something for her patient to eat, but she decided it would be better to let him sleep. A few minutes later Miss Pennybaker came downstairs, a worried frown on her face. Every hair was in place in a tight bun atop her head, as always, and she looked as neat and tidy as ever in her severe brown dress. However, it was obvious from her manner that inside she was a mass of nerves.
    â€œAre you all right? Oh, my dear, I had the worst night. I tossed and turned all night. I don’t think I slept a wink. I kept thinking about you. Worrying that something would happen to you. What happened?” She came to a halt breathlessly, her eyes huge and her hands twisting together in front of her breast.
    â€œWell, he was in a state of delirium most of the night,” Priscilla replied practically. “He had a high fever and chills, but the fever broke not long ago, and now he is sleeping peacefully.”
    Raising her finger to her lips in a gesture calling for quiet, Priscilla led her former governess to the door of the small bedroom and showed her their patient, sleeping like a child on the cot. Looking at him in the light, with his dark lashes shadowing his cheek and his facerelaxed in the vulnerability of sleep, Priscilla realized all over again how attractive the stranger was. He did not, perhaps, have the handsome perfection of an Adonis, but his sharp cheekbones and square jawline were powerful and intriguing, even with the dark stubble of several days’ growth of beard.
    Miss Pennybaker, beside her, shivered. “How could you have stayed alone with him all night? Weren’t you afraid?”
    Priscilla glanced at her in surprise, wondering how the woman’s only reaction to his masculine beauty could be fear. “It was rather…exciting,” Priscilla answered honestly. “I mean, I was a little frightened once or twice, but when I was nursing him through his fever, it was like a battle, me against the fever.” She smiled. “And I won.”
    â€œYou do say the oddest things. Well, you can go up to bed now. I shall watch him.” With a determined set to her chin, Miss Pennybaker picked up a chair from the kitchen table and set it down in the middle of the doorway, just outside the bedroom. With some amusement, Priscilla thought she looked more like a jailer than a nurse, but she did not comment. No doubt the woman believed herself to be facing down lions for Priscilla’s sake.
    Priscilla smiled to herself and went upstairs. She realized as she walked into her room how deadly tired she was. She slipped out of her clothes and fell into bed wearing her chemise and slip, not bothering with putting on her nightgown, a fact that she was sure would scandalize Miss Pennybaker if she knew it. Within moments she was asleep.
    By the time she woke up, it was midday. The sun wasstreaming into the room, and she blinked, disoriented for a moment. Then the events of the night before came back to her, and she hopped out of bed and began to dress. She was eager to return to her patient and find out what had happened in the hours she had been asleep, so she made quick work of getting dressed and putting up her hair.
    She found Miss Pennybaker and her patient in the same positions in which she had left them, though Miss Pennybaker had been joined in the kitchen by Mrs. Smithson, who came in with her daughter daily to cook and clean for them. Mrs. Smithson was bustling about in front of the stove, where several pots were simmering, and a delicious aroma floated in the air.
    Priscilla drew a deep breath. “Mm…Mrs. Smithson, it smells as if you’ve outdone yourself.”
    The cook, a short, no-nonsense woman with graying hair, turned to her with a smile. “Ah, Miss Priscilla, there ye are. I been wondering what was happening, with him in there, and herself sitting here.” She turned toward Miss Pennybaker with a disdainful sniff.