Come Midnight by Veronica Sattler Page A

her gaze from the softly fretting child and looked up at him. "I cannot leave the lad yet! He's hurtin', and I've some willow bark in—"
    The marquis's quelling look stopped her cold. "Remove everyone, Jepson," he said dismissively, and he turned to the bed.
    Caitlin opened her mouth to protest, but a look from the butler froze the words in her throat. Mrs. Hodgkins placed a hand on her arm, and the two upper servants led her hurriedly from the chamber.
    ***
    Livid with anger, Adam paced the bedchamber. Andrew was asleep, finally. But not before his father had spent nearly thirty long, agonizing minutes hearing him cry with pain. The leg wasn't healed at all!
    Appleby had tricked him. Andrew was alive, yes, but his leg was so badly crushed, even a layman like himself could see he'd never walk again. His son would be a cripple.
    Rage, naked and terrible, welled up like lava inside him. "Appleby, you bastard!" he screamed. "Come back here. You've unfinished business with me!"
    The walls rang with Adam's fury. The child whimpered and stirred restlessly on the bed. Yet nothing else happened.
    No one came.
    Adam Lightfoot, fifth marquis of Ravenskeep . .. war hero .. . rakehell... unbeliever, clenched his fists and howled.
    ***
    "Have some honey with your tea, Caitlin," Mrs. Hodgkins urged solicitously. "I've always found peppermint tea soothing when taken with honey, and you do seem a bit out of sorts. "They were sitting at a heavy oak table in the servants' hall, just off the kitchens. Having sent the rest of the staff back to bed, the butler and the housekeeper had ushered Caitlin here after the marquis's brusque dismissal.
    "Looks as though she could do with some sleep," Jepson pointed out as Caitlin stifled a yawn. "Fact is, we all could," he added, taking a sip of his own tea. "Been a long night."
    "Indeed," Mrs. Hodgkins said cheerfully. "And who'd have imagined it would turn out so different from the way it began?" She beamed at Caitlin. "Thanks entirely to the Irish Angel here."
    Caitlin shook her head tiredly. "I truly didn't do all that much." She kept seeing the vastly improved head wound in her mind. Only the Almighty could have done that. She reminded herself never, ever, to underestimate the power of prayer. "But I do worry for the lad's leg, sorr," she added, frowning. "It needs further tendin', and—and ..." Thoughts of the marquis's abrupt dismissal had her biting her lip.
    "There, there, child." Mrs. Hodgkins patted her hand. "His lordship isn't a cold man, despite how he seemed. He's just been under a terrible strain, what with all that's happened. I'm sure he'll be more ... approachable in the morning."
    "Exactly," said Jepson. He gave Caitlin a level look. "There's no question but that you'll remain, of course."
    Remain? In the very house belonging to—
    "To oversee Lord Andrew's recovery, if nothing else," said the butler, noting her frown.
    "Oh, but I—"
    "Indeed, my dear," Mrs. Hodgkins put in quickly. "You've already won a rise in wages, and Jepson and I can see your duties are manageable, so never fret. The important thing is Lord Andr—"
    An agonized howl resounded from the upper quarters of the town house. The marquis's quarters.
    "Good heavens!" the housekeeper cried. "What—"
    It came again. Raw... chilling in its intensity. Frozen, the three looked at one another, worry vying with fear in their eyes.
    It was Jepson who broke the tableau. "Perhaps something's happened to ..." He couldn't say the thing they all feared. He leapt instead from the table and made for the stairs. The two women quickly followed, Caitlin's pulse hammering in her throat. Had the lad been taken, after all? Was it the wail of a father's grief they'd heard?
    Signaling the women to wait down the hallway, Jepson gingerly approached the marquis's bedchamber. As he raised his hand to knock, something crashed against the door. He hesitated. The sound of splintering wood reverberated through the oak panels. Alarmed, he mastered