Royal Regard

Chapter Thirty

"No, my sweet," Bella chided, "We will play in the garden, but I am too tired to carry you." Jewel had been hanging onto Bella's skirts from the first moment her aunt changed out of her dressing gown and moved from bedchamber to sitting room. Bella had since been allowed to sit in the drawing room and at the dining table, and had thrice visited the nursery.

After almost a month at the Firthley's townhouse, Bella was finally spending a promised afternoon alone with her niece. Though still too weak for excursions, Jewel was just as happy to stay at home. At Bella's behest, Charlotte had gone shopping, and the nursemaid had taken Alex for an outing to the park, Alexander was out on Parliamentary business, and Nick had finally—at long last—been sent home. After Malbourne, Bella cherished Nick beyond price, but had never considered how tiring an overzealous suitor might be.

Jewel slid one hand into her aunt's palm. "I was thcared you would thleep forever, Auntie Bella." The other tugged at her yellow cotton dress, just slightly too small. Charlotte complained Jewel grew out of her clothes before the dressmaker could finish sewing them. "Everyone was ever tho thcared, and Mama was ever tho croth."

Bella bent down and wrapped Jewel in a tight hug, kissing the top of her head. "I'm sorry I scared you so badly, my sweet, but I am quite recovered now." She hoped Jewel was too young to notice the falsehood; the dark circles under her eyes and more-than-intermittent headaches belied her words.

Opening the door to the garden, she ushered Jewel out, saying, "We shall just have to make up the lost time." The combined scents of mint, dill, and fennel assailed her senses, the freshness breathtaking after so many days cooped up inside. She moved carefully, to avoid setting off the pain in her temples, and took a seat on a bench under an ancient beech tree, letting her hand drift across a mass of sweet pea blossoms.

"Never fear, my sweet." Bella ruffled Jewel's hair, setting the yellow ribbon askew. "We shall go somewhere special for your birthday. Just two more weeks, and you will be a grown-up girl of six, will you not?"

Jewel giggled while Bella tidied her pigtails. "Theven, Auntie Bella!" The little girl leaned onto Bella's legs, grasping her hand, tugging at her skirt.

"Seven?" Bella feigned shock. "My goodness! I must have been asleep longer than I thought, for you to have grown so big. Big enough for lions and tigers, do you think?"

"The Lion Tower? Yeth!" The shrill yell started the throbbing, as Jewel ran off the exhilaration, jumping up and down among the flowers, assuredly destroying months of the gardener's work, and her kid slippers.

If Bella hadn't been so tired, she would have stopped Jewel, made a lesson of taking gentle care of plants and flowers. As it was, though, she just agreed, "All right, then, I promise. The Lion Tower for your birthday."

"You may wish not to make promises to the little girl you will not keep, Madame."

Jewel shrieked, and an instant later, Michelle grabbed her with a large hand over the little girl's mouth.

Leaping up, Bella reached for her niece, but stopped short. Michelle held a long kitchen knife easily in her other hand, now directed at Jewel's throat. Wiggling and squirming, the child's muffled screams were hindered by the Frenchwoman's implacable hand.

"I do not wish to hurt the little girl. She has done nothing wrong. But you will do what I say, or she will die before your eyes."

Bella spoke more softly and calmly than she ever had. "That's right, Michelle. She's done nothing wrong. Let her go."

"If you both do as I say, I will not harm her. I will not like to kill another child."

Bella spoke softly to Jewel. "Be still, little one. Be very quiet and still and do what you are told. Do you understand?"