Chapter 8

The door rebounded immediately, sending Eden stumbling onto her bottom. From her position on the hall floor, she met Devlin glare for glare. “What was that fracas about?” she demanded angrily. “That disgusting display at my front steps? I’ve a certain standing to uphold in this town, and you are not helping my cause one whit!”

“That, my dear Miss Winters,” he answered with a superior sneer as he loomed over her, “was me and my men defending you from a drunken mob of the same men you fired earlier today. Their intent was anything but honorable, I assure you. Had it not been for us, you would be screaming your fool head off for help at this very moment, and lucky to come away with your virtue intact, let alone a roof over your head or your precious dignity preserved.”

“So you say!” she said with a huff,  not yet ready to concede.

“Aye!”

“And how did you gain this information, to come rushing to my aid so smartly?”

“I overheard them making their plans in the tavern.”

“Oh,” she sneered back, “is that why your shirt is smeared with food and drink? Why you reek of whiskey and smoke and cheap women?”

“I do not reek of anything, unless ’tis the sulphur spewing from your lips, you ungrateful hellion!”

“You ... you ... vile vermin!”

“Eden! Eden? What’s going on down there?” Jane called frantically from her upstairs bedroom. “Who are you screaming at? Is someone here?”

“Oooh, spit!" Eden clenched her hands into fists, screwed her face up, and gave a small, ineffectual shriek. “Bless your britches! Now see what you’ve done?” she snarled. “You’ve woken Mama.”

“Me?” Devlin exclaimed incredulously. “Duchess, I’m not the one who’s been ranting and raving at the top of her lungs for the past five minutes. The only thing mild about you at the moment are your pitiful curses. If anyone woke her, ’twas you.”

“That’s right,” Eden fumed, picking herself up off the floor and straightening her nightclothes with several vicious jerks. “Blame it all on me, but none of this would have happened if you hadn’t advised me to dismiss those men. So stuff that in your smelly old cigar and smoke it, Captain Kane!”

With that, she flounced up the stairs to calm her mother’s continuing cries.

Not about to let Eden have the final word, Devlin was hot on her heels. “Come back here, you nasty little witch!” he hissed.

Thinking that once she reached Jane’s room, she would be safe from any reprisals Devlin might have in mind, Eden burst through her mother’s door. “Mama, you must calm yourself,” she began, rushing to the bedside. “You’ll make yourself ill, going on like th—aah!” Without warning she found herself spun about, her arm caught in Devlin’s huge hand.

The next scream came from Jane, who was staring and pointing and gurgling excitedly, too panicked for coherent speech. At the same instant, Eden and Devlin realized her dismay—and its cause. The moment he’d touched her, Devlin had abruptly materialized before Jane’s startled eyes. Caught off guard, Devlin then dropped Eden’s arm, whereupon he promptly vanished again.

It was too much for the distraught widow. To Eden’s utter astonishment, Jane suddenly leapt from her bed. Out into the hall she ran, as fast as her wobbly legs could carry her, shrieking hysterically and pulling wildly at her hair.

“Mama! Mama! Wait! I can explain!” The guilty pair dashed after her.

Jane had reached the top of the stairs, where her shaking limbs carried her no further. Still intent on escape, she was scuttling down the steps on her backside, her night shift flapping behind her like broken wings.

Devlin caught up with her at last. Seeing no help for it, he scooped the woman into his strong embrace. Jane gave one last anguished cry and fainted in his arms. Above them, at the head of the steps, Eden watched anxiously, scarcely able to deal with the shock of it all. The many upsets of the day, topped by seeing her mother walk—nay, run—after all this time!

“Oh, dear God!” she exclaimed, her arms outstretched and her eyes glittering with tears. “Is ... is she hurt? Is she dead?”

“Nay, Eden, merely unconscious. Which is probably best for us all just now. ’Twill gain us time to decide what to tell her and how to go about it once she wakes.”

“Shouldn’t we try to revive her?” Eden questioned shakily, trailing behind as Devlin swiftly carried Jane back to her room and placed her gently upon the bed. She caught hold of her mother’s wrist, almost gasping in relief upon finding the rhythmic pulse.

“ ’Twould be better to let her come about on her own, rather than jolt her back to reality quite so abruptly, don’t you agree?” he proposed. “However, I do have some brandy in my room that might ease her frustrations once she regains her senses. I’ll fetch it.” Devlin had no sooner left than he was back. “We’ve another problem, Eden,” he informed her solemnly. “Your housekeeper is downstairs, no doubt wondering about all the commotion in the street. Then again, your mother was yelling fit to wake the dead.”

“Oh, dear! What shall I do?”

“I suggest you go down and calm her before she takes it into her head to come upstairs,” he said dryly.

“But what if Mother wakes while I’m gone? I can’t leave her like this!”

“I will stay and watch over her until you return,” he told her, firmly urging her toward the door. “Now go get rid of Dora!”

It was several minutes before Eden could convince Dora that all was fine, that the furor in the street had amounted to no more than a brief, drunken conflict.

“I was sure I heard your mama scream,” Dora insisted.

“The noise and the fighting upset her,” Eden informed her. “She’s settled comfortably now, fast asleep in her bed.” All true to some extent, though not nearly the whole of the tale.

At last Dora wandered back to her own quarters, grumbling about drunkards and brawlers requiring only a sharp rap aside their heads with a stout rolling pin to set them to rights. Eden charged upstairs again, just in time to witness her mother’s first feeble stirrings.

“She’s coming around,” Devlin whispered. “And she’ll be wanting an explanation.”

Eden spared a moment to wring her hands. “Oh, dear! What a tangle this is turning out to be!”

She knelt and took her mother’s hand in hers, tenderly stroking it. “Mama? Mama, can you hear me, darling?”

Jane groaned out her daughter’s name. Slowly, as if fearful of what was to be found, her lids fluttered open, “Eden? I had the strangest dream!”

If she’d thought that would be the end of it, Eden might have been tempted to allow her mother to go on thinking it had all been a nightmare. But there was far more to take into consideration now that Jane had regained the use of her legs. Also, Eden was sure more incidents were bound to crop up, with Devlin residing beneath their roof, more now than ever before, if Jane was going to be up and about in her home.

“Mama, I want you to listen to me very carefully, dear. And I don’t want you to become too distraught over what I tell you. Just lie calmly and sip a bit of this, and hear what I have to say.”

She propped the pillow at her mother’s back and placed the brandy glass into her hands, wrapping Jane’s trembling fingers securely around the bowl. “ ’Twas not a dream, Mama.” At her mother’s frantic, questioning look, Eden shook her head. “’Twas all real.” Fresh tears misted Eden’s eyes as she reached out and caressed the older woman’s cheek. “Oh, Mama! You walked! Truly, you did!”

“And the man?” Jane’s voice trembled over the query. “What of that ghostly vision?”

“He’s real, too. Though not quite a ghost as we think of one.” Eden cast a glance toward Devlin, who stood listening to her faltering explanation, his head cocked slightly in wry expectation. His sand-colored brows were raised over his dark, glittering eyes, and there was a derisive twist to his mobile mouth.

“He’s ... he has form, and it’s not as if he can walk through walls and such.”

Here Eden halted, her features reflecting her confusion. “You can’t do that, can you, Devlin?” she asked him speculatively.

“Nay. Neither, however, can I view myself in a mirror, which makes shaving something of a hazard,” he replied, his tone denoting more frustration than amusement.

At the sound of his deep voice, Jane gave an involuntary yelp. Her hands fluttered to her chest, the brandy glass somehow landing upright in her lap. “Oh!”

“Mama, it’s all right. Honestly,” Eden hastened to say. “I know this is very confusing, and I’m not explaining it well at all, but he’s not here to harm you. Please believe that. If anything, Devlin is aiding us.”

“H-h-how?” Jane stammered, peering into the shadows with wide, frightened eyes.

“He’s providing the funds with which to pay off our debt to Mr. Finster. And he’s trying to discover why the warehouse is losing money, and a means to correct the problem.”

“A guardian angel?” Jane asked softly, incredulously.

Eden almost laughed. “No, I wouldn’t put it quite that way. More of a helpful hindrance. The lesser of two evils, if you will,” she supplied with ripe sarcasm. Devlin scowled at her. “You see, for some unknown reason, I appear to be the only person who can view him. Others can readily feel him and hear him, but only I can actually see him.”

“But I saw him,” Jane interjected. “I’m certain of it.”

“Yes, but only because he and I were touching at the time.” Eden sighed, wondering how to explain this strange phenomenon. “That is another aspect of this oddity. Bizarre as it is, no one else can make him visible but me. Only when we touch can others see him. In exchange for my services in this area, he is helping us.”

“This is all too fantastic!” Jane exclaimed with a shake of her head. “A ghost who isn’t a ghost? An angel who isn’t an angel? A man not really a man?” “Now that is where I draw the line, madam,” Devlin put in on a grunt of exasperation. “I will not have doubts cast upon my manhood.”

Jane blinked in surprise. Then, to their vast amazement, she began to chuckle. “I stand corrected.” In an aside to her daughter, she said, “He’s a man all right. As vain about his masculinity as any of them. Now, let me hear how all this came about. Start at the beginning, please, and do try not to muddle your story too dreadfully in the telling of it.”

By the end of their tale, with Devlin adding his own comments to Eden’s, Jane had a fair idea of what had occurred, though she didn’t really comprehend the why’s and wherefore’s of the events any more than they did. “Am I to understand that you, sir, are using my daughter to be seen? To assume form when needed?” At his affirmative reply, she continued. “Is it your hope that in the process, you will somehow stumble upon a means of regaining your usual appearance?” 

“Aye.”

“And you are currently residing in my home? With few people aware of that fact?”

“True, madam. And I would prefer that my presence remain unknown.”

Jane cleared her throat delicately, directing a stem gaze toward him—or where she thought him to be. “As would I, young man. We do have Eden’s reputation to consider. What of Dora?”

“She suspects nothing as yet,” Eden assured her. “I hope to keep it from her. You know how excitable she is over the least thing.”

“You’re right, of course. Luckily, Dora does not sleep within these walls, to hear loud grumblings in the middle of the night,” Jane quipped tartly, pinning her daughter with a quelling look. “Swine, eh? Just how long did you expect to get away with such an outrageous lie?”

Eden cringed. “I’m sorry. It seemed the only thing to do at the time.”

Jane’s attention returned to Devlin. “You are a sea captain, then?”

He debated the wisdom of his answer for only a moment. “I’m a pirate, ma’am.”

She merely stared toward him, apparently not at all shocked at his confession. “I see.” After a slight hesitation, she asked, “Are you very good at it?”

This surprised a chuckle out of him. “Aye. The best,” he replied, laughter adding warmth to his rumbling tones.

Jane drew herself up straighter on her pillow. “You may stay,” she informed him imperiously. “For now. But if I should learn that you are in any way besmirching my daughter’s honor, or scheming to steal from us, or intent on other harmful misdeeds toward my family, out you go. Am I making myself quite clear, Captain Kane?”

“Indeed, madam. Explicitly.”

“Fine.” Jane tipped the brandy glass to her lips, helping herself to a hefty swallow. Then she directed a commanding wave toward the hall. “As much as I have enjoyed our talk, I would prefer that both of you retire to your respective rooms now, and let me get some sleep before the sun rises. You seem to be making a habit of disturbing my rest, and if I am to continue my miraculous recovery, I am going to need all the stamina I can muster.”

They were closing the door after them when she called out, “Captain Kane?”

“Aye.”

“While I would not ordinarily be grateful at being frightened into hysteria, in these circumstances I find I must tender my appreciation. I might never have tried to walk again, but for the shock you gave me this night, and I am thankful to have been torn from my self-imposed lethargy, even by so dramatic a means. ’Tis a pity it did not occur sooner.”

“You are most welcome, madam.”

“And Captain? Molest my daughter, and I will personally shoot off your ears. Your screams will tell me how truly I have aimed.”

Two seconds later, Devlin seemed to have forgotten Jane’s warning. In the hall, he turned to Eden, graced her with his most sensual smile, and suggested, “Your bed or mine, sweets?”

Eden smiled back. “Both. You in yours, and I in mine, pirate. Separately, with a wall between us. That, or I shall return to Mother’s room and load Papa’s gun for her, and your ears will pay the price.”

Upon entering the house the next morning, Dora was astounded to discover her mistress dressed, downstairs, and walking about cautiously on her own. “Blessed saints! ’Tis a bloomin’ miracle! How? When?” she blathered excitedly.

Lifting her hands palm-upward in an attitude of uncertainty, Jane shrugged. “I can’t begin to explain it, Dora. It simply happened,” she said. “But isn’t it grand?”

Eden gaped, wondering how her mother could embroider the truth so smoothly. To hear her now, one would believe she was accustomed to fabricating lies at a moment’s notice. It was a stunning revelation, to learn this about one’s own mother!

Devlin’s smirk only added fat to the fire.

The morning meal passed in much the same manner as the one before, with Devlin sharing Eden’s larger portions. Jane hid a smile upon seeing the food disappear from her daughter’s plate so mysteriously. “Ah, so that is how you manage it without rousing Dora’s suspicions,” she commented, the servant in question safely out of sight and hearing. “I was curious. But how did you explain to her that you have suddenly developed a taste for coffee, Eden, when she knows you prefer tea?” 

Eden grimaced. “I told her ’tis what I drink at the warehouse, and that I’ve grown fond of it. With my expanding appetite, I request both drinks with my meal. In that way, Devlin can have one and I the other. Of course, by now the entire town is probably aware that I am eating enough for four normal people.” She aimed a snarl at Devlin, who answered with a wicked grin.

The meal resumed in silence, Or what would have been silence if not for Devlin’s chomping and slurping. Jane frowned, but held her tongue, even as she witnessed her linen tablecloth acquiring more fresh stains by the moment. Eden suffered the aggravation for as long as she could, then blurted, “For pity’s sake, Devlin! Must you make such atrocious noise when you eat? Can’t you chew with your mouth closed? I swear, the table is gathering more food than your stomach! ’Tis little wonder your clothing looks and smells so bad! Verily, it amazes me that you have remained undetected all this while, for surely every dog in town must be acting strangely, yapping and trailing about in your wake, disturbed by your scent, yet unable to locate its source.” 

Devlin stared at her, completely flummoxed.

“In your own sweet, roundabout way are you trying to tell our guest that he stinks, Eden?” Jane choked out past a giggle.

With a sigh, Eden cast her gaze overhead, as if seeking celestial intercession. “Yes. If you want it put bluntly, he reeks to high heaven!”

“I do not!” Devlin blustered.

“You do, Devlin. Both you and your clothing could use a good scrubbing.”

“I hate to say it, Captain, but she’s right,” Jane concurred. “A good dousing is overdue.”

Devlin glowered.

In an uncharacteristic gesture, Eden poked her tongue out at him. “Told you so!” she caroled.

“Eden! Behave yourself! Why, you have never acted so outrageously in your life!” Jane wavered between laughter and embarrassment. On the one hand, she had taught her daughter better manners; on the other she’d also been painfully aware that Eden had always been more withdrawn and less gleeful than other girls her age, even as a child. It was a joy to see her exhibiting a more playful attitude for a change, no matter the reason.

Eden excused herself by saying, “Devlin brings out the worst in me, Mama,” and continued to eat her porridge.

“That is another thing I’ve been meaning to ask about,” Jane commented, her narrowed gaze traveling from her daughter to the chair in which Devlin sat. How she wished she could see his expression now! “Why is it that you address the captain so informally, and on such short acquaintance?”

Eden nearly swallowed her spoon, her teeth clacking against it before she pulled it from her mouth. Her startled eyes sought him, but Devlin’s bland demeanor told her she could expect no help from that quarter. Never had she seen anyone so devilish suddenly look so angelic!

“Trouble with your spoon, Miss Propriety?” he asked too sweetly.

“Remove your elbows from the table, and stop slouching like some spineless creature,” she retorted.

“Eden? I believe I asked you a question, dear, and I would like an answer, please,” Jane reminded her.

“Uh . . . uh, he requested that I address him so, Mama. Quite adamantly, in fact.”

“Is that so?” Jane turned the question to Devlin.

He hesitated for so long that Eden was certain he was not going to confirm her statement. Finally, he answered. “Aye. As I have told your daughter, it delights me to hear my given name when she speaks it. Her voice makes it sound different to me somehow, almost musical. Because of this, I have entreated her to refer to me in the more familiar manner.”

Jane sent him a skeptical look. “Entreated, or demanded, sir?”

“Whichever applied at the moment,” he replied, not at all ruffled by her tone.

Jane stood her ground and met him square about. “You, Captain, are so full of yourself that ’tis a wonder you don’t burst your seams. ’Twill be my pleasure to see you get toppled from your high horse now and again—whether by my hand or Eden’s.”