Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

" W ell now, it's a lovely evening for a ride."

"Hello, Mr. Greedy," Leo said, nodding his head as they drew level with the elderly man who'd called out to them. He was in his small front garden. "You'll pardon me for not stopping to chat, as I'm chilled through."

"He fell in the Thames saving a woman, Mr. Greedy," Ram said, which had Leo glaring at him again.

"Did he now? Well, I'll bring a tonic along shortly. It will warm up that chest and stave off infection. Well done on your heroic actions, my lord."

Mr. Greedy was a healer and cared for most of the residents in Crabbett Close.

"Pulling weeds at this hour, Mr. Greedy?" Ram asked.

"Aye, they come out nice and easy when the sun's not holding them in the earth." The man wore a cap pulled low and, like many of the elderly residents in the street, a woolen scarf wrapped several times around his neck. London was experiencing warm weather at the moment, so Mr. Greedy should be sweltering under all those layers. But winter or summer, he dressed the same .

"I'll bring something for what ails your head also, my lord," Mr. Greedy added.

"I-I?—"

"Get along with you now, and change your clothes at once." He waved a hand at Leo as he tried to speak. "Tell Bud to heat some water for your bath, and I'll bring your tonics."

The elderly man then moved with surprising speed out of his garden and to the front door.

"The residents in this street," Ram said, shaking his head. "There are no words."

"A-amen," Leo said as they rode the short distance to number 11. It was a large three-story redbrick home their aunt and uncle had brought them to when they returned to London. The siblings had not left it for at least a week when they arrived, but slowly, the Crabbett Close residents had lured them out the front door.

Leo dismounted and then yelped as his numb booted feet hit the ground.

"What?" Ram asked.

"My feet are numb."

"Being heroic always comes at a cost," Ram said, joining him.

Inhaling a deep breath, Leo released it slowly.

"And what are you doing now?"

"Bracing myself for the cutting words from Mungo when he sees the state of me. Then the worry from Aunt Ivy, and Uncle Bram's demand to know what happened in detail. I sometimes feel like I'm still in short pants."

"How wonderful to be so loved," Ram said.

Leo's smile was small because his lips wouldn't go any wider. "It is." Looking up at the brick facade, he knew that inside these walls was support. Laughter and hugs. Something the Nightingales had gained late in life but now embraced. Light filled several windows on all floors, and his family would be spread throughout.

Home, he thought. Right then, he needed that.

Leo walked to the front door and opened it. Stepping inside, he saw their newest staff member, Benjamin, coming down the stairs. Mungo terrified the young man, and the household he'd entered was mayhem, but for all that, he was standing up to the challenge.

"Lord Seddon, are you all right? You are wet!"

"Yes, I just ran into a bit of trouble. Could you take our horses to the stables, please, Benjamin?"

"At once." The boy rushed outside, all eagerness.

Leo put his cane into the stand by the door. He then hung Ram's jacket, and after taking his cuff link from the pocket, he attempted to peel his off his frozen body.

"You'll not stomp those wet feet through the house!"

"He's wet and cold, Mungo. Lay off," Ram said. "Get hot water for a bath."

Mungo stopped before Leo and stared at him. "Who did this to you?"

Brusque, rude, and downright belligerent most of the time, Mungo was huge. He had bright blue eyes and brows like hedgerows he used to great effect, like now. They were drawn together and glaring at Leo and Ram.

"No one. I fell in the Thames."

"There's more to it, and we'll have the tale, but for now, get up to your room. I'll bring you water for washing," the Scottish behemoth said.

"I hope there is apple cake, Mungo," Ram said.

Mungo and Uncle Bram had traveled the world together, and when Leo's uncle returned to London, his friend had accompanied him and fallen into the role of his right-hand man. He'd stayed when he'd married Aunt Ivy and then taken on their nieces and nephews. For all he blustered and roared, Leo knew he cared for all the Nightingales as if they were his own.

"Do you not have a home also, then?" Mungo said to Ram as Leo started for the stairs.

"Well now, you'll be pleased to know that Bram has offered me Alex's old room, and I've a mind to take it, seeing as the food in this household far exceeds mine."

"Over my dead body," Mungo muttered. He then turned to look at Leo. "Up the stairs with you and change before you get sick and we have to go to the trouble of tending you. I'll tell Bud tea is needed."

"I can't walk any faster," Leo muttered, attempting to get his legs moving. The stairs suddenly seemed a Herculean effort.

"Mr. Greedy will arrive shortly with his supplies and asked that water be heated, Mungo. Seeing as your nature is so sunny, perhaps you could ask Bud to do that," Ram said.

Mungo snarled, muttering something about smooth-talking Sassenachs, and stalked away.

"It's a wonder you're not all terrified of that man."

"We are luckily on his good side," Leo called back down.

"He has a good side?"

Leo didn't answer because he was using all his strength to reach his room. Once there, he stripped his shirt from his frozen body and dragged on his dressing gown. He liked order, so his room didn't have clothes lying about on the floor like his other siblings'. His books sat neatly on shelves also, in order of when he'd purchased them. Where Gray alphabetized his, Leo was possibly the only person he knew that ranked his books from the date they became his.

He was sure his bones creaked as he sat on the bed to tug off his boots.

The door opened after one hard knock, and Mungo walked in carrying two large cans of water. He poured them into a basin.

"Thank you."

Mungo stopped before Leo, then bent to tug off his boots, nearly yanking him off the bed. Once that was done, he stomped back out and slammed the door behind him.

He had absolutely nothing to laugh about, but it was there inside him. Getting to his feet, Leo went to the water and washed his entire body thoroughly twice, scrubbing hard with the cloth as if to erase the night he'd just endured.

He'd made a spectacle of himself.

"And this is why I do not walk in society," Leo said to the empty room.

When he felt almost normal again, he pulled on clean clothes and left to face his family and the inevitable inquisition, as there was no hope Ram would have kept his mouth shut.

The Nightingale home was usually full of noise and color. Most often there was something lying about in a hallway for someone to trip over. It was nothing like their childhood house, which had been immaculate and all about appearances. Leo bent when he saw the corner of a boot sticking out beneath a side table.

The family dog appearing at the top of the stairs followed a loud woof. Large, white with black patches, he fit right into the household because he was exuberant and occasionally forgot his manners.

"Mungo has been looking for this," he said, waving the boot at the dog. "Good boy, you keep up the torment." He then placed it on the floor.

"Come along, Chester. We may as well do this together," he said to the dog after ruffling his large ears.

Feeling much better going down than he had coming up, he made his way to the parlor his family was in. He found his aunt and uncle seated together as they usually were. With them was Theodore, his younger brother, who, at eighteen, was showing all the signs of growing up to be identical to Leo. The rest of the family were all in their beds, so at least he was saved from that. Tomorrow would be soon enough to listen to the excited chatter and endless questions from the younger Nightingales.

"Ram told me you jumped in the water to save Lady Lowell, Leo. Are you all right?" Uncle Bram got out of his seat. Nightingale men were big, and he was no exception. The younger brother to the late Lord Seddon, his uncle was nothing like the man who had ruined his family.

Steady, intelligent, and fiercely loyal, he had taken on his nieces and nephews without hesitation. He loved them as if they were his own, as did his wife, the small woman who had also risen.

"Hello, darling, I hear you've had a trying evening," she said, moving in to hug him hard, not letting him go until she was ready. He inhaled her scent and felt everything settle inside him.

"I am well, don't fuss."

"He had an urge to find something," Ram said, now seated before the fire with a cup in one hand and a crumpet slathered with jam in the other.

Leo's mouth watered. He was suddenly starving.

"What?" Theo asked.

"It matters not what." Leo dropped onto the rug before the fire. He then stretched out his hands and warmed them. The heat was bliss. "Why did neither of you tell me about her? That she'd wed and was raising two children?" He looked at his aunt and uncle. They were both frowning down at him, clearly worried.

"You never asked, so we thought you didn't want to know because the memory was too painful," Uncle Bram said .

"You have shut everything from your past away, Leo," Aunt Ivy added. "We respected that, even while we did not believe it healthy for you."

Before Leo could reply to that, Mungo came in holding a mug with steam coming out of it.

"Mr. Greedy wants you to drink this, as you clearly have a weak constitution, and he's afeared you'll end up with a chest inflammation. There's also something in there for your head, although I have no idea what, as there is not much in there," he said in his deep burr.

Leo regained his feet and took the mug. "Your generosity humbles me." Mungo's reply was a grunt. "I found your boot by the table in the hallway upstairs. There are only a couple of teeth marks on it."

Chester climbed onto his hind legs and placed the two front ones on Mungo's chest.

The large Scotsman did not intimidate the dog.

"Get down, you nasty beastie," Mungo said. But his hand was on the top of Chester's head, stroking it as he spoke. Theirs was a love-hate relationship.

"Back to you, Leo," Theo said, also eating a crumpet now.

Leo moved to take the last one before anyone else could.

"I remember Hyacinth. We met her in the park once, and she seemed nice. Giggly and looked at you in a nauseating way but was a great deal of fun," Theo added.

"She was enamored by your elder brother," Bram said.

"Well, it's fair to say she's not enamored with him now," Ram said. "In fact, if my memory serves, which it usually does, she said she had no wish to see you again."

She had said that and meant it. Leo was still grappling with the fact that the vision he'd always carried of Hyacinth would now be changed forever. That now she was a woman and no longer the sweet girl he'd once known. Why he found that far more intriguing, he had no idea.