Chapter 64

The next time Nettie woke, she felt as though she were lying on a cloud. If her arm and face didn't still hurt, she'd be afraid she'd died and gone to heaven. A quick wiggle of her foot reminded her that her ankle was injured too.
"Nettie?" A soft female voice called her name and fingers gently tapped the back of her good hand. "Nettie, you need to wake up."
She blinked, careful not to move more than turning her head. "Hello?"
The brown eyes that gazed back at her sparkled with mischief. "Don't remember me, huh? I bet you forgot all about putting a frog in Lily Bergsma's coat pocket when we were eight." The other woman had a crimped, ginger-colored bob and dark red lipstick.
"Diana!" Nettie automatically lifted her shoulders from the pillows, but a sharp stab of pain from her arm changed her mind. Instead, she smiled. "Diana Lawson, is that really you?" After grade school, Diana had gone off to a private boarding school outside Chicago, so the two girls had mostly lost touch, crossing paths only when Diana had come to visit her parents' summer home.
"It is, though it's Chalmers now. Has been for three years." Diana wrinkled her nose. "Although right now I'm angry enough at Randolph that I'd like to forget it."
"What's wrong?" It couldn't be anything too awful or Diana wouldn't still be smiling.
"Oh, just Randolph being a man. They always seem to think of us as helpless flowers, don't they?" Diana shook her short, copper waves. "He's on a business trip to London, and didn't want me to stay at our house alone - not that I would be with half a dozen servants, but that was beside the point in his mind. Since Mother stayed here a little later than usual, I decided to join her, rather than Father, who would be glowering at me whenever he had a spare moment from all his business dealings. He really does prefer to keep his women out of the way whenever possible."
"You've lost me." Nettie's head ached too much to follow Diana's lightning reasoning.
"I'm expecting, you see. So Randolph is being rather paranoid, since it took me three years to get this way. Hence being sent to Mother's while he's out of the country. Mother is fussing like a mad hen, so I was unbelievably grateful when Eli asked me to come stay here for a while. He doesn't treat me as if I'd suddenly sprung another head."
"Congratulations." Nettie tried to smile, but her split lip didn't let her. "Are you sure you shouldn't be the one lying down?"
"Now don't you start." Diana looked down at Nettie and crossed her arms. "I'm fine, and Dr. Lexington agrees. I won't be riding in any steeplechases, but as long as I feel well, I'm perfectly capable of day to day activities. Which, by that same man's instructions, includes waking you up every two hours."
"Right." It took a second, but she remembered everything that had happened since Eli had found her. "Are we at your mother's house, or your brother's?" She hadn't imagined Eli would have such luxurious guest rooms. The paper was velvet-flocked, the bedspread was silk, and a large spray of fall flowers filled the dresser across from the bed.
"Eli's. He's being remarkably possessive of you, by the way. Is there a thing going on that his little sister should know about?"
"No." Nettie twisted the covers with her good hand. "He's protective by nature, I think. I don't even know how he found me. There hasn't been time to explain."
"Well, you've been asleep for two hours, so let me share what he told me." Diana went on to relate an abbreviated version of his role in rescuing Nettie. "He's sent his clerk, Gordon Johnson, over to open the store for you, by the way. He says he can spare Gordon for a few hours every morning. People will have to come in between nine and noon until you're up and around, or the Websters come home."
"That's wonderful." But why had Eli done so much? What possible motive could he have for being so kind to Nettie? Other than Uncle James, she didn't know many men who would go out of their way to help a virtual stranger. Still, if Eli had something wicked in mind, why invite Diana? The whole thing made Nettie's head throb.
Diana smoothed one hand over Nettie's forehead, avoiding the bruises. "Poor dear, you look miserable. Would you like some ice for your cheek or your arm? All part of the instructions."
"A glass of water?" The medication had left her mouth feeling fuzzy.
"Easy-peasy." Diana poured a glass from the carafe on the nightstand, and then helped Nettie sit up enough to sip it. "I'll have Mrs. V send up some icepacks, too. Eli put a speaking tube between his breakfast room - that's next door - and the kitchen downstairs, so she can send things up on the dumbwaiter. My crazy brother can be smart on occasion."
Nettie couldn't imagine Eli ever being anything but brilliant.
After putting back the glass, Diana slipped out of the room, leaving an aura of lilac perfume in her wake. Her silk dress must have cost a month of Nettie's pay or more. How had the snobby Lawsons produced two such kind children as Diana and Eli? Neither of the two sons in between them spent much time in Carstairs, but from what Nettie remembered, they were more like their parents. Diana and Eli, though, were cut from totally different cloth - otherwise, Nettie would still be lying in the creaky little bed she'd crawled into last night.