Page 62 of The Nanny’s Handbook to Magic and Managing Difficult Dukes

Wherein There Is a Fiery Incident Closely Followed by a Chilling One…

Emmeline wasn’t sure what woke her exactly, but something definitely had.

For a moment, she struggled to recall where she was. And then she blinked sleepily and smiled. She was sated and warm in the Duke of St Lawrence’s bed. Not only that, but she was engaged and in love and she’d just had the best lovemaking experience she’d ever had in her life.

And then she heard the noise again. A raucous screech.

It was Horatio. And he was squawking crazily, fit to wake the dead, in Xavier’s sitting room next door.

“Fire! Fire! Fire in the hold!”

What? Fire in the hold? Hold of a ship? Emmeline bolted upright and frowned into the velvet darkness of Xavier’s bedchamber. What on earth did that mean?

And then she smelled it. Smoke.

Oh God. “Xavier! Xavier, wake up!” Emmeline gave her sleeping fiancé a frantic shake, then she scrambled from the bed, pulling one of the satin sheets with her.

Heedless of her dishabille, she flew across the bedchamber and threw open the door to the sitting room.

Even though everything was cloaked in shadow, there was enough ambient light filtering through the windows to reveal that smoke was seeping into the room from underneath the door that led to the hall outside.

Nanny Chase! The raven landed on the nearby mantelpiece. I thought you were in Kent. What are you doing— He broke off and cocked his head, studying her sheet-shrouded form and disheveled, unbound hair. Never mind. It’s about time you and the duke got together—

At that moment, Xavier appeared in the doorway next to Emmeline, shirtless and shoeless and his trousers only half done up.

“Fire in the hold! Intruder alert!” screeched the bird. “Halfnaked nanny alert!”

Xavier pointed his finger at the raven. “That’s enough from you, Horatio.”

Turning to Emmeline, the duke gripped her by the shoulders. “I’ll check the hall while you throw something on besides a sheet. If a fire has taken hold, we’ll all have to evacuate. That includes the staff.”

Emmeline nodded. “Be careful.” She didn’t have to give voice to the terrible thought that was uppermost in her mind. That the saboteur had struck again. And this time, the consequences could be lethal. Xavier must be thinking it too.

“I will,” he said grimly. And then he gave her a swift kiss before heading for the sitting room door.

I’ll help too , offered Horatio. Let me out and I’ll fly around the house to get a bird’s-eye view of the fire. It will take me a minute or two at most.

Good idea , replied Emmeline. Once she’d thrown open a casement window for the raven and he’d disappeared into the night, she raced through to the bedchamber to her discarded clothes where they still lay in a heap by the fireplace.

Dropping the sheet, she threw on her dress.

There was no time to don undergarments. If she were lucky, she’d have time to pull on her boots.

Reaching behind her, she began to do up the buttons.

Whoever designed the Parasol Academy uniform should be shot.

How on earth was she to get dressed in a hurry, especially in the near dark?

She was bound to get burned to a crisp before she’d even done up a few.

Then she stopped and drew a calming breath.

What if she cast the Unsmirchify spell?

Surely it was worth a try. It had worked before when she’d used it in an unconventional way in the duke’s study after their amorous tryst.

Emmeline reached into her nanny’s pocket and withdrew the small feather duster she would need to amplify the incantation. “ Unsmirchify, ” she whispered as she made a sweeping motion down her body.

A soft silver glow gently pulsed and swirled around Emmeline, and when the light faded, she was fully dressed. Even her hair was back in a neat bun. Although, her nanny’s cap had not materialized. It seemed that an item of clothing, once destroyed by fire, was gone for good.

Sartorial and modesty crises at last averted, Emmeline then rushed back to the smoky sitting room to discover Xavier had returned. His eyes widened at the sight of her fully dressed. “How—” he began, then shook his head. “Never mind.”

“How bad is the fire?” she asked, suddenly breathless because of the smoke and a good dose of rising panic. “I let Horatio out to make an assessment of the situation too.”

Xavier’s mouth compressed in a hard straight line.

“It’s not good.” He strode past her and retrieved his shirt from the floor beside the bed.

“It seems to have started somewhere on the lower floors,” he added as his head emerged from the crumpled linen, “but there’s a considerable amount of smoke billowing up the central staircase into the outside corridor.

I could see a fierce glow emanating from the first floor and hear the crackle and pop of a fire that’s becoming well established. It’s not just a smoldering fire.”

“Oh God. I hope the servants are all right.” Even though Emmeline’s room had been on the third floor near the nursery, the rest of the staff slept on the ground floor or in basement quarters.

“I trust they are.” Xavier thrust his feet into leather shoes then returned to her side.

“Both Babcock and Woodley were calling out from below in the entry hall and I shouted down to them that both you and I are fine and will get ourselves to safety. That they were to focus on getting the rest of the staff into the square. With any luck, an alarm has been raised to summon the fire brigade.”

Emmeline nodded. “We need to get out too.”

Xavier reached out and clasped her arm. “You should teleport outside. In the meantime, I need to go back to the Horology Room to retrieve my clock plans. I left them on my workbench.”

Horror gripped Emmeline’s lungs. “Oh no. But it’s far too dangerous, Xavier.”

Xavier’s jaw took on a stubborn set. “I don’t think the fire has reached this floor yet. There’s still time. This work—my finest work—has taken me a whole year to complete. I can’t let it go up in flames. Not now. I must try.”

“Then I will go with you,” said Emmeline firmly. “That way I can teleport us both to safety.”

Xavier raised a querying brow. “You can do that?”

Emmeline gave a decided nod. “Indeed, I can.”

Xavier blew out a sigh. “I don’t like the idea of putting you in unnecessary danger, but very well—”

There was a sudden screech then a softer caw. What, abandoning ship already?

Horatio was back. Emmeline and Xavier whipped around to find him sitting on the window ledge.

“How goes it?” Emmeline asked.

The raven flapped his wings. “Fire in the hold,” he crowed, then spoke to Emmeline directly in her mind.

The very center of the house on the first floor is well alight.

But the servants’ stairs at the end of the north and south wings look like they might be safe to use.

Mrs. Punchbowl, Mrs. Lambton, and the maids and footmen appear to be gathering in the square.

There’s no sign of the fire brigade yet.

Emmeline thanked Horatio and then conveyed the raven’s intelligence to Xavier.

“Right, that’s everyone downstairs accounted for,” he said. Then he laced his fingers through Emmeline’s. “Let’s go. I don’t fancy becoming duke toast.”

Horatio cawed a goodbye from the window as Xavier and Emmeline hastened into the ducal bedchamber, heading for the door that led directly to the Horology Room.

As they sped along the secret passage, Emmeline’s eyes watered and dread trickled down her spine.

The acrid smell of smoke was stronger here in such an enclosed space and the gaslights were flickering madly.

She prayed the second floor wasn’t engulfed in flames.

Or that the gas wouldn’t explode. Hopefully Woodley would remember to turn it off.

When Xavier pushed aside the jib door to the Horology Room, Emmeline breathed a great sigh of relief.

Even though the air was hazy with smoke, there were no other signs that the fire had reached this far.

No heat or untoward sounds like crashes or explosions.

Perhaps the house could be saved if the fire brigade arrived in time.

It would be terrible and heartbreaking indeed if Xavier lost his entire timepiece collection.

Xavier rushed over to his workbench and swiftly rolled up his plans. “Right, my darling Emmeline,” he said. “We can away—”

At that moment there was a loud crash, and a barrage of vile cursing filtered into the room. Emmeline and Xavier traded worried glances.

“Someone is in your study,” she whispered.

Xavier’s brows plummeted into a frown. “I need to check who it is.” Tucking his clock plans beneath one arm, he started for the door concealed behind his study’s bookcase. “Even though I told Woodley and Babcock not to worry about me, perhaps one of them came back.”

Emmeline agreed and followed Xavier. And then she wished she hadn’t, because standing behind the duke’s desk was a man brandishing a pistol…

It was Sir Randolph Redvers, and his mocking smile chilled Emmeline to the very bone as he pointed the weapon straight at her and Xavier and said, “Hands up.”