A Game of Chess With the Marquess

by Patricia Haverton

  This was so unfair that Lenora wanted to shout. Her entire life had been a lesson in proper respect for her betters. But it was impossible just now to think of Mrs. Durian as deserving of that sort of respect. How could someone who orchestrated the capture and tying up of one of her own staff be worthy of any kind of respect?

  “Is this because of Jimmy?” she asked. “Is it because I’ve spent too much time at the stables?”

  “The stable hand?” Mrs. Durian laughed. “If only you had chosen to have an affair with that boy.”

  “Then you know I’m not!”

  “Everybody knows you’re not,” Mrs. Durian said. “I don’t think he would have had you even if you’d offered yourself to him, to tell the truth. He’s dirty and he smells of hay, but at least he has enough of a brain in his head to know what’s good for him—” she gave Lenora a long, assessing look “—and what isn’t.”

  “I don’t understand.” The tears that had been threatening Lenora finally broke and she let out a soft sob. “Why are you doing this to me?”

  “Because it’s time you learned your place,” Mrs. Durian said. “It’s just as simple as that.”

  “I’ve learned. I promise. I’ll never do anything but what I’m told from now on.” She felt a twisted pang deep in her gut as she uttered those words. If she kept to that vow, she would never be able to talk to Lord Galdhor again.

  But that would be better than being tied up in a cellar.

  “I’m afraid it’s too late for promises,” Mrs. Durian said.

  “The Duke will be displeased,” Lenora said. It was the last card she had to play. “He won’t like to know that I’ve been treated this way.”

  Mrs. Durian laughed. “You see how much she thinks of herself?” she asked, directing the question to Roy. “To think that His Grace would even notice the absence of a single chambermaid! Gag her, now, and let’s return to our work.”

  Roy squatted before Lenora. “I’m sorry,” he said softly, and pushed a hunk of fabric between her teeth. He tied the ends around behind her head.

  Lenora tried to cry out, but she couldn’t make a sound.

  “Back upstairs, now, quickly,” Mrs. Durian said. “And back to your work, before our absence is noted and remarked upon.”

  “Begging your pardon ma’am,” John said. “How long are we going to leave her down here? She’s a good girl really, never did anything to anyone. Doesn’t deserve it, if you ask me.”

  “I don’t recall having asked you,” Mrs. Durian said.

  John bowed his head. Lenora felt for him. He was a good man and a good servant, but he certainly wasn’t the brightest member of the manor staff. She imagined it had taken a good deal of courage for him to speak up that way, and she was grateful to him, even if it hadn’t worked out.

  Roy and John disappeared up the stairs, and Lenora felt a sinking in the pit of her stomach. It was as if she could see her hopes of salvation disappearing along with them.

  “Now, keep quiet,” Mrs. Durian said to Lenora. She laughed a little. “Not that you have any choice in the matter! I know Roy made that gag good and tight. You might use the time you have to yourself to think over some of the choices you’ve made in the past few days.”

  What did I do? Lenora thought desperately, hoping the question would come through in her eyes. But Mrs. Durian only laughed again. She turned and walked up the stairs herself. Lenora listened as her footsteps faded away. Far above, she heard the cellar door being closed.

  She was alone.

  It was pitch dark down here now. Mrs. Durian had taken the candle with her. As Lenora’s eyes began to adjust, she discovered that she could make out the general shape of the room around her, but she couldn’t actually see anything.

  Good thing I’m not afraid of the dark. But the truth was that she was afraid. At least a little bit. Why had she been led down here under false pretenses? Why had the housekeeper and the two footmen tied her up like this? What did they possibly stand to gain from doing so?

  Was it possible the Duchess had given the order for Lenora’s imprisonment?

  Lenora tried to puzzle it out. Having something complex to focus on took her mind off of the terror coursing through her veins and the sheer hopelessness of her situation.

  It couldn’t have been the Duke. She was confident about that. The Duke was a good man, a kind man, and Lenora knew that he wished her well. She had doubted him in the past, it was true—she had wondered whether he might be willing to send her from his employ, if his daughter asked him to do so. But the Duke would never do this.

  Besides, she remembered, the Duke isn’t even home right now. Mrs. Durian said this had something to do with my choices during the past few days. The Duke would have no idea about those. No, he could have nothing to do with this.

  Lenora thought she could probably rule out the Duchess as well. The Duchess had no magnanimous feelings toward her and would be more than willing to see Lenora on the street—but there was one thing she did care about, and that was the approval of her Lord husband. And His Grace would never allow her to take such action, Lenora thought.

  No. If the Duchess wanted Lenora gone, she would simply have turned her out of the manor. Perhaps she would have lied and told the Duke that Lenora had stolen something. That sort of tactic would be exactly like the Duchess.

  But if it wasn’t her, and it wasn’t the Duke, who does that leave?

  The answer was obvious.

  Lady Katherine.

  Lady Katherine, who had always despised her. Lady Katherine, who had endeavored to get rid of Lenora since they were children, but had always been thwarted, one way or another, by her father. Of course, she was the one to do it. No one else could possibly want me out of the way that badly. It could only have been her.

  But knowing that Lady Katherine was the one behind this attack only answered part of the question. What had made her Lady act now? It was a very strange time for it. After all, before too much longer Lady Katherine would be leaving the manor for good, wed to Lord Galdhor, and she would never have to see Lenora again.

  So then why? Why would she do this now?

  Unless there was something Lenora didn’t know, or something she wasn’t thinking of. Something that hadn’t occurred to her, perhaps…

  She thought back over what Mrs. Durian had said. Think over some of the choices you’ve made in the last few days. That was a clue. She just knew it. That had to be part of the puzzle, part of the reason Lady Katherine had chosen this time to act. I must have done something in the last few days that angered her. Something that caused her to despise me even more than she did before.

  But what?

  Lenora ran through the past several days in her head. Her work had been impeccable, she was certain of that. In fact, because Lord Galdhor so frequently interrupted her while she was trying to finish her tasks, she had been even more mindful than usual She was sure that couldn’t be the problem.

  She hadn’t dropped or broken anything. And even if she had, that was hardly a severe enough infraction to merit this sort of treatment.

  Could it have to do with Jimmy? In the past, Lady Katherine had often scolded her for spending too much time with her friend, insisting that she distracted him from his work and that she oughtn’t allow herself to develop such high ideas about her own potential for romance.

  But that wasn’t anything new. Lenora and Jimmy had been friends for years, and Lady Katherine had detested it for years. And Mrs. Durian had said herself that nobody believed there was any romance between Jimmy and Lenora.

  Maybe that’s true of Lady Katherine, or maybe it isn’t, Lenora thought, but it does suggest that whatever cause she gave Mrs. Durian for dragging me down here was unrelated to Jimmy.

  But then what could be the reason? What else had she done?

  All I’ve done recently is clean the house and talk to Lord Galdhor.

  The truth hit her, belatedly and as heavily as a sack of stones. Of course. It was so obvious, she cou
ldn’t believe she’d missed it. It was the very thing she’d feared, the very thing she’d tried so hard to avoid. Lady Katherine must have seen, finally, what Lenora had been trying to hide.

  Lenora had suspected that the Duchess knew something was amiss. But she’d thought she had gotten away with it. She had thought there was still a chance to save the situation by keeping her distance from Lord Galdhor.

  She must have been wrong. Lady Katherine must know that she had been talking to Lord Galdhor. Perhaps she even knew that Lenora harbored feelings for the Marquess. If so, she was surely somewhere laughing at Lenora.

  Maybe she and Lord Galdhor are laughing together, Lenora thought, tears pricking her eyes. Maybe she’s told Lord Galdhor what she and the housekeeper did, how they lured me down here and tied me up to keep me away from him. They’ll mock me for my foolishness in thinking I had any place dreaming of a future with a highborn lord.

  It had only been a dream. Not even so much as a wish. And look where it had gotten her.

  I should have kept to my belief that dreams are dangerous, she thought, allowing herself to slump slightly in her chair, despairing. I should have trusted my instincts and turned away when Lord Galdhor tried to speak to me the very first time. There was never anything at stake for him. He can afford to indulge flights of fancy. But I cannot.

  * * *

  The time passed Lenora by in a haze. She quickly lost track of how long she had been down in the cellar. It might have been hours. It might have been days. She couldn’t be sure.

  The Duke, she thought, over and over. His Grace will surely come home and realize I’m missing. He will want to know where I’ve gone. And what will they tell him then?

  A futile hope, she thought. Lady Katherine would never have taken this drastic step if she didn’t have some sort of plan. She would already know, no doubt, what she was going to tell her father when he returned. She would have a story in place.

  She’ll probably tell him that I was dismissed from the manor, Lenora decided. He’ll be angry with her for taking that step without consulting him, but what will he be able to do? The damage will be done. Eventually, he will forgive her. They will move on.

  And where would Lenora be then? Would she still be in this cellar, left to rot beneath their feet even as the Duke questioned her whereabouts?

  I don’t know when he’ll be back, she realized. Even if he does insist on knowing what happened to me, where I am, it might well be too late for me by then. If they intend to leave me tied up here, with nothing to eat or drink…

  It was too horrible to contemplate. Already Lenora was beginning to feel thirsty. How long did it take for a human being to die of thirst? She didn’t know. Would the Duke be back in time for her to have a hope of being saved?

  Jimmy. Jimmy will notice when I’m gone.

  But what would Jimmy be able to do about it? He had no power. He was a servant here, just as she was. And besides, he knows that Lady Katherine has always wanted to keep us apart. All she will have to do is tell him that she’s forbidden me to visit the stables. Lenora closed her eyes, exhausted, hopeless. He’ll never know I’ve vanished. How could he?

  There’s no one who will ever know the truth of it, then. Lady Katherine will be able to make me disappear, as cleanly as if I never was.

  A tear tracked its way down Lenora’s cheek. She had hoped to be brave, to be strong, but the idea of disappearing, of nobody ever knowing she’d gone the way she had, was horrific.

  Suddenly her eyes flew open.

  Lord Galdhor.

  He would know.

  He had sought her out almost every day since he’d been at Brackhill Manor. He clearly had an interest in her, although the reason for that interest remained unclear to Lenora. Surely, he would realize she was missing.

  And he was a man of power. He would actually be able to do something about it.

  But would he do anything?

  Lenora had to face the hard truth that he might not. If Lady Katherine urged him not to, if she lied and told him that Lenora had left the manor willfully, Lord Galdhor might believe her.

  Could he believe that? I told him how I feel about working in a manor. I told him it was the best life one such as me could hope for.

  Maybe there was no hope of escape at all. Maybe it was foolish to get her hopes up. I always knew it was a mistake to dream.

  Eventually, exhausted and distraught, emotionally, spent, Lenora managed to relax enough to slip into an uncomfortable and dreamless sleep.

  Chapter 12

  For a while, Lenora drifted in and out of consciousness, and if it hadn’t already been next to impossible to keep track of the passage of time, her inability to stay awake would have been the final straw.

  I can’t have slept that long, she told herself, returning to awareness once after some indeterminate amount of time. If I had, I would no longer feel so tired. I would feel at least somewhat refreshed.

  But she couldn’t be certain that that was true. She had been down here in the dark for so long that her body seemed convinced that it was nighttime. It was so disorienting, having no idea of the time of day. She would have given anything in the world just to have a window.

  Of course, I’m underground, she reminded herself. If there was a window here, it would just look out on dirt and insects. It’s like being buried alive. She shuddered.

  Surely Lady Katherine couldn’t mean to leave her down here to perish alone in the cellar. Nobody could be that cruel, could they? Nobody could actually treat a fellow human being that way, no matter how much they disliked her.

  But Lady Katherine doesn’t think of me as a human being, Lenora thought. And I suppose I never realized that fully, because I so rarely thought of myself as human. That seemed to her to be the biggest tragedy of all. She convinced me that I was worthless.

  But I’m not worthless. I deserve respect. I don’t deserve this, no matter what I’ve done.

  Still, she couldn’t ignore the fact that she should have known better. She had done more than simply converse with Lord Galdhor, she admitted now, alone in the dark of the cellar. She had been a flirt. Even as she had held herself away from him, she had given in. Every time he had tried to know her better, she had cooperated.

  And she had wanted something from him. Even if she had never dared to articulate it, even if she had never believed in her heart that it could come to pass, she had wanted him to care for her the way she cared for him.

  Lady Katherine was angry. Of course she wants to punish me. I was pining after her intended. Anybody would be angry.

  But that did not mean, Lenora reminded herself, that she ought to be locked away in a cellar! She had deserved a reprimand, maybe, and she wouldn’t have found fault if Lady Katherine had elected to keep her away from Lord Galdhor for the remainder of his visit. But this?

  No. This was more punishment than her crime deserved.

  It was such a relief to settle on this thought. I am not as bad as they say, she told herself fiercely. Lady Katherine may despise me, but that doesn’t mean I am despicable. The problem lies with her, not with me.

  Oh, it was wonderful knowledge to have. For a moment she forgot her gnawing hunger and her painful thirst. For a moment, she forgot the bone deep cold of the cellar. Knowing there was goodness within her, that she was human and worthy and hadn’t earned this brutal treatment, had ignited a little candle deep within her. She took strength from it.

  I’m going to be all right, she told herself firmly. I’m going to figure out a way out of this.

  The thought had hardly occurred to her when she heard the sound of the door opening above her. She adjusted her body quickly out of the slumped posture she’d dropped into while she’d slept. Whoever was coming down now, she wanted to greet them seated upright. She didn’t want them to see how shaken she had been by this.

  Mrs. Durian appeared at the bottom of the stairs, cradling a candle in her hand. Lenora quickly assessed her appearance. She was wearing the same d
ress she had worn earlier, when she had brought Lenora down here. It’s still the same day. It felt as if she had been down here forever, but it was still the same day.

  Unless it was night. Perhaps night had fallen.

  She heard footsteps on the stairs. Somebody else was coming.

  Lady Katherine appeared behind the housekeeper. She was dressed in what Lenora recognized as a supper dress, sunshine yellow with lace on the sleeves, and her hair was in intricate braids around the crown of her head. She’s made herself lovely for Lord Galdhor, Lenora thought.

  In a way it was a pity. All this time, Lady Katherine had been trying to win Lord Galdhor’s favor. But he doesn’t care for her. Whether Lenora was around or not, that fact wouldn’t change. He had told Lenora so himself. He didn’t want to wed her.