“I feel perfectly fine, thank you,” the Duke said.
“Father, you can’t—you can’t open doors that have been so long closed,” Lady Katherine burst out.
“Silence yourself,” the Duke said to his daughter, and she sat down sharply, as if she’d had a shock. Adrian supposed she was unaccustomed to being spoken to that way, even by her father. Maybe especially by her father.”
“What is everyone talking about?” he asked. “Doors that have been closed? I don’t understand.”
“You don’t need to,” the Duke said heavily. “Lord Galdhor, I understand your curiosity. I respect it. Truly. And if I were a young man in your position, I’m sure I would feel the same way. When one sees a mystery or an unanswered question, it’s hard not to explore, isn’t it? It’s hard not to dig deeper.”
Adrian didn’t answer. This was not just a matter of curiosity for him. He wasn’t just pulling at threads and hoping to piece puzzles together. This was about his love for Lenora. He ached to tell them that, to say the words aloud.
I loved her.
He would never be able to say it. He could never risk Lady Katherine finding out that he had loved her maid, that he had only chosen her because of Lenora’s untimely death. He would have to carry the secret to his own grave.
But if he could understand why her death grieved the Duke so much, maybe that would be balm on the raw ache in his soul.
“I ask you to set it aside,” the Duke said to Adrian. “I know it may be difficult for you to do so. I know you are looking for answers, and it’s hard to leave stones unturned in this world. But I ask you to respect my family. I’m sure you understand that every family has its secrets. Its hidden places…” he glanced at Katherine, who was watching him and looking pale and frightened, “its closed doors.”
Adrian thought of his own family. He couldn’t think of anything particularly mysterious about them.
“The maid who died,” he said. “Lenora. Will you at least permit me a few questions about her?”
“Why would you want to know about her?” Lady Katherine asked.
“We were friendly,” Adrian said. There was no point in concealing that any longer. He had only kept it a secret to protect Lenora from Lady Katherine’s wrath, but she had gone beyond where any of them could touch her. “We spoke on occasion. She was always kind to me, and always took the time to help me when I found myself lost in the manor.”
“You strike me as a man who is kind to his servants, Lord Galdhor,” the Duke said.
“I strive to be,” Adrian said.
“A fine quality,” the Duke said, nodding. “I try to do the same. One must remember that their circumstances are not of their own making, and that it is only chance that has us dining at the table and them doing the serving. As members of the ton, I feel it’s our obligation to make the lives of those around us as easy as possible.
“I agree,” Adrian said, but he thought he saw Lady Katherine roll her eyes.
Am I really going to marry this woman? he thought, repulsed. She’s nothing but a child.
“Lenora served in my house for years,” the Duke said. “She was here as a very little girl. And, of course, it’s different when one of your servants is that young. You must focus more on providing proper training for life than on ensuring your shoes are shined.”
“So you provided an education,” Adrian surmised.
“Katherine was being tutored anyway,” the Duke said. “It was no extra effort to allow Lenora to sit in on her lessons. The two are close in age, you know.”
Adrian nodded.
“I think Katherine didn’t like it,” the Duke confessed. “Well, you know how it is. She was a child. She wanted the full attention of her tutor, and she couldn’t have it with another student around. And then there was the fact that Lenora performed better than she did at several things—”
“We shouldn’t be speaking so in front of Lord Galdhor!” the Duchess sounded scandalized. “Katherine is to wed him! He ought not hear this sort of thing.”
“I don’t care,” Lady Katherine said haughtily. “Of course, I didn’t perform well in my studies. I had many other concerns! I was a young lady. I had to attend social functions and finishing classes in addition to lessons. Lenora had only one thing to worry about, so of course she became a little bookworm.”
“That’s right,” said her mother fondly, as if Lady Katherine had done something to be commended. “You could have excelled in anything you wanted, but you had so much to learn.”
Adrian didn’t bother to assess the situation. It seemed clear to him, even if it wasn’t to anybody else, that Lady Katherine was and had always been jealous of Lenora. Jealous of a chambermaid who was blind in one eye.
She must be very unhappy, he thought. She must not like herself at all.
It was a sad thought. But he found he didn’t feel sorry for her. She was so cruel. So unkind. Lenora was dead, and yet Lady Katherine continued to sit here and say unpleasant things about her.
That’s going to change, though, he vowed. When we’re married, she’ll be living in my home, and my word will be law. I’ve never thought of myself as someone who would take pleasure in ordering a wife around, but one rule I can’t wait to make is this—she will never speak ill of a servant again. She will be kind and respectful toward them always.
The idea of being married to her sickened him.
But the idea of being married to anyone sickened him. Lenora was dead. He would never be able to give his heart to anyone else.
At least, by marrying Lady Katherine, he would be committing himself to someone who wouldn’t deserve any more than he could give. To wed a kind, loving woman would be to cheat her. He could offer only cold and distance, and that was precisely what Lady Katherine deserved.
There was nothing else he could do for Lenora. But he could do this. The woman who had made her life hell would spend the rest of her own atoning for it.
“Enough,” the Duchess said, “let us adjourn for now. We will reconvene at breakfast tomorrow, and there we’ll discuss the final steps in the wedding contract.”
“Yes,” the Duke seemed to gather himself, “of course. I need a rest—perhaps a drink?”
“Yes, yes, we’ll see that you get one.” The Duchess was practically dragging him out of the room. Adrian could see that she was desperate for this conversation to end. She probably thinks the Duke is going to say something else negative about Lady Katherine and convince me that I shouldn’t marry her. Well, she doesn’t need to worry about that. Nothing is going to change my mind at this point.
Just then, the dining room door flew open with a bang.
Lady Katherine let out a cry.
The Duchess clutched at her heart.
Adrian blinked, and then blinked again, scarcely able to credit what he was seeing.
There in the doorway, dress torn and dirty, hair in utter disarray, stood Lenora.
She looked exhausted. She was shivering from the cold. But she was very much alive.
She stood there in the doorway staring at Lady Katherine, who seemed to shrink under her gaze.
“All right,” Adrian said faintly. “Now I really do need some answers.”
Chapter 17
For a long time, nobody said a word.
Lady Katherine’s jaw hung open. Adrian felt the strangest urge to reach across the table and close it for her.
But that urge was currently doing battle with—and losing to—another. He wanted to jump to his feet, cross the dining room, and sweep Lenora into his arms. He couldn’t seem to stop staring at her, his eyes drinking in the reality of her, but until he could get his arms around her, he didn’t know how he could bring himself to believe that this was real.
She’s alive. She’s really alive. She wasn’t killed after all.
Which meant…
What did that mean?
His thoughts raced around and around in his head. Lady Katherine and the Duchess had said she had been kic
ked by a horse. But that must have been a lie, Adrian realized.
Had the ladies been the originators of the lie? Or had they been lied to, as he had?
He couldn’t believe that. It didn’t make sense. Who would lie to them? And why? If Lenora had wanted to escape, to run away with her stable hand, she might have asked him to feed a lie to the ladies she served. Adrian would have been able to understand that. But how did that square with the fact that she had returned, and that she was now looking at Lady Katherine as if Lady Katherine had committed some act of betrayal against her?
No. Lady Katherine was the liar here. There was no other way of looking at it.
Adrian turned to her. “You told me she had been killed,” he said.
“You told him I had been killed?” Lenora’s voice was slightly shriller than was ordinary for her. Adrian supposed he couldn’t blame her for that. If he had learned that everyone he knew had believed him dead, he would have been shrill as well.
“Are you hurt?” the Duke asked, his voice low and urgent. He seemed to really care, Adrian thought.
“No,” Lenora said, “no, Your Grace. Just cold.”
The Duke removed his jacket. He stood up, walked to her side, and wrapped it around her shoulders.
Lady Katherine made a small noise of protest at this gesture of compassion. Everyone ignored her.
“Now, really!” the Duchess exclaimed as the Duke guided Lenora to the chair he had been sitting in. “Having her sit right at the table!”
“The poor girl has obviously been through some kind of ordeal,” the Duke said.
“But she’s a servant,” the Duchess protested. “Sitting her here with us, as if she were our equal—”
“Do be quiet,” the Duke snapped, “for once in your life.” He turned his attention to Lenora. “I’ll go and tell the kitchen to send in something hot, all right?”
“I…” Lenora looked deeply uncomfortable with the proceedings. She seemed to think she was out of place every bit as much as the Duchess did, except that she responded with fear instead of anger. “Yes, Your Grace.”
The Duke squeezed her shoulder and departed for the kitchen.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Lady Katherine leaned across the table. “I can’t believe you came back here,” she hissed. “How dare you?”
Adrian couldn’t believe his ears. He had heard Lady Katherine sound shallow, uncaring, even cruel before. But this was different. Her words were poisonous. It was clear that she was not going to pretend she hadn’t lied about what had happened to Lenora.
Lenora narrowed her eyes. “This is my home,” she said quietly.
Adrian felt a flush of pride. Perhaps it was misplaced. She was not his to take pride in, in any sense. But when he had met Lenora, she would have been incapable of standing up for herself. She had lived and died by Lady Katherine’s edicts and opinions. To hear her now, telling Lady Katherine to stop tormenting her…it was wonderful.
“This isn’t your home,” Lady Katherine scoffed. “Don’t make me laugh. Just because we’ve allowed you room and board? Nothing about this place is yours, Lenora. Nothing here has ever been yours, and you know it. This is my home.”
“Wait a minute,” Adrian interrupted. “I don’t understand what’s going on here. You told me that Lenora had been kicked by a horse,” he reminded Lady Katherine, “that she had been killed.”
“Kicked by a horse?” Lenora said disbelievingly. “That’s the best you could come up with? I spend every day around horses!” She turned to face Adrian. “Being kicked by a horse is her fear, Lord Galdhor, so I imagine that’s what drove her to say it.”
“How dare you speak to me that way!” Lady Katherine exclaimed.
“I don’t believe I was speaking to you at all,” Lenora retorted coolly. “I was speaking to Lord Galdhor.”
“And you are out of line in doing so,” the Duchess snapped, seeming to recover a bit from the shock of an alleged ghost walking into her dining room and sitting down at her table. “He is your better, Lenora. You have no right to address him. Go to your room at once.”
Lenora raised her eyebrows. “I thought nothing here was mine.”
“She has every right to speak to me,” Adrian said. “I want to talk to her. I want to know what happened.” He faced Lenora. “If you weren’t killed, Lenora, then what happened? Did you lose your position? Is that why you’re unwelcome at Brackhill Manor?”
“Lose my position?” she laughed. “You might put it that way, Lord Galdhor, yes. I lost my position, I suppose. But I’ve never been welcome at Brackhill Manor. I’m sure Lady Katherine’s words will leave you in no doubt about that.”
“What had you done?” Adrian asked her. “Was it because of your relationship with the stable boy?”
“Jimmy and I are not romantically involved,” Lenora said. “We never have been. I don’t know why Lady Katherine thinks so. Perhaps it’s because she’s never seen a genuine human friendship before and didn’t recognize it for what it was.”
Lady Katherine squeaked. Adrian forced himself not to laugh.
“But I don’t understand,” he said, returning his attention to Lenora. “If you weren’t killed—and I’m very happy you weren’t, of course—and you weren't dismissed from the manor, why did you leave?”
“I was dismissed,” Lenora said, “in a manner of speaking. It just didn’t have anything to do with Jimmy. Is that what they told you? That he and I were involved?”
“Yes,” Adrian said.
“You believed it?”
“I had no reason not to.”
“Yes, you did,” she countered. “I told you. I told you romance and marriage weren’t for me. I told you that I had a place in this world, and that I was determined to stay in it.” She shook her head, looking at Lady Katherine. “And I was determined,” she added. “I would have happily been your chambermaid forever. I would never have complained.”
“You minx,” Katherine hissed. “Everyone in this room knows what you did. The way you flaunted yourself before Lord Galdhor. Hoping he would notice you. Hoping he would forget about me!”
“Wait a moment,” Adrian said, “she never did that.”
“Girls like her are subtle, my dear Lord Galdhor,” the Duchess said. “Gutter trash, that’s all they are. Their wiles are all they have to ensnare unsuspecting men such as yourself. It’s a credit to you that you were strong enough to resist her machinations.”
Adrian opened his mouth to say that it wasn’t true, that he hadn’t resisted her at all, that in fact he was in love with her and was beyond relieved to hear that she was alive and not involved with Jimmy—
But he was interrupted by a clatter and a shout from the foyer. Everyone looked up.
“Sir! Sir!” a voice called. “You can’t be in here, sir. This is Brackhill Manor. This is the home of the Duke.”
“Where are the footmen?” the Duchess demanded, hurrying to the door of the dining room.
Lady Katherine looked shifty, but said nothing.
A moment later, the Duke returned to the room holding a tray with a bowl of soup on it. He was accompanied by Henderson the butler and—to Adrian’s great surprise—Samuel Peters.
“Samuel?” Adrian blurted.
The Duke looked at him. “You know this man, Lord Galdhor?”
“I…yes, he works at an establishment I frequent in town. He’s a friend of mine.” What was Samuel doing here? “Is it about my mother? Is she well?”
“Your mother is fine,” Samuel said. “I came to see you, Lord Galdhor.”
“In that case, sir, please sit,” the Duke invited. He bent and placed the tray in front of Lenora. Katherine looked as if her head might explode, but she said nothing. Adrian supposed she didn’t dare question her father at this juncture.
Samuel took a seat at the table. “I apologize for coming here so late at night, Your Grace,” he said. “And unannounced, no less. It was never my intention to disrupt your family or to cause you any anxi
ety.”
“Not at all,” the Duke said. “Any friend of Lord Galdhor’s is welcome here, I assure you. May I send for a drink for you?”
“That would be welcome.”
“Henderson?”
The butler nodded and retreated toward the kitchen.
“I believe Adrian said your name was Samuel?” the Duke asked.
“Samuel Peters, Your Grace,” Samuel said. “And as Lord Galdhor said, I work in a pub in town.”
A Game 0f Chess With The Marquess (Historical Regency Romance) Page 22
