He turned to face her and for the first time, she saw an opened letter in his hand, its edges flapping gently in the wind that was wafting through the study window.
Her heart caught in her chest instantly as the dread she’d managed to quell only moments ago, resurfaced.
Has Father discovered a letter between me and the Marquess? Does he know?
“Dear daughter, like me, I’m sure you’ve been wondering why the Earl of Rockgonie was absent at the ball,” he announced elatedly.
Her confusion was brief before she understood that the letter had nothing to do with Lord Walsrock. She decided to play along, as she imagined she would have, if she truly was bothered about a lack of response from Lord Rockgonie.
“I have been devastated, Father. How could he treat me this way?” she responded in deceit.
“I know, daughter. However, there is a perfectly good explanation. He is a Lord, after all, and I knew he couldn’t have been willingly absent from the ball,” her father responded animatedly, brandishing the letter in the air.
Her expression changed from that of a helpless and downtrodden lady to one of puzzlement.
In all honesty, she didn’t care what the explanation was. She was only grateful that besides members of her family and that of the Earl of Rockgonie, of course, no one else was aware of their betrothal.
It would have been terribly embarrassing if it was public knowledge. Not mentioning the fact that she wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to meet and dance with the Marquess of Walsrock.
“Read it yourself.” Her father wore an excited expression as he approached and handed the letter over to her.
Reluctantly, she received it and began reading.
At the end, she raised her head to find her father observing her keenly.
She knew the expression on her face was one of indifference. However, she was grateful, knowing her father was likely going to interpret it as anger at the fact that she was jilted.
The explanation in the letter had been simple. A matter with one of the Earl’s family’s estates had come up and he had needed to set out immediately to address the issue. In his haste, he had forgotten about the ball or to leave a note explaining his absence.
Awkward. Who forgets the ball where their engagement is meant to be announced?
Only when he’d arrived at his destination did he remember and had immediately sat down to pen an explanation and an apology to her family. The letter had been addressed to her father and not even to her.
How romantic.
The letter had just arrived and he himself would be following suit in about a week.
Unfortunately, I am not interested.
Fortunately for her, however, her father had misinterpreted the look on her face.
“I understand how you feel. But he is on his way back to honor his engagement to you. Give him one more chance,” her father remarked.
“Father, would you afford me the opportunity to think this through?” Rose requested, handing the Earl’s letter back to her father, suddenly disgusted but doing a wonderful job of masking it.
“Most certainly. Take all the time you need. After all, he arrives a week from now, ceteris paribus.”
“Thank you, Father,” she said as she excused herself to retreat to the safety of her chambers.
Her mind was reeling. When she was told of this arrangement initially, she’d been sad. Now, however, she was distraught.
Somehow she’d silently hoped that the business with Lord Rockgonie had blown away on its own, giving her a chance to explore a relationship with Lord Walsrock. Apparently, it hadn’t and now Rose was going to be forced to face it. In spite of all the thoughts going through her mind, all she was worried about was the Marquess finding out and knowing she’d lied to him.
She walked briskly to her chambers and burst through the door, startling her maid in the process.
“My Lady, is anything the matter?” her lady’s maid asked, after noticing she was upset and visibly worried.
Rose, on the other hand, stayed quiet and fuming at what had just occurred in her father’s study. After pacing back and forth for a bit in a very un-lady like fashion, she turned and dashed for the bed to retrieve the Marquess’ letter from where her lady’s maid had hidden it.
As soon as her hands felt the letter, her heart went soft.
Spreading the letter open, the beauty of his handwriting hit her square in the face as it had done before. No matter how many times she’d seen the Marquess’ writing in the past week, she’d not gotten used to it.
Dear R,
As always, the opportunity to write you a letter fills my heart with so much joy. It’s been only a week and yet I feel like I’ve known you for half of my adult life.
This is certainly a feeling that is new to me in all ramifications that I dare say I just might be experiencing something I’ve never felt before. The fact that I know I’m not in this alone and that you feel it too also makes me look forward to the future with so much hope. I most certainly look forward to the time when our correspondence shall no longer have to be in secret anymore.
My mother asked about you this morning though as she always has every morning. I think she’s beginning to grow fond of you even though she knows nothing of our continued conversations.
Even as this letter hasn’t reached you yet, I so eagerly look forward to receiving a response from you.
Sincerely
W
A smile formed on her lips as she briefly forgot the dilemma she was facing. Lord Walsrock’s letters had a way of suspending her from reality and leaving her in a state of ecstasy.
She read it three more times before turning to find that her lady’s maid had pulled out the writing desk for her to respond to the letter.
She sat at the desk and debated within herself on what her response should be. The Marquess needed to find out the truth from her if she ever hoped for a chance to control this situation. However, informing him through a letter didn’t seem like the best way to go about it.
I need to get him to meet me in person.
Her decision made, she dipped her quill in ink and began writing.
Chapter Six
Kenneth read Rose’s letter with a mixed feeling of excitement and dread. He was standing in his bedroom and Leonard was in front of him, observing quietly.
As was his custom this past week, he’d immediately headed to the bedroom at dusk to await Leonard’s arrival and by extension, Rose’s letter.
Rose had proceeded to tell him that they needed to meet immediately. If he’d missed the sense of urgency embedded in that request, Rose had gone on to draft a carefully detailed plan of how they were to meet. Now he was extremely worried for her safety.
He read the letter over and over again to ensure that he wasn’t imagining the sense of urgency he felt from the letter.
Is she all right? Did her father discover our secret correspondence?
For the umpteenth time, he looked at Leonard and repeated his line of questioning.
“Did you notice anything off with the maid when she gave you the letter? Did she say anything else about Lady Rose? Did she hint at whether Lady Rose was fine or in trouble?”
Leonard simply smiled and continued to reassure Kenneth that there was nothing he had missed in the demeanor of the lady’s maid. She’d simply handed him the letter as usual and they had gone their separate ways.
Before he returned his gaze to the letter and tried to read it for the thousandth time, Leonard stepped forward and paused his reading.
“Your bill, Kenneth. You need to be presenting His Grace with a draft this evening as promised, so he could continue to engender support for it amongst his peers.” Leonard said, reminding him of the amendment to the deal he and his father had made.
After the success of the ball, his father had stepped into the study the next day and asked that Kenneth make a draft available for him to read. Kenneth had responded by saying the Duke should give him a w
eek to prepare a final draft and do some finishing touches.
For all their differences, Kenneth appreciated that his father was, in his own way, trying to help his son’s political career. He, on the other hand, knew that he still needed his father’s experience if he was going to have any chance of getting that bill to fly through parliament.
Without his father’s experience and support of his peers, Kenneth knew the bill was dead in the water as soon as it arrived, no matter how carefully he tried to word it.
And there is the matter of Lord Somerholm.
The wariness he’d felt after the Earl’s comment at the ball had remained lodged at the back of his mind. He’d continue to bounce around whether he was overthinking it or whether he’d truly heard something hidden in the Lord’s voice.
He paused, his train of thought returning to Lady Rose, albeit briefly. For now, Lady Rose’s letter was clear that they needed to meet in person as soon as possible. Her plan was that after dinner, she was going to sneak out into the garden where Kenneth was meant to meet her. She had detailed in the letter the route for Kenneth to follow to avoid discovery.
On the other hand, Leonard was right. Besides the fact that the letter had said that they needed to meet tonight, there was nothing else he could do but present the final draft of his bill to his father while he waited. The only problem now was presenting the draft in person and having his father wanting to hold him down to talk about it.
“Are you aware if the Duke is around?” Kenneth asked, hoping that the answer was going to be no.
“The Duke is out with a hunting party. They were expected to be back by now, although they haven’t returned,” Leonard responded, already seeing where Kenneth was going with this.
“Quick!” Kenneth exclaimed. “Let us leave the draft and a message for him so I can slip out to meet Lady Rose,” he said, already heading to the door and on toward the study.
“Kenneth, wait,” Leonard exclaimed. “Let me handle the draft and leave the message for the Duke. You sneak out and head for your meeting with Lady Rose,” his valet said.
He nodded his approval to Leonard’s plan and headed for the door.
“Hold on, Kenneth. Let me escort you down to the stables so it doesn’t look too suspicious to anyone,” Leonard said, jumping in front of Kenneth and opening the door.
There was a way to sneak out of the manor through the stables. Kenneth and Leonard had discovered every inch of the grounds during their younger days, including several ways out of the manor. The way that held the least chance of discovery still remained the path through the stables.
Kenneth had used it on numerous occasions when he had to sneak out undetected, while needing everyone to believe that he was still in his bedroom. Without asking, he also knew Leonard had used that path when going to deliver and retrieve Lady Rose’s letters.
As he walked through the door behind Leonard, his blood boiled with excitement. He pulled his pocket watch and glanced at the time. He needed about half an hour to get from his manor to that of the Somerholm’s. He reckoned he was going to make it on time.
Forty minutes later and he was traversing the back of the Someroholm manor, looking for the hole in the hedge that Lady Rose’s letter had told him would be there.
Like him, she had obviously traversed every square inch of her father’s land and knew all the secret passages. This continued to add to his increased fascination with her. A lady who could feign interest in ladylike proceedings but deep down was more adventurous, bold, and daring to involve herself in territories and activities otherwise reserved for gentlemen.
She truly is something.
He continued to follow the Lady’s description as he tried to discover the hole she’d referred to in her letter.
Suddenly, his ears picked up movement on the other side of the wall. With his pulse rising, he looked around him and quickly darted under a shrub, laying on the ground and ensuring to hide his body from sight.
This is madness.
If he was discovered, he had no excuse for snooping around the manor of his main political rival. If he was discovered, he was most likely going to be ruined.
If I am discovered…
Even so close to danger, he didn’t feel dread and remorse for his current course of action. Instead, he found himself wanting to go further, as a reunion with the lady was just moments away.
A Lord sneaking in shrubs?
He laughed at himself.
The movement he heard, however, began to increase in intensity, signaling that someone was, in fact, heading toward him.
Every fiber in his being went still as he slowed his breath in a bid to generate as little noise as possible.
The person was close and just when it sounded like they were going to walk past, the approaching sound stopped.
Blimey! I have been discovered.
“My Lord?”
The voice was feminine and had a tint of fear laced in it. He decided to remain silent in the hope that he was still incognito.
“Lord Walsrock?” The voice announced again, this time more confident.
Whoever she was had definitely seen him. There was no use hiding anymore.
Better to come out from under this shrub and face it squarely.
He glided out from under the shrub that he gone to for cover and got to his feet. A cursory glance of himself and he saw he’d gotten dirt on his clothes.
In spite of how he looked, Kenneth stood erect with as much grace as befitting a Lord. Looking at who had called him, he saw a lady standing in front of him.
As soon as his eyes made contact, she’d curtsied in reverence. Her garments suggested that she was most likely a maid.
But what is she doing so far away from the manor and her lady?
And just like that, his mind clicked.
Lady Rose’s lady’s maid.
“Good evening, My Lord,” she blurted out in reverence.
“Good evening,” he said simply, waiting for her to carry on with whatever she had to say.
“My Lady sent me to get you. She thought it best, seeing as she figured you were going to have difficulty locating the path she had written to you about.”
“Oh! So how did you know it was me and not someone else loitering around?” he asked out of curiosity, his body finally relaxing.
“I’ve been standing at the fence and listening for you, My Lord. When I heard your movements, I knew no one else was going to be out here except you. So I crawled through the hole and peeped to confirm.”
“Interesting,” he responded. “So where is Lady Rose?”
“In the garden, awaiting your arrival, My Lord. If you would please follow me?” she said, turning and heading further up the hedge.
After walking a few paces, she stopped in front of a section and went on her knees. Looking back to make sure he was following, she nodded and went right through, to Kenneth’s amazement.
There is no way I would have been able to find that on my own.
To the observer, the hedge appeared intact. However, when the maid went through, Kenneth noticed that there was a gap in the hedge that appeared once the leaves shifted. How Lady Rose and her lady’s maid had discovered that was beyond him.
Good thing she sent her maid to get me.
He went on his knees and followed behind, even though he got nicked in the face by some stems.
By the time he cleared the hedge, he was on the grounds of the manor and staring at the most beautiful garden he had ever seen.
He got on his feet and dusted his hands before falling in step with the lady’s maid, who had stood waiting for him to come through. Even though he felt slightly ridiculous at his gesture, he maintained a straight face to hide his embarrassment.
The garden itself had hedges and shrubs that cordoned it off from other parts of the manor grounds and kept it hidden from sight to anyone who was looking from the house.
He’d heard of legendary tea parties that had been hosted here and now h
e understood what the entire rave was about, even though he had never attended one.
The garden’s layout was set like a circular maze and as the lady’s maid led him through, he couldn’t help but smile.
This truly is a perfect place for a secret rendezvous.
Suddenly, the winding path gave way to a clearing in the middle and up ahead, Kenneth saw Lady Rose sitting on a bench, looking to the path that they’d just emerged from.
Under the rays of moonlight, she was a shimmering vision. She had a luminescent glow about her, giving her an ethereal look.
A Ravishing Lady For The Rebellious Marquess (Steamy Historical Regency Romance) Page 5
