“Well, we can always get you to speak up beside me and fill in the gap. You know the story and you can very well corroborate it if needed.”
There was a brief pause in which he noticed Leonard’s hesitation.
The man is afraid. I can’t blame him, though. He’s done enough already.
The truth was he couldn’t have come this far without Leonard. All the research he’d gotten done for his bill, as well as the meeting, had been made possible because of his valet. It was unfair for him to ask any more.
“All right. I will lead with my story and leave out any witnesses. Hopefully, my performance will be enough to convince them,” he conceded and immediately noticed Leonard’s relief.
“As you wish, Kenneth.” Leonard remarked.
“Let’s get some rest. We have a huge day ahead of us tomorrow,” Kenneth said, dismissing their little meeting and heading off to bed.
He woke up in the middle of the night with a start.
He’d had a bad dream. To worsen matters, Rose had also made an appearance in his nightmare.
With his whole body drenched in sweat, he tried to get off the bed as he recalled details of the dream.
He’d been standing in front of the House of Lords. He’d turned then to find Rose staring at him, eyes white. He’d tried calling out to her but she couldn’t hear him.
Suddenly she was swallowed by a mass of advancing bodies that were chanting and demanding for his head on a spike. Next thing he realized, he was still conscious, even as his head was detached and hoisted up on a spike.
As his decapitated head was being lifted from the ground, the last thing he remembered was seeing Rose’s white eyes in the middle of the crowd, staring back at him.
The dream had no meaning and yet it had pulled him out of a deep sleep.
“It was just a dream.” Kenneth kept repeating it to himself and yet he could not shake the sense of foreboding that continued to sweep over him in waves.
He checked the time and realized it was just three hours past midnight. There was still a good amount of time ahead before daylight.
You have to go back to sleep.
Eventually, he won the battle over his emotions and regained control of his racing heart, before slowly drifting back to sleep.
When morning came, he had all but forgotten the dream as he got ready and went back to the study to prepare for his meeting at noon.
The dream only came back to mind when thoughts of Rose began creeping into his consciousness.
He immediately pulled out his writing materials and penned down a letter to her which Leonard was going to deliver this morning.
With that out of the way, his attention returned to his meeting and a draft of his bill which currently lay open on the table in front of him.
“Morning, Kenneth. Are you ready to go?” Leonard asked, after walking in on him a few hours later.
“I am,” he replied simply, as he began gathering his papers. “Oh, and after you take me to the location, I want you to turn round and have this delivered to Lady Rose,” he said, handing over the letter he’d written to Leonard.
“But that would mean I will not be present with you at the meeting,” Leonard protested.
“Don’t worry, Leonard. I will be fine by myself.” He winked at his valet.
Obviously, orchestrating events so Leonard could be on the errand of delivering his letter to Rose while he met with the leaders of the uprising had been a plan he’d formulated only this morning. He remembered the look he had seen on Leonard’s face and interpreted it as dread.
Keeping to his promise of not asking him for more, he had decided to keep him out of the meeting completely.
On their way to the meeting, they both remained silent. When they stepped down from the carriage in front of a dingy warehouse, Leonard announced that this was the place.
Kenneth had proceeded to discharge him, before taking a deep breath and knocking on the door.
The door was opened from within and swung open. Without question, he ventured in as the door shut behind him.
Now is not the time to show fear. Be brave. Be courageous.
He prepped himself for the thousandth time since he had left his study this morning, as his eyes tried to adjust to the dimly lit space in front of him.
There were quite a number of men seated and looking at him as his eyes finally adjusted, taking in the sights along with it.
He walked slowly to the center of the room as every pair of eyes followed, observing his every movement.
When he arrived at the center, someone in the crowd finally stood up and spoke.
“You requested this meeting. You now have our full attention. The floor is yours,” the person said before sitting back down.
Kenneth cleared his throat, then breathed deeply before he began to talk.
As planned, he started with his tales of childhood and how he thought himself better than them. Then he regaled them with tales of his youthful exuberance and how he felt the world was his simply because he had been born into privilege.
He continued to speak until he got to the part of his story that detailed his turning point. At this juncture, he made a quick assessment of everyone’s face in the room.
Apparently, I’ve got everyone’s full attention. This strategy is actually working.
By the time he began his tales of Marie, he could tell that the hard hearts all around the room had begun to melt like ice.
He continued on with his story, embellishing it as he went, making sure to alert his audience to the fact that providence had set him on this path of redemption and he was determined not to stray from it.
By the time he got to the part of the reading of the bill in the House of Lords, he pulled the draft he’d kept tucked away under his arm.
“And this, my friends, is the bill I am referring to, which has succeeded in ostracizing me from my peers. I will now read in part so that you all know that truly, there is someone up there fighting for your cause.”
He was getting certain looks at this point as a majority of the men in the room began studying and making assessments of the papers in his hand.
“Don’t worry. I will be quick about this, as I seek not to bore you, but enlighten you to the moves being made on your behalf,” Kenneth announced.
He proceeded to read the parts of the bill which he was certain would retain his audience’s attention, delivering a wonderful speech that even he himself was proud of.
“So I plead with you all. Yes, you have been wronged and your hurts are valid. Yes, you have been oppressed and your pains are valid. However, this is the first time you will have someone like me on your side, fighting for your cause. All I’m asking is that you put your plans and hopes on me instead. I promise to deliver your wishes without violence.” He rolled the draft and tucked it away.
There was a brief pause in which Kenneth half expected applause to break out till it reached a crescendo of standing ovation.
The fellow who had spoken before, stood up again. The room remained quiet.
Have I made a mess of my only opportunity to sway these men away from their already chosen path?
“We have heard your proposition. And dare I say that it sounds wonderful,” the fellow said. “However, it seems your speech is a pipe dream. You have even admitted that your reading didn’t go as planned in the House. Who is to say that you will prevail the second time around?” the fellow asked.
Without skipping a beat, Kenneth responded.
“Just have a little faith,” he said, smiling from ear to ear, trying to convey the look that he had an ace up his sleeve.
Well, what he had couldn’t necessarily be termed an ace. He had simply decided to review the bill, make a few changes, and then take it right back to the floor of the House.
He was more determined and dogged this time about getting his bill passed into law, knowing what was at stake.
* * *
A figure in a coat and bowler hat stood wa
tching to door of the warehouse.
He’d heard whispers of an uprising as well and had been carrying out his own investigations.
When his trusted informant had tipped him that the leaders of the uprising movement were going to be meeting today, he hadn’t known what to expect. A few burly and unruly figures here and there, but most certainly not a member of Britain’s high society.
Now he had seen the Marquess of Walsrock walk into an abandoned warehouse were several unsavory characters had been waiting. The tip he’d received had definitely come good.
His mind was in turmoil at the implications, though.
Is the Marquess of Walsrock involved in all the whispers of uprising I’ve heard thus far? What in God’s name could his motive be?
He kept on watching the door and soon enough, the Marquess of Walsrock emerged after what he could only conclude was a successful meeting.
After the Marquess left, the rest of the men in the warehouse began pouring out, one after the other.
There were faces that certainly meant trouble in the mix, but even they couldn’t get his mind off of the exact reason for Lord Walsrock’s presence.
After the warehouse had emptied out, he simply stood straight from the wall he was leaning on, adjusted his hat, and began walking away.
I need to get to the bottom of whatever is going on and fast.
Chapter Twenty
Rose sat in the gazebo of Lord Rockgonie’s manor as she had done at other times this past week.
This time, Elsa wasn’t the only servant with her.
Kenneth had sent his valet with a letter which she was currently reading and from all indications, it seemed like her lover wasn’t going to make it to the manor today.
She finished reading and handed the letter over to Elsa who was standing behind her, for safekeeping.
Her mind began wandering in a trance, only to return when she noticed that Kenneth’s valet hadn’t left and was still standing there watching her.
“Is there another message from Lord Walsrock besides the letter?” she asked.
“Oh, none, My Lady,” the valet responded.
“Well, shouldn’t you be heading back to your Lord to make sure that he is safe and sound? Or are you going to leave him out there in the midst of wolves?”
“There is nothing I’ll rather be doing now, My Lady. However, Lord Walsrock has prohibited me from showing my face at that meeting,” he responded. “I think he made that decision to protect my identity.”
“He must really care about you,” Rose said, after realizing the extent of Kenneth’s decision for his valet.
“And I care about him as well,” Leonard replied.
She looked him over once and decided to engage him in a conversation. After all, this was the man Kenneth had entrusted with their secret correspondence. He definitely was to Kenneth what Elsa was to her.
She’d seen him once when Kenneth had sneaked into her mother’s garden at midnight. He’d been accompanying his Lord. Yet he had vanished before she could even ascertain that he was there.
“What is your name?” Rose asked.
“Leonard, My Lady. Leonard Arnold,” he replied.
“And how long have you been working for Lord Walsrock?” she continued with her line of questioning.
“For ten years, My Lady. I was employed to be his valet when I turned eighteen.”
“That’s a really long time. It’s no wonder he trusts you the way he does.”
“I will say that is a factor, My Lady. But he probably trusts me the way he does because we grew up together. Or rather, I grew up on the manor alongside him.”
“Really?” she asked in surprise.
“Yes, My Lady. My mother used to be a maid in the Duke’s manor. I was literally born in the Duke’s stables,” he chuckled in response.
“And your mother? Does she still work for the Duke?”
There was a brief pause before Leonard answered her question.
“My mother is dead, My Lady,” he stuttered in reply.
“Oh, my!” she gasped.
For the second time in two days, she felt miserable for asking someone about a family member who had passed on.
She decided to stay quiet before she made any more damning statements. From what she could tell, though, Leonard was a good person.
He might have been unlucky to have been born poor, but that definitely didn’t determine how she viewed him. She could also see why Kenneth had grown to depend on him so much that her lover practically trusted the valet with his own life.
After what seemed like an eternity, she finally spoke again.
“You were the one who helped Lord Walsrock with the research for his bill, weren’t you?” Rose asked as it dawned on her how Kenneth might have gone about gathering as much data with as much success as he’d done.
“Guilty as charged,” he chuckled. “I can’t take credit for the bill, however. That is all Lord Walsrock’s. I just assisted him in the little way I could,” Leonard responded in humility.
“I see. Humility will take you places, after all,” she chuckled in response. “In any case, do you mind telling me what Lord Walsrock was like as a child?”
Hearty laughter escaped his lips even as he struggled to suppress it.
“Lord Walsrock as a child? One word, My Lady. Chaos!” he responded, still laughing. “The Marquess got up to so much mischief that it is a wonder he turned out into a fine young gentleman.”
“Really?” she chuckled.
“Yes, My Lady. The Duchess had her hands full trying to mold him into a respectable gentleman. It was always one mischief or the other.”
“I can’t, for the life of me, imagine the Marquess getting up to any mischief as a child,” she laughed.
“Where do you think his penchant for sneaking around manors originated from?” Leonard chided.
“Well, if we go by that analogy, I was also up to much mischief growing up,” she countered.
Leonard simply tossed his head to one side in sarcasm. She could also tell that he had exchanged glances with her lady’s maid who was standing behind her.
“What exactly are you both up to?” Rose snickered as her head swung back and forth, from Leonard to Elsa.
Her lady’s mid simply put her face down even though she could tell Elsa was smiling.
“I’ll have you know that I was the most well-behaved child in my age group,” she continued protesting.
“I do not doubt this one bit, My Lady. You are the epitome of decorum and good manners,” Leonard offered with a slight chuckle.
“Don’t patronize me, Leonard,” she fired back in humor.
“I will do no such thing, My Lady.”
“And who is this?” Lord Rockgonie said from outside the gazebo, in reference to Leonard. He had crept up on them without anyone noticing.
“My Lord,” Leonard said as he spun on his feet and bowed.
“This is Lord Walsrock’s valet,” Rose interjected.
“So what is he doing here even as his Lord is conspicuously absent? Shouldn’t he be beside Lord Walsrock?” Lord Rockgonie responded warily.
It took a few moments before Rose realized that Lord Rockgonie wasn’t railing on Kenneth’s valet because he felt Leonard was beneath him. He was railing because he didn’t know how much Leonard knew about their secrets and including another person into their secret circle was a huge danger to all of them.
“Lord Walsrock sent a letter to me to explain his unavoidable absence. Leonard is here to deliver that letter,” Rose explained. “And don’t worry, he is aware of everything going on between the Marquess and I. You have nothing to worry about as his loyalties lie with Lord Walsrock.”
Her last comment could have been water dousing a flame as she noticed Lord Rockgonie’s wariness fade into nothing.
“I’m just trying to be careful,” Lord Rockgonie said with a slight chuckle.
“I understand, My Lord. I definitely felt the same way yesterday before
the introduction,” she teased.
She didn’t know if Leonard was aware of Lady Anna yet. Even though he was trustworthy, she decided it wasn’t her place to mention Lord Rockgonie’s lover, hence her subtle comment. Lord Rockgonie, on the other hand, understood perfectly what she was referring to and simply smiled.
A Ravishing Lady For The Rebellious Marquess (Steamy Historical Regency Romance) Page 16
