Page 41 of The Best-Kept Secrets
“She can take care of herself.” His smile was so proud and besotted that no one seeing it would think for a minute that he was actually leaving her in a time of need.
Careful to keep very quiet, they slipped from the room and into the corridor. Only once they were sufficiently far from the sitting room did they dare speak.
“You don’t mind that Colm and I told the Pack about Penfield?”
Uncle Niles shook his head. “When my friends have visited over the years, we’ve spent a lot of time at Penfield. It ought to host a crowd again.”
They cut across the grass leading to the spot outside the sitting room windows where the Pack had been acting as a theater troupe. The men were still there.
“I thought for a moment that we would have to resort to semaphore to get our point across,” Fennel said. “And I am afraid to think who among us would have been forced to use his small clothes as a flag.”
In a quiet and stern tone, Uncle Niles said, “I’m told you have fallen prey to a rumor that there is a corner of this estate that houses a building of questionable purpose.”
The Pack exchanged nervous but intrigued looks. They didn’t know Uncle Niles well enough to recognize his humor.
“Is the rumor true?” Newton asked.
Uncle Niles’s mouth turned slowly into a troublemaker grin. With a lift of his eyebrows, he nodded.
Whoops of excitement met his admission. Whoops which, apparently, caught the attention of those inside. Aunt Penelope had turned fully to face the window, watching them with her head tipped to the side at an amusedly vexed angle. Grandmother didn’t appear to know what to think of the display, though she was unlikely to approve. Father was mortified and Mother confused.
“Flee for the hills, lads,” Uncle Niles said. “It’s our only hope.”
And with that encouragement, they bolted, laughing as they went. They slowed only once past the formal garden and on the path that began on the other side.
They continued in clumps, following Uncle Niles and Colm, who led the way.
Fennel walked alongside Duke. “I didn’t realize your uncle is so funny. I’ve seen him only a couple of times though. In London.”
“He’s quieter when he’s away from Fairfield. I’ve always liked visiting him here. I feel as though I get to know him better every time I do.”
“It must be nice for him that he feels so at home... at home.” Fennel had inherited his family estate while still at Eton, after the untimely death of his father. He didn’t talk about the late Mr. Kendrick often, but what he had shared was, in a word, horrifying. And it was obvious, to hear Fennel speak of his estate, that he still associated it too much with his father for it to be a comfortable place.
“Cambridge was a welcome escape from home for me,” Duke said. “You have that still.”
“Actually, I am considering not going back.”
That was news to Duke. “Why is that?”
“I’m not an academically minded person, and I don’t need further education to run my estate. Now that I’m the only one of the Pack still there, I haven’t any real reason to stay.”
“But that will mean living at Bryony Hall.” That, Duke knew, was not a peaceful prospect for the Pack member they all thought of as their little brother. “Can you endure it?”
“What choice do I have?” He shrugged a little. “I’m certain my sisters would let me visit them, but that would provide only a temporary reprieve.” His expression was contemplative but not defeated. That was a very good sign. Fennel might have been the youngest of them, but he had a wisdom and maturity that belied his age. “Do you ever feel as if your path has been chosen for you and you have no choice but to walk it, and yet you feel completely at loose ends?”
“I felt that way for a very long time,” Duke said.
That pulled Fennel’s gaze to him as they continued following the Pack. “Felt?Past tense? Then, you found a solution?”
“Whether or not it proves to be an actual solution has yet to be seen.” Duke was less sure of his plan than he had been a mere few hours earlier. “But there’s something to be said for trying to find an option, even when life seems to have left you with none.”
Fennel nodded and seemed very preoccupied throughout the rest of their walk to Penfield.
Their destination was just as Duke remembered it. A long building built of brick in the same color as Fairfield. The front of the building had no windows. A fence wrapped around it from either side, forming a full ring around the back garden. Anyone seeing it would assume it was a farm building, unexceptional and uninteresting. But it was anything but.
Uncle Niles unlocked the door and motioned them all inside. Duke and Colm had, of course, already seen the inside of Penfield, but Duke couldn’t help noticing the resemblance his friends bore to a group of schoolboys being led into a candy shop.
Duke and Colm helped Uncle Niles pull back the curtains on the windows at the back of the large space, then light the lanterns strategically set around the room. The back of the house was not accessible from the outside, the fence cutting it off from wanderers, meaning no one could see inside from there. They had done that on purpose.
