Page 86 of Enslaved to the Seduction of a Lady
Chapter Thirty-One
Thomas’ coach rattled up the driveway to Salsbury Manor. The sky was covered in gray clouds, and Thomas had heard the first patter of rain upon the carriage roof. He looked out of the window forlornly. It was mid-summer, and yet the weather was more like autumn. It made him feel dispirited and morose.
A bad omen, if ever there was one.
He had always wanted a brother or sister, and now he had one of each! He would do whatever he could to help. He had weighed up the best approach, but in the end, he decided that the Duke of Salsbury was a reasonable and intelligent man who would understand Thomas’ predicament.
I will tell him that Luke and Jenny are my siblings.
Still, he climbed out of the carriage with an odd sense of foreboding. There seemed be an air of unease at the manor house, and there was not a single servant in sight. Thomas watched for a moment, but then he mounted the front steps and knocked loudly on the door.
The door was answered by a rather flustered butler.
“Good afternoon, My Lord,” Jeffries said, puffing for his breath as though he had been running.
“Good afternoon,” Thomas said. He stood with his hands behind his back and what he thought would be a calming smile upon his face. “I was wondering whether His Grace is available to talk. I would have sent word of my arrival, only—”
“My Lord, please come in,” Jeffries said, ushering Thomas in with his hand. “I shall inquire after His Grace straight away. Please excuse me.”
Thomas was left waiting in the grand entrance hall, where he rocked on his feet and resisted the urge to whistle to himself. He sniffed and fidgeted with the sleeve of his tailcoat, and then he looked about him again. He felt oddly conspicuous, as though he stood out in such a grand arena, but he shook his head of that thought.
Jeffries seemed to have been gone an age, and Thomas was about to ask after him when he heard voices just behind the staircase. It was a man—a footman, Thomas presumed—and a maid whose back he could just make out through a gap in the door.
“Been chaos since ‘e kicked ‘em out,” the maid said. “Don’t know whether I’m comin’ or goin’. Jenny had no end of duties to cover. Don’t know how she managed it all in a day.”
Jenny?
“Aye,” the man said, sighing heavily. “The stables aren’t much better. Without Luke at the helm, no one seems to know what they’re doing, and the horses are acting up too.”
“They probably sense somethin’s wrong,” the maid said.
Where on earth have they gone?
“I just can’t believe it,” the man said. “Never would ‘ave thought it of that pair. Always seemed so dedicated.”
“Never can tell though, can ya? Even the sweetest of faces can be thieves beneath. And you’ve ‘eard about their past, ‘aven’t you?”
“Aye,” the man said, “born thieves, so I ‘ear. Beggars even before ‘e was in long trousers.”
“And to take the Duke’s letter opener, too! The fool even left the cabinet open, or so I hear,” the maid said. “As if no one was goin’ to notice.”
Thomas took a step back, gasping for breath.
Could it be true?
He looked around the room, blinking away his surprise. To hear Luke spoken of in such a way, it was shocking, and Thomas didn’t quite know what to believe. The house did seem in chaos—even the butler was flustered—which would imply thatsomething bighad happened. And if Thomas had learned anything from his own servants, it was that they tended to know the truth long before anyone else.
Luke is a thief and a scoundrel!
Thomas went to turn away, to storm out of the house in a fury. His embarrassment at being fooled by someone such as Luke fired through him, boiling his blood. His nostrils flared in anger. But he felt light-headed, his chest tightening, and he staggered over to lean heavily on the wall.
How could I have been so stupid?
To think they could have overcome their differences in status, in wealth—siblings or not—was such a laughable thought. Luke betraying the Duke in such a blatant way was a betrayal of Thomas’ trust and faith, also.
No. He is far too influenced by his position to ever be trusted.
Thomas stood up straighter, determined now to never again set foot in this house, to never again see Luke or Jenny or let his emotions get the better of him.
