Page 28 of A Masked Lady for Mr. Kenworthy
To his relief, Lady Faye appeared to relax once more, and she gave him a sheepish smile.
“I am very new to all this,” she said, “and the marquess does make me rather nervous.”
Thomas nodded again.
“It is good that you are wary and cautious,” he said, “but all will be well. Trust me.”
As he studied the young woman, he noticed there were dark circles under her eyes, and the rims of her eyelids were tinged a faint red. Most people likely would not have noticed such a thing, but he had seen those beautiful eyes without such tainting. He deduced that she had been sleeping poorly and, from the looks of it, it was because she had spent more time crying than resting. His heart squeezed, and he looked away to compose himself.
The room was quiet for a moment, and Thomas could feel the countess watching both him and Lady Faye. He looked up at her, wondering how best to proceed with what he hoped to accomplish by meeting with the countess. But to his surprise, Lady Salisdene was rising to her feet.
“Oh, dear,” she said, smiling sheepishly at the other two people in the room. “I almost forgot to see to some refreshments. I shall go and do that this minute. Please, excuse me.”
With another apologetic smile, she turned and left the room. Thomas watched until she was well out of sight. Then, seeing an opportunity, he turned to Lady Faye and gave her a concerned look.
“My lady,” he said softly, “you look most unhappy. What is troubling you?”
The young woman looked up at him, and Thomas could see her considering whether to tell him or not. After a moment, she sighed and looked down at her hands.
“I made a terrible mistake in trusting Mayson,” she said softly.
Thomas’s eyes widened, and his heart leapt up into his throat.
“What’s happened?” he asked. “Has he done something to harm you or your mother?”
Lady Faye looked up at him with wide eyes shining with emotion. She shook her head, but her lip trembled.
“No, not directly,” she said. “But he did not keep his word about calling for a physician for Mother after I went to the masquerade ball. He said it is because I failed to retrieve that confounded black book he wants so badly.”
Thomas wanted to feel relieved that Lady Faye and her mother had not been harmed, but he could not. He kept his expression neutral to encourage the young woman to keep talking to him, but inside him, all was chaos. He could not understand how a man could be so cruel, especially to his own family. Even many of the criminals he had dealt with in his career had had soft spots for their relatives. And watching Lady Faye suffering so was causing him to feel a kind of defensiveness he had never before experienced. He tried to think of something reassuring to say, but he found his mind had switched into interrogation mode.
“Has her condition shows no signs of improving?” he asked, instantly regretting the question.
Lady Faye shook her head sadly, and she uttered a soft hiccup, no doubt a barely stifled sob. His heart trembled along with her lips, and he found himself struggling against tears. Seeing the young woman so distraught over her mother hurt him, but it also reminded him of his own sadness over his late wife. It seemed so unfair to him that such a beautiful young lady should be in so much pain.
“Not at all, Mr. Kenworthy,” she whispered. “In fact, she is worsening by the day. I have tried to deny the possibility for so long, but I cannot any longer. I fear the absolute worst.”
The words broke the young woman, and she buried her face in her hands. Thomas leapt up from his seat and moved over to where the countess had been sitting. He sat down beside Lady Faye and reached for her hand. She looked up in surprise, but she made no effort to pull away from him. He looked deeply into her eyes, doing his best to fill his expression with as much compassion and reassurance as he possibly could.
“Do you know where your cousin will be for the rest of today?” he asked kindly.
Lady Faye thought for a moment, the flow of her tears slowing. He had wanted to distract her from her sadness because seeing her crying was breaking his heart. But there was also another reason why he was asking.
“I cannot say for sure,” she said, shaking her head. “Though, I do know that he goes to his gentleman’s club most days, late in the afternoon. Why do you ask?”
Thomas grew excited as the seedling of the plan he was devising began to sprout.
“And when does he return home?” he asked.
Faye looked at him, her eyes widening.
“Well, usually never until the early hours of the morning,” she said. “Why?”
The idea began to take shape in his mind, but he thought carefully for a moment before answering the young woman. What he was thinking would be risky, to be sure, and it would likely need him to enlist the help of one of the two people he trusted most. But, as he looked at Lady Faye’s distraught, troubled face, he knew he could not sit by and do nothing while she suffered so. She had, after all, been through a lot at his hands. And now she was helping him and Rupert catch a criminal when she had no business being involved in such things. Her mother was just as innocent in all this as Lady Faye, and Thomas knew he would never forgive himself if he allowed something terrible to happen to her, especially if there was anything he could do to prevent it.
He squeezed her hand and allowed the excited smile brewing within him to surface on his face.
“I shall see to it that a physician is sent to your mother,” he said. “I give you my word on it.”
