Page 36 of The Penitent Duke
The boy beamed at him and Lucian relaxed a little more.
“I am to tell you to be careful.” The smile quickly began to disappear, a frown replacing it. “She said there is more to him than you think, more than you have ever seen.”
“Shesaid?” Lucian frowned now, not understanding what it was that the boy meant. “Who sent you with this message?”
The boy’s shoulders lifted. “I don’t know. A lady. A kind lady. Said that she knew of me and what was happening and that I was to warn you about him.”
“And who ishim?” Lucian asked, coming a little closer to the boy now. “I do not understand.”
After a moment, the boy stuck his hands in his pockets. “I can’t say I rightly know, Your Grace. That’s all I was told and all I can say. Just to be careful around him, that there’s more to him than you’ve seen.” With this, he stuck out his hand. “She said you’d give me a coin.”
Blinking, Lucian stared down at the small boy, seeing the grin spreading right across his face again and wondering whether he spoke the truth or not. “This lady,” he said, taking out a coin from his pocket but then bending down now so that he was face to face with the child. “What did she look like?” He held the coin out but not so that the boy could grasp it, wanting to hear the answer to his question before he received it.
The boy scowled. “I wasn’t meant to say.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wasn’t to answer any questions,” he said, though his eyes were on the coin now, hungry for it. “She wants you to be careful, that’s all.”
“Did she have dark hair? Fair hair?” Lucian pressed, still holding the coin out of reach. “Please, I must know something.”
The boy looked back at him then, shook his head. “I can’t answer any questions, Your Grace, otherwise I won’t get paid from her either.”
Lucian let out a sigh and made to pull the coin back, only to see the boy snatch in a breath, his eyes rounding and, much to Lucian’s surprise, filling with tears. His heart squeezed painfully, his conscience burning and, closing his eyes briefly, Lucian held out the coin and the boy quickly took it.
“And another,” Lucian murmured, taking out another coin to offer it to him. “You won’t go hungry tonight, I am sure.”
The boy blinked furiously, then shook his head. “It’s for my Mama,” he said, a little quietly. “The lady said she’d get the physician to my Mama once I came back. I have to go now.”
“Wait, I…”
It was too late. The boy was gone and all Lucian could do was follow after him with his gaze. Standing up straight, he shivered as another gust of wind wrapped around him, though he barely noticed it. Instead, his brow furrowed, his thoughts whirling this way and that as he considered what the boy had just said.
None of it made sense. Who was this mysterious lady who had spoken a warning to him through a street urchin? Why was she hiding herself away? And who, precisely, was the gentleman she was warning him away from?
Chapter Sixteen
“I think it was the Duke.”
Rosalind shook her head. “It cannot have been. There was no reason for him to do such a thing.”
Lady Eleanor lifted her chin. “I think there is. I think that he has decided he no longer wishes to marry you and now must find a way to end the betrothal.”
A frown pulled at Rosalind’s forehead. “By knocking me into the pond?”
“By making it clear that your connection to him bodes ill!” Lady Eleanor exclaimed. “I think he is hopeful that you will choose to step away from him.”
Rosalind shook her head, her frown lifting. “My dear friend, the Duke of Strathmore is known for his odious and inconsiderate nature. I am quite sure that he would have no difficulty in telling me should he wish to end the betrothal. Indeed, he would not care about whether or not it had any impact upon me, would not even think about my standing in society thereafter. To do something so secretive but so intentional is not something I think that he would concern himself with.”
“You think he would be direct.” Lady Eleanor bit her lip and then looked away as they sat together on a bench in Hyde Park, well away from any body of water. “I can understand that thinking, I suppose.”
Rosalind smiled briefly but then looked away. The Duke of Strathmore was to be joining them at any moment, for he had not only written on multiple occasions over these last three days to make certain she was all right but also to ask if they might spend a little time together, something that had surprised Rosalind greatly. She had recovered very quickly from the fall into the pond but the Duke had clearly been concerned for her. That had been surprising certainly but Rosalind had been grateful for his concern, wondering if it was truly genuine.
I suppose I shall soon see.
“All the same, I am concerned for you,” Lady Eleanor continued, quietly. “Ever since your betrothal, you have endured not only a blow to the head but also a fall into a pond! If it had been deeper or colder or if Lord Westlake had not rushed in after you, who would have known what might have happened?”
Considering this, Rosalind reached to take her friend’s hand. “I would not have drowned, I am sure. I can swim, you know.”
