Page 27 of Courting Scandal With The Duke
Her aunt was sitting up in bed, her cap askew and her hands over her face while she continued what Barbara could only describe as howling. Her maid stood next to her, wringing her hands and looking helpless.
Barbara went to the bed, put her arms around Aunt Lenore’s shoulders and patted her back. ‘Shh. It’s all right. I am here now. Shh.’
It took a few minutes to get the poor dear calmed down enough to speak.
‘There was a man.’
Barbara stared at her. ‘A man?’
Her aunt pointed a trembling finger towards her chest of drawers, which Barbara realised were all open with items scattered all around.
And the bedroom window was wide open.
‘A man. In here. He was digging around in my clothes.’
‘A burglar?’
‘I th-th-think so.’
‘Good heavens.’ Barbara went to the window and closed it. She looked at the maid. ‘Rakes, did he steal anything?’
The maid hurried to the dressing table. She moved things around. ‘There was some jewellery left here last night…a ring and a necklace. They are gone.’
‘Oh, no,’ her aunt cried. ‘They belonged to my mother. Why was I too tired to put them away?’
Barbara’s heart ached for her aunt. She had treasured those pieces.
‘Perhaps we can find them. We can hire someone to go around the pawn shops and look for them.’ It would probably cost more than the jewellery was worth, but it would be worth it to make her aunt feel better.
Aunt Lenore sniffled. ‘If we had not switched rooms, it would have been your jewellery that would have gone missing.’
Barbara stared at her. That would certainly have been a disaster.
She set about calming her aunt and setting the servants to tidying the room. She also asked the butler to make sure the windows weresecure. All of them.
It was almost well past noon by the time she had the household settled down and back to its normal smooth running. And an afternoon of needlework in the drawing room, accompanied by fortifying cups of tea, had settled Aunt Lenore’s feathers, especially after Barbara suggested her aunt’s maid sleep in the adjoining dressing room for the time being.
As Barbara dressed for her evening, she could not help but feel a little amused by the day’s events. London was certainly providing her with a surprising amount of excitement, everything from riding a racehorse to a burglary. Hopefully tonight would be equally entertaining. If things went as she had planned, they should be.
When Aunt Lenore came bustling into Barbara’s bedchamber, she seemed completely revived. ‘Is this the gown you are wearing this evening?’
Watching from where she was seated at the mirror, Barbara could only see her aunt’s back, not her expression. ‘Yes. Is there a problem?’
Her aunt lifted the gold tissue gown from the bed and held it up. ‘My dear, it is beautiful. Sumptuous, but surely a little too magnificent for a minor ball? More of the sort of thing one might wear at Carleton House.’
She turned to face Barbara’s back with a frown. ‘It does seem a little…’ She lifted the fabric and let it fall.
‘A little…?’ Barbara required.
‘Gauzy? Transparent?’
‘It is an overdress,’ Barbara said. ‘All the rage in Paris.’
‘Do not think of damping your petticoats,’ Aunt Lenore said with a wag of her finger.
‘Certainly not.’ A good thing Aunt was not asking about her footwear.
Aunt Lenore parked herself on a small seat beside the dressing table while the maid continued to pin Barbara’s hair in the style she preferred.
