Page 71 of In the Prince's Bed
By the time Thomas entered the parlor, her stomach was a bundle of knots. “Well?” she asked him. “Who employed the lad?”
“Stephens Hotel, miss.”
That wasn’t an answer she’d expected. She frowned. “I’ve never heard of it.”
“It’s in Mayfair, not a top hotel, but fashionable enough with men from the military. I’m told that a great many cavalry officers and the like dine there.”
Relief swamped her. Of course. She’d been silly to worry. Where else would a man like Alec go to have a bite to eat?
But then, why hide it if his reason were so innocuous?
She swallowed. “And did you ask about Lord Iversley?”
Thomas looked stonily ahead. “Yes, miss. Spoke to the owner himself. He said he never met his lordship and knew nothing of him.”
Her heart raced. “But you didn’t believe him.”
Thomas’s expression grew pained. “The question made the man a mite nervous. All the other servants were close-mouthed, too. They seemed—”
“To be hiding something?” she whispered through a throat raw with hurt.
“Perhaps.” He forced a smile. “Or perhaps they were just too busy to talk to me. There’s lots of gentlemen going in and out of that hotel—I daresay they’d have a time of it remembering them all.”
That still didn’t explain why Alec had asked the boy to keep it secret. “And ladies? Were there ladies coming in and out, too?”
Thomas’s eyes went wide. “Oh, no, miss, it wasn’tthatsort of hotel. I mean, yes, there were ladies—there’s ladies in every hotel—but—”
“So he could have been meeting a woman there. Which is why the owner wouldn’t discuss it.”
Thomas’s face went carefully blank. “I wouldn’t know, miss.”
She gritted her teeth. That had always been Thomas’s standard answer for questions about Papa, too. Why did men invariably stick together when it came to infidelity? They hid each other’s indiscretions with a loyalty that would be admirable if it weren’t also disgusting.
Thomas took one look at her face, and added hastily, “I expect his lordship went there for supper just the one time, and they didn’t remember him.”
She bit back a hot retort. Thomas was right—she had nothing to base her suspicions on but some footboy’s words. He could have misunderstood Alec’s instructions. Or Alec might not have wanted her to know he’d been carousing with his friends. She mustn’t jump to conclusions until she spoke to him.
Could Alec really have left here after proposing marriage and gone directly to spend the night with a doxy in a hotel?
She didn’t want to believe it. Oh, men could lie through their teeth when it suited them, but surely he couldn’t have stared her in the face and promised fidelity, then turned right around and betrayed her. Could he?
“Thank you, Thomas. I do appreciate your help in this. And if you would be so good as not to tell Mama, I would be most grateful.”
“Certainly, miss.”
All the servants had learned long ago that Katherine ran the house, not her mother. So if they wanted to be paid, they did as Katherine said. Unfortunately, while she could keep the footboy incident secret from Mama, she couldn’t keep the contents of Alec’s note from her. Best to get that over with.
She found her mother in her bedchamber, where she sat atop the bed surrounded by her many fans. Mama explained that she was sorting them according to use—one pile for “paying calls,” one for “important social occasions,” and one for “parties to be given by my daughter when she’s a countess.” The fan Alec had given her was on the top of the last pile. Would it be demoted when Mama heard he wasn’t coming for dinner?
Unsurprisingly, Mama took the news badly. “What do you mean, he’s gone to Suffolk on estate business?” Mama fluttered a lower-ranked fan in extreme agitation. “That’s just silly. Nobody runs off to their estate in the middle of the season unless they’re having a house party.”
“I gather it was an emergency. But he promised to return for tomorrow night.”
Mama scowled at her. “He’s not at his estate, I tell you. He’s gone off to Lady Holland’s—that’s what it is.”
Katherine blinked. “I doubt that seriously, Mama.”
“I tell you—that’s where he’s off to tonight. And it’s all your fault, too. You just had to tell him we weren’t invited, didn’t you?” She shook her head. “You never listen to me, but I do know some things. One of them is that you don’t let an earl think you’re not welcome somewhere. Either you want to marry the man or you don’t. If you do, you’re certainly going about it the wrong way.”
