Page 42 of Kiss Me Lady One More Time
“Do you?” Penelope asked.
“Perhaps.” She pursed her lips. “Sheffield. He has a fit of jealousy any time someone finds something new or noteworthy—someone other than himself. Rowland. He’s a possibility. You know he loves to possess any artifact that has legend or scandal attached to it. Not just fossils, but he’s become more interested in the field as it grows among men of learning.” She paused and her brow raised. “That would explain . . .”
“What?”
“Rowland is hosting a party. Very lavish. Very private. Only a select few invited—and they are supposed to keep it quiet. It’s to be a masquerade—and the rumor is that there is to be some sort of reveal beyond the unmasking.”
Penelope exchanged looks with Sterne. “Can you get us in? Take us along as guests?”
Lady Tresham shook her head. “I will be long gone. It’s not to be held for another three or four days, I believe? I’m afraid I didn’t pay attention, since I would not be here.” She drew a deep breath. “Thankfully, Mr. Millbank is not interested in geology or fossils—and I am not sorry to leave the hobby behind. In any case, the party is by invitation only and the invitations must be presented to be admitted.” She looked them both over with a canny eye. “I will be happy to give you mine—if you will promise to keep quiet about—everything I’ve told you.”
“We would have kept your secrets, in any case,” Penelope told her. “But we’ll be very happy to have those invitations.”
“I’ll have them fetched down.” Lady Tresham went to the door and beckoned a servant. “And then you had better get the girl home, Sterne. I won’t be here to tell tales, but taking the girl for a drive in the park is one thing. Being seen out alone as it grows later is another thing altogether.”
“You are correct.” Sterne approached the lady and bent over her hand. “We’ll be out of your hair all the quicker if you could spare a servant to fetch my gig from the livery?”
“Done.” She beckoned again and instructions were given. The invitations were brought down and turned over and they made ready to leave.
“Thank you for your help,” Sterne told the other woman. “I wish you all felicitations on yourquicklyapproaching marriage.” His mouth quirked.
“I thank you.” Her eyes were smiling, if her mouth was not. “I bid you both goodbye and ask that you pass along my farewells to Lady Tensford. I shan’t be back to see you all for quite some time.” Now, she could not prevent a curve of her lips. “Do try to behave while I am gone.”
They stepped out into the court and Penelope saw that evening was fast approaching.
“Let’s walk out to the street and meet the gig coming,” Sterne suggested. “It will get you home that much quicker.”
She took his arm and set out and when they approached the lane that led out to the street, she caught a flash of movement in a doorway ahead. Frowning, she tugged at him. “There. Ahead. Do you see that girl? Just leaving that building?”
He peered into the growing gloom. “All I caught was the flash of a skirt.”
But Penelope knew what she had seen. “I think I’ve seen that girl several times today. Do you think she’s following us?”
He shook his head. “It’s highly unlikely, isn’t it? London is huge. It’s not the same as a village in Gloucestershire, where you might see the same people several times a day. Surely it must be different, but similar, girls you are seeing.”
Several girls with hard eyes, a pointy chin and thin blonde hair? She thought not. But she held her tongue. The gig was approaching as they came out onto the Strand and she let him hand her up. He was quiet as they set out for Tensford’s home and, her mind awhirl, Penelope took refuge in the silence. And when she could not fight the urge to touch her lips in silent recollection, she turned away so that he would not notice.
* * *
“I know it was her—thegirl we saw on the street yesterday morning.” Penelope and Hope sat in the countess’s rooms once more, taking a late breakfast. She’d shared everything that had happened with Lady Tresham yesterday—and told her about repeatedly spotting the young blonde. “Sterne thought it was unlikely to be the same girl, but I tell you, I could not mistake that hard look on her face.”
“I did notice it as well. I thought at the time that it must be directed at your cousin.”
“As did I. Is he involved with her, do you think? I rather thought she had the look of a servant.” She sighed. “I’m sad to say, though, that I wouldn’t put it past him, messing about with such a girl.”
“Nor would I. Perhaps she was following you, hoping you would lead her to him?”
“It could be. She’d be doomed to disappointment, though. I don’t know where he stays in London. I thought a good deal about it last night, though—”
“I am sorry I wasn’t awake when you returned. I curled up after tea and never woke until this morning.” Hope sounded disgruntled. “I hope such exhaustion is not going to continue.”
“If it does, then you will rest,” Penelope said firmly.
“Yes, of course. But I hope it doesn’t. In any case, I feel fine, now.” She tilted her head. “And did I hear that you had a letter from home?”
“Yes.” She sighed. “Father says they he’s found a tenant’s wife to prepare the barn office for Lammas Day. You know he always likes to have small loaves and good cider to offer the tenants as they bring their tithes in.”
“Penelope, dear, he is not replacing you,” Hope said gently. “Not in his heart.”
