Page 25 of The Remarkable Myth of a Nameless Lady
“I meant nothing by that title,” she exclaimed, frustrated now and feeling more than a little bit of panic.
“On the contrary, I think you did. Rest easy, for I will not winnow out your secrets in such a place as this. At any rate, I would want a clear head for this particular task.” He gestured at the road that lay ahead of them. The last dregs of light showed not only the manor in the distance, but one of his men approaching on horseback.
“If ‘tis all the same to you, I would remain here until you leave,” she said quietly, balking at the idea of going any further.
He gave her a troubled look. “I am not so inebriated as to leave a Lady stranded at the side of the road while I ride back to the house in comfort.”
“That creature can hardly carry three, and I will not have a pair of fine gentlemen walk on my behalf,” she said quickly, as she faded back into the trees. “And need I remind you, I am only a servant in your home.”
There was no time for further conversation. The rider was nearly upon him. Alicia held her breath as the Duke strode forward to greet the man, barely a trace of drunkenness in his step. Perhaps he had never been as befuddled by drink as he had first seemed.
If that were the case, it left her very uneasy, indeed.
Chapter 17
If Alicia lingered on the walk back, could she be blamed? The night was balmy and sweet, the message to her father had been delivered, even if not quite in the way she had expected it would be. Though in retrospect, was it not better to be free of her father’s wrath on this perfect night?
Her step was light as she came into the courtyard. She did not question her mood overmuch. Maybe it had to do with the brightness of the moon rising over the trees, or the fact that she could still feel the warmth of his hand in hers. These matters were not worth questioning, not here and now while the magic was still strong upon her.
The cobblestones beneath her feet told her she was back, though she had been walking with her head down, not thinking overly much about where she was going. So it was she had no idea that someone else was there until she heard his voice near her ear.
“The high and mighty Alicia come home at last. Tell me, Miss Price, where have you been so late? Obviously not doing yer father’s bidding, else you would be inside tending to the Duke’s high and mighty guests.”
Alicia gave a startled cry and whirled, seeing only the white of his shirt, the darkness of the eyes of the stranger until her brain caught up with the rest of her and defined the intruder as Elias Moore. Alicia had grown up with this fellow. He’d always been something of a bully, and so she’d been half afraid of him. Now, that half fear had turned to the full sort.
Why is he here?She hadn’t remembered hearing at any of the meetings of sending anyone else to Ravencliff. She had thought she was the only one to spy upon the Duke and his household. Was she wrong?
“What do you know of it?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper. She cast an uneasy look at the house. “Has my father sent you?”
He only laughed in reply. “I work here the same as you, miss. What sends you to the fine manor house when you could be home warming the bed of my brother—”
Alicia reeled back as if slapped. “I turned your brother down, Elias, and dinna you forget it. I would as soon wed a sow as Moore. And Ian certainly was not so brokenhearted by my refusal that it stayed him from marrying Erin Scott the very next week. I daresay he is a man content enough.”
Elias’ face darkened, even as he stepped further into the light, coming too close, so that she could smell the garlic upon his breath. He constantly chewed it, for his health he claimed, though she knew it to be superstition, a piece of advice from the witch woman when they were children. She recoiled from him now. “I need to be away,” she said, pushing past him, and aiming for the house.
“You will go when I bid you to,” he said and reached for her, but she dodged out of the way.
“I will go where and how I choose. I am not one to be told anything by the likes of you. If you came here to work, then be about it. The good Lord knows your Da can use the extra coin, since his accident that left his back so crippled. If you came here for something else, then I have no wish to know it.” She glanced toward the house. The kitchen door stood open, safety and haven both.
“Aye, be off with you. But rest assured, you are not the only true Irish within the walls of that house. You might be wary just who you trust. There are those as would turn on you as like as not.” He turned, giving her a half wave over his shoulder that might have been a rude gesture though it was hard to tell in the dark.
Alicia drew herself up stiffly. “If you have something to say then say it!” she called after him.
He paused, halfway to the stables. “I have spoken my piece. Consider it a warning, given in return for a favor to be determined later.” She saw a bright flash of teeth in the moonlight, a grin that came and went like quicksilver before he disappeared from view.
Alicia shuddered and made for the door, pausing a moment in the kitchen garden. From the sounds inside, the clean-up had already begun. By now she would be missed. Oh, couldnothinggo right?
Taking a deep breath, she threw herself into the fray only to find that the kitchen was in a disaster, where one of the maids had been scorched by the fire and was crying profusely. Thinking rapidly, Alicia grabbed an onion from the rope of them strung near the door. “Here,” she said, grabbing a knife and cutting it quickly in twain. “Rub this upon it.”
“Bless you, child,” Mistress Marigold said, taking the bulb from her and applying it to the wound. “I had been despairing, for the box with the unguent we keep for burns was missing, and I could not think what to do.”
Alicia only ducked her head, excusing herself to her duties. She almost made it to the door before Mistress Marigold called her name.
For a moment Alicia couldn’t breathe. “Yes, Mistress?”
“This is the end of it,” the older woman said to her seriously, nodding toward the kitchen door. “I will not warn you again.”
“Yes, Mistress.” Alicia bobbed a quick curtsey and fled.
