Page 27 of The Remarkable Myth of a Nameless Lady
“Tomorrow…I want to know what Owen does,” he said softly and turned away before he said something foolish, something that exposed his heart for the weak thing that it was, beating so erratically in her presence.
He had not moved fast enough, for he saw the flash of pain in her eyes, and could not miss the hard note that crept into her voice as she answered, “As you wish, Your Grace.” And left the room.
Chapter 19
He had given her an impossible task. Lord Owen was a man of the outdoors. In the few days she had worked in the house, she had seen him seldom, at meals and tonight after dinner when he had been with the rest in the drawing room.
Now Alicia was left unsure how to proceed as the night drew on and she lay in the large bed she shared with Meghan, who seemed to have no such problems sleeping and lay snoring lightly beside her.
Tomorrow I will have my rooms to do up early, so I will be able to see who he talks to easy enough within the manor itself. Outside though…
She blanched and pulled at the blanket until she hid herself deep within the covers despite the room begin warm. Outside she would need help.Elias.
* * *
As luck would have it, Elias was the last man through the door for breakfast the next morning.
Alicia had arrived early, her excuses ready upon her lips, and was even met with an approving nod by Miss Marigold when she explained her desire to get started immediately after eating. The problem was, Elias was so long delayed that she had run out of excuses to linger and Miss Marigold was starting to give her suspicious looks from across the room.
“Why are you so late?” she asked him as she rose to get herself her fourth cup of water from the pump near the door.
He shot her a look and shrugged in that maddening way of his. It was as though he knew precisely that she had needed to talk to him today and stayed away deliberately just to give her further trouble.
“Let me get you some porridge. I am nearer to the pot than you and less likely to spill,” she said, taking a bowl and serving him, not waiting for his answer. He gave her a sharp look but said nothing as she set it before him. It took some skill to fumble the bowl so that it spilled, requiring her to get a cloth and to bend past him to clean the mess she had created, but she managed it somehow.
“I need you to tell me what Lord Owen does today,” she said quietly as she wiped at the mess.
“Old Owen?” He snickered, taking the bowl from her and adding salt and butter, without apparent interest.
“A favor. For me,” she insisted, and nudged him with her shoulder as she slipped past, to put away the rag, and make her escape now that her mission was complete.
Her time spent fooling about with Elias almost caused her to miss Owen entirely. He was already finishing his breakfast in the dining room as she slipped past on her way to tidy the parlor that the Duchess typically used. She chafed at this, wondering at his schedule. Would he go immediately outside from there, or would he find some other escape into the environs of the vast house?
She fretted through her dusting, knowing it was near the time to be making the beds upstairs. Already the guests were coming down in a noisy bunch, seeming to still be enjoying their long visit. In a few days would be the ball, so she could only imagine how much more chaotic things would grow in the time to come. If she were to discover anything about Lord Owen she would have to do so before then.
Determined, she finished the parlor and went upstairs to the first bedroom, throwing back the coverlet to air the bed while she moved about the room swiftly, keeping the door open that she might see if he went past. She had deliberately started in this room which was near to his own.
As it turned out, Alicia heard him rather than saw him. There came first a rather feminine laugh, followed by his deep rumbling reply, something she could not quite make out. Alicia grabbed a cloth and busied herself with wiping down the chair near the door, dusting it so many times the wood fair glowed from the attention as she waited an eternity for him to walk by.
They came together, the man and the woman, pausing again with that laugh between. Unable to endure the suspense she risked a glance, only to reel back a moment later, her face scarlet.
Lord Owen, the brother of the Duke, was standing only a few feet shy of his own chamber door, kissing one very flushed and giggling girl that from the back looked a great deal like Meghan.
“You would see me later, My Lord?”
Correction—who was very decidedly Meghan.
Whatever answer he gave was lost in the silence of their embrace. Alicia leaned against the wall, unable to bring herself to move, praying that they would go their separate ways, none the wiser for her having spied upon them.
A door opened and closed. Where Meghan had gone was clearly none of her business. Alicia’s imagination could bear no more of this. She would have to inform the Duke that she would not do as he bid. She had owed him, yes, for the list of guests to the ball, but had she not paid him back already? Her father had not found him alone and…compromised. That had to count for something.
“You can come out now, Alicia.” It was Meghan’s voice, bright and mocking from the doorway. Alicia opened her eyes, seeing the girl she had started to count as friend standing there, against the doorjamb, arms crossed. The very picture of one who was absolutely content, and not one who had been doing something so utterly…bold.
“Meghan, I did not mean to…I mean you were…I had no idea…” The words tumbled over themselves as Alicia tried to put together this new and interesting fact that was quite outside anything that the Duke wished to know about his brother, or that she wished to know about the only person who had chosen to befriend her in this place.
Meghan came into the room, less brash and tawdry now that the moment passed, looking for all the world more like a girl in love than one who had…
“Please, stop blushing. You are making me to blush right along with you and I cannot return to the kitchen so flushed or they will suspect. Or think I am ill. Either way, they will likely send me out. And I would not leave for anything,” Meghan said, and leaned over to help her to make the bed.
