Page 30 of The Remarkable Myth of a Nameless Lady
“Five days! I have been here five days!” she exclaimed, much too loud, for she heard a laugh clearly directed at her.
“All the same, they suspected. There were some…be that as it may, I am warning you now, and for the last time. I have my own duty to perform after this. Do what you will with the information.”
“An example…” She started to ask what that meant but Elias stuffed the rest of his bread into his mouth and rose, taking his plate and cup with him.
“Sorry, love. Duty calls,” he said over his shoulder before he was done chewing. The sight was disgusting, and she near laughed when she saw the expressions of the girls who had spent the last ten minutes clearly mooning over him.
Alicia sat for a moment staring at her plate. The chicken had congealed in its gravy and no longer held any appeal at all. Since yesterday she had avoided the Duke. Today was another matter entirely.
Duty.What a strange choice in words.
Another message. Elias had been trying to tell her something. She puzzled over the words again, trying to remember everything exactly as he had said it.
He was following the wrong brother.
What if he were letting her know that she needed to be following the Duke? The clue about Owen was nothing surprising, even the Duke knew he was up to his boots in trouble, else why would he have wanted her to find out what he was doing in the first place? But to ‘make an example’ felt somehow more ominous.
Follow the Duke.
How would someone make an example of the Duke?
It came together so quickly in her mind that Alicia shot to her feet. The only thing that made sense was that the Duke was in danger. Why else would she be told to follow him?
She bolted from the room, her hand over her mouth as though to hold in something that wasn’t sitting well. In truth, shedidfeel ill, very ill. If what she was thinking was in fact correct, then everything else suddenly made terrible sense.
Trust no one. Elias had been sent to watch her. He’d been warning her to not even trust him. That meant that there was a second plan in play, one that involved more than just reporting on the actions that went on within the manor itself. This implied a plot.
Alicia found herself outside the Duke’s door. But the study was open and no one was within.
They would make an example of him.
The milk she had just drank soured in her stomach. For a moment she wondered if she truly would be sick. Given the need for the guest list, it would not only be the Duke that would be made an example of. They were all in danger, every last one of them. The guests in this house who had only treated her with kindness. The strangers who would start arriving later today.
What was worse, is it was all her fault. She had given them the very list they would use to pick their targets.
She turned in a slow circle, as though somehow the Duke would be hiding somewhere in his study, and she had only to look in order to find him. Her heart fluttered within her chest.
She had spoken foolishly the day before. Despite herself, she already was coming to care for him. Now it was up to her to save him.
Chapter 22
There was no point in staying further. It was obvious that Jacob was not there. The problem was, she had no idea where to find him, and if her suspicions were correct, then he was in grave danger.
I will leave him a note,she thought, moving finally to the desk, and searching for a fresh piece of notepaper. This proved more difficult than she had thought when she could not find the words to express her concern sufficiently. To say something along the lines of “you will die” seemed overly melodramatic, especially when all she truly had was a rather cryptic warning.
Besides, she wasn’t altogether sure she had understood the meaning of Elias’ words. No, this was a matter that needed discussion. A note would not do.
Reluctantly she replaced the paper, only too aware that her only solution lay in finding out where the Duke had gone, an action that would involve a certain amount of risk to her position within the household. Already she was taking too much time away from her duties, and to go hunting one errant Duke could take most of the morning.
Alicia bit her thumbnail as she thought, moving without thinking to the window to look out, wondering if he were perhaps already out wandering the estate somewhere. If that were the case, then she would just have to trust that if therewerea danger, that he was accompanied by enough men to afford him a measure of protection. With any luck, he was perhaps riding with his officers, men quite capable of taking care of their Captain.
There was no way of knowing for sure. The view from the window showed fields and workers, a single rider upon the horizon, no doubt upon some errand to town. The lands were too vast to survey through a single pane of glass.
Sighing, she turned to go and froze.
The drapery next to the window was gathered with a long tie that bound it to a decorative holder in the wall, allowing light to come into the room. This particular bunching of drapery seemed rather…corpulent.
Made more intimidating by the scuffed boots clearly visible beneath the lower edge of the drapery.
