Page 28 of The Marquess's Imperfect Brid
“You seem so certain,” she said.
Gareth gave her a grin that he hoped would mask the sound of his increasingly racing heart.
“That is because I am, dear lady,” he said with a playful wink.
Together, and escorted by the lady’s maid, Gareth and Lady Grace split from the large group of people in search of their first clues. Everyone was directed to the billiards room, where a blackboard had been placed. On it was written one single, simplesentence:
I hold all the answers that scholars will ever seek.
Gareth glanced at Lady Grace, who bit her lip nervously. He had spent enough time with her to know when she was doubting herself, even though he could never understand why she ever did. She was as witty and clever as she was kind-hearted, and he felt sure that she could beat every single person to the end of their treasure hunt by herself, if she so chose. He gave her a gentle smile and patted her hand softly.
“The answer seems so simple, and yet so far out of my grasp,” he said. “But do not fret, dear lady. I am certain that we can solve this little riddle.”
Lady Grace blushed and nodded. Gareth watched her visibly relax as she allowed herself to think. Sure enough, within a few seconds, she gasped softly, leaning in close enough to him to whisper without being overheard.
“The library,” she said. “A library is always filled with a great deal of knowledge that would be useful to any scholar.”
Gareth brightened, nodding eagerly.
“I would have never thought of that,” he said, impressed with his partner’s quick logic. “Shall we begin there?”
Lady Grace nodded, smiling at him sheepishly.
“If it pleases you, my lord,” she said.
Gareth gave her another warm smile.
“It certainly does,” he said.
With Juliet following closely behind them, the pair headed toward the library. Some guests looked at them curiously, so Gareth donned his best confused, blissfully ignorant expression, walking slowly with Lady Grace so that no one would figure out that they already figured out a clue and follow them. Once they were far enough down the hall, however, the two of them began marching faster toward the library. Once inside, they closed the door so that no one passing by the room would see them anddecide to intrude. There was no rule that expressed a need to leave open the doors to rooms that potentially held clues. So, they would not.
Sure enough, as soon as they turned to face the biggest bookshelf, there was a book turned upside down and slightly crooked in an otherwise straight, immaculately aligned row. Gareth looked at Lady Grace with awe. She had correctly deduced the location of their first clue. And based on the way she fetched the book and immediately inspected it to find the hint within, he suspected that she would be just as adept at deciphering all their future ones.
The book was Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Lady Grace carefully thumbed through the book, frowning as she reached a certain page. She flipped through several pages more, then back to the one which had captured her attention. At first glance, Gareth saw nothing except for the mention of a specific portrait. He looked up at Lady Grace, confused.
“What is it?” he asked. “What do you see?”
Lady Grace bit her lip, taking on the uncertain expression once more.
“It must be nothing,” she said. “But I thought for a moment… Oh, never mind. I must be wrong.”
Gareth studied her. He was suddenly sure that whatever she had been thinking must have been correct. He did not know from whence the certainty came. But he gingerly took the book from her and went back to the page which had caught her attention. He read it over carefully, trying to keep his expression neutral when he found nothing overtly obvious within the lines. But just as he was about to give up and concede that she might have been wrong, he felt it. The specific page felt loose, as though it had been tugged a little too hard as someone turned the page. Moreover, he saw that the word portrait was, by some method, a single shade darker than all the other words on the page. It wasalmost as if someone had used the last half of a small ink blot to trace perfectly over the word, and the difference was nearly imperceptible. He also realized in that moment why Lady Grace had so nervously questioned herself. Her milky eye was giving her a reason to distrust her, and her trembling left hand must have made her think that she could not have felt a loose page, especially simply based on an alteration that her impaired eye could not have observed.
“The page,” he said quickly, hurrying to reassure her. “It is loose. And the word portrait is not as light as the other words. I say, how did you ever spy this? I would have been searching this book for hours.”
Lady Grace’s eyes lit up, and she beamed up at him. There was a pink flush to her cheeks as she humbly shrugged.
“I assure you it was mere luck,” she said. “But you do see it, as well?”
Gareth nodded eagerly, grinning.
“I certainly do,” he said. “Let us go check the portraits.”
As she led the way to what he presumed was the portrait room, Gareth could not help feeling awed at his partner. She was quick to figure out clues, and she needed no help from him, apart from the reassurance that she was on the right track. And she actively worked with him, not against him, or on a plan of her own in which he had no part or place. They certainly made a formidable team, especially when he could already hear other pairs arguing about the first clue. He smiled to himself as they entered the portrait room, still accompanied by the lady’s maid. They would surely win the treasure hunt. And he believed they stood to win much more.
***
As Grace worked alongside Lord Hayewood to solve the next clues, she felt something which she had never experiencedbefore. There was a true sense of camaraderie, a sense of true bonding and friendship that she had never known. But beneath that, the connection that she and the marquess seemed to share thrummed, making itself known so plainly that even her bad eye could see it. And as they were making their way to the fourth clue, which they had determined was leading them to the kitchens, she surprised herself in a way that was both nerve-wracking and refreshing.
