Page 51 of Long Live the Baron
“Lily?”
She jumped in fright. Swallowing hard, she palmed her streaming eyes to wipe away the evidence of crying, and turned to find Brendan framed in the doorway. He appeared a little haggard, and she thought he might be wearing the same clothes as the day before because of the wrinkling of his cravat and coat. His hair and shoulders were damp, and his boots were a little worse for wear, with some mud splatter marring their polished surfaces.
“Brendan!”
“I must speak with you.” He entered and closed the door, shutting first John out in the hall before crossing the room to take a seat on the other end of the table. Noticing that there was a covered plate, he yanked off his gloves and pulled it closer with a look of relief. Soon he was devouring the plate of eggs and ham like a starving man while Lily waited impatiently for him to say something. Anything. The urge to slap the fork out of his hand and demand an explanation was a physical force she had to fight against.
“Where have you been?” The rain eased at that precise moment, making her demand particularly shrill in the sudden reduction of sound. But Lily welcomed the anger coursing through her veins. It was far better than the crushing defeat from moments earlier.
Brendan was sipping at tea, his plate emptied of its contents. “I was questioning the other barons who attended the coronation.”
Lily’s brows flew up. That was certainly not the answer she had expected. “What?”
“I was running down the lords who sat near my uncle to find out what they had to say.” Brendan yawned widely, throwing a hand over his mouth before shaking his head as if to rouse himself.
Silence descended while Brendan sipped on his tea.
“No lord received you in the early hours of the morning,” Lily finally responded.
“Correct. I journeyed to Chiswick to see Lord Simmons at his estate before he left for his country seat, but when we started back to London, we were caught in the rain. Within an hour, we were stuck in the mud. When we finally got unstuck, the horses were exhausted and there were no fresh ones to be found that late in the evening, so we slept in the carriage until dawn. Not that I slept much with Stephen near.” Stephen was one of the footmen who might have opened the door to the killer, or might have been the killer himself, so Brendan must have felt the need to keep an eye on him throughout the night. It was all so … threatening.
“Oh.”
Brendan reached out a hand to cover her own, his fingers cool against her skin. “My deepest apologies. I would have preferred to spend the night with you.”
Lily stared at his hand, not certain how to feel about all of it. When she looked up, she found Brendan smiling at her warmly, his brandy eyes molten with suggestion. “Oh!” Her anger dissipated to be replaced with shyness when she realized he was thinking about the last time they had been together.
He stroked his thumb over her knuckles, before reluctantly releasing her hand to lean back in his chair.
* * *
“Unfortunately,I do not think we will be sharing evenings for the foreseeable future.”
Lily straightened up with a stony expression. “What does that mean?”
“It means … I wish to spend time with you, but I have been thinking that perhaps you should stay with your parents for a little while.”
“What?” Lily sprang to her feet, bristling with outrage. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
Brendan shook his head. “Certainly not! This is about protecting you. Until we find the baron’s killer, I do not believe Ridley House is safe. After all you have done, I cannot allow anything to happen to you.”
Lily threw up her hands. “I refuse to leave. I can take care of myself!”
Brendan stood. Walking around the table, he pulled her into a tight embrace, enjoying the feel of her soft body against his and burying his face in her hair to breathe in the scent of honey. She stood stiffly against him, but he continued the embrace, unwilling to release her when he had been yearning to see her all night. Leaning down, he whispered into her ear, “If anything happened to you, I would be devastated, Lily Ridley.”
She relaxed. After a moment, her arms stole around his waist and she embraced him in return. “Did something happen? I was … expecting to see you when I awoke, but then I could not find you anywhere and the Johns followed me about all day without explanation.”
Brendan raised his head in surprise. “You did not receive my note?”
Lily craned her neck to stare up at him, her large brown eyes narrowed with suspicion. “There was no note! I searched for you throughout the house and saw no note in any of the rooms.”
“I placed it on the pillow next to you. Perhaps it fell?”
Lily mewled in throaty exasperation. “I thought you had abandoned me! What did the note say?”
Brendan released her, stepping back to gesture at her vacated chair. Lily sat down, while Brendan returned to his where he picked up his tea and sipped. “I was asleep in your bed when I was awoken by a loud crash. Someone had been searching my room when they overturned the water jug in their haste. It confirmed that one of the servants must be involved. Keeping you safe from harm was my first thought, which was why I sent for the Johns, but after meeting with the runner, Halmesbury and Richard agreed I should try to find out more.”
“So you were trying to protect me? Not …” Lily glanced at the news sheets she had been reading when he had entered earlier.
