“Indeed.” He held out a hand, and when she placed her fingers on his palm, he kissed her knuckles. Another fiery jolt ran through her, and she bit the insides of her cheeks.
He led her out of the study and through hallways to a door on the side of the manor. A carriage was waiting with a driver and a footman. Again, Natalie was caught between gratitude and vengeance.
“Good night,” she said, wishing to hurriedly leave him. The longer she stayed, the more she found his good gestures confounding.
“Be well, My Lady,” he whispered, kissing her hand again. Then he handed her into the carriage.
As it pulled away, Natalie sighed with both relief and anguish. She was certain she would never find peace until she avenged the spirit of her youth.
Chapter 5
The Masked Rogue of London might not be residing in London. We ought to have found his home if he were. Ladies and gentlemen, we will be moving our search outside of town. The reward for his face has been doubled.
Thoughts of her kiss with Jasper plagued Natalie over breakfast such that she barely touched her food. Hannah also occasionally glanced at her, while George’s attention appeared to be on the correspondences he was reading.
No one was aware of where she had been the night before, and she had slipped back into the house and her bedchamber with as much ease as she had when leaving. Sleep had been challenging, however, because she had been planning. She would need Hannah’s help to find what to fulfill her eleventh wish with;RuinJasper’s reputation.
George shot up suddenly, and Natalie’s eyes snapped to his face. He was glaring at the missive in his hand, and his pallor was consternating. “What happened?” she asked.
He seemed to only just recall their presence, and he fell back and sat straighter in his chair, clearing his throat. “It is nothing you need to concern yourselves with,” he reassured them, but Natalie knew his composure was contrived. Something was wrong. She could see it in the lines around the corners of his mouth. He drank the last drops of his tea and rose. “I will be in my study.”
Natalie and Hannah looked at each other after he had left. “What can we do to help him?” her cousin asked, her eyes misting. This was not the first time they were witnessing such outbursts, and they always felt helpless.
“I will speak to him,” Natalie replied, gaining her feet. She wanted George to know that whatever it was, they could overcome it together as a family. Hannah nodded as she left the breakfast room.
Natalie knocked gently on his study door, and at his response, she opened the door and stepped inside. George was hunched over a ledger, and his spectacles were slowly slipping down his nose. He had excellent sight before he became Earl, but after spending long nights poring over the accounts, he had to have his eyes examined and spectacles prescribed.
“Natalie,” he said when he looked up, “I hope you did not come here because you are worried about me.”
“That is exactly why I am here,” she said, sitting in one of the chairs by the hearth. It was very cold in London now, and it would be even colder once winter arrived. They only heated the rooms they used, which were only about three rooms—excluding their bed chambers and the servants’ rooms. “What happened, George?” Natalie asked.
He passed a hand over his brow before picking up a letter and walking up to her. “This arrived last night but I did not get the chance to read it until this morning.”
She saw the Earl of Ecklehill’s crest on the broken seal, and her stomach turned. Oliver had been traveling for the last two years, and they had only needed to communicate with his solicitors. His return could mean more demands from him that would plunge them further into debt. She almost gave the letter back to George, telling him she understood, but she had to read it. She had to be brave.
Clifford,
I hope this letter finds you and your family well. I will be returning to England this winter. I have a new business proposition for you, one I hope you will accept. We shall discuss it when I return.
Sincerely,
Lord Ecklehill
Enquiring about their well-being was absolute mockery, and Natalie’s jaw clenched. “Do you know what the proposition might be?” she asked George, giving the letter back to him.
He shook his head. “I wish I did so that I may prepare for it, whatever it is.” She could see that he was not expecting anything good, and they all had a good reason for such low expectations.
Seeing how the news of Oliver’s impending return troubled her, George took her hand and squeezed it. “I will not allow him to harm you,” he said. Oliver could use her reputation to take the little they had left away from them, and that was her greatest fear now.
“Thank you, George, for all that you do for us.” She smiled up at him, wishing she could do more to comfort him.
“You do not have to thank me, Natalie. You are as much my sister as Hannah, and we are all we have.”
She hugged him, her chest tight and heavy. “Everything will be well for us again,” she murmured.
“Yes, it will.”
Natalie left him several minutes later and went up to her bedchamber to gather the dresses and bonnets she was going to take to Mary this afternoon. When she entered the room, she found that Hannah had already placed the two bonnets in a box and was folding the dresses.
