The hall outside was quiet. She stood for a moment in the stillness. She realized she didn’t know what room Lord Candelstone might be in. She walked slowly toward the stairs, listening as she went.
Down the hall, a door opened, and a servant came out of a room carrying a stacked breakfast tray.
“And bring coffee!” she heard from in the room. “None of that weak tea nonsense, no matter what Merlin says.—Ouch! Stop fussing, Catherine. Leave me alone!”
She’d found Candelstone.
She waited until the maid opened the door to the servant staircase, then she knocked on Candelstone’s door.
Lady Catherine opened the door. She still wore her night wear and her mobcap over her papered hair. The skin under her eyes sagged. Bella wondered how much sleep the woman had been able to get during the night.
“Lady Blessingame,” Lady Candelstone said, a rising note of surprise in her voice.
“I came to see how he is this morning. Since I could hear him bellow to the maid as she left, I suppose that is a sign he is much better,” she said wryly, trying to get Lady Candelstone to smile as well.
A small smile graced the woman’s lips. “We had a bit of a rough night, but he is better now.”
“May I see him?”
Lady Candelstone turned toward the interior of the room. “Would you care for a visit from Lady Blessingame?”
“Yes. Let her in,” he said gruffly.
She followed Lady Candelstone into the room, looking around as she did so. Their accommodations were a suite of rooms, not merely a bedroom, as she had. Judging by the soft feminine colors, the rooms had been Lady Candelstone’s rooms growing up. A quilt jumbled on the settee by the window suggested Lady Candelstone’s resting spot during the night. And not a comfortable one either. She touched the woman’s arm.
“I’ll sit with him if you would like to freshen up and get dressed,” she told her.
Lady Candelstone looked at her husband, and then back at her. “I thank you. I think I shall.” She crossed to the door to the dressing room. “I won’t be long,” she said, as she hesitated.
“I’ll be here however long,” Bella gently assured her.
Lady Candelstone nodded and closed the door behind her.
“So, what happened last night?” she briskly asked Candelstone as she crossed to the settee. She picked up the quilt to fold it up.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“I don’t know,” he repeated emphatically. “I was in the ground-floor hall when I saw you out on the terrace. You went down the steps into the garden. I followed you outside.”
“But you didn’t come into the garden,” Bella clarified. Inside she simmered, and she hadn’t been in his presence five minutes. How could she get rid of this man—short of killing him? She must let emotions go. If they were to discover the shooter, she couldn’t afford to succumb to her emotions. She’d already done that too much over the past few days.
“No, I thought to wait for you to return. I didn’t know if you were taking the air or were meeting someone.” He wiggled his eyebrows as he leered at her.
“You wanted to see what played out,” she said levelly.
“He hesitated a moment, then, “Yes.”
She nodded. “If I had seen you do that, I probably would have done the same,” she admitted.
He smirked. “Yes. We are of a kind, you and I.”
Her tight hold on her emotions exploded. “No! We are not. I will not be, I assure you,” she angrily declared. She was not like Candelstone and would never be like Candelstone.
She threw the folded quilt over the back of the settee and sat down, pulling herself together, simmering in irritation.
He smiled and shrugged back at her, infuriating Bella more.
