“No. I want you back and safely in bed in case Johns rides to Hawthorne House demanding an explanation.”
The concerned look came into her eyes again. “Do you think he’ll do that?”
“Actually, I think he’ll be more concerned with Luxley, and then with my presence. You may come up in conversation eventually, though, so everything where you’re concerned must be as proper as possible.”
He whistled down a hack. “Take her to Hawthorne House,” he said, giving the direction as he handed her up and tossed the driver a few coins.
“Tristan…”
Reluctant to stop touching her, much less let her out of his sight, Tristan took her fingers and kissed them. “I will call on you in the morning, Georgiana. And then you and I will resolve some things.”
She smiled, then sat back in the dark as the coach lurched off into the night. Tristan looked after the hack until it turned the corner and passed out of sight. He took her smile as a very good sign. She must know what he meant, and she hadn’t objected. Whistling, he waved down another coach to return to Carroway House.
As he sat on the worn leather, the paper in his pocket crinkled. He pulled out her stockings and the note, and read it again. She’d given him her stockings and thought to be rid of him. Tomorrow he would return her stockings, and ask for her, instead.
And he prayed that she wouldn’t come to her senses and realize what a poor catch he was. If she didn’t say yes…Tristan couldn’t even contemplate that. Not if he wanted his heart to keep beating until he saw her again.
Chapter 23
Julia Your reason?
Lucetta I have no other but a woman’s reason:
I think him so, because I think him so.
—Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I, Scene ii
The rumors arrived before the milk.
Danielle threw open the heavy curtains far too early, and Frederica Brakenridge sat up to glare at her personal maid. “What in the world is going on?” she demanded. “And you’d best say the French have invaded.”
The maid curtsied, worry and nervousness in every line of her rotund body. “I’m not certain, Your Grace. I only know that Pascoe spoke with the vegetable girl a minute ago, and then he said I must go awaken Your Grace at once.”
Pascoe wasn’t known for frivolousness, so Frederica pushed the blanket aside and stood. “Then help me dress, Danielle.”
Years of experience had taught her that any situation, no matter how dire, could be improved with proper attire. So, although she keenly wanted to know what had overset her stoic butler, she took her time with her hair and her morning toilette.
As she emerged from her private rooms Pascoe was waiting for her, and a great many of the household servants seemed to have found items in the hallway in need of dusting or polishing. Georgiana’s bedchamber was only two doors down, and if the girl had managed a good night’s sleep, she wasn’t about to disturb it this early in the morning.
“Downstairs,” she commanded, leading the way.
“Your Grace,” the butler said, following on her heels, “I am truly sorry to have awakened you so early, but I have learned something which, whether factual or not, desperately needs your attention.”
Frederica stopped just inside the morning room door, motioning the butler to accompany her. “What is it, then, that has upset everyone at this ungodly hour?”
The butler worked his jaw for a moment. “I have been informed, by a certain very unreliable source, that…something occurred in the Johns household last evening.”
She frowned. “The Johns household? What does that have to do with my waking early enough to view sunrise?”
“The, ah, something which occurred concerned Miss Amelia Johns being caught en flagrante delicto with Lord Luxley.”
Frederica lifted an eyebrow. “Really?” Luxley was one of Georgiana’s most persistent suitors. As of now, however, he was officially out of the running.
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“And?”
“And, ah, another couple was seen…in the same room, though they immediately fled into the night.”
