“If you wish to speak to me at any time, you have only to send your maid to consult with my valet.”
Rosina was wary of the change of tone. He was so apt to alter at a second’s notice. He looked no less dangerous, despite the relaxation in his voice. The light was at his back, and his face was shadowed. But the white gleam of his scar could be clearly discerned. Like a little streak of lightning in the dark. Now he did indeed look sinister.
What had he said? Her maid? “I have no maid,” she said on the thought.
“I was forgetting that.”
His words rose to her consciousness, and she suddenly took in what he had meant. Send her maid to consult with his valet? A flash of anger sparked. She was not yet so great a lady.
“If I should wish to speak with you, my lord, I shall use no go-between. Such a course could do nothing but increase the distance between us.”
She passed him quickly and, with an ostentatious gesture, removed the key from the lock and replaced it on the inside of her own door. He had turned, and she looked at him with some degree of defiance, but he did not speak. Rosina waited a moment. Then she went into her dressing- room, and shut the door behind her.
