“Whatever for?”
“He said he was feeling ill and asked to come inside and use the facilities. The doorman led him to a room to rest, and I came to inform you.”
Jade released Marguerite’s arm but cupped her hand before she walked away. “Give me a moment. I’ll check on him and return for our card game.”
Marguerite nodded, and Jade followed the butler to a small room off the front entrance, where the doorman stood in the open doorway with Theo sitting in a chair on the other side. Their eyes locked, sending unspoken messages in a matter of seconds.
A curious expression settled on Jade’s face. “I hear you’ve fallen ill?”
“I didn’t intend to bother you with it, my lady,” Theo said, his put-on accent thick Brithswaitian. “I only needed the chance to recover.”
Jade gave a small nod of dismissal to the doorman, who turned and left Jade with Theo at the threshold of the room. Jade took two steps inside, and her polite smile fell as she turned her attention to Theo.
“What on earth are you doing here?” she whispered through clenched teeth, closing the rest of the distance between them.
Theo got to his feet. “I saw you on the ledge outside a window upstairs. You were clearly hiding from someone.” His brow wrinkled with concern as his eyes searched her face.
“Who else saw?”
“I doubt anyone. None of the drivers have paid attention to the house all night, and you were in the dark, but I was keeping an eye out for you.”
“So why are you here?”
Theo’s eyebrows met as though he was confused by her question. “I was coming to help you. I’m your backup.”
Jade pressed her eyes closed. “I was fine. I’m supposed to give you a signal if I need help. Fan myself in front of the window, remember?”
Theo’s face transformed from concerned to stern. “You were in trouble. That was obvious.”
“But I was handling it. I didn’t need you to come and rescue me!” Frustration cut through her quiet words. She tipped her face up to Theo, drawing herself to her full height. “All you’ve done is draw attention to me.”
“That was never my intention,” Theo bit back. “I was just trying to help. I wouldn’t be able to live with it if something happened to you on my watch.”
Jade softened, letting an exhale flow from her lungs and carry her irritation with it. “I have to go back in there, but you need to promise me you will stick with the plan. We can’t mess this up.”
Theo nodded and scrubbed a hand down his face. “Tell them I needed some fresh air and time away from the horses. I’ll wait a few minutes to ‘recover’ and head back.”
“All right.” Jade leaned closer to him, lowering her voice even further. “But people have noticed this. It’s odd. They will remember. Wehaveto be careful.”
Theo gave a final nod as Jade stepped back through the open door.
“I hope the fresher air is doing you some good,” she said louder with her slight Ellyrisan accent. “I won’t be much longer and we can return.”
“Very good, my lady.” Theo briefly bowed his head, and Jade left.
Jade returned to the sitting room, where the ladies sat around a circular table and dealt new hands of cards for the next game. Marguerite wasted no time in asking what was the matter with her driver, to which Jade shrugged and said, “Apparently, he was in need of fresher air than the stables provide. No doubt he wanted to get a glimpse of the palace interior.”
Raised eyebrows and murmurs of agreement surrounded the table as Jade sat and asked to be dealt in. Her nonchalance and lack of attention to the matter should hopefully keep the ladies from considering the strangeness of it.
Jade tried to relax as she settled in to the card game, now simply Elena again. The melancholy air from the removal of the sorcerer footman had vanished, and the women laughed as they competed in the game.
This was her chance to further build a relationship with these people to continue being invited back. She would participate in the gossip and chatter surrounding their game enough to be considered likable, taking note of each lady’s preferences, habits, tendencies, and dislikes.
Paper crinkled against her breasts, and Jade remembered the note she had stuck in the front of her dress in Grannam’s war room. Every move now made the paper exceedingly obvious to her. She would have to be careful leaning forward for risk of exposing its hiding place to the ladies. It wasn’t much, but it was evidence, so she couldn’t be caught with it.
And it made her night a success. How much of a success was yet to be determined, but she had something for both Nicolas and Commander Matherson. Yes, no matter what Nicolas said, she would share this with Matherson. First.
Nineteen
