Chapter20
Lucian satbehind his desk in the library and tried to concentrate on the accounting before him but his mind had been on the tarot reading from last night.
While it was enjoyable and not to be taken seriously, a few of the cards were too close to accurate for Lucian to be comfortable, but only if he believed in fortune-telling. It had been a little disconcerting but then he dismissed the whole experiment as simply entertainment. However, Eliza seemed to take them to heart and reacted as if they were not what she wished to hear. Almost defeated. He could not understand, given that her future was supposed to include a final outcome of exploration and freedom. It was a future he would enjoy, instead his was reflection and awakening, whatever that meant.
Lucian wished that Eliza was easier to understand. But that could be said for most women. Perhaps if his sister wouldn’t have been taken from the household when she was fourteen and sent to their grandparents only to return when she was eighteen, he’d have a better understanding of the female mind. Instead, he had only his four young brothers after his parents had died.
He glanced at the open door and frowned. Eliza still hadn’t come down to break her fast and he hoped the melancholy that had developed last night before she retired no longer remained. Though, if it did, Lucian wouldn’t know what to do. It was his brother, Xavier, who understood moods and the mind.
“I simply wish to take a walk,” Eliza’s frustrated voice drifted to him from the corridor.
“You cannot be outside of the house without someone accompanying you.”
Why was Eliza arguing with her maid?
“It is stifling,” Eliza argued. “A simple walk on the grounds, by myself, is all I wish to do.”
“Lord Garretson has ordered that a footman accompany you everywhere while you are outside.
“You know what it’s like having someone watching all the time. I simply wish to be left in peace.”
Lucian got up from his desk and walked into the doorway. “Do you forget that you have been watched? You just have not seen him.”
Eliza wheeled around, hands on her hips and glared at him.
Apparently, instead of waking up in a melancholy mood, she was in a very poor one.
“I am not being watched here. There has been no sign of this person since I arrived and I just spent my third night in your household. I have deemed it perfectly safe to be out and about.”
“I have not,” Lucian argued.
“Lord Garretson, while I appreciate you giving me sanctuary in your home, I am not your responsibility to be watched over. I’m not a child on leading strings.”
“Then quit acting like one,” he argued.
Eliza drew in a breath. “How dare you!”
He took a step in her direction. “I do dare. You seem to have forgotten or perhaps you do not realize the danger to your person. He was inside your house. He was in your bedchamber. It is likely he had been there before, given not only there is a necklace missing but a stocking, glove, and handkerchief, and I would wager they are now in his possession.” He continued striding toward her until she had to tilt her head back to look at him. “Do I truly need to explain to you how vulnerable you were and still could be and what could happen to you?”
Her cheeks blossomed to a lovely crimson hue. “No.”
“Then you understand the need to stay close to the house and not wander about.”
“Wyndhill Park is safe. I have asked the servants and nobody has seen a stranger. Therefore, he is not here.”
Lucian cocked his head and studied her. “Did you see a stranger hovering near Greenhaven Cottage?” He knew that she had not or she would have mentioned it. “There are trees and bushes surrounding this property. He could be hiding behind any one of them and my servants would not see him. Therefore, if you wish to be out-of-doors, you will go no further than the terrace, or the formal gardens if you must and a footman will be outside standing guard to make certain that you do not come to harm.”
Again, she gasped. “You cannot control my activities and you have no say over where I go and what I do.”
“No, I do not but I am saving myself the discomfort of having to inform your brother that something horrific has happened to you even though I tried to protect you from your own stubbornness.”
“You do not need to write to my brother about anything. I am an adult woman. I can make my own decisions.”
“From experience, I know that you will always be his younger sister no matter how old you are and he would want to know.”
“It does not matter what he would want. It is what I want and I want to take a stroll.”
When had she become a belligerent child? Was it because she was being told, no? Did she truly not know the danger that may be lurking out there? Did she have no comprehension of what the man could do if he got her alone?
