He left Berry’s home and met Bonham coming out of Lady Miranda’s garden. “No one’s been back here or at Lady Gwendolyn’s. You?”
Gideon told him what he’d found.
“The little toad,” Bonham said with disdain. “Glad you showed up when you did and chased him off.”
“It troubles me that he was here at all.”
“I know, but you are on to him now. His efforts will come to naught. Do you still have Henry following him?”
Gideon nodded. “But I have no idea what that lad is up to. I did not see him by that hired carriage or skulking around Berry’s home.”
Bonham sighed. “Nor did I. Henry will turn up again eventually, I suppose. I’ll ask the grooms in the mews if they noticed him this morning. And he does have weasel instincts. He knows how to squirm out of danger.”
They strode to Gideon’s home, which was a hive of activity. Men were working in almost every room, a jarring contrast to the serenity of Berry’s house.
Not only were the painters working their way through the dozens of rooms, but the old service shaft had been removed and the new one was taking up most of the hallway while waiting to be installed. Two boys from the orphanage had become carpenters’ apprentices, and were now here with their masters trying to assemble the pulley system. “Perhaps I ought to call on Suzanna and ask for her assistance,” Bonham grumbled as one of the pulley pieces fell to the floor with a startlingclang.
Gideon eyed the scene with concern. “I won’t stop you. None of these men seem to know what they’re doing.”
“It isn’t them. I think the instructions are wrong.” Bonham rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. “Suzanna will know for certain. I might also ask her to help me with the pipe joints in the kitchen.”
Gideon winced. “Don’t tell me you’ve botched the plumbing again.”
“I haven’t botched anything,” Bonham insisted. “I have been working on some plumbing innovations and had to tear up part of the kitchen floor because of it.”
“And now you’ve reached an impasse? By all means, summon Suzanna.”
Dear heaven.Gideon hoped his precious sanctuary would not come tumbling down about his ears.
However, as important as his house was to him, Berry was far more important. It troubled him greatly that he had not seen Henry on the trail of Lord Hawthorne. True, the lad was not the most reliable. But nor was he unreliable. And as Bonham had remarked, the lad was a little weasel.
Still, he was worried.
Had Hawthorne and his friends harmed Henry? Was the poor lad lying in a ditch somewhere?
No, Henry was resourceful. He knew better than to be caught by some drunken lords.
But then, why hadn’t Gideon seen him outside of Berry’s home this morning?
Chapter Twelve
Berry’s hands shookas she readied herself for the day, although she tried her best to appear composed while her maid fussed over her and styled her hair. “Stop squirming, m’lady,” Harriet said, sticking a butterfly clip above her ear to secure the upswept curls.
She added a matching clip above her other ear and then stepped back to admire her work. “His eyes will pop wide when he sees you.”
“Oh, for certain if I walk down like this,” Berry remarked with a soft laugh as she stared down at herself clad only in her chemise.
Harriet set out two gowns on her bed, a dusky rose and a robin’s-egg blue. Both were muslin with silk trimming. “Which one?”
“The rose,” Berry said, reaching for it.
“I think the blue,” Harriet countered. “It makes your eyes shine like moonlight, and he will be staring into them while he dances with you.”
“But my eyes are green. What difference does it make if I wear the rose or the blue? Oh, all right. The blue.” Berry always took Harriet’s advice on what to wear because she had an even better eye for fashion than Berry had, which was saying a lot, because Berry was known to set fashion style among the ladies of theton.
She looked forward to giving Gideon his next dance lesson and hoped Harriet was right about the shimmer in her eyes.
Her neighbors were already gathered in the parlor and fluttering around Gideon by the time she walked downstairs. Only Suzanna and Bonham were missing, and Gideon explained they were trying to untangle the mess made of the pulley system at Gideon’s new house.
