Wind rattled the window behind her. Alice looked up as rain rolled steadily down the pane. She heard a carriage roll past. The city went on beyond these walls regardless of whether a gentleman kept his word, or a father abandoned his daughter yet again.
Picking up the pen, she then began to make notes about what she needed to do to secure the future for herself, her staff, and her aunt before her father returned to town with his mistress, who was to become her stepmother. The thought made her shudder.
Alice would not be in society if her father and that woman were there. In fact, she would be long gone. A little house in the country should do.
She had many things to sort out. One of them was how to keep supplying money to the clinic and other causes when her father returned. She would have to cover her tracks well, and ensure she had enough money left to do what she needed to.
Alice closed the box and set it back in the drawer, then took the card once more, looking at the black slanted writing.
“Not tonight,” she said aloud to the empty room. “Not on your terms. In fact, never again, Lord Stafford.”You are not to be trusted.
A knock on her door was followed by her aunt.
“Don’t forget that this evening we are to go to the dinner party, dear.”
Damn, she’d forgotten about that. Lord Anthony’s aunts were hosting it and had called on her to invite Alice and her aunt, who was a personal friend.
“I know your father is here, and I’m afraid he is not invited. Would you like me to see if I can change that, Alice?”
“No, Aunt Gwen. He is leaving London again this evening,” Alice said, and noted the relief on her aunt’s face at her words.
“Well then, you rest now, dear, as it should be a late night.”
The door shut, and Alice rose from her seat. This time she did head for the bed, and fell face first onto the cover. Lord Stafford would be there, she was sure of it. Firstly, because of that conversation she’d had with Lord Hamilton’s aunts, and secondly, because he was a close friend of their nephew.
And that mattered not, because she didn’t have to speak to him. Closing her eyes, she let exhaustion take its toll. She’d need all her wits about her this evening. Alice just hoped her father did leave before she came downstairs as she had no wish to see him again.
The first tears fell, and they would be the only ones. Alice had plans to make, and she could not afford the weakness of self-pity. Her aunt depended on her, and she would not let her down.
Chapter Nineteen
“One wonders whatfavor Lord Redfern owes your aunts, seeing as the man is a powerful peer,” Jamie mused to his friends, who were seated across from him in the carriage.
In the two weeks since they’d visited the Crimson Serpent, he’d been investigating the initials on the list. So far, he’d found no trace of Jackson.
Either Toby or Anthony had shown up at his door each day demanding to know what they were doing that day in regards to locating Jackson. It was both humbling and vexing that they didn’t let him do the investigating himself, as he’d been doing.
Even now, they’d sent their wives on ahead to the dinner party and had collected him.
“You do know I could have driven myself here?” Jamie drawled.
They waved his words away.
“We don’t trust you, so we are watching you,” Anthony said.
“I’m the most trustworthy of all of us.”
They laughed at that.
“Back to your aunts. How is it that tonight Lord Redfern is hosting a dinner party on their behalf?” Jamie asked.
“I tried to get that out of them, actually—”
“Perhaps I could try; they do love me the most,” Jamie added, needling his friends.
“Evie and I have a theory on that,” Anthony said.
As he was looking at his friends, he could read the smirks on their faces now.
