“I don’t suppose you know which is your lady’s bedchamber,” Jasper asked.
“How would I know that?” Geoffrey asked.Was his friend casting aspersions on Caroline?
“Don’t get into a high tweague, Diamond. But it would be damn useful if you knew which window.”
Jasper was right. But over brandy, going there at two in the morning had seemed like a good idea and an easy one.
“Would it be better to break in the back door and roam the house?” his friend wondered aloud while staring at the upper floors.
While Geoffrey thought he might meet with better success indoors than climbing a tree or a trellis and knocking on Lord and Lady Chimes’s window by mistake, it was also riskier. He could get sent to jail for breaking in like a thievingfidlam ben.
“If she were my daughter, I would have her room away from the street, I suppose,” he guessed.
“But not at the very back of the house,” Jasper added. “In case any nefarious nobleman wanted to use an apple tree to climb in her window.”
Geoffrey sighed. This was a bone-headed plan. Luckily, the Chimes’s had a corner home, so he could explore the side of the house as easily as the back.
“I’m going to guess that window.” He pointed above them.
Jasper handed him a rock.
“If I’m wrong,” Geoffrey said, “prepare to bolt like a skittish deer.”
Setting his lantern upon the ground, he hefted the rock in his hand.
“I believe it’s supposed to be a few small pebbles, enough to make a noise but not break the glass. Give me something smaller,” he demanded.
“If you hit the house, not the glass, it will be fine,” Jasper insisted.
“That won’t awaken her. I need pebbles,” he insisted. “Maybe I could toss coins. That would make a goodly racket.”
“I don’t think you should throw anything directly at the glass,” Jasper said.
Dropping the rock, he searched in his pockets and withdrew some coppers.
“Perfect. Stand by, Trent.”
“I am, Diamond. I am.”
“Very well.” He jiggled the coins a moment as if he were shaking dice.
“Let them fly,” Jasper said encouragingly.
“I was about to. Stop talking.”
Taking a step back, he tossed them at the window he’d chosen just as the sash lifted.
“Oh!” Caroline exclaimed as ahandful of coins hit her in the face and chest.What the devil?
“My apologies,” came Geoffrey’s voice as he bent to retrieve his lantern. “Are you injured?”
As the frigid air swirled into her room, she peered into the side garden.Was he in his cups?
“Who is with you?” she asked, seeing another figure beside him.
“’Tis I, Lord Trent,” came a cheerful voice, and to prove it, he lifted his lantern up to his face.
“A moment,” she said, wondering if she were still asleep and dreaming.
