Derek grinned at him. “I’ve spent many years with Lucy, my friend. I’m an expert in the unconventional and odd. And I’m well-acquainted with ludicrous.”
Thomas threw back his head and laughed. Perhaps this would go better than he’d hoped. “Excellent. Then perhaps you won’t be shocked when I ask for you to help me switch bedchambers with the Duke of Branville tonight.”
Derek narrowed his eyes. “Branville?”
Thomas nodded. “Yes, but Lucy mustn’t know. None of the ladies must know.”
Derek drummed his fingers on the desk. “Out of curiosity, why do you want to switch rooms?”
“Here comes the ludicrous part.” Thomas bit the inside of his cheek. “Delilah purchased a vial of perfume that she intends to… sprinkle on Branville’s eyes because…” He choked a little. “It’s, err, purported to make him fall in love with her.”
Derek’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re right. Even after all the schemes I’ve known Lucy to get up to, including the invention of an entirely fictional chaperone named Mrs. Bunbury,thatdoes sound ludicrous.”
Thomas tugged at his cravat. It had sounded even more ludicrous when he’d said it aloud. “Nevertheless, it’s true.”
Derek resumed drumming his fingers. “I assume youwant to switch rooms becauseyouwant to be the one who falls in love.”
“I’m already in love,” Thomas admitted with a sigh. “I merely want an opportunity to let her know it.”
“Switching bedchambers, eh?” Claringdon said, smiling a little. “This sounds like something my wife and her friends would do, you know.”
“Is that a no?” Thomas asked, his gut clenching.
“On the contrary,” Claringdon replied. “I’m happy to prove that my wife is not the only one who can matchmake if need be. I’ll make the arrangements.”
“Thank you, Your Grace.” Thomas stood and all but fled the room. He made it into the corridor before he leaned back against the wall and expelled his breath. He grinned to himself. That had gone better than expected. He’d known Claringdon was a good man, but Thomas hadn’t been entirely certain the duke would agree to such mischief. Derek had a point, however. Being married to Lucy Hunt all these years had to have upped the man’s tolerance for the absurd. Lucy was always up to something.
A slight twinge of guilt pinged Thomas’s conscience. The deception he intended to play upon Delilah wasn’t right. But, he reminded himself, it also wasn’t as if love potion truly existed. Delilah had always been fanciful, and sometimes too easily convinced. If she sprinkled the elixir on Branville, all she would receive was bitter disappointment. This unfortunate way, however, Thomas would get his chance to show her how he truly felt about her.
He’d spent all these weeks showing her he possessed the qualities she wanted in a husband. She needed to see him in a different light. Not as a friend. If he could wakeup tomorrow morning and confess he was in love with her, perhaps she’d change her mind. Perhaps she’d finally realize they were made for each other. That damned potion was the perfect excuse.
His plan was simple. He would switch rooms with Branville, and when Delilah came to sprinkle the elixir, he’d ensure she couldn’t see his face until after she’d done it. Then he would have to make certain she saw him so she’d know he was the one who was enchanted. It was as easy and as absurd as that.
He shoved his hands in his pockets, made his way to the foyer, and bounded up the stairs to his bedchamber. By this time tomorrow, he would finally be able to tell Delilah how he truly felt about her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The gown Delilah wore to play Helena was a simple white one, gathered at the waist and shoulders with a deeply rounded collar and no sleeves. Danielle Cavendish and her maids had worked endless hours to make all the costumes, and Cousin Daphne had been in charge of ensuring all of the players had enough cosmetics on their faces to be seen from the audience. Daphne had applied rouge and powder to Delilah’s face and lips, and used soot mixed with oil to outline her eyebrows and eyelashes. She finished the look with lip salve made from the attar of roses that gave a decided pink hue to Delilah’s mouth. The effect was quite startling when Delilah saw herself in the looking glass. But Daphne had assured her that all players wore such substances on their faces. Apparently, her cousin had gone to the Drury Lane Theatre and discussed it with them at length.
Before the play began, all of the players met in the corridor outside the library, where the sets and stage hadbeen set up. The small audience faced the stage in five rows of seats, separated by an aisle. There were approximately fifty people who’d come for the play, but it might as well have been five hundred for the amount of nerves in Delilah’s belly.
Lucy’s library had been transformed into a woodland copse at night. Trees and vines covered every space, and twinkling stars hung from the ceiling. Cass’s lovely paintings of trees graced the room. The moss and leaves and all of the other items they’d spent the last few months collecting had been artfully arranged by Cass and Danielle to make the room look like one had stumbled into the forest.
Out in the corridor next to the library’s side entrance, excitement bubbled in the air. The players spoke in hushed and anxious voices, all of them ready to finally put their hard work to use. Delilah’s slipper tapped against the floor like a jackrabbit’s foot while Lady Rothwell from the Royal Society for the Human Treatment of Animals made a speech to the crowd about how kind and generous the players were to take on such a feat for the assistance of the animals. The audience clapped. Then Jane Upton sailed into the library, climbed onstage, and announced the performance.
The last of her words floated out into the corridor, making Delilah’s stomach flip. “And so we give you William Shakespeare’sA Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
More applause followed before Rafe Cavendish’s voice began the play as Duke Theseus with Lavinia as his Hippolyta.
“Nervous?” Thomas asked, sliding into the space next to Delilah as they waited by the library doors.
His part came before hers so there was little time to answer before he winked at her and entered the library.
Lucy, dressed as Titania, the fairy queen, was a sightto behold. She had sparkles all over her face and arms and neck, and her hair was entwined with leaves, twigs, and berries. She wore a golden gown that looked like a robe a Roman goddess would have owned. She winked at Delilah in passing.
Scene after scene was executed if not flawlessly, then at least as good as could be expected. Delilah recited her lines in each of her scenes, barely aware of them. Thank goodness her memory was accurate because her mind was elsewhere. It resided firmly in the plot to sprinkle elixir on Branville’s eyes later. The sane, reasonable part of herself argued that she should pour out the elixir and stop the madness, while the mad, desperate part of herself kept whispering that it would all work out perfectly if only she stuck to her plan.
They’d made it all the way to the part where the lovers wake up in the glade the next morning before Delilah even realized how much time had passed. After Thomas as Demetrius delivered his line, “Why, then, we are awake. Let’s follow him. And by the way let us recount our dreams.” He turned, pulled Delilah into his arms and… kissed her.
