“Yes, you do, assuming I stay in the safety of our townhouse and do precisely as you and Father say,” Anette declared. “There is a whole world out there and I want to explore it.”
“The world is not safe for a young woman. It just isn’t.”
Anette knew that she had to try a different tactic. “Do you remember when I was younger and the monkeys at the menagerie threw their excrement at me?”
“I do,” Caleb replied, watching her as if she were mad for bringing that up.
“It was awful, and I had to take many baths before I finally felt clean again,” Anette said. “But it was an experience that reminded me that I was alive.”
“I’m confused. Do you want animals to throw their excrement at you?”
Anette rolled her eyes. “No, silly, but I want to be able to experience life the way it was meant to be. I want it to be unfiltered, real. I want to have stories to tell my grandchildren that won’t bore them to sleep. I want an adventure.”
“If you would like, we could pay the grooms to throw manure on you,” Caleb said. “Would that be enough of an adventure for you?”
“Are you even listening to me?”
Caleb leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “It is late and you are not thinking clearly. Go to bed and we can discuss this in the morning.”
“Now you are sounding like Father,” she muttered.
Her brother gave her a pointed look. “That is not fair. I listen to you, but even I have my limits, especially when you are talking about excrement.”
Tossing up her arms, she said, “I was trying to make a point.”
“A poor one at that.” Caleb walked over to the door and opened it. “Goodnight, Sister.”
After her brother departed from the room, Violet slipped back in and asked, “Is everything all right?”
“It will be,” Anette replied. Once she saw Roswell, everything would be made right again. He would be able to make sense of her ramblings. Why was it that he was the only one who saw the real her?
Anette walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out a dark blue spencer. “I should at least be dressed warmly,” she explained.
Violet looked unsure. “Perhaps I should go with you,” she suggested.
“I have to do this myself,” Anette said. “Furthermore, if you were there, Roswell might not speak as freely.”
“What if he abducts you and takes you to Gretna Green?”
Anette clasped her hands together. “Do you think he might?” she asked eagerly. “I would welcome that opportunity.”
Violet pressed her lips together before saying, “I won’t say anything but you must hurry back. I won’t lie for you.”
“Nor would I ask you to,” Anette said as she found herself practically skipping to the door.
Once she was in the hall, she hurried towards the entry hall and tipped her head at the servants that were going about their nightly responsibilities.
She was pleased to see that a footman was no longer posted at the door that led out into the gardens. That would have made it much more difficult to sneak out to meet Roswell. She opened the door and hurried down one of the paths. Roswell didn’t say where they should meet but she assumed it would be somewhere private.
As she reached the cluster of trees that lined the back fence, she waited in the shadows for Roswell to make an appearance.
She was so distracted by the thought of seeing Roswell that she barely registered the sound of booted footsteps approaching her from behind. She began to turn around but everything went black.
Roswell stepped into the dining room and saw that his father was sitting at the head of the table, eating his breakfast.
“I hadn’t expected to see you in here,” he admitted as he walked over to the buffet table.
His father looked up and offered a smile, but the deep lines in his face showed his weariness. “Good morning,” he greeted. “Your mother is taking a bath so I decided that my presence was not needed.”
