“Very good, miss. Let me clear the tray, and I’ll be there straightaway.” Annie gathered the tea tray and retreated to the kitchen.
Victoria slipped out the back with no one the wiser and did visit Artemis while she waited for Annie. It was better to keep her lies to a minimum. After Annie joined her, they set off at a brisk walk made brisker by the lowering temperature and reached the Stanfields’ town house in less than five minutes. Annie went to the downstairs entrance to pass the time in the kitchens gossiping with the staff while the butler led Victoria to Eleanor, who was thankfully alone in the drawing room.
Eleanor took both of Victoria’s hands in her own and pulled her to the settee. Eleanor wasn’t a great beauty at first glance, but the longer one was in her company, the prettier she grew. Her hair was somewhere between blond and brown and stick straight. Her eyes were hazel and her lips thin, but her teeth were white and straight, and her laugh was simply infectious.
“You timed your visit with perfection. Mother just stepped out to see to the packing. I’m so excited about the house party, aren’t you?” Eleanor asked.
Considering she would be expected to make a life-altering decision while playing snapdragon, Victoria’s enthusiasm had entered a downward spiral. “Indeed, but that’s not why I called.”
With more than a little trepidation, Victoria pulled the missive from her reticle. Eleanor snatched it from her hand, tore it open, and rose to stand by the window to read. She gasped and covered her mouth before looking at Victoria. Her shock was palpable.
“He… He wants me to elope with him,” Eleanor whispered. “Tonight.”
“What?” Victoria joined her friend and took the letter, scanning the contents. Beneath the flowery words of love and devotion lurked sinister undertones. Or so Victoria thought anyway. Mrs. Leighton’s warning had only reinforced Victoria’s instincts regarding Lord Berkwith.
“He implores you to meet him at the Bear and the Crown. That sounds like a common house or an inn. Ridiculous.” If Lord Berkwith were standing in front of her, she would be tempted to employ a maneuver taught to her by none other than Thomas himself involving a well-placed knee.
“I shouldn’t go. I can’t go. Can I?” Eleanor’s expressive eyes pleaded with Victoria, but she wasn’t sure what answer her friend sought.
“I fear your dowry has induced this mad scheme.”
“You don’t believe he loves me?” Eleanor hugged herself.
Victoria opened her mouth to recount Mrs. Leighton’s warning, but she swallowed the words. She didn’t want to be the one to break Eleanor’s heart. “If his love is true, he will be patient and woo you until your parents are won over. He shouldn’t ask you to sacrifice your reputation.”
“But he says he has given up his rooms and is spending the afternoon readying our conveyance. He will be waiting with bated breath for me, and I have no way to get word to him. His heart will be shattered if I do not meet him.” Eleanor paced. “I can simply show up, inform him I can’t elope, but my heart remains true, and return home.”
“Your mother will never allow you take the family carriage to a common house. Alone. If you or your carriage are recognized, you will be ruined.”
“Do you have a function tonight?”
“My parents are attending a dinner at the Carlyle’s, but I begged off.”
“Mother won’t know that. I could tell her you have extended an invitation to me. She trusts Lady Hawkins. I will come to your house and once your parents have left take a hack to this Bear and Crown place and explain myself. Dear Randall will understand my heart is true. Then I will return to you with no one the wiser.”
“That is a foolhardy plan. Not to mention dangerous. I can’t support it.”
Too many possibilities swirled. What if Lord Berkwith didn’t take no for an answer and abducted Eleanor? As her father often opined, desperation turned good men evil, and Victoria wasn’t sure how good Lord Berkwith was to begin with.
“You could send a note.” Victoria knew the suggestion would be discarded before she even made it.
“I will go with or without your help.” Eleanor’s eyes gleamed with tears and determination.
It was clear Eleanor would not allow Berkwith to pine alone and discarded. Victoria paced and set to formulating a better plan—not that that was saying much. The last thing Victoria wanted was to involve herself further, but she saw no choice. At least she could take care of herself. Eleanor was an innocent lamb among wolves.
“I will go and decline the elopement on your behalf then call on you tomorrow with whatever message he would like to pass on to you.” The one upside to her plan was being able to have a forthright chat with the possibly feckless lord.
“I can’t ask you to put your reputation at risk for me, Victoria.”
Victoria waved the thought away. “I am used to concealment and deception.”
A puzzled look drew Eleanor’s brows inward. “Whatever do you mean?”
Victoria pursed her lips. She’d said too much. For one thing, Sir Hawkins was only known as a man of political influence to society at large. Few understood his actual role. Not to mention, Victoria wasn’t sure how Eleanor would look upon her clandestine outings to bookshops and museums dressed as a sober, veiled widow. Would she be fascinated or scandalized? Neither possibility boded well.
“You must be kind.” Eleanor paced. “And you must assure him of my good will and affection.”
“Of course, I’ll be kind as possible.” Unfortunately for Lord Berkwith, Victoria wasn’t feeling a depth of human kindness at the moment.
“I wouldn’t sleep a wink wondering at his reaction. No. I will tell Mother I’m accompanying your family to dinner this evening and wait in your room while you meet with him.”
Victoria sighed and girded herself to persuade her friend otherwise. Fifteen minutes passed wherein Eleanor countered every argument Victoria made until she accepted it was useless. At least Eleanor would be safe in Victoria’s room and not in Lord Berkwith’s clutches.
On the walk back to her town house, Victoria worked out how to sneak Eleanor into her room, disguise herself, meet a man at a common house, and avoid getting caught or ruined. Honestly, it seemed straightforward enough.
Garrick couldn’t shake the niggling feeling something was wrong. Trouble was, he couldn’t pinpoint the source as being external or somewhere in the vicinity of his heart.
He paced the pavement outside the Hawkins’s town house, but the night was quiet. The temperature had dropped precipitously. The amassing clouds of the morning had moved in and obscured the moon and stars. The coal black sky spit out a few snowflakes.
He returned to the house, chafing his hands, and stood in the entry, hearing only the usual domestic clatter. The laughter from downstairs was a bit louder as the servants finished their work and socialized in the kitchen, knowing the master and missus were absent.
He’d been tasked to remain at the house. Victoria was feeling peaked, or so she’d informed her parents, and had bowed out of the planned dinner party. Garrick hoped he wasn’t the reason she was feeling sick. The guilt of his indiscretion was crushing him. While he might not be well born or wealthy, he was honorable. Or so he’d believed.