“Most of them can pay better. This is an expensive proposition.” Eloise had been startled at the cost of three-months’ rent, but she knew this was a relatively safe area of town. Even for a Blade.
“Imagine if you were keeping a mistress as well. Fortunately for you, I am an inexpensive guest.” Adrienne laughed, then paused looking into one corner of the ceiling. “Spider webs.”
Eloise’s eyes widened. “What?”
Adrienne shrugged. “Old ones. But you should pay to have the rooms given a thorough going over.”
“This afternoon, if possible.”
“I suspect you will be detained elsewhere this afternoon.” Adrienne circled back around and picked up one of the two portmanteaus at Eloise’s feet. “Let’s get you settled, so that when you do get back here, you will not have to do anything except undress and fall into bed.” She disappeared into the bedchamber, and the wood-on-wood noises of drawers and doors followed.
Eloise remained still, nerves beginning to make her tremble. “Adrienne,” she whispered.
Adrienne peered around the doorframe.
“I am terrified.”
Her friend’s expression softened, and she crossed, taking Eloise’s hands. “Of course, you are. How could you not be? This is the biggest risk you have ever taken.” She squeezed Eloise’s fingers, giving them a slight shake. “But you are also one of the bravest and strongest people I have ever known. You have always taken risks to help those you care about, just as you did me and the other shopkeepers. You see someone who needs help, and you bolt headlong for them, consequences be damned. Now it’s Timothy, and you have done this. You thought about what he must be enduring, and you did not hesitate.” She gestured at Eloise’s clothes, then reached to touch a short, reddened curl at the base of Eloise’s neck. “No matter what happens from here, you did it for him.”
Eloise nodded. “And if I am discovered?”
Adrienne hesitated. “You are not going to like hearing this, but you, my dear Eloise, will be caught out sometime during this adventure. Either by someone who recognizes you—or by you yourself.”
Eloise scowled. “I thought you were going to reassure me.”
“I think you need truth more than reassurance. You need to understand that and not be surprised.”
“What do you mean that I’ll catch myself out?”
Adrienne paused, looked down at the floor a moment, then back up to meet Eloise’s gaze. “You are about to enter a world where a man loving another man can be deadly. You are doing it to save your brother, yes, but it puts you and Lord Robert both at risk. You could be ruined. But Lord Robert Ashton could go to prison, even face execution.”
“He’s the son of a duke!”
“It will not matter. Society may often look the other way but Bow Street has been fixated this summer on raiding us without mercy. So before you step out that door, you need to ask yourself one question. Can you face ruin and scandal not only for Timothy but also for Lord Robert? Would you reveal yourself to be a woman, be destroyed, to save him?”
Eloise did not hesitate. “Of course!”
Adrienne smiled slowly. “Then what, my dear, are you terrified of?”
An excellent question. If Eloise embarked on this path, knowing without a doubt that she would eventually be revealed as a fraud, a scandalous pretender, her reputation as a lady forever destroyed—then why be afraid of the inevitable? After all, secrets only had power as long as they stayed secrets.
“So I should bolt headlong?”
“Without slowing down.”
“Consequences be damned.”
“And knock aside with your cane anyone who stands in your way.”
“Do men behave like this all the time?”
“They think it’s their God-given right as men.”
Eloise squared her shoulders. “I should unpack. I believe I have some bolting to do.”
Adrienne laughed. “Sir Edmund—”
“Lord Edmund.”
