His heart warmed at the thought of it.
He had become so fond of her lately that it was going to be very difficult to stay true to his determination to leave her and go start a life in the country. In fact, he wasn’t sure how he was going to bring himself to see that through. He only knew that he couldn’t change his mind now that he’d set upon a course of action.
The blank really was astonishingly reassuring. It was as if his mother’s hands had settled on his shoulders to comfort him and keep him warm. There was no way Prudence could have known what it would mean to him to wake up beneath this blanket of course. Leonard hadn’t known himself. But the fact that it hadn’t been intentional didn’t make it mean any less to him. He was deeply touched by what she’d done.
He got to his feet, folded the blanket carefully, and returned it to its home on the chair across the room. He stood for a moment, wondering what he would say when he saw her. Something like this surely had to be acknowledged. He couldn’t just go without saying anything at all. But it would be a very awkward thing.He wasn’t used to expressing gratitude for things like this. What would he say? What wouldshesay?
Maybe I could just write her a note or something. That would be so much easier.
But how ridiculous! Writing his wife a note to thank her for putting a blanket over his shoulders? That was making far too much of it. It would be better, he thought, to say nothing at all than it would be to do all that.
With a sigh, he left the study, wondering whether he would find her at breakfast. He was hungry, but at the same time, a part of him hoped that she wouldn’t be there so that he would have time to get his thoughts in order before he faced her and had to thank her—or not thank her—for what she had done last night.
The breakfast room, as it turned out, was empty except for a footman in the corner. The young man turned and made as if to hurry from room to begin the service at the sight of Leonard, but Leonard held up a hand to stop him.
“Just a moment,” he said. “Has Her Grace been down yet this morning? Has anyone seen her?”
“No, Your Grace,” the man said. “There’s been no sign of the Duchess.”
Leonard frowned. “I’ll wait to take my meal,” he replied. “I’d like to her to eat with me.” It was odd—he hadn’t realized thatwas something he wanted until just now, but the knowledge that Prudence wasn’t here stopped him from wanting to eat. He didn’t take a seat. Instead, he moved to the window and gazed absently out over the grounds.
He frowned.
There was a crowd accumulated under the oak tree several yards from the house.
“What is half my staff doing out on the grounds?” he demanded of the footman.
“I—I’m afraid I don’t know anything about it, Your Grace.” The man came over and joined him at the window. “I didn’t see anyone go out. I was busy preparing to serve at the table. I couldn’t tell you what that’s all about.”
“If Her Grace comes to the table, please tell her that I want her to stay until I return,” Leonard said. “I’m going to go and see what all that is about.”
He hurried toward the door and out onto the grounds, not exactly sure why the sight of his staff congregating as they were concerned him so much. The only thing he knew for certain was that there was something worrying about what he was seeing. It was out of the ordinary, and Leonard didn’t like it when things were unusual or unexpected.
As he approached the tree, he saw that everyone was looking up. Drawing closer, he heard distressed cries. “Your Grace—come down! It isn’t safe! What are you doing?”
His heart kicked into a rapid staccato.She wouldn’t.
But who was he fooling? Of course, she would.
And sure enough, there she was—Prudence had climbed into the tree and was inching her way out along a branch with single-minded focus. She paid no attention to the people below hollering up at her. It was as if she didn’t even hear the voices.
“What’s going on?” he asked, joining the crowd.
It was Mrs. Mills who answered. “There’s a cat up there,” she said, wringing her hands. “Her Grace decided to go up and fetch it. She was halfway up the tree by the time anyone realized what she was doing. We told her to come back down and that one of us would take care of it, but… she refused, Your Grace. She hasn’t paid us any mind, and we can’t seem to get her to come out of the tree. I don’t know what to do about it. Jenkins there tried going up after her, but the tree won’t take his weight, and as for me, I’m too old to climb like that…”
“You’ve done nothing wrong,” Leonard assured his housekeeper, suppressing a groan. “The Duchess is a deeply stubborn person. I’m not surprised to find her behaving like this and not listening to good advice.”
He looked up into the tree branches.Now of all times, I wish she was wearing those men’s clothes! They would have been much safer to climb in than that gown. But, of course, I took the shirt and the trousers away from her, so she couldn’t have worn them today. Well, that’s hardly my fault! How could I have known she would do such a foolhardy thing as this?
He wanted to yell up at her, to tell her to come down at once, but he restrained himself. For one thing, he didn’t believe she would listen to him. She hadn’t listened to anyone else. It wasn’t as if no one had tried yet to coax her down. And she never listened to him about anything else, so why would she listen about this?
More to the point, he was frightened of what might happen if he spoke up and distracted her. It terrified him to think that he might break her focus and cause her to fall. He wasn’t going to say anything to her, he decided. Not until she was safely back on the ground. Then the two of them would have this out. But not before.
The cat let out a pathetic, frightened sound.
Prudence reached for a higher branch and stepped up to climb even higher into the tree.
Leonard’s breath caught. He felt as if he was looking into the future—as if he could see what was about to happen a moment before it occurred.
