“There you are,” a voice she easily recognized said from the area of the open door.
Audrey turned to view her cousin. “Did all go well?”
Caroline entered slowly. “Not even a greeting? What has become of our friendship?”
Audrey’s smile widened. “It is as strong as ever.” She wiped the sword and its handle with the same towel she had used upon her forehead. “Come. Let us return to my quarters where I might freshen my gown while you tell me how your task went.”
Caroline claimed Audrey’s arm until they reached the narrow stairs. “How did your practice progress?” her cousin asked as she led the way downward.
“Naturally, it is much easier when you and I practice together,” Audrey confided.
Caroline glanced up at her. “Such is good to hear you say. I thought perhaps you might have chosen a new partner.”
Audrey laughed. “I doubt many fine English ladies practice defending themselves with either a sword or a gun. They prefer afternoon teas and soirées, where the only weapons required are their fans and their wits.”
Caroline’s dark features took up a hardness Audrey’s cousin rarely displayed, even to Audrey. “Such is because they have never worried about where their next meal might come. They have not stood upon a ship’s deck and looked upon the fast approach of an enemy ship bearing down on them. They have never had to defend themselves against those set on taking what is not theirs.” Caroline paused briefly, as if she considered the importance of her uncharacteristic criticism. She sighed heavily. “I apologize for my maudlin. In truth, I meant my remark as a tease. Papa spoke of the interest Lord Marksman showed you at the masque.”
Audrey drove the embarrassment away. “As I have told Uncle previously, his lordship only performed as any gentleman would. Lord Bacggart would not take my denial of a dance seriously.” She prayed Caroline would not realize Audrey bent the truth. “Lord Marksman took note of my difficulty in avoiding Bacggart and acted as my gallant. I could hardly avoid dancing with the earl afterwards.”
Caroline’s eyebrow rose in challenge. “Did you find Lord Marksman fair of countenance?”
Audrey paused briefly before responding. “The gentleman is quite handsome; yet, even before taking his acquaintance, I had remarked to uncle how the earl appeared to be a strutting coxcomb.”
“And after you danced with the gentleman?” Caroline demanded.
Audrey swallowed the blush rushing to her cheeks. In reality, Lord Marksman was often in her thoughts, but it would not do for either Caroline or Honfleur to know something of Audrey’s fascination with the man. “I found him to be an excellent dancer and conversationalist,while still being a typical English aristocrat—a man full of self-importance.”
Caroline admitted, “I have not been officially introduced to the earl, but I have viewed him twice in passing.”
Audrey felt a bit of jealousy creep along her spine. “What was your first impression of the gentleman?”
Caroline shrugged her response. “I suppose he is fair of face, but he is not exactly what I would find appealing in my future companion.”
Audrey remarked, “You were never interested in men who were fair of head. You have always preferred a man with hair and eyes as dark as your own. Marksman’s reddish-tinted hair and blue eyes cannot compare to Ansel back home, can they?”
Caroline contended, “I have never expressed a preference for Ansel or any other man, for that matter, be he fair of head or swarthy as a sailor.”
Audrey chuckled as she took the lead on the narrow stairs. “I am glad to hear your head is not so easily turned by a rich Englishman. I pray to be as strong as you and not to be swayed easily by the first handsome man who crosses my path.” She glanced back at her cousin. “You never said if you encountered trouble today or not.”
“I simply retrieved the note you could not because of Lord Marksman’s interference, along with a second message.”
This time Audrey blushed. She did not appreciate another reminder of her failure. She ducked her head so Caroline could not observe the turmoil Audrey often experienced when Uncle Jacobi asked her to perform such a task. She never wished to fail him, for, without him, she would have lived a life of penury and would have possessed no family of which to speak; yet… Yet, privately, she often questioned some of the ideas he purported, and she did not like to think he was involved in some sort of scandal. As she had grown older, she realized much of the income her uncle spent so freely had come on the backs of those less fortunate or from conducting some sort of farce to extract money from the wealthy they encountered in their travels.
“I am excessively grateful,” Audrey said to Caroline. “I would never wish you to know danger, especially because I did not perform as I should have. I disappointed Uncle Jacobi, and I regret doing so more than I can ever name.”
Caroline assured, “Do not fret so. It was your first time assisting Father, and you possess no natural guile.”
Audrey laughed awkwardly. “And you do?”
Caroline’s cheeks flushed with color before she said, “My guile comes from practice, as will yours. There is enough time for you to hone your skills. As for today, no one followed me to the tearoom, if that is what you are asking. So far, I am just another woman on the street, out walking with my maid. I have only been officially introduced to a half dozen of London’s society at the musicale my father and I attended last evening, which proved, by the way, to be remarkably boring. That is where I caught a glimpse of your Lord Marksman. He was with another elderly gentleman and a woman dark of head.”
“Likely Lord Duncan and the man’s daughter,” Audrey explained. “Lord Duncan served as one of Marksman’s guardians when the young lord first came into his peerage. From what his lordship said, I assume Marksman was quite young when he inherited. I have not officially taken the acquaintance of either Lord Duncan or Lady Theodora Duncan,” Audrey explained. “Did you come to be introduced to the trio?”
“Father guided me about the room in the opposite direction of where they stood. For some reason he has yet to explain, my father would prefer not to become too comfortable with Marksman or the others,” Caroline observed in a guarded manner.
Audrey’s curiosity arrived. “Does Uncle know something of the earl, which we do not?”
“Father has never expressed his reasons to me,” Caroline assured. “He simply warned me not to become friendly with the man.” Her cousin glanced around to know confidence there was no one elseabout who could overhear their conversation. “As to my task today, the shop owner placed the note addressed to my father on the counter as I went to pay him. I placed it in my reticule. That second task was much simpler than finding a note behind a particular tree in a park of which I was not familiar.”
