Page 130
When Asquith reached Harbury House, he settled Calder into the duke’s generous stables.
Only the head groom was in attendance, and he agreed to busy himself above stairs while Asquith and Millie talked. Having settled the venue for his discussion with Millie, Asquith showed himself into the back entrance.
Voices led him in the direction of Harbury’s library.
“We have to come up with a serious illness, and quickly, too,” Lady Sarah said. “I put on quite a performance as we went through the theater lobby, Harbury. Tears! Me!”
“Over me?” Harbury’s healthy voice boomed. “Why, Sarah, I’m touched.”
“Don’t joke. After the dramatic way we exited, you can’t emerge tomorrow and say you merely suffered sniffles.”
“How about a stomach complaint?” Eliza suggested.
“Wouldn’t that cause suspicion, too?” Cassie questioned.
“Maybe... maybe not,” Adrian commented. “I’ve seen soldiers instantly taken down, dragged close to death’s door, and then recover in the matter of a few days over something in the rancid food. Although they tended to look drawn and weak when they emerged.”
“I can manage wan,” Harbury said, with an edge of mischievous excitement.
“Can you?” Cassie asked.
“He can,” Sarah sounded wry. “If you break his heart.”
“I suppose I deserved that,” Harbury replied, still in good cheer. “Though my brokenhearted days are long past. Stomach complaint it is, then. Serious. Death’s door. And only my wife is permitted to attend me. Strict orders. No one else.”
“Edward,” Cassie chided.
“Which leaves us with Millie,” Eliza said.
There was a short period of quiet. Asquith imagined them all turning in Millie’s direction.
Poor Millie. She’d be mortified.
“Shouldn’t Neville be here by now?” Millie asked.
A-ha! Asquith smiled to himself. She was not indifferent to Neville!
“Don’t you remember?” Sarah asked. “He said finding Asquith might take time.”
Asquith knocked against the jamb.
The duke called, “Enter.”
Millie was pale—not at all herself—but in much better shape than Neville had been. A surge of sisterly love in his heart surprised him. “Millicent, might I have a word?”
“Please.” She threw out her arm in a way that encompassed all her relatives. “Speak in front of everyone. Apparently, I no longer have a single secret.”
“No? The Millie I know has never been an open book.” He tilted his head and smiled warmly. “Won’t you come out to the stables? I’ve acquired a horse this afternoon, and I’d like your opinion.”
Again, her family reacted as one, glancing toward Asquith with expressions of almost comical disbelief.
“That is,” he clarified, “if Harbury does not mind that I’ve made use of his stables.”
“By all means,” Harbury replied. “Use the stables. What’s that to the sudden, debilitating illness my sister has heaped upon my head?”
“Thank you.” Asquith ignored Harbury’s sarcasm. “Millie?”
“If you’ll excuse me...” Millie rose on unsteady feet. Then, gratefully, she took Asquith’s arm.
