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Henry smacked his lips in distaste. “I have to tell you, Lord Barrow. This conversation is making me uncomfortable.” Henry didn’t like the frantic look in Frederick’s eye no more than he liked the way Frederick was rubbing his hands together greedily as though he just couldn’t wait for Lord Clay to pass away.
“I am sorry to hear as much, but I needed to tell you of my plans at once,” Frederick replied.
“Why?” Henry questioned, his brow furrowing. “Why did youneedto tell me?”
Frederick stood exuberantly. “I needed to tell you because Rosalin will be arriving here later tonight.”
“Here? Tonight?” Henry asked, quickly feeling flabbergasted by this turn of events. “Why is she coming here?”
“I’ve told you,” Frederick said impatiently. He began to pace back and forth across the room, the buckle on his boots catching the firelight as he moved quickly. “Rosalin and I are going to be together. We are going to be man and wife. But until her husband dies, we must keep our affections for each other secret.”
“But why does she need to come here?” Henry questioned.
“BecauseI’mhere,” Frederick boomed. He stopped walking about the room and stood in front of the fireplace. He placed one hand on the mantel. “She doesn’t want to spend another minute in that cold and unfeeling house. And I can’t blame her. She is going to arrive later tonight, and as soon as we receive word that the way is clear, we shall leave for Gretna Green.”
“So…wait…” Henry said, standing now. “I’m confused. Are you waiting for Lord Clay to die and then you will marry or are you going to get married before he has taken his last breath?”
Frederick shrugged. “Does it matter?”
Henry’s mouth opened in astonishment. “I think it does.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter to me,” Frederick replied. He dropped his hand from the mantelpiece and then he slowly walked across the room and stood right in front of Henry. “I love Rosalin and she has confessed that she loves me, too. We shall be married and I, for one, couldn’t be happier.”
Henry took a step backward, not comfortable with that sort of proximity, but Frederick followed him. Henry made a disgruntled sigh, “I’m not going to say I’m happy for you if that is what you were hoping for, Frederick. I don’t believe a man should steal away some other man’s wife, no matter how much in love he believes himself to be.”
Frederick laughed derisively. “I’m not looking for your approval. I’m standing here, in front of you now, hoping to secure your secrecy.”
“My secrecy?” Henry asked. “Why does that matter?”
Frederick frowned slightly. “It doesn’t matter so much to me, but it may matter to your grandmother… And I know it will most definitely matter to my sister and my mother.”
“I don’t understand,” Henry admitted.
“Rosalin will be here shortly. Shemayelect to tell Eleanor about our plans, but I know we must not tell anyone else. We cannot afford to have others interfere and thwart us.”
Henry thought of his grandmother and how she would react to the situation. At first, she would be caught up in the scandal of it all, and she would probably send for a carriage at once so she could report all these misdeeds to Lord Clay herself.
But then, another vision of Henry’s grandmother floated into his mind. This time he saw her grief-stricken as the other ladies of thetonwhispered that she was so closely connected to this disgrace. She would be humiliated, not because she did anything unseemly, but because she had known of the affair, it had touched her relations, and the couple had sought sanctuary in her own house.
“No, I can see how telling others would be detrimental,” Henry conceded.
“Good. Then we are agreed. When Rosalin arrives, we will conceal her whereabouts. You will not tell a soul what you know, and she and I will be gone at once,” Frederick said, narrowing his eyes at Henry.
Henry nodded in affirmation. “I won’t tell.” But he wasn’t sure he meant it. While he didn’t want to bring shame on his grandmother and he didn’t want to alarm her with this news, he hardly felt he could keep the matter from Eleanor. She was too closely tied to the situation on all sides. She deserved to know.
Henry marched from the study then and raced toward the sitting room. He wasn’t sure if the ladies would still be there, as it had already been a long day, and they might have elected to retire early. Spending time with Henry’s grandmother and her own mother often left Eleanor feeling exhausted, and so she regularly went to bed before everyone else.
Henry was just about to head toward the staircase and Eleanor’s chambers when he heard two female voices bickering. The disturbance emanated from the sitting room.
Not again. Those two ladies can’t be arguing over the roses again.
The Dowager Duchess of Lawson and the Dowager Countess of Barrow could not let their rivalry over the roses drop, even after Henry’s grandmother’s roses had been destroyed. If anything, their untimely destruction had made his grandmother even more zealous in her endeavor to prove that her roses would grow once more, and they would flourish. She was determined. She vowed that she would again be crowned the victor of the rose competition.
But as Henry drew closer to the sitting room, he realized that it was not his grandmother’s voice he heard. It was Eleanor’s. She and her mother were arguing about something, quite loudly.
Henry slowed his pace and he crept quietly toward the door. He knew better than to listen outside of the door, but he couldn’t help himself. The Dowager Countess was constantly picking on Eleanor, and it seemed that Eleanor was finally standing up for herself. Henry didn’t want to spoil that by barging into the room now.
He reached for the doorknob and pulled the door open just a fraction of an inch further. It was just enough so he could hear Eleanor’s next words. “Mother, tell me plainly: why don’t you like me?”
