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“You realise how mad that sounds?” Sherborne said with a laugh. “You are about to assist the man you love in pursuing another woman, meanwhile dressed as a man.”
“It does sound a little absurd, doesn’t it?” Violette said before turning away and letting out an exasperated growl, flinging off her hat and splaying her hands in her hair. “It was never supposed to go like this.”
“I figured,” Sherborne said, folding his arms and clearly having no intention of stepping away from blocking the door.
“It just sort of….” Violette shrugged.
“Got out of control? Rather like when you drop a ball at the top of a hill, and it starts rolling slowly.”
“Then it gets faster and faster,” Violette said, turning back round to face him. He was looking much healthier than when she had first found him. The good meals had meant he’d put on a little weight, and he looked happier too, despite the stress she was causing him now. “How are you, Sherborne?”
“Frustrated,” he said, looking up from his crossed arms.
“Is that because you are worried for me, or scared that if this all goes wrong, you could lose this nice job you have become accustomed to?”
“Can it not be both?” he asked, dropping his arms and holding them out toward her in a pleading motion. Violette nodded slowly. “Miss, you need to make a decision. Right now.”
“What decision?” she asked.
“If you help this man marry this other woman, then you can never tell him how you really feel.”
The words made Violette flinch. She hadn’t got that far; she had been too busy thinking of trying to help Lord Northrive and erase the pain that she had seen etched on his face atop the hill when he had told her of his last attempt at courting.
“Are you prepared to make that sacrifice?” Sherborne said.
“What do you think I should do?” Violette said quietly.
“Well, if you help him now, then your identity stays hidden, and I get to keep my job, so I should be happy,” Sherborne said, doing a little happy dance. “Yet I do not want to see you miserable because of this, Miss.”
The latter words made her laugh sharply stop.
“Then I need time to think,” she said slowly. “If you would, let me out, please.” She gestured to the door. Sherborne reluctantly stepped to the side and let her through.
After the door closed behind her, Violette only took a few steps when she found she had made up her mind. She loved Lord Northrive, more than any other man she had ever met, but that didn’t mean she could be so selfish as to scupper his chances with Lady Helen. His possible marriage to Lady Helen mattered to him, because he believed it could not only make himself happy, but his father too.
“Who would I be if I denied helping him now?” Violette muttered to herself as she descended the staircase. It was because she loved him, that she knew she had to help him in his pursuit of Lady Helen. “I can make him happy then, even if my own happiness has to come second to that.”
Once she reached the ground floor, she went in search of Lady Helen, and found her a few minutes later in the library with a book in her lap, hiding in the shadows of the room.
“Lady Helen, I hope you forgive the intrusion,” Violette said hurriedly with a bow.
“No intrusion at all,” Lady Helen said happily, putting the book down. The way in which she sat forward with an eager smile on her lips suggested to Violette that she was trying to draw Violette into her charms, the same way she had done with most of the Catling brothers.
“It is such a pleasant day out—would you join me for a turn about the garden?” Violette said, gesturing out beyond the windows.
“Oh, I am not good in the heat, Mr Blake,” she said, shaking her head. Violette had to grit her teeth together not to make some quip about the feebleness of it all. Were it a truly hot day, she would have understood the complaint, but it was merely warm, with the sun slipping between clouds all the time.
“It is cooling off now, and we can stick to the shade. What do you say, Lady Helen, just for a few minutes? I am sure the exercise will do you good.” Violette stepped forward and proffered her arm, knowing that sooner or later, Lady Helen would have to give in. This woman liked attention after all. She was hardly going to spurn it.
“I dare say you are right,” Lady Helen said, jumping to her feet and taking Violette’s arm. “I would be delighted to join you, Mr Blake.”
