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Chapter Six
Kenneth read Rose’s letter with a mixed feeling of excitement and dread. He was standing in his bedroom and Leonard was in front of him, observing quietly.
As was his custom this past week, he’d immediately headed to the bedroom at dusk to await Leonard’s arrival and by extension, Rose’s letter.
Rose had proceeded to tell him that they needed to meet immediately. If he’d missed the sense of urgency embedded in that request, Rose had gone on to draft a carefully detailed plan of how they were to meet. Now he was extremely worried for her safety.
He read the letter over and over again to ensure that he wasn’t imagining the sense of urgency he felt from the letter.
Is she all right? Did her father discover our secret correspondence?
For the umpteenth time, he looked at Leonard and repeated his line of questioning.
“Did you notice anything off with the maid when she gave you the letter? Did she say anything else about Lady Rose? Did she hint at whether Lady Rose was fine or in trouble?”
Leonard simply smiled and continued to reassure Kenneth that there was nothing he had missed in the demeanor of the lady’s maid. She’d simply handed him the letter as usual and they had gone their separate ways.
Before he returned his gaze to the letter and tried to read it for the thousandth time, Leonard stepped forward and paused his reading.
“Your bill, Kenneth. You need to be presenting His Grace with a draft this evening as promised, so he could continue to engender support for it amongst his peers.” Leonard said, reminding him of the amendment to the deal he and his father had made.
After the success of the ball, his father had stepped into the study the next day and asked that Kenneth make a draft available for him to read. Kenneth had responded by saying the Duke should give him a week to prepare a final draft and do some finishing touches.
For all their differences, Kenneth appreciated that his father was, in his own way, trying to help his son’s political career. He, on the other hand, knew that he still needed his father’s experience if he was going to have any chance of getting that bill to fly through parliament.
Without his father’s experience and support of his peers, Kenneth knew the bill was dead in the water as soon as it arrived, no matter how carefully he tried to word it.
And there is the matter of Lord Somerholm.
The wariness he’d felt after the Earl’s comment at the ball had remained lodged at the back of his mind. He’d continue to bounce around whether he was overthinking it or whether he’d truly heard something hidden in the Lord’s voice.
He paused, his train of thought returning to Lady Rose, albeit briefly. For now, Lady Rose’s letter was clear that they needed to meet in person as soon as possible. Her plan was that after dinner, she was going to sneak out into the garden where Kenneth was meant to meet her. She had detailed in the letter the route for Kenneth to follow to avoid discovery.
On the other hand, Leonard was right. Besides the fact that the letter had said that they needed to meet tonight, there was nothing else he could do but present the final draft of his bill to his father while he waited. The only problem now was presenting the draft in person and having his father wanting to hold him down to talk about it.
“Are you aware if the Duke is around?” Kenneth asked, hoping that the answer was going to be no.
“The Duke is out with a hunting party. They were expected to be back by now, although they haven’t returned,” Leonard responded, already seeing where Kenneth was going with this.
“Quick!” Kenneth exclaimed. “Let us leave the draft and a message for him so I can slip out to meet Lady Rose,” he said, already heading to the door and on toward the study.
“Kenneth, wait,” Leonard exclaimed. “Let me handle the draft and leave the message for the Duke. You sneak out and head for your meeting with Lady Rose,” his valet said.
He nodded his approval to Leonard’s plan and headed for the door.
“Hold on, Kenneth. Let me escort you down to the stables so it doesn’t look too suspicious to anyone,” Leonard said, jumping in front of Kenneth and opening the door.
There was a way to sneak out of the manor through the stables. Kenneth and Leonard had discovered every inch of the grounds during their younger days, including several ways out of the manor. The way that held the least chance of discovery still remained the path through the stables.
Kenneth had used it on numerous occasions when he had to sneak out undetected, while needing everyone to believe that he was still in his bedroom. Without asking, he also knew Leonard had used that path when going to deliver and retrieve Lady Rose’s letters.
As he walked through the door behind Leonard, his blood boiled with excitement. He pulled his pocket watch and glanced at the time. He needed about half an hour to get from his manor to that of the Somerholm’s. He reckoned he was going to make it on time.
Forty minutes later and he was traversing the back of the Someroholm manor, looking for the hole in the hedge that Lady Rose’s letter had told him would be there.
Like him, she had obviously traversed every square inch of her father’s land and knew all the secret passages. This continued to add to his increased fascination with her. A lady who could feign interest inladylikeproceedings but deep down was more adventurous, bold, and daring to involve herself in territories and activities otherwise reserved for gentlemen.
She truly is something.
