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They spent the next hour brainstorming together before finally arriving at a consensus.
“There is only one thing I can do. They see me as an outsider and part of the problem. I need to show them the genuineness of my cause and hope they believe me,” he said.
“I’m not sure I follow your logic, Kenneth,” Leonard responded.
“I need to show them why I got involved in this fight for the common folk in the first place. Would it be possible to get Marie to come with us tomorrow?”
Leonard already knew about the former maid-turned-doxy whose story had started him down this path. He didn’t have to explain further.
“I doubt that possibility. Even if I’m able to find her tonight, convincing her to side with you in the presence of some of these unsavory characters will be almost impossible. She’d stand to lose a lot,” Leonard lamented.
“Well, we can always get you to speak up beside me and fill in the gap. You know the story and you can very well corroborate it if needed.”
There was a brief pause in which he noticed Leonard’s hesitation.
The man is afraid. I can’t blame him, though. He’s done enough already.
The truth was he couldn’t have come this far without Leonard. All the research he’d gotten done for his bill, as well as the meeting, had been made possible because of his valet. It was unfair for him to ask any more.
“All right. I will lead with my story and leave out any witnesses. Hopefully, my performance will be enough to convince them,” he conceded and immediately noticed Leonard’s relief.
“As you wish, Kenneth.” Leonard remarked.
“Let’s get some rest. We have a huge day ahead of us tomorrow,” Kenneth said, dismissing their little meeting and heading off to bed.
He woke up in the middle of the night with a start.
He’d had a bad dream. To worsen matters, Rose had also made an appearance in his nightmare.
With his whole body drenched in sweat, he tried to get off the bed as he recalled details of the dream.
He’d been standing in front of the House of Lords. He’d turned then to find Rose staring at him, eyes white. He’d tried calling out to her but she couldn’t hear him.
Suddenly she was swallowed by a mass of advancing bodies that were chanting and demanding for his head on a spike. Next thing he realized, he was still conscious, even as his head was detached and hoisted up on a spike.
As his decapitated head was being lifted from the ground, the last thing he remembered was seeing Rose’s white eyes in the middle of the crowd, staring back at him.
The dream had no meaning and yet it had pulled him out of a deep sleep.
“It was just a dream.” Kenneth kept repeating it to himself and yet he could not shake the sense of foreboding that continued to sweep over him in waves.
He checked the time and realized it was just three hours past midnight. There was still a good amount of time ahead before daylight.
You have to go back to sleep.
Eventually, he won the battle over his emotions and regained control of his racing heart, before slowly drifting back to sleep.
When morning came, he had all but forgotten the dream as he got ready and went back to the study to prepare for his meeting at noon.
The dream only came back to mind when thoughts of Rose began creeping into his consciousness.
He immediately pulled out his writing materials and penned down a letter to her which Leonard was going to deliver this morning.
With that out of the way, his attention returned to his meeting and a draft of his bill which currently lay open on the table in front of him.
“Morning, Kenneth. Are you ready to go?” Leonard asked, after walking in on him a few hours later.
“I am,” he replied simply, as he began gathering his papers. “Oh, and after you take me to the location, I want you to turn round and have this delivered to Lady Rose,” he said, handing over the letter he’d written to Leonard.
