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Thomas studied the staff tasked with preparing the gardens. Young and old alike hustled and bustled through the greenery, going out of their way to get everything absolutely perfect—yet an air of distracted stress hung over the estate, rather than the cool sleepiness Thomas had become accustomed to in his nighttime visits here.
Was it possible he could just…?
His heart in his throat, Thomas set off into the gardens. He tried to hold himself tall, making it look as though he belonged there, rather than the truth of the matter, which was that he had broken in and was now literally ‘skulking about.’
Miraculously, while a few servants glanced up as he walked by, they seemed too taken with their own hectic preparation activities to truly pay him any mind. What else was he to them, after all, besides a gentleman—likely a guest of someone in the Talbot family—taking an afternoon stroll in the gardens?
Quietly, pulse thrumming, Thomas reached the wide stone patio, where ornate double doors led into the house’s interior downstairs. He reached for the door handle, reminding himself that under no circumstances could he allow himself to be seen by any members of the Talbot family or the butler, the one member of the staff who would know for certain that he had not been received into the house properly—
“Pardon me,” came a clear, bell-like voice from the opposite end of the patio. “But I was not informed we were having guests yet. To whom do I owe the…oh.”
Thomas looked over, and his stomach dropped. A beautiful woman with raven-black hair piled atop her head stood beside a particularly vibrant flower arrangement, whathadbeen a kind smile sliding from her face.
It was not Lady Evelina. It was her sister.
