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Sybil smiled.
“I might go to the perfumier, since everyone else will be busy,” she said.
Rowena felt a wave of relief. If her entire family was going to be busy, there was no possibility they might see her at the park instead of at Nancy’s and catch her in her lie. Feeling emboldened, she rose, her smile widening as she curtseyed.
“I will be back in time to get ready for this evening,” she said. “May I be excused?”
Her mother looked to her father, who nodded.
“Of course, my dear,” he said, sounding like the father she had always known before he’d left red marks on her wrists. “Have a lovely day.”
Rowena nodded, trying not to run as she exited the dining hall. When she reached the hallway, Sally greeted her. She walked alongside her for a moment in silence.
“Is the carriage ready?” Rowena asked.
Sally nodded, biting her lip.
“It is,” she said. “Would you like to freshen up before we depart?”
Rowena shook her head, glancing over her shoulder toward the dining hall.
“No,” she said. “The sooner we leave, the better.”
Sally nodded, first helping Rowena tie on her bonnet, then securing her own before the pair left the house and got into the waiting carriage. Rowena quickly got lost in her thoughts again, wondering about the baron and his odd request to meet with her.
“Miss,” Sally suddenly said as the carriage rolled along. “May I speak freely?”
Rowena nodded, eager to hear what Sally had to say, especially if it had anything to do with her maid’s strange, skittish mood.
“Of course, Sally,” she said. “You never need to ask me such a thing.”
Sally bit her lip.
“I really think you should reconsider meeting with Lord Elsbrook,” she said bluntly.
Rowena raised her eyebrows in concern.
“Why?” she asked. “Is there something I do not know?”
Sally sighed.
“Nothing that you do not know,” she said, “but something I think you must consider more carefully. You and I both know that a gentleman requesting to meet in such a manner can only have scandalous intentions in mind.”
Rowena sighed. Until then, she had kept her previous communications with the baron secret, even from Sally. Sally knew what the baron had asked of her. She did not know what he had said to her to get her to consider meeting with him. But to put her friend’s mind at ease, she knew she would have to speak up.
“His lordship has discovered that my father wishes to make a match between me and the earl,” she said.
Sally’s eyes widened and her face scrunched into a look of utter disdain and horror.
“Heavens!” she said, sounding as though the wind had been knocked out of her. “He is old enough to be your father himself.”
Rowena shuddered, nodding.
“Unfortunately, Father is desperate to make a match for his spinster daughter,” she said. “No matter what that means. And no matter how I feel about it.”
Sally sat back against the carriage seat, looking shocked. There was a long silence before she spoke again.
“Has the baron told you how he knows of this?” she asked, looking at Rowena with furrowed brow.
