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Chapter 28
It was possible that they were all about to be in very grave trouble.
Mary knew that if she was caught, she would never leave the house again. Miss Lilly would lose her position and risk never again finding such good employment. Sarah would be banished from the estate, never allowed to return and see Mary. And Lord Hanbrooke would have his name dragged through the city and perhaps even have the constable called on him.
But this was a risk they had all agreed to take, and it was one that Mary was desperate to try.
After dinner, Mary had been sent back to her room and locked in as usual. But near to midnight, when all others in the house would have already gone to sleep, she heard the click of the lock from the other side of the door.
The footsteps faded away and Mary knew that she was safe. Miss Lilly had unlocked the door and she was gone, returned to her own room for the next hour until she would come and lock the door again with Mary inside.
Mary snuck out into the hall and did not take any sort of light with her. She silently made her way down the stairs, keeping her ears alert to any sounds which might suggest the presence of another. She could not get caught. Especially not by Lady Rachel. Not when she was sneaking down to see a man—the very thing of which she had been accused.
But Mary knew that this was nothing like what they had suggested about her. This was not some secret man and she was not having a private liaison. She would barely even be able to speak with Lord Hanbrooke. She would not be able to touch him or hold his hand. They would not kiss. There would be a pane of glass between them.
And yet, this was worth it. It was worth the risk just to see him on the other side of the window and hope that they could hear one another through the glass.
When she reached the ground floor, Mary found her way to the library. If the worst were to happen and she was discovered, she would lie and say that she had been unable to sleep and discovered that the lock had not caught on her door. She had chosen to come and find a book.
It was the best excuse she could come up with and the most believable, given her penchant for reading.
Soon enough, she was able to sneak into the library and pick up a book to keep in her hand in case she was found. But Mary made her way over to the window and sat down beside it. After only a moment, he was there, approaching. She could see him in the dim light of the moon.
Lord Hanbrooke.
They were inches away on either side of the glass and it was deeply painful to be parted, but he was handsome as ever. She could see the faint smile on his face, desperate as she was to be closer.
“Lady Mary,” he said. It was garbled through the glass, but she could discern it. They would have no hope for a proper conversation, but at least they could look at one another and share a moment together.
“Lord Hanbrooke. I am so sorry that this has happened,” she said, keeping her voice low enough not to be heard by anyone else in the house, but to ensure that he could catch enough of her words to know what she’d said.
“I know,” he replied.
For a long moment, they gazed into one another’s eyes and it felt as if everything would be all right. Mary didn’t want to admit that things were still a mess, that there was still no hope of being together again; in that moment, all she wanted was to continue looking at him, hoping that there would be a day when there would be no pane of glass between them.
She longed for a day when they would be together, when they would be close.
“I wish I could hear you better,” he said with a bitter laugh.
“As do I. But even this is better than nothing,” Mary said, enunciating each word and trying not to sound silly.
But as she sat there, Mary remembered that her mother had once told her father that the library was getting too musty and needed to be aired out. Her father had argued that it would be quite a hassle as the windows were stationary in the library. But they had managed to loosen the glass on just one of the windows and remove it from the frame.
Was it possible that it was still like that? Had her father gotten it repaired or had he left it for the sake of airing out the room again in the future?
Mary stood and started walking along the windows, pressing her hands against the glass to see if anything was loose enough. At last, she felt it. The glass slid slightly under her palms and she was able to lean it just enough to pull it over the ledge and create a gap.
Lord Hanbrooke rushed over and gasped with joy. He smiled and Mary smiled in return, grateful that she could finally see him clearly and hear his voice.
“Lady Mary, I am so glad to see you again,” he said in a rush. “I have been miserable, being so far away from you. I have tried everything I could possibly think of. I am desperate to find a solution to all of this, but your father refuses to see me.”
“I know. It feels as though everything is waging war against us right now. But we have this moment and that is something. This is our sign to not give up hope. And I am so thankful for everything you are doing. You have not ceased in your efforts to get me out of here and I could not be more grateful to you,” Mary said.
“But it still is not enough. Soon, I promise you, we will find a way. I am not giving up. None of us are. We are going to get your freedom, no matter what,” he said.
Mary looked him in the eye, feeling the weight of his words. She was grateful that he was still trying to get her out of this, but in that moment, she didn’t care about strategy or victory or failure. She cared only about having a moment with this man she had not seen for so long. She was in love with him. Deeply in love.
And she had scarcely been able to show him that.
