"I am utterly serious! They surprised me!" Nicholas was saying to his younger brother, Ralph, over the noise of the card games surrounding them at Grey's. He turned to Samuel Theobald, Ralph's friend from Adam's School for Young Gentlemen. "They did take me by surprise."
Samuel frowned. "And you had no idea at all? You are the lord of the estate for God's sake!"
Nicholas opened his eyes to answer but Ralph was faster to take the opportunity to make a mockery out of him by saying, "He is often taken by surprise by his servants. Your bloody sister has pretended to be his valet for months, Samuel, and he did not even feel an ounce of suspicion. How do you expect him to know what happens between his own butler and the chambermaid?" Ralph sneered at Nicholas. "You make a habit of knowing things upon the sound of wedding bells, brother."
Nicholas gritted his teeth at the reminder of how Samuel's sister, Maxine Theobald, who was now his brother Maxwell's wife, had fooled him for months on end, pretending to be a manâand his own valet! "I did see she was an odd sort to be a valet," he tried in grave and weak attempt to defend himself.
Ralph and Samuel merely scoffed as they reached for their drinks.
"And how did you respond to them?" Ralph asked.
"Who?"
"Your bloody butler and the chambermaid!"
"Ah, yes," he uttered with a shrug. "Of course I allowed the marriage. Oscar is a very tight man, too tight for his own good. And Molly seems to be a good influence. He smiled at me for the first time a fortnight ago, of course I said yes!"
"Maxine did share her excitement about the butler and the chambermaid months before," said Samuel. "She is friends with both, I remember."
"Of course," Nicholas said, "for your sister has the propensity to be at the wrong places in most casesâfirst in my own household pretending to be a valet and then at Rock'oles to grab her husband."
Samuel narrowed his eyes. "Maxwell was in Rock'oles?"
"To help with an important matter, no women," Nicholas quickly supplied. Maxwell had suffered enough with Samuel and his older brother when Maxwell went off to Tiny Town and married their sister. There was no need to inflict more damage on the poor man.
Samuel nodded but his eyes still held a glint of suspicion. As a writer for the Town Herald, the man's mind could very well be compared to the gossip sectionâcomplicated and utterly mysterious.
"By the by, Samuel," Ralph said, changing the topic for he was the only man in the table who would not wish for Samuel to be curious about the help Nicholas was talking about, "Your recent article about the Town Leaders caused quite an uproar."
"Yes," Nicholas agreed, "Ever since that marvelous article you wrote about Maxine, you have gotten bolder with your writing."
"You ought to be careful, my friend," Ralph said before Samuel could open his mouth in protest. "You cannot ken what a statesman might be inclined to do if you ruin their reputation, even if it was about a servant beating. A law protecting servants is yet to be passed and your loud rhetoric on the Herald might cause more trouble. Your pen can only protect you from afar."
Samuel sighed and shook his head. "And who do you expect to speak for the people? Who do you suspect ought to tell them of the unwanted events these Leaders are causing? And it is not just the Leaders I was attacking but the many other gentries who think themselves too high that they can beat their servants to death over a spilled fifty-year-old brandy! Who would tell the people of such atrocious acts? They all purchase the Herald for the gossipâgossip! One must feel great alarm when the people start to care less for politics and human error!"
"I could not agree more," Nicholas said with a nod. "Our mother for one merely scans the other pages under a blink of an eye but spends an entire morning reading the gossip section." He followed his statement with a laugh.
But Ralph had a serious look on his face as he continued to stare at his friend. "You are drawing a lot of attention on yourself by publishing these articles, Samuel. It was different before when you used a pen name. But now you are using your actual one and people are ambivalent."
Samuel, desperate to avoid a lecture from a Town Guard, jumped to his feet and said, "I see Wynne Hastings, gentlemen. Perhaps I can ask the fool to join us before he is made the laughingstock by everyone."
Both Nicholas and Ralph turned their head to see a tall, slim and awkward man sitting across the table with a drunken lord. "Why the bloody hell is he here?" Ralph asked.
"Assignment," said Samuel before he left to get his friend.
Nicholas tore his eyes away when Samuel was pulled down a chair by the drunken lord before he could even greet his friend. "They truly are an odd pair, those two," Nicholas said with a shake of his head. "Samuel appears better alone with us, but with that Hastings in tow you can spot no difference. The smell of books and ink erupt from his pores whenever he is seen with that man."
But Ralph was no longer interested with Samuel or Hastings. He was now giving Nicholas a level look.
Being four years older than Ralph with Ralph being nine-and-twenty and he three-and-thirty, he ought to scowl at his brother for treating him as if they were of the same age. But that was not the case between them for Ralph was also a friend as much as he was a brother.
"If you are about to ask about the door," he wryly stated under his breath for Ralph to only hear, "the answer is a resounding NO. She has not opened it yet."
His brother let out a breath of frustration. "I am starting to truly question your skill as a rakehell, Nick."
"I agree," he said, leaning back in his chair. "Baldwin, that fat and smelly cad, spent an hour or more inside her chamber the other day. Can you believe it? Baldwin!" He pointed with his finger at his brother, "And dare not compare me to that man."
Ralph shook his head. "Why would I when we both know he comes there for other reasons."
Nicholas turned serious. He crossed his leg over the other and rested his chin over his knuckles. "If I could only gain access into her chamber, our theories would eventually have its conclusion."
"Are you certain the one behind the door is a woman? For all we could know, it isâ"
"I heard her once," he interjected strongly.
"Gaspâyou heard her gasp," Ralph pointed out with derision. "Have you heard my footman gasp? He did yesterday when Emma burst into my study without warning and I do assure you, Nick, I almost thought he was a woman. I had to have him prove he was not by stripping his clothes!"
"Why the bloody hell would you ask your footman to strip in front of you!"
"Why? Well, after you were tricked by our sister-in-law into thinking she was a man, I just had to!"
Nicholas scowled and threatened to kick Ralph who swiveled in his chair to escape his attack. Samuel and Hastings managed to escape the drunken lord's table and were now on their way toward them. Nicholas leaned over to smack Ralph's head.
"A bit more patience, brother," he murmured under his breath, drawing back to their previous subject.
"I am starting to lose hope with Rock'oles, Nick. I am inclined to look elsewhere for proof if we cannot dig further than this. The numbers of missing women and children from the farthest parts of the Town are growing by the week and we cannot risk missing them forever."
Samuel and his odd friend Hastings were nearing. Nicholas prepared his jolly smile as he said under his breath, "No one has displayed their suspicion of me in Rock'oles as of yet, Ralph, so leave it to a rake what you bloody Town Guards cannot do."
*****
Sophia could not stay still but she ought to compose herself. For seven years she had been naught but grateful for her spacious chamber in Rock'oles. She had not found it too small, nor was it too confining despite the fact that she had never ventured father than the secret corridors.
Until now.
Brigid jumped away from her when she almost stepped on the cat as she paced around the room restlessly. "Sorry," she murmured. She may be perfectly oriented with her chamber, but she had little control of where her pets might settle.
The cat meowed and Sophia stopped pacing.
"Yes, of course, I shall stop, Brigid," she talked to the animal. "I am merely nervous. I have never been this anxious."
It was true. Of all the men she had encountered, including Marcus, she had never felt intimidated. She knew their goals and she knew her role.
But this was entirely different. This was the first she would have to allow an innocent man to enter her chamber. Because that would definitely be how Nicholas Everard would beâinnocent and ignorant of Marcus' plans.
She had heard Marcus speak of many evil things he did and planned to do, yet she knew why he was doing them. The men who entered her chamber all had their own selfish reasons for being involved in the trade and she never truly felt guilty except when Marcus spoke of the women and children his clients took and sold.
Sophia knew little of the details for they were all written in the letters she received and handed to others or Marcus. She could not read them unless Marcus would choose to do so aloud.
She moistened her lips and closed her eyes. This would be the first that she would have to deal with an innocent man and actually use him to her advantage.
Having lived the life she had after that night she woke up with no memory or sight, having been through what her uncle put her through, Sophia was no saint. She knew that to survive she ought to have a hard heart. Conscience was not part of her daily life, yet it was always there, quietly sitting in one corner of her being.
She was not hoping for romance where Nicholas Everard was concerned. She had long given up on romance for she believed she was not one of the many who were lucky to experience it. Her life so far had been naught but evidence of what this lifetime could merely offer to someone like her. The only luck bestowed upon her was Marcus Durley himself. None came after.
She jumped to her feet when she heard the knock outside her door and she turned to run toward it. She blindly felt for the hole and leaned forward to look through it.
The light outside her door was deliberately bright for her benefit. She sighed with disappointment when she failed to see Nicholas Everard's shadow. He was once more leaning against the wall beside her door.
"You know, my dear," his voice said and she smiled to hear it again after three days. "On my way here, I was wondering why I was never dragged away from your door." Sophia bit her lips to suppress a chuckle. "I have seen countless men being dragged by the notorious guards of this damned place and I know you women have those bells you pull if you wish for the guards. I wonder why you never pulled one on me."
Sophia wondered why as well. Perhaps she ought to have done that a long time ago when he had found her door. Mayhap if she did she would not be forced to let him in and be part of all this. Yet she never did because Nicholas Everard was a good company, although their conversations were filled by his monologues that ranged from funny to horrific while she kept her silence, enjoying just his mere presence.
"You have access to the guards yet I am yet to find myself facing one outside your door," he said and he emerged in her line of sight once again. The longing to see beyond the shadows of his face came rushing back to her. Oh, how she wished she could see him. "Why, my dear? Why have you not pulled the bell yet?"
She could now, she thought in passing as she narrowed her eyes to see more of his face. But pulling that bell would mean not hearing his voice again. Pulling it would mean not having the chance of running her hand over his face to sculpt it in her mind.
"Am I wrong to think that it is a sign I do have a chance of stepping into your chamber?" he asked in his playful tone, the one she liked the most. "Ah, mind me not," he said, dismissing his own narrative. She saw him tilt his head to the right. "Did you miss me? Have you been waiting for me?"
Yes, Sophia replied in her head.
"I know I said I would be gone for a long time, but that I cannot do, see?" He rapped on her door and added, "I have grown rather fond of this very beautiful door and the wall it is attached to. We have grown intimate in the months I have been visiting. The wall, you see, is a very reliable one. It has not once complained of my weight. And this door, my dear, is quite strong-willed for it had withstood many raps and kicks."
Sophia stifled a laugh.
"Do you wish to know what I think of the lock though?" he asked.
Sophia pushed away from the door and squared her shoulders. He had said enough, she thought, as she reached out to turn the lock from the inside.
"Now, the lock, my dear, is completely a different story," he was saying. "It is irritatingly insulting myâ" he stopped when he heard the lock turn. Sophia reached out to turn off the ceiling lamp and moved away from the door to turn off the smaller lamp by her bed. From there she expertly found her way back to her settee where she waited.
Her heart hammered against her chest as she regained composure. It must be done. There was no other way she could delay it.
She heard the door open and Nicholas' more distinct voice said, "I was not aware that insulting the lock will make it yield."
Sophia closed her eyes. There was no difference for she shut out darkness to welcome another one, but it helped her relax.
The door closed and she knew that Nicholas Everard was in utter darkness as she was.
"Bloody hell," she heard him mutter in disbelief. "This is real, is it? I am actually bloody inside!"
Sophia drew in a breath. She slowly let it out as silently as she could.
Nicholas Everard was finally inside her chamber.