Chapter Eleven
Beaufort watched Amgen House with as much casualness as he could claim.
He assuredly did not approve of watching Lady Annalise scrubbing floors on her hands and knees or washing windows, though when doing the latter, she would periodically offer a small wave, and he would know a few moments of peace, realizing she was aware of his watchful observation of the household, and especially of her person.
A white handkerchief hung in the window of the weapons’ room meant she had placed a message in the niche in the brick wall backing to the Amgen property.
“Did someone go after the message?” he asked Kepper.
“Lionel Carter was here. He said he would go.” Kepper stood and stretched. “I might have my small meal, if you hold no objections.”
Beaufort nodded his agreement, before he placed the red flower vase in the window so Lady Annalise would know someone had retrieved her message.
Navan had returned to his study of the Honfleur household, when a commotion below stairs had him retrieving his gun, only to put it away when he realized the voice below belonged to Lionel.
“Kepper! Kepper!” Lionel bellowed.
Both Beaufort and Kepper went in search of the man.
“Me lord!” Lionel exclaimed when he spotted Beaufort. “Thank God!”
“What has occurred?”
Lionel sucked in a deep breath. “I went to fetch Miss Audrey’s note, just as I always do.
” Lionel shook off his anxiety. “I barely replaced the brick on the alley side when I heard the one on the garden side being tugged from its place. I tarried for a few seconds, for I thought perhaps Miss Audrey added another note, but then the shadow of a man could be seen from the iron gate. I crawled away as quickly and as quietly as I could, for I didn’t want Honfleur to see me there. We should warn Miss Audrey.”
“What are we to do to warn the girl?” Kepper asked. Beaufort thought it amusing in a way that Kepper had never once questioned why “Miss Audrey” was now assisting them with information.
“I have it,” Beaufort stated, though a full plan had not yet materialized. “I will call on Lady Caroline and pray I can claim an opportunity to speak privately to Miss Audrey for a moment or two.”
As Beaufort hustled away to enter the street as if he were a mere gentleman caller, he prayed Honfleur had not exacted another punishment on Lady Annalise.
If so, it would not be Marksman who enacted his revenge on the man, but rather Navan.
The lady was the only bit of pure goodness he had known in more years than he could name.
He would not permit harm to fall upon her shoulders.
The first time she had assisted Clara, Annalise realized the maid had been instructed to watch her carefully, and so she had initially allowed the girl to lead.
Yet, over the last week, Annalise had not only earned a bit of Clara’s loyalty, but she had periodically come across a few lines scribbled on a piece of paper.
Clara could only recognize a mere dozen words, and the girl did not appear interested in her employer’s comings and goings, but Annalise’s eyes screened every file left open on Moreau’s desk.
She removed books from the shelf to dust each of them before returning them to their place.
She lifted small statues and figurines and did the same, just as she had seen her brother and Lionel do during their search of the room.
With the dust removed, no one would know she had examined each for hidden compartments.
Naturally, she wondered if the openly displayed bits of information were some sort of trap; yet, she had become quite desperate to be done with this matter and finally join Alexander in his home.
Even so, she practiced caution. She never once stopped her tasks to read the papers.
Instead, she moved about the room as would any maid.
Only, with each pass she made to clean the items within, she snatched a few words here and a few more there until she had the gist of the information.
On more than one occasion, it took her several days to have a better idea of what was planned by her uncle.
“You’ve a beautiful voice, Audrey,” Clara proclaimed.
Annalise had taken to humming her favorite tunes to assist in passing time while performing her duties. Never having been permitted to leave the house had begun to wear upon her, and humming the songs kept her sane, so to speak.
“Music possesses a soothing nature, does it not?” she said with a smile.
“Why don’t you ever practice as does Lady Caroline?
” the maid asked in what appeared to be innocence, but Annalise quickly became on guard.
She did not consider Clara bright enough to execute some sort of ploy to convince Annalise to do something which would infuriate her uncle, but the girl was coachable.
It was a shame Annalise could no longer trust anyone in her life beyond Alexander and Lord Beaufort.
“It would no longer be appropriate, Clara,” she said as she wiped the dust from the frame of a portrait proudly displayed in the main hall.
She recognized some of Lord Amgen’s features in the cavalier’s cheekbones and eyes, a portrait likely painted during the English Civil War.
The idea of having family and a heritage pleased her, and she was suddenly very curious regarding her appearance in relation to both the Dutton and the Smithfield lines.
Annalise had only a faint memory of her mother’s features beyond the small miniature she owned of Madelyn Dutton, which showed her profile.
Her mother’s hair was more the color of that upon Alexander’s head, but surely there were others with copper strands somewhere in the mix.
Her brother had said she favored both sides of the family.
Perhaps she resembled her maternal grandmother, as Alexander had said.
She sorely prayed that it was true. She thought it would be grand finally to belong to a family.
Lost in her thoughts, when someone released the knocker on the door, she jumped in surprise.
She glanced to Clara who was also clutching at her chest. Annalise instinctively looked to the rear of the house expecting to see Mrs. Sable rushing to respond to the summons, but when a second knock came a minute or more later, she suggested, “Perhaps you should answer the door, Clara.”
“Me?” the girl squeaked. “You should answer.”
“Lord Honfleur has forbidden me to do so,” Annalise shared.
Although Honfleur had never actually said the words, he had repeatedly warned Annalise to remain in the house and never place herself forward.
She turned Clara’s shoulders and gave the girl a little shove.
“The visitor is likely one of Lady Caroline’s suitors.
Do not keep him waiting any longer. Lord Honfleur would be most displeased. ”
“But—” the girl began her protest.
Annalise said softly, “I shall be in the parlor if you require me.”
Clara appeared frightened, but she nodded her head in agreement and performed as required. She opened the door and bobbed a curtsey. Annalise looked on from just inside the door to the small drawing room. “Yes, sir?” Clara asked through a voice that was as wobbly as had been her bow of respect.
“Lord Beaufort for Lady Caroline,” a very masculine voice said.
“Be her ladyship expecting you, sir?”
Annalise smiled. The girl had responded properly. Caroline would know great umbrage if Clara permitted the gentleman in without consulting her.
“No, she is not,” his lordship admitted. “If you have no objections, might I step inside?”
Clara shot a quick glance to where Annalise watched. Although she doubted Caroline would welcome the intrusion, Annalise nodded her head in the affirmative. Moreau would not turn away a member of the House of Lords.
Clara swung the door wider. Meanwhile Annalise drifted deeper into the drawing room, though she would prefer to speak to the gentleman herself.
Actually, she would prefer to rush into his welcoming embrace, but she could not chance any such moment until this madness was over.
She wondered if the lack of response by Mrs. Sable had been a ruse to trick Annalise into revealing herself.
The stakes were too high to make a false move now; yet, it was simply wonderful to view his handsome features once again.
She had missed him dearly, perhaps more so than she had missed her brother.
Out in the hallway, Lord Beaufort cleared his throat, bringing Annalise’s attention back to the moment at hand.
“I was hoping Lady Caroline might agree to ride out with me this afternoon, but her ladyship departed the ball last evening before I could confirm our excursion. Therefore, if you are agreeable, I will ask you to deliver a note to your mistress. I will wait—” Annalise thought he must be looking about the entrance way before he announced, “in that room.”
Her heart dropped. She had not responded to the door, for she knew her doing so would displease Moreau.
Why was Beaufort here? Had something happened of which she should be made aware?
Surely he did not wish to go riding with Caroline.
Beaufort always said how much her cousin had repulsed him, but could he have been manipulating Annalise to learn something about her uncle?
He was not as friendly after Alexander made his appearance.
That was all but the time he had kissed her.
He could not kiss her as he had done and then also wish to kiss Caroline, could he?
Purposely, Annalise took up her cloth to use on an intricately carved statue when she heard his approach.
Though she did not turn to look upon him, she knew when Lord Beaufort entered the room and when Clara scurried up the stairs. Fearing someone watched her, Annalise did not turn around until the man said softly, “I had hoped you would be the one to respond to my knock.”