Chapter Eleven #2
Shocked, she spun around to discover him standing closer than she expected. “What?” she squeaked.
“Shush,” he said with an open-palm gesture.
“We likely only have a minute. Lionel wanted you to know somehow Honfleur has discovered the loose brick. Fortunately, Carter had already retrieved your last message before he spotted Moreau snooping around, but it would be best if you do not use the space again.”
Annalise quickly nodded her understanding. “What am I to do with what I learn?” She glanced nervously towards the door. “Did you hear someone?” she mouthed.
He gestured her deeper into the room and motioned for her to remain quiet.
Then he crossed on silent feet to the open door.
The spectacle mesmerized her, for she had never viewed such grace in a man.
“Ah, I did hear someone, after all,” he said as he glanced back at Annalise.
“I told you I was not imagining things.”
Annalise dropped her gaze and bobbed a quick curtsey. “Yes, my lord,” she murmured.
“What are you doing here?” Mrs. Sable demanded of Annalise.
“Clara and I were finishing the foyer when his lordship called on Lady Caroline, ma’am. I did not think it appropriate for me to be listening to his lordship’s business. I stepped in here to address anything we missed earlier while Clara assisted Lord—” She paused as if she had not heard his name.
As if on cue, his lordship said, “Beaufort. Lord Beaufort. And there is no reason to question the maid. She was performing her duties in a manner appropriate to her station while not bringing notice to her presence until you made a scene out of her existence.”
Annalise kept her eyes down and attempted to disguise her smile.
“And what errand has Clara run?” Mrs. Sable demanded.
Thankfully, Lord Beaufort responded before Annalise could arrange her thoughts.
“Lord Honfleur’s maid is performing a task at my bidding,” he said in quelling aristocratic tones.
“Thankfully, the maid had the good sense to respond to my second knock; otherwise, I might still be waiting on the threshold. As you most assuredly are Lord Honfleur’s housekeeper, I might ask why you were not available during the social hours?
I am confident the marquis will be displeased with your absence from your duties. ”
“I was in the solar, tending to Lord Honfleur’s wishes,” Mrs. Sable stated as a rush of color marked the woman’s cheeks.
Lord Beaufort stepped closer to the dreadful woman, using his height to intimidate her, and Annalise attempted to hide her happiness at seeing the housekeeper brought under close scrutiny.
“I have heard Lord Honfleur brag often on his robust health; therefore, I doubt your truthfulness. Moreover, I can smell the brandy on your lips.”
Annalise shot a quick glance in Mrs. Sable’s direction and noted the woman’s shocked expression. She wished she had a friend with whom she could share this tale, but she must wait until she joined Alexander in her new home before she could repeat it.
“Perhaps, Mrs.—?” Lord Beaufort continued his high-handedness.
“Sable,” the housekeeper provided through tight lips.
“Perhaps, Mrs. Sable,” Lord Beaufort said without missing a beat, “you might know assurances that Clara, I believe such was the name you mentioned earlier, am I correct?”
Mrs. Sable cleared her voice. “Yes, sir.”
“Perhaps you might make assurances Clara completed her task.”
Mrs. Sable frowned. “Audrey—” she began.
Lord Beaufort’s tone became hard and threatening.
“I did not ask the maid to address my wishes. I asked you to see that the other maid understood I wished Lady Caroline to send me down a quick note as to whether I might return for her in my curricle during the more fashionable hour. The day appears to be warming quickly, but not so much as to deny us society. It would seem to me sending another maid would be an act of futility—that is, unless you believe a maid can perform the exercise better than you.” It was all Annalise could do not to burst into laughter.
“Most assuredly not, sir.” Mrs. Sable pulled herself up royally. She cleared her throat to redirect Lord Beaufort’s attention. “Audrey, you should permit his lordship exclusive use of the room.”
“Yes—” Audrey began.
Yet, Lord Beaufort overrode her response. “There is no reason to complicate Autry’s duties on my account.”
“Audrey,” Mrs. Sable corrected, and Annalise hid her smile.
His lordship had purposely butchered her name to pretend he had no knowledge of her.
The fact he thought so quickly of how to distract Mrs. Sable spoke to how often he had been called upon to perform thusly.
Annalise would take a lesson from his performance and keep her own head squarely on her shoulders.
“Audrey. Autry. The girl is not in my way, and I am confident she has more work to complete than she should. I have never known a servant who did not.”
Again, Mrs. Sable appeared as if someone had struck her a blow. “As you wish, my lord. I shall return with Lady Caroline’s response in a matter of minutes.”
“Please do. My horse is cooling off as we speak.” He made a shooing gesture with his hands.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Sable presented Annalise a warning glare. “Be about your duties, Audrey,” she ordered.
“Yes, ma’am,” Annalise murmured and turned again to the statue while Lord Beaufort walked casually towards the window to look out on what she thought must be his horse, though she had initially thought he had come from the watch house.
Silence filled the space for at least a minute before Lord Beaufort again crossed to her. “We have little time, so before Mrs. Stable-Faced Sable returns, is there a servants’ entrance in this room?”
“In the corner,” she whispered.
“Let us move close so you can disappear when we hear Stable-Face’s approach,” he said with an engaging grin.
Annalise clamped her hand over her mouth to swallow her laughter. “Please, my lord,” she said through a giggle.
“It is good to view a smile on your face. Marksman will not be happy with more tales of how you are treated within this household. I will be glad to tell him I made you smile. When this madness is over, I expect to claim my share of your dances and your smiles at various balls, as well as to take you riding. Though I like to tell him I discovered you first, Alexander is quite correct: You are both beautiful and courageous.”
Annalise blushed thoroughly, but she kept her happiness beneath the surface, for there were more pressing matters at hand. “I would be delighted to dance with you, my lord. Yet, for now, what am I to do? How might I communicate with you and Alexander if Moreau knows of the loose brick?”
“He does not know of the squirrel hole in the oak tree,” his lordship responded in a whisper. “There is also an unused bird’s nest in the old elm you could use.”
“I shall find it,” Annalise assured. A noise from somewhere deep in the house warned of another’s approach.
Therefore, she rushed to say, “Tell Lord Duncan something is to occur at the end of next week. On Saturday. That day is written on several pages upon Moreau’s desk, and I recently overheard Caroline ask when she and Moreau would return to France. His response was Saturday.”
“Mrs. Sable says you spoke to Lord Beaufort.” Moreau cornered Annalise later as she was changing out the candles in the second passageway.
She purposely kept her eyes down, but she silently cursed Mrs. Sable’s pettiness.
“My doing so was not deliberately executed, sir. I stepped into the front drawing room to be out of the way when Clara responded to the gentleman’s knock.
I knew you would not wish me to be known to your caller.
I had no notion of his lordship also entering the room. ”
“No notion, but you managed, nevertheless,” Moreau accused. “Have I not told you repeatedly, you are not to be seen?”
She instinctively stepped back to place distance between them.
Moreau had been so volatile of late, she had come to fear him.
“Yes, sir,” she said obediently. Annalise worried not only for herself, but also for Moreau.
If the man would be foolish enough to strike her, she had no doubt Alexander would know his revenge.
“What did Lord Beaufort say to you during Mrs. Sable’s absence,” he demanded.
“Nothing. Truly nothing,” she declared. “I doubt he would have even noticed my presence in the room if Mrs. Sable had not brought it to his attention. I have heard you say many times how the English aristocracy gives no notice to the people who serve them. When Mrs. Sable left to attend to his lordship’s request, I again returned to dusting the small statue on the table.
As his lordship insisted I should be permitted to continue my duties, I waited a few minutes before I slipped from the room through the servants’ passage. ”
“And where was Lord Beaufort while you polished the statue?” Moreau questioned.
“He returned to the window to look out upon the street. Such was where he remained as I departed through the servants’ door,” she claimed.
Her words were true; Lord Beaufort was at the window when she left the room.
She wished to ask if Mrs. Sable reported otherwise, but Annalise had learned her lessons quickly regarding servant hierarchy and whom she could trust in the household, which essentially meant no one.
Being too curious or providing too much information was a sign she was not speaking the truth.
Her uncle’s continued criticism had Annalise thinking back on one odd question Beaufort had asked before Annalise had departed the room.
“How long has Mrs. Sable been employed at Amgen House?”
“From the beginning,” she explained. “Why?”
“Because there is something familiar about her. I will figure it out soon. Just do not trust her,” he warned before shoving her into the servants’ passage and quickly crossing to the window when they heard footsteps coming their way.