Chapter 12 #2
She looked upward as she stepped out of the house, snatching off her bonnet and basking in the morning sunlight. Adeline grinned and winked at Louisa, who allowed a smile to penetrate her glower. Adeline prayed that her hopefulness was justified. She prayed he would not disappoint his daughter.
If he does not come to the garden party, it will make it much easier to dislike him.
The carriage rattled along sunlit lanes. The excitement of the occasion brought Louisa out of her shell, and she chattered happily. Cordelia made acerbic observations about which ladies would be overdressed and which gentlemen would overindulge. Adeline forced herself to smile and nod.
The garden party itself was a blaze of color and laughter. Ladies in silks drifted across manicured lawns, gentlemen bowed, servants bustled with trays of champagne. Beyond the lawn, a hedge maze beckoned, its green walls bright beneath the sun.
“I had forgotten that Lady Farnsworth had grown. An interesting enterprise. I think mischief will be managed where eyes cannot see,” Cordelia said.
Louisa frowned in confusion, looking to Adeline for an explanation. Instead, Adeline took her hand.
“Shall we try it?” she suggested
Louisa did not need any more encouragement but darted ahead, her laughter echoing between the hedges. Adeline followed more sedately. She realized her mistake after a minute in the maze. She found herself facing a dead end and with no idea where Louisa had gone.
“Louisa!” she called.
Upon entering the maze, she had heard other voices.
Laughing ladies trying to find their way out and each other.
Gentlemen loudly proclaimed their own surefire solutions for escaping a maze.
But she seemed to have wandered into an outlying region, or else a part tucked away deeply.
There was no sound reaching her through the thick, high hedges.
Adeline felt disquieted.
This is ridiculous. I am yards away from a grand old English house and a lawn full of people. This is a game, a diversion. Nothing to be afraid of.
A twig snapped behind her, and she whirled, heart racing.
“Miss Warren,” Robert Grebe murmured, a smirk curling his lips.
He was dressed in the Farnsworth livery. His eyes were lit with menace.
“Mr. Grebe,” Adeline said, trying to keep her voice from trembling. “I am happy to see that you have managed to find yourself a post after all.”
Grebe plucked at the waistcoat he wore, identical to all the other servants at Farnsworth Hall.
“Her Ladyship had to employ a number of us on a temporary basis. This isn’t a permanent job. How am I meant to eat once the party’s over, eh?”
Adeline licked her lips. The hedge passages were narrow, and there was no room to slip past Grebe, who advanced a handful of steps. She stood her ground, lifting her chin.
“I cannot influence the Duke. I do not have any kind of relationship with him,” she said.
“Not good enough, My Lady. I won’t wait forever. Rumors have a way of spreading, and soon enough, they’ll start to reach the wrong ears.”
“If any gossip begins spreading about the Duke, it will be traced to you. What do you think he will do?” Adeline said, trying to intimidate the man, but he just sneered.
“Rumors don’t get traced back to servants. Only gentlemen. The likes of me don’t get noticed. Now, if you don’t have a relationship with the Duke, maybe you should, eh?”
There was a leer on his face, and Adeline’s mouth went dry at the insinuation.
He had insulted her in the same way previously, so she should have been prepared for his crude words, but Adeline was a lady.
She would never allow a man to offend her so thoroughly without feeling a sense of mortification.
“I will not!” she hissed.
Grebe snarled and strode closer. Despite herself, Adeline backed away until the hedge stopped her.
“I won’t wait long. And I won’t go away. But I’ll help you, My Lady. You don’t want to use your talents to wrap the Duke around your finger? I’ll settle for money then. Plenty of stuff in that big house. Get me enough that I don’t need to go groveling to stuck-up toffs like you for a job, eh?”
Adeline could see no way out. The maze was a metaphor for her life. Tears filled her eyes, fear and anger mixed together. She firmed her jaw, wanting to slap Grebe’s smug, smirking face, but at the same time not wanting to antagonize him further.
“Adeline! Where are you?” Louisa’s voice reached Adeline from close by.
Grebe looked around and then withdrew. His gleaming, gimlet eyes locked onto Adeline before he disappeared around a corner. She wanted to fall to the ground under the weight she bore. But Louisa’s voice reached her again, and she forced resolve into her limbs.
“Louisa! I am here! Keep calling, and I will try to come to you!”
She walked along the leafy canyon, peered around a corner into another dead end. She turned in the opposite direction as a large figure appeared from a side passage. She screamed as he appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. Instinctively, she jumped back.
“Whatever is the matter?” Winston demanded, “And where is my daughter?”