Chapter Eight #2
Leo had never been so glad to close the door on someone in his life and leaned against it to breathe. “Sorry about that—but as you can plainly see, the constable’s dander is well and truly up.”
She acknowledged that with a nod, her dark brows furrowed. “Would it be impertinent to ask why?”
“That,” he said, pointing to the newspaper on his desk, “is his archnemesis.”
As soon as she clocked it, her brows instantly shot skyward before she wrestled them back under control. “He does not approve of a newspaper?”
“More that he does not approve of that particular publication.” She was now staring at the newspaper as if it were something offensive too. “Are you familiar with Equitas?”
She shook her head. “I cannot say that I have ever heard of it, your grace. Is it a scandalous local rag?”
“If only it was, Miss Kendall, then my life would be so much easier.”
“How does this newspaper make your life difficult?”
“Because its very existence outrages the constable, and he then makes my life difficult.” He sighed at the never-ending cycle that they were locked in.
“Constable Nolley would have everyone who has a hand in it clapped in irons and sent to the Tower if he had his way. He holds me personally responsible for stopping him.”
Confusion pulled at her features. “Why do you stop him if your life without that newspaper would be easier?”
“Because I take my unenviable and interminable responsibilities as a magistrate seriously and insist that he proves to me that Equitas is breaking the law—which so far, he hasn’t.
What it prints might be unpopular with some, but it doesn’t lie, and it doesn’t, despite the constable’s constant assertions, print anything overtly seditious.
Besides, and this really bothers him, I happen to believe in the freedom of speech. ”
Her mouth hung momentarily slack. “You do?”
“History is peppered with grave examples of what can happen when anyone tries to suppress it. You only have to look across the channel to France or across the Atlantic to America to see the dire consequences of burying your head in the sand and hoping that everything will come out in the wash when the people aren’t happy.
” She was properly befuddled now and he couldn’t blame her.
She had come here to fill him in on her day and not listen to him vent about things that did not concern her.
“But I digress.” It was well after six thanks to Nolley’s unexpected interruption and her day was finished.
“What pointless delights do you have for me today, Miss Kendall?” He held out his hand for the small pile of invitations she had brought him.
Just like she had every evening at six since she had started working here.
Her unsubtle daily reminder that his troublesome sisters were now all his problem again until the morning.
Still looking a bit perplexed, she tore her eyes from the newspaper and began using the businesslike tone that he had also come to expect whenever they collided.
“A ball at Lord and Lady Denby’s house on Saturday next and three invitations to dinner, although I am fairly certain that you will not want to attend two of them because the families concerned are only visiting Bath for a few weeks and both state that they would be delighted to make your acquaintance. ”
Leo rolled his eyes, grateful that she had quickly worked out that every Tom, Dick, or Harry wanted the gravitas of hobnobbing with a duke, and he wasn’t the least bit interested in engaging.
He always found social climbers awkward to be around and had little patience for fawners or fakery.
“You are right, Miss Kendall. Dinners with actual acquaintances are quite tiresome enough.”
She smiled at that. “Then I shall send your polite regards to them both before I decline.”
“Don’t be too polite. It might give them the awful idea of suggesting alternative dates.”
“If they do, then I shall politely decline again without bothering you.” She stood then, her business with him clearly concluded. “Have a pleasant evening, your grace.”
“I sincerely doubt it as I am being dragged to the theater.” He pulled a face, trying once again to engage her when she clearly didn’t want to be engaged.
“For Macbeth. The most depressing play ever written. Two hours of misery in a cramped and stuffy box await me—which is doubtless why my sisters are dragging me to it. They know that I am not a fan of the theater. They also know that I prefer a comedy over a tragedy, so this is another flagrant and unsubtle attempt to punish me for keeping them here.”
“What is the old saying, your grace? Like all things, this too shall pass.”
“Just not soon enough.”
She merely offered him a sympathetic smile before she bobbed one of her lackluster curtsies. “Good night, your grace?”
She had worked for him for over a week and, try as he might, he was still struggling to have any sort of extended conversation with her.
She liked to keep things businesslike and was always out of his office as quickly as possible.
He wasn’t sure why she did that and, for the life of him, could not comprehend why he cared.
But he did. So before she could leave his study again, some devil inside him called her back.
“Do you prefer Shakespeare’s tragedies or his comedies, Miss Kendall? ”
She paused, her expressive brows drawn together once more in confusion. Or perhaps irritation that he was delaying her. “I—”
A bloodcurdling scream pulled them both up short.
“That was Emilia!” His heart in his mouth, Leo was out of the door like a shot, heading in the direction of his baby sister’s continued screams. The closer he got to the drawing room the more those screams merged with the sounds of some sort of commotion going on inside.
There was a bang.
A crash.
The unmistakable sounds of glass breaking.
He flung open the door in time to see Abigail fling herself face forward onto the sofa as she tried to wrestle something into submission.
As Miss Kendall skidded unceremoniously into the back of him, his sister growled while something beneath her did as well.
“Well don’t just stand there, Leo! Come and help with your horrid cat! ”
“M’Lady Whiskers has brought in a bird!” shrieked Emilia from the corner she was cowering in. “And the poor thing is still alive!”