Page 12 of Rakes & Reticules
“I ordered tea and biscuits sent in.” She gestured toward a nearby chair. “Please have a seat, Lord Kendal.”
Isla and Maeve sat on the settee and stared at him expectantly. He didn’t know what to say. Roman wanted to demand they fetch Athena. She was the reason he’d come to visit. He cleared his throat. “What social engagement are you attending this evening?” He wanted to ensure he saw Athena later and hopefully dance with her again.
“We are staying in tonight,” Isla said. “It’s been a trying couple of days.”
What had happened? “Has it?” He lifted a brow. “I trust it hasn’t been too difficult.” Roman wanted to glance toward the door, but somehow refrained from doing so.
Maeve fidgeted in her seat, and Isla twisted her hands together in her lap. Neither of them met his gaze. Finally, Maeve glanced up. “I understand you have come to pay a call on Athena.”
“I have,” he agreed. “Is she delayed?”
“It’s not that simple,” Isla said, then sighed.
He was about to ask her to clarify when a maid walked in with a tea tray and set it on a nearby table. “Do you wish me to pour?” the maid asked.
“No,” Isla told her. “We will take care of it. Thank you, Sarah.”
The maid curtsied and then left the room. Isla turned her attention to him. “Tea, my lord?”
Isla stood and poured tea into the cups and handed one to him, then Maeve, and took her own back to the settee. He sipped the tea, but he didn’t actually want it. Roman frowned and waited. Surely they would explain where Athena was now.
Maeve blew out a breath, then set her teacup down on the table. “As we were saying…” She frowned. “We know you wish to see Athena, but she’s not here.”
“She’s not?” Why had they taken so long to tell him that? What did he fail to understand? The butler could have told him that at the door as well. Why did they invite him in and make him wait to impart that news?
Isla shook her head. “She has returned home. To the country.”
He felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. “I don’t understand.” They had a good night a few days ago. He’d kissed her. Roman wanted to kiss her again, and soon.
“It’s hard to explain,” Maeve began. “Suffice to say the ton isn’t welcoming. They make us all feel…inferior, and Athena decided to end her season early.”
What the bloody hell had happened? “I see…” Roman didn’t quite understand, but he could guess. He had heard some of the rumors. He would have to go to Athena. There was only one solution to this dilemma. She thought it best to withdraw from society, from their budding relationship. Roman didn’t accept that. He set his teacup down. “If you’ll pardon me.” He stood. “I must leave now. Thank you for your hospitality.”
“You’re going after her, aren’t you?” Isla asked as he reached the door.
He turned and smiled. “Of course I am.” There was no other answer to give her.
“Good,” she said and gave him a sad smile. “At least some men are brave enough to claim love when it is freely given.”
Roman sighed. His friend had made a grave error when he had set aside his own feelings. One day he’d tell the duke how much of a fool he had been, and if Thornridge was lucky, he wouldn’t be too late to claim the woman that held his heart.
“Have faith,” he told Isla. “One day, he might surprise you.”
“It’s too late for that,” she said. “Go. Athena needs you.”
Roman nodded and left the townhouse. He had a trip to plan for, and the love of his life to find.
CHAPTERSEVEN
Athena set her reticule on her bed, then flopped down next to it and sighed. It had been a long journey home, but she had finally arrived. Her reticule held the pendant from her mother’s box inside of it, and she hadn’t wanted to lose it. She should put it away to ensure that would never happen. It would be all right in her reticule a little while longer. Where would it disappear to in her own bedchamber?
She pulled the bell by her bed to summon her maid. Now that she was home, she wanted to go see her horse and then take a swift, exhilarating ride. It had taken her three extra days to make it back to the country estate. Her father had insisted that they travel at a more sedate pace, and the coachman hadn’t wanted to upset the Earl of Harwood. So he had followed her father’s instructions to the letter. They had stopped overnight at three inns on the journey home. If the coachman had listened to her and changed horses at each inn instead, she would have been home much sooner.
Her maid came into the bedchamber. “You need me, my lady?”
“Yes,” Athena said. “Help me out of this gown. I’m going for a ride.” She didn’t need assistance into the trousers she used for riding, but the gown and her corset was impossible to remove on her own. Men’s clothing was so much easier to manage. A lady had too many laces and buttons to do them all on her own.
It didn’t take long for her maid to undo the buttons on the back of her dress. Athena stepped out of it and her maid hung it on a nearby hook to be cleaned and pressed later. “Do you wish to remove your stays as well?”
