Page 44 of The Undesirable Duke
“This came for you, Lady Lillian.”
Lillian’s brow furrowed as the butler handed her a sealed letter, and she took it hesitantly from him.
“Who is it from?” she whispered.
“I am not certain, Miss. The footman outside informed me of its delivery.”
Lillian bit her bottom lip and nodded.
“Thank you. And would it be too much to ask, for you not to mention this to my mother?”
The butler smiled reassuringly and nodded.
“You have my utmost discretion, my Lady.”
Lillian flashed him a grateful smile and quietly went back up the stairs.
Once in her chambers, she closed the door and stared at the letter. Was it from the Duke? Did he wish to express himself in a letter, as it was the only manner in which he was able to speak to her? Although even a letter was rather scandalous, from a man to an unmarried lady he was not even courting! Certainly, he realized that her mother did not want them to be anywhere near one another, and perhaps could not imagine any other way that they might communicate.
Her heart pounded in her chest as she held the letter in her hands and thought of what a romantic gesture that could be. Falling onto her bed, she broke the seal and unfolded the page with a smile. As soon as she read the words on the page, that smile faded, and her eyes widened. She sat upright on her bed and stared at the letter.
It was not a letter filled with flowery words and amorous wishes. It was threatening and terrifying, and Lillian dropped it onto the bed in front of her. She was not certain how she ought to react to this. Her heart pounded, but not in the way that ithad before. She drew in a few deep breaths, attempting to work out whether she should take the words on the paper to heart, or ignore the letter. The words had a most ominous tone to them – they were, quite simply, an outright threat to ruin her reputation if she continued to assist the Duke in his attempts to unmask the author of the article.
Quivering with fear, she climbed off her bed and paced the room until she felt dizzy and rather worried. She did not intend to show this to her parents, as her mother would overreact in her usual way and might even put Lillian in a carriage and send her to live with her Aunt Claudia in the Welsh countryside. It had been quite late in the day when the letter was delivered, and now, she realized as she looked towards the window, it was completely dark outside. She must have been pacing for hours.
Lillian stopped pacing and dropped down to sit on her bed again, staring at the letter where it lay on the coverlet. She considered it carefully. She simply could not provide her mother with another excuse to direct her life. But equally, she could not deal with this alone – and as she also could not leave the house alone, she would need to either trust someone else in the house or wait until someone she trusted came to call. But she felt that, with this, time was of the essence. After careful contemplation, she decided to show the letter to the only person she trusted.
That would have to wait until the household was mostly asleep, so she took a deep breath to steady herself, carefully folded the letter, and slipped it into the small jewelry box that sat on her dressing table.
Not long after, a maid brought her a dinner tray, and as she settled to eat alone in her room, she was grateful for her mother’s harsh requirements – with that letter weighing on her mind, she could barely force herself to eat, and to have done so in the dining room with everyone else would have been impossible. Once she had eaten, she rang for the tray to beremoved, and not long after that, she called for her maid to help her prepare for bed.
Then, once her maid had gone to her own bed, the minutes ticked by as Lillian waited, acutely aware of the quiet settling over the house as everyone went to bed. Only once she was sure that almost everyone would be asleep did she move. She folded her warm wrap around her, tucked the letter into its pockets, and left her chambers. Following the dark hallway, she was careful not to walk too loudly. Her mother was a light sleeper, and she certainly did not wish to wake her.
Lillian stopped in front of her brother’s door and softly knocked. Much to her relief, the door opened, and her brother stood in the doorway with a furrowed brow.
“Lillian, why are you still awake?”
“I must speak with you. It is of great importance.”
“It is past midnight. Can this not wait until morning?”
Lillian shook her head, and Timothy sighed. He stepped aside and allowed Lillian to enter.
“I do apologize if I woke you, Timothy,” she uttered, but as she entered, she noticed a candle burning on his writing desk and Timothy’s notebook lying open beside it. “But I now realize that youwereawake.”
“I was making notes.”
“Of what?” Lillian inquired as she approached the desk.
“Nothing. It is not for your eyes,” Timothy answered and swiftly moved in front of the desk, preventing Lillian from seeing what he had written.
“That is not fair.”
“What is not fair is that you are knocking on my chamber door when it is past midnight,” he pointed out.
Lillian sighed and stepped away from him.
“I did apologize, but this cannot wait.”
