Page 99 of Lady Edith and the Registry Office
The coach halted in front of Edith’s home in Hanover Square, and Lord Wycliffe handed Lady Edith and Lady Louisa out of the carriage. “Good afternoon, ladies. I need to get Lord Harbury looked after. We will contact you soon.”
When the coach rolled away again, Cecil moved to the bench across from Nathaniel and grinned. “Youdidget Lady Edith’s attention. Perhaps in the future, you shouldn’t resort to such drastic measures.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked grumpily.
“She was worried sick about you. Congratulations, my friend, the lady most assuredly has feelings for you.”
“Lady Edith is friends with my sister. Of course, she was worried. Probably on Alicia’s account,” he replied lightly.
“Believe what you will.” Cecil shrugged. “Right now you need a bath, a good meal, and rest. I will call on you tomorrow to further discuss Lady Edith’s plan.”
* * * * *
“Lord Harbury was atone of his clubs last night?” Edith’s father asked over supper.
“It was all a misunderstanding.” Louisa helped herself to another serving of boiled potatoes. “Miss Tilford surely gave her brother an earful when he returned home.”
Edith was tired of fibbing. Louisa seemed more adept at it, so she let her friend tell the story about how Lord Wycliffe had forgotten the baron had stayed at his club, and Cecil was to meet his friend at Thorne’s today. It wasn’t a particularly plausible tale, but Louisa told it with such conviction that Edith almost believed her friend’s version of the day’s events.
The depths of her relief at finding the baron safe had been her undoing. When Edith arrived home that afternoon she’d run straight to her bedchamber, locking the door behind her. Seated on her bed, she felt tears threaten. The thought that something could have happened to Lord Harbury...
“I’m falling in love with him,” she whispered.
There was a knock at her bedchamber door, and Louisa asked, “Edith? Do you want to talk about it?”
She rose from the bed and unlocked the door, retaking her seat on the corner of her bed. “Talk about what?”
“Why you felt the need to sequester yourself in your bedchamber.” Louisa took a seat on the stuffed chair near the bed. “It is obvious you have feelings for the baron. You were thrilled when we found him. And when you looked at Lord Harbury today, I’ve never seen such emotion in your eyes.”
“You’re right, Louisa. What I thought I felt for Lord Cecil is nothing to the affection I feel for the baron.”
“Why do you look so miserable? It is apparent he cares for you.”
“I can’t think about myself right now. Our veterans are still missing, and I’ve lied to my father. Someone means to hurt Lord Harbury; we don’t know where the fake Mrs. Stafford is, and we still need to get on those hulks.” She paused to take a breath. “You and I could be in danger if we go to Woolwich.”
“We could. Is it a chance you are willing to take?”
Edith thought a moment and then shook her head. “Not without speaking to my father about it.”
Louisa groaned. “He might well forbid you from attempting to get on those ships.”
“I won’t lie to my father again. I will speak to him after supper.”
And now it was time for her to do so.
“Father, may I have a word with you? In your study?”
“Of course, my dear.”
She followed her father to his study. Her father sat on one of a pair of side chairs and motioned for her to take the matching chair.
“What did you want to speak to me about, my dear?”
Although she’d decided not to tell him further lies, she wouldn’t go back and tell him the truth about Lord Harbury’s disappearance.
“Father, after some investigation into the matter, Lord Harbury and Lord Wycliffe have concluded that the missing veterans may be on a hulk in Woolwich.”
“And you know what a hulk is?” her father asked with a raised brow.
