Page 62 of Lady Louisa and the Carriage Clock
“Will that be all, my lord?”
“Is Henry in?”
Bones nodded. “He is in the kitchen polishing your Hessian boots. I am glad to say there are some provisions in the house now.”
“No sign of Cook?”
Bones shook his head. “He has disappeared.”
“That will be all.”
When Bones had departed, he sat quietly for a while. Thinking. Venus and Cupid. Neither he nor Nathaniel had discovered anyone in the ton with those nicknames.
Although his clock was no longer hidden in the drawing room, his letter from Lord Daventry was. Cecil got to his feet and locked the door to the room. Retrieving the letter from its hiding place behind the dresser, he unlocked the door and settled in his chair to reread the note.
Daventry had written the letter from his estate in Northamptonshire. The Duke of Montagu’s family seat was in Northamptonshire as well, he recalled. Perhaps the third RA founder was also from the same county.
There was no further information he could glean from the letter. Cecil folded it and placed it with Louisa’s note inside his jacket pocket. With the way his luck was running, if he left the papers in the house, he would come home one day to find the townhouse in ashes.
There was a discreet knock at the drawing room door, and Henry peeked in.
“My lord, I’ve made a fresh pot of tea and some biscuits if you’ll have some.”
“You can bake as well, Henry?”
“I’m a master of many skills, my lord.” He coughed. “If you don’t mind me saying.”
“Not at all. I would love some tea and biscuits.”
“I’ll return in a moment.”
When the man returned, the tray held a teapot, a cup, and a plate of shortbread. “Bones said as you take your tea black.”
“Thank you, Henry. That is all for now.”
He sampled the shortbread, which was delicious, as was the tea. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the matter at hand.
Venus and Cupid. Venus and Cupid. He was so close.
* * * * *
Louisa arrived home that afternoon to an empty house. Empty of her family, anyway.
“Where is everyone?” she asked Lucy upon entering her bedchamber and finding the maid there putting away stockings in a dresser.
“Your father and Leopold are at the shooting gallery. Your mother is attending a tea given by Lady Norfolk, and I’m not sure where the rest of your brothers are.”
“The house seems so quiet without them here.”
The maid looked up from her work to smile. “I agree, my lady.”
“After supper, I will accompany Lord and Lady Harbury to a card party.”
“Your blush evening dress with the peach rosettes on the hem is airing out in the dressing room,” the maid replied, finished with her task. “Is there anything else, my lady?”
“I should like to rest before supper, Lucy. See that I’m not disturbed.”
Despite competing thoughts of Lord Wycliffe and the clue of Venus running through her head, Louisa soon fell asleep on top of the coverlet of her bed, only waking up when Lucy appeared to help her mistress dress for her evening.
