Page 67 of The Virgin Who Vindicated Lord Darlington
“I daresay she would, yes.” Cecilia struggled to hide her smile. “You might even like it yourself, Duncan.”
Duncan’s cheeks burst into flames. “Ach, well, I only asked on Miss Amy’s account, but if ye had a mind to read that book aloud to her, mayhap I could listen, too?”
Cecilia reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “I think that’s a wonderful idea, Duncan. You’ll be outside my dooragain tonight?”
“Aye, Miss Cecilia. His lordship said so.”
“Very well, then. We’ll fetch Amy and read a chapter tonight after Isabella falls asleep, shall we?”
Duncan beamed at her. “Right then, Miss Cecilia. I’ll see ye tonight.” He stuffed the rest of his tartlet into his mouth, then snatched two more off the plate and shoved them into his pocket before ambling out of the kitchen, whistling under his breath.
Well, that was one problem solved, anyway. Cecilia sat at the kitchen table for a bit, eyeing the plate of tartlets and willing her stomach to cease its uneasy roiling before giving it up for lost, and going insearch of Amy.
Amy wasn’t upset with her as Duncan had been, but she was nearly expiring with curiosity, which was much worse. “Duncan says Lord Darlington brought you back to the castle himself last night after he caught you creeping about the grounds, and he looked angrier than Duncan had ever seen him. Is it true?”
Cecilia dropped the pile of linens she was carrying on the settee at the end of the bed with a sigh. “I wasn’t creeping. I was…”Sneaking, or prowling, or spying?“…innocently looking around.”
Amy snorted. “Were you, now? Is that what you told Lord Darlington?”
Cecilia hadn’t had much time to tell Gideon anything, but she kept her lips stubbornly sealed. The less information Amy had about last night’s, er…activities, the better.
Amy took up a sheet from the pile on the settee. “I did warn you not to follow him and Lord Haslemere out there, didn’t I? Honestly, Cecilia, I can’t think why you’d want to prowl about in the first place. What did he do with you oncehe caught you?”
Kissed me senseless.
“Brought me back to the castle, just as Duncan said.”
Amy snapped the sheet open over the bed with an impatient gesture. “What, that’sall? There must have been more to it. What did he say? Did he scold, or lecture, or—”
“Threaten to dismiss me? No.” Cecilia paused, her hand clutching a corner of the sheet. Now she thought of it, why hadn’t he threatened to dismiss her? He’d done so before, and for a far less drastic infraction. Instead he’d taken her to his wife and son’s grave. He’d confided in her, and let her comfort him.
Amy cocked her head to the side, considering this. “Lord Darlington’s not one for threats. If he was going to dismiss you, you’d be gone by now, and I’d be making these blasted bedsall by myself.”
Cecilia tried to return Amy’s crooked grin, but everything she thought she understood about Gideon had tipped sideways in her head until she could no longer make sense of anything.
“Here, give me that.” Amy pulled the end of the sheet from Cecilia’s slack hand. “What were Lord Darlington and Lord Haslemere doing when you found them?”
Cecilia shrugged. “Chasing the ghost, I presume.”
Amy rolled her eyes. “There is no ghost, for pity’s sake. You can’t truly believe otherwise.”
Cecilia didn’t know what she believed anymore. “What about Miss Honeywell’s claim a ghost in a white gown with a deathly white face was lurking beneath her window? Do you suppose she invented it?”
“Who knows what she saw? I’ll tell you what, that one’s pretty head is as empty as a bellows. Like as not she had a bad dream, but whatever it was she thought she saw, it wasn’t aghost. Of all the rumors the villagers in Edenbridge have put about, that’s one of the most foolish. Not themostfoolish, mind you, but close.”
“Oh? What else do they say?” Cecilia didn’t care much what the gossips claimed, but just this once, she welcomed the distraction.
“They say Lord Darlington’s the Murderous Marquess. Pure nonsense, put about by that awful Mrs. Vernon. You’d think they’d have more sense than to listen to a wolf in sheep’s clothing likeher, but there’s people who always want to believe the worst.”
Cecilia couldn’t help but agree. The Edenbridge villagers must be more foolish than most, to believe the word of a servant who’d been dismissed for theft.
“You’ll hear any number of other wild stories,” Amy went on. “The villagers like their gossip, you know, and every rumor is more outlandish than the one before. Like, some say as Lady Darlington’s buried in the castle walls, but others claim she’s at the bottom of the moat. Then there’s that bit of foolishness aboutLord Darlington being in love withLady Leanora.”
“In love with Lady Leanora?” Cecilia gripped the edge of the mattress to stop herself from falling face first into the bed. “In love with his brother’s wife?”
Amy snorted. “Yes.The way they tell it,Lady Leanora fled the castle when he tried to make her marry him after Lady Cassandra died.”
Cecilia gasped. “Marry hisbrother’swidow!”
