Page 4 of The Virgin Who Humbled Lord Haslemere
Benedict offered Sarah his back, then rose to his feet when he felt her thin arms wrap around his neck. “Right, then. Hold on tight, now. Here we go.”
* * * *
Sweet, precious, blessed silence.
There was a reason some sage or other had described silence as golden. Georgiana couldn’t recall precisely who’d said it, but one of the ancient Greeks, most likely. They were thecleverest ones.
She rested her head against the closed door at her back and surveyed her bedchamber with what she was certain must be a very unbecoming but satisfied smirk on her lips.
Everything was in its place. She’d sneaked upstairs after midmorning lessons to arrange her kingdom—that is, her queendom—just the way she liked it, without a single thought to anyone’s comfort but her own. It wasn’t often she had no one to please but herself, and she intended to wallow in her privacy like a sweet little baby bird snuggled in its nest.
A sweet baby bird that’s pushed all of its baby bird siblings over theedge, that is.
She’d folded the coverlet on her bed into precise thirds, leaving a neat corner of the snowy white linens peeking out invitingly. She’d arranged her candle just so, and had a second one secreted away in her table in case she got swept up in her book and burned through the first one. Nothing was more tedious than having to drag oneself downstairs to fetchanother candle.
In the table beside the bed, tucked into the drawer next to the candle, was Mrs. Meeke’sCount St. Blancard.Georgiana had languished for months on the waiting list at Lane’s Circulating Library for it. Now her turn had come at last, and just atthe right time.
She crossed the room and sank into her bed, sighing with contentment as she pulled the coverlet up to her chin.
Heaven.She’d been dreaming of this moment all day long—
There was a brisk knock, then a voice floated through the door. “Georgiana?”
It was Winnie Browning, Lady Clifford’s housekeeper.
Georgiana froze, eyes widening, then dove under the covers and pulled themover her head.
“Sorry to disturb, dear,” Winnie called. “But you’d bettercome at once.”
Come at once? But Count St. Blancard was waiting! A lady didn’t keep a count wait—
“Georgiana?” Another knock, louder this time. “Areyou in there?”
Georgiana buried her face in her pillow, defeated.
So close…
“Yes, I’m here.” There was no sense in fighting it. “Come in, Winnie.”
Winnie opened the door, her tea towel crumpled in her hands. “I’ve just been upstairs, and two of the girls are missing.”
“What,again? Let me guess. It’s Sarah and Susannah, isn’t it?” Georgiana wasn’t sure why she bothered to ask. It wasalwaysSarah and Susannah.
“Yes, the wicked things. Lady Clifford is already at her wit’s end with those two. I don’t like to think what she’ll do if she comes home and finds they’ve sneaked out again.”
Georgiana was tempted to find out precisely what Lady Clifford would do, but if there was trouble afoot, Sarah and Susannah were sure to find it, and this was London. There wasalwaystrouble afoot. “Why does this always happen when Emma’s not here?”
Emma could coax a terrified mouse from its hole and straight into the jaws of a waiting cat. She was much better at herding recalcitrant schoolgirls than Georgiana, who was more likely to shove a piece of heavy furniture in front of the mouse hole, dust her hands off and be done with it.
“I’m sorry, dear, but Emma and Lady Clifford are off on some mysterious errand, and Daniel with them. I’m afraid it’ll have to be you.”
Georgiana cast one last despairing glance at her book before giving it up for lost. “It would serve Sarah and Susannah right if I left them to their fate. It would teachthem a lesson.”
Winnie merely raised an eyebrow. Georgiana had made similar threats before without following through on them, and they both knew this wouldn’t beany different.
“Oh, all right. I’m going.” Georgiana threw the coverlet back, marched across her bedchamber into the hallway, and up the stairs to the third floor, where the Clifford School’s youngest pupils had their bedchambers. There were six girls to a room up here instead of four, a circumstance that led to one-third more than the usual amount of mischief.
Georgiana had done the calculations herself.
