Page 74 of A Duke's Keeper
“I do believe she means what she says, my lady,” Lord Quickner said, looking the picture of health.
“You will not be dissuaded, then? But you are sure you cannot stay another night? Longer?” Lady Quickner glanced at her husband, his nod of agreement prompting her to say, “We would like to show our gratitude accordingly. How about a holiday to the coast? We’ve been meaning to visit Scarborough, and I could use a companion when my lord goes off to his hunting endeavors. If you have no swimwear, we can easily remedy that.”
Camille felt Syd’s smug smile from the victoria behind her, already seated and watching the scene from above, as per usual of the ‘wolf.’
Ignoring her companion, Camille shook her head. “Madam writes I must return. Paperwork has piled up and I cannot put off my work, else the place fall to chaos.” Exaggerated nonsense, but the viscount and viscountess wouldn’t allow her to leave otherwise.
“Very well.” Lord Quickner offered his hand in a rare breach of etiquette, which she shook humbly. He winked. “An angel’s work is never done.”
Lady Quickner outdid her husband’s eccentricity by throwing her arms around Camille for a brief embrace and tucking an envelope—the donation to the Prodding Pony—into Camille’s reticule. “You will be received here anytime, Miss Forthright. You and your lovely friend.” She exchanged a nod with Syd. “I do mean that. Call night or day and you will have a room for as long as you desire.”
Camille’s throat grew tight, the couple’s sincerity embroiling her cool logic in a tangle of emotion. She curtsied and ascended to her seat. “You are most generous.”
“Nonsense!” Lady Quickner’s gloved hand curled around the victoria’s leather siding, her expression serious. “Promise me, if you ever need anything, you will think of us first.”
Camille nodded, feeling, not for the first time, that she’d found herself in a world to which she did not belong. How long her infallible brain had envisioned the world in definite colors of black and white. The reality of a world in varying shades of grey, as dense as the smoke that hung above London, was a test in humility.
A test she’d failed before, with a different member of the peerage.
As the viscount and viscountess watched their footmen load their guests’ trunks, Camille took the opportunity to gaze at the southern-facing windows, a piece of her hoping to catch a glimpse of fair hair and a boyish grin beyond the grey-tinted glass.
“Miss Forthright!”
Camille glanced at the man coming out the house, her heart dropping when she noted it was a different fair-haired gentleman.
Lady Quickner squeezed her hand and drew her husband towards the house. “We’ll leave you to say your goodbyes.” She nodded to Lord Slasbury as he passed.
Hat askew, the Marquess of Slasbury stopped beside the vehicle, his expression furrowed. “You cannot be leaving? There is still the shooting to enjoy before anyone is expected to depart. And you still owe me a walk. I’ve not forgotten.”
Camille ignored his charming smile and teasing tone, the effects nowhere near as potent as another gentleman’s. “I must return to London, Lord Slasbury. We shall need to postpone that walk until a later time.”Or never.“I do hope you understand?”
“Is it so pressing? Surely, you and your chaperone can take a moment longer to take a turn about the garden?” He reached up to take her hand. “A bit of exercise before a long journey is good for the constitution.”
The man was too damn persistent. “My lord, thank you for your offer, but my companion and I must away.”
His grip tightened. “I do insist.”
“Lord Slasbury—”
“The lady said ‘no.’” Syd knocked their hands apart and shook her head as if the man were but a dog who’d forgotten a command. “All that fine silk on your hat and not a working pair of ears on your head.” She called up the driver to, “Hurry up, good man. The day is wasting.”
Camille glanced back as the marquess’s figure grew smaller and smaller in the distance, his hard parting expression at Syd’s slight twisting the muscles of her stomach.
“That was poorly done, Syd,” she said. One didn’t practice making enemies of a titled man.
Syd didn’t look the least bit sorry. “The man wouldn’t take a hint. Really, could he not see we were in a hurry? The bigger the hat, the smaller the brain! Besides, all this fresh air makesme itchy. How do these people sleep at night with so many undefended points of entry? I hardly slept a wink last night.”
“That didn’t stop you from eating everything but the furniture. Most people don’t worry over such things.”
Syd snorted. “All that wealth is a waste. Did you see the Grecian vase in the water closet? A priceless piece of history and they put it in a privy!”
Camille turned to her companion sharply. “You didn’t steal it, did you?”
“I should have,” Syd grumbled. She added, “No, Ididn’t. I don’t do that anymore. Not since Pops got back from Egypt. Scarlet would have my hide if I got back into that life.”
“With good reason.”
“It wasonebroken arm!”
