Page 69 of A Dangerous Engagement

Aunt Agnes nodded and mumbled something indecipherable.

The three of them went down to the breakfast room where a few others were up early enough to partake. They ate rather quickly, as none of them seemed to have much appetite, and Mr.Ratley turned to Aunt Agnes.

“Please excuse us, Miss Appleby, but I wish to take Miss Mayson to the garden for a walk. You don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” Aunt Agnes said, but she was looking questioningly at Felicity.

“We will not be terribly long, I think,” Felicity reassured her. But she was far from feeling her own reassurance.

She took Mr.Ratley’s arm and walked with him out into the garden.

The sky was completely overcast with heavy white clouds. Not a spot of blue was visible, and the air was quite cool, too cool for her light muslin dress, thin spencer, and flimsy bonnet. She did not complain, however, as they walked along until they were enclosed on two sides by hedges taller than they were. Mr.Ratley stopped and turned to face her.

“Forgive me for saying this, but Lady Blackstone thinks you may have stolen the key to her room.”

Felicity tried to laugh. “Why would I do that?”

Mr.Ratley put a hand on the back of his neck and scowled. “She thinks you don’t agree with our cause, that you are still loyal to the present government.”

“But I am here, aren’t I? Would I still want to marry you if I did not agree with the cause of revolution and reform?”

“You don’t agree wholeheartedly. You practically said so yourself. And Lady Blackstone thinks you may have convinced one of the men to think the way you do, to turn against us.”

Felicity folded her arms across her chest. “This is terribly unfair. Steal a key? Turn other people against you? Does that sound like something I would do?” But her stomach felt sick, as if she might lose the breakfast she had just eaten.God, help me pretend I know nothing.

Mr.Ratley removed his hand from the back of his neck, huffed, and took Felicity’s hand. “I admit it does not. But Lady Blackstone ... She does not take opposition lightly. And she is obsessed with finding who may have stolen that key.”

“But it is probably only lost.” Felicity allowed herself to smile. “Surely everyone here is very loyal to both Lady Blackstone and the cause. I am sure she will understand if you just tell her you lost the key.”

He closed his eyes, his face crestfallen. “She means so much to me. And now she is so angry.” He opened his eyes, suddenly looking Felicity directly in the eye, then glancing away. “She and I became very close after ... We met after her husband died and I inherited my father’s estate. I had been away at school for so long, and I knew nothing about how to run a business or a household. I hardly remembered my mother, she died so young. My father sent me away to school when I was only six years old, so I had been alone for a long time. Lady Blackstone, she ... she was concerned for me. She was so helpful and gave me such good advice. She knows so much about everything. We would talk for hours about politics. She’d had such a sad life, so many hard things when she was a child ... I would do anything for her, and I simply cannot bear to disappoint her.”

Something about the passionate way he spoke of his attachment to Lady Blackstone made Felicity shudder inwardly. It was suddenly very obvious that Mr.Ratley had decided to marry her based solely on what Lady Blackstone had said to him. Was Felicity so desperate to marry, so desperate to feel loved, that she would engage herself to a man who neither knew her nor understood her? A man she neither knew nor understood? She’d imagined she saw love in a man who was so broken he was incapable of being a mature husband to her.

As someone who believed in God’s Providence, shouldn’t she have checked her impulsiveness long enough to pray and ask God to show her if this man was right for her? She did not have to make such an important decision in the same moment he asked her.

Obviously, Mr.Ratley had been so desperate to have a family, to have someone to lean on after being alone and losing his father, that he had allowed himself to be completely controlled and manipulated by Lady Blackstone, a woman old enough to be his mother, but who had many ulterior motives. No doubt she had seen him as a means to an end, a person who would do her bidding, and especially someone who would use his wealth to fund her revolution.

Felicity felt sorry for Mr.Ratley. But the thought of marrying him was as abhorrent as ever. If only she had told him no ... but then she would not have been able to help Mr.Merrick.

“Do not worry,” Felicity said. “Let us think about where you might have lost the key.”

“If we do not find it, Lady Blackstone has threatened to search everyone’s rooms.”

Felicity’s throat went dry. Mr.Merrick had copies of those incriminating papers in his room, hidden somewhere, and if Lady Blackstone were to find them ... they would kill him.

Felicity swallowed down her panic and took a deep breath.

“Let us think. Where did you have the key last?”

“I think it must have been when I went into her room a few nights ago. You were with me. I locked the door, and then we ... well, we kissed in the corridor. I don’t recall seeing the key after that.”

“Then let us go up to the corridor outside Lady Blackstone’s room and look for it. Come.” She took his arm and tugged gently.

“We can try, I suppose.”

They went back into the house and immediately encountered Lady Blackstone and Mr.Merrick in conversation, standing at the bottom of the staircase.

As they passed near, they heard Lady Blackstone ask Mr.Merrick, “Do you have designs on Miss Mayson?”