Lady Falls (Black Rose Trilogy) (6 page)

Kitty’s entire demeanor changed as she slowly turned back to study her mistress with new eyes.  “Out with it.”

“What?”

“Not in all the years I’ve known you have you ever hesitated to happily change your frock and glowed at the prospect, Raven Wells.  Not once!”

“There is always a first instance, Kitty.  Not that I am accepting your claim.  I’m sure I’m not such a shallow thing!” Raven crossed her arms, then immediately regretted it since it only made her look like a petulant child.

“Out with it.”

Raven weighed it all out before she spoke.  She’d made a promise to say nothing but the threat to Lady Morley’s health felt far heavier.  “I need to ascertain if Mrs. Lindstrom is the ally of her mistress or more loyal to Lord Morley.  I need to discern where her sympathies lie.”

Kitty’s face tightened in confusion.  “Is there a rift between the pair?  If so, then I can tell you plain, no servant will betray such a thing or make the mistake of choosing any side that might put them out of a position.  Such is the way of it, Miss Wells.”

“It is more than a rift.”

It took a few seconds but Kitty’s expression softened.  “How badly is she hurt?”

“Badly enough that I don’t think we’ll see her at dinner for at least another day or two.” Raven dropped her arms, all pretense at bravado gone.  “Will you help me?”

Kitty nodded, her lips pressed into a thin line of disapproval.  “I’ll do what I can.  But you can’t be burning the man alive with hateful looks at dinner!”

“Easier said than done,” Raven confessed.

“You say one word or make one sniff at Lord Morley and he’ll blame his wife for throwing herself on your mercy.  He’ll punish her all the worse and leave this house with his wife bundled screaming under his arm; and then what will you have to say for yourself?  You’ll have done more harm than good and disgraced the earl!” Kitty said firmly and then retrieved the saffron colored day dress from the bed.  “Change your dress for the afternoon and trust me to see to it at the servant’s dinner tonight.  I’ll give you a full report when I come up to help you to bed.”

“Very well.”

The ritual of changing was a welcome distraction.  The layers to be shed, the new layers added, it was a choreographed dance between mistress and maid.   The bright yellow set off Raven’s coloring and even with the anxiety of the day’s discovery, her mood lifted a little.  She watched Kitty in the mirror and lifted her long hair to keep it out of the way of the maid’s nimble fingers.  “Do the servants talk, Kitty?  Downstairs.  I mean, how open is their gossip and manner?”

“You know they do!  It is understood that there will be gossip to be shared or hoarded almost like currency.”

“Like currency,” she echoed in fascination.

Kitty went on, encouraged. “Think of it like a secret mirror beneath your feet.  The same layers of class and hierarchy but on a lesser scale, guarded with the same zeal and fraught with some of the same political dangers.”

“As above…” Raven whispered.

Kitty nodded.  “So it is below.”

She eyed Kitty from a fresh vantage point.  For here, standing in grey muslin and a white apron, was her counterpart and her reflection to the “world below”.  She had new respect for her maid.

It’s power, too, isn’t it?  I never paid any mind before but I think I should have.

As the door closed behind Kitty, Raven took her seat at her desk and forced her mind to turn to the scavenger hunt.  Joy had drained from the day but her obligations remained. She’d promised them all a grand puzzle and there was no reneging now.  She lifted her pen and began to write out the list of items for the players to seek along with the clues and assignments that she would hide throughout the house and gardens in the grey of pre-dawn.  She made sure that each player’s list included a few unique items to keep it exciting.

Even so, her mind wandered.  The thrill of a house party and the romance of a London social season had lost most of its glitter after one look at Lady Morley.  Trent implied that Raven’s judgment would be more sound when it came to choosing a husband, but something in her rebelled at the notion that Lady Morley had willingly partnered with a monster.

More likely Lord Morley was as sweet as sugared pears when they met…

Raven wasn’t sure marriage was quite the “prize” she’d been led to believe but as for considering herself as some predator—it felt ridiculous.

Sir Warrick has no resemblance at all to a creature that one would “take down”—but he stirs something in me that wonders what the chase would really be like if a man like that were at my heels.

Or if I were in pursuit of him if that’s truly how it works.

She glanced out the window at the oaks and recalled the look in Phillip Warrick’s eyes; and then boldly added a final item to the list with his name on it.

Lady Morley may not be the only one in need of an ally, or of comfort.

Chapter Five

The day of the scavenger hunt dawned as Raven knew it must.  She’d been working on the lists, in between her subtle efforts to see to Lady Morley’s state and make a bright show of cheer at dinner to hide her concerns.  Kitty had engineered what she could below stairs and before bed, a brief note from Lady Morley to Raven had expressed gratitude along with another plea for her discretion.

A sleepless night had yielded to morning and Raven prayed that subtlety was a skill that one could acquire by hoping for it.  “Good morning, all!” she greeted the room breezily.  Her forced smile gave way to genuine surprise as she spotted Lady Morley sitting next to her husband at the table. 

“Ah! Here is my ward!” Geoffrey said.  “Raven, this is Lady Morley who we missed at dinner.”

Raven curtsied and took her seat.  “A pleasure to meet you at last, your ladyship.”

“A delight,” the woman returned softly.  “I was just telling the earl how we’ve looked forward to this holiday.”

Raven did her very best not to stare at the faint shadow of a bruise on the woman’s face camouflaged by powders.  Kitty’s ointments had done wonders for the injury to her lip. 
Thank God.
  “Oakwell Manor is known as quite the haven from the city.”

“Yes, well…my silly luck to catch a cold just after we’d arrived!” she exclaimed.  “My poor husband has been left to fend for himself but I will do my best
to make up for any lost time.”

Lord Morley smiled.  “Millicent is far better at social nonsense than I.”

“God, what woman isn’t!” Trent said with a laugh.  “Well, I am glad to see you recovered, dear lady.  What a bear he’s been without you!”

Raven kept her eyes on her plate.  If she didn’t know better, she’d have believed every word and seen no sign of trouble. 

Mrs. Carlton poured herself another cup of tea.  “Will you be joining us in the game, Lady Morley?”

“Game?” Millicent asked, openly confused.

“There’s to be a ridiculous scavenger hunt after breakfast,” Sheffield grumbled.  “It was Miss Well’s doing.”

Raven blushed.  “I do not have a list for you, Lady Morley, but if you wish to partner with someone?”

“Oh, please feel free to take my place!” Lady Baybrook said.  “My knees already ache just considering all the scurrying about and unnatural excitement of the thing.”

Lady Morley glanced at her husband who nodded his approval.

“Yes, I would enjoy the diversion!  What fun!” Millicent said.

“Very well, everyone who wishes to participate will meet in the library for your lists at ten.” Raven warmed to the subject.  “You will have until three in the afternoon to get as many items on your list as you can.  We shall meet there and see who is the champion of the day.”

“And if there is a tie?” Sheffield asked.

“Then the clock will decide,” Trent intervened.  “I’ll position myself in the library later and make a note of the time of your arrivals.  Lady Baybrook may join me if she wishes to act as my lieutenant.  If two of you have the same number of tokens, then whoever checks in earlier will gain the advantage.”

Mr. Sheffield nodded.  “That seems fair.”

“It is more than fair,” Trent said with the authority of a man long used to having the last word.  “I should also add that anyone who fails to reach the library by three will forfeit the game, even if they have achieved every item on their list.”

Phillip smiled.  “I can see my strategy coming together.”

“It is nearly ten now, so if you’ll excuse me,” Raven said as she pushed back her chair to stand.  “I shall gather the lists and see you in the library.”

She left to do as she’d promised but also to have a brief word with Kitty who was waiting in Raven’s bedroom.

“How did she appear, Miss Wells?” Kitty asked.

“You knew she would be out?”

Kitty shrugged.  “Mrs. Lindstrom said as much after we’d finished the morning’s dressing and preparations.  Lindstrom said she was real grateful for the help of the salve and I gave her the recipe in case…”

“In case Lady Morley ever has need of it again?” Raven asked with a sigh.

“Oh, it’s certain to come to hand, sooner or later.  But Lindstrom’s given me the nod and I think I’ll be the first to know if she decides she wants a friend.”  Kitty held out the lists, each folded and sealed, from Raven’s writing desk.  “Nothing to be done for it presently.  So here.  Enjoy the day!”

Raven took the papers nervously.  “I may do just that.  Thank you.”

She hurried back downstairs to the library where the group awaited their assignments.  Phillip Warrick was present and one look at how handsome he appeared leaning against one of the carved columns near the section on histories made her question her sanity. 

“Let’s have them then!” Mr. Sheffield barked.  “The sooner we start, the sooner I have the prize in hand.  No offense, ladies, but I fail to see how the odds can favor you in what is sure to become a foot race.”

Raven didn’t bother answering him directly, a smile tugging at her lips at the realization that the man who’d protested the scavenger hunt the loudest was now its most eager player.  “Here, we are.  Please don’t open your lists until after the clock has chimed.”  She started handing each person the folded lists with their name on the outside of it, above the black wax seal she’d borrowed from the earl’s desk.  “Everyone’s quest is unique, so no use trying to cheat by stalking your opponents.”

“I’m looking forward to this,” Mr. Warrick admitted and held out his hand.

She nearly hesitated but it was too late to change course.  “Good luck, sir.”

“Thank you.”

The clock chimed and all the guests unfolded their extensive lists to read them with smiles and gasps.

Mrs. Carlton clapped her hands in delight.  “Oh, what fun!”

Mr. Carlton nodded.  “I am enamored of the day ahead!  Come, let’s be off and may the best man win!”

“Or woman!” Lady Morley added, her humor more apparent in her husband’s absence.

“That’s the spirit,” Raven said.

Everyone quickly moved to begin the hunt with one notable exception.    Phillip read the first few items on his list and nearly laughed.  It was a masterful scavenger hunt and he immediately grasped that there was nothing indolent or simple to be found.  If he’d planned on lazily picking up a few things and strolling to victory, the shape of his day altered quickly.

“Item No. 4: First Earl of Trent’s eyes are cast upon it.”

Portrait gallery? First I have to locate the dusty boy’s painting and then figure out if he is looking at something in the portrait itself or does his gaze lead to an object nearby…God, I’m having fun already.

He realized the other players were having similar experiences as they quickly sought to thank the mistress of the game before they left the library.  Phillip waited until they were all gone before he stepped up to her.  “It’s a clever list, Miss Wells.”

“Oh! Do—do you think so?” She blushed, suddenly shy with him.  “Well, I…shall let you run your race then, sir.”  She retreated quickly and he watched her go in astonishment.  She’d saucily stood over him on a cobbled street and then debated men three times her age with the self-possessed confidence of a duchess, yet now she blushed and ran.

Phillip sighed at the puzzle and decided the only cure was to do as she bid.  “Very well, let’s run our race.”  He unfolded his list again and studied it more thoroughly, starting to group the items to save himself some steps and—

Item number thirty leapt off the page and his breath caught in his throat.

Mystery solved.

Phillip deliberately collected several other items before he approached the gazebo.  He did not want to look like an overeager schoolboy but he would be damned if he would ignore her invitation.  He walked into the garden, dazed at the dreamlike sight of Miss Raven Wells perched on the cushioned bench inside. 

She stood as he came up the steps, suddenly shy.  “You came.”

“You were in doubt?”  He smiled and held up his list.  “I can’t think of a reason short of Armageddon that would have kept me from seeing if I can claim number thirty.”

She smiled.  “Ah, what a compliment!”

“I could have professed something about my competitive nature driving me here.”  He shook out the small paper and read the item in question aloud.  “A kiss from the girl in the gazebo.”

“The girl.  That isn’t very specific.  It could have been a scullery maid,” she said mischievously.  “What if I had recruited Lady Baybrook?  Would you look so cheerful then?”

“What do you think?” He came up the last step and stood before her. 

“I think…” She pressed her fingers against the blaze creeping up her cheeks.  “You must have the most brazen impression of me.  That this idea was…”

“Tell me.”

Raven looked up into his face and suddenly, her words were a tumble as the truth yielded to his kind expression. “I am not fast.  You see, I’m to debut in London and there is nothing to say that it won’t be an unmitigated disaster. Especially since few things are ever as glorious as one hopes but I thought—I have so little to say over anything.  But a kiss—a first kiss.  I wanted to have a say, Mr. Warrick.  And rather than risk some unwanted mishap or leave it up to an irascible and unreliable fate, what if I asked you?  And as you are, I think, the most strikingly handsome man I have ever seen…”

“I see.”

“Do you?  Life is not nearly as predictable as I keep hoping.  But if you would oblige me in this, I would be very grateful.”  Raven finished her case and then was torn between a prayer that the earth would swallow her whole to escape the embarrassing moment and the fervent wish that the man would hurry up and be done with it.

Just lean over and press your mouth against mine and I will be a woman kissed, at last!

Mr. Phillip Warrick shifted forward to pull her into his arms and Raven nearly squeaked in happy delight that it would be the latter.  Though she immediately realized that whatever awkward event she’d envisioned was not in the offering.

One of his hands reached up to cradle the back of her head, gently tipping her back until there was nothing for her to do but instinctively cling to the man or risk losing her balance.  Raven’s heart pounded as she succumbed to the delicious sensation of falling into a man’s arms, the heat of him surrounding her.  Slowly, reverently, he lowered his mouth toward hers, until his breath was intermingled with hers and a shiver ran down her spine.

The first touch was as soft as velvet, as he deliberately pulled his lips across hers to map the sensitive contours of her mouth before he tasted her.  What she’d seen as a dry and fleeting gesture evaporated in the reality of fleshly reality when Phillip Warrick’s tongue lightly trailed over the plump rise of her lower lip.  She gasped at the unexpected turns of strangeness that shifted to pleasure, each touch of his mouth beckoning hers to follow and mirror him in the exchange.

Raven drank in the lessons, yielding without repaying him with anything more than sighs until the eager student mastered herself.  When her mouth opened to his, the last invisible threads of passive restraint broke and Raven dared to match him.  She wanted to not only be kissed, but to kiss.

Bold hands moved up his back, exploring the textures of a man’s shoulders until her fingers reached upward to sample the rough silk of his hair and the smooth heat of his skin.  She had asked for a taste of independence and instead had been served a feast of heady surrender.

Phillip’s reaction was a delicious shudder, his embrace tightening as the woman in his arms came to life against him.  From maidenly stillness to hungry temptress, Raven’s kisses possessed a magic all their own.  She did not retreat but instead spurred him on, driving him with a heady mixture of innocence and raw sensuality.  He was in awe of the discovery of her powers, so potent and intoxicating, he didn’t know if he would ever be the same.

Her tongue danced against his, and every nerve ending in his body began to ricochet fire and ice.  The warm wet confines of her mouth were open to him and a primal need unfurled at the invitation.  His cock stiffened against the indifferent confines of his breeches and Phillip was forced to acknowledge that while obliging a lady with a first kiss was all well and good; shagging an earl’s virgin ward in his garden was not going to fly.

Phillip straightened, gently kissing her until the very last instant when he was sure she was back on her feet and capable of standing.

“Oh, my!” She pushed away with the greatest reluctance freed to recover what she could of her wits.  “That…”

“What say you, Raven Wells?” he asked.

“I say you may cross item number thirty off of your list, sir and that…” She blinked like a cub stepping out from its den for the first time.  “I never thought to find kissing so…”

His eyes gleamed with triumph, manly pride only adding to his appeal.  “So?” he prompted playfully.

“Transforming.”  She looked up at him, desire and vulnerability warring in her eyes.

His expression changed, a new intensity seizing them both at her confession.  “Yes, it was.”