gather, she had been raised in this house with the earl acting as a second father to her. How she wound up marrying him was an oddity he couldn’t fathom. What young woman would throw her youth away on an impotent old man? Reyn supposed he was being silly. Lots of girls married for money and position. Those things didn’t seem to matter to her, though. Perhaps it was access to the Kelby Collection that made her subjugate herself to Henry Kelby. Maybe she had preferred scholarship to sexual satisfaction. If so, he pitied her.
He put the port back on the tray unfinished. Well, what was he going to do with the rest of his evening? It was hours yet before his usual bedtime, but there were no army friends to carouse with, just a shelf full of oxblood leather-covered classics he hadn’t bothered to read when he should have a dozen years ago. No point to picking one up tonight, although it might put him to sleep. He should be tired. He’d ridden half the day and pushed boxes around and twitched under the earl’s sharp-eyed scrutiny.
It was a relief he’d be excused from further contact with the man, though that might seem strange to the servants when Reyn had been hired to assist him. Poor Maris was to be their go-between, reporting on whatever rubbish they found in the sixty-seven boxes upstairs. It was too cold and dark to go up to the attics and get started, but he had managed to carry some of the smaller boxes into the workroom for inspection tomorrow.
He wouldn’t know how to begin, anyway. There must be some sort of method one used when describing artifacts. Did one pull out a tape measure and count the inches? Write down colors and country of origin? He knew his numbers and red from green at least. Advantage Reyn.
He rang for someone to take away the remains of his dinner. He felt a little like a princess walled up in a castle tower since he didn’t have free rein to wander about the house looking for amusement. Maris was not apt to come to him to begin their other project, either. He’d already stroked himself to blessed oblivion earlier, so even self-abuse seemed a bit redundant. What the devil was he going to do with himself for the next few hours?
A fresh-faced young footman came to reclaim the dinner tray. Reyn was almost bored enough to engage the boy in conversation, but that would have been considered odd. Everyone had their place at Kelby Hall. Reyn might not be good enough to eat with the earl and countess, but he was much too grand to gossip with a footman.
So there he sat. He poked at the fire and rubbed some dust off the side of his boot onto the patterned carpet. His hands itched for a deck of cards, if even to play solitaire. Getting up, he rummaged through the drawers and was rewarded by emptiness, not even an overlooked ball of fluff.
Probably nothing was overlooked at Kelby Hall. The place was run with an efficiency any army officer would long for in his own troops. The old butler Amesbury was even frostier than the earl. Between the two of them, they must scare the wits out of everyone within a ten-mile radius.
Maybe Reyn needed to get out of their range. It was a fine, crisp night with a three-quarter moon. There was no reason he couldn’t take a walk and enjoy some fresh air. Take a turn in the garden he’d seen from the windows of the library.
His old army cloak hung in the dressing room, gloves and scarf stuffed in the pockets. He wouldn’t ask for a lantern. His night vision had always been good—useful in his previous line of work. He dressed and took “his” staircase down several flights to the ground floor. The earl’s library was at the other end of the house, and Reyn wondered if the old man was in there fiddling with his papers, or if he was still dining with the countess. The house was quiet, but sconces were lit all along the corridor and a few footmen were visible at their positions farther down the hallway.
One of them raised a hand to Reyn and hurried down the oriental runner that seemed to go on for miles. “May I help you, sir?”
“Where’s the nearest door to the garden?” Reyn felt he should know this already. Good reconnaissance