their eyes met for the barest of moments, Rebecca did not wink, the look in her eyes that of one whose mind was racing to adapt. What had gone wrong? What would happen now?
Caroline wished she could speak to her cousin. But her parents ushered her out of the room, following Lord Coleridge’s butler. “What about Rebecca?” she asked. “Is she not joining us?”
Her mother and father merely exchanged a pleased smile, which told Caroline all she needed to know.
Lord Coleridge intended to propose and her parents would not dare interfere!
Caroline could only hope Rebecca knew what she was doing, that Lord Pembroke was still nearby, that he would keep an eye on her, that he would interfere if necessary.
Caroline and her parents were shown to the drawing room where she was forced to listen to them all but plan the wedding that was now within their grasps. They discussed the guest list as well as the effects it would have on their own standing to have their niece married to a man like Lord Coleridge. Occasionally, Caroline felt her father’s eyes on her, regret shining in them, no doubt contemplating what could have been if Caroline had not been the unfortunate grey mouse she’d become.
Pacing the length of the room, Caroline tried her best to ignore her parents while congratulating herself on her foresight to have concocted such a plan to hide herself. It had been wise, indeed!
How much time passed, Caroline could not say. All she knew was that her heart nearly stopped when the sound of shattering glass suddenly echoed through the house.
She froze, and so did her parents, their eyes as wide as hers.
In the next second, they heard servants rushing along the corridors, their voices strained and filled with concern.
“Father!” Caroline exclaimed, rushing forward to grip his hands. “We need to see to Rebecca. What if something happened? We need to ensure she’s all right.” Then she added, “She and Lord Coleridge!”
Shaken from his momentary paralysis, her father nodded and, a moment later, they found themselves rushing toward the back of the house to where a newly-built conservatory had been added.
Stumbling inside, they found Lord Coleridge passed out on the ground, shards of glass covering the floor around him, a huge hole in the back wall.
Rebecca was nowhere to be seen!
While Lord Coleridge was tended to and her parents fluttered about, demanding answers from the overwhelmed servants, Caroline continued to stare at the hole. Please, let her be all right! She whispered, praying that Lord Pembroke had come for Rebecca after all. That she was safe. That he truly valued her cousin’s well-being above everything else.
Was that not what love was?
Chapter Twenty-Four
A Late Visitor
Pierce arrived home later than expected, his thoughts occupied with Pembroke’s blurted admission, I love her. Indeed, the man looked positively smitten, and it had not taken long for his friend to realize how deep his feelings for Miss Rebecca Hawkins truly ran. Once he had though, it had been impossible for Pierce to dissuade him.
Not that Pierce had wanted to. He’d just wanted his friend to be certain of what he wanted.
Of whom he wanted.
For that very reason, Pierce had set out the night before and detained Lord Coleridge in his very own, highly effective, but unfortunately far from legal manner. Pembroke had been livid when he’d found out, yelling and ranting, until Caroline’s letter had arrived.
Even now, Pierce felt himself grin rather stupidly at the few sentences she’d penned, the veiled threats that had lingered underneath. His little mouse was, indeed, a force to be reckoned with!
It had been her letter that had made all the difference for it had opened Pembroke’s eyes to the threat Coleridge presented. He was a man with no scruples. A man who’d all but offered up his driver’s life to remain unhurt himself. A man who valued nothing and no one but himself.
Pierce had known men like him.
And he despised them.
As it was rather late in the day, Albert welcomed him home as Pierce stepped across the threshold, the man’s work for the orphanage finished. “How are the children?”
“Quite well,” Albert replied, a slight tremble in his hands.
“And the numbers add up?” Pierce asked suspiciously, handing his coat and gloves to a footman.
Albert nodded. His eyes seemed wider than usual before he opened his mouth. “You have a visitor, my lord.”
“A visitor?” Pierce repeated. “This late?”
Again, Albert nodded, his gaze traveling sideways to the door to the drawing room, the look in his eyes