Lady Guinevere and the Rogue with a Brogue - Julie Johnstone Page 0,80

a missive to Kilgore to meet Guinevere in the park.

“My lady, it’s Ballenger.”

Guinevere rushed to the door and pulled her lady’s maid inside the room. Abandoning niceties, she said, “Well?”

“The marquess is not in town.”

Guinevere’s shoulders slumped. “Oh.”

“His footman told you this?” Frederica asked from beside Guinevere.

Ballenger shook her head. “No, my lady. He was rude actually. He’s a strange one, that man. Nearly deaf and half-blind. I cannot see why the marquess employs him. He—”

“Ballenger!” Guinevere interrupted. She loved her lady’s maid dearly, but the woman did have a habit of losing track of the topic of conversation.

“If the footman did not tell you,” Vivian said, “then how did you come to discover Kilgore was not in residence?”

“Oh!” Frederica exclaimed. “Did you snoop?”

“Freddy, please,” Guinevere said, more snappish than she’d meant to be. But if Mama returned and wanted Guinevere for more wedding preparations, it could be evening before she heard the rest of Ballenger’s tale.

“Lord Pierce happened by on the way to his townhome, which seems to be next to Lord Kilgore’s.”

“Oh,” Guinevere said, surprised. She had not realized Talbot had a townhome near Kilgore’s residence, but then why would she have? She had not had occasion to be at either man’s townhome. A dreadful thought hit her. “Ballenger, please tell me that you did not reveal to Talbot that you were my lady’s maid.” She could only imagine what Asher would think if his half brother told him her lady’s maid had called upon Kilgore.

“Oh, no, my lady,” Ballenger said.

Dizzy relief struck Guinevere.

“But,” the woman continued, and Guinevere groaned. There was that word she positively despised. Ballenger paused, her eyes widening. “Shall I continue?”

“If you must,” Guinevere muttered.

At Ballenger’s look of confusion, Vivian said, “Yes, Ballenger, please do continue. Lady Guinevere is simply overtaxed from Mama.”

Ballenger nodded dutifully, though her expression was doubtful. “Lord Pierce recognized me from your parents’ annual ball.”

Now it was Guinevere’s turn to be positively confused. “Why would Talbot recognize you from the ball?” Guinevere asked, casting her mind back several weeks ago to the ball. What she mostly recalled about that night was her conversation with Asher. That night had marked the reappearance of him in her life. Had it really only been that short a time?

“Lord Pierce took a wrong turn trying to find the necessary, and I directed him, as we nearly collided when I came out of your bedchamber, my lady,” Ballenger said, looking at Guinevere.

“That’s quite the wrong turn,” Frederica said. “Does the man not know his left from his right?”

“Freddy, hush,” Guinevere said. “Talbot will be my brother-in-law soon. Who honestly cares if he has no sense of direction?”

“His sense of direction makes no matter to me,” Frederica protested, giving Guinevere a peevish look. “But—”

“No!” Guinevere snipped, feeling an ache begin behind her right eye. “Let us stay focused on the most important topic. Ballenger, are you saying Talbot knows you are my lady’s maid?”

Maybe all was not lost…

The woman flushed, and Guinevere groaned again. “You told him.”

Ballenger nodded and then hurriedly said, “Not today, of course. I would not be so foolish.”

“No, of course not,” Guinevere said, seeing the look of worry on Ballenger’s face. “Don’t fret.”

Ballenger needed this position, and Guinevere did not want the woman, who was nearly the same age as Guinevere was, to worry that her position was in jeopardy.

“I told him the night I redirected him at the ball. He was very kind and asked my name and position, as he wanted to tell your mother how I’d helped him, and he did.” She beamed. “Your mother gave me a bonus the next day.”

“I had not realized,” Guinevere said. Her mother could be so kind, which was one of the reasons Guinevere knew in her heart that Mama only meant well, though her words and actions had hurt over the years. “Did Talbot ask you what you were doing at Kilgore’s home?” She both wanted to know and dreaded the answer.

“Yes, my lady. I confess that I lied and said that I was there delivering a message from your father to Lord Kilgore telling him that the children’s orphanage meeting had been canceled. It seemed it would be a believable lie.”

“Well,” Guinevere said, “I do not know who does sit on the orphanage board besides my father, and hopefully, Talbot does not, either. Because if Kilgore does not—”

“He does,” Ballenger interrupted. Then she quickly said, “Beg your pardon for interrupting, my lady.”

Guinevere waved away the apology as she studied Ballenger, who