“Izzy! Kate is looking for you!”
The mention of the stable master—who was entirely the wrong gender for a stable master—set Isabel on edge. She looked back at Nick, keenly aware of everything that had just transpired between them, and of the secrets that she had no choice but to keep from him.
Everything had just become infinitely more complicated.
Uncertain of what to say, of how one ended such an assignation, she said the first thing that came to her mind … the only thing that would make their situation easier. “You must leave.”
“And how do you suggest I do that? Over the edge of the roof?”
She took a deep breath, desperate to regain some of the calm that she so prided herself upon. “Of course not. You may use the front door.”
“How very magnanimous of you,” he said, and she ignored his teasing, starting down the stairs. She had not even reached the second step when his words stopped her. “You cannot go down there looking as you do.”
She waved off his words. “They’ve all seen me in men’s clothing. It shall be fine.”
“It is not your clothing to which I refer, Isabel.”
She looked back at the words, meeting the glittering blue gaze that seemed to see so much. Too much. “What, then?”
“It is the look of you.”
She raised one hand to her hair in a nervous gesture. “What do you mean? How do I look?”
“Like someone who has been thoroughly kissed.”
She blushed then, the heat coming high and fast. She pressed a hand to her face, willing it away before she straightened and in her very coolest tone said, “You must leave. Immediately.”
And, with that, she hurried down the stairs to deal with whatever new challenge was to be thrust in her direction.
“What do you mean, ‘They cannot leave'?!”
Kate made a show of wringing out her long wet hair and leaned against the stall door of one of the two remaining horses in the Townsend Park stables. “Just what I’ve said. They cannot leave. The rain has flooded the post road. There is no route into town.”
“They haven’t a choice! They’ve got to leave!”
Kate’s brow furrowed at Isabel’s high-pitched squeak. “Isabel. I’m not sure what you would like me to do about it. I cannot direct the weather.”
“We shall just have to keep the girls hidden,” Jane, ever practical, said from her place just inside the stables. “We’ve done it before.”
Isabel turned away in a fit of frustration, placing her fisted hands against her forehead and taking several deep breaths.
Turning back, she leveled the women with a stern look. “Lord Nicholas is no fool. He shall know immediately that something about Townsend Park is not what it seems. His friend shall do the same. They shall notice the lack of men.”
“Not if they are too busy noticing the lack of servants,” Gwen pointed out, running one finger along the curve of a saddle that had been slung over an unused stable door. “They’ve not seen many of us … we could just hide the girls and … well, hope for the best!” She punctuated the sentence with a grin that did nothing to comfort Isabel.
“Seven years of protecting you girls and the existence of Minerva House, and your solution is to hope for the best? “ Gwen nodded happily, and Isabel’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What has you so pleased?”
Gwen opened her mouth to speak, but before she could get a word out, Kate let out a mighty—and obviously false—cough, and Gwen’s mouth closed. She shook her head and looked away. Jane moved to stroke the long muzzle of the horse nearest to her. Lara seemed transfixed by the edge of one of her kidskin gloves. Kate considered the ceiling of the stables.
Something was amiss.
Isabel looked from one woman to the next. “What is it? ”
When no one answered, she tried again. “The four of you have never been able to keep something from me in your lives. What is it? ”
Gwen could not keep the words in any longer. “Only that the universe appears to support our plan.”
“Gwen …” Jane said, warning in her tone.
“Your plan? ”
“Quite. You see,” the cook said, looking to Lara for support, “Pearls and Pelisses—”
“Of course,” Isabel said. “I should have known this would have something to do with that ridiculous magazine.”
“Pearls and Pelisses,” Gwen repeated emphatically, “tells us that the very best way to secure the interest of a lord is to keep him near! And what better way to keep him near than a rainstorm that does not look as though it is letting up any time soon? Why, we do not even have to fabricate a reason to keep you in his thoughts! Nature has done it for us!”
Isabel’s brows shot up. “You assume that I have a desire to secure the man’s interest! The only thing I want him taking an interest in is the statuary!” Returning her attention to Kate, she said, “There really is no way to get them back to Dunscroft?”
Kate shook her head. “None whatsoever. I expect the road will be passable in the morning, assuming the rain stops sometime during the night, but I would not send horses into this weather—nor strangers to the area.”
“I assume that you are telling me the truth and not fabricating some issue to aid in Gwen’s lunacy?”
Kate looked at Isabel as though she’d grown a second head. “Do you really think I would support anything related to that magazine?”
Isabel threw her hands up and looked to Lara. “What am I to do?”