“So a servant then. The question is, where did he or she go?”
“That’s my second point. We meet here in the morning to see if we can find any footprints or track the path the servant took tonight. Was it to the road? Further into the forest? There aren’t any other residences close enough to visit, but he or she might have gone to the dairy or the aviary or the stable.”
“I’ll ask Wilhemina to watch Johnny for an hour,” she said. “Only that means I’ll have to watch the baby in return. This had better be worth it.”
Duncan rose and pulled her to her feet. “No way to know until it’s light and we can do a search.”
“Is that all? I’m for bed and we still have that letter from Baron to decipher.”
“There’s just one more issue,” he said.
“What’s that?”
“We’re locked out of the house.”
Chapter Ten
Lucy swore, using wordsno lady should know. Good thing she was more agent than lady. Why hadn’t they realized that when the figure they’d been watching returned, he or she would lock the door once inside again?
“My thoughts exactly,” Duncan said. He moved toward the house, stopped under the wisteria growing over the front door, and tried the latch. Locked.
Lucy swore again. “Should we break in? I’m good at that sort of thing.”
“I’m counting on it, but first, let’s see if Lord John is still in his library. He can let us in.”
They made their way around to the bay window, where candlelight still flickered. She watched Duncan tap on the window. Nothing happened.
“Tap again,” Lucy said. “He probably thinks he’s just hearing things.”
Duncan tapped again. “Lord John,” he said, voice low but clear. A moment later, the curtain parted, and Lord John’s worried expression appeared. He saw Duncan and Lucy, and his worry didn’t abate.
Lucy gestured to the window, and he opened one of them. “What the devil?” he hissed. “It’s after two in the morning.”
“We can explain,” Duncan said. He offered Lucy a hand, but she batted it away and climbed through the window herself. Then she turned and offered Duncan a hand. With a smile, he took it, hoisted himself up and through.
Lord John closed and latched the window behind them. “Has something happened?” he asked.
