Thea set her hands on her hips. “I expect he will not try again, then.”
Charles bowed, as did the other footmen accompanying him back to the house. “We think he may be frantic enough for either his pay or out of fear of whoever hired him, Miss Miller. If he went to such lengths,knowingfull well he walked into a trap, he will return.”
Thea blew her breath out in a disgusted gust. “And we may not realize he did until one of us is dead.”
* * *
“I think you should reconsider going to London,” Freddie said to Thea at supper that evening.
“And I think you should reconsider suggesting such a thing,” she retorted hotly, scowling as Mr. Carter poured her wine.
Freddie eyed the footman, unable to cease wondering at the man’s dedication to his sister. Since that day he caught the footman gazing at Thea with – something – in his eyes, his expression, and told him he would be discharged from service if he looked at her that way again, he found little to fault in the servant’s work. He never gazed at her with that longing in his countenance and even behaved as though he did not truly like her.Perhaps he blames her for my threatening him with dismissal.He glanced at Thea, who never, to his knowledge, even looked in Mr. Carter’s direction, save at their meeting to brainstorm the trap. That was the only time she ever gazed at him, even then it was a quick look, then away.
Yet she never had any compunction about smiling, jesting with or talking to the other servants. She never failed to be their advocate, always tried to sway him or their father to see things from their point of view.Does she not like him either? But he saved her life, not once, but twice. He saved mine. Those deeds alone would have her talking to him, gazing at him, even if she did not care for him personally. Thea always shows her gratitude.
But to his knowledge, she made surehe,Freddie, showed the man his. Why did she not display her own? Or did she?
“Freddie?”
“Eh? Oh, excuse me.” Freddie tried to smile. “Just thinking?”
Thea continued to scowl at him. “Not only will I not go to London, but I also cannot travel.”
“Why ever not?”
“Sitting in a bouncing carriage for four days will cause me no end of agony,” she grated, pointing to her left arm in its sling. “Only you would think that I can.”
Mortified that he did not remember that, Freddie felt his face heat. “I am so sorry, Thea,” he said, truly meaning it. “I am so concerned with this bugger and your safety, I did not consider anything else.”
She nodded, mollified. “So we are stuck here, you and I.”
“Well, I can go to London,” he commented brightly.
His grin faded when he saw his jest had fallen flat with her. “What happened to your sense of humor, sister?”
“It decamped with that bugger who ran over the hills.”
“Come now,” he said, cajoling. “We will capture this miscreant and find out who is behind all this. Please? Give me a smile?”
It took a few moments before a wry grin crept over Thea’s face. “I apologize for my bad mood, Freddie,” she said. “My arm still aches something terrible, you came so close to being killed, and our beautiful plan fell to pieces.”
“Look on the bright side.”
Thea glanced carefully around the table. “What bright side would that be?”
“Robert still adores you.”
At first, he thought he had said the wrong thing, and made her angry instead of trying to jolly her mood upward. After the first flash of rage crossing her face, Thea broke into laughter. “Freddie, you are every bit a scoundrel as that rat you chased over the hills.”
“But I,” he said, cutting into his roast beef, “am far more loveable.”
“My, do we not have a high opinion of ourselves.”
Freddie sent her an impudent grin. “We certainly do.”
Thea laughed. “What am I going to do with you, Freddie?”
“Hang me upside down by my toes and tickle me silly?”
