“Which part?”
“The part where they fake the young girl’s death.”
Henrietta’s eyes widened.
“It’s all a bit convoluted, but Tobias’s plan hinges on everyone thinking you’re dead, which is much more believable if you’re not here, quite clearly alive.”
“I’m confused.”
“Me too. But it sounds a good enough way to get out of this mess without killing anyone. We need information from Stubly more than we need his lifeless corpse, much as it pains me to admit it.” They had to find out who had put him up to the attack. He pressed his forehead against Henrietta’s and smiled a grim smile. “But now you know as much as I do. Are you pleased?”
“I’m not sure. Yes?”
“Good. Now stay put.” He lifted her and deposited her inside the carriage, then shut the door.
“Hey!”
Tobias clapped him on the back. “Good call with the manhandling, Gray. Only way we could get this done, I’m afraid. But she’s going to be mighty pi—”
Henrietta’s head appeared in the window. “I am mighty pi—”
Grayson and Tobias marched onto the field.
“Do you think anyone saw her? Heard her?” Tobias asked.
Grayson eyed the gentlemen in the distance. They were far enough away and at an awkward angle to the coach. “It’s possible they did not. If they did, we can say it was a besotted lady of your acquaintance. Ready?”
“Born so, I believe.” Tobias studied Grayson, head tilted. “Wait.” He yanked at Grayson’s cravat. “Undo it completely. And rip your sleeve.” He reached up and tussled Grayson’s hair. “There. Now, that’s the bereaved suitor look.”
Grayson eyed Tobias’s immaculate coat and trousers. “What about your own? Don’t you need the bereaved brother look?”
“No. I’d look immaculate in bereavement.” He waved his hand in the air. “Everyone knows it.”
Grayson cast a final look at the coach where Henrietta hid, then turned. Everything hinged on the next couple of minutes—honor, information, their future together. But if anyone had seen Henrietta, all of it would be lost.
Chapter 28
Energy bounced Henrietta up and down on her seat. If she didn’t sit still, Stubly and his second would wonder why Blake’s carriage bounced so on a windless morning. She sat on her hands and bit her lips together.
She tried to think of calming things—her father’s factory before the workers arrived, when the usually whirring machines were still and silent around her. A ride on Lemon through the fields of her grandfather’s estate. An afternoon spent chatting with Ada. A shadowy, moonlit garden. Stolen kisses.
As her thoughts turned to Grayson, her wild restlessness returned. She craned her neck to see better out the window, but the angle of the coach to the dueling ground was inconveniently awkward. And there were trees between the coach and the open space where Tobias and Grayson had so recently joined Stubly and his second. Blast those trees! If Tobias and Grayson were going to reenact a Shakespearean scene, she wanted to see it!
But perhaps the trees were the key and not the problem.
Henrietta creaked the coach door open and slipped out. She arranged her hood over her head and pulled the cloak tight about her, maneuvering around the coach. Surely, engrossed in the business of the duel, no one would see her creeping closer, using the trees to block the men’s view of her approach. They were grouped together in the center of a copse. Tobias stood higher than them all, but everyone’s interest focused on Grayson, whose hair collected the growing morning light.
Henrietta shot from one tree to the next until she heard voices carrying on the wind.
Stubly paced back and forth at a frantic pace. “I didn’t mean to! I swear. I’m more talk than anything,” he whimpered, rubbing his palms down his face. “It was only a bit of fun. If I scared her enough, she’d leave, and the lady would be appeased.”
Grayson stood still as a statue, but she heard his voice rise above Stubly’s moaning. “She’s dead, Stubly. And it’s your fault.”
Stubly’s shoulders sank and shook, then his head popped up. “No, it’s not! It’s her fault!”
“Henrietta is blameless, you blackguard,” Grayson growled.
Oh, this was good. She’d have missed it all, too, had she stayed in the coach.
