Chapter Six
Whenever her brothereluded her, Louisa silently applauded him. She also—deep in a corner of her heart she would never expose!—felt a secret pleasure when he outwitted his governess. It reassured her that he might, when darkness loomed, evade its clutches. Though perhaps not the most prudent of sentiments, it was the truth of her feelings.
Granted, evading darkness in the real world was not as simple as evading one’s tutor. One must master the delicate proverbial footwork and precise proximity required for a waltz, so that one could leverage these artful steps to navigate and escape the scheming or dangerous situations in society.
She had learned this lesson ten years ago and in a petrifying way, no less. Vigilance was armor in the presence of powerful men. It was why Louisa felt the urge to laugh even as she burned with frustration at her brother’s antics!
The moment he dashed from the library, he disappeared like a puff of smoke.
The little brat!
While she had possessed the same skill for eluding her governess when she was his age, she didn’t know every hiding place on the estate. She’d only ever concealed herself within the sheltering boughs of the weeping willow, and she had managed to preserve that hiding spot precisely because she had never been discovered. Her brother, on the other hand, often soughtthe company of the servants, so while the duke searched the house, she would ask the servants Leo loved to converse with.
She strode into the kitchen, smiling at the cook who was busy kneading dough. “I’m looking for that rascal of a brother of mine. Have you perhaps seen him?”
“Can’t say I have, dearie. Why? Has he given Miss Hale the slip again?”
Louisa glanced at the other servants present, several of whom doted on her brother and indulged his whims. “Indeed. Then, do you perhaps know where he might choose to hide if he were hiding from her—or me?”
“Can’t say, dearie,” Cook said, kneading away. “But perhaps he has the same mind as you.”
“The same mind?” Louisa raised an eyebrow, clearly skeptical. “Meaning?”
Cook shrugged. “The young master is always following you around.”
Her? Surely not. “You mean he is always keeping the staff from their duties.”
Cook smiled. “And you always catch him, dearie.”
Precisely!
Wait . . . shedid.
Did that mean... “Are you saying Leo bothers the household closest to where I am at any given time?”
The two maids standing to the side bobbed their heads furiously, and Cook chuckled. “It seems you finally understand.”
Louisa stood flabbergasted.
She had never noticed the connection. She always believed she was simply at the right place at the right time to catch her brother in his mischief. So, then, he had deliberately positioned himself to be caught by her.
For her attention?
Was that why he had taken the book?
That blasted book . . .
Chaos had reigned when Ophelia Thornton, one of the women on the list in the book, had slipped into White’s dressed as a man and stolen the thing. After they’d shared copies of the book at a ball, many of the women of thetonbegan revolting against their male counterparts. One member of White’s, a lord Digby or something, if she recalled correctly, had all but started a witch hunt.
So much trouble.
And now the book was connected to a criminal organization?
Double the trouble!
Honestly, Louisa just wanted to find the book and be done with it. The tall, stately man in livery flashed in her mind.
Make that triple the trouble.
