After the Scandal by Elizabeth Essex

Author:Elizabeth Essex [Essex, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Published: 2014-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

“The surest way to pass unseen,” he assured her, “is to look obvious, like a part of the furniture. Especially a loudly dressed piece of furniture. People will see this livery and never bother to look, really look, at me, or see my face. The safest place to hide is in plain sight.”

“But why must we hide?” Claire had never felt so conspicuously inconspicuous before in her life. The frock Tilly the rag trader had thrust upon Claire was even plainer than the last—a respectable steel gray brushed cotton, covered by a plain white muslin apron and cap.

She had never felt less herself.

In contrast, Tanner looked more himself than ever, even dressed as his own servant. There was a strange grace to him—an unaffected frankness to him—that was more than appealing than even the rough-and-tumble rogue of the redingote and jerkin. Appealing in an entirely different way.

For the first time in their acquaintance—although acquaintance was a pale word for their rather interesting and very unusual association—the Duke of Fenmore looked entirely at ease. He looked satisfied even—laughing at himself as if dressing as his own servant were the greatest joke in the world. He looked like the naughtiest of schoolboys, having a marvelous time at his own expense—young and happy and amused in an entirely unaffected way. As if he simply couldn’t help himself. As if for this one small moment he had stopped thinking and simply let himself be content.

Claire wanted to be content—to be happy—as well, but she could not entirely silence her qualms about their present masquerade.

“We hide so we can find the Honorable Mr. Edward Layham and learn his secrets. Dressed like this, people will treat us as if we were invisible. They will see only station, and think us too unimportant to bother looking at our faces. And when people don’t see us, they will say things. Revealing and important things.”

It was hard to resist his obvious enthusiasm. She followed him out of the rag trader’s yard, and, after a few blocks along the Strand, around Charing Cross and down Spring Gardens behind the Admiralty. He was easy but aware in an alert sort of way—watchful, even as he ambled along the pavement. After a few minutes they came out of the streets and headed down the long, shaded expanse of the Mall between Charlton House and St. James’s Park.

At this time of the morning there was only a smattering of nannies and their young charges strolling about the lawns and pathways of the park, and despite Claire’s feeling as if she looked entirely out of place, no one paid her and Tanner the least mind. For all the world, they looked like a footman and his lass walking out in the park.

But she had never walked out with a footman before. Or a duke.

They carried on in silence for a few long minutes, walking slightly apart along the line of trees. He did nothing to resume their previous intimacy, and she took it as a lesson to herself—his regard was a product of the role he played and nothing more.

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