Oxford Cottage by Leenie Brown

Author:Leenie Brown [Brown, Leenie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Leenie B Books
Published: 2015-03-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Richard thumped the knocker loudly on the front door of a fine Leicester Square home and waited. It had been a long and arduous day, and it was only half over. Barlow, the residence’s butler, opened the door.

“Is he in?” asked Richard.

Barlow nodded and moved to the side to allow entrance to the home. “You may wait in the library, Colonel. I shall tell the master you are here.”

“Thank you.” Richard doffed his hat but kept it in his hand. There was to be no evidence left in the entry when he visited. That was the rule. He walked quickly down a side hall to a small but comfortable library. He tossed his hat on a side table and flopped into a chair. He let his head fall back against the soft velvet and closed his eyes. He needed rest. He needed peace. He needed the image of his cousin’s pained expression to leave his mind.

He tried to focus on the events of the day and sort them out once more in his mind. How had it come to this? Where had he missed the clues? Why had he not known Wickham was involved?

“Colonel Fitzwilliam?” a soft voice called.

“I am not sleeping Miss Phillips, I am thinking,” he replied. Though his eyes were closed, he still felt the light that she brought to a room. He could not tell what flowers made up her fragrance. He only knew she smelled like springtime, and her presence always lifted his spirits just as the warm spring sun lifted the grey curtains of winter.

“Has something happened?” Harriet Phillips, youngest sister of Colonel Edmund Phillips, Lord Lillesley stood at the door to the library and took in the sight of him.

His legs were stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles. His hands were clasped at his waist with his elbows resting on the arm of the chair. His head rested on the back of the chair, but his face was not relaxed. Lines of worry hung about his eyes and spanned his forehead.

“Yes.” He heard the swish of her skirts as she crossed the room to him.

“Do you wish to speak of it?” She brushed a lock of light brown hair from off his forehead and ran the back of her fingers along the stubble of his jaw.

“I wish for answers, and I must see your brother for those.” His eyes remained closed, but he grabbed her hand and placed a kiss on it before releasing it.

“Are you sure you do not wish to speak of it to me? I am intimately acquainted with your current assignment. Penny was my maid after all.” She moved to the chair nearest to him.

“It has gone beyond a mere maid being ruined–as if that were not bad enough.” Richard sighed. He had hated the idea of putting any young woman, gently bred or otherwise, in a position of danger. He had voiced his opinion loudly on the subject, but the decision was not his to make.

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