The Mysterious Lord Millcroft by Virginia Heath

Author:Virginia Heath
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-06-07T17:44:53+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Mindful of the busy sounds of food preparation coming from the kitchen close by, Seb quickly surveyed the main servants’ corridor. Gray had already thoroughly mapped the whole house and gardens beyond. Whilst he implicitly trusted his friend’s work, he still needed to explore it all for himself to consign the layout to memory in case he needed a swift escape route. Like all country houses, there was a warren of narrow corridors and stairs beyond those used by the family. Aristocrats enjoyed the luxury of a house full of servants, but didn’t want them getting underfoot. With dinner about to be served, the servants were thin on the ground which meant he could poke around in relative peace.

This corridor was the main artery of the house, with passages linking both the east and west wings, staircases to all floors and down into the cellar. That cavernous space was still a bit of a mystery because someone was constantly on watch within. Gray had attempted to explore it three times over the course of yesterday and given up out of fear of discovery, but it didn’t take a genius to know that a guarded cellar was an anomaly. A clear signal that Penhurst was up to no good. Seb crept passed that door without poking his head inside and continued along the route his second had meticulously recorded towards Gem’s bedchamber which was on the exact opposite side of the house to his. The safest and cleanest route to the outside and a much less conspicuous one than he had taken last night.

Seb kept half an ear on the goings on behind him, testing each door to see where it led as he moved methodically along the dim hallway. He made a mental note of what was behind each door, comparing them to the map in his hand. The first two were linen closets. The third opened on to a passageway leading to the already noisy drawing room, which in turn had French doors which led out to the garden, meaning it also sat directly under Gem’s room two floors above. Was she still in it? Was her maid using irons to curl her beautiful hair into submission before dinner? Unhelpful images of her lounging naked in a bathtub suddenly filled his mind and he banished them with a ruthless shake of his head. Not now. Later, when he was all alone on the dark Sussex Downs watching the water, he would allow those illicit, futile thoughts to creep back in to break the monotony. Until then, he had to remember his mission.

The last door took him up a staircase to another dark corridor where every door led on to a bedchamber. Seb listened carefully for sounds of maids or valets before daring to crack each door open and take inventory of the room beyond to work out which guest was where. Gray had pencilled in a few names, but most were irritatingly blank.

In one, he recognised the

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