Twelfth Night Secrets by Jane Feather

Author:Jane Feather
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Fiction, Historical, General
ISBN: 9781439145272
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2012-10-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Thomas was laying out his lordship’s nightgown when Julius entered his bedchamber. “A nice evening, m’lord?” He smoothed down the coverlet.

“Very pleasant, thank you, Thomas. I shan’t need you any more today.”

“You don’t need me to help you undress, m’lord?” Thomas sounded a little put out.

Julius shook his head, loosening his cravat with one hand. “No, I’m more than capable of putting myself to bed. You may wake me in the morning at eight o’clock.”

“If you’re sure, m’lord. I trust everything is to your satisfaction. Mr. Mallow will want to know, sir.”

“You may tell him that everything is very much to my satisfaction,” Julius reassured him. “Now, go and enjoy the rest of your evening.”

“Very well, m’lord. There is cognac in the decanter on the dresser should you wish for a nightcap.” Thomas bowed and left.

Julius shook his head. He was so accustomed to looking after himself most of the time that the constant presence of servants could at times be quite oppressive. But when in Rome . . .

He shrugged out of his coat and poured himself a goblet of cognac, carrying the glass to the window, where he drew back the heavy velvet curtain. The sweep of lawn at the front of the house was partially illuminated by the pitch torches that blazed on either side of the double front doors. The rest of the garden was in shadow, although a fitful moon occasionally skipped out from behind heavy cloud cover. The woods that surrounded the lawn formed a solid black shape, but Julius knew that they were not as dense as they appeared to be and that within them were several small clearings. In one of them, he would meet Marcel the following night.

He sipped his cognac, frowning. His contact had precise instructions as to how to find the rendezvous, but as there were several clearings, he had told Marcel he would find a mark on a tree in the correct place. He had intended to leave the marker in the clearing at some point during the day tomorrow, but now he wondered if he might find it difficult to slip away alone and undetected on Christmas Day itself. Better to do it now, when there was no possibility of anyone seeing him.

He set down his glass and took a thick cloak from the armoire. He had spent enough time at Charlbury Hall to know his way down the backstairs and met no one as he descended. He let himself out through a side door and walked briskly along the gravel path around the side of the house and out onto the lawn. A thick frost was already forming, and the grass crunched beneath his booted feet. He kept to the side of the lawn, in the shadow of the woods, until he reached the opening that gave onto a wide alley that led through the trees.

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