The Governess Gambit: Wild Wynchesters #0.5 by Erica Ridley

Author:Erica Ridley [Ridley, Erica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

At four o’clock the next morning, Chloe lurked outside the Palace of Westminster. It was the end of June and ostensibly summer, but instead of the bright yellow and pink of dawn, the gloom stretched over the entire city. No, the entire country. The weather was worse day by day, growing colder and hazier and wetter and darker.

She would not be here at all, except that it was the waning weeks of the House of Lords, making it her last opportunity to intercept the Duke of Faircliffe and beg for the return of the Wynchester family portrait.

Chloe would not be allowed to enter the sickroom triumphant to show Bean their painting had returned, but she would be the one who brought the heirloom back home.

Parliament ended anywhere between midnight and the wee hours of the morning. Chloe had been standing here, beneath a sodden umbrella, since eleven o’clock. The carriage was at the corner, with the driver asleep inside. She could have waited there, out of the rain, but she didn’t want to miss her chance to speak to Faircliffe.

Bean needed their painting to come home where it belonged. If they could hang it in his sickroom, it would give him strength. His beloved sprites would be there on his wall, even if they were barred from his chamber in person. If it was the closest Chloe could come, then she was determined Bean would have it.

The doors swung open and clumps of expensively tailored lords spilled out of the palace.

She waited in the shadows until she saw Faircliffe.

He walked alone.

This was her moment.

She rushed forward. “Your Grace! My apologies for the other day at Rotten Row. If you could give me just one moment of your time, my family will very much make it worth your—”

He stepped around her and continued walking.

Her mouth fell open.

Of all the—

“Who was that chit?” she heard another lord ask him.

“What?” the duke replied blankly. “Where?”

That arse!

He climbed into his waiting carriage without bothering to look behind him.

Chloe closed her jaw with an audible click and tried to ignore the heat pricking at the back of her eyes.

She’d been right in front of him. Talking to the blackguard. He’d had to physically move aside in order to brush past her and continue on.

And she had still left no memory of her presence behind.

Chloe hugged herself, fists clenched, as she trudged back to her waiting carriage.

“I cannot believe I thought delivering your vase would ruin my anonymity,” she muttered under her breath. “I could break it on your head, and you wouldn’t notice.”

She recognized the irony. Being wholly unremarkable was a skill she’d cultivated for decades. Invisibility gave her power.

Yet lately, all she felt was powerless.

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