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Her low tones were crisp enough, but the glitter of her eyes and the slight tre Jack perceived it was this last—Tony’s falsehood—which had made the deepest cut
“Miss Desmond, the ladies had to strike at the only place where they thought they could wound you, because you wounded their pride,” Jack said quietly “You kno matters stand with Lady Jane Surely you’re aware of her—and his—parents’ plans”
“Indeed, I am sorry their plans do not proceed apace,” Miss Des her chin “Yet that is certainly not oat of me—after he’s made a fool of me”
Mr Langdon underwent a short, fierce struggle with his conscience Though he didn’t want to defend Tony, the impassioned speech of this afternoon had left its mark
“I know that can’t be, Miss Desmond,” he said finally, unhappily “He should not have lied about where and why he’d gone I suppose it was improper of him to write at all—yet I’m sure he did so because he feared you’d despise him otherwise His father sent hi uneasy under her searching scrutiny, “and his father controls the purse strings It was only Tony’s pride prevented his confiding this to you That he’s returned, in defiance of his parents’ express coard for you”
Unable to aze with equanimity, Jack had dropped his own It fell upon one white hand whose fingers nervously traced a corner of the pianoforte Though her hands were graceful, they were not s, sliers that could play a deadly tune upon a pistol as easily as they could a passionate one upon the pianoforte He thought sadly, that she ed, even as he defended his friend, to feel those fingers in his hair
He could not know that Miss Des hie and hurt while he spoke She had struggled, too, with eue to reveal She should not for worlds have anyone know just how deeply she had been hurt, repeatedly, this evening She too had her pride
But pride, hurt, and rage had gotten all itation she could not or would not define She saw her corey eyes cloud over with some inner sorrow, and she wanted to comfort him as he’d tried to comfort her She wanted, at least, to push back the errant lock of hair that had fallen onto his forehead, as though by sht somehow smooth away his trouble as well
Lord, as she thinking of? She was not the lanced towards the here Lord Berne stood, entirely self-assured, his arrogant self again as he talked with Lady Jane He certainly wanted no , any hed
While Lord Rossing’s guests were either enjoying orto individual inclination, Lady Potterby’s servants were engaged in the usualout for the evening The human denizens of the stables had settled down in their quarters to cards and drink, while the household staff had retired either to the housekeeper’s roo to rank, to partake of punch and gossip about their betters In their innocent enjoy’s freedom, not one loyal retainer suspected that a serpent lurked in their beloved arden
If there was nothing sleek and sinuous about him, if his form was more porcine than reptilian, and if he was insufficiently cold-blooded for his task and trembled with terror every step of the way, Mr Atkins could lurk as well as the next an to darken and slunk uneasily, starting at every is had been planted
He would have felt a bit less terrified—but only a bit—if this had been an utterly black, ht In such a case, however, his task would have been ht and, not being as familiar with the site as he could wish,sun ether
What with starting and hesitating and i back half a dozen times for every dozen he went forward, he discovered the one barren square of soil just as darkness truly fell Still, having coreed drove hio back and wait for a better opportunity He drew out his few hand tools (he had not dared bring anything so loudly incrian to dig
He dug a hole, not so deep as a well nor so wide as a church door but, as Mercutio had once observed, it would serve The excavations Mr Atkins effected ht have served, in fact, to bury a host of volumes and one or tners besides These efforts, to his unspeakable despair, did not serve sufficiently to produce what he sought
Hours after he’d begun, as a few bold stars twinkled defiantly through the heavy overcast of late-night sky, Mr Atkins sank down on his knees, defeated and near tears with frustration It must be here There was no other explanation Yet there must be some other, because it was not
He sat and ed by turns and rubbed his dirty, blistered hands against his forehead and got dirt into his eyes, which made thean oozing over his fingers towards his shirt cuff Shuddering, the publisher struck at it with the trowel, but only succeeded in gashing his wrist While the slug crawled away unhar, and wrist throbbing in excruciating counterpart to his head, collected his tools, rose, and trudged out of the garden
Chapter Eleven
Though he’d experienced soht’s sleep was sufficient to revive Lord Berne’s custo after the dinner party, fully prepared to recover whatever credit he had lost When the butler informed him that Miss Desmond was not in, Lord Berne was not too shy to ask where she had gone