Grace’s chaperone walked toward the door. “You know what needs to be done. This isn’t just a game anymore. It’s about the land. Dignity.
Rightful ownership.” The maidservant came back in and the door clicked shut.
Grace sat on the edge of her bed again—
“If that’l be al , my lady . . . ?” The maidservant’s feet moved as if she was curtsying.
“That’s al .”
The door opened and shut again. Grace’s shoes nearly stepped on Henry’s glasses.
Blood rushed to Chloe’s head, causing a colossal headache. Someone tapped on the door.
“Final y!” Grace whispered. “Get in here, quick.” She closed and locked the door. Chloe’s spirits sank.
A footman’s buckle shoes and white tights came into Chloe’s line of sight. Footman? Locked door?
Giggles and kisses and little moaning sounds got Chloe’s skin crawling. The footman and Grace scrambled to whip off their shoes and stockings, flinging them to the floor, and then—
She grabbed Henry’s glasses and wriggled her way toward the edge of the bed closest to the door.
Chloe squeezed out, pul ed herself up to standing, and bolted for the door. Her hands quaked as she turned the lock. She couldn’t look back, even though Grace yel ed from behind her. “Just WHAT are YOU doing in here?!” She wouldn’t turn around.
If only she had a camera phone, she’d have proof of this, too.
Chloe opened the door, and without looking back, she spoke. “I—I was looking for something. But I caught you with your pants down—I mean your gown up.”
“How dare you hide in my room! Shut the door!”
“I would say you’re in no—position—to do anything about me being in your room.” Chloe leaped out into the hal way and clicked the door shut behind her.
Grace must’ve thrown a pil ow at the door, because something hit it and slid down to the floor.
Where was the camera crew when she needed them? She ran down the hal , down the winding staircase. If she had a cel phone, she could’ve just cal ed them.
Chloe had never run around so much in her life as she had in the past couple of weeks. As she ran down the gal ery with one hand on her bonnet, she bumped into a footman carrying a silver salver.
“Miss Parker, you had a gentleman cal er. We couldn’t find you anywhere. He waited for upward of half an hour. He left his card.” He held out the salver toward her. But she spotted a camerawoman heading into the parlor. “Wait! Cameras!”
She snapped up the card. It was Sebastian’s cal ing card, with the corner folded down. She had missed him again! If she had a cel phone this would’ve been easily rectified.
“Hurry!” Chloe ran after the camerawoman, grabbed her by the arm, and tugged her toward the stairway. “You need to film something upstairs—”
Chloe tugged her up, through the hal , and right outside Grace’s door. She ignored the woman’s efforts to try to say something.
“There’s no time to talk!”
The camerawoman turned to Chloe with an annoyed look. “My camera needs to be recharged. Portable battery’s out.”
Chloe’s dust-covered chest sank. “What?! Wel —stay here. You can be a witness.” She swung open the door with triumph—and there was Grace, sitting ful y clothed, alone, and reading on the bed. A maroon drape flapped in the open window.
The camerawoman rol ed her eyes at Chloe.
Grace closed her book. “Miss Parker, I do wish you wouldn’t barge in without knocking. It’s not polite. It’s just not done. Don’t they teach any manners in America?”
Chloe leaned her square-cut back against the doorjamb and real y looked at the cal ing card. On the back Sebastian had written,
Why was he apologizing? Didn’t he realize she had drugged him? Stil , the two of them had upgraded from cal ing card to handwritten message on the cal ing card, and that was good.
“Miss Parker.” Fiona bounded up the steps. “Mrs. Crescent wants you in the rose garden immediately.”
“I’l be there in a minute.”
“She said you’d say that. She wants you ‘immediately.’”
“Is she having contractions?”
Fiona shook her head no. “But she said you’d ask that, and I’m to tel you that it is a matter of equal importance, with al due respect, miss.”
