The Mysterious Governess (Daughters of Sin 3)

“Trust me,” he whispered in her ear when they drew closer. “I have secured a rope. Just hold on to me and let me do the work. We can’t go down the stairs. There is no way we’ll not be seen.”

As the window was already half open, there wasn’t the fear of it making a sound. The rope was securely tied from the bannister a few feet into the room, and further secured to the window handles themselves, but the drop looked outrageously high. Her breath started to come in rasping gasps until Ralph turned and, in the dark, held her close against him. For several seconds they simply stood, taking in the warmth and comfort of each other, holding hands, eyes closed.

“Trust me, Lissa. If one of us falls, we both fall. But it is the only way out of a perilous situation. You must believe me.”

She nodded, sick with fear. “Before I go out of the window, will you kiss me properly, Ralph? Just in case I break my head on the cobblestones and never get another chance again.”

He didn’t answer, just tipped her face upward and brought his mouth gently down upon hers, kissing her sweetly at first, and then thoroughly, and, finally, with resounding passion.

They were both trembling when they drew apart and Ralph whispered, almost matter-of-factly, “Take your skirts in one hand as I help you onto the window ledge and keep steady until I join you there. Then put your arms around my waist, hold as tightly as you can...and just trust me.”

***

“Is everything all right, Miss? Were the fireworks grand? You’re back earlier than I’d ‘spected.” Jane, who was polishing the silver bottles on her mistress’s dressing table, looked up nervously as Araminta entered the room.

Without a word, Araminta brought one arm across the entire surface and sent powder bottles, perfume vials, hairbrushes and jewelry boxes crashing to the floor.

Then she threw herself onto her bed and burst into noisy tears.

“Oh, Miss, I take it things didn’t go to plan,” said Jane, going down on her knees to start to clean up the mess before changing her mind and putting a tentatively soothing hand upon Araminta’s back.

“No, they did not!” Araminta shrieked, beating her fists upon the counterpane.

“So, His Lordship didn’t ask you to marry him, then?”

“Yes he did!” Araminta rolled onto her back and glared at Jane. “He asked me to marry him and then said he had to go away on important business for two months! Two months! Where does that leave me? In an impossible situation, I don’t need to tell you. I might as well throw myself in the river, except the water’s far too cold and I’m hardly about to copy bacon-brained Edgar. There must be another way.”

“Poison?”

“I mean to get out of this mess, you stupid girl!” Araminta screamed. Feverishly, she began to bite her fingernails before realizing the damage she was doing to an important asset. “Oh, Jane, don’t look like you’re related to a mule. Come up with a plan, for dear Lord’s sake!”

Jane took a seat by the bed. “Well, Miss, you could always go and see him and suggest you marry earlier or that you elope. I know it’s not respectable—”

Aramaminta was ready to clutch at anything right now. “Well, Hetty eloped it, didn’t she? And no one seems to be condemning her for her deplorable behavior.” She sat up, thinking. “So you think I should go now, do you?”

“Now?” Jane frowned. “No, of course not now. It’s the middle of the night. But...later on.”

“What do you mean, later on? He’s leaving in a ship for some distant land at dawn. So, of course I must go and talk sense into him tonight. Excellent plan. Quick, Jane, we must waste no time! I don’t know why I didn’t entreat him more artfully than I did. I was simply too shocked and horrified by what he was telling me.”

“But, Miss, how can we simply go out on the streets in the middle of the night?”

“We put on long dark cloaks and cover our hair and faces and we slip out of the door. Have you no imagination, Jane? No common sense? Now, where’s that lovely crimson-lined black cloak of mine? Or should I wear the ermine-edged? Yes, that will do, in case he suggests we elope this very minute.”

“And what would I do then, Miss?”

“Go with me, of course. I can’t possibly elope without a maid.”

“But I can’t leave Jem without telling ‘im.”

“You’d have to, because I’d need you. Now stop this nonsense, Jane, and do as I say. Yes, that’s the one. And I’ll take some of my jewelry. One never knows when one might need pin money, but oh, Jane, he’s even richer than I’d thought. Why, that down-at-heel baby brother of his, the secretary to dreadful, awful Lord Debenham, made me think Lord Ludbridge was one of these titled chaps with not a feather to fly with. But you know, his mother was dressed in the first stare, not last season at all. And I’d do anything to have a ruby necklace like the one she was wearing.”

“You certainly would, Miss.”

“Now, stop dithering, Jane. Are you ready?”

***

Ensconced in a hackney cab outside Lord Ludbridge’s townhouse, Araminta was feeling immeasurably reassured by the success of her new plan as Jane made her way down the stairs to the servants’ entrance to knock upon the kitchen door. Jane would glean the necessary information, Araminta’s desperate note to Lord Ludbridge would be passed on and all would be well.