Page 94 of A Winter Scandal

“Yes. I don’t know how or when, but they must have. I went to call on Damaris this afternoon, and when I returned, I found a letter on the floor of my bedroom. It was addressed to you. I am positive it was not there when I left.”

“Did you see anyone come in, Lolly?” Gabriel asked.

“No, sir.” The nursemaid shook her head. “I don’t know how anyone could come in without one of us seeing. I was up and down the stairs a lot with Master Matthew. And Peter was down here in the hall, sir, like he always is, where he can see anyone what comes in the kitchen or the front.”

Gabriel nodded. “That is what Peter said, as well.”

“I was only gone for an hour or so,” Thea said, thinking back. “I went to my room right before I left, and I would swear the note was not in the room then. But it was there when I went upstairs after I came home. Lolly, did you see it when you took the box up there?”

“Box? What box?” Gabriel asked.

Thea could not keep from smiling a little to herself. “Nothing important. Just something I brought back from Damaris’s house.”

“I didn’t see any note, miss. It was on the floor?”

Thea nodded. “It was between my bed and the window; you wouldn’t necessarily have noticed it unless you walked around the side of the bed.” She frowned and let out a sigh. “Perhaps it could have been there before I left. I cannot remember whether I was in that side of the room. But I know it was not there when I awoke this morning. It has to have been left there sometime today. Perhaps it was earlier when I was at the church.”

“Well, let’s see what it says.” Gabriel glanced toward the table. “Is that it?” He started forward.

“Do you think it’s that man, miss?” Lolly asked. “The one everybody’s talking about?”

“Man? What man?” Gabriel stopped and turned to look at the girl. “Why is everyone talking about him?”

Between them, Lolly and Thea related the various stories of the stranger seen by the residents of Chesley the past few days. Lolly’s version was somewhat more dramatic. Gabriel looked toward Thea, his brow raised, and she nodded.

“I know it sounds a bit … fanciful, perhaps, but Damaris said that her housekeeper had seen him, too, and that she is a most unfanciful person. Damaris has no doubt that the woman was telling the truth.”

“The devil!” Gabriel scowled. “Do you think it’s the kidnapper?”

“That is what I thought, as well. I don’t know. But it certainly seems suspicious.”

Gabriel picked up the square of paper from the table and examined the front. “It looks like a child wrote this. And it is in pencil, not ink.”

“Not a lettered person, I’d say,” Thea offered.

He broke open the seal and looked down at the signature, letting out a soft oath. “It’s from Hannah! Jocelyn’s maid.”

“That woman is like a ghost! She seems to appear and disappear at will.”

Gabriel nodded as he scanned the letter. “She wants me to come to Mrs. Howard’s party tomorrow evening.”

“What? How does she know about that?”

“I have no idea—no more so than how she manages to be everywhere and yet no one sees her.”

“Why would she sneak in here to urge you to come to the party?”

“There’s a bit more. She says that she must see me and ‘explain all,’ whatever that may mean. She says she is frightened and she begs my help. Then she asks me to come to the party, and she says she will meet me there.”

“Nothing about your sister? Or the baby?”

Gabriel shook his head and held out the letter to Thea. “See for yourself.”

She took the proffered note and read it. It was as disappointingly brief as Gabriel had said. “What will you do?”

Gabriel shrugged. “Go to the party and hope that she contacts me. I know of nothing else. Do you?”

Thea shook her head. “No. I fear not.”