He wiped his face and jerked the bellpull savagely.
Chapter Seventeen
The man in her bed stared at Aurea and then spoke softly. Sorrowfully. “So, my wife, you could not let well enough alone. I will quench your curiosity, then. I am Prince Niger, the lord of these lands and this palace. I have been cursed to assume the form of that foul raven by day and all my minions to become birds as well. My tormentor made one caveat to the spell: If I could find a lady to agree of her own will to marry me in my raven form, then I could live as a man from midnight to dawn’s first glow. You were that lady. But now our time together is at an end. I will spend the remainder of my days in that hated feathered form, and all that follow me are also so doomed….”
—from The Raven Prince
The next morning, Felix Hopple shifted from one foot to the other, sighed, and knocked at the cottage door again. He twitched his freshly powdered wig straight and ran a hand over his neckcloth. He’d never been on an errand quite like this one before. In fact, he wasn’t sure his job really entailed it. Of course, it was impossible to say that to Lord Swartingham. Especially when he stared at him with smoldering, black, devilish eyes.
He sighed again. His employer’s temper had been even worse than usual this past week. Very few knickknacks remained intact in the library, and even the dog had taken to hiding when the earl stalked through the Abbey.
A pretty woman opened the door.
Felix blinked and stepped back a pace. Was he at the right house?
“Yes?” The woman smoothed her skirt and smiled tentatively at him.
“Er, I-I was looking for Mrs. Wren,” Felix stuttered. “The younger Mrs. Wren. Have I the right address?”
“Oh, yes, this is the right address,” she said. “I mean, this is the Wren cottage. I’m just staying here.”
“Ah, I see, Miss…?”
“Smythe. Pearl Smythe.” The woman blushed for some reason. “Won’t you come in?”
“Thank you, Miss Smythe.” Felix stepped into the tiny entryway and stood awkwardly.
Miss Smythe was staring, seemingly entranced by his middle. “Coo!” she blurted. “That’s the loveliest waistcoat ever.”
“Why, er, why thank you, Miss Smythe.” He fingered the buttons on his leaf-green waistcoat.
“Are those bumblebees?” Miss Smythe bent down to peer closer at the purple embroidery, giving him a quite inappropriate view down the front of her dress.
No true gentleman would take advantage of a lady’s accidental exposure. Felix looked at the ceiling, at the top of her head, and finally down her dress. He blinked rapidly.
“Isn’t that clever?” she said, straightening again. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so pretty on a gentleman before.”
“What?” he wheezed. “Er, yes. Quite. Thank you again, Miss Smythe. One rarely encounters a person of such fine sentiment about fashion.”
Miss Smythe appeared a little confused, but she smiled at him.
He couldn’t help but notice how lovely she was. All over.
“You said you came for Mrs. Wren. Why don’t you wait in there”—she waved toward a small sitting room—“and I’ll go fetch Mrs. Wren from the garden.”
Felix stepped into the small room. He heard the pretty woman’s retreating footsteps and the close of the back door. He paced to the mantel and looked at a little china clock. He frowned and took out his pocket watch. The mantel clock was fast.
The back door opened again, and Mrs. Wren came in. “Mr. Hopple, how can I help you?”
She was intent on rubbing the garden loam from her hands and didn’t meet his eyes.
“I’ve come on an, er, errand from the earl.”
“Indeed?” Mrs. Wren still did not look up.
“Yes.” He was at a loss as to how to continue. “Won’t you have a seat?”
Mrs. Wren glanced at him in puzzlement and took her seat.
Felix cleared his throat. “There comes a time in every man’s life when the winds of adventure blow out, and he feels a need for rest and comfort. A need to toss aside the careless ways of youth—or at least early adulthood in this case—and settle down to domestic tranquility.” He paused to see if his words had registered.
“Yes, Mr. Hopple?” She appeared more confused than before.
He mentally girded his loins and labored on. “Yes, Mrs. Wren. Every man, even an earl”—here he paused significantly to emphasize the title—“even an earl needs a place of repose and calm. A sanctuary tended by the gentle hand of the feminine sex. A hand guided and led by the stronger masculine hand of a, er, guardian so that both may weather the storms and travails that life brings us.”
Mrs. Wren stared at him in a dazed way.
Felix began to feel desperate. “Every man, every earl, needs a place of hymeneal comfort.”
Her brow puckered. “Hymeneal?”
“Yes.” He mopped his brow. “Hymeneal. Of or pertaining to marriage.”
She blinked. “Mr. Hopple, why did the earl send you?”
Felix blew out his breath in a gust. “Oh, hang it all, Mrs. Wren! He wants to marry you.”
She went completely white. “What?”
Felix groaned. He knew he would make a hash of this. Really, Lord Swartingham was asking too much of him. He was only a land steward, for pity’s sake, not cupid with his golden bow and arrows! There was no other choice now but to muddle on.
“Edward de Raaf, the Earl of Swartingham, asks for your hand in marriage. He would like a short engagement and is considering—”
“No.”
“The first of June. Wh-what did you say?”
“I said no.” Mrs. Wren spoke in a staccato. “Tell him that I am sorry. Very sorry. But there is no possible way that I can marry him.”