Page 41 of Wedded to the Cruel Duke

In her bed, of course—whateverthatentailed.

She picked the poor cat up from the ground, causing Whiteson to let out an indignant yowl at being unceremoniously manhandled.

“Courage, Whiteson,” she whispered to him. “We are going over to Townsend House. Is that not exciting?”

The cat meowed and looked at her dubiously. Phoebe just rolled her eyes at it.

“Have a little more faith in me, will you?” she smirked. “I managed to scale this wall looking for youin the dark. I can very well accomplish the same in broad daylight, I assure you!”

Whiteson meowed again as if to say, “I do not think this is a good idea…”

Phoebe, however, thought it was averygood idea and as if to punctuate that particular thought, she began walking towards the very wall that divided Townsend House and Wentworth Park.

She looked at it and sighed. It was not a very tall wall. Even a child might easily scale it if they were of the mind to do so—and Phoebe was a grown woman withpreciselythe mind to do so.

“I gather that this appears to be a rather unladylike undertaking, my dear Whiteson,” she grinned at the cat. “But nothing we will not be able to accomplish without a bit of perseverance, hmm?”

The cat gave her a look that reeked of apathy, before it calmly and gracefully scaled the wall ahead of her.

“What a braggart you are, my feline friend!” she chuckled. “Well, I shall show you that we humans are just as capable!”

With that said, she looked around her, and seeing nobody within the vicinity, she began to most unceremoniously hike her skirts above her ankles as she prepared to tackle the wall before her.

She only prayed that Charles would not catch her thus.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

As it turned out, Daphne and their mother were currently not at Townsend House, but at Hamilton Place, where a Countess had invited them over for tea. Minerva, having yet to make her bow, was happily left to her own devices at home and it was she that Phoebe first came upon after she scaled the garden walls.

“I still cannot believe what you just did!” Minerva gaped at her in shock. “You actually went over the walls? Like a burglar?”

Phoebe wrinkled her nose. “You make me sound like some sort of filthy criminal…”

“Well, you could have used the front door.”

And risk having Charles find out about my excursion?

Phoebe just shrugged her shoulders and smiled weakly. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“If Mother finds out about this—”

“Please do not tell Mother! She will kill me if she finds out!”

Minerva cocked her head to the side, her inquisitive gaze probing her sister. “Why did you do it, anyway? Go over the wall like…like…” she trailed off as her gaze dropped to Whiteson, who was purring happily in Phoebe’s arms.

Phoebe glowered at her sister. “I shall have you know that Whiteson is my one faithful companion in all of this.”

“But, Fi, he is acat,” Minerva pointed out.

“Which is precisely my point,” Phoebe replied primly. “I wasdesperatefor human interaction, Minerva. Charles is cooped up in his study all day, busy with…well, whatever it is that a Marquess must constantly be busy with—”

“Business,” her sister supplied with a rather sage nod. “Father always claims that it isbusinesskeeping him in his study.”

“Well, business, then,” Phoebe pouted.

Minerva looked at her and sighed helplessly. “And here I thought that I was the lost cause in the family…”

“You are not a lost cause, Minnie.”