The Leopard Prince (Princes #2)(74)

“I’ll go, too,” Will spoke up from the pallet.

Harry and Bennet glanced at the boy. He’d nearly forgotten Will. Bennet raised his eyebrows at Harry, leaving the decision to him.

“Aye, you’ll go, too,” Harry said.

“Ta,” Will said. “I’ve got something for you.”

He burrowed under his pillow and came out with a long, thin object wrapped in a rag. He held it out. Harry took the bundle and unrolled it. His knife, cleaned and oiled, lay on his palm.

“Found it in the stream,” Will said, “after they took you. I been taking care of it for you. Until you was ready for it again.”

It was the most Harry had ever heard from the boy’s mouth.

Harry smiled. “Ta, Will.”

GEORGE TOUCHED THE LITTLE SWAN swimming on her pillow. It was the second carving Harry had given her. The first had been a rearing horse. He’d been gone from her seven days, but he hadn’t left the neighborhood. That much was obvious from the tiny carvings he’d somehow placed on her bed.

“Gave you another one, has he, my lady?” Tiggle bustled about the room, putting away her dress and gathering soiled things for the laundry.

George picked up the swan. “Yes.”

She’d questioned the servants after the first carving. Nobody had seen Harry enter or leave Woldsly, not even Oscar, who kept the irregular hours of a bachelor. Her middle brother had remained behind after Tony had left for London. Oscar said it was to keep her and Violet company, but she suspected the real reason had more to do with his creditors in London.

“Romantic of Mr. Pye, isn’t it?” Tiggle sighed.

“Or irritating.” George wrinkled her nose at the swan and placed it carefully on her dressing table beside the horse.

“Or irritating, I guess, my lady,” Tiggle agreed.

The maid came over and laid a hand on George’s shoulder, gently pressing her into the chair before the dressing table. She took up the silver-backed brush and began to stroke it through George’s hair. Tiggle started at the ends and worked to the roots, teasing out the tangles. George closed her eyes.

“Men don’t always see things the same way we do, if you don’t mind me saying so, my lady.”

“I can’t help but think that Mr. Pye was dropped on his head as a baby.” George squeezed her eyes shut. “Why won’t he come back to me?”

“Can’t say, my lady.” The tangles worked out, Tiggle began stroking from her crown down to the ends of her hair.

George sighed in pleasure.

“But he hasn’t gone too far away, now, has he?” the maid pointed out.

“Mmm.” George tilted her head so Tiggle could do that side.

“He wants to go—you’ve said so yourself, my lady—but he hasn’t.” Tiggle started on the other side, brushing gently from the temple. “Stands to reason, then, that maybe he can’t.”

“You’re speaking in riddles and I’m too tired to understand.”

“I’m just saying maybe he can’t leave you, my lady.” Tiggle set down the brush with a thump and began braiding her hair.

“A lot of good that does me if he can’t bring himself to face me, either.” George frowned in the mirror.

“I think he’ll be back.” The maid tied a ribbon at the end of George’s braid and leaned over her shoulder to meet her eyes in the mirror. “And when he comes, you’ll be needing to tell him, if you don’t mind my saying so, my lady.”

George blushed. She had hoped Tiggle wouldn’t notice, but she should have realized the maid kept track of everything. “There’s no way of knowing yet.”

“Aye, there is. And you being so regular like…” Tiggle gave her an old-fashioned look. “Good night, my lady.”

She left the room.

George sighed and dropped her head into her hands. Tiggle had better be right about Harry. Because if he waited too long to return, there would be no need to tell him she was expecting.

He’d see it.

Chapter Seventeen

“Aye?” The wizened face peeped out the door crack.

Harry looked down. The old woman’s head didn’t come to his breastbone. The hump on her back bent her until she had to peer sideways and up to see her caller.

“Good morning, Mistress Humboldt. My name is Harry Pye. I’d like to talk with you.”

“Best come in, then, hadn’t you, young man?” The tiny figure smiled at Harry’s left ear and opened the door wider. Only then, in the light let in by the open door, did he see the cataracts that clouded the old woman’s blue eyes.

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Bennet and Will were there before him. They sat by a smoldering fire, the only light in the dim room. Will was munching on a scone and eyeing another on a tray.

“Late, aren’t you?” Bennet was more alert than he’d been five hours before. He looked quite pleased to have got the first dig in.

“Some of us have to travel by back lanes.”

Harry helped Mistress Humboldt lower herself into a fan-backed chair piled with knitted pillows. A calico cat padded over, meowing. It leaped into the old lady’s lap and purred loudly even before she started stroking its back.

“Have a scone, Mr. Pye. And if you don’t mind, you can help yourself to tea.” Mistress Humboldt’s voice was thin and whistling. “Now. What have you lads come to talk to me about that you must do it in secret?”