And checkmate, it was, indeed.
Lord Pendleton had the decency to send me a separate carriage from his, so I didn't have to worry about any unpleasant advances on the ride to his manor. Instead, I used the time to scrawl some notes about Count Graye and his bizarre behavior.
Fortunately, neither the Count nor my lackey had approached me again as I was subtly making my way out of the ball. I definitely owed Wolf a good scolding later, though.
The carriage took me to the back of the manor, where a single servant was waiting to usher me quietly inside. And straight to the Lord's room. Not even a guest room, but his bedroom. The place he would undoubtedly be hiding any and all criminal evidence.
What an idiot.
Even better, he wasn't in the bedroom but splashing away in the attached bathroom instead. Clearly, he was in a hurry to get down to business. Which meant I had to hurry up with my business and run.
"I might not even need this," I muttered, pulling a tiny glass vial from my cloak. There was about ten drops worth of a clear liquid inside. It was a sleeping drug. A powerful one. And I intended to spike the Lord's wine with it should things get out of hand.
I shoved it in my dress before beginning the search.
"Alright, if I were a sleazy Lord who cheated my way through school, where would I hide those letters?" I pondered, studying the room.
The main feature of the room was a massive bed with curtains hanging about it. The fabric was all dark green—so dark it was almost black.
On either side of the bed were nightstands. Then a sitting area off to one side and a desk area off to the other. At the opposite end of the room from the bed was a fireplace and a couple bookshelves.
"Let's see, it'd be best to hide it somewhere the maids don't clean and could be easily disposed of at a moment's notice.. like the pages of one of those books."
I made my way to the bookshelves. No doubt the letters would be stuck between the pages of a book, or even multiple books. But I really only needed one letter as long as the contents were damning enough.
The problem was that there were hundreds of books on the shelves.
I blindly picked one and thumbed through the pages before carefully replacing it. If I made a mess finding the letters, Lord Pendleton would realize what had happened and have enough time to prepare a defense.
Such a meticulous search was going to take a long time. I sighed, resting a hand on my sternum where the vial was tucked between fabric and skin. I'd need to use a different approach.
"Are you interested in books?"
I let out one long breath and then whirled around to face Lord Pendleton. He was leaning against the bathroom doorway with his arms crossed, dressed in nothing but a dark-colored robe.
"Some books are more interesting than others," I replied with a shrug, reaching for the bookshelf again.
This time, I positioned myself at an angle, so I could observe both the Lord's expression and the books as I ran my fingers along the row—making sure to properly trace each spine. No reaction. I bent down to a lower shelf, pretending to skim the titles before trying the same technique. This time I hit the jackpot.
Second row from the floor. Eight books from the left.
I made a mental note of where my hand was when the Lord's eyebrows twitched ever so slightly.
"You certainly seem to be quite interested in books," I said as I rose, grabbing a random book from up higher and opening it. Now that I'd gotten the location of where he'd stashed something he was worried about, I had to make sure not to arouse any suspicion.
The Lord approached me now, and grabbed the book from my hands. "Right now, I'm more interested in something else."
He placed the book on the fireplace mantle and pulled me toward him, his eyes fluttering closed and lips puckering.
"Do I seem that easy to you?" I pulled away from him, giving him my best playful look as I backed toward the seating area. There was already a bottle of wine and two glasses set on the table.
While the Lord was following me, I quickly popped the vial and dripped the contents into one of the glasses before situating myself on the sofa in front of the other glass. I pictured Lady Da Braose in my mind, trying to emulate her cool aura, though I'm not sure how well I succeeded.
"I didn't bring you here to drink." Lord Pendleton stood behind the sofa, bent over me menacingly.
"The night is still young," I shrugged and flashed a coy smile. Then I grabbed the collar of the robe and pulled him down closer to me. "And I could use a little loosening up."
The Lord inhaled sharply and licked his lips. Then he promptly joined me on the sofa. While he went for the bottle, I nonchalantly claimed the undrugged glass and held it up. He poured a generous amount of fragrant red liquid into the glass before filling his own.
"Cheers." I offered my glass again as he picked his up.
"Ha," he chuckled, clinking his glass against mine. "To an amazing night ahead of us."
"To the most memorable night of your life," I added, raising the wine to my lips.
Now, I must add here that drinking on the job is incredibly unprofessional. But there's nothing that can convince a man to down a glass of wine quite like seeing it dribble down a woman's lips. Don't ask me the psychology behind this, because the only answer I can give you is that men are filthy beasts.
"The most memorable of my life.. That's quite a bold.." Poor Lord Pendleton only had time to set his empty glass on the table before planting face-first into my lap.
"A bold statement?" I scoffed, shoving him to the side and rising to my feet.
"I think you'll be surprised just how mind blowing this night will turn out."