{ Chapter 13 }
“This is your house?”
“Aye.”
Ness looked up at the four-story townhouse as she stepped down from the carriage. Her fingers tightened around Talen’s grip as she studied the building.
After riding in the carriage in silence for the last two hours, she couldn’t be sure he wasn’t just delivering her to another madhouse. A double-wide townhouse, the front façade was a deep red brick with bright white triangular pediments over the symmetrical windows. A deep blue double door centered the building. Impeccably neat and tidy in the twilight. Not even a stray leaf marred the wide marble steps leading up to the house.
“Head down.” He reached out and tugged the hood forward along her face that had fallen backward as she gawked upward, then stepped away to talk to his driver.
The carriage rolled away as he stepped back to her side. “Let’s go in.”
She hadn’t expected this. Hadn’t expected this quiet street in the middle of London. What little she’d seen of the city was loud and dirty with squalor overwhelming. This was the opposite. A peaceful park centered the middle of the square with the sound of children laughing twinkling in the air.
She stole a glance at him as they stepped up to the house. “I thought you lived at the Alabaster.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Why would I not? You were there all the time as far as I could deduce.”
“Aye. I do spend far too much time at the Alabaster, and I do have a room there as well.” He set his hand on the small of her back and ushered her through the entrance of the house, setting her in the middle of the foyer as he went back to the door.
The large entryway soared three stories upward along a gilded spiraling banister. Impressive. But something was off. It wasn’t until she looked to her left that she realized it was the drawing room. The well-furnished but eerily cold drawing room. She studied it for a long moment then glanced over her shoulder at Talen. “No one uses the drawing room?”
“Why do you say that?” Talen turned around to her after locking the door.
“Everything is perfectly positioned within it. No books. No drinks on the sideboard, not even a water ring stain on the wood. Just the gleaming furniture with perfectly plump cushions that appear as though they’ve never been sat in.”
His mouth quirked to the side. “Your eye for detail is interesting.”
“Interesting how?”
“Interesting as in you’re right. No one uses the drawing room. No one uses any of the rooms here. They are dusted and cleaned. That is all.”
“What?”
He crooked his finger over his shoulder to her. “Follow me.”
Talen walked along the main corridor that led into the depth of the townhouse, not waiting and not looking back at her.
With a quick hop, she hurried behind him. “But you just said this is your house.”
“It is. That doesn’t mean I use it.”
He opened the rear door of the townhouse and stepped down onto wide marble steps that led to a picturesque courtyard. Hedges surrounded all sides and rows of flower beds held roses that had started to go dormant in the fall weather.
He shifted to the side, waiting for her to exit the house before closing and locking the door behind her.
He tucked the key into an inner pocket of his dark coat. “We should wait until darkness full descends, but dusk will have to do.”
“Do for what?”
“We aren’t staying here, Ness.”
Her forehead wrinkled, fully flummoxed. “We aren’t? Where are we going? I thought you sent your driver onward?”
“I did.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I need you to be quiet now. I’ll answer your questions in a few minutes.” He held his left elbow out to her. “In the meantime, take my arm and keep your head down.