“No, Goodson. I wish you to make her feel a welcomed guest whenever she arrives.”
The butler scowled. “Are you certain, your Grace?”
“Quite certain.”
“If you do not trust her, then surely she should not be given the opportunity to cause mischief?”
Stefan’s lips twisted. “I have no genuine reason not to trust her, to be honest. She is most likely precisely what she seems to be. A young Russian noblewoman who is anxious to become acquainted with English society.”
“But?”
“But, in the event she is not, then I desire to know precisely what she is doing here. And the only means to do that is to keep a close eye upon her.”
Goodson clicked his tongue. “So I am to allow her to freely roam about your house?”
“Allow her to roam, but I want a close eye kept upon her,” Stefan corrected. “Just ensure she is not aware that she is being watched.”
“As you wish.”
The servant heaved a heavy sigh, but Stefan was confident that the efficient butler would fulfill the command with his usual efficiency.
Of course, efficiency was not all that the delicate situation demanded.
“Goodson.”
“Yes, your G
race?”
He straightened from the doorjamb, his expression one of warning.
“Be sure that Miss Karkoff has no reason to suspect she is anything but an appreciated guest.”
Goodson dipped his head in ready understanding. “Very well.”
CHAPTER FOUR
LEONIDA TOSSED ASIDE PRIDE and even dignity as she scurried from Meadowland and headed back to Hillside at a pace hardly suitable for a proper lady.
She only wished that she could return to St. Petersburg at an equally swift pace.
What a fool she had been to come to England. It was not, after all, as if she had actually believed her mother’s blithe assurances that it would be a simple matter to slip into a duke’s grand manor house filled with a few dozen servants and waltz out with a packet of letters that had been hidden for the past twenty or thirty years. And that was before she had met the Duke of Huntley.
Why did the man have to be so annoyingly perceptive?
From the moment they had been introduced he had regarded her with a brooding suspicion that he barely bothered to conceal beneath his smooth charm. And after today…
She halted just outside the gate leading to Lady Summerville’s private garden, glancing down at the diamond hairpin clutched in her hand. Well, needless to say, she had done nothing to ease his distrust of her presence in Surrey.
And worse, that maddening fascination she felt whenever he was near refused to be squashed, no matter how desperately she warned herself that it threatened to ruin everything.
For the moment, the Duke of Huntley stood between her and those letters she so desperately needed. She had to think of him as the enemy. Not as a gentleman who made her heart race and her stomach churn with a painful excitement.
Giving an angry shake of her head, Leonida reached to open the gate, pausing as she heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps from behind her. Turning about, she expected to discover one of the innumerable servants or tenants. Unlike Russia’s vast expanses, the English countryside seemed to be crowded with people.
Strangely, however, there was no one to be seen. It was as if whoever was there had hastily ducked behind one of the numerous trees.
“Hello,” she called, decidedly unnerved by the sensation of being watched by unseen eyes. “Is anyone there? Hello.”