“Were they armed?”
“Yes, and Benjamin claimed they spoke with a strange accent.” There was a deliberate pause. “He was certain it wasn’t French.”
Stefan clenched his hands. Foreigners. Were they connected to Leonida?
There was only one means to discover the truth.
“Have Benjamin travel to the village and see if he can catch sight of the trespassers. I would be very interested to know where they are staying.”
Goodson nodded, his gaze shifting to the door that Stefan had so recently closed.
“What of Miss Karkoff?”
“You may leave Miss Karkoff to me.”
The butler sniffed his disapproval. “As you wish.”
CHAPTER FIVE
TWO DAYS LATER, LEONIDA joined Brianna in a slow stroll through the Duchess’s formal garden.
It was a beautiful creation.
The main avenue was paved with a pale pink stone and lined by fountains topped with sirens on each side. At the end of the avenue a refectory pool was surrounded by marble benches and in the center of the pool was a large golden sculpture of Apollo surrounded by lions spewing water from their mouths.
Several smaller paths led to the flower beds that were framed by precisely cut hedges, and set just beyond the pool was a pretty domed grotto that offered a magnificent view of the surrounding countryside.
Soaking in the welcome warmth of the afternoon sun, Leonida slowly felt her tense muscles relax.
The past few days had been stressful, to say the least.
Lord, she had known that Stefan must employ a small battalion of servants, but she had not realized that it was impossible to step from her rooms without tripping over a half dozen of them. Chambermaids, under maids, footmen, pages, a housekeeper, a butler…
Even the one occasion she had attempted to slip toward the Duchess’s chamber in the middle of the night, she had nearly been caught by a uniformed servant who seemed to have no other task than keeping an eye on the candles burning along the corridor.
She might as well have been attempting to steal the Crown Jewels.
To make matters worse, there was no escaping the time she was forced to spend in Stefan’s company.
Oh, he was unfailingly polite, even charming. What else could he be when Brianna was always near? But Leonida was acutely aware of his brooding gaze that held a terrifying mixture of distrust and blatant sexual need.
Unaware that her feet had faltered to a halt, Leonida gave a sudden jerk as Brianna touched her arm.
“Well?”
Turning her head, Leonida regarded her companion’s expectant expression, belatedly realizing that Brianna assumed her bemused manner was due to their beautiful surroundings.
“It is as stunning as you promised,” Leonida said, happy to be distracted from her worrisome thoughts. “It reminds me of home.”
Brianna smiled, her hair shimmering like fire in the sunlight. If Leonida had been an envious sort of person, she would have hated the slender woman with her tilted green eyes and perfect features. Even simply attired in a morning gown of twilled French silk, she seemed to glow with feminine beauty. Leonida, on the other hand, knew she was pretty enough in her rose-and-ivory striped walking dress with satin flowers along the hem, but she would never possess Brianna’s dramatic appeal.
Thankfully, Leonida had never been petty and she found herself enchanted with Brianna’s artless charm.
“Yes, the Duchess was most insistent that it resemble the garden she had known when she was a girl in St. Petersburg,” Brianna explained. “She loved Meadowland, but she never forgot her devotion to Russia. No doubt that is why Edmond felt compelled to offer his services to the Emperor when he came of age.”
“The current Duke does not seem to possess his brother’s sense of dedication to Russia.”
“No, Stefan is very much an Englishman, as he should be,” Brianna readily agreed. “His duty is to his estates and to the British Crown. He has