Free Behind the Mask (House of Lords) by Meg Brooke

Norman stronghold then. We used to play up here as children, though many of the villagers think it’s haunted.”
    “Is it?” Strathmore asked.
    Miss Chesney shrugged. “I suppose it may be. Once I was up here late at night, and I do believe I heard voices, though it may only have been the wind, or perhaps the village drunkard out on the flats.” She laughed at that, and Colin had to smile, too. But Strathmore looked a little frightened. Colin wondered if the man believed in such things as ghosts and spirits. “Someone once told me that Shakespeare visited these ruins before he wrote Hamlet ,” Miss Chesney went on, “though who knows if that’s true, either.”
    Colin looked around the ruins again. He could easily imagine the Bard’s tortured antihero moping about this tower, watching the ships pass by out on the water, meeting the ghost of his father on a gloomy, foggy night.
    “Well,” Miss Chesney said, shaking him from his thoughts, “shall we ride over to the north hill?”
     
    She showed them every part of the valley she thought might be relevant to their purposes. Eleanor knew that she was not as intelligent as Cynthia Bainbridge, who knew the name and history of every Member of Parliament—Commons and Lords both, and still tutored her husband in philosophy and politics. Still, she was not a stupid woman. It had not taken her long to surmise that the only reason the Foreign Office would be sending four trained agents, one of whom had been brought from abroad specifically for the purpose, to Sidney Park was if there were some threat to the Princess Victoria. The level of suspicion and interest with which Lord Pierce and Mr. Strathmore approached each new detail only confirmed her assumptions. They asked about alternate routes into the valley and potential hiding places, though not in those words. Were there any caves on the property? Were the villagers very close-knit, and would they recognize a stranger in their midst? How many men in the village had ever been trained as soldiers?
    They already knew there was a militia regiment of infantry quartered at Great Yarmouth, two hours’ ride away. In fact, Strathmore even mentioned the colonel by name. Every once in awhile they would let her ride ahead a little so that they could talk quietly, heads close together. She pretended not to notice, though she knew there was little point in the ruse. Lord Pierce, at least, seemed to have been aware of her suspicions almost before they were fully formed.
    When they rode at last back to the great house, it was nearly two, and yet the men insisted that they would ride along the river into the Porter-on-Bolling. Eleanor went into the house to change out of her riding clothes, but before she could reach her room Georgina passed her in the hall.
    “Mother has invited the Holliers for dinner,” her sister said placidly, her eyes not meeting Eleanor’s. “She wrote yesterday when we arrived, apparently. They will come tonight.”
    Eleanor nodded curtly. “Very well,” she said, and then she swept down the hall and into her room. Only when the door was firmly shut behind her did she lean against it and allow herself a deep sigh.
    She had known she would have to see him. Her mother had been thrilled when she had received news of his return from her dear friend Mrs. Hollier, especially given Eleanor’s rejection of Lord Marsh. But Eleanor had hoped for a little while longer to get used to the idea that Toby had returned to the country with a vast fortune, that all the considerations that had caused her mother to reject his suit had now vanished. She was no longer a girl of sixteen. Five years had passed since that spring, though it felt like twenty-five.
    She had become a different person. She wondered now if he had as well.
     

SEVEN
     
    It was almost three when they reached Porter-on-Bolling. From the north hill, Miss Chesney had pointed out the village, clustered around the flats where the River Bolling drained