Chapter Twenty-Nine (Tewkey POV, Autumn 1889)
The next evening Tewkesbury was in his own study when Mr James knocked on the door holding a reply from the future Earl of Cawdor. Fortunately, the current Earl had stuffy house guests that very week and Hamish was very keen to have guests his own age. He had hoped for about a minute that the damsel in distress was among the guests. Until he remembered that not a month he was at a house party hosted by Francis where Adelaide had perched scandalously on the Duke's lap and goaded the men into drinking to excess. Not something even the most outrageous of London society would call stuffy.
Enola would surely know how to find Adelaide, or at least someone who knew of her whereabouts, the struggle was getting her all the way to the Scottish highlands and keeping her out of danger.
In the hansom cab back to Limehouse, she had suggested that if Hamish had accepted their request, they would have to go incognito, with only the most important people knowing they weren't there just for a house visit. Unfortunately for Tewkesbury, his mother was not on that list. So in the next two days before they were to leave, he had the task of explaining to his mother that he was taking Enola to Scotland for a perfectly respectable visit with an old school friend, instead of ruining the wedding plans she had been working so hard on.
After waxing poetic on business opportunities of such a gathering, the dowager marchioness eventually relented with a suspicious look and insistence that Mr James and Julia were to be brought along as chaperones. She did however see fit to remind him that visiting a friend had far different protocols now he was the marquess; if there was music after dinner he was expected to ask girls other than Enola to dance, he was expected to bring a valet whether he used one or not, and worst of all, "You will wear Highlands kit if the occasion calls for it."
And of course, an occasion would call for it. Hamish was a very decent man who Tewkesbury had always gotten along well with, but after years of being forced into Highland kit at every necessary occasion, even in England, Hamish had found a great practical joke of making sure there was always an occasion for Highland kit when he had friends staying. The future – and possibly the current – Earl of Cawdor would sip brandy smugly while he watched his fellow Lords fidget in the bizarre fashion. Not quite a fatal flaw in his books, but it certainly made him remember why Francis was his favourite of the few school friends he still consorted with.
As he groaned inwardly at the prospect of having to appear polite and jovial at dinner parties while secretly searching for Francis's beloved paramour, Tewkesbury thought about how stressful it would be for Enola. She was very good at her job and had her emotions very well controlled, but she would be leading the investigation while trying to fit into a society she was raised to disrupt. It calmed him to think that by introducing her as his fiancee, he could hopefully hide her discordance, and protect her from the very real dangers she faced. It made the discomforting situation seem less like a disagreeable chore and more like an important undertaking.
Tewkesbury had thought many times about what meant he was truly a man and no longer a boy, especially after Enola had told him that she decided when he was a man. His first answer was 'Of course I am a man, I am 17.' but that had changed many times over the past year. Maybe that was finally the answer, maybe he was a man because attempting to protect Enola, his future wife, and a woman who could definitely handle herself, made him brave enough to face anything.