LTSV - Lost & Found 11 (Patreon)

There was a time skip between the first chapter of the game and the second to show how badly her choice of benefactors in the first chapter worked out without making the player sit through it all. In most of them she ended up as some flavor of maid in order to compensate her host for her room and board. Only in one route did she get taken care of like a guest and that route ended early with an early Bad End where she wound up forcibly engaged to her host’s grossest son.

That meant that there’d be about a month to a month and a half interval where Mira wouldn’t have to worry about game events cropping up to ruin her day. 

Vesper excused herself after lunch to see about moving her office and meet with the person she wanted to headhunt for Mira’s sake. Adding more bedrooms and an executive office to the suite gave them access to a larger sitting room so Mira chose to set up there for the afternoon. Cecily brought some knitting out of her room and took a spot in one of the lounge chairs there. For a while, Mira dared to think that they were set for a peaceful afternoon. 

Then Nanny let herself into the room with a pinched expression and a calling card in one hand. “Miss, there is a gentleman caller in the front room.”

Cecily froze and blanched, although Mira didn’t think there was any way possible for one of her boyfriends to have found her already. She didn’t have her own crystal yet so she couldn’t call anyone and Mira wasn’t convinced that she would when she seemed like she was almost as anxious about one of them showing up as Mira herself was. 

“If it’s for me, please let them know that I’m not at home today,” Cecily said as she clutched her knitting. 

“The caller is for Miss Violet,” Nanny clarified, although not unkindly. Everyone was worried about the male leads inviting themselves over, it seemed.  

“For me?” Mira asked, surprised. She held her hand out for the card, but the name didn’t ring any bells. “Reginald Duvall.” She looked up at her nanny. “Do I know him?”

“Not that I’m aware of, dear,” Nanny replied. She looked towards Cecily. “Do you recognize this name, miss?”

“I know of a Robert Duvall, but he’s a baronet and much, much older.” Cecily chewed on her lip. “Perhaps he’s a relative? Even so, I’m not acquainted with him or his people. I just saw Lord Duvall once at a distance during an event. Except Adri…” she broke off, blushing, “... his majesty, Prince Andrei, advised me to avoid being alone with him.”

“So he’s a scoundrel and there’s no guarantee his people are any better,” Mira sighed. She could resent Violet’s ex fiance for any number of justified reasons, but his advice about the social world was invaluable during the game. If he said to avoid Lord Duvall, then Lord Duvall should be avoided at all costs. Violet was the only person who shorted out Andrei’s good sense. “Did this Mr. Duvall say what his business was?” she asked Nanny Byrde.

“He would only say that it was an important private matter,” Nanny said, projecting a palpable aura of disapproval. Even if Mira didn’t have past experience and Violet’s memory to rely on for hints about acceptable levels of contact between young people of mixed genders in this society, Nanny’s body language would have given her all the hint she needed that this was wildly inappropriate behavior from a visitor.

“I do not have important private matters with men who have not been introduced to me,” Mira sneered. This sounded like a headache already and she hadn’t even laid eyes on the person yet. If Vesper had sent him then he would have said so. “Please inform him that I am not at home to guests.”

Nanny nodded and left with the card. Mira’s memories of being Violet stirred, but not in a way that was entirely helpful.

Cecily caught her scrunching her face and asked, “Is something the matter?”

“I’ve got a blank spot,” Mira said, crossing her arms over her chest. Was this going to be an ongoing problem? “Shouldn’t she have left the card with me?”

That earned her a little chuckle from Cecily, the first laugh Mira had ever heard from the heroine. Cecily covered her mouth to hide her smile, which was cute but also worrisome given what Mira knew of her background. 

“Usually she ought to,” Cecily explained at last. “If you give someone’s calling card back then you’re telling them not to return. It’s very rude, but appropriate in this instance. He was rude first. You’ve probably never done it before.”

“Ah,” Mira sighed as the explanation triggered a little more of her more generalized knowledge of the world. Violet had known that, but Cecily was correct. She’d never done it before. People were not as willing to offend Violet in those days and, as a future princess, she couldn’t afford to cause unnecessary offense either. She’d had to resort to other, even more oblique methods of getting people to fuck off. “I think you’re right.”

Unexpectedly, Nanny returned after a few minutes looking, impossibly, even more ticked off. “Forgive me, miss, he is refusing to leave.”

Mira examined her nails. How annoying. She’d been hoping he wouldn’t be stubborn. “Call down to the concierge to have him removed,” she directed.

Nanny pursed her lips, more nervous now than mad. “He has threatened to release your address to the newspapers, Miss, if you won’t see him. You may not recall, but we had great difficulty checking into the hotel without being discovered. The subject of Prince Andrei’s annulled marriage has been on the front page everywhere these past two weeks and we’ve successfully avoided making a statement before now. If the journalists know to watch the hotel, they’ll be able to find the townhouse much faster.”

Wouldn’t they just as easily be able to track Vesper’s movements? Mira didn’t necessarily believe that hiding from the newshounds would be possible for much longer. Still, she didn’t want them on her doorstep or potentially sneaking into her hotel room either while she was still undergoing treatment. 

On the flip side, Mira had dealt with enough iterations of the free press that she already knew hiding from reporters only made them hungrier. She’d need to consult with Vesper later and pick out someone who wasn’t already hostile to her in order to give a controlled interview. Or, better yet, get Vesper to make a statement. 

Besides, she wanted to know what business it was that this Reginald person thought he had with her; probably blackmail or some other scam, considering how fast he’d leapt to making threats. He must have thought that Mira was stupid–or that she was a scared, desperate young noblewoman under attack, with limited protection from her family; in other words, an easy mark. 

“Alright,” Mira sighed. “I’ll give him five minutes. Please call the front desk and tell them to send up some footmen to remove Mr. Duvall if he doesn’t leave on his own.”

“Yes, Miss,” Nanny murmured as she cupped her cheeks with worry.

Reginald Duvall was a thin man who, although elegantly appointed, had a sharp and sickly air about him that Mira supposed was deliberate, given how coiffed he was otherwise. He had dark auburn hair that he wore slicked back in sculpted finger waves and had fluffed a bit into curls at the nape. Mira hoped that wasn’t the trend for all non-romance targets in this world. She’d been through many different iterations of male fashion and the pomaded look wasn’t her favorite. Reginald’s hairstyle did make his bottle glass green eyes the central feature of his narrow face and he might have even been handsome if his expression didn’t make him look like such a smarmy asshole. 

He was seated when Mira arrived, but stood as she entered. “Lady Coventry—or is it Miss Priestly, now?” He paused and glanced over Mira’s shoulder at Cecily, who’d followed her in. “I’d prefer it if you left your maid in the other room. This is a conversation between adults.”

“I doubt that,” Mira replied tartly. 

She sat herself down on the nicest chair that only had room for one, just in case he got ideas about crowding in next to her. She didn’t know what flavor of con artist he was yet, but they all seemed to like invading their target’s personal space and she was not in the mood. 

Cecily, interestingly, didn’t correct their unwelcome visitor. Instead, she went to stand behind Mira’s chair. Since she didn’t say anything, Mira decided she wouldn’t either. She focused on Reginald and said, “You have the time it takes for the front desk to send a few sturdy men sent up here to convince me why I shouldn’t have you thrown out of a window instead of out the door.”

Reginald smiled like he’d been waiting to hear that and withdrew from his breast pocket a sheet of cream colored paper that he sat down on the low tea table in front of Mira’s seat. It was a letter; a letter addressed to Miss Violet Priestly.

It actually took Mira a minute to realize what it was. After all, she hadn’t been in this world long and her host had never actually seen one of these, despite the fact that she died from the loss of one. 

It was a welcome letter, greeting Miss Priestly and inviting her to enter the Duvall family as the sole wife of Reginald Duvall, second child to Sir Robert Duvall, Baronet, widower of the late Honorable Lady Belinda Blake, Viscountess of Loverne. 

While the name ‘Sir Robert Duvall’ stirred no memories for Mira, ‘Viscountess of Loverne’ very much did. Specifically, Mira recalled that Lady Blake, Viscountess of Loverne, was divorced and that the separation was so acrimonious that even the sheltered Violet had heard all about it, in gruesome detail. Sir Duvall must have styled himself differently while she was alive and still married to him, otherwise Mira might have uncovered those memories sooner.

Lady Duvall’s title must have gone to Reginald’s older sibling, although the letter, notably, did not say Reginald was the child of Lady Blake, just the descendant of ‘Sir Duvall, Bt.’ The letter was notarized with a seal of authenticity from city hall and signed by two clerical witnesses so there probably hadn’t been much wiggle room for the Duvalls to inflate their connections. Given that, Mira surmised that Reginald was likely Sir Duvall’s extramarital child, acknowledged after his divorce. A Baronetcy was generally a hereditary title so Sir Duvall would have his own legacy to pass down—whether he had money to go with it was a different matter. 

“What is this?” Mira asked. She had more questions than that, of course. How did he know to find her here? How did he know her marriage had fallen through? She didn’t ask because there was no way he’d tell her the truth. 

“It is your father’s wish, now that the Fenbys have backed out of their agreement with him,” Reginald explained. “I received an urgent post from him last night and I wasted no time in having a letter drafted for you.”

Mira considered him for a long pause. She already knew that the earliest her father could have found out about her failed marriage was this morning, several days after the fact. There was no way he could have sent a messenger already and, even if he had, he would have sent it to Vesper. She’d already known Reginald was opening his mouth to lie to her, she just hadn’t expected it would be such a flimsy lie.

“You’re very generous to take in a woman you’ve never met,” Mira said at last. “How are you acquainted with my father? He’s never mentioned you to me.”

“The Lord Warden and my father are familiar,” Reginald explained. “Our territory is quiet and rural, much like the Fenby family holdings—although not so comfortable. Gawain was the Lord Warden’s first choice for a reason, but I can still promise you an easy life as my wife.”

He certainly could. The marriage document he’d brought with him was framed as a letter, but now that Mira had actually seen one, she understood that it was actually a marriage contract.