A Marquess, a Miss and a Mystery Page 17

  ‘Hush,’ he said with a frown. ‘I don’t want you giving Perceval here any hints.’

  ‘Oh, but surely, since he doesn’t have any children of his own, he isn’t going to pass any information on to anyone about where we are going to hide anything, is he?’

  Perceval swelled at the implied insult. ‘You cannot possibly think that I...that any of His Grace’s guests would stoop to such sneaking behaviour? Just so that their child might win a bagatelle?’

  Well, at least two of them were passing on information to supporters of Bonaparte in France. So, yes.

  ‘It is not about the prize itself, but the notion of winning,’ said Nick firmly. ‘And we have no intention of letting anyone gain any advantage over anyone else. We want this to be a fair contest. Besides,’ he added with what he hoped was a disarming grin. ‘I don’t want Miss Carmichael getting distracted by the prospect of gossiping with other ladies.’

  ‘Yes, I quite see that,’ said Perceval, shooting Horatia a rather condescending look. ‘The female brain is so easily distracted by such things.’

  Nick had to bite his tongue to stop himself laughing at Horatia’s gasp of indignation. He’d explain to her later that he’d had to say something of the sort to get rid of Perceval. Or perhaps there would be no need. Once she’d calmed down, she’d work out for herself why he’d said what he had. And would, uniquely for a member of her sex, wave aside any apology he felt compelled to make.

  He was just congratulating himself on getting through the tricky situation with such ease, when there was another stir of movement in the doorway.

  ‘Lady Tewkesbury!’ Horatia looked genuinely shocked to see her friend’s mother standing there. ‘What are you doing out of bed?’ she said, hurrying over to the woman, who did indeed look white and haggard.

  Lady Tewkesbury’s eyes darted round the room as though searching for someone. Her thin fingers clawed at the gauze scarf she had wound round her scraggy neck, as though she was finding it hard to breathe. Horatia clearly thought so, too, because she went to her side. ‘Come and sit down while you get your breath back, Lady Tewkesbury,’ she said, trying to take her arm. Lady Tewkesbury shook her off and took a step into the room.

  ‘I don’t need that kind of behaviour from a creature like you,’ she spat. And then, as though noticing the men standing nearby, she said in a less abrasive tone, ‘That is, I don’t need mollycoddling. I just need...’ She stared wildly round the room.

  It was Perceval who came to her aid this time, as Nick shifted closer to Horatia in an instinctively protective manoeuvre.

  ‘I dare say you are in need of some reading material,’ Perceval said to Lady Tewkesbury. ‘I understand you have been, ah, indisposed. May I hope that your venture down here is a sign that you are recovering? And are starting to wish for some occupation?’

  ‘Yes, that’s it. I am finding it very dull being cooped up in my room. I do need a book. That is why I have come to the library. Obviously.’

  ‘As you are not sufficiently recovered to withstand the rigours of any of the more strenuous activities,’ Perceval continued.

  Nick exchanged a glance with Horatia. In her eyes he saw exactly the same suspicions that were forming in his own mind. Perceval was supplying Lady Tewkesbury with a valid reason for being in the library. Which clearly meant that was not why she had come here and he knew it and was covering her tracks, which put him under suspicion as well.

  ‘Or the noise they will be making,’ said Lady Tewkesbury, placing one hand to her forehead. ‘I must say, when I heard that these two are encouraging children to run amok all over this great house,’ she said waspishly, sending a glare in Horatia’s direction, ‘I could hardly believe it. A man of Theakstone’s standing, permitting that sort of thing.’ She shuddered. ‘I thought it was going to be all elegance and sophistication here this week, not a...romp!’

  ‘May I suggest,’ said Perceval, extending his arm, ‘that we browse the section containing the books much beloved by His Grace’s stepmother. I am sure you will find something sufficiently entertaining to while away such time until you are feeling up to gracing the company with your presence once more...’ Lady Tewkesbury gratefully laid her hand on that arm and allowed the secretary to lead her to a section of shelving right at the far end of the room. Where they could converse without risk of being overheard by Nick and Horatia.

  And vice versa.

  ‘Did that look as smoky to you as it did to me?’ said Horatia, the moment the others had started their own muted conversation.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘She never gets up before noon,’ she told him in an urgent undertone. ‘And always has her breakfast in bed. And never goes on her own errands, but sends Connie, her maid. If she really wanted a book...’

  ‘Yes. I think we have established that the last thing she planned to do in this room was look for a book,’ said Nick. ‘The only question is, what was she planning to do? Or, perhaps we should be asking, who was she planning to meet?’

  They both glanced at the pair who had their heads bent over an open book, as though they were studying its contents, although they were still talking in voices too low to carry far.

  ‘It could be them,’ said Horatia. ‘They could be the ones who’ve been exchanging coded notes. I mean, the way Perceval made up a plausible excuse for her to be here, and the way she...only—’ She stopped, her brows knitting. ‘I mustn’t jump to conclusions. What she said about the event descending into a sad romp does sound just like her. She does have some very stuffy ideas. From what Lady Elizabeth tells me, well, I shouldn’t betray confidences, but...’ She spread her hands wide.

  He admired her for that loyalty. So he said, ‘I get the point. Continue.’

  ‘Well, it’s the same with Perceval, isn’t it? I mean, although what he said could be suspicious, it isn’t as if it was out of character for him to talk to a female as though she has not a single thought of her own of any worth. He did it to me the entire time I was sat next to him at dinner,’ she said resentfully. ‘Exactly the way he treated Lady Tewkesbury just now. So it could just be his pompous manner that made him say what he said...’

  ‘Or it could be the perfect cloak to disguise his involvement in the...’

  She nodded. ‘Just what I was thinking. And he would have access to all sorts of sensitive information, wouldn’t he, what with handling all the Duke’s business. Only, was he in London at the...the time?’

  ‘I can find out,’ he said. ‘In the meantime, I believe it would be worth my while to keep him under close observation. Because it looked to me as though they arranged to meet here and we foiled their attempt to be private together. That was what all the indignation was about.’

  ‘Unless it was genuine,’ she put in. ‘It could have been. I mean, they do both have a point. We were behaving with impropriety.’

  They had been about to, certainly.

  He couldn’t help grinning.

  ‘The one thing about clandestine meetings going awry,’ he drawled softly, ‘is that the pair involved will be determined to arrange another. So all we have to do is keep a close watch on them both and catch them at it.’

  ‘Catch them at what, though?’ said Horatia with a pensive frown. ‘It has just occurred to me—’

  But she broke off before she could confide whatever it was that had just occurred to her, because Perceval was marching away to the door while Lady Tewkesbury was making straight for them.

  ‘Perceval,’ said Lady Tewkesbury to Horatia, ‘has just had the gall to remind me that as you are here under my aegis, it is my responsibility to look out for your reputation.’

  ‘What cheek,’ said Nick, allowing a smile to curve his lips just the slightest bit.

  ‘Indeed,’ said Lady Tewkesbury frostily. ‘However, he is right in saying that if you do ruin her reputation—’ she slid a resentful glance in Horati
a’s direction ‘—I will be held responsible. Which means that I cannot allow you to stay here on your own with her.’

  Horatia looked as though she was about to make an objection, but Lady Tewkesbury held up her hand. ‘I shall sit on that sofa there and look at this book,’ she said, holding up the slim, board-covered volume that had the distinct look of the kind of thing his mother would read. ‘That should satisfy anyone’s notion of propriety.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Horatia. ‘But in a few moments, we may be removing to another room. We really are working on clues for the treasure hunt, you know, in spite of what that Perceval person was insinuating.’

  ‘Then I shall have to come with you,’ said Lady Tewkesbury with a martyred air. ‘Drat the man.’ She trailed across to the sofa and sank on to it.

  Horatia turned to him with a grin. ‘Amazing! Right after you saying we had to keep an eye on the pair of them, she makes my job easy for me. Just as I was thinking that I would be the first unmarried female to dog the steps of her chaperon, rather than the other way about.’

  ‘Which reminds me. I need to keep watch on Perceval.’ He frowned. Looked to the door. Looked to the sofa.

  ‘No, we can’t just abandon the treasure hunt.’

  He couldn’t help smiling at her. ‘I can see you don’t want to disappoint the children, but have you forgotten that I have the treasure hunt well in hand? That our sole purpose for going from room to room with a sheaf of clues was a ruse to enable us to hunt for a non-existent code book?’

  She flushed guiltily. She clearly had got carried away with the whole charade. But instead of floundering about, she frowned, then said, ‘What if I appear to take pity on Lady Tewkesbury, then, and take her back to her room? Say we are going to leave the positioning of the rest of the clues to you.’

  He could have kissed her. Attention to little details such as this made all the difference between a mission failing and being a resounding success. And Herbert had always left attention to this sort of detail entirely to him. He’d been a loyal follower, but not a partner in their enterprises. Not like...

  ‘Good thinking,’ he had to be content with saying. For there was no way he was going to start kissing Horatia, or admitting that it was a rare treat to have someone apart from him doing all the thinking, not with Lady Tewkesbury watching him. Or glancing up at him every now and then from the pages of her novel, anyway.

  He would have to wait until they were on their own again.

  ‘I will get after Perceval, then. See where he is going next. We can compare notes at nuncheon.’

  She nodded. ‘I will look forward to it,’ she said, gracing him with one of her rare smiles.

  So would he. Very much.

  Chapter Twenty

  Horatia watched the door close softly behind Lord Devizes, then turned to Lady Tewkesbury, who was still sitting on the sofa.

  Could this woman really be a traitor? Part of a group who would stop at nothing to smuggle information out of England to France? Not even murder?

  She ran her eyes over the woman’s face, halting at the bitter set of her mouth. She certainly had much to be bitter about. Her husband had died leaving a mountain of debt, according to Lady Elizabeth. He’d run through what should have been his wife’s portion, as well as Lady Elizabeth’s dowry. Which was why her mother had been urging her to marry a rich, titled man, rather than the one she truly loved. Why she had been so angry when the Duke, who had put Lady Elizabeth on a list of possibilities, had instead fallen heavily for Miss Underwood, who was nothing but a pretty little country miss. So angry that Lady Elizabeth had been surprised that she’d accepted the invitation to attend this wedding at all. Lady Tewkesbury had said they needed to be practical, that if they spent another week here, her daughter might meet another wealthy scion of the Duke’s family and still marry well. But if that was the real reason for them coming here, why hadn’t she been making more of an effort to push Lady Elizabeth at the various eligible gentlemen who were arriving daily?

  It could be because she’d been ill ever since she’d arrived, Horatia argued with herself. She’d looked increasingly wan and then yesterday she’d finally had to retreat to her bed.

  ‘Are you going to stand there staring at me all day, impudent miss?’

  ‘I beg your pardon,’ said Horatia. ‘I was just thinking that it might be better if you went back to your room.’

  ‘I dare say you do,’ snapped Lady Tewkesbury. ‘But I am not going to let you go making a fool of yourself over that...’ she waved one clawlike hand at the door through which Lord Devizes had just gone ‘...that scoundrel. Oh, I can see why you’ve fallen under his spell,’ she added, her mouth twisting into a sneer. ‘He is an expert at sweeping silly women off their feet, then trampling over them once they have fallen.’

  ‘I hardly think...’

  ‘That is just the trouble. Elizabeth tells me you are intelligent, but the moment a man like that smiles at you, a woman ceases using her brain at all.’

  ‘That is...’ She’d been about to say it was unfair, but Lady Tewkesbury had pretty much hit the nail on the head. She did find it hard to use her brain when Lord Devizes smiled at her in that certain way. And, if Perceval hadn’t come in just when he had, she might well have let him kiss her. If he had been about to kiss her. Which sort of proved Lady Tewkesbury’s point. All she could think about, when he got close, was kissing.

  ‘Yes,’ sneered Lady Tewkesbury. ‘I can see that hit home! You silly goose. It isn’t even as if he’s likely to offer marriage, since you have nothing to offer apart from a momentary diversion. You need to stay away from him, if you value your reputation.’

  Well, that was just it. She didn’t value it all that much. Not when weighed against the importance of tracking down Herbert’s murderer. However, she did want to keep Lady Tewkesbury under observation. So she bowed her head in what she hoped looked like meek obedience.

  ‘I can leave him to finish off preparations for the treasure hunt on his own, if you think that would be for the best,’ she said.

  ‘It most definitely is,’ said Lady Tewkesbury, getting to her feet. ‘So let us return to our rooms and...unless you wish to...’

  ‘There is nothing I wish to do this morning, if I am not to help with the treasure hunt.’ Apart from perhaps looking for clues in Lady Tewkesbury’s room. ‘Shall I come to your room and...read to you?’ She waved her hand at the book. Lady Tewkesbury pulled a face and tossed it on to the sofa. ‘I don’t read rubbish like that,’ she said haughtily. Which begged the question—why had she permitted Perceval to hand it to her, then?

  Oh, yes, it would certainly be a good idea to look through Lady Tewkesbury’s room for...for...well, she wasn’t sure what. But she could start by having a peep into the Bible she had taken to chapel on Sunday morning. There might be marks in the margins, if not actual coded notes for her to find. There might be all sorts of clues she might notice, now that she was regarding her as a possible suspect.

  Lady Tewkesbury’s mouth firmed into a line, as though she was biting back some remark. Which wasn’t like her. She didn’t usually spare Horatia’s feelings.

  ‘We will go to your rooms,’ she finally said. ‘The ones you are sharing with my daughter. I shall perhaps find her there? And we may...well, I haven’t seen much of her since we got here. She has become thick as thieves with that dreadful girl—’

  There was another dreadful girl here? Apart from Horatia? Oh, yes, Miss Underwood. The girl who’d had the temerity to win the Duke’s heart, when all anyone had expected him to offer was his hand.

  Lady Tewkesbury tossed her head and stalked to the door. ‘Come along, Miss Carmichael. I should probably have inspected my daughter’s accommodation before now. Only I haven’t felt...’ She let that sentence drift to a close rather than finishing it properly.

  Bother. When was Horatia going to get a chance to search thr
ough Lady Tewkesbury’s room for incriminating evidence? Although, wasn’t her reluctance to permit her into that room at all, even when she was there, a sign that she was hiding something? Lady Tewkesbury had been behaving in a most inconsistent manner for some time, Horatia reflected as she followed the lady along the corridor and up the stairs. She’d never liked Horatia. Not from the first moment Lady Elizabeth had taken her home and introduced her as someone she’d met at a lecture on the transit of Venus. And yet when Lady Elizabeth had asked if she might come to Theakstone Court with them, saying that it might help to give her thoughts another direction, she could have sworn tears had come to Lady Tewkesbury’s eyes. And she had definitely said that Horatia must not dwell too much upon her brother’s death, nor the manner of his passing, but look to her own future. At the time, Horatia had put her uncharacteristic display of sympathy down to the fact that she’d been through a bereavement herself. Only Lady Elizabeth had said that she hadn’t mourned her husband as much as appeared relieved to be free of him. Until the lawyers had explained that he’d left nothing to them but debt and disgrace.

  Or perhaps that did explain her inconsistent behaviour. That tirade about Lord Devizes just now had sounded more as though she was talking about the men in her own life than offering Horatia advice. And the late Marquess of Tewkesbury had most certainly been a libertine and a rake. So perhaps she had experienced a flare of fellow feeling for a woman left alone in the world...

  Bother again. There were two ways to look at everything, where Lady Tewkesbury was concerned. She wasn’t going to be able to reach any conclusion without gathering more evidence.

  * * *

  Nick was having an almost equally frustrating time of it. No sooner had he reached the end of the corridor than the man he’d been attempting to pursue doubled back and made straight for him.

  ‘If you have a moment,’ said Perceval, ‘His Grace would very much like to have a word with you.’