A Marquess, a Miss and a Mystery Page 6

  Miss Underwood and Lady Elizabeth both gave gasps of outrage.

  ‘Indeed it is not,’ said Miss Underwood. ‘I could see that you were making her uncomfortable and...’

  ‘Was I making you uncomfortable?’ He turned to her and gave her one of those knee-melting smiles. And in spite of knowing he was up to something, a part of her, a very small, yet wholly feminine part of her, wanted to sigh and smile back, and say Of course you were not making me uncomfortable. So, of course, she clenched her knees and flung up her chin.

  ‘I think you were deliberately baiting me,’ she replied.

  ‘Ah, yes, but after only a very little of that you ceased drooping over your plate, looking as though you wished to shrink behind the curtains, didn’t you?’

  Miss Underwood and Lady Elizabeth both looked at her. And then at him.

  ‘It occurs to me that you are both being overprotective,’ he said. ‘What Miss Carmichael needs is not cosseting and being hidden away, but something to do. Something useful. Something that will occupy her mind. Is that not so, Miss Carmichael?’

  The ladies looked at her again. She could see them both reaching the same conclusion. Though they both disliked Lord Devizes, and the way he went about things, on this occasion, he just happened to be correct.

  ‘I did bring you here hoping that a change of scene would distract you,’ said Lady Elizabeth thoughtfully.

  Horatia rapidly reviewed the last words Lord Devizes had spoken. About wanting something useful to do. And about how she didn’t need cosseting and protecting. Did that mean he had changed his mind about keeping her out of his investigative work, while she was here at Theakstone Court? Her heart gave a funny little kick in her chest. She studied his face carefully.

  He gave her a surreptitious wink.

  If she was going to prove that she could work with him in an active role, then she was going to have to pick up little hints like that and run with them. Although she had no idea what his plan was, he looked as though he definitely had one.

  And if she didn’t want to end up trying to track down Herbert’s killer on her own, then she supposed she would have to follow his lead.

  ‘I do think it might help if I could be useful to you, Miss Underwood,’ she therefore said, ‘in some way. I know I must be a most difficult guest to have at such an event and the last thing I want is to cast any shadow over your enjoyment.’

  ‘And I just happen to know that Miss Underwood is in dire need of help,’ said Lord Devizes, with a knowing smile.

  ‘Oh?’

  All three ladies turned to him. And as they did so it occurred to Horatia that they must look exactly the way all the other ladies looked when they gathered round him. As if they were hanging on his every word. Though at least none of them had silly looks of admiration on their faces while they were doing it.

  ‘Yes, I have just learned that the nursery is in a state of chaos.’

  The nursery? What did she know of nurseries? Or children of any sort, come to that?

  ‘Lady Twickenham informs me that there is no resident governess to preside. I imagine that the children must be behaving like little savages while the visiting governesses are battling it out for supremacy.’

  Miss Underwood clasped her hands at her breast. ‘I deny...that is, I cannot be everywhere at once...’

  ‘On second thoughts,’ said Lord Devizes, giving her a considering look, ‘perhaps Miss Carmichael is not the best person to put in charge of such a task. After all, what can a spinster know of children? Or what might keep them out of mischief?’

  This calculatedly disparaging remark immediately caused both Miss Underwood and Lady Elizabeth to leap to her defence.

  ‘I am sure Horatia is perfectly capable of restoring order over some squabbling servants,’ said Lady Elizabeth loyally.

  ‘Most governesses are unmarried ladies, you know, of good birth and...’ said Miss Underwood at the same time.

  Lord Devizes raised his hands, as though in surrender. And then sauntered away, a satisfied smile curving his lips in a way that made Horatia simultaneously want to slap him and applaud him for the masterful way he’d just manipulated them into installing her into the very arena he wished her, for some reason, to investigate.

  Chapter Seven

  ‘Lord Devizes is quite correct,’ said Miss Underwood despondently. ‘I really do need to do something about a new governess. Although, I do not regret dismissing the last one,’ she said, raising her chin and shooting his retreating back a defiant look. ‘She was totally unsuitable.’

  ‘He was also correct in pointing out that I have no experience with children,’ said Horatia.

  ‘Never mind standing about talking about how clever Lord Devizes is to point out everyone else’s faults,’ snapped Lady Elizabeth. ‘Let’s go up to the nursery and put our minds to solving your immediate problem, Miss Underwood.’

  Miss Underwood shot her a grateful smile and led them to the door.

  Oh, Lord, how Horatia hoped she wouldn’t discover that either Miss Underwood or her husband had anything to do with Herbert’s death. She seemed like such a nice girl, if a bit out of her depth, attempting to manage a ducal household.

  However, Lord Devizes clearly wanted her to investigate something, or someone, connected with the nursery. She must not waste this chance to prove she could be a valuable agent in his organisation. So she had to think of some questions to ask. The kind of clever questions that would sound perfectly natural for someone in her position to ask, yet could also lead to the unmasking of a traitor.

  That was all.

  ‘Um,’ she said, as they began to climb a flight of stairs, ‘pardon me asking, but why would you need a governess at all? I mean, you have no children yet. Obviously, since you are not even married.’

  ‘Oh, Oliver has a little girl already,’ said Miss Underwood, before glancing over her shoulder at Lady Elizabeth with a worried expression. ‘I dare say there has been a great deal of gossip about her.’

  Lady Elizabeth nodded.

  ‘I have not heard any,’ said Horatia. ‘I don’t mix much in the kind of circles where such gossip flows, you know, besides being out of circulation altogether since Herbert—’

  ‘Well, the truth,’ Miss Underwood cut in, before Horatia could mention a word that was surely taboo at wedding festivities, ‘is that he had no idea he even had a daughter until Livvy’s mother died. And because of...some things that happened to him in his own childhood, he could not bear to foster her out to some family who would only look after her for financial gain. He hired a governess and a nurse for her, and brought her here, to Theakstone Court, in an attempt to...to learn how to be a real father to her.’

  That sounded commendable in some respects, if rather eccentric. However, it did rather suggest that the Duke didn’t care what anyone else thought of him, since most illegitimate children were hidden away and raised by foster parents. Was this disdain for prevailing opinion the kind of attitude that could lead him to pass government secrets to a foreign country, though? Even if he was well placed to obtain such secrets and also had the contacts to pass them on?

  ‘So why,’ Horatia plucked up the courage to ask, since Miss Underwood seemed not to mind talking about what was surely rather a sensitive subject, ‘did you dismiss the governess the Duke hired?’ And when Lady Elizabeth jabbed her in the side with her elbow, added, ‘If you do not think my question impertinent?’

  ‘You may as well hear it from me,’ said Miss Underwood with resignation, ‘as anywhere. That woman was most unkind to Livvy. She went around referring to her as The Duke’s Disgrace. And worse, addressed Livvy to her face as such when she could be bothered to spend any time in the schoolroom, which wasn’t all that often.’

  ‘How horrid of her,’ said Horatia.

  ‘I wonder the Duke hired her without finding out about her attitude towa
rds children born on the wrong side of the blanket,’ muttered Lady Elizabeth in her ear.

  Miss Underwood, who clearly had very good hearing, said, ‘Well, she came highly recommended, apparently.’

  ‘Oh?’ Horatia wondered, if the woman was so unsuitable, if someone might have introduced her into the household to help further their nefarious plans. Because if she was hardly ever where she was supposed to be, then it might be because she had other fish to fry.

  Or was she clutching at straws?

  Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

  ‘Who was it who recommended her?’

  ‘Perceval,’ replied Miss Underwood, with a wry twist to her lips. ‘Oliver’s secretary. Have you met him? Perhaps not. He has been terribly busy with various things lately and isn’t one for socialising all that much. But he is generally so efficient in business matters that Oliver trusts him completely.’

  Aha. A shadowy figure, who had access to all the Duke’s papers and was trusted implicitly. If he wasn’t a likely candidate then she didn’t know who was.

  ‘Only he is a bachelor,’ Miss Underwood continued, ‘with no experience of working in a household with children. Oh,’ she said suddenly, looking contrite, ‘please don’t think that it will matter that you don’t have any such experience, either...’

  Horatia was pretty sure it did matter, but that wasn’t what she’d been thinking about. Or not exactly. No, what she’d been wondering was how he came to pluck this ‘highly recommended governess’ out of thin air, if he had no previous experience in hiring them.

  ‘Because I don’t think you will need to do much more than let all the visiting governesses know that I have placed you in charge,’ said Miss Underwood, darting her a glance which made Horatia suspect she didn’t really believe what she was saying. ‘The governesses who have come know their work, I expect. You will just need to act as a kind of...umpire? Is that the word? Oh, dear,’ she said, looking harried. ‘I never imagined so many of our guests would bring their children with them. Usually, so Oliver says, people leave their offspring at home on their country estates the year round, no matter where they go.’ She puffed as they began climbing a third flight of stairs. ‘My Aunt Agnes has organised a very full programme of activities for the ladies. And Uncle Ned for the gentlemen,’ she said over her shoulder, as she led them along a very plain corridor, right up in the eaves. ‘But nobody spared a thought for the children,’ she said, reaching a door through which there emanated rather a lot of shouting. ‘Well, as I said, we didn’t expect any to come,’ she said, putting her hand to the door latch and opening the door rather gingerly.

  For a few moments, none of the occupants noticed their arrival. Two plainly dressed women were engaged in a heated argument before the fireplace, while what looked like about ten children, of varying sizes, were doing exactly as they pleased all over the room. Two boys were happily dismembering a doll in spite of the efforts of a little girl, who was screaming at the top of her lungs, to stop them. A tiny, red-cheeked infant was wailing on the lap of a rather distressed-looking nurse while on the floor, before a bookcase, another girl was busily cutting pictures out of what looked like copies of a fashion magazine, and, to judge from the pot of glue at her side, using them to illustrate a pile of textbooks.

  Horatia swallowed and reached out to grasp the nearest solid support, which turned out to be Lady Elizabeth’s arm. Lady Elizabeth patted her hand.

  ‘It isn’t as bad as it looks,’ she said bracingly. ‘Why, nobody is...bleeding, or anything, are they? They are all just playing...’

  At that moment, just as Miss Underwood appeared to be about to say something along the same lines, an older girl, with long, dark curls, came rushing over to the door and flung her arms round Miss Underwood’s waist. Miss Underwood returned the embrace without the slightest hesitation.

  ‘Sofia,’ said the little dark-haired girl, who Horatia assumed must be the Duke’s illegitimate daughter, to be on such familiar terms with his affianced bride. ‘How long do we have to have all these people here? You will be sending them away once you have married Papa, won’t you?’

  Miss Underwood bit her lower lip. ‘I do hope so,’ she finally said. And darted Horatia a look of appeal.

  ‘I am Miss Carmichael,’ said Horatia. ‘Your st—I mean, Sofia,’ she said, darting Miss Underwood a glance, hoping that using the child’s name for her had not caused offence. ‘Sofia hoped that I might be able to help...arrange some...er...activities to keep you all amused.’

  It wasn’t exactly what Miss Underwood had asked of her, but the moment she’d seen how unruly the children all were one of her Aunt Matilda’s sayings, ‘The devil makes work for idle hands’, had sprung to mind.

  ‘Oh, goody,’ said the little girl. ‘I keep asking if we can go outside to play, but those two,’ she said, pulling a rather rude face in the direction of the quarrelling governesses, ‘keep saying we are supposed to stay out of sight and out of mind. Which doesn’t seem at all fair. All the grown-ups are doing all sorts of fun things from what Uncle Ned says, so why shouldn’t we?’

  ‘Oh, dear,’ said Miss Underwood. ‘Well, the thing is, Livvy, that while we have so many people staying, it might not be quite safe for these children to wander about the place. I know that you would be sensible, but I would never forgive myself if one of the others fell out of a tree, or into the lake, or ran across in front of one of the gentlemen when they are out riding and got trampled.’

  Livvy looked at the two little boys intent on torturing the little girl and her doll, and pulled a face as if to say she wouldn’t mind very much if some of them did get trampled.

  Horatia swallowed again. She had no idea how to restore order to the children running about in the nursery. And the prospect of taking them outside and seeing them scattered to the four winds, some to drown in the lake while others ended up ground to paste beneath the horses of the visiting gentlemen, made her feel a touch queasy.

  Why on earth had she told Lord Devizes that she could work with him to unmask the traitor at Theakstone Court? Why had she not simply stuck to what she knew, sitting at a desk, poring over tables of ciphers? And how on earth could any woman do anything with this...this mob, when even trained, experienced governesses could not?

  Which made her wonder if Lord Devizes had set her this task to test her mettle. It was just the sort of sneaky, underhanded thing he might do, in order to teach her how unsuitable she was to become one of his team. There was probably nothing worth finding out regarding Herbert, or the nest of spies that seemed to centre on Theakstone Court, at all. In fact, she wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he’d sent her up here to keep her out of his way while he got on with his own line of enquiry.

  Right. She would just have to show him, then, wouldn’t she? That not only could she meet this challenge, but also use it to further her own pursuit of the truth. She’d already unearthed some information about the former governess and the Duke’s secretary that he might not know and might be pertinent. And since servants always knew all sorts of things that went on in the houses where they worked, no matter how hard their employers tried to keep them secret, she would just have to see what more she could learn from these two governesses. And the nurse.

  She eyed the children again. As Lady Elizabeth had just said, they were only displaying signs of being bored. So she’d have to start devising some sort of activity that could keep them all entertained, within doors.

  She might not know much about children, but she was by no means stupid. And she had spent most of her childhood within doors. In fact, her own governess had to practically drag her outside for a daily walk, so keen had she been to sit at her little desk devising or solving acrostics. She could soon prepare some simple ones for the older children.

  While she was still turning over various possibilities and discarding them as unworkable, the two battling governesses stopped arguing, and turn
ed to face the doorway in which Horatia was standing. And dropped deeply respectful curtsies. It would have been wonderful to think they had finally noticed her and Lady Elizabeth, and Miss Underwood. But the truth was that somebody else had joined them.

  Lord Devizes.

  ‘Good afternoon,’ he said affably to the servants.

  At the sound of his voice, the children, as one, paused in their various acts of destruction and looked up at him.

  ‘Uncle Nick, Uncle Nick,’ yelled the two boys, surging to their feet and dashing across the room to his side.

  ‘No, no, don’t paw at my coat, you young rascals,’ he said, pushing them aside. They didn’t seem to take this as an insult, however, but only grinned and launched themselves at him again, so that he’d repeat the rebuff.

  Boys. She’d never understand them. Why did they take so much pleasure in fighting and destroying things?

  ‘Look what they’ve done to Minny,’ wailed the little girl, toddling over with what was left of her doll and holding it up for his inspection.

  ‘I shall buy you another,’ he said offhandedly and then turned to Horatia. ‘It struck me, after you had all left the yellow salon, that in relegating you to this bear garden, I was doing practically the same thing as Lady Elizabeth had attempted, only with rather more aggravations attached.’

  Good gracious. Was he attempting to apologise?

  Surely not. In her experience, men never felt the need to apologise for anything. So this must all be part of his plan.

  ‘In fact, upon several occasions I have not acted well in my dealings with you. So I have come to make amends.’

  Lady Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed. ‘You? Make amends?’ Clearly she’d had similar experiences with the males in her life.

  ‘Why not?’ He returned her suspicious stare with a cold one. ‘Miss Carmichael’s brother was one of my oldest friends. No matter what I, personally, think of her, I owe it to him to do the right thing.’

  ‘Why, you...’