A Hint of Scandal (9 page)

With an effort, she forced her expression to some semblance of serenity before going into the front room.

Tommy was standing at the window. “They are getting closer,” he reported.

“Come, Tommy, let us go out and greet our guests.” Bella was pleased that her voice sounded calmer than she really felt.

She opened the front door and they walked out to the cobbled front drive. Bella quickly tried to smooth Tommy’s unruly dark hair.

“Let’s make a good show of ourselves, young man,” she said to her little brother as the coach rounded the curve of the drive.

When it stopped, the coachman and groom jumped down from the box and placed a wooden stoop in front of the coach door, which was emblazoned with the Westlake ducal crest. A moment later a tall woman emerged, wearing the most beautiful carriage coat Bella had ever seen. It was made of emerald velvet overlapping in the front and falling to the lady’s ankles in deep scallops. The high standing collar, cuffs, and hem were trimmed in a rich dark fur. Her bonnet was small with a high crown and also trimmed in emerald velvet. Beneath the bonnet was a profusion of light brown curls framing a striking, dignified countenance.

Sucking in her breath for courage, Bella stepped forward and curtsied deeply.

Tommy was so dazzled by the carriage, the matched grays, and the liveried outriders that he forgot to bow until he felt his sister tug on his arm.

“Miss Tichley?” the stately woman questioned imperiously.

“Yes, your grace,” Bella said as she rose from her curtsy.

“My son is really here?”

“Oh, yes, your grace. Your son has just finished lunch and is now waiting for you.” Bella had heard the anxiety beneath the lady’s peremptory tone and immediately felt compassion for the dowager duchess. What agonies she must have gone through these last few days. Bella was very glad that the duke was now so much improved.

The elegant lady closed her eyes for a moment.

“Thank our Lord,” she whispered before opening her eyes and straightening her already erect posture.

“I have brought Dr. Kensington with me.” She gestured toward the carriage behind her, where a heavyset man was laboriously exiting the conveyance. “But before we let the
doctor have a look, I want to spend a moment with my son,” she said.

“Of course, your grace. Please come in.” She led the lady into the house.

As the dowager moved past Tommy, she turned and gave the boy an assessing gaze. “Who might you be, young man?”

“I—I am Thomas Tichley, your grace,” Tommy replied, bowing again.

“Ah. Then you are the young man who found my son.” “Er… you see, your grace, it was his horse who alerted me,” Tommy said modestly.

“I shall want to hear every detail after I have seen my son,” she informed him, then followed Bella into the sitting room.

Bella smiled to herself when she saw that Papa was already bowing when they entered the room. “Your grace, may I introduce my father, Alfred Tichley?”

“It is a pleasure, sir, to make your acquaintance. In fact, it is my deepest pleasure to meet your entire family. I have just come from Penninghurst Park, where your good brother and his wife have assured me that my son has been in your very excellent care. I have not the words to express my gratitude to you.”

Bella’s father blinked several times. He was not sure how to respond to this grand lady after such a gracious speech.

“You are very welcome, your grace. We are very glad to be able to report that your son is much improved and is, I’m sure, as anxious to see you as you are to see him.”

Bella looked at her father with pride. Normally he was a man of very few words, and those words were usually blunt.

“If you will come this way, your grace.” Bella gestured toward the staircase and led the lady to her room.

Before she entered, the dowager stopped and looked at Bella keenly. “I hope my son has not been difficult, Miss Tichley,” she asked, thinking how pretty Bella was.

“Oh, no, your grace, your son has been a model patient,” Bella assured her.

“Really?” The dowager raised a brow. “Who would have guessed?”

The duchess then entered the room, and Bella closed the door quietly behind her just as she heard the tall lady exclaim, “Oh, Alex!”

Alex was indeed very glad to see his mother, and smiled his pleasure as she rushed to his side and sat on the bed next to him.

“Oh, my dear son, you have no idea the agonies we have suffered since you left Autley,” she told him, her eyes drinking in every feature of his gaunt face. “You have no idea what we feared.

“I can well imagine,
ma mère
,” he said, taking her hand and raising it to his lips.

“Alex, you look dreadful. I will call Dr. Kensington in immediately. We will speak after he has assured me of your health.

“If you insist. But first, do you have news of Henry?”

He saw anger replace the worry on his mother’s face.

“That is the worst part of this whole nightmare! When Johnny returned with the horrid news that you had been set upon by highwaymen, we were frenzied with worry. I sent a dozen men to look for you and went to Tilbourne myself. I stopped at every village along the way. No one had news of you. It was as if you had vanished! Who would have guessed that your horse would have brought you to the other side of Ashdown forest? When I arrived at Margaret’s house, there was Henry, playing King Arthur in the nursery. It was a mere scratch on his leg,” she said in a tone of great disgust.

Alex looked at his mother sharply.

“Are you sure,
ma mère?
The note specifically said that they feared for the boy’s life. I cannot imagine that even Margaret would be such a hen-wit as to exaggerate a scratch out of all proportion.”

“But she did, Alex. There was truly nothing wrong with Henry. I do not mind telling you that I rang such a peal over her head that she cried during the whole of my visit.”

Westlake was silent for a few moments, a fierce frown between his brows as he contemplated his mother’s words.

The dowager said nothing. She recognized the look on his face—it was the same look his father used to have when he was trying to solve a puzzle.

“You did not bring Alice or Louisa with you?” he asked, bringing his eyes back to her face.

“No, I had no idea what condition you would be in, and you know they are little help during a crisis. But of course they send their love.”

“I am glad they did not come,” the duke said with a lopsided smile. “I assume you brought an entourage?” “Yes,” she replied, wondering what he was getting at.

“Is Johnny among them?”

“Yes. Though I did try to dissuade him from coming. He has driven himself to exhaustion searching for you. I have also brought your valet and two menservants to attend you until the doctor says it is safe for you to be moved,” she explained.

The duke came to a decision.

“
Ma mère
, you must listen to me very carefully,” he said to her in a very serious tone.

“Of course, my love, what is it?”

“Before you send the doctor in, send Johnny to me first. I have need to speak to him. Then—and I know this will be difficult for you—you must leave at once for Tilbourne. Also, send the rest of the servants and Dr. Kensington back home.”

“Leave you now? But why, Alex?”

“You must go to Margaret’s, get Henry, and take him back to Autley with you. Tell Margaret anything you like, but you must take Henry to Autley. Do you understand?” he asked in a tone that men, without hesitation, had obeyed on the battlefield.

After searching his features with deeply concerned eyes, she nodded. “Of course, Alex, but please tell me what is wrong.”

The duke’s lips pressed together in a grim line. “Maybe nothing, my dear, but it is extremely important that you take Henry to Autley and keep him there until I am well enough to return home. I also intend to start my own investigation into these highwaymen—I mean to find the man who shot me.”

His mother could not mistake the grave seriousness she saw in his eyes.

“Yes, my love. I will go at once. Dr. Kensington can
return home in the second coach. The rest will come with me to Tilbourne. You do not even want your valet?” she asked, rising from the edge of the bed.

“Send everyone else home,
ma mère
,” Westlake repeated. “I will also need you to deliver one or two letters for me.”

The duchess shook her head, mystified at her son’s instructions, but did not question him further. “I will be honest, Alex: It pains me to leave you so suddenly.”

“I know, but you must trust me on this.”

“Of course I trust you,” she replied, leaning down to kiss his lean cheek. “But I do hope you will soon explain this mysterious request to me.”

“It is probably nothing. Send Johnny to me now. And do not worry. I shall be back at Autley very soon,” he said with a reassuring smile.

“I am counting on it,” the dowager duchess said firmly before slipping from the room.

“I
knew I’d be seeing you soon, once you knew the duke was awake,” Bella accused her cousin.

Lady Beatrice Tichley was standing in the sitting room, garbed in a cranberry-colored riding habit with flashing jet beads buttoning the front from collar to hem.

“Well, you couldn’t expect me to visit when his grace was so ill,” she stated, seating herself in the chair by the window, across from Bella. “Now that he is feeling a little more the thing, I’m sure he would enjoy some company to break up the monotony of his convalescence.”

“How generous of you,” Bella said in a tone of mild sarcasm. “Seriously, Triss, he is still very weak, and he has already had a busy day. You must not tire him further,” she said after looking up to the heavens for patience.

“I shall be gentle and soothing,” Triss said breezily. “Imagine, Bella! The Duke of Westlake! We shall have entrée into the most exclusive salons in London this Season.”

“You are not going to use the fact that he happens to be here because of a near tragedy to gain entrance into Society,” Bella stated.

“Why ever not? He will probably be happy to make a few introductions for us. I have read all about the Duke of Westlake over the years. You know Father always takes the London papers. The duke is considered the most dashing, most sought after nonpareil in the country. He is so
unique, so original that he cannot be defined. Is he a Corinthian? Is he a dandy? He is a formidable fencer, yet the prince regent himself often consults Westlake on matters of wardrobe. It is too delicious that we have him here, Bella.”

“Be that as it may, Triss, you are not to bother him about London.” Bella was a little surprised to hear Triss’s description of the Duke of Westlake. It bore little resemblance to the courteous, gentle man she was coming to know.

“Again, why ever not? After all, it’s the least he can do for us.”

“You astonish me!” Bella looked askance at her cousin. “He does not owe
us
a thing! Even if he did, I am not going to London with you this spring. Really, Triss, you are much too coming.”

Triss pouted at her cousin. Bella knew her well enough to know that this meant she was just changing tactics.

“You have always been too much of a high stickler, Bella. I was not going to be so bold as to come right out and ask him to take us up in London; I was going to let him think the idea was his. Besides, Father says that he is going to insist that Uncle Alfred let you come to London with us. May I see the duke now?”

“No, he is still asleep. And I am not going to London with you. I have no desire to follow you around while you hunt for a husband,” Bella said.

“Don’t you want a husband too, Bella?” Triss questioned, her eyes wide with sham innocence.

“I have told you a hundred times that I intend to marry Robert Fortiscue,” Bella said as patiently as she could.

“Oh, him. If you were not in such a bad humor, I would ask you again to tell me why you want to marry that puddinghead.”

“If I am in a bad humor it is only because you are being so vexing,” Bella replied, refusing to rise to her cousin’s bait.

“Am I really being so vexing?”

“Yes. Anyone listening to us right now would think that we don’t really like each other,” Bella said wryly.

“Then it’s very good that
we
know we like each other,” Triss said with a grin. “All right, then, enough of Mr. Fortiscue
and enough of the duke. What of his mother? I vow I have never seen such an exquisitely dressed lady. When Father sent the messenger to Autley with the duke’s note, he thought it best to add one of his own, directing the dowager to come to the Park first, as it is difficult to find your home. I am so glad he did. Otherwise I would not have been able to have a look at her. Why do you think she departed so quickly?”

Bella gave a little shrug. “The duke explained that his mother needed to go to Tilbourne and see to his nephew, who I understand is his heir. The boy is the reason the duke was on the road so late the night he was shot,” Bella explained.

“Do you not think it odd that there aren’t at least ten servants attending him, now that his people know that he is here? I thought a duke never went anywhere without a small army of servants to do his bidding.”

“Well, Dr. Pearce and Dr. Kensington have said that he is still to rest as much as possible, and that it would be dangerous for him to be moved before the week is out. There probably seemed no point to the duke to have any servants hanging about.” Bella had wondered about this too, and this was the only explanation she had come up with.

“That makes sense,” Triss replied. “What is he like, Bella?”

“I’ve hardly had time to form an opinion of him. He is a very good patient; he never complains. He is very brave and has a good sense of humor. And his manners are exquisite,” she finished.

Triss looked at Bella with new interest.

“Goodness! I can’t wait to hear what you have to say when you
have
had time to form an opinion,” Triss responded with a little chuckle. “How long do you think he will sleep this afternoon?”

With a resigned sigh, Bella realized that Triss was going to stay put until she had seen the duke.