Candice Hern (89 page)

A shadow of a smile crossed Mr. Herriot's face as he handed the gun to his cousin. It was that smile, that mere flicker, that brought all the pieces of the puzzle together for Meg.

It was not Pargeter after all. It was Mr. Herriot. He was trying to kill his cousin.

* * *

Just as the men had finished pacing off and were taking aim, Sedge became distracted by a figure running headlong down the slope.

Meg!

"Stop! Don't shoot!" she shouted, running pell-mell between them, arms flailing, straight toward Sedge. Just as she knocked the gun out of Sedge's hands, a shot from Terrence struck him in the shoulder. Sedge crumpled to the ground with a groan.

Damnation!

Meg dropped to his side and flung her arms around him, sobbing all over his good shoulder. Sedge began to assess the situation. If he thought he was confused before, it was nothing to what he felt now. What the devil was going on? Perhaps he was, in fact, the only sane person while everyone else had gone crazy.

"Oh, Sedge," Meg said in a shaky voice. "He almost killed you."

Sedge lifted his good arm without thinking and wrapped it around Meg, pulling her close. "No, he only winged me," he said.

In the next moment, Ashburton grabbed Meg by the arms, jerked her upright, and actually began to shake her. The quick movement sent a stab of pain through Sedge's shoulder. He winced and just then the doctor knelt by his side. He quickly removed Sedge's jacket, waistcoat, and cravat in a most painful manner, and began examining the wound.

"You fool!" Ashburton scolded, shaking Meg by the shoulders. "I told you this was none of your affair. Why couldn't you have stayed away?"

"Because if I had, Sedge would be dead."

"Not dead," the doctor calmly interjected while applying an alum poultice to the wound. '"Tis only a flesh wound. The bullet struck the muscle, just here. Went clean through. Missed the bone, thank God. Messy, but not serious." He returned his attention to his patient and began winding a bandage tightly around Sedge's shoulder and under the armpit.

Ignoring the doctor, Ashburton returned his fulminating glare to his sister. "If you had not distracted me," he snapped, "I might have done more damage. But, what makes you so sure I would have killed him?"

"Not you," Meg said. Sedge watched in total astonishment as she turned and pointed to Albert. "Him." While all eyes turned to Sedge's cousin, Meg walked over to where the gun had been thrown and picked it up. She handed it to Lord Pemerton. "I think you will find this gun has been tampered with in some way."

Jack gently bounced the gun in his hand as a frown puckered his brow. "It's out of balance," he said. "Too heavy at the stock. Something's wrong here." He turned the gun over and unscrewed the base of the stock. "Good God," he exclaimed. "Look at this." Jack turned the gun upright over his palm, and black powder trickled out. And out. And out. When he held a sizable mound in his hand, he turned a furious glare on Albert. "What is the meaning of this, Herriot? A special chamber where the flint holder should be? A chamber filled with enough gunpowder to blow Sedge's head off?"

Skeffington and Hawksworthy were instantly at Albert's side, each grasping an arm so he could not escape. He looked down at the ground and said nothing.

"Good thing it wasn't cocked," Jack continued. "You might have jarred the hair trigger, Sedge, and been killed before the first shot was fired."

"Bertie? Is this true?" Sedge shrugged away the doctor's final ministrations while he studied his young cousin. His cousin who apparently wanted to kill him. "Bertie?"

The young man pursed his lips and refused to look up or to speak.

"How did you know, Meggie?"

At the sound of Ashburton's voice, Sedge wrenched his gaze from Albert.

"It all came to me in a moment," she said. "I was contemplating all of Sedge's accidents and began to suspect they might be related."

"That's the second time I've heard someone refer to Sedge's accidents," Jack said. "Would someone please tell me what is going on?"

"There are five incidents, that I know of," Meg said. "And I suddenly realized Mr. Herriot had opportunities in each case to orchestrate the so-called accident." She turned to look at Sedge. "He had been at the inn where the axle on your curricle had been sawn almost clean through. And I remembered Gram saying Mr. Herriot had come by the stillroom, pleasing her with his praise and recollections of his mother. He would have had access to the monkshood." She turned to Jack "He almost drank an infusion laced with monkshood, you see."

"Good Lord," Jack said, slanting a disgusted glance at Albert.

"And then there was the time he slipped and almost tumbled down the stairs." Turning back to Sedge, she continued. "Pargeter admitted spilling the oil of vitriol in the hallway, but swore he was not responsible for the oil at the edge of the landing. But, remember? He mentioned your cousin had been there and seen him spill the oil. It must have given him the idea."

"I never heard about that, Meggie," Ashburton said.

"Sorry, Terrence," she said. "I guess I had other things on my mind." She smiled at Sedge and his heart skipped a beat.

"The next thing, so far as I know, was the incident with the highwaymen."

"Highwaymen?" Jack said.

"What highwaymen?" Ashburton said.

"We were held up on our way back to London," Sedge explained. "I shot at the bounders and they fled. Winged one of 'em."

"Sedge!" Jack said. "You didn't?"

Sedge grinned. "I did." He sobered and looked at Albert. "Was that your doing, too, Bertie? Did you set that up?"

But Albert refused to speak.

"Then there was the fire," Jack said.

"And Mr. Herriot had told me all about it, you see," Meg said. "When I learned from Lady Pemerton that he should not have even known about it, I began to grow suspicious. But I did not put it all together until this morning."

Jack fixed Albert with a furious glare. "I suppose you just happened to visit Sedge before I arrived, eh, Herriot? Or did you break in, like some petty sneak thief?" Jack bared his teeth and looked like he might actually lunge at the fellow. "And now this," he hissed. "You miserable—"

"Why, Bertie?" Sedge asked, his voice and his heart full of sadness. "Why did you do it? Do you hate me so?"

A moment of tense silence ensued during which all eyes were turned on Albert. No one spoke. Finally, he raised his eyes.

"Bloody hell!" he said, lifting his chin defiantly. "All right. All right. I did it." His disdainful gaze raked them all as his upper lip twitched into a supercilious curl. "No sense in denying it now. Yes, I did it!"

"But why, Bertie? Why?"

"Dammit, Sedge," Albert said, "I was at my wit's end. Creditors on my tail. Vowels all over town. I needed your inheritance."

"But... I would have given you money, Bertie. You had only to ask."

"It was worse than that," Albert continued, his face flushed with belated embarrassment. "I've been living off my expectations as your heir for years. Then, suddenly, you up and start talking about marriage. Clear out of the blue." His voice took on a despondent tone. "I had counted on you remaining a bachelor. You had never hinted at marriage before. Never! What was I supposed to do if you married and produced an heir? Then where would I be?"

"You have two choices as to where you will be," Jack said, planting himself in front of Albert, arms akimbo. "These gentlemen can take you straight to Bow Street and charge you with attempted murder. Or you can leave the country and never show your miserable face in England again as long as you live."

"Oh, God," Albert choked. He turned a plaintive look on his cousin. "Sedge?"

"I'll take him, Sedge," Jack said, grabbing Albert's arm from Lord Skeffmgton. "I do not trust the cur. I will see that he is on his way to Portsmouth within the hour. I will even escort the blackguard. Hell, I will even pay for his bloody passage to ... to wherever the next ship sails. Come on, you despicable bastard."

Jack tugged Albert up the slope toward the line of carriages. Halfway there, he stopped and turned around. "Oh, and, Sedge," he shouted across the distance, "you were right. She looks magnificent in breeches."

Chapter 24

Meg blushed to the roots of her hair at Lord Pemerton's words. She looked uncertainly at Sedge, who grinned, then turned her gaze to her brother, who scowled.

"I commend your clever reasoning in unmasking that scoundrel, Meggie," Ashburton said. "But why couldn't you have told me about your suspicions? Why did you have to come barreling straight into the middle of a duel, for God's sake?"

"I couldn't have told you before, Terrence. I only just put it all together this morning."

"But what were you thinking, girl?" Ashburton's voice rose in consternation. "Charging onto the field like that. You might have been killed yourself. Why would you do such an idiot thing?"

Meg's eyes moved to Sedge, then to Ashburton, then back to Sedge. "Because I love you both," she said.

Sedge's breath caught in his throat as he gazed into those beautiful eyes. She loved him. By God, she loved him! He reached out a hand and she placed hers in it. He tried to convey with his eyes all the things he would have said had they been alone. Elated by her bold declaration, Sedge was still confused by all that had happened between them. "Meg? Why?"

She squeezed his hand and he knew she understood his question. "I thought that—"

Ashburton interrupted her by pushing himself between them. He turned his back to his sister and glared menacingly at Sedge. "I am sorry about the villainy of your cousin, Sedgewick, but there is still this other matter between us. I will have your apology, sirrah. How dare you offer my sister carte blanchel"

"But, Terrence—"

"
Carte blanche?
But I never—"

"She is a gently bred female," Ashburton went on, ignoring both their protests, "and you have dishonored her. I will not allow my sister to be so grossly insulted. Perhaps you ought to join your cousin and leave the country for a time. It would be most unfortunate if news of her dishonor were to spread."

And so the puzzling nightmare was not yet over. Sedge dragged a hand through his hair in confusion, wondering if he might have suffered another blow to the head when he fell. It was the only explanation for such incredible events and outrageous accusations. He shook his head slowly back and forth, wondering how things had ever gone so wrong. "I only wanted to marry her," he muttered.

"You what?" Ashburton said.

"Marry me?" Meg squeaked.

"Well, yes," Sedge said, looking at each of them with a bewildered expression on his face. "Of course. Don't you see? That is why Albert was so upset. He knew I wanted to marry you, Meg."

"Marry me?" she repeated, suddenly dumbfounded at this unexpected turn of events.

"Of course," Sedge said, his eyes narrowed in surprise at her reaction. "Did I not ask you that day at Thornhill?"

"No!"

His head jerked back on his neck. "What do you mean, no?"

"You never said anything about marriage," Meg said.

"But I must have," Sedge said, thoroughly confused. "I must have. What else would I have been talking about?"

All at once, Meg realized that she had somehow misunderstood his intentions from the beginning. She burst into laughter at the comedy of errors that had resulted from that single, misinterpreted conversation.

"I thought you offered me
carte blanche
," she said, still chuckling.

"Yes. That's what I heard you tell Gram," Terrence said.

Meg smiled at Sedge. "You talked about houses and jewels and carriages and"— she could not mention the part about making love to her day and night—"all the other. But you never mentioned marriage."

"Good Lord," Sedge said, eyes wide with astonishment, "is that true?" He reached up and ran his fingers through his hail again. "But I'm sure I mentioned marriage. Didn't I? I must have mentioned it." When Meg shook her head, he looked thoroughly flabbergasted. "I certainly intended to mention it. Truly, I did. That was my sole purpose, after all. I... I must have been overcome by ... by the moment." He looked straight into Meg's eyes, and she knew he referred to the passion of their kiss. "No wonder you rejected me out of hand," he said.

He smiled at her, and Meg's knees began to quiver. She had forgot all about Terrence and his seconds standing only a few feet away.

"But I finally decided that you were the only man I would ever love," she said in a soft voice. "I could not bear to be without you."

"Ah, Meg." Sedge's voice held a note of such tenderness Meg thought her knees might truly buckle this time. He reached out and took both her hands in his.

"I... I was ready to accept you on any terms," Meg continued, discomfited by the warm look in his eyes. "Even
carte blanche
. That is why I so brazenly threw myself at you."

"You did what?" Terrence's angry voice brought Meg back to the situation at hand.

Still holding Sedge's hands, she tilted her head over her shoulder in her brother's direction. Smiling broadly, she said, "I offered to be his mistress."

"You what!" Terrence's voice had become a roar.

Meg looked at Sedge and they both began to laugh. Terrence looked at them and clapped a hand to his head in apparent disgust. "Good Lord."

"And he actually had the temerity to refuse my offer!" Meg said in mock outrage before collapsing in laughter against Sedge's good shoulder. She felt a gentle hand stroke the back of her head and knew in that moment that everything would be all right.

"Of course I refused," Sedge said as she ran his fingers against her silky hair, warm from the morning sun and smelling of wild violets. "I am a gentleman, after all. I would never dream of treating a woman so dishonorably." He nudged Meg away from his shoulder and held her out so he could look into her eyes. "Especially the woman I love."

"Oh, Sedge."

Their mouths moved inexorably toward each other, but were interrupted by the sound of a clearing throat. Sedge smiled at Meg and shrugged in resignation, then moved her to his side, keeping an arm around her shoulders as they faced her brother.