Deadly Engagement: A Georgian Historical Mystery (Alec Halsey Crimance) (10 page)

“Alec had no intention of marrying Mrs. Jamison-Lewis?”

The Earl gave a bark of harsh laughter. “My poor innocent!
Marriage
? When have my brother’s intentions ever been honorable? He is a confirmed rake and a cad. Do you understand me, Emily dear?”

Emily nodded slowly, the implication behind the Earl’s words so depressingly shocking that her head felt as if it was filled with lead. Silently, she permitted the Earl to lead her back within the warmth and blazing light of the noise-filled Chinese drawing room. “Edward?” she managed to whisper, fingers convulsing tightly about his velvet sleeve. “The Jamison-Lewis marriage, it may never have taken place but for your timely interference…”

He smiled at her choice of word, yet his pale blue eyes were fixed unblinkingly on a couple at the far side of the room. Lady Gervais, her voluptuous figure pressed suggestively to his brother’s side, was playfully chiding Alec under the chin with the closed sticks of her fan, while her brooding husband watched on not five feet away. “Interference? Yes. I should think Second and Mrs. Jamison-Lewis are only too well aware of my interference.”

When Alec finally left the drawing room and went up to his rooms he found his valet engaged in using his apothecary skills. The long table by the window in the dressing room had been turned into a workbench. It was covered with various apparatus, an assortment of cuttings from the Duchess’s herb garden, an apothecary’s traveling case, and, at Tam’s elbow, a leather-bound Pharmacopoeia; all purchased at Alec’s expense.

Tam was so busy stirring liquid to the boil over a naked flame that he failed to notice his master, even when the latter coughed politely to be recognized.

“Have you been at this since I went down to dinner?” Alec asked conversationally.

“Sir? Sir! Yes. I mean, no! I unpacked the bags, polished your boots, and put away your clothes,” Tam said, unraveling his shirtsleeves. “And I made sure the lackeys brought up a hip bath and had a fire built in the bedroom on account of a chilly breeze—”

“I don’t want to know what you’ve been doing with your time. This need to constantly justify yourself isn’t necessary. What are you making there?” He peered over the boy’s shoulder and tentatively took a sniff of the rising steam from the glass flask. “Smells sweet.”

“It’s nothing special, sir. Just
Melissa officinalis
. I’ve made a tea with the leaves and sweetened it to make it drinkable. Common Balm is what most people call it.”

“What’s it for?’

“Good for headaches, sir.”

Alec surveyed the array of cuttings. “All this from her Grace’s gardens? I am impressed.”

“Nearly as good as the Chelsea physic gardens, and so I told Mr. Heath. You’ve just got to know what to look for and what to use. A root of a plant here, a leaf, sometimes only the stem is needed. And then it matters how you use it. Some plants require little more than to be ground up. Other roots and stems have to be boiled for their juice. It’s not difficult if you know what you’re about,” said Tam diffidently. He wiped his hands and left the table. “I didn’t mean to keep you waiting, sir. I’ll have warm water fetched.” He reached for the bell pull. “Is there anything else you want, sir?”

“No, nothing,” said Alec and handed Tam his frockcoat. “Did you have much trouble with Neave and the other servants?”

Tam avoided his eye. “No, sir. That is, not once they knew I was your valet. Mr. Neave wanted to throw me out of the house. He called me a horse thief. Jenny and Mrs. Travers, she’s the housekeeper, persuaded him I was telling the truth. Mr. Neave wasn’t happy about it but he didn’t say anything else. Besides, he was too busy to be bothered with the likes of me on account of this weekend house party. Mrs. Travers was better about it.”

“I’m sure your reappearance gave downstairs an afternoon’s conversational gossip.” Alec glanced at his valet in the reflection of the dressing table looking glass as he absently untied his stock. “You, of course, only heightened their curiosity by being terribly discreet?”

“Not a word out of me, sir,” Tam said firmly. “Not even to Jenny.”

“She… pleased to see you?”

Tam pretended a moment’s deafness and disappeared into the closet to fetch a silk banyan and a pair of Moroccan leather slippers. He waited by the dressing table holding these articles and watching Alec polishing his nails, interrupting him to say, “Sir? If you don’t object, when I’m done here, I need to run an errand. The tea: It’s for Jenny. She says Miss Emily has the headache. I won’t take but fifteen minutes.”

“Fifteen minutes. And, Tam, don’t make a nuisance of yourself.”

“No, sir. Thank you, sir.”

A scratch on the outer door had master and servant looking at one another in surprise. The scratch persisted. Tam went in answer to it while Alec threw the banyan over his open-necked shirt and slipped his stockinged feet into the soft mules.

Tam returned with wide eyes. “A lady to see you, sir.”

No sooner had he spoken than Lady Gervais stood in the doorway, an ostrich plumed fan fluttering across her very revealing cleavage.

“Thank you, Tam,” Alec said calmly and dismissed him with a look, saying to his visitor, whose gaze had wandered to the curious assortment on the table, “I think we will be more comfortable in the sitting room,” and ignored the accusatory glance from his valet.

Tam stomped off to the closet. Covent Garden bathhouses were one thing but this was St. Neots House, Miss Emily’s home! He shouldn’t have been surprised or angry with anything the aristocracy got up to, but he hardly expected his master to entertain married females of low repute (and Lady Gervais was that, dressed as she was, or more the point, undressed!) under the Duchess’s roof. Perhaps she had come to talk? Tam gave a snort of contempt. In his anger he had forgotten the tea for Jenny. He returned to the dressing room, collected what he needed, turned to leave, then stopped and listened for voices. Not a sound.

Alec watched Lady Gervais wander about the sitting room. Everything in her manner was suggestive. She reeked of artifice, and yet there was something oddly naïve about her. He ignored the hint to sit beside her. Instead, he leaned in the windowsill. He smiled to himself when she pouted and pretended offense.

“I must confess, I didn’t expect to see you so soon, my lady.”

“It’s Cindy. I told you to call me that. I said I would come, didn’t I?” she said, still a little put out. “Frankly, I didn’t think it would be tonight but Edward isn’t in his rooms and I’m not the least tired.”

“Should I offer you a night cap?”

“Should you?” She smiled from under her blackened lashes. “I know you think I’ve drunk enough already. You’re trying to be nice and considerate. You are, aren’t you?” she said with surprise and giggled. “I never expected someone like you.”

“Like me?”

“To be Edward’s brother. I never knew he had one.”

“I hope I’m not a disappointment.”

“Lord! Do you always talk that way? It’s most entertaining. Won’t you sit by me? I don’t like talking across a room. It’s so formal.”

“Perhaps under different circumstances, but, no, not tonight. I am sorry.”

“You think I’m not beautiful enough,” she said sullenly. “That’s a shame. I was hoping to spend the night with you.”

“I’m flattered, naturally—”

“Don’t imagine Edward would care in the least. My guess is he’s gone off for the evening with that whore Selina Jamison-Lewis. Poor sweet innocent Emily, she really has no idea.”

“No idea?”

Lady Gervais stopped fanning herself and glanced slyly at Alec. “That Selina is Edward’s whore; they’ve been lovers for years. Oh, Selina pretends to dislike Edward. She’ll tell anyone who’ll listen that she simply loathes him, but Edward told me that she only does so in public because she was afraid
he
would discover the truth.”

“He?”

“George Jamison-Lewis, her husband. He used to beat her, y’know. Regularly, so Edward says.” She shrugged. “Edward says that’s no small wonder because she made no effort to please him. She brought it all on herself really.”

“No female deserves such mistreatment.”

“I suppose not,” she answered on a sigh, oblivious to his flat note of anger, and settled back on the soft cushions and kicked off her muddied silk shoes. “I may not love Gervais but I am mindful that he is my husband and would never do anything to provoke him to strike me. Edward says I have the most perfect feet,” she said with a saucy smile, pointing a small damp stockinged foot in Alec’s direction. “What does his brother think?”

“Do you care what I think?”

“Oh, yes, because Simon values your opinion. Did I tell you Simon Tremarton is my brother? He may be the most twisted person I know, yet, when he plays at being serious he means it. I have suspicions that my little brother prefers his own kind…” She shuddered dramatically. “I can’t think of anything more repulsive!”

Alec smiled crookedly. “Come now. I’m sure you can.”

Far from offending her, Lady Gervais giggled. “Oh! I would enjoy entertaining you! Are you sure you won’t change your mind?”

“Believe me, you are entertaining me,” he responded dryly, watching her stretch suggestively along the sofa. He stared down at his Moroccan slippers. “At dinner you mentioned you’d visited Lady Margaret Belsay yesterday afternoon; that she told you a most interesting piece of gossip about her son.”

“Not about her son. About you.”

Alec was startled. “Me?”

She smiled sweetly. “I only said it was about Jack Belsay because you seemed so interested. And I couldn’t very well tell you what she said over a dish of coffee with all those prying eyes upon us. Especially with Edward not an arm’s length away and staring daggers at me for flirting with you. But I couldn’t let him get away with ogling Selina’s breasts throughout soup, even if they are bigger than mine.” She laughed. “You should’ve seen the way he stomped out onto the balcony after you and little Emily! I’d no idea you’d been out there alone with his silly betrothed until he brought her back inside.”

“You said you saw Jack the day before the duel…”

“Don’t you want to know what Lady Margaret said about you? It’s all over town.”

“First tell me about Jack.”

She sighed impatiently. “Very well. Only if you come over here.” She smiled when he complied but made no effort to give him any room on the sofa. “I saw Jack Belsay in Hyde Park. He was with Selina; they’re cousins, y’know. Then Simon came up—”

“Your brother?”

She nodded. “He didn’t seem to know Selina because I remember watching Lord Belsay introduce them. I remember particularly because I thought it odd that Simon should even know Jack Belsay. Simon knows Edward, y’know.”

“In passing, or something more?”

Lady Gervais looked at him from under her lashes. “Oh, I’m sure not in
that
way. Edward loathes
petit-mâtres
.” She traced the intricate pattern on the sleeve of his dressing gown. “Don’t trust Simon. He and Edward have known each other for years; since before you went to—to—The Hague? Simon is in Edward’s pay. Edward asks and Simon tells.”

Alec slowly let out a breath. “I see. Thank you for telling me. I don’t know why you did but I am grateful.”

She smiled saucily. “Don’t you? You see, I can’t resist the promise in a man’s muscular thighs,” she confessed on a purr as she undid the horn buttons of his white shirt. “It was Simon who blurted it about town you were courting Emily. Strange, that you would be interested in her too… Edward’s not in love with her. He doesn’t have strong feelings for any female, except perhaps Selina…”

“Is that so? And you want to share my bed so you can throw it in his face in the morning? That’s hardly a novel approach, is it, Cindy?”

She slid a hand inside his unbuttoned shirt and said at her most seductive, “That is a direct way of putting it. Perhaps that was my original thought… But once I set eyes on you… Well, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share your bed.”

He caught up her hand. “I’m flattered, naturally. But I want you to tell me what Lady Margaret told you.”

Lady Gervais pouted. “We’re wasting a perfectly lovely evening. I’d much rather—”

“Please,” he asked and kissed the inside of her wrist, the smell of strong perfume mingled with stale smoke unpleasant and lingering.

“Very well,” she sighed, snuggling into him. Her free hand found the buttons of his breeches. “Of course Lady Margaret is furious with Edward for killing her son. That’s not surprising. But what I don’t understand is why Jack and Edward fought a duel over Emily in the first place. I mean, she has nothing to recommend her but her youth!”

“Then why did they fight a duel? Over you perhaps?”

“Oh! You are sweet!” she gasped looking up into his eyes. “I wish it had been over me. But it wasn’t. I’ve no idea why they dueled. But you want to know about my interview with Lady Margaret…” She deftly undid two breeches buttons. “Are you really the eldest brother? It’s amazing to me that you can be, after all how can one make a younger brother an elder brother, if you understand my meaning? Your mother must’ve planned such a deception and with the blessing of the attending physician! And how could such a circumstance be kept from your father? And then there’s the servants. And why would she want to make such a switch unless she had a very good reason to do so—”

Alec stayed her hand at the third button. “I wouldn’t believe all Lady Margaret told you. She is distraught with grief and all her anger is directed against Delvin.”

“But she’s telling everyone of her acquaintance. She says her tongue is now free to reveal the truth, that she has no qualms about breaking a promise to your mamma, after what Edward did to her son. She’s very convincing.”

“A word of advice. Don’t repeat to Del—”

“But I have,” she answered naïvely, wriggling her hand free to slide it up the taut muscles of his arm. “I had to. It’s the most extraordinary piece of gossip I’ve heard in ten years!”

“And his reaction?”

“I thought he would laugh off such an absurd accusation. Well, it is absurd, isn’t it? He didn’t. He was very rude and that’s why he’s gone to Selina, to teach me a lesson. Well, as far as I’m concerned he is welcome to her! She can’t know half the tricks I do. He’ll have a miserable evening.”