Of Dukes and Deceptions (19 page)

Nick kissed her because he didn’t have a clue what she was talking about and had no time to prolong the discussion. What did Gibson think he was doing, coming out with such Banbury tales? Had he been trying to warn Alicia off? It hardly seemed likely since she hadn’t tried to pursue him in the accepted fashion.

He was making his way stealthily back through the deserted passageways and almost crashed into a side table when the truth dawned. Gibson had seen how besotted he’d become with Alicia and appeared to assume he was planning to make her his duchess.

He slapped a palm heavily against his thigh. Damn Gibson and his intuitiveness! He’d realised almost immediately what was only just occurring to Nick himself. What he felt for Alicia, the reason why he was so reluctant to leave her bed and had trouble ridding his mind of thoughts of her when they weren’t together, was that his affections were engaged.

What in the name of the devil was he supposed to do about that complication?

Nick had never been in love in his entire life and had never thought to be so. But that was fine by him. He’d seen for himself that love complicated everything and was apt to reduce sensible men to drivelling fools. He wanted no part of that sort of existence. His plan had always been to marry a socially acceptable lady and fill his nursery. He would retain Mrs. Vickers’ services and continue on as he had before, with no emotional attachment toward his wife to muddy the waters.

And now a dark-haired hussy with sparkling green eyes and an irreverent attitude had come along and thrown his plans into total confusion, simply by remaining unimpressed by all the advantages attaching to his situation in life. Nick sighed. He hated it when he wasn’t in complete control of his actions and endeavoured to think of a way to regain the upper hand.

But Alicia’s saucy smile kept intruding upon his thoughts. There didn’t seem to be a damned thing he could do to extract himself from this unholy farrago.

Alicia slipped back into her nightgown and threw her robe and rather mangled sash over the back of a chair. She disguised all signs of Nick’s presence as best she could and then returned to bed, thumping her pillows into a comfortable nest. She closed her eyes but sleep eluded her. Nick’s scent lingered on the linen and she greedily breathed it in. He had stolen her heart quite without her being aware that it was happening, but she’d keep that fact a closely guarded secret. She still had her pride and would die before she betrayed the true nature of her feelings to anyone.

She felt as though she’d not slept at all and, as a consequence, overslept. The sound of Nick’s thoroughbreds stamping their feet on the gravel immediately outside the front door woke her. She could hear Gibson’s deep voice talking soothingly to them. Janet came in with her morning tray of tea just as she flew out of bed.

“Quick, Janet, I’m late. I’m to meet His Grace at the inn and I believe he’s about to depart.” His last words before leaving her had been to remind her of that engagement. “Make haste and help me to dress.”

“He’ll wait for you, lamb.” Janet’s eyes danced round the room. “My, you’ve made a right mess of your bed. Did you have another restless night?”

“What? Oh, yes.” Alicia turned away to hide her blush. “I had trouble sleeping and was tossing and turning all night long.”

“Well, in that case there’s no occasion to go charging about now. Just take a sip of tea whilst I prepare your gown. Will the red wool suffice?”

“No, Janet.” She lifted the cup to her lips and took a hasty sip. “Something less conspicuous, I think. Perhaps the russet green.”

“Right you are then.”

Distracted by the fact that she was late, it took Alicia a moment to realise there was something strange about her tea. An unusually bitter taste and an unpleasant aroma. It was vaguely familiar but had no place in her morning infusion. What was it?

Suddenly she felt lightheaded and her stomach heaved. She just reached the ewer on the dressing stand before being violently ill. Everything swam in and out of focus and she was only distantly aware of Janet’s hand rubbing her back.

“What ails you, pet?” she asked anxiously. “What’s brought this on?”

It was then that Alicia remembered what that familiar smell signified. She knew what she had to do as well but was so dizzy she had difficulty formulating the words.

“Send Will to the inn to meet His Grace in my place. Be quick, Janet, there’s no time to lose.”

“But I can’t leave you like this. Not when you’re so ill.”

“Yes, you can. It’s more important to set Will on his way. Do it at once.”

“Well, all right, but I’ll only be a moment. Just you sit down and—”

“Just go, Janet!”

Alicia watched her maid bustle from the room. Only when she was sure that she’d gone did Alicia slowly crumple to the floor in a dead faint.

The inn’s ostler was pleased to stable His Grace’s team and place three sturdy saddle horses at his disposal. He displayed no curiosity as to his requirement for such unlikely creatures. Gibson meanwhile secured rooms for the night. Nick was engaged to meet Woodley after luncheon. If their expedition this morning was successful, he planned to confront him much earlier than that and put an end to Alicia’s parlous situation. If nothing else, he could at least do that much for her.

“I wonder what’s keeping Alicia.” He tapped a gloved hand against his thigh. “It’s not like her to be tardy.”

“Perhaps she had a disturbed night.” Gibson smirked.

Nick was in the process of formulating an insulting reply when Will appeared. He was out of breath, clearly having run the entire distance from Ravenswing Manor.

“Is Miss Woodley not able to come?”

“I don’t rightly know, sir.” The lad clasped his cap in his hands, twisting it awkwardly and addressing his comments to the ground in front of his feet. “Janet told me to come here as quick as I could and report to you. I don’t know nothing else.”

“She must be too weak for the expedition after all,” Gibson said. “And had the good sense to realise it.”

“Yes, but I’m surprised by her change of heart.” Nick was more than surprised, he was downright worried. She’d been glowing with health when he’d left her the previous night, determined to be a party to their investigations this morning. She may not have had much sleep but he didn’t think that would have deterred her. A feeling of disquiet, similar to the one he’d experienced when he’d discovered her unconscious, lodged itself in his brain and refused to budge. “I thought she was of a mind to see this thing through. No matter, let’s make haste. Do you know where we need to go, Will?”

“No, sir.”

A quick explanation drew a slow nod of understanding from Will. He vaulted onto one of the horses and they were away.

“She was right,” Nick said half an hour later. “We never would have found this track alone.”

As soon as the covering barn came into view they dismounted and tethered the horses behind a thick stand of trees. Bent low in case anyone glanced in their direction, they continued along the track on foot and climbed the fence at the rear of the barn. Activity could be heard from within as they crept stealthily toward it. They rounded the side of the structure and Will showed them a place where the boarded walls didn’t quite meet.

Nick peered through the gap and saw exactly what he’d expected to see—a rampant black stallion with distinctive hind white stockings attending to the business of equine procreation. Nodding grimly, he moved aside and permitted first Gibson and then Will to take a look.

“But…” Will removed his cap and scratched his head. “But I don’t understand, sir. That’s Fabian in there.”

Nick placed a reassuring hand on the lad’s shoulder and led them back the way they’d just come. They didn’t speak again until they reached the horses.

“Is there a branch of this track that leads to the house, Will?”

“Yes, sir, there’s one as will take us directly to the stables.”

“Then lead on, there’s no time to lose.”

Nick’s sixth sense told him that something wasn’t right. That he needed to return to Ravenswing Manor as fast as he possibly could. Plagued by a great sense of unease, he wished now that he’d dispensed with caution and used his own, much swifter, horses. With his body thrust forward in the saddle, he encouraged his hired nag on, frustrated by his lack of speed.

He tried to anticipate what he might discover when he reached his destination, fervently hoping Alicia hadn’t taken matters with her uncle into her own hands. If confronted, there was no telling what a desperate man might do to cover his tracks. He’d tried to explain that to her but it wasn’t in Alicia’s character to sit passively by and allow others to take all the risks. He grimaced as he cantered along in Will’s wake. If the minx had deliberately placed herself in danger when he’d expressly forbidden her to do so, then he’d not be answerable for his own actions.

Will took charge of the hired horses once they arrived at the stables. The grooms looked perplexed to see a duke riding such a beast but lowered their eyes quickly and went about their business. Nick paid them no heed. Instead his attention was engaged by a familiar equine head gazing out from her stall. Matilda.

“Ah, so Alicia hasn’t gone to the school this morning,” he said to Gibson. “I was half hoping she might have.”

“You know she wouldn’t have done that. Not when she was so set upon coming with us. Let’s hope she just overslept.”

“Let’s hope so by all means.” But somehow Nick doubted that the explanation would be that simple.

They were about to enter the house when Janet came out of it almost at a run.

“I saw you coming.” She clutched a hand to her ample bosom, struggling for breath.

“What the devil…”

“It’s Miss Alicia, Your Grace.”

Nick’s body tingled with a renewed sense of foreboding when he looked at Janet’s careworn face more closely and saw just how distressed she actually was. “Has something happened?”

“Yes, indeed it has.” Several tears trickled down Janet’s wrinkled face. “Someone’s poisoned her.”

Nick’s heart hit the floor. An icy chill trickled through his bloodstream, temporarily depriving him of rational thought. This was all his fault. His vigilance had been inadequate. He slapped his booted leg with his crop. He shouldn’t have become so distracted by Alicia’s charms that he lost track of the danger she was in. Had he been thinking more rationally, it couldn’t have escaped his notice that another attack was likely to be attempted.

“Is she alive?” he asked, striding toward the house, ready to commit murder.

“Yes, thank the good Lord. Poison was added to her tea but she was violently sick after only one sip and that must have saved her.”

“Have you sent for the doctor?”

“No, she wouldn’t permit it. No one in the house is yet aware that anything untoward has occurred.”

“Good,” Nick said grimly.

“She felt you should be informed first, Your Grace, and told me to look out for your arrival. She seems to think that you’ll know how to deal with the situation. Besides,” Janet added, puffing as she struggled to keep up with Nick’s breakneck pace, “she doesn’t feel that she can trust her family at present and so wouldn’t know who to confide in.”

The vice gripping Nick’s newly located heart relaxed its hold. If she was well enough to give rational orders, then she wasn’t in any immediate danger. For expediency they used the back stairs. Twice they had to melt into the shadows to avoid being seen by footmen going about their duties. Nick and Gibson followed Janet through a complicated network of passages until they reached a threshold that was now very familiar to Nick.

They found Alicia occupying a chair in front of the fire?the same chair she and Nick had put to a very different use the previous night. Her countenance was deathly pale. Nick knelt before her and, mindless of Janet and Gibson, who were observing his actions with avid interest, he took her hands in his. They were chill to his touch, in spite of the fact that the fire was banked high enough to make the room feel overhot.

“Can I not leave you alone for five minutes without you getting yourself into trouble?” He shook his head and smiled into her eyes. The fact that they were so lustreless troubled him. “How do you feel, love?”

“Weak but nothing that signifies. Fortunately I realised as soon as I sipped the tea that something wasn’t right.” She flashed a brief smile and made no effort to withdraw her hands from his. “Luckily the poisoner is very inept.”

“Thank goodness for that.” Janet sniffled.

“How did you know the tea wasn’t right?”

“By the taste and the unusual smell. I knew at once something was amiss but I couldn’t immediately think what it might be.”

“But you’ve subsequently done so?”

“Yes, the aroma was a mixture of elderberry and mandrake root, which is very familiar to me. I make it into a potion, you see, for use in healing animals’ wounds.”

“But how did it get into your tea, lamb?” Janet asked.

“Yes,” Nick said. “Who could have known where it was and have access to your morning tray?”

Alicia paused a long time before responding. “Much as it pains me to say so, I fear my cousin Maria must have been responsible.”

“God’s teeth.” Nick’s tone vibrated with subdued menace. “That wretched girl again! Does she never give up?”

“I know it sounds improbable,” Alicia said, “but it must have been her.”

“Why do you say that?”

Nick stared out the window as he spoke, attempting to come to terms with the gravity of Alicia’s assertion. To attempt to gull Nick into matrimony was one thing. But to deliberately attempt to murder her own cousin…was Maria Woodley really that deranged? Did she actually have it in her to cold-bloodedly take another person’s life? He wasn’t sure. Didn’t know her well enough to be able to make an informed judgement. He took several deep breaths and endeavoured to rein in his violent temper. He was afraid of what he might be capable of doing to the malevolent girl. Or anyone else who threatened Alicia’s well-being.

“Maria came to the barn to talk to me a few days ago,” Alicia said. “She saw me using the potion and asked me what it was. I was surprised at her taking such an interest and actually told her how toxic it is.”

“Ah, I see.” Nick bowed his head. There was no longer any doubt in his mind. He threw aside his greatcoat and seated himself opposite Alicia. “How are the trays delivered in the mornings, Janet?

“Footmen bring them up and place them on the tables outside the rooms. They’re left there for the maids to deliver them.”

“So if yours was left unattended for a few minutes, Miss Woodley, your cousin would have had ample time to place the poison in the pot?”

“Yes,” Alicia said, sadness in her expression. “I suppose so. I had no idea she disliked me quite so intently.”

Nick reclaimed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “We’ll deal with your cousin in due course.”

“I suppose it can’t be avoided.”

“No, but first would you like to know what we discovered in the covering barn?”

Alicia nodded, seemingly too overwrought for words. Nick gave her time to recover her composure by launching into a longer than necessary explanation.

“It’s as you suspected then.” She turned bleak eyes in his direction. “I’ve been a fool not to realise when the evidence has been beneath my very nose all this time.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You trusted them and they were at pains to ensure you didn’t find out. Now, do you wish to be present when we confront your uncle?”

“I most certainly do,” she said, something of her old spirit reflected in her tone. “But I’m not sure I’ve recovered sufficient strength to negotiate the stairs quite yet.”

“Then your uncle shall come to us. Janet, slip downstairs and tell your master that Miss Woodley is unwell and would like to see him. Don’t mention that I’m here.”

Janet nodded and left the room at a brisk trot. Nick saw no reason to release Alicia’s hand whilst they waited and spent the time caressing her palm by drawing intricate circles on it with his thumb. Only when the sound of heavy footsteps in the hallway heralded her uncle’s arrival did he move away from her.