Son of a Duke (22 page)

Nathan had the nerve to smile.
 
"I think you did something that you do not know you did."
 

Nora raised a single eyebrow and made Alec muffle a laugh.
 

"When I went into the alley where Samuel was taken, I was given a message from a street boy.
 
He told me to stay out of it.
 
If it had anything to do with me and my business, he would not have told me that.
 
There was also the night of the ball when Nora and I were shot at."
 

"Someone shot at you?" Sarah asked.

"Someone shot at us," Nora said.
 

"Someone shot at you," Nathan corrected her.
 

Alec shook his head.
 
"How can you be sure?"
 

"I cannot.
 
But I have been thinking.
 
No one knows me," he said, "That is a profile I have been careful to create.
 
However, everyone knows Nora.
 
So why would someone take a shot at a nobody when there was a somebody standing right next to him?"
 

"Everyone does not know me," Nora huffed, making Nathan look at her in surprise.

Could he actually be getting to the infallible Miss Quinton?
 

"Yes, everyone does," Sarah agreed.
 

Nora looked over at her.
 
"Everyone?"

"Quite possibly everyone."
 
Sarah adjusted her skirts.
 
"Everyone knows who Lady Gregenden's housekeeper is.
 
The infallible Miss Quinton."

"They do not say that."
 
Nora actually wrinkled her nose, and it was Nathan's turn to hide a smile.

"Oh, they do," Jane concurred.
 

"We have established that everyone knows Nora, but what does it mean?" Richard interjected.

Nora was silent.
 

"It means that she is the likely target for all of this," Jane offered.

"But why now?" this from Alec who had returned to his spot by the window.

Sarah leaned forward in her seat.

"I think it would be best to find out what Nora knows first.
 
Or at least, what she thinks she knows."

Nora shook her head quickly.
 
"Nothing.
 
At least not something worth kidnapping my son over."
 

"It is probably something that you do not realize is important.
 
Something that they are afraid you know is important,"
 
Nathan added.

Nora remained silent, but he could tell that she was thinking.
 
There was something in her memory.
 
It would only be a matter of time before she would find it.
 
He was sure of it.

~

"Why would someone want Samuel?" Richard, the Duke of Lofton, asked the fireplace.
 

Nora sat on the sofa keeping her hands loose in her lap, the tension and fear of being in this strange, elegant place not quite so gripping.
 
The unfamiliarity of fine fabrics and lace made her uncomfortable, but she resolutely did not fidget.
   

The Duke of Lofton was indeed speaking to the fireplace, or more directly to the empty grate.
 
Jane sat on the sofa beside her, sipping from a new cup of tea as if nothing were amiss.
 
The Countess of Stryden, too, enjoyed a cup of tea without so much as a fidget.
 
Nora found it difficult to simply remain seated.
 

Did these people speak of kidnapping and threats so often that it became normal drawing room conversation?
 
And among mixed company even.
 
She pulled on the sleeves of the gown as if to ease her mental discomfort with a physical action, her resolve to not fidget dying under her tenacious anxiety.
 

Nathan stood somewhere behind her now, but she resolutely kept her face forward in case she was caught glancing at him too much.
 
But the look on his face when she had entered the room in the new gown, her hair swept up in an intricate braided style for the first time in her life, that expression she would never forget.
 
The look of sheer desire in his eyes, a desire that should have frightened her, but somehow pulled her toward him, as if his desire were an attractant itself.

Alec asked, "Did Samuel have any enemies?"
 

Sarah, who had demonstrably taken a position on the opposite side of the room as her husband, replied, "How do nine year olds acquire enemies?"
 

Nathan answered, "I think he has got a point.
 
Samuel is smarter than most nine year olds.
 
Maybe he saw something he was not supposed to and knew it."
 

Nora nodded.
 
"Samuel is often used as an errand boy at the house.
 
I do not always know where he goes, so it is quite possible he did encounter something.
 
However, I am not certain he would know how truly important the thing would be."

Jane handed her a cup of tea suddenly.
 
"You need this, darling," she said, "And what about you?
 
You are always in a position to see things certain members of the peerage would rather have left unseen.
 
What have you seen lately?"
 

Nora accepted the teacup and shook her head.
 
"Nothing lately.
 
It has been rather quiet."
 

Richard turned around.
 
"Maybe it was not something lately.
 
Revenge does not always come quickly."
 

He sat in one of the chairs framing the sofa and took a cup from Jane as well.
 

Nora stared at the tea in her cup, thinking.
 
"How far should I go back?"
 

Nathan sat on the arm of the sofa just then, startling her just enough to make her look up.
 
His gaze remained sharp, but the desire she had seen before was somehow banked.
 
His attention focused purely on the matter at hand.
 

"How far back is there to go?" he asked.

"Thirteen years.
 
I have been working in London for thirteen years."
 

Richard grunted.
 
"Fabulous.
 
How about just the highlights then?"
 

Nora nodded.
 
"All right.
 
Let us get started then."
 
She paused, sorting through all the dirty secrets in her mind.
 
"Last November I came upon Lord Trenton and his valet when they were guests at the House."
 
She paused again.
 

Richard interrupted, "How is that important?"
 

"She came upon them, Richard," Jane said.
 

Richard sat back.
 
"Oh.
 
Well I guess that explains some things."
 

Nora continued, "There was the Earl of Glouton and Mrs. Fairby last August."
 
She thought some more.
 
"And Mr. Havenbaum and one of my maids."
 
She suddenly looked up.
 
"Maybe that is it.
 
Maybe it is Mr. Havenbaum."
 

"Why would it be him?" Nathan asked.
 

"Because I whacked him over the head with a bottle of champagne.
 
He could not be happy about that."
 
Nora switched her attention to Richard because she could not say the next part while looking at Nathan.
 
"My maid did not want Mr. Havenbaum's attentions."
 

The shockwave from Nathan suddenly straightening hit her.
 
Richard nodded, and Jane cleared her throat.
 

"Did he see you, Nora?" Alec asked.
 

She thought and frowned.
 
"No, I do not think he did.
 
I came from behind him, and he was out before he knew anything was amiss."
 

Nathan relaxed slightly.
 
"I do not think that is it then."
 

"What about innocent looking things, Nora?"
 
Sarah came closer to the cluster.
 
"Something that did not look odd at all.
 
Or maybe just odd but not scandalous."
 

Nora thought, as the tea grew cold in her cup.
 

"I overheard a conversation that Lord Archer was having with the Duke of Chesterfield that seemed odd."
 

The room buzzed with silence, and Nora looked up to make sure she was not suddenly alone.
 

"What did you hear, Nora?" Alec asked, drawing softly closer.

"It was at Lord Gregenden's birthday gala last month.
 
The two men were in an alcove alone together.
 
It seemed odd because the two hate each other, so I went over to take a listen."
 

Richard interrupted again, "Why do they hate each other?"
 

"The Duke won the hand of the lady that Archer wanted," Jane supplied.
 

Richard nodded and motioned for Nora to continue.
 

"They were discussing yachts, racing yachts."
 
Nora paused, thinking back.
 
"Archer said he had the fastest, but then his grace countered saying it might be fastest but did it run shallow."
 

"Yachts to break through the blockade," Sarah whispered.
 

Nathan leaned forward, took the teacup from Nora and setting the cup aside, gripped her hands.
 
"Did they know you were listening, Nora?"
 

Nora shook her head but stopped.
 
"They might have."

Nathan gripped her hands tighter.
 

"They were still speaking when Niles Turning came to tell me we were running low on lemonade.
 
He might have said my name."
 
She looked over at Richard.
 
"They might have heard him."
 

"So Chesterfield is spying for Napoleon as well," Alec said, mostly to himself.

Nora's fingers tingled from lack of blood as Nathan's grip tightened.
 
She had to shake their hands to get him to notice.
 
He loosened his fingers.
 
Slightly.
 

"How do you know Chesterfield is...um, a spy?" Nora asked, feeling ridiculously left out of the conversation that was beginning to pulse around her.

"We have known of Lord Archer's activities for the better part of a year.
 
If he were discussing yachts with a man he disliked in secret in a public place, we must assume his intentions were less than honorable," the duke said standing to return to his spot by the fireplace.
 

"That seems a rather large assumption," she offered, but Alec quickly shook his head.
 

"I do not think so.
 
Not with the resulting circumstances.
 
The assassination of the wrong Lord Archer, someone attempting to shoot either you or Nathan and then Samuel missing.
 
It must be connected."
 

"What do we do now?" Nathan asked his father.
 

Richard did not answer right away.
 
Alec came up against the back of the sofa, his wife beside him, and Nora wondered if either of them noticed their proximity to one another.
 

"The Four of Clubs," Richard said finally.
 

"The Four of Clubs?" Sarah asked.
 

"Yes.
 
That is our only clue, and we must assume that Samuel is going to react to this more cleverly than a typical child would."
 
He went over to the table and picked up the card where Nathan had discarded it.
 
"We are going to assume he dropped this on purpose.
 
Now, who is going to go?"
 

"I will," Sarah volunteered.
 

"You bloody well will not," Alec responded.
 

Nora expected the conversation to end at that, but Sarah was not one to be so dismissed it seemed.
 

"You are not in charge of what I do and do not do, Lord Stryden, and it would be best-"

"It would be best if you did not constantly try to-"

"I do nothing constantly but-"

"Children!"

This last bit came from Jane at a pitch and volume Nora did not know her capable of.
 
It made Nora sit up straighter, setting down her tea cup lest she spill it.

"I think I had better go," Nathan said, looking down at his clothes.
 

Richard also looked and nodded in agreement.
 

"You do appear more fit for the part," Richard said.
 

Nora looked at Nathan.
 
He wore a typical greatcoat, worn but not shoddy, and working boots.
 
A clean collar and cravat were noticeable beneath the top of the greatcoat.
 
Nothing he wore looked particularly remarkable, but when Nora turned her attention back to the Duke of Lofton, the difference became clear.
 
Nathan was a working man where as the duke was a member of the peerage.
 
Nathan would blend in with greater ability at a gaming hell whereas everyone would remark on the presence of the Duke of Lofton.
 

"Very well," Alec said, "We must prepare to leave immediately.
 
I will have a carriage summoned."