The Devious Duchess (13 page)

“Eh? How active?” he asked suspiciously, but not at all reluctantly.

“Not that active,” Belami said, sorry to disillusion him. “She’d eat a tender morsel like you alive, Pronto. I couldn’t send you alone in a carriage with her. I’d be afraid to go myself. She demmed near broke my legs, and I was only buying her a cup of coffee.”

“Broke your legs?” Pronto demanded. “What was she doing?”

“Sitting on them. Here’s what I want you to do,” Belami said, and moved the bowl of purl beyond reach. “You’ll have to go into the Grange with Miss Pankhurst.”

“Take her to the door. My best offer. Take it or leave it.”

“I have to see Deirdre,” Belami told him. “It’s not what you think! Merely I have a little business matter to arrange with her.”

“Such as?”

“I want her to let me in to search Dudley’s bedroom and office.”

Pronto shook his head and uttered a weary sigh. “Worst excuse I ever heard in my life, Dick. With me on hand, you don’t need Deirdre. In fact, she’d be the last one to let you in, the way she’s behaving. Lock the doors and windows and call in the law is more like it. You want to see her, plain and simple, and you’d do better to give no excuse than such a lame one as that.”

Belami’s face wore a look of surprise at this charge. He didn’t know why Deirdre had come to mind as his accomplice. What Pronto said was certainly true, yet he was unwilling to accept it and soon found another reason. “The fact is, I have other matters to discuss with her as well. My being cut off from the Grange and Fernvale is making my investigations difficult.”

“Exactly the way she wants it.”

Ingenuity forsook Belami, and he resorted to temper to carry the day. “Are you going to help me or not? I thought that was why you came to Banting in the first place. If you’re only going to throw a rub in my way, you might as well leave.”

Pronto sniffed and considered doing just that. “Who’ll take Adelaide to the Grange, then?”

"I will.’’

“Tell you what, Dick. We’ll strike a bargain. I’ll tote Adelaide along, but I want to have her to myself in the carriage. You can go in your own rig, and I’ll tip Deirdre the clue you want in. And when she says no, I’ll even unlock a side door for you myself.”

“But I told her I’d take her! She’s expecting me to . . ."

“Can’t have it all your own way. You’re trying to make it up with Deirdre. Know when you get so snappish what ails you. Feeling a bit snappish myself. Broke your legs, eh? Sounds like a bit of a goer.” He reached forth and refilled his glass with the purl. “So have we got a bargain or no?”

“All right, but you tell Adelaide. I’m supposed to be meeting her downstairs at eight.”

“Done. Now let’s order dinner.”

At eight, Pronto went below to inform Miss Pankhurst of the new plan. She was not at all pleased by the change of escort, nor did she have the grace to conceal it.

“What’s the matter with Lord Belami?” she demanded hotly.

“Broke his legs. Can hardly navigate at all. He’s laid up in his bed, but I’ll be happy to take you, Miss Pankhurst. My carriage is already harnessed and waiting,” he said, leading her out the door.

Two details conspired to make this acceptable to Adelaide. The first was that Belami was in his room, in bed, where she would drop in to thank him for sending this maw-worm in his place as soon as she returned. The second was that Mr. Pilgrim, despite his lamentable looks, was dressed like a gentleman of means and drove a bang-up rattler and prads. His being a fool was a bonus. Fools were the easiest ones to fleece. She was also glad that Mr. Pilgrim would actually be entering the house with her. If there was one person in the world Adelaide was frightened of, it was the Dowager Duchess of Charney, and it would be comforting to have a man to hold on to and to defend her fair name if it came to name-calling.

“Broke his legs?” she said, laughing. “My, that sounds serious. Did he get into a brawl with someone?”

“I wouldn’t call it a brawl exactly. I have a good firm leg myself,” he added, and gave her such a pointed look that she leaped onto his knee before the carriage left the yard.

Chapter 10

Adelaide Pankhurst and Pronto were made welcome at the door of the Grange by Deirdre. She hardly knew whether she was more surprised to see Pronto or this caricature of Adelaide, whom she remembered as a young, garishly beautiful woman. She was still a garish woman, but both youth and beauty had flown, leaving behind a stout female in an outfit that was not at all suitable to a widow.

“Don’t mind the looks of me. I had no way of knowing Dudley would die, and didn’t come prepared” was Adelaide’s first greeting. “And you’re little Deirdre Gower—my, you’ve certainly grown up.” Adelaide was too nice to add any of the unflattering thoughts in her head. That she had been expecting to see a fashionable beauty and was greeted instead by a stiff-faced woman rigged out like a nun and hiding whatever beauty she possessed under that hairdo, exactly like her aunt.

“Pronto, this is a surprise! It’s nice to see you. You will both want to speak to the duchess, I expect,” Deirdre said, leading them into the mourning saloon where her grace sat across from the coffin.

“So it’s you” was her grace’s welcome to Adelaide. Her scathing glance took in the bonnet—not the high-poked, fruit-garnished one, but still one in what Miss Pankhurst considered the high kick of fashion. The duchess’s welcome to Pronto was less chilly. “And Mr. Pilgrim. You seem to turn up like a bad penny everywhere I go.”

“Sorry for your trouble,” he said, pulling his funeral face, which consisted of a severe straining down of the lips and a heavy scowl. “Just popped along for the wedding, but since there ain’t going to be one, I decided to stick around for the funeral, if you don’t mind.”

“That was well done of you, sir. Very proper, I’m sure, and your carriage will be more than welcome. It will be hard to line up a decent showing of carriages, but if we each drive, it won’t be a pitiful display at least. You might drop Belami the word he is welcome to drive his rig as well.”

“I’ll ask him, but don’t count him in on my say-so," Pronto replied.

Next the duchess turned her charm on Adelaide. “Come and sit beside me, Miss Pankhurst. Tell me what you’ve been up to all these years."

Pronto stepped aside with the greatest relish and sought a quiet corner of the room. It was his aim to discover where Deirdre had gone and give her Dick’s message. While he waited, he gazed around at the lugubrious scene before him. The room was as black as pitch, lighted only by candles around the coffin. There were perhaps a dozen people present, all of them got up in black like a flock of crows. A minister hovered at the coffin’s side, fingering a prayer book. And not a drink to be seen, not even a glass of sherry. Happier sounds came from beyond the doorway, and he wandered forth. Sounded like the clink of glasses to his sharp ears.

He met Deirdre, just leading another guest in, and pulled at her elbow. Covering his mouth with his fingers, he whispered, “Dick—outside—wants to see you. Important.”

She stopped and stared at him. “Where?” she asked. He couldn’t tell by the shocked look of her whether she was pleased or angry or only surprised.

“Waiting at the door of the study. Dashed cold out there. Will you go? ‘Cause if you won’t, I’ve got to let him in myself.’’

She went right away, that very instant, just stopping long enough to look over her shoulder to see that her aunt and Nevil were occupied. Pronto deemed it his role to follow her and stand guard outside the study door to ward off intruders. He explained this as he trailed along beside her, but she didn’t answer him. She just picked up a taper from the hallway and disappeared behind a varnished door.

The taper trembled in her fingers as she strode to the French doors and opened them. A cold gust of wind rushed in and extinguished her flame. Beyond the doorway was the remains of a rose garden, dry and sere in winter, the crushed shells on the ground dusted with snow and sparkling in the cold moonlight. As she looked, a shadow loomed into view and assumed the form of Belami. His many-caped greatcoat and his curled beaver were recognized in an instant.

“You wanted to say something to me?” Deirdre asked, standing aside to let him enter.

“Why are you in the dark?”

“My candle blew out.”

“Light it. I want to see you.”

But already he could see by the pale moonlight that she was tired and worried and, best of all, happy to be with him, even if she was trying to hide it. There were traces of that old shyness he knew and loved so well. Her long lashes flickered with uncertainty, and she tried to maintain an unyielding face.

“There must be a tinderbox here somewhere,” she said, and went to the desk. Her fingers shook, and Belami took the box from her to light the taper. He set it on the desk, arranging it to let the light play on Deirdre. “Well, what is it you have to say?” she asked, lifting her chin to show him that she considered this purely a business matter, and no pleasant one either.

“I want to find out what’s happening here and at Fernvale. I can’t learn much from the inn.”

“There’s nothing to learn. You already know Adelaide’s here. Uncle asked to see her.”

“You don’t find it odd that Nevil neglected to mention that fact when he first called on your aunt?”

“Surely the news of Uncle’s death made him forget it!”

“He made up that Banbury tale about going to buy a Bath chair, which he did not buy, incidentally.”

“Oh, Dick, what difference does that make?” she asked wearily. “We both know all the evidence points to my aunt.”

The spontaneous “Dick” acted like a charm. “We both know she didn’t do it, too,” he said, though he was by no means sure.

She turned her great gray eyes on him. They seemed to be imploring. “Do you really believe that?” she asked.

“Of course I do, and I want to help you prove it, darling.” His hands went out to her, and she placed hers in them. “Just tell me what I can do—anything.”

“If only we could undo what you’ve already done—that sample you sent off to Marsh. That is what worries me, but even if it’s loaded with poison, Dick, I will not believe Auntie meant to kill Uncle Dudley. Oh, did I tell you Mrs. Haskell is back? There’s some mystery in her going,” she said, and explained it to him.

“That looks as though someone wanted her out of the house.”

“Yes, and she was already gone before we arrived at Fernvale, too, so they can’t lay that in my aunt’s dish.”

“Could you get hold of the letter she received?” he asked.

“I believe she left it at her aunt’s place. The funny thing is . . ."

“Yes, what is it?” he asked eagerly.

“I’m not positive, but I think Polly told me Mrs. Haskell was at her aunt’s house before she ought to have known it. We all thought Mrs. Haskell had been called home to her mother’s, you see. It was Polly’s day off, and Anna didn’t know where Mrs. Haskell had gone. Even if Polly could read, which she can’t, she couldn’t have read the note, because Mrs. Haskell took it with her, so how did she know? I’m almost certain she mentioned to me that Bagot had taken Mrs. Haskell to visit her aunt. Isn’t that odd?”

Dick rubbed his forehead and considered this oddity for a moment before speaking. “The only way she could know is if someone told her, then. And the obvious person to tell her is the one who sent the note.”

“She was talking to Nevil privately in his room before he left for Bath, according to Anna.”

Belami lifted his brows in approval. “I see you’ve been busy! I’m beginning to feel redundant here. Do you think there might be something going on between Nevil and Polly?”

“She’s not really a bad girl, though she is a little susceptible to flirtation. Oh, she chatters like a magpie, doesn’t watch her tongue, but she isn’t mean and spiteful like that Anna. I’m sure she’d never murder Uncle Dudley. He liked her, you see. He had horrid, vulgar taste—well, he married Adelaide.”

“She might have been conned into it somehow,” Belami mentioned halfheartedly. None of it jibed with the poison being in the stew from Fernvale. Only Anna could have done that if it was done after arrival at the Grange, but the poison from Fernvale was missing.

“There’s one thing I’d like you to tell me, Deirdre,” he continued.

Her heart thudded in her breast. She felt that she was about to hear some renewal of his intentions. Dick looked so handsome with the candlelight flickering over his face, playing in the dark diamonds of his eyes, and casting a giant shadow of his broad shoulders on the wall behind him.

“What is it?” she asked softly.

“Did Charney lend Nevil a black cravat and arm band or ribbons for his hat?”

“What?”

“I assume he is wearing such symbols of mourning?”

“He’s completely outfitted, but why . . ."

“Because he didn’t buy them in Banting, and I assume he doesn’t travel with such things on the off chance of someone dying. And if he bought them in Bath, you see . . ."

She thought about this and gave a gasp of disbelief. “Then he knew when he went to Bath that Uncle would be dead when he came back!” she whispered. “Oh, I can’t believe it, Dick. He’s been so nice to us. Really, I never cared for him at all, but on this visit he’s been a great consolation to me. It’s entirely possible he found some crape in Uncle’s things.”

“Has he been rooting in Dudley’s room?”

“Not so far as I know.”

“Good, then we’ll beat him to it. How do we get up there?”

“You mean now?” she asked, surprised.

“The sooner the better.”

“We’d have to go up the front stairs. Perhaps no one would notice.”

“Let’s give it a try.”

“I’ll go first and distract Nevil, then join you. Uncle’s room is the third on the right.”

Pronto stood aside to let them out the door and asked impatiently, “Can we go now?”

“There are refreshments being served in the dining room, Pronto. Liquid refreshments, too,” Deirdre answered, which was as good as being able to leave—better.

Nevil wasn’t in the hallway, and Deirdre and Belami were able to go upstairs at once without being seen. They lit the tapers, and a large, dark, dilapidated chamber sprang into view. The canopied bed along the far wall dominated the room. Around the edges, heavy furnishings were arranged: an armoire, a dresser, a desk, chairs, and a table, for Dudley sometimes ate in his room. On the bed, a large hamper sat.