by Lucy Adams
“If you will permit me, I will speak to Lord Northgate of my intentions.”
“Please.” Her hand shot out, and she grasped his arm tightly, having not had any intention of doing so but finding herself in that position, nonetheless. “Please, Lord Stevenson, you must understand that this has come as something of a surprise to me. Perhaps…” She hesitated, seeing how he frowned. “Perhaps you might allow me to consider your request for a few days? Before anything further is done.” Her heart began to beat a little more quickly, wondering at his intentions. Was he the man responsible for her father’s death? Did he think that she knew something about it, and therefore intended to use his courtship as a guise to silence her? Letting go of his arm quickly, she tried to smile but found herself growing all the more anxious. “It is just a very great surprise, that is all. I am very honored at your consideration of me.”
This seemed to relax Lord Stevenson a little, for he nodded, smiled briefly, and inclined his head. “But of course,” he answered, filling her with relief. “I quite understand. I am sure we will see each other again very soon.”
“Very soon,” she repeated, feeling herself growing desperate to find Lord Watt and tell him what had just been said. “Thank you again, Lord Stevenson. I am very grateful for your kind offer.”
He nodded, his lips pulling thin. “Ensure you consider it with all seriousness,” he said, his voice a little darker than before. “It is not something you should ignore, Miss Williams.”
There was a warning there, she thought, feeling a tremor run through her. “I will give it a good deal of thought,” she promised. “If you will excuse me, I should return to my sister.” Excusing herself, she hurried back towards Susanna, throwing a glance around the room in search of Lord Watt. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him watching her – but knew nothing could be said at present. There would be a good deal to discuss later, but for the moment, she had to keep up the appearance of being a lady of the ton, caring for nothing more than conversation, dancing, flirtations, and finding herself an excellent match.
It was all most disconcerting.
Chapter Ten
“What is it?”
Matthew burst into the room, fearing that something was very wrong with Lord Templeton. He had received an urgent note from him that morning – although he had shouted at his butler for not rousing him at once when the note arrived after he had broken the seal and read it. Not that it had been the butler’s fault, of course, but Matthew had been so upset by what he had read that he had been unable to contain his emotions. The note had asked for him to attend Lord Templeton as soon as possible, for there was an urgent matter that required his presence. And now he was about to find out what that was.
He stopped dead, just as the door crashed into the wall and swung back towards him, such had been the force of his worry. Lord Templeton was leaning forward in his chair, holding a delicate china cup in his hand and, opposite him, sat none other than Miss Williams.
She, too, was sitting forward in her chair, as though she had been in deep conversation with Lord Templeton, and in front of her on the table sat a steaming cup of tea.
“Do come in, won’t you?” Lord Templeton asked, jovially. “And sit down. There’s tea that has just been made, and we had a cup set for you just in case you arrived in time.” He smiled and gestured for Matthew to sit down, but all Matthew could do was stare at the man, his heart pounding with the exertion of practically running from the carriage into the drawing room and his mind fuzzy and confused with thoughts.
“Lord Watt.” Miss Williams had half-risen from her chair, her emerald eyes glittering with concern. “Is something wrong?”
Much to Matthew’s ire, Lord Templeton merely chuckled. “I fear that I am to blame for this,” he said, with a heavy sigh. “I wrote to Lord Watt this morning and begged him to attend here at his earliest convenience, but mayhap I chose my words poorly and made it sound as though there was some sort of danger in the present situation.”
“Yes,” Matthew rasped, still not quite able to take in what he was seeing. “That is precisely what I thought, Lord Templeton. You are not in danger?”
Lord Templeton shook his head but gestured towards Miss Williams. “I am not. Although I cannot say the same about Miss Williams.”
Matthew’s heart, which had only just begun to settle, now began to hammer furiously all over again. “Miss Williams?” he repeated, coming to sit down and feeling his legs a trifle weak. “What has happened?”
Miss Williams smiled at him, although there was a concern in her eyes that she could not quite hide. “Lord Templeton summoned me also, else I would have written to you this morning and asked if we might meet,” she said, with a slight edge to her voice. “We did not manage to converse last evening.” A hardness lit her expression for a moment, and Matthew felt himself flush.
“I had to pretend to be in my cups,” he explained, realizing that he perhaps ought to have told Miss Williams in advance that this was what his intention was. “Lord Fitzherbert would not think it odd if a gentleman filled with liquor spoke much too openly about a lady of his acquaintance.” He gave her a half smile, filled with apology. “But if I was quite sober, then we would not have been able to discuss you with the same openness. He would have thought it a little odd and might well have been set on his guard.” Seeing the flickering frown in her expression, he sighed. “If it is of any consolation, Lord Fitzherbert told me that he fully intends to seek your hand, Miss Williams. He will soon ask to court you, I believe.”
Miss Williams did not appear to be gratified by this. Instead, she sighed heavily and passed one hand over her eyes. “He is not the only gentleman,” she answered, sending a wave of astonishment crashing over him. “This is what I wanted to tell you last evening, Lord Watt.” Her hands dropped back to her lap and she looked him straight in the eye. “Lord Stevenson has asked to court me. Indeed, he wanted to speak to Lord Northgate only last night!”
Matthew stared at her, before glancing towards Lord Templeton. Concern began to flood his heart, beginning to wonder why Lord Stevenson had done such a thing and what his intentions towards Miss Williams truly were.
“You are as astonished as I,” Lord Templeton muttered, reaching forward and pouring more tea into his own cup before adding some to the third cup that was for Matthew. “What is his intention, do you think?”
Matthew shook his head, quite dumbstruck for a moment. He had never once thought that Lord Stevenson would be at all interested in Miss Williams – not because of some failing on her part, but because Lord Stevenson had appeared to be less than interested in her.
“I wondered at it indeed,” Miss Williams said, her voice soft and her eyes filled with a good deal of concern. “I do not understand the man at all. He shows very little interest in me, then turns about and asks to court me? He even stated that he thought I would make him a very good wife, when the truth is that he has only shared a few words with me!” She rubbed her forehead, looking both puzzled and concerned. “I do not understand it.”
“And I also have news,” Lord Templeton interrupted, looking around to the small table on his right, twisting his body so that he could find something of evident importance. “A letter arrived this morning.” Finding it, he held it out towards Matthew, his face twisted. “We shall have to inform the League, of course.”
Matthew hastily unfolded the letter, scanning the lines quickly. Apparently it had been easy for the two men sent by the League to discover the whereabouts of the two gentlemen who had left England almost two years ago. The note stated that they had died on the voyage, catching some sort of disease and never quite recovering from it. Their names were both in the passenger logs and in the lists of those who had died. There was no reason for them to doubt it.
“I see,” Matthew murmured, shaking his head and looking down at the paper again. “Then we are even more in the dark. Either of these two gentlemen could have been behind the death of Lord Harrogate.”
/> Lord Templeton considered this for a moment and then shook his head. “I do not think so,” he said, slowly. “I might have agreed with you had I not heard from Miss Williams that Lord Stevenson has sought to seek her out as his wife.”
Frowning, Matthew glanced at Miss Williams, who was looking back at him with a troubled expression. His heart began to ache for her, feeling the overwhelming urge to get out of his chair and to draw near to her so that he might comfort her in some way. Although precisely what he would do, he was not quite sure.
“Do you not see it?” Lord Templeton asked softly. “Can you not make the connection?”
As hard as he tried to understand what Lord Templeton meant, Matthew simply could not understand how the man had reached the conclusion that Lord Stevenson seeking to marry Miss Williams had something to do with the two deceased gentlemen gone to America. He could not understand how they could be so easily pushed from the investigation simply because of their deaths!
“Does it not seem to you, Lord Watt,” Lord Templeton continued, as silence continued to grow around them, “that Lord Stevenson might be protecting Miss Williams in a way?”
Matthew thrust himself from his chair in a sudden flurry of understanding and excitement. “Yes! Yes of course! I do not know why I did not think of it before now!” He gestured towards Lord Templeton. “It is, as you say, quite clear!” He wanted to bang his head against his hands for being so foolish, but instead, he turned towards Miss Williams who was staring at them both with wide eyes. “Lord Stevenson is seeking to protect you.”
Miss Williams blinked, her expression remaining entirely the same. “What do you mean, Lord Watt?” she asked, her voice very quiet indeed. “I do not understand.”
Beginning to pace back and forth, Matthew began to speak quickly. “I spoke to Lord Stevenson at length about Lord Fitzherbert. I mentioned to Lord Templeton briefly that I had done so. I will not pretend that I spoke the truth, Miss Williams, for I did not. I told him that you were pursuing me again after an absence and that I was doing all I could to ensure that nothing serious was brought to the fore.” He waved a hand, seeing her mouth drop open and ignoring the flush of embarrassment that climbed up his face. “I have to tell many lies in such situations, Miss Williams, but it ensured that Lord Stevenson believed that I had no other choice but to introduce myself to Lord Fitzherbert.” He paused, freezing suddenly in place. “I remember now. When I told him that I intended to push you towards him regardless, he reacted as though he had been told the most dreadful of secrets. It was astonishing, in fact.” Closing his eyes, Matthew dredged up the memory of what Lord Stevenson had said and tried to recall it as best he could. “He practically made me promise I would not do so.”
“But he may not have believed you,” Miss Williams breathed, a slow dawning of understanding now evident on her features. “And so he attempted to ensure that, regardless of what you said or what Lord Fitzherbert wanted, I would already have an offer of courtship.”
“Which, in turn, would lead to matrimony,” Lord Templeton agreed, with a jab of one finger in Matthew’s direction. “It is all quite clear, is it not? Lord Stevenson is attempting to protect Miss Williams – a lady he does not know particularly well at all – from Lord Fitzherbert.”
Another memory sounded in Matthew’s memory, and he turned sharply towards Miss Williams. “When I mentioned off-handedly that you might have an interest in Lord Fitzherbert, Lord Stevenson made specific mention of your father,” he said softly, seeing how Miss Williams’ eyes widened. “He said something akin to ‘the daughter of the late Lord Harrogate has an interest in Lord Fitzherbert?’ as though it was something that ought not to be.”
“But there is no reason for it not to be so,” Miss Williams whispered, one hand now pressed against her heart and her cheeks rather pale, “unless Lord Fitzherbert is the man involved in my father’s death.”
Matthew watched her closely, feeling a coldness wash over him as he nodded. He could not imagine what Miss Williams must be feeling at this present moment, now knowing what they did. The horror of it, as well as the feelings of relief, anger, and pain must be torturous. Her head bent over her clasped hands, her knuckles white and her eyes closed tightly.
“There may be another explanation,” Lord Templeton murmured, “although I feel it is less likely.”
Reluctantly, Matthew turned his gaze from Miss Williams and looked at Lord Templeton. “Oh?”
“Lord Stevenson might be afraid that Lord Fitzherbert will say something about what occurred to Lord Harrogate,” Lord Templeton suggested, spreading his hands. “What if they were both involved and one is afraid of what the other might reveal? Lord Fitzherbert is loud, brash, and certainly not a secretive sort. Might Lord Stevenson be afraid of what Lord Fitzherbert would reveal to Miss Williams?”
Matthew closed his eyes, feeling his satisfaction in having reached what had felt like a conclusion now beginning to be snatched away. “There is that to consider, I suppose,” he admitted, a tad angrily as his frustration began to rise. “That means, then, that there is nothing we can do. No path that we can follow. No one that we can speak to. We simply continue on as before.”
“No.”
The cold, hard voice of Miss Williams broke through Matthew’s agonized thoughts and made both himself and Lord Templeton turn towards her.
“No, we do not continue on as before,” Miss Williams said firmly. “We need to speak to Lord Stevenson.”
Matthew stared at her, aghast. “We cannot!” he exclaimed, as Lord Templeton shook his head fervently. “To do so would be to reveal our true cause in acquainting ourselves with him. We would lose every advantage.”
Miss Williams turned to him, her face set. “But what if we are to gain an advantage?” she asked, a trifle coolly still. “If you believe that Lord Stevenson may be trying to protect me from Lord Fitzherbert, then if we speak to him of what we suspect, then we may find an ally. And,” she continued sharply, holding up one hand in Matthew’s direction so as to prevent him from interrupting her, “if we discover that he is, in fact, involved in the death of my father, then we have the man we are looking for.”
Opening his mouth to interrupt, Matthew tried to find an immediate response that would find a flaw in this plan, but much to his dismay, he could not.
She was right.
“We would have to set up the situation in a very careful manner,” Lord Templeton said, making Matthew realize that he, too, was now finding it very difficult to find any sort of flaw in what Miss Williams had suggested. “We cannot speak to Lord Stevenson about such a thing without ensuring that you are protected, Miss Williams.”
Matthew rounded on Lord Templeton at once. “You cannot think that Miss Williams should be the one to speak to Lord Stevenson!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up. “That is—”
“Of course I can speak to him!” Miss Williams protested, getting to her feet as Matthew turned back to face her. “Why should I not? I have been involved with this investigation, and I feel as though I have done very little indeed thus far!”
“You have done a very great deal, Miss Williams,” Lord Templeton said, in a most reassuring manner. “More than you might think. If you had not drawn close to Lord Fitzherbert, then Lord Stevenson would not have acted as he has done.” He smiled at her, but Matthew remained quite ill at ease. This was not at all what he wanted. Lord Stevenson could very easily turn on Miss Williams when she began talking of what she knew.
“I will be quite all right,” Miss Williams said firmly, coming closer to Matthew and looking at him with those piercing green eyes that had so often lingered in his memory. “It is as Lord Templeton says. If it is set up correctly, then there will be nothing to fear. You will be present, will you not?” She was standing very close to him now, her expression open and her eyes fixed upon his. There was no sense of anger about her now, but rather a gentle reassurance that she wanted to pass on to him. The worry he felt began to fade away, even the very room wh
ere he was standing began to fade, leaving him standing alone in the shadows with only one light lingering before him. Miss Williams. Daisy. He wanted to draw nearer to her, to pull her towards him and to promise that he would always do his best to protect her.
“Of course I will be present,” he said huskily, as she put one hand out towards his, her fingers touching his and sending sparks flurrying up towards his heart. “I would never allow you to be there alone.”
She smiled at him then, her face lighting up with a contentment that he wanted to keep. “Then I have nothing to fear,” she answered, making him feel as though she had managed to trap him by his own words. “The League will be there with me. You will be there with me. And either we will find the person responsible for the death of my father – and the League will take him and bring about the justice required – or he will tell us more about Lord Fitzherbert and what role he played in the events of two years ago.” When she spoke to him in such practical terms, Matthew knew he could not easily turn her from her plan. As much as he wanted her to stay away from it all, to remain uninvolved and, therefore, safe—Miss Williams was not about to do so. She was singularly determined – and he could not blame her for being so.
“Lord Watt?”
Her voice was so quiet that it barely reached his ears. Seeing how she watched him, how she waited for him to respond, Matthew sighed heavily and dropped his head. “I will make the arrangements,” he said quietly. “But you will have to ensure that you do everything that I ask of you, Miss Williams. For the sake of your safety.” Lifting his head, he allowed his eyes to find hers again and saw that she was smiling again. There was such a beauty about her that it took his breath away and made him want to cling to her and tell her that even in the midst of all of this, he wanted to be close to her.
