Time seemed to pass in a blur. Dinner tasted like ashes in Amelia’s mouth. She ate enough to be polite from each course, and drank far more wine than she would normally indulge in, and wished the spinning sensation in her mind was due to the wine rather than the thought of what Samuel was about to do. No, what they were about to do.
When the meal was cleared away and dessert, a towering pyramid of fruit and marzipan had been picked over, Samuel rose from his chair. Percival followed, assuming it was time for the after dinner drinks. Amelia also stood. Legs wobbling, she pushed back her chair and rose to her feet, taking small, careful steps towards Samuel. How could the distance between chairs feel like miles? He took the distance in two long steps, and when she was at last beside him, he found her hand and took it between both of his. She knew she was squeezing too hard, grasping at him to keep her standing, but he did not pull away. Instead, he seemed to lend her some of his strength.
“Samuel,” Percival began, looking from Amelia to his brother and back again. “What is all this then?”
Patience had her hand up in front of her mouth and Aunt Ebba’s pursed lips said more than words ever could.
Amelia suddenly wanted put a stop to the whole charade. This was not the way a proposal of marriage was supposed to be enacted. She wanted a genuine proposal; not from the brash Samuel Beresford, but from someone gentile, and kind and heroic: from someone who loved her. Samuel would make a muck of it, but there was no stopping it now.
“This will come as a surprise to all of you, much as my feelings for Amelia came as a surprise to me,” Samuel said. “Our few days together have been all I need to realize she is the woman I wish to spend my life with, and we wish for your blessing upon our marriage,” said Samuel, and he sounded so earnest that even Amelia, knowing the lie, could not find it in his words. “But we will carry through with it regardless, sailing to Greta Green if you do not approve, so really, it is pointless to argue.”
Amelia grimaced. Is that what he considered adding his own personal touch? Lud, could he truly be so uncouth?
Patience had now raised both hands to her mouth and tears were falling freely over her cheeks. Aunt Ebba’s lips were nothing more than a thin pink line. Percival’s mouth had fallen open in shock. The room seemed to be lacking air. Then Percival stood and seized his brother into a hug, wrapping Amelia in beside him a moment later. It was done, she thought. Well, it was only temporary. She could manage for a few months. She had plenty of time to call the thing off, considering she would be wearing black for at least another five months.
“I am so happy for you both,” said Percival. “Surprised is putting it mildly, but do not mistake my shock for disapproval. I support this wholeheartedly and will do everything in my power to persuade Father to do the same. Oh Samuel, how could you have kept something like this from me? Never mind, it does not matter now. I am happy for you.”
Suddenly Patience was there, throwing herself around Amelia in a violent hug and sobbing against the sleeve of her dress. “You are in love! Oh, I knew it would happen and now it has! You will be the most stunning bride the world has ever seen, Amelia.”
“Thank you, Patience, and you, Lord Beresford,” said Amelia, patting Patience on the back until the girl released her. Tears must be contagious because Amelia was beginning to feel their threatening presence behind her eyes. I could not be moved by emotion, she told herself. No. It was only frustration that she could not simply enact the trip to London alone: frustration that she needed to involve Samuel Beresford at all.
Aunt Ebba, the last barrier, got to her feet. She did not hurry over, or pull Amelia into a hug, or begin crying. Instead, she fixed Samuel to the spot with a stare.
“Commander Beresford, you have done what no other man has ever managed to do. You have won the heart of Lady Amelia Atherton,” she said, voice cool. “Do not go breaking it.”
Samuel nodded solemnly. “I would not dare, Madam” He caught Amelia’s eye and sent her a singularly charming smile, as if they were truly in love. Amelia studied the tablecloth. How had this endeavor gotten out of her control?
Aunt Ebba went back to her seat and waved a footman over to pour her more wine.
“No, no more of that, there should be champagne! Bring up the finest bottle we have,” said Percival, to the servants. He was nearly tearful himself. “My brother, my little brother, has found love.”
Samuel, who still had hold of Amelia’s hand, gave it a gentle squeeze, and Amelia found she could breathe again. “Thank you all for your support, it means so much to both of us.” She said softly.
She glanced around at the faces of her friends, so open and happy for her, and then at Samuel whose eyes were twinkling as if he were enjoying a grand joke. She felt a queer unsteadiness, as if the world had just tilted. She was suddenly not so sure that this ruse was the best path.
~.~
Percival cornered Samuel the moment the three women had gone to bed. Percy had partaken in more than his usual amount of alcohol with his celebratory glasses of champagne, and the effect was to make him even more emotional than normal. Samuel, still sober, found it amusing. He was also glad that at last Percy seemed to have regained his appetite, both for food and wine.
“How could I not have seen the signs?” Percival asked, making his way over into a chair and collapsing bonelessly on top of it.
“Now that you have revealed your affections, it is obvious how much love there is between the two of you, the way you look at each other and smile. The way you both kept slipping away. Oh, it is so romantic; I am overjoyed for you. Have you told father?”
“Not yet,” said Samuel. “I was hoping to wait a little. Lady Amelia is not quite ready to meet him. He can be intimidating, you know.”
In truth, Samuel was hoping to put off telling father long enough that he would never need know. His father was not one to read the society section of the newspaper and the whole affair could be over and done with without father ever the wiser. In the end.it would save him the embarrassment of telling father why she ended the engagement.
Percival frowned. “Father will be happy for you, Samuel. You cannot believe otherwise. I know he is stern but he does love you, and wants the best for you. A home, a wife, even you have come around to the idea now,” said Percival, with a satisfied smile that made Samuel wince.
He could not even deny it.
“He will be glad, Samuel. You cannot think that he has ever understood your love of the sea to the exclusion of all else?”
“I suppose.” Samuel was already counting the seconds until the charade could end. Just the idea of settling down into a home and living the domestic life with a plump wife and screaming children; it had always made his skin crawl, although Amelia…was far from plump and children…He shook off the spark of desire that rushed through him.
“Sam?” Percival said, sobering.
Samuel rolled the brandy around his glass and finally sighed. “She does not truly want to marry me, Percy,” he said. He looked up at his brother. He had not thought that the fact would be so distressing until just this moment when speaking the words aloud. “She does not love me. She will break off the engagement as soon as she discovers the truth about her father’s death.”
Percival stared at him. “Whatever do you mean? The girl has just accepted your proposal. She has some fondness for you surely. We all heard…”
Samuel shook his head and looked into his glass. “Fondness, perhaps, but she will not marry me. She needs me to take her to London; to seek answers. That is all.”
Percival scowled.
“No, Percy.” Samuel said. “I do not fault her for it. She is afraid. Her father’s death troubles her.”
“I don’t understand. I thought her father died in a carriage accident.”
“She believes there was foul play.” Samuel ran a hand through his hair wondering when he began to agree with her. He realized he trusted her judgement. She was unlike any women he had met before; most were sil
ly, generally lack-a-wit and tedious. Lady Atherton was none of those things.
“Do you believe there was foul play? Or is this just fancy?”
Samuel cupped his hands around his drink. “I did not at first. I thought it was just grief of a young girl trying to make sense of a senseless accident, but that was before she showed me her father’s book.”
Percy put down his glass. “What sort of book?”
“That’s just it, Percy. She has a cypher book, like yours.” Samuel looked over his drink at his brother. Percival looked startled.
“Mine?”
“Do not, Percy,” Samuel said with an edge of anger. “I don’t know what the secretiveness is that surrounds these books, but I have always been honest with you. Give me the same curtesy. I know you are trying to protect me in some misguided older brother fashion, but I will have none of it. You were poisoned. You could have died. Someone gave you that poison and I think it is like to do with this secrecy. Do you have any idea who?”
Percy shook his head. “I don’t.”
“First your poisoning, and within a day,” Samuel continued thoughtful. “Amelia’s father met with his fatal accident. I convinced myself that it was mere coincidence, until I saw Amelia’s book and realized you had the same.”
“And you are worried?”
“Of course I am.” Samuel stood and paced. “You must tell me. What is this business? Did you meet with the late Duke, Amelia’s father at the ball? Is the mischance related? Are you and he somehow… involved in something?”
Percy sighed. “Something illegal? No.”
“I would never think it. More likely, you were trying to deduce the nature of the cypher, and got in someone’s way.” Samuel stopped at the fireplace and picked up the poker, stirring the dead ash idly.
“You are too perceptive by half. I did indeed speak with the previous Duke of Ely.”
Samuel turned to his brother. “And?” Samuel persisted.
“He told me little. We were going to meet the week next. There seems to be some sort of contraband involved. Obviously the culprits found out more about us than we knew of them. We do not even know who is involved.”
“Lady Amelia said her father was agitated on the night before he died. She says he feared for his life and then, well, he was dead.” Samuel laid the poker aside.
Percy sipped his wine and shrugged. “I suppose murders have been made for less than a dukedom.”
“Yes, but why poison you?” Samuel sat again beside his brother.
“Indeed.”
“And why the cyphers?”
Percival shook his head. “No one would kill for simple thievery, and a duke, yet. No. It makes no sense, Samuel.”
“Criminals do not commit crimes due to need, nor sense, my brother, but I must agree. It would most likely be some acquaintance of the late Duke. How is this related to the contraband and how did theft and contraband lead to murder?”
“Of a duke, not less.”
“There must be something more involved and I am going to find out what.” Samuel stood again in agitation.
“Father and I tried,” Percival said. We found nothing circumspect, that is why I was looking into the cyphers, and your Lady Amelia…”
Samuel turned in anger. “And you and father did not discuss this with me?”
“I think he wanted to leave you out of it. Mother would never forgive him if something happened to you.”
“Mother?” Samuel ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. “If it is smugglers of contraband I have connections on the docks, Percy not you. I can trace the latitude and longitude that Amelia uncovered. I should discover what transpired at those locations.”
“She did so much?” Percy said surprised. “She solved the cypher. Well then, she is most prodigious.”
“Yes,” Samuel agreed, and then stood. “And yet, no one was ever more provoking,” he said. “I shall get the book and return directly.”
With the book and papers open before them, the brothers settled in for an evening of study.
Percival was shocked when he saw how much had been accomplished by Lady Amelia. “It is helpful I’m sure, having the full cypher book instead of the waterlogged piece of rubbish I was using, but I am still surprised at how much Lady Amelia accomplished. She is really quite clever.” Percival said with a sidelong look at his brother. “Now aren’t you glad I coaxed you into going to the Livingston’s Ball?”
“No! Yes. Well only because you would have stayed at the damned ball and probably died for politeness sake!”
“Yes, it is, brother. I owe you my life.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I only meant that—oh dash it!” Samuel said embarrassed. He poured a glass of brandy, downed it, and then poured another glass which he sipped. He held up the decanter for Percy.
Percy shook his head and raised his half empty glass. “No. I am done,”
“Does your stomach still trouble you?” Samuel asked as he sat with his drink.
“A bit, when I imbibe, but it is only a slight bother now, nothing to worry about. One can hardly survive poisoning and come out the other side completely unscathed. Without you I would not have survived at all,” Percy said ruefully. “I have no room to complain.”
“It’s only because I couldn’t bear to be the earl when father passed,” Samuel said shuddering.
Percy barked a short laugh.
Samuel brought his thoughts back to the issue at hand. “I suppose father is still investigating this,” he said. “Blindly poking around the docks?”
“He is,” Percival gave a shrug as if to say, it was Father. How was he to stop him?
“Father will be the next to meet an accident,” Samuel said dourly. He drank his brandy in stony silence. “What clues has father found?” he asked at last.
“Very little,” Percy said. “We suspected smuggling of course, but until recently, we were at a loss. Now, thanks to your Lady Amelia, and the cypher, we have locations to check. Perhaps they are meeting places, drop points, and if they match with the actual contraband, well, so much the better.”
“Yes,” Samuel agreed. “We must write to Father.”
Percy agreed.
“I am going to solve this. Amelia will not let it go at any rate.”
“You would risk yourself for her?” Percy said. “To discover what happened to her father?”
“For her and for you, my brother.”
After working for a while longer, Samuel frowned into his brandy glass. “I think we have solved all we can here,” he said. “And the candles are guttering. We should take this up in the morning.”
Percival agreed rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. “I think we will find no more understanding here tonight. We will address it on the morrow.”
“I wish it wasn’t so, but Amelia is right. We will need to return to London.”
“You don’t mean to take her?”
“Of course not, but if I mean it or no, I think she will manage to follow. She is a spirted thing, unlike your little mouse. Speaking of, are you going to offer for her?”
“I don’t want to be forward,” Percival said.
Samuel broke into raucous laughter “Don’t be an arse, Percy” Samuel said, “Your little mouse is smitten. There is nothing to worry about.”
“Do you truly think Lady Patience would have me?” Percival said, tugging his cravat lower down his neck to let more air in.
“Of course,” said Samuel. “Do you not have eyes?”
“I am not ready to ask her. It is too soon. We hardly know each other and I think she is as frightened as I am.”
“The little mouse seems to be frightened of everything.” said Samuel “That is not the question to ask, Percy, not, is she frightened, but are you certain of her?”
“I am!” said Percival. “I am. But I am not like you. I cannot just rush into this without considering everything first, and of course she must meet father before I go ahead with it. I am sure he
will approve of her, but that is the proper way of things…ask our father; then speak to hers.”
He did not say “and I am a gentleman and do things the proper way, unlike my brother” but Samuel heard the undertone and held back a snort. If he ever did fall in love with a woman and decided, against all better judgement, to truly marry her, he would not need anyone’s permission. No one would be able to stop him.
“Are you so nervous about proposing to Lady Patience? You are sweating, Percy. Do not do that when the moment comes; no one wants to marry a frog.”
“You are so helpful brother; why did I not think of that?” Percival said dryly. He dropped his head into his hands. “It’s just the drink,” he said. He looked up, a grin on his face, obviously more drunk than sick “It seems poisoning cures drunkenness.”
Samuel laughed. “I don’t know any man who would take the cure.”
“Surely not by choice.” Percy grimaced and pushed the last of his glass aside. “I am for bed,” he said. “This business has made an old man of me.”
Samuel scoffed, but finished off his brandy and also found his bed.
~.~
Chapter Two
The morning found Lady Amelia in the music room. She was an engaged woman now, she told herself. In the next moment she reminded herself that it was a lie. The ruse was only to give her a reason to go to London to find the truth of her father’s death. Her fingers glided over the keys, and music filled her ears, drowning out her turbulent thoughts. The song of the sea was coming together in her mind, but the execution of it eluded her, much like the man who inspired it, she thought. Her fingers stuttered on the keys and she went back; playing the section again, perfecting it, polishing it. She played it a third time for clarity. It’s almost there, she told herself. Almost.
“Beautiful,” Samuel pronounced behind her.
She startled. “Thank you.” She had not seen him there.
“I meant the woman as well as the music,” he said.
“Then my thanks are doubled,” she replied.
The Duke’s Daughter - Lady Amelia Atherton: A Regency Romance Novel (Heart of a Gentleman Book 3) Page 14
