Regency for all Seasons: A Regency Romance Collection

by Mary Lancaster

  He hated that she was correct. But there was nothing to be done for it. Using the toe of his boot, he pushed the door open further and stepped inside. The terrible smell pervaded everything. Whoever had killed him, Val would bet, had done so right after the poor man’s initial meeting with Lilly. It was a wonder she hadn’t been murdered while sitting in the man’s office.

  They found him slumped on the floor behind his desk. There was a puddle of blood, long since congealed, beneath his head that spread out in a rivulet over the carpet and the uneven floorboards. Next to the body lay the discarded weapon, a wicked-looking tool used to stoke the fire in the brazier that occupied one corner of the room.

  “We need to summon the watch,” Lilly whispered, her voice strained. “That is Mr. Littleton. Oh, Val, you don’t think this happened because of me, do you? This poor man—”

  “This didn’t happen because of you,” he said. “This happened because of someone else’s greed. You are not at all responsible even if this is in some way tied to the bequest from your great-aunt. The killer alone bears sole responsibility for this man’s death and likely for the attempt on your life. Though, on that score, we still cannot discount Elsworth.”

  “He’s had to be dead for days now! Possibly since the same day I met with him!” Lilly said in dismay. “With everything that Elsworth has done, I was certain it would be him, but now—well, I’m just not sure anymore.”

  “I do think he likely died just after you left this office. Which begs the question of why you made it home unaccosted save for a crow stealing your bonnet,” he said. “They would have followed you, Lilly, and they would have eliminated you before eliminating him.”

  “Eliminated.” She said the word as if it left a sour taste in her mouth. “What a terrible way to put it! What if… Val, what if they were following? What if my encounter with you in the park was the only thing that prevented them from… I was too distracted by everything to consider it. I can’t say I was being followed, but I can’t say I wasn’t either!”

  “Lilly, this is too upsetting for you—”

  “Yes, it is,” she agreed. “But I’m not upset with you or even your choice of words. Because it’s accurate. Eliminated. Like a problem or a nuisance. An inconvenience. That’s what I’ve always been in life… to my mother, to my father and now, apparently, to whoever else stands to gain from my great-aunt’s generosity.”

  He had no answer for that. His own father had been distant and uninvolved, but Val had known that he had his father’s love even if it was absent at the best of times. And his mother had loved him the best she could when he was very young, before he’d lost her to her own melancholy long before he’d lost her to the permanency of death. Even his grandmother, managing and cantankerous as she could be, was only interested in what was best for him. Other than Miss Euphemia Darrow and her half-sister, Lilly had no one to put her needs and safety first. Certainly, the people who should have seen to those things had failed her terribly.

  “We need to summon the watch,” he said.

  “We need to find the documents pertaining to the bequest… if they’re not here, then we know that whoever killed him took them, and we can be absolutely certain that the bequest was the cause of his death.”

  Val wanted to protest. Remaining there was dangerous and damning. But she wasn’t wrong. “Five minutes,” he said. “If we don’t find it in five minutes, then we give up. Agreed?”

  “Agreed,” she said.

  “I’ll take the desk. There’s less chance of my clothing disturbing the scene or being… stained,” he finished.

  She swallowed convulsively then nodded. “Right. I’ll check the cabinets over here,” she said and swept her hand toward a large barrister case in the corner and another piece of darkly-finished furniture next to it.

  Stepping around the body carefully, Val began combing through the documents on top of the desk. “What was your great-aunt’s name?”

  “Margaret Hazleton, Lady Marchebanks,” she answered.

  Val stopped in his tracks. “You can’t be serious!”

  “Well, of course, I’m serious. I’d hardly joke about something at a time like this. Why does that matter?”

  “Because her nephew, or rather her husband’s nephew, is one of the men with whom Elsworth is in business. All of these mysteries are connected, Lilly, and we get deeper into the middle of it every time we turn around.”

  “Find the bequest and let’s get out of here,” she said with a shiver. “I’m starting to have a terrible feeling about all of this.”

  He went back to searching the desk as she searched the barrister case. Finally, in the bottom drawer, he found a lock box. Taking it out of the drawer, he placed it on the desk. “Give me two of your hair pins,” he said.

  Immediately, she withdrew two pins from the mass of dark curls and walked over to press them into his hand. It didn’t take Val long to pick the lock. Inside, he found the will and the additional instructions left. Tucking both into his pocket, he returned the pins to her just as a floorboard creaked in the antechamber.

  “What was that?” she whispered.

  “Someone’s here,” he replied just as quietly. “Come on.”

  They crept toward the door to the outer office. Val peered out but saw no one. Hoping that the noise had just been someone passing by in the hall, he motioned for Lilly to follow him quietly as they moved through the small antechamber. As they neared the door, another noise, the scrape of furniture moving on a wooden floor, sounded behind them. He looked back just in time to see the heavy desk being shoved toward them, pushing them back toward the wall as a man darted past them. Val didn’t have the opportunity to see much more than a shock of blond hair that looked strikingly similar to his cousin.

  “Damn and blast. Are you hurt?” he asked her.

  She had her hand pressed to her chest, over her heart. “Only startled. No. Not startled! Frightened half to death. We have to go… if he comes back with others, I cannot imagine what danger we will face.”

  He could. And it was the same fate that had met the unfortunate Mr. Littleton. “Let’s get the bloody hell out of here.”

  *

  They were nearing Lord Highcliff’s home in Richmond and Lilly was marginally calmer. Not that she’d ever been hysterical, but finding a corpse was certainly an uncommon occurrence for her. During the journey, Val had been perusing the documents pertaining to the bequest.

  “This is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” he finally said.

  “What is it?”

  “There’s no mention in here of the funds being released upon your great-aunt’s death. Everything states that the funds will come to you when you marry. So… you’re certain that he stated she was frail and ill?”

  Lilly considered it carefully. “Well, he said she was ill… and that my seeing her was an impossibility. That I’d never get to her in time. But he didn’t say time for what. Death was implied but never stated specifically.”

  “Lady Marchebanks, to my knowledge, is neither old and infirmed nor particularly frail… she is, in fact, quite healthy. Which begs the question why? Why the secrecy?”

  Lilly shrugged. “It is a scandal. The very public seduction of my mother, my illegitimate birth, her suicide… those are all very valid reasons for not wanting to publicly acknowledge our kinship.”

  He returned the sheaf of papers to her. “I’m not certain that’s it, but I can’t fathom why they would reach out, offer you this very generous marriage portion and never want any contact. There’s a mystery there and I mean to solve it!”

  “We’ve more than one mystery,” she stated. “Who was the blond man in the office? Was it Elsworth? And was he responsible for Mr. Littleton’s death?”

  “I don’t know. It may have been, but that person was very physical. I can’t imagine Elsworth shoving a desk. To my knowledge, he’s never worked that hard in his life.”

  Lilly didn’t comment. She could imagine it. After all, he
’d been prepared to force his way into her chamber. “And if it was Elsworth? What then? Mr. Littleton deserves justice. No one is so important or above the law that they can commit such heinous crimes with impunity.”

  “No, there can be no impunity for that,” he agreed. “If it was Elsworth, I will be certain that he is punished for his crimes. I’m trying to protect the family name and, to a degree, that means protecting him… but it doesn’t mean he won’t face consequences in a more discreet manner.”

  Which was all well and good for them, but what of Mr. Littleton? “Are you certain someone will discover Mr. Littleton’s body? I don’t know if he has a wife or children, if someone is even worrying about him!” she said. “I hate to think of him just lying there.”

  “An anonymous note was sent around to Bow Street along with the necessary sum to spur them to action. His death will be discovered and investigated,” Val promised her. “Now, let’s try to put it out of our minds. It’s hardly an auspicious event for our wedding day, now is it?”

  She smiled sadly. “No, but then it seems we’ve done nothing in the regular order or way of things.”

  Val laughed. “That is very true. Will you regret that?”

  She cocked her head and considered her answer. “No. I don’t think I shall… I think, if what occurred in your room last night is any indication, I should have very few regrets about our marriage.”

  At that less than subtle reminder, his eyes flashed with desire. “Behave, minx. Breakfast first, and then we’ll see to our other needs.”

  Lilly grinned and looked away. But her grin faded quickly. There were other events from the previous night that bore discussion. “I should tell you something, but you must promise me that you won’t lose your temper.”

  He gave a weary sigh. “How can I promise you that when I’ve no notion of what you’re about to tell me?”

  “Well, it is upsetting, but I handled it. I took care of things and I do not need you to avenge me or anything else so silly—”

  He’d leaned forward and grasped her hand in his. “Lilly… tell me.”

  Her breath rushed out in a huff. “When I left your chamber last night, Elsworth was in the corridor and he followed me to my room. I ran and got there before him, locked the door… and thankfully had the presence of mind to put a chair beneath the door knob. Because he’d had the presence of mind to bring a key.”

  Val’s eyes narrowed. “That isn’t presence of mind. That’s premeditation and they are very, very different things. I’ll kill him.”

  “He didn’t gain entry!”

  “But he tried,” Val insisted. “He came to your room with a key, intending to let himself in. And what do you think his intentions were, Lilly? To have a spot of tea and discuss the latest novels you’ve read?”

  Lilly drew back and glared at him. “I don’t think I like your tone. It isn’t as if I invited him! And if you must know, I can take care of myself very well! If you don’t believe me, ask him about the cut on his forearm when next you see him!”

  Her husband’s eyebrows arched upward. “You cut him?”

  “Yes. It was very helpful of you to provide me with that clever walking stick and its concealed blade. It would have been more helpful if you’d told me there was a concealed blade. Luckily, I discovered it by accident just in the nick of time.”

  He blinked at her. “You got it open?”

  “Well, yes. It’s a simple latch really, once you know to look for it,” Lilly answered. “Don’t tell me that you haven’t mastered it?”

  “I found it to be a bit tricky, honestly,” he admitted, clearly embarrassed.

  She smiled at him. “It’s your hands… they’re too large. That walking stick might be intended for a person of your stature, but the handle and the mechanism are more suited to the slighter dimensions of a woman.”

  “Huh,” he said. “Then perhaps I should get you fencing lessons.”

  “My dearest husband, perhaps I could give you fencing lessons. I’m rather an expert,” she pointed out with no small amount of glee.

  He shook his head ruefully. “Of course, you are. Remind me to thank Miss Darrow when next we meet. I owe her a debt for her somewhat irregular thoughts on the education of women.”

  “I’ll be certain to mention your approval,” Lilly retorted dryly.

  “We’re off topic… you distract me so that I cannot think clearly,” he admitted. “Tell me what it was that Elsworth said to you?”

  “That my mother was a whore. That I was a whore. That Effie was likely a whore. He was drunk, Val, and I think under the influence of opium. He was hardly sensible. Just angry and resentful. Jealous and hungry for power he does not have, just as you suggested.”

  Val shrugged. “None of that matters at this point. This… what he did… what he intended to do… it cannot go unanswered, Lilly. I will call him out.”

  “You cannot,” Lilly replied. “With what I’ve gathered from things you’ve said thus far, Elsworth is really just a pawn in a game being played by others. He’s committing treason, yes, but he’s not the mastermind of it all. If you challenge him now, Val, you’ll never find out who is truly behind all of this.”

  He rose and shoved his fingers into his hair in frustration. “Damn it! I don’t care. You are my wife. Even if you were not my wife, his behavior is beyond anything that could be overlooked.”

  “It is. It absolutely is. But in this instance, I defended myself, and no permanent injury was done to me. He cannot say the same. When he reached into the room, I may have nicked him just a bit.”

  “Just a bit?”

  “It was only his forearm,” Lilly stated. “We cannot afford to be hotheaded and allow our tempers and our prides to sway us! You’ve worked too hard and sacrificed too much to ferret out just these sorts of plots to allow what was truly a minor incident to destroy everything now. For lack of a better way to put it, given enough rope, Elsworth will hang himself, as we both know.”

  He halted his pacing and looked at her. “You’re right. I know you are. But when I think of it, I want to thrash him.”

  She smiled. “I am your wife, as you said. If you didn’t want to thrash him for that, it would be cause for concern. But I don’t want to talk about Elsworth anymore. We are here in this beautiful house, about to partake of this lovely feast, and we’re shouting at one another because you’re angry at your cousin for something he almost did. Let it go… for now. Until we have what we need from him, at least.”

  His eyes narrowed and he fixed her with a sharp gaze. “We? You’re saying that quite a bit. I wasn’t aware that my ‘spying’, as you put it, had become a joint endeavor.”

  “Well, yes,” Lilly said. “I think, in all fairness, that I’ll be much better at this spying business than you are. Now, tell me precisely what your garishly-dressed friend is doing with this charmingly elegant house that looks not at all like his tastes.”

  He was silent for a moment, surveying her critically. Lilly feared that he might not be willing to let the matter go. But finally, he let out a heavy and resigned sigh before saying, “This is far more understated and traditional than I would have pegged Highcliff for. He does have a flair for the dramatic.”

  Recalling the other man’s outrageous clothing, Lilly made a face. But her husband was correct. The house wasn’t overly large. Built in the Palladian style, it faced the river and offered stunning views. The staff was also limited, only the butler, the housekeeper, the cook and a pair of maids lived in. There weren’t even any footmen. A stable hand had come forward to carry their bags inside as they were shown to the dining room where an elegant breakfast, including a divine cake that Lilly thought too pretty to eat, had been laid for them. She wanted nothing to do with food. The very idea of any celebration at such a time made her feel slightly ill. But such care had been taken, it seemed wrong to disappoint the servants by not even pretending to partake and enjoy it all. Despite everything, she could still acknowledge that the scene had bee
n set perfectly and every last detail had been taken care of.

  “This is all rather unexpected,” she said. “For a man who is reported to be a confirmed bachelor, Highcliff seems to understand a great deal about what is customary following a wedding service.”

  Val’s only response was a noncommittal grunt as he began filling a plate with food. “You seem very interested in Highcliff,” he finally commented as he took his seat.

  “He’s intriguing,” Lilly said. “I rather suspect that there are few people in this world who know who he really is.”

  “That’s true enough,” Val said. While he knew the man better than most, even he was not fully in the loop.

  “How does he know Effie? In all the years I’ve known her, even after we had ceased being pupil and master, she never mentioned him to me.”

  Val gestured toward her empty plate. “Why are you not eating?”

  “I’m not hungry,” she said, recalling the events of the morning, and sat back. “Are they lovers?”

  He choked on the bite of potatoes he’d just eaten. “I don’t know,” he answered between coughs. “Is it our business if they are?”

  “Well, of course, it is,” Lilly answered. “Effie is my friend. In truth, she’s almost like my mother, certainly the only one I’ve ever known. Willa and I were very young when she found us at that horrid school and brought us back to London with her. I cannot even imagine what would have become of us at the other school. She raised us, she taught us. I like to think, though other girls came after, that we are more like family to her because we were the first. She often said there wouldn’t be a Darrow School at all if she hadn’t stumbled upon us when she did.”

  “That still doesn’t give you the right to pry into her personal life,” Val said reasonably. “She is a woman grown and if she chooses to have a lover—”

  “He could break her heart,” Lilly interrupted him. “And I wouldn’t like him very much if he did that.”

  Val set his fork down and shoved his plate away, as if the conversation had robbed him of his appetite. “I cannot attest to what is occurring between them, but I do not believe he would toy with her affections. Whatever is said of him, he is an honorable man. Let us worry after our own hearts and allow Miss Darrow and Lord Highcliff to worry after theirs.”