Murder at the Ice Ball

by Leighann Dobbs

  “I’ll go,” Katherine answered hastily, if only to keep Pru from putting herself in unnecessary danger. In order for Emma to filch the ring, she would need to be let into the house, and so would Pru. She couldn’t do that alone. “However, we should wait before we bring Emma out. We need to make certain that Lord Conyers is at home, or this will all be a waste of time.”

  Once again, Pru puffed up, proud. “I’ve already seen to that. His carriage is at the livery across the street, and I’ve posted Annandale out front to make certain he doesn’t leave. But we must hurry!”

  “It can’t be eight of the morning!”

  “It’s half nine, you layabout. Hurry and finish dressing. We haven’t a moment to lose.” Pru finally gave in and doffed her cloak and gloves, passing them behind her to the impatiently waiting butler as she herded Katherine upstairs. “And Harriet, see that she wears something comely, will you?”

  Her voice thick with amusement, Harriet answered, “I will do my best.”

  As her carriage pulled to a stop on the corner of Charles Street and St. James’s Square, Katherine pulled Emma onto her lap and waited for the driver to open the door. As the door opened to reveal a man’s figure, the collar of his greatcoat turned up against the chill, Katherine hugged Emma tighter.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Wayland raised his eyebrows. “Am I barred from walking in London now?”

  “And opening the doors of ladies’ carriages, yes.”

  “The driver has gone to fetch the steps. I figured I’d save time and rescue my greatest female admirer.”

  Katherine’s mouth dropped open. Certainly he couldn’t mean her! Never had she encouraged his attention. In fact, several times she had gone so far as to tell him to leave her be. Although there had been that time in the alley in Bath…

  Impervious to how he’d shocked her, Wayland leaned into the carriage toward her. Katherine remained frozen in her seat as she met his gaze. Did he mean to pluck her from the carriage? From what she’d seen of his physique—he had been one of those in Bath to use the public King’s Bath wearing nothing more than his shirtsleeves—he was muscular enough to do it, even if it would be indecent of him.

  Wayland slipped his large hands around Emma’s middle, engulfing her in one and stealing the leash in the other. As he stepped back, he tipped her into his arms with her belly in the air and gave her a rub. Shameless, Emma wiggled in his arms in delight.

  Oh, had he been referring to Emma? What had Katherine been thinking? Sard it, she needed to get ahold of herself.

  As the driver laid down the steps, Katherine sat back and composed herself, finally following Pru out of the carriage. Wayland finished showering her dog with attention and bent to lay Emma’s paws gently on the snow underfoot. When he straightened, he offered Katherine the leash.

  “Your sleuthing companion, my lady.”

  Was he making fun of her? She said nothing as she gathered the leash.

  Pru, her hand slipped into the crook of her fiancé’s arm, tipped her head back and smiled, radiant. “I hope we didn’t take too long. Is Lord Conyers still inside?”

  “He is,” Lord Annandale confirmed. “But it does nae sit easy with me to have ye and Katherine running into a trysting house with naught but a dog fer protection.”

  Didn’t he intend to enter with them? Perhaps Pru had already asked him to stand guard on the street.

  “Will ye nae consider letting me and Wayland approach Conyers first?”

  “And bring a little dog?” Pru asked, cross. “You’d look fair ridiculous. And I don’t want to be cut out of the excitement of finding the ring and the murderer.”

  Lord Annandale laid his free hand over hers on his arm. “Nae, we’ll try to learn the truth a different way. Man to man, so to speak.”

  Pru bristled. “I beg your pardon?”

  Katherine couldn’t help but smile. There was a reason she loved Pru so dearly, and that was because her friend refused to let any man tell her that he could do something better than she.

  Wayland stepped in to assuage Pru. “He means that Lord Conyers might tell things to a man that he would keep secret from a lady. It is no reflection on your ability.”

  Disgruntled, Pru twisted her mouth but didn’t protest further. Neither did she seem convinced, and as she retracted her hand from her fiancé’s arm in order to cross her arms, Lord Annandale seemed to notice her disapproval.

  To Wayland’s explanation, he added, “When ye asked him yesterday, he gave ye a fat lie. Could be if I approach him as a soon-tae-be-married man asking for advice on how tae keep a mistress secret from my new wife…”

  Pru’s posture stiffened. Katherine bit her lip hard to squelch the urge to laugh. Lord Annandale, it seemed, was not the most experienced at appeasing women. Even Wayland seemed amused by that answer.

  “Your mistress?” Pru asked, biting off the word.

  “I do nae have one,” Lord Annandale said hastily, raising his hands in surrender. He looked at Wayland, seeming a bit like a cornered sheep as he silently begged for help.

  Wayland stepped back to stand next to Katherine, no help at all. Emma seemed happy for the change and stood on her hind legs to plant her feet just below Wayland’s knee.

  Meanwhile, Annandale added, “And I will nae take one after we’re married. Ye ken how I love you, Prudence.”

  Although Katherine expected that proclamation to appease her, she still seemed irritated. “So you say now…”

  “Och, I would nae be marrying ye if I didn’t think I’d love you till my dying day.” He ran his hand over his beard, looking suitably chastened. “’Tis a ruse to learn if he has intimate knowledge of Lady Rochford, no more.”

  Pru grunted. Without bothering to relinquish her hand to him again, she turned and strolled the short distance to Lord Conyers’s trysting house. “Try if you must, but if you can’t find the truth, I’m going to enact my plan.” With her tone alone, she made it abundantly clear whose plan she thought would work.

  Looking a bit helpless, Annandale raised his gaze and said, “Wayland?”

  Wayland shrugged. “I only came along for the walk. We might as well.” He bent to pat Emma on the head before he strolled away.

  She jogged to the end of her leash and whined when it prevented her from joining him. Katherine held firm.

  Glowering, Pru joined Katherine in the shadow of the livery building. From here, the stench of horses wafted out into the abysmally cold air. “She seems to adore him.”

  “She also adores rolling in the mud. I wouldn’t trust her tastes.”

  “I don’t know,” Pru said with a laugh, her expression lightening. “I’ve heard that mud does wonders to soften the skin. She might have better taste than you’d think.”

  Katherine made a face.

  The two men knocked on the door. It took only a moment for a man, though not Lord Conyers, to open it and admit them. He seemed reluctant but couldn’t very well deny a marquess. As the door shut behind the pair, Pru turned to Katherine. “Shall we get closer? The gap in the shutters there might allow us to peek inside.”

  “I’m certain your betrothed will be thrilled to see you’re spying on him.”

  Pru made a face. “If he was so concerned, he should have let me inside with him.”

  Katherine laughed. “Wouldn’t that be a sight?” She held out her hand theatrically. “Lord Conyers, please tell me your every secret to hiding your lovers from your fiancée! Who’s this? Well, yes, I suppose that would be the woman I am trying to hide my lovers from.”

  Pru snorted. “It’s no better a prospect than taking Captain Wayland with him. What man talks openly about his mistress in front of his friends?”

  “It seems you chose well.” Katherine winked. “Your marquess doesn’t appear to have the least idea of how to carry on a discreet affair.”

  “I’d rather he not carry on any affair at all. Are you coming to see inside or not?”

  Katherine checked the
street—deserted. The house next door didn’t appear to be occupied at the moment. When last Katherine had spoken with the occupant, Mrs. Ramsey, she’d said that she usually went out to conduct her charity work on Wednesdays, but since it wasn’t yet half ten of the morning, the chance of her being out of the house seemed slim. However, Katherine noticed no movement in the shutters, which were closed tight against the winter air.

  “Very well, but let’s be cautious.”

  Pru led the way across the deserted street to Lord Conyers’s house. His house, along with every other on this street, was neatly groomed in front. With no room for a garden out front, large, elegant planters with necks in the shape of neoclassical pillars flanked the steps to the door and framed the corners of the house. At this time of year, snow covered the dirt and dormant plant life. Pru didn’t hesitate but tromped into the calf-deep snow next to the house in order to peek through the shutters.

  Although the snow soared over her head, Emma happily leaped in Pru’s wake, following her footsteps and hopping from one to another like a rabbit. On the other end of the leash, Katherine balked. Her boots only rose to mid-calf, and her skirts were sure to be mired in snow even with the pattens she wore to elevate herself from the street. Grimacing, she followed, trying to step only in Pru’s footsteps.

  “Pru! Peeking in the windows isn’t ladylike.” Katherine wasn’t above peeking in windows herself, but the snow slipping down the necks of her boots was chilling.

  “You know I care nothing about what society thinks.” Pru gave her a sly look over her shoulder. “Perhaps Mrs. Ramsey will think we are just more of Lord Conyers’s many female visitors.”

  Emma lunged for the planter, trying to get closer to Pru. The unexpected movement pulled Katherine a step forward. She gasped as more snow made its way into her boot.

  Pru beckoned to her. “Hurry. I think I see them. They’re talking.”

  “With Lord Conyers?” Katherine asked, stepping closer.

  “No, with each other.”

  Katherine fought back a sigh. “They do that all day. It isn’t worth remarking upon.”

  Turning from her perch, Pru glared. “I meant only to illustrate that I could see them. They’re in a parlor. It doesn’t look well decorated to me. Does anyone live here?”

  “No. It’s designed to be used only for romantic trysts. I doubt Lord Conyers cares much if his parlor would set the gossips’ tongues wagging, so long as there is a bed.”

  Color stained Pru’s cheeks as she hastily turned toward the window once more. “Still,” she mumbled under her breath almost inaudibly. “He ought to purchase some furniture for his parlor.”

  Katherine opted not to answer. As Emma started digging in the planter, Katherine shooed her away. “Stop that. You’ll get your claws muddy, and Harriet will never let me hear the end of it.”

  Emma resolutely ignored her.

  “Oh, there he is!” Pru exclaimed. She leaned closer, tilting her head as if she might hear if only she canted her head in the proper direction. “Lord Conyers, I mean,” she added in an absent tone.

  “At least he didn’t send them away. We know he’s inside.”

  “Yes. Hush! I think I might be able to hear if you’d only be quiet.”

  Through the windowpane? Katherine thought not.

  She hoisted Emma around the middle and hefted her out of the thigh-high planter. “No, you don’t. The earth is too hard for you to dig.”

  As Katherine lifted the pug away, Emma waved her legs like pennants and gave a hearty yip.

  “Hush,” Pru snapped.

  Katherine dropped her pet into the vacant planter once more. With luck, it had frozen solid and Emma wouldn’t be able to find any purchase to dig. Tail wagging, the dog buried her face in the snow up to her ears. Katherine shook her head. What peculiarities dogs had.

  Pru turned her head again, her face wrinkled in concentration as she attempted to decipher whatever garbled sounds happened to meet her ears. When Emma yipped again, she scowled. “Will you be quiet?”

  Emma emerged from the snow with something in her mouth. Katherine heard the loud noise of teeth on something hard as Emma attempted to chew. “What have you got now?” Katherine grumbled. She caught Emma by the back of the head and applied pressure to the hinge of her jaw in order to convince her to spit out her prize. Likely a stone or something else best left uneaten.

  It was not a stone. Katherine gaped as a gold ring toppled from the pug’s mouth and fell to the edge of the planter.

  Frowning, Pru pulled away from the edge of the shutters. “Is that…?”

  Katherine plucked up the ring to examine it. The delicate band and oval signet medallion with the scrolls letter “R” stamped on it certainly belonged to a woman. “It’s a ring.”

  As her smile spread, Pru’s eyes began to gleam. “Lady Rochford’s ring.”

  They couldn’t know that, but given that a planter was no place for a ring at all, Katherine could only hope that she was correct. Who else would have put it there if not Lord Conyers attempting to hide it should someone come to look? Perhaps he wanted to keep it as a remembrance but was afraid someone would investigate and search the house.

  Katherine shook her head. “I cannot believe that your idea worked.”

  Emma danced on her hind legs, trying to wrap her front paws around Katherine’s wrist so she could reclaim the ring.

  “Certainly not,” Katherine informed her. She palmed the ring and pulled away, thinking to tuck it into her reticule if her dog would only release her.

  “We must confront Lord Conyers at once.”

  As Pru’s ideas went, that wasn’t the worst. “You might be correct. Better catch him off his guard while he’s speaking with Lord Annandale. Come, let me take the lead.”

  Although Pru didn’t seem happy to have her idea usurped, Katherine had the ring, and Lord Conyers hadn’t much responded to Pru’s haranguing yesterday at the Hyde Park Frost Fair. They had one chance to shock the truth out of him. Katherine was determined to make the most of it.

  Although polite young ladies would knock at the door or send a footman to announce their arrival, Katherine wanted the element of surprise. With Emma bounding happily around her feet and Pru a mere step behind, Katherine tried the doorknob of the house and found it open. She stepped inside without hesitation.

  Lord Conyers looked as though he’d woken in the most ridiculous of dreams. He stared at Lord Annandale, who stood beyond the threshold to the other room, out of sight, with no small measure of incredulity. Over his head, Wayland leaned against the wall and appeared to be struggling not to laugh.

  Katherine straightened her shoulders. “Lord Conyers. I’ve found out your secret, and I demand to know the extent of it at once.”

  Even with his profile to her, Katherine noticed his wince. “I beg your par—” He turned, his face contorting in outrage. “Shut the door!”

  Pru did so with alacrity.

  Emma barked merrily, straining against her leash as she tried to join the gentlemen. They stood so near that she nearly touched Lord Conyers’s boots. With a wary look, he stepped back, into the corridor and away from Emma’s enthusiastic greeting.

  “Have you come in to attack me?”

  Wayland snorted. He lowered his face, but his grin was unmistakable.

  “She’s harmless, Lord Conyers. Why, are you afraid of dogs?”

  “No,” Conyers answered, a touch too quickly. He took another wary step back. “But I am wary of ones who look as though they’d like to sharpen their teeth on me.”

  Emma sat on her rump and cocked her head, confused. As was Katherine. A more friendly and gentle dog, she didn’t know. Barring her predilection for theft, of course. Nevertheless, she used his fear against him without qualms.

  “If you answer my questions plainly, she won’t do you any harm.” Katherine left out that Emma was unlikely to do him harm even if he chose not to answer.

  He held up his hands in surrender. “Very well.
I was having an affair with Lady Rochford, but I couldn’t very well admit to that in front of my fiancée. Her father is a sneeze away from dissolving the arrangement as it is.”

  “Fer good reason,” Lord Annandale said blackly.

  Lord Conyers gaped like a fish. “You just … you asked…” His gaze flitted to Pru, and understanding dawned on his face.

  It seemed Lord Annandale had been convincing in his desire to keep a mistress from his future wife.

  Katherine raised her hand, opening it to reveal the ring sitting in her palm. “Did you take this from Lady Rochford before you killed her?”

  “Killed her—no! I’ve never seen that ring before in my life.”

  Pru scoffed. “An unlikely tale. It was found in your planter just outside.”

  “It isn’t mine—or Celia’s, that I know of. She never wore her rings...” Emma danced as she spotted the spoils of her digging, yipping with excitement. Lord Conyers paled. “I swear I didn’t kill her. In fact, she ended our arrangement weeks before the ice ball!”

  Emma cocked her head and whined.

  “That sounds as though it gives you motive,” Katherine answered, keeping her expression carefully neutral. She didn’t want Lord Conyers to call his valet to eject them from the house. Even if Wayland and Annandale would likely protest vociferously.

  “She found herself in the family way,” he snapped, looking into each of their faces in turn. In between, his gaze fell to the dog, innocent though she was.

  “And you didn’t want the complications of your bastard?” Pru’s voice dripped with disdain.

  “Not so.” Lord Conyers’s mouth turned down in a surly pout. “It wasn’t mine. The child was conceived while I was on a tour of the country, visiting with my colleagues.”

  In other words, performing a yearly circuit of house parties and carousing with his male friends.

  “She ended our association because she didn’t want her husband to suspect the child belonged to another. She didn’t love him, you know. She couldn’t.” He added that last sentence almost to himself, his head bowed. He looked the picture of misery. Softly, he admitted, “We all have to marry for our own gain, but it’s rare that we find a true companion in anyone. Celia was my companion and I hers.”