by Joan Wolf
“A glass of your excellent port would be nice,” Sinclair said.
“I’ll have tea,” Sally said.
“Bring two cups,” Alex said.
Sally threw her brother an approving smile.
The wine and the tea were brought, and, after the footman had left, Sinclair told the brother and sister what Benjamin Morse had found out.
“It sounds to me as if they needed the match with Rumford badly,” Sinclair ended. “Once the announcement of his engagement to Miss Longwood had gone to the papers, Rumford would have been caught. It’s almost unthinkable for a man to back out of an engagement.”
Sally said, “They must have been horrified when Rumford began to pay attention to Diana.”
“It’s bizarre, but it’s possible,” Alex said. “Longwood wanted to do away with Dee so that Rumford would go back to his daughter.”
“If he was so broke, how did Lord Longwood finance the attacks?” Sally asked. “He had to have paid off the men who carried out his orders.”
“He could have borrowed the money from the moneylenders here in town—at an exorbitant interest rate, of course.” Alex said.
“But we can’t prove any of this!” Sally said, a frown between her delicate brows. “How are we to proceed against Longwood if we don’t have any proof?”
Alex said, “All we have to do is tell Rumford that we suspect Longwood is responsible for the attacks on Dee. Knowing that, he would never marry Jessica if something should happen to Dee. I will relay this information to Longwood. The whole point of these attacks is Longwood’s hope that Rumford would turn to Jessica if Dee should die. Once Longwood knows that that will never happen, the attacks will stop.”
“You’re right,” Sinclair said.
“I will make a call upon Longwood right now, then I will drive to Hatton Manor to tell Rumford and Dee.” Alex put his teacup down and stood up.
“Good,” Sinclair said. Then he added, “Although part of me is pained that Longwood is going to get away with trying to murder Miss Sherwood.”
“I know,” Alex returned. “But we will get no-where by dragging this out into the public arena. Dee doesn’t need to be the subject of speculation among the ton. It will be punishment enough for Longwood to be a bankrupt.”
Sally said with pity, “Unfortunately, it will also be a punishment for poor Jessica.”
“Jessica is not your problem, my love,” the duke said firmly. “Do not fret yourself over her.”
Sally sighed. “But it does seem unfair.”
Alex said grimly, “Just think that if Dee hadn’t bent forward to rub a dirt spot from Monty’s neck, she would be dead right now. Then you won’t feel so sorry for any of the Longwoods.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Sally said in a subdued voice.
Alex headed for the door. “I will pay a call on Longwood at home. If he isn’t in, I’ll try to track him down at his club.” He looked at Sinclair. “Come for dinner tonight. If I’m successful I’ll have news you’ll want to hear.”
“I’d be delighted to come to dinner,” the duke said.
Alex nodded and left the room.
Sinclair turned to Sally. “It’s not too late for that drive in the park.”
She smiled at him and rose easily from her ottoman. “Good. I think I need some fresh air to clear my brain after what I have just learned.”
“You might kiss me first,” he said, and she obliged with pleasure.
Sally had to go upstairs and fix her disarranged hair before they were able to get into Sinclair’s phaeton.
Alex was lucky enough to find Lord Longwood at home and he met with him in the front drawing room of his house on Berkeley Square. It was not unlike Alex’s own drawing room at Standish House, except for the absence of pictures. Alex wondered if they had been sold to pay Gerald’s debt.
He refused to accept a seat and stood near the fireplace as he relayed to Longwood what the duke’s man of business had discovered. “You thought that if my cousin died, Rumford would offer for your daughter,” he ended in a grim voice.
The viscount denied Alex’s accusation vigorously. “You have no proof of this and I am insulted that you should come into my house and make such a charge,” he blustered. “I have a mind to have one of my footmen throw you out.”
“I’ll leave on my own,” Alex replied coolly. “But understand that I will be telling Rumford of your vicious plot and you can be sure he will have nothing to do with your family in the future. Also, should something happen to my cousin, I will accuse you before the world.”
“You have no proof to accuse me of anything!” Longwood almost shouted.
“I have enough proof to make a huge scandal,” Alex retorted swiftly. “So don’t make any more attempts on Miss Sherwood’s life, or you will feel my wrath. Do I make myself clear?”
Longwood did not reply. But all of the angry color had faded from his face leaving it looking white and pinched.
Alex went on relentlessly. “I mean what I say. You are getting away easy because I don’t want a scandal, but should anything happen to Miss Sherwood, you will wish you had never been born.”
There was a long silence while the two men looked at each other. Then Longwood said quietly, “I’m quite sure that nothing else will happen to Miss Sherwood.”
Alex’s face relaxed a trifle. “Good,” he said. “If I were you I would take my family and leave town. It won’t be long before news of your financial situation becomes public and you will probably be more comfortable in the country than you would be here in London.”
Longwood looked as if he had aged twenty years. He managed to nod in reply.
On this note, Alex left the room.
Alex reported on his conversation with Lord Longwood at dinner that evening and Sinclair, Sally and Lady Standish were all satisfied with the results of his visit. They all agreed that Alex should drive to Hatton Manor the following day to give Rumford and Diana the news.
It was an overcast day when Alex started out for Sussex. The weather had been beautiful for almost a full week, but it looked now as if it might be breaking. Lady Standish had wanted Alex to take the coach, so he wouldn’t get wet if it started to rain, but he had insisted on driving his phaeton.
“A few raindrops won’t make me melt away, Mama,” he said. “I’ll wear my driving coat. Don’t worry.”
In fact, it started to rain when he was an hour out of London and it continued to rain as he drove south, toward the sea. Diana was the first person to greet him as he came into the front hallway of the house. She had been sitting in the drawing room, and recognized his voice, and had come running to welcome him.
“Alex! What are you doing here? You’re drenched!”
Freddie was with her and he went to sniff Alex and jump up with a greeting. Diana called him back to her side.
Alex let a footman help him off with his caped driving coat. He had been wearing a hat, but some of the rain had seeped through and his hair was damp. Raindrops even clung to his eyelashes.
“I’ve come with good news,” he told her. “Where is Rumford and your mother? They will want to hear this, too.”
“You’ve found out who is behind the attacks on me?”
“Yes.” He brushed the wet curls off of his forehead.
“Who is it?” she demanded.
“Wait until Rumford and your mother get here and I’ll tell you all.”
Diana looked as if she might protest, but then she said, “There is a nice fire in the drawing room. Come inside and dry off in front of it.” She turned to the footman. “Please tell Sir Gilbert, my mother and Lord Rumford to come to the drawing room.”
“Yes, miss,” the footman replied and started toward the library, where Sir Gilbert was going over some accounts.
Within five minutes everyone had gathered. Alex stood with his back to the fire and told his rapt listeners all about Lord Longwood.
They were flabbergasted.
“Longwood!” Rumfo
rd said. He was sitting next to Diana on the sofa and now he put an arm around her shoulders. “To think that my love for Diana could cause such a reaction!”
Alex’s jaw clenched. “It’s almost unbelievable, I know, but when I talked with him I could see that he was guilty as hell.”
“How clever of you to have figured this out, Alex,” Louisa said admiringly.
“Sinclair and I put our heads together. And it was his man of business who ferreted out the facts of Longwood’s financial desperation.”
“Lord Longwood tried to have me killed,” Diana said slowly. She shook her head, her eyes on Alex. “It just doesn’t seem possible.”
“I feel terrible that my love for you put you in the way of such danger,” Rumford said to her.
“You couldn’t possibly have guessed what would happen,” Alex said shortly.
“Mama is right,” Diana said to Alex. “It was terribly clever of you and Sinclair to have found this out.” A smile broke out on her face. “The runners will have to watch out or you’ll be stealing their business.”
He forced a laugh.
“Are you certain that Diana is safe now, Alex?” Louisa asked. “There will be no more attempts on her life?”
“Longwood told me there would not be.”
“Thank God,” Louisa said.
Rumford said expansively, “Now that it is safe, I would like to invite all of you to pay a visit to Aston Castle. I know you ladies are busy ordering new clothes, but I would like Diana to see her new home before our marriage.”
Diana looked at her mother, who looked at Sir Gilbert. He smiled at her. “If you would like to go, my dear, of course we will.”
“Thank you, Lord Rumford,” Louisa said. “We will be happy to pay a visit to Aston Castle.”
“The invitation extends to you, too, Standish,” Rumford said. “I should love to show you my horses.”
Alex hesitated.
“Do come, Alex,” Diana said coaxingly. “You know you will love seeing the horses.”
He looked at her. This may be one of my last chances to be with Dee, he thought. Once she is married, God knows when I will see her.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll come.
Twenty-Nine
Aston Castle was in Oxfordshire and Diana’s first view of her new home was from the window of Rumford’s carriage, when she looked across the shimmering Thames and saw a golden stone building, its roofline punctuated by weirdly twisted chimney stacks and a prominent octagonal tower.
“How beautiful,” Diana said to her fiancé.
He smiled with pleasure. “I am very fond of my home. I hope you will be, too.”
“I’m sure I shall be,” she replied warmly.
The small house party was arriving at Aston in three separate carriages: Diana and Rumford in the earl’s carriage, Louisa and Sir Gilbert in his carriage and Alex was driving himself in his phaeton.
Rumford and Diana were the first to arrive and he proudly gave her a tour of the house. He took Diana through all the public rooms, which were rich and beautiful and resonant of the family’s long tenure in this magnificent home. The paintings were exceptionally beautiful and Rumford showed them off with obvious pride.
“I am very fond of landscape paintings,” he said, as they stood looking at an oil by Claude which hung in the Green Drawing Room. “The ones on the other wall are by two current painters, Constable and Turner, who I think have enormous talent.”
From the Green Drawing Room they walked to the lovely south gallery of the house, which was hung with portraits of family and friends. There was also a Van Dyke portrait of Charles I on horseback, which had been given by the king himself to an earlier Earl of Rumford.
Diana was accustomed to Standish Court, so she was not surprised or overwhelmed by the size or the magnificence of her new home. But as she walked beside her fiancé, she found herself engulfed by a strange feeling of loneliness. She would be leaving all the people she knew and loved and would be living here alone with this man. She would not even have her mother. It would be just she and Lord Rumford.
It will be fine, she scolded herself, as she walked back along the south gallery with her fiancé. It naturally feels a little strange to think of marrying someone I don’t know all that well. But Edward is such a good, kind man. It will be fine. I know it will be.
Alex arrived as they were finishing their tour and Rumford invited him to accompany them to see the horses. Much as Alex disliked admiring anything that belonged to Rumford, he could not contain his enthusiasm for the earl’s two stallions and eight beautiful mares.
“Do you know, I have been thinking about launching a breeding operation of my own,” Alex said as the three of them walked along the graveled stable path on their way back to the house.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Diana’s head swing around as if he had startled her.
“Racehorses?” Rumford asked interestedly.
Alex shook his head. “No. I was thinking of breeding my own hunters, mixing thoroughbreds, for their courage and speed, with carriage horses, for their strength and solid bone and sensible brain.”
“You never told me this,” Diana said, almost accusingly.
“I thought about it a lot when I was in the Peninsula,” he returned. “I used to lay in bed at night and plan out in my head how I would go about it.” What he didn’t say was that the planning had helped to get him through the nights when he couldn’t sleep.
“It sounds like a splendid idea,” Rumford said.
There was a pause. Then Diana said in a subdued voice, “Yes, it does.”
“I’m rather excited about it,” Alex confessed. “Once this Season is over, I’m looking forward to going home and getting started.”
“Where will you get your breeding stock?” Rumford asked.
The two men launched into a detailed discussion about the business of breeding horses, to which Diana did not contribute. Alex, who had never known her to hold back from a discussion about horses, said at last, “You’re awfully quiet, Dee.”
“I’ve been listening,” she assured him quietly. She lifted her eyes to his. “Your plans sound grand, Alex. If you have extra horses and want to sell them, I’ll be your first customer.” She smiled.
His stomach twisted with pain. I shouldn’t have come, he thought despairingly. It’s too hard seeing Dee with this man. I am only making myself miserable.
He wrenched his face into the semblance of an answering smile. “I’ll hold you to that,” he said.
The rest of the party arrived and were also shown around the house and the grounds. Dinner was served and Alex, Diana, Sir Gilbert and Rumford played at cards, while Louisa, who didn’t play, sat on the sofa going through a book of prints from Rumford’s vast collection.
Alex had taught Diana to play cards many years ago, when Sally was sick and the two of them had played whist with her while she was confined to bed. But Diana hadn’t had much opportunity to play since, and she made the wrong discard, which Alex immediately took advantage of. She apologized to her fiancé for her misplay.
He was unperturbed. “That is perfectly fine, my love. You will get better as you play more.”
My love. The words felt like a knife scraping along Alex’s frayed nerves. When the game was over he excused himself, not even waiting for the tea tray.
“Are you all right, Alex?” Diana asked in concern. “Just a bit of a headache,” he returned carelessly. “A good night’s sleep and I’ll be fine.”
He knew, of course, that there would be no such thing as a good night’s sleep, but he was prepared for that. He put on his dressing gown, took out the book he had brought for just this purpose and sat down by an oil lamp. He didn’t open his book immediately, however, but sat staring into the glowing embers in his fireplace.
He had thought it was painful seeing Dee at home when he knew she could not be his, but seeing her here with Rumford was excruciating. He had tried so hard to resign himself to losin
g her, but it seemed that he had not been successful. He was still staring desolately into the fireplace when he heard a knock upon his door.
His heart jumped into his throat. It was Dee, he knew it.
“Come in,” he called.
The door opened and she was there.
“Couldn’t you sleep?” she asked as she saw him sitting in the chair.
“I don’t sleep well in a strange bed,” he replied. “What are you doing up?”
She came into the room and closed the door behind her. “I don’t sleep well in a strange bed, either.” Her eyes flicked across the table next to him.
“I’m not drinking, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he said stiffly. “I’ve been more careful about that lately.”
“I’ve noticed,” she said. “I’m glad. I was worried about you, Alex.”
She sat on the side of his bed and looked at him gravely out of large brown eyes. She was so beautiful, with her hair tied loosely with a ribbon and her silk dressing gown belted around her slender waist.
For some reason he found himself telling her about the veteran’s club he had founded and the meetings they had held. He had never told anyone else about the club, and he didn’t know why he was blabbing now to Dee, but he couldn’t seem to stop.
She smiled when he had finished.
There was nothing in the world as beautiful as Dee’s smile.
He waited for her to tell him that he had chosen to leave her and go into the army and that now he was going to have to live with the results.
She said instead, “I’m so glad you’re getting help. It was very clever of you, Alex, to found that club. Is everyone benefiting from it?”
“I think so. It’s just good to have a place to go where you can talk about things you saw and other men will understand because they went through the same experience themselves.”
She nodded thoughtfully.
There was such sweetness to the curve of her cheeks, he thought. And her mouth….Abruptly he brought himself back to the awareness of what she was saying.
He managed to answer her sensibly, but inside every piece of him was dying to lay her down on that bed and make passionate love to her.
