How to Entice an Earl (32 page)

Stepping farther into the room, the viscount indicated that they should be seated, and Maddie realized that her brother must be exhausted. “Of course,” she said, stepping forward to take the seat nearest the fire. “So, tell us.”

“I was there at the hunting lodge for a couple of weeks without incident,” Linton said. “Of course, I knew that Punch and Judy were there watching me.”

Maddie hid a grin at his nickname for the Home Office operatives. She sneaked a glance at her husband and found that he was less amused.

“I can’t explain how I knew someone else had come along,” James said, fiddling with the tassel on his boot. “But I just sensed it. I felt like I was being watched, and it wasn’t in a benign way, either. That night, I was working out whether I should head north or west to the coast when I heard something in the wood just outside the lodge. I lay there, still, listening, when I smelled the smoke. I knew as soon as I scented it that I had to leave.”

“And you came here,” Christian said, his brow raised. Clearly, he didn’t think that her brother’s decision had been a wise one. “Why not keep running?”

Linton reddened. “I … there is a lady in London…”

“Lady Emily Fielding,” Christian said, surprising Maddie. “What?” he asked, taking in her astonishment. “Is it such a secret?”

Maddie shook her head. “No, but I only discovered it this morning. I had no idea you had suspicions of a romance.”

“It is hardly romantic to suspect that one’s brother-in-law is carrying on an affair with his best friend’s widow,” Christian said dryly.

Linton stood, swaying on his feet, but remaining upright. “It’s not like that, Gresham. Do not be so damned lascivious.”

“Dearest,” Maddie said, moving to her brother’s side, bracing him with an arm of support. “I think you’d better sit back down. You are unwell.”

She glared at her husband. “Now, then, Linton,” she said, once he was seated again, with her sitting opposite, watching him. “Tell us about your relationship with Lady Emily. She is quite beautiful.”

“Yes,” Christian said, ignoring Maddie’s glares. “Tell us about your ‘relationship’ with Lady Emily.”

“Damn it, Gresham,” Linton spat out. “If you weren’t married to my sister I’d draw your cork for that. Lady Emily is not a tart for you to malign.”

“My apologies, Linton,” Christian said, not sounding apologetic to Maddie in the least, “but I needed to ascertain just how you feel about the lady. Especially given that you risked your own life and that of your hostess to get back to her.”

Maddie watched as her brother deflated a bit. “I know,” he said, dragging his hands down over his face. “I shouldn’t have come here and put Hennie in danger. But I could think of nowhere else to go. My own rooms are being watched. Our parents’ house is hardly safe. And I dare not go to Emily.”

“Where is Hennie?” Maddie asked, realizing that their hostess hadn’t come to greet them at all. “Has something happened to her?”

She saw her brother stiffen, his expression pained. “What, Jamie? What’s happened?”

“It’s not what you think, Mads,” he said quickly, taking her hand in his. “But Hennie did not wish to see you.”

A silence fell over the room. Maddie felt a constriction in the region of her heart.

“Why?” she asked softly. “Have I done something?”

She felt her brother squeeze her hand. “No, it’s nothing like that. She won’t see you for your own sake. She says that she will not put your reputation at risk by being in the same room with you.”

Maddie put a hand up to her mouth. “But that’s absurd,” she said finally, frowning at the notion. “I am not so high in the instep that I would refuse to see her. Why, we came here to her house, after all.”

“Yes, and so long as the servants and I are able to vouch for the fact that you were never in Hennie’s company you are safe.”

“Wait,” Maddie said, “you sound as if you agree with her.”

Linton shrugged. “It’s not as if my reputation will suffer any for being seen with her. But you are a lady, for all you try your damnedest not to be. And it would take little enough for the wagging tongues of the
ton
to ruin you.”

She turned to Christian. “Do you agree with him?” she demanded.

But her husband was unwilling to enter into the argument. He threw up his hands in surrender. “I know better than to tell you whom to see and not see, my dear. I can see your brother and Mrs. Hendricks’s point, but I can also see yours. Besides which, I suspect you have been seen in worse company over the years.”

Maddie shook her head in disgust. “So I suppose she’s left the house altogether,” she said, resting her arms akimbo on her hips. “I am so annoyed I could spit. I can, of course, believe it of Hennie. She has always been far too worried about her effect on my reputation. But when you, James, who have fathered a child out of wedlock, preach propriety at me, then that is the very—”

She stopped speaking as soon as she realized what she’d said. Dash it all, she’d intended to break the news to him in a more gentle manner. Work up to it so that he wasn’t more surprised than absolutely necessary.

“What did you say?” Linton demanded, grabbing his sister by the arms. “What do you mean, ‘fathered a child out of wedlock’?”

“Easy there, Linton,” Christian said, removing her brother’s hands from Maddie’s arms. “That’s my wife you’re manhandling.”

“Maddie, what did you mean by it?” her brother asked again, thrusting his hands through his hair. “Have you spoken to Emily?”

Seeing that she would have to reveal all, Maddie laid her hand on her brother’s arm. “Yes, dearest. I have spoken to Lady Emily. She came to me because she needed to find you. To send word to you. About … the baby.”

She watched in trepidation as her brother shook his head as if unable to believe what he’d just heard. “A child. I can hardly believe it.”

He frowned. “Is she ill? I know that ladies are sometimes ill when they are with child. Did she seem well to you? Is this why you came to find me? That was good of you to do so. We must depart at once so that I can see her. I will go get my things.”

Before either Maddie or Christian could respond, Viscount Linton was gone, presumably to gather his things.

“When were you going to tell me about this, Maddie?” Christian asked, his face deceptively calm. “And how long have you known?”

“Just since this morning,” Maddie said in an attempt to placate him. “I forgot about it when you told me of my brother’s disappearance.”

“We rode all the way out to Richmond in near silence,” her husband said, his frustration seeping into his tone. “Mightn’t you have remembered along the way?”

“Darling,” Maddie said, leaning up to kiss him. “I was overset. I was worried about my brother and I could hardly tell you before I told him.”

She saw him open his mouth to argue, but Maddie was relieved when he just shook his head. It had been bad of her to keep the news from him. But she had been telling the truth when she said she would not have wished him to know before her brother did. Besides, Lady Emily had told her the news in confidence. And though Maddie would have told Christian eventually, she felt better having kept the secret to herself until she could tell her brother.

“I suppose we should call for the carriage,” Christian said, kissing her on the nose. “But I want you to remember that the next time you fail to tell me something that I need to know—especially when it pertains to this investigation, there will be consequences.”

But if he wished for her to be cowed, her husband was doomed to disappointment. Maddie grinned up at him. “Consequences. Why, Lord Gresham. What a hard case you are.”

With a sigh, Christian led her toward the entrance hall.

*   *   *

When they returned to London, Christian had to argue vociferously to prevent Linton from setting out immediately to see Lady Emily. He was saved the need of bodily preventing his brother-in-law from leaving Gresham House by Linton’s own body, which, having transported him from the hunting lodge to Richmond, was finally pressed beyond its capacity and refused to budge a step further. As soon as the viscount stepped from the carriage, he collapsed into a heap on the front stoop.

“Oh, dear,” Maddie said, leaping down without assistance to lean over her brother’s inert form. “Do you suppose he’s been poisoned?” she asked, worry in her eyes as she looked up at her husband.

“I think it more likely that he is either exhausted or ill. He has been on the run for days now. Even a man in the best of health will find himself at the point of exhaustion after such a journey. And I do not believe your brother has been in the best of health.”

Maddie nodded, making Christian wish he could erase the lines of worry from her eyes. But he knew that she was, at heart, a realist. And she must know that her brother had been pushing himself beyond his capacity for some time now.

Leaning down, he gestured to the waiting footmen to bring a litter to carry his brother-in-law into the house. He didn’t like the notion of having James under their roof while he was still under threat of death from persons unknown. But he could hardly leave the man to lie in the streets. And besides, they might be able to flush out the person responsible for the threats against Tretham and Linton by luring them here. Perhaps he could convince Maddie to go stay with Winterson and Cecily or Deveril and Juliet until they found the culprit. Watching her follow the footmen carrying her brother into the house, barking orders at them, and telling the housekeeper to follow her, he knew that getting her out of the house would be impossible. She would no more abandon her brother to his care than she would leave a newborn babe on the roadside.

Speaking of babies, he thought, hurrying up the steps himself, he turned over the news that Maddie had blurted out at Mrs. Hendrick’s house. It was not difficult to believe, of course, given the fact that Linton had been carrying on with Lady Emily for some time now. But there was something about the timing of the lady’s announcement that aroused his suspicions. Not only because it was as likely a ruse as he could imagine to convince Maddie to tell Lady Emily of her brother’s whereabouts. But also because it was just so damned coincidental. He would need to speak to the woman himself, and soon. Perhaps when she came, as was inevitable now, to visit her lover’s bedside.

He was just removing his hat and overcoat when a brisk knock sounded at the door. It was too soon for the physician to have arrived, he thought. Hanging back a bit to see who the butler opened the door to, he was shocked to see Tretham. Stepping forward, and nodding to the butler to indicate that he would see the visitor, Christian led the other man farther into the house toward his study. Whatever it was that had brought the other man to him, it had him spooked. Christian could see it in Tretham’s eyes.

“Drink?” he asked, stepping toward the sideboard where he kept a decanter of brandy. At Tretham’s nod, he poured them both enough to be more than medicinal.

“So,” he asked, lowering himself into the large desk chair. “What’s amiss?”

Not bothering to disabuse him of the notion, Tretham took a gulp of the brandy before replying. “I have received another threat,” he said, his face pale. “It says that if I do not meet this person at the Hidden Pearl tomorrow night he will see to it that my parents will be killed.”

Christian hid his surprise. But he was, indeed, surprised. This didn’t sound like the same person who had threatened the three men before. First of all, the earlier threats had been against their own lives. True, it would harm their families if they themselves were killed, but it would hardly do the same sort of damage to them if their loved ones were killed in their place.

“Does he ask you to bring anything to the Pearl?” Christian asked. “Money? Some proof that you didn’t kill Fielding?”

“Oh,” Tretham said, reaching into his pocket, “here is the note. Read it for yourself. He asks me to bring twenty guineas. And here’s the oddest part. He asks for a note of apology.”

“Probably wants the note to use for blackmail later,” Christian said, skimming the note. The handwriting was the same as the first note, so he did not doubt the note’s authenticity. But it was odd that the person had changed their motivation. Perhaps blackmail had been the goal all along, rather than terror? Still, remembering what had happened to Tinker, he couldn’t help but feel that neither Tretham nor Linton were out of danger. Just because their tormentor had realized he might use their fear to extract funds from them before he ultimately killed them did not mean that he did not still, indeed, intend to take their lives. “May I keep this?” he asked the other man, noticing that Tretham, too, was beginning to look the worse for wear.

“Of course,” Tretham said with a dismissive wave. “I have no need of it. I’ve memorized the bloody thing.”

“Logic says that this person wants your money and not your life,” Christian told the other man. “You can hardly hand over your funds if you are no longer among the living. And yet, there is an escalation of violence here that I cannot like.”

Tretham shrugged. “I do not worry for myself but my parents are elderly and do not deserve to be put in danger because of some foolishness on my part.” He thrust both hands through his already disordered hair. “If I could go back and undo that wretched race with Fielding I would do so. A hundred times over. Nothing good came of it. Now both Fielding and Tinker are dead and Linton and I are both in the sights of a killer. All for what? Some drunken foolishness.”

“That doesn’t sound like you,” Christian said, frowning. “What happened to your refusal to let the bastard get you down?”

“That was before the bastard threatened my family, Gresham,” the other man said with a defeated sigh. “I have never been a particularly moral fellow, you know. I have debauched and whored for years as if I were attempting to outpace death. But I do not mind telling you that this business frightens me. Not on my own behalf—my life is worth little enough—but on my family’s. They do not deserve to be tarred with the brush of my ill behavior.”

“What do you mean to do about it?” Christian asked, knowing that Tretham would not be speaking so if he didn’t have a plan in place.