“Don’t worry about that, the maid will pick it up,” I told him as I stopped at the bed. “Have you had the doctor look at your leg?”
Griffin
lay with his eyes closed, a furrow between his brows. I tried to smooth it out, but his hand shot up and grabbed my wrist with a strength that was almost painful. His eyes opened at my gasp of pain. I was happy to see his lovely amber eyes were once again in focus, although it took a few minutes before he recognized me.
Robert slipped out of the room, saying he would get a compress for his knee, and I was left to sit with my fallen hero. I brushed back the hair from his temples and laid a hand alongside his cheek. “How do you feel?”
He looked at me for a few moments while the words filtered through his fogged brain. “Feel tired.”
“I know, my poor darling. You lay there and rest. You’re safe now.”
I murmured endearments as he dropped into a restless sleep. After I was sure he was resting as comfortably as I could expect, I went downstairs to face the familial equivalent to the Spanish Inquisition.
Conversation stopped when I entered the sitting room, faces turning to me with ill-concealed expectation. I smiled wanly, refused a cup of tea, asked for one of coffee, and sank exhaustedly into a chair. Mabel glared at me, evidently still annoyed at my rudeness earlier. Joshua watched me patiently while Robert stood gazing forlornly out the window.
“We were kidnapped,” I said in answer to the unspoken question.
The response was more heated than I had expected, and I closed my eyes until the exclamations were finished.
“Would you like to wait to tell us, my dear?”
“Thank you, Joshua, but I think I would rather tell you now. Griffin may need me later.”
“Doctor Melrose said he would be fine in a day or two,” offered Mabel, her anger apparently forgotten. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Now, tell us about this kidnapping.”
I went over the entire amazing episode, leaving out only the part concerning Freddy. I would deal with him later.
“My one concern now is whether or not we should contact the police,” I finished wearily.
Joshua asked, “Can you identify the men who kidnapped you?”
“I know their first names, and I would recognize them again if I saw them.”
“Hmm. How about the place you were held?”
“Probably not. It was near the river, I know that. But the exact street? No. The note I received was taken away from me, and I cannot remember the address.”
“Well then,” Joshua said, standing in front of a welcome afternoon fire, “I don’t see what good the police will do. You can’t identify the men, you can’t identify the house in which you were held, and you don’t even have the note that sent you on the journey.”
Robert turned from the window, and agreed. “Even if you could identify the building, the kidnappers will be long gone.”
I clutched the chair tightly, my head swimming. Robert’s words seemed to be coming from a very long way away. An inky, dark pool loomed up before me.
“Delayed reaction,” I heard someone say, and thought I heard Helena’s voice just before my head went under the dark water.
Chapter Twenty-two
“You startled me, you know. I’ve never had anyone swoon just because I entered a room.” It
was
Helena I heard before I fainted. “You didn’t say anything, either. You just toppled quietly to the floor, clutching a cup of coffee.”
I summoned up a smile for her, although I was sure it wasn’t a very brilliant specimen.
“Are you sure he’s going to be all right?”
Helena
was almost panic-stricken with concern about the state of her brother’s health until we trouped upstairs together. Side-by-side we stood, watching him sleep.
“The doctor says he just needs to sleep. There’s no real damage.” A thought struck me, causing me to giggle under my breath. Helena looked askance at me, horrified that I could laugh in the face of her brother’s brush with death. “Can you imagine what Griffin would have to say if he knew we were standing here watching him sleep?”
A smile stole across Helena’s lips, and after she delivered a final kiss to his forehead, and I one to his adorable lips, we went downstairs.
Several hours later, the library was the scene of a domestic storm.
“No! I will not have it, Cassandra! You might be betrothed to the man, but it is beyond improper that you should spend the night in the same room with him.”
I glanced at Joshua, hating to make a scene, but resolute. “I’m sorry to give you grief, Mabel, but that is not acceptable. Griffin has been severely drugged. I will not be able to sleep knowing he might have some sort of the reaction.”
“The doctor said he would be fine.”
“I don’t care. I’m spending the night with him.” I started to rise from the sofa.
“I will
not
have it!” Mabel yelled, startling Joshua. “No sister of mine will behave with such impropriety!”
“For heaven’s sake, Mabel—the man was drugged almost to death!”
“I don’t care! I refuse to allow you to shame us with such scandalous behavior. What if it got out? How would we hold up our heads?” she shouted.
“There is nothing we could do that we haven’t already done,” I yelled back.
Mabel gasped, and things pretty much went downhill after that, dissolving into one of our rare arguments that ended in hurtful accusations and slammed doors. I stormed up to my room and waited until she went to rail at Joshua for having such an unreasonable sister before slipping into Griffin’s room, where I crawled into bed with him, my hand on his chest just because it made me feel better to have it there.
Griffin
slept through the night and late into the morning. It wasn’t until noon that I found him sitting up in bed, rubbing a hand over his stubbly cheeks.
“Ah, sleeping beauty awakens,” I joked as I entered, turning to hail Annie as she left my room. “Send up some coffee, please. Lots of it.”
“I thought I was dreaming,” Griffin said, yawning, looking around the room. “What am I doing here?”
I sat carefully on the bed and ignored, as best I could, the large expanse of hairy chest in front of me. I reminded myself sternly that he was recovering from a head wound and overdose of opiate, and although he might enjoy the expressions of affection that I was so desirous of showing him, it would be better to wait until he had fully recovered.
“Do you remember anything about yesterday?” I asked, keeping my eyes fixed firmly on his face.
He frowned and rubbed his head, grimacing when he touched the injured spot. “Not much. I remember you, and a fat man who tried to take my clothes off.” He looked down at himself, then pulled the blankets up modestly as a housemaid came in with coffee.
“Do you remember anything about being drugged, or hit on the head?” I asked as I poured him a cup.
“No. Just a bad dream about stairs.”
I told him briefly what had happened. My narrative was interrupted frequently and punctuated with several outraged comments and scattered oaths throughout.
“Very well, I will promise that I will never again—“
“—under any circumstances—“
“I will never again under any circumstances climb out of a skylight, frolic on a roof, scramble down a drainpipe, or walk along six-inch ledges.”
“And?” Griffin asked, glowering at me.
“Oh, nor will I use myself as bait of any sort. Are you happy now?”
“No. But tell me again what you said to Sherry.”
I repeated it. His scowl faded and a little smile curled his lips. “I wish I had been there. He must be furious. I can’t wait to see him.”
Our eyes met and the smiles left both our faces. I placed my hand gently on his cheek. We sat like that for a moment, then he pulled me forward and onto his chest.
“I owe you my life,” he whispered, kissing me gently.
“It wasn’t quite as dramatic as that.” My hands moved to his bare chest as his mouth claimed possession of mine, a moan of pleasure slipping from my lips as his tongue stirred the embers of a fire than never completely extinguished. Carefully, gently, slowly I pulled myself away from him. “You’re not supposed to overextend yourself. The doctor said you must not make any quick or strenuous actions, lest it cause your head to hurt.”
He protested, but I left him to get dressed by himself. Ten minutes after he came downstairs to the sitting room, Mullin entered, murmuring, “Lady Helena St. John…er…”
“It’s all right, Mullin,” I said, climbing off from Griffin’s lap. I straightened my dress and tried to look like Griffin hadn’t been in the middle of a detailed examination of my mouth, simultaneous with a tactile mapping of my upper person. “Helena! Here is the brave hero, all in one piece, as you can see.”
“Yes, I can see he’s feeling much better,” she said with a smile as she kissed his cheek. Robert, who was behind her, grinned.
“Much,” Griffin said, sliding me a glance that instantly set my heart beating faster.
I cleared my throat and tried to not think of how close we had come to being discovered in a far more embarrassing position. “Mabel and Joshua have taken the girls to the zoo. You’ll stay for luncheon, I hope.”
All three agreed, and before long, we were sitting at the dining table, a cold repast before us.
“The time has come for all of us to be completely honest,” I told them as I passed around cold chicken.
“Honest? I’ve always been honest with you,” Helena said.
“Of course you have; I never doubted that. My comment was aimed primarily at your brother. It’s time he tells us what he suspects.”
Griffin
grumbled a bit at that, but in the end agreed. “I will, but only after you explain what you think has been happening.”
“Very well. I shall begin by telling you all about my cousin’s role in this.”
“Your cousin?” Helena asked. Griffin scowled at me.
I quickly explained Freddy’s part in the kidnapping. “I am fairly confident that his plan was to marry me after he had drugged me just enough to make me not quite lucid.”
Griffin
muttered a few choice phrases that I thought best to ignore.
“But that’s illegal,” Helena protested.
“Of course it is, but I now realize I have been shockingly misled as to Freddy’s true nature. But there is more to it than that—I’m convinced that he has some connection with Lord Sherringham.”
Helena
laid down her fork, shocked at my comments. “My dear Cassandra, just because I saw your cousin speaking with Harold, it doesn’t follow that he had a part in your kidnapping!”
“I’m lost—what does the earl have to do with you two being kidnapped?” asked Robert.
We all looked at Griffin.
“There isn’t any proof,” Griffin said to me, acknowledging the suspicion in my mind.
“No, but the connection is there. Helena saw them talking at that costume ball.” I smiled at the recollection. “You made a charming Arab, you know.”
He grinned in return. “I thought we made quite a pair.”
“Oh, come now, you didn’t know who I was until Helena told you.”
“I didn’t tell him,” Helena reminded me. Robert looked confused.
“I knew you as soon as I saw you. There are not too many women with brilliant green eyes, and yours, sweetheart, are unmistakable.”
I smiled at his compliment and continued with a more sober train of thought. “To answer your question Robert, it has been my belief for some time that someone means to…well, to be blunt, to kill Griffin.”
Helena
gasped in horror, but took the news better than I had expected. “I knew it! But, why? Why would anyone want to harm you?”
“The most common reasons are for gain, love, or revenge,” I mumbled as I fought with a tough piece of chicken. I looked up and saw I had the attention of the table. Turning to Griffin, I set down my fork and knife and asked, “Who would benefit by your death?”
“Helena mostly, and probably Harold.”
“Do you have a will?”
“No. I’ve been meaning to make one, but just haven’t found the opportunity.”
“If you were to die in your current state, your estate would likely be divided equally between Helena and your brother; at worst it would go to Lord Sherringham in its entirety.”
“Possibly.” He frowned.
“Helena, you told me once that you inherited from your mother. Who controls your money until you are of age?”
“Harold does. Oh, and there is another trustee, Oliver Hope.”
“And if you marry, is your fortune settled on you?”
She blushed and only just refrained from glancing at Robert. “No. I won’t have it until I’m twenty-five.”
Something niggled in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t pinpoint it.
“I don’t understand the purpose of your questions, Cassandra. What are you trying to say?” Robert asked.
I ignored it and turned back to Griffin. “Why would he want you dead? He’s got everything, a title, an ancestral home, respect, position, a house in town—”
“Debts up to his knees,” Griffin interrupted. “There is no money from Rosewood, and he has run through what little money Letitia brought to the marriage. The house in town is mine, not Sherry’s. I bought it when his creditors forced him to sell it.”
“The house is yours? Does your brother have a house?”
Their heads swinging in unison between Griffin and me as if they were at a tennis match, Helena and Robert watched us in stunned silence.
“He had Rosewood, but that was destroyed, and all that’s left is three hundred acres of land leased for the next forty years.”
“If the house had not burned,” I said absently, “it might have kept him from coveting your income.”
He looked at me oddly, his mouth twitching. “You should know the worst if you’re going to marry into the family. I don’t have any proof, but I’ve always believed that Sherry burned the house down himself.”
“Griffin!” cried Helena, clearly unable to comprehend what her brother was saying.
“I’m sorry Helena, but it’s time you know the truth, too. Sherry always was a little different, and he loathed having to share Rosewood with us. My father specified in his will that Rosewood always be our home as well as Sherry’s, Cassandra. He hated that. It wasn’t too bad when I was at school, but when I came home—”