The Heiress (13 page)

He had been an idiot for starting this in the first place, Daniel acknowledged as he quickly buttoned his vest and then pulled on his jacket. It was his damned pride that had made him decide he had to show her it wasn’t the punch, and that not just any man could bring about this state. But he should have known better. After all, did they not say pride went before a fall? Like an idiot, he’d gone through with the urge, never considering the strain it would put on him. Or maybe he just hadn’t wanted to. Maybe in his secret heart of hearts Daniel had hoped something would happen to break that control so he could finally claim her and find his release. Fortunately, Suzette had brought up the bit about marrying her and Daniel still had a sliver of conscience left. She was his best friend’s sister-in-law, or would be once Christiana and Richard married. He was in his best friend’s home and she was a noblewoman, not to be trifled with. Until he made up his mind to marry her . . .

Daniel grimaced at the half-baked thought. Who was he kidding? At this point, if it were legally possible, he’d grab the first priest off the street, drag him up here to marry them and then be buried inside the woman before the door had quite closed behind the man. Suzette was fire in human form, her body hot and liquid in his arms, her responses to him honest and unrestrained. He’d had several mistresses over the years, a few of whom Daniel had thought wonderful lovers, and they
had
been. Practiced and technically impeccable, they’d milked him of passion with a skill that spoke of experience but, he now saw, little real passion.

Suzette was different, her responses were honest, her need real not feigned to jolly the exercise along, and that passion in her had called out to his own. Feeling her tremble with excitement had excited him, tasting her passion had made his own hunger stretch and roar, and just watching her find her release had nearly brought on his own. He wanted to possess that, and if it took marriage to do it, then dammit, Gretna Green here he came.

“Daniel.”

He stiffened and felt his jaw drop as she suddenly stood before him, completely naked, apparently having shed the gown he’d all but removed himself. Daniel had been struggling with his cravat as he’d thought, but now she brushed his hands away and took the ends as if to manage the task for him. However, she paused and peered up at him solemnly instead.

“It is very chivalrous of you not to want to take my virginity, and I do understand and think it’s honorable, but in one of the books I’ve read, they wrote of a way I could give you the same pleasure you gave me without you actually putting your maypole in me.”

“What the devil have you been reading?” Daniel got out in a choked voice as his erection jumped eagerly in his trousers.

Suzette grinned at his expression, but then leaned up to kiss him, one hand drawing his cravat back off as she reached down with the other to caress him through his trousers. Groaning, he started to kiss her back, but then stilled as the sound of men’s voices came muffled through the door. Breaking their kiss, he urged her away to a safe distance and held her there with his hands on her upper arms as he turned to peer toward the door with alarm. It sounded like Richard and Langley in the hall, headed in the direction of the master bedroom. He frowned briefly, wondering what the devil Richard was doing, and then shook his head as he wondered what the devil he himself was doing. Really he had to start thinking with something other than his manhood. Though he suspected that wasn’t likely to happen until he’d sated the damned thing.

Grimacing, he turned back to Suzette and sighed with defeat. She was impossible to resist and he had been fooling himself to think that he could spend time getting to know her before satisfying his desire for her. Truly, she was like a house on fire in the midst of a hurricane, sucking him into her winds and burning him up all at once. All his good intentions and sensible decisions were nothing against the temptation she presented.

“Get dressed,” he said firmly, turning her away and urging her toward the bed and the discarded dress lying there. “We will head to Gretna Green as soon as we can.”

“But—” Suzette tried to turn back, her gaze on the bulge in his trousers, but he turned her firmly away again.

“I shall survive until we are wed,” he assured her dryly, though that was debatable. The woman was driving him insane, Daniel acknowledged and then glanced down at himself with disgust and moved to the window. Opening it, he leaned out briefly to inhale several deep breaths meant to calm himself before joining the others, but truly a basin of cold water poured on his groin would have been more useful. Sighing, he closed the window and turned back to find Suzette back in her dress and struggling to do it up. Leaving the window, Daniel moved to help her, quickly doing up her stays.

“You’d best brush your hair,” he murmured as he finished. “I shall be downstairs when you are presentable.”

Leaving her then, Daniel turned and crossed the room. He slid out into the hall with more haste than thought and was pulling the door closed before checking to see if the corridor was empty. It wasn’t. Richard was presently locking the master bedroom door, and while there was no sign of Christiana, Langley was with him. Daniel suspected this meant that both Christiana and Robert Langley now knew the particulars of what was going on. That was a relief of a sort. A secret like that was almost impossible to keep and they now had allies to aid in keeping it.

“I think perhaps you’re right,” Richard commented as he finished locking the door and straightened. “I will talk to Daniel and see if he can come up with any faults in the plan.”

Straightening his shoulders, Daniel started toward them, asking, “Faults in what plan?”

Both men turned his way.

“Where did you come from, Woodrow?” Langley asked abruptly, his eyes narrowing suspiciously and moving to the door to Suzette’s room.

“Oh . . . I . . . er . . .” Daniel waved back along the hall, but came to an abrupt halt as he heard a door open behind him.

“Daniel! Daniel, you forgot your cravat.”

He turned sharply at that loud whisper to see Suzette hurrying for the stairs, apparently thinking he’d headed straight below.

Daniel rolled his eyes with a sigh, and then said sharply, “Suzette!”

She came to a shuddering halt, and glanced back, eyes widening as she spotted him, Richard and Langley in the hall.

“Oh.” She turned slowly to face them and waved back toward the stairs, but then quickly jerked her hand behind her back as she noted the cravat waving about. “I was just going downstairs.”

Richard made a sound that was half cough and half laugh behind him which drew an immediate scowl from Suzette. She then heaved an exasperated sigh, stomped the small distance to Daniel, shoved the cravat at him, and simply whirled away to march silently off up the hall.

Daniel quickly tied his cravat in its intricate knot around his neck, but his gaze was on Suzette as she went and a smile was trying to claim his lips. Any other woman would have been mortified at what had just happened. She however was annoyed and even exasperated. There was nothing usual about Suzette Madison. If nothing else, she would certainly keep him entertained the rest of his days, and not just in the bedchamber. Somewhat reassured by that thought, Daniel turned back to Richard and Langley as he finished with his cravat, and then grimaced when he saw Langley’s glowering look.

“We are getting married,” he announced at once to forestall any outraged accusations the man might be nurturing at that moment.

“You’ve decided for certain, have you?” Richard sounded amused.

“I am not sure that is the correct phrasing for it,” Daniel admitted with a wry smile. “It would be more fitting to say I have bowed to the inevitable. The woman is a force of nature.”

“That she is,” Langley agreed, appearing to relax. “So, when is the trip to Gretna Green to occur? I should like to accompany you.”

“The sooner the better,” Daniel decided grimly. “If Suzette jumps out and drags me into one more room, I cannot guarantee she will reach Gretna as pure as she is now, and she is already less pure today than she was yesterday.”

Chapter Seven

T
hey’re going to be very, very angry.”

Daniel noted the way Richard grimaced at Robert’s prediction, but held his own tongue. He was pretty sure Langley was right and the women would be angry at their defection, but then he wasn’t too pleased about it himself at the moment.

It was nearly midnight the day after he’d encountered Langley and Richard in the hall. As he’d suspected, Christiana and Robert Langley now knew about George and all he’d done. Taking everything into account, the men had decided to head to Gretna Green at once and had immediately joined the women in the parlor to make the announcement. The suggestion had been met with horror and the assurance that “they couldn’t possibly!” What the men hadn’t considered was that the women would want to look nice for their weddings. They’d insisted they needed the rest of the day to pack and that they couldn’t possibly go without their maids.

Rather than the swift journey in one carriage that the men had planned on, they had ended leaving the next morning, that morning in fact, with three carriages to carry the six of them, as well as the girls’ maids and several chests. Three of the chests contained dresses, one held clothes for all three men, and one held George’s body.

With such a large party, they had started the journey at a desultory pace, planning on stopping for meals and to take rooms at night to sleep. It would have ensured probably four days of travel to get to Gretna Green. Daniel hadn’t minded that so much. While he’d basically decided to marry Suzette, he’d still welcomed the opportunity to get to know her a little better beforehand. However, he’d quickly learned he wouldn’t get that opportunity. During this first morning of the journey, Christiana and Richard had ridden in the lead Radnor carriage while Daniel and Suzette had ridden in the Woodrow carriage behind it with Lisa and Langley as chaperones. Langley’s carriage had followed at the rear of the small caravan, holding the maids.

However, Daniel’s hopes of getting to know Suzette better hadn’t come to fruition that morning. Langley had been decidedly quiet during that portion of the ride, giving grunts and one-syllable answers to Lisa’s efforts to speak to him, so she’d turned to speak to Suzette instead, and Daniel had been left mostly to listen to their chatter. He supposed he’d learned a little more about her through the conversation he’d witnessed, but it wasn’t the same as actually talking to her himself as they’d done in her room. Daniel would have liked to have asked questions about her childhood and got her talking about it. He had revealed what he felt was a great deal of his own experiences growing up and now wanted to hear hers, but that hadn’t happened. Instead, when they’d returned to the carriages after a stop for lunch at Stevanage, the girls had decided to ride with Christiana in the first carriage, leaving Richard to join the men in the second one.

The difference in the afternoon ride had been very notable. Where the carriage had been filled with a light and chatty atmosphere during the morning’s ride with the girls, it had been much more solemn and grim with just the three men. They had mostly discussed George’s murder and who might be behind it. Since they were coming to the situation mostly blind, having no idea who George had been dealing with or what he’d been doing this last year, they hadn’t really got far on the subject and had finally fallen silent.

Daniel couldn’t help thinking that Christiana might have been able to help more with the matter. Now that she knew everything, she seemed the best prospect for being able to tell them who he had chummed around with this last year and so on. However, she hadn’t been there to question.

Daniel had been relieved to arrive at Radnor as evening fell. It had been a short-lived relief. They’d disembarked to find the women all aflutter. It seemed during the second half of the journey Lisa had recalled a letter a street urchin had given her that morning to pass on to “The Earl.” It had happened during all the fuss and bother of loading the carriages, and she’d unfortunately forgotten the letter until they were almost to Radnor, where they planned to leave George in the family vault. Christiana, suspecting it was for George and not Richard, had immediately opened the letter to find it actually was for Richard. Someone knew George was dead and suspected Richard had killed him to reclaim his name and title. The individual was demanding a rather large sum of money to keep their silence. Now, they not only had to find out who had murdered George, but also had to contend with a blackmailer. Things just seemed to be spiraling out of control.

The one good thing about the letter was that it had forced Christiana to explain all to her sisters and they would no longer be hampered by the need to hide facts or the presence of the dead body from Lisa and Suzette. However, that was somewhat tempered for Daniel by Suzette’s annoyance with him. She was upset that he hadn’t told her about it himself at some point. She felt sure husbands and wives shouldn’t keep secrets like that from each other. Daniel hadn’t pointed out that they weren’t yet married, but had simply said it wasn’t his secret to tell. Suzette hadn’t seemed much mollified by the answer.

The discovery of the letter meant that the trip to Gretna Green had to be put off so that they could return to town at once to deal with the blackmailer. However, they had taken the time to set the chest holding George in the family vault first, and then had been held up when they were discovered by the Radnor minister. If not for the man’s catching them in the vault, all three carriages would now be on the way back to town. However, that discovery had led to explanations and then the minister offering to marry Richard and Christiana at once. After all, the man had pointed out, the banns had been read and the license procured a year earlier. The only reason the marriage was invalid was because Richard hadn’t attended the ceremony and signed the wedding register himself. Were the minister to marry them, and did Richard and Christiana sign the register before witnesses, the marriage would be legal and unbreakable. So they’d had the ceremony and then Richard had suggested the women go above stairs and refresh themselves while a quick wedding feast was prepared. They would dine with the minister and then return to town, he’d said as he sent the women off.

However, the moment the sisters were safely upstairs, Richard had taken the minister aside for a word and then begun hustling Daniel and Langley out of the house. He had decided they could travel faster without the women and would prefer to leave them safely here at Radnor rather than drag them back to town. The men could handle the blackmailer and then afterward return to collect the women and continue on to Gretna Green so that Daniel and Suzette could marry.

Daniel had not been pleased. He knew Suzette would be furious, but he was also rather annoyed himself. There was no way to get to know her better if they weren’t even together. However, Richard had insisted on it. He’d argued that it was safer and he didn’t wish the women involved with dealing with the blackmailer. He’d also pointed out that it was ridiculous to drag the maids and chests and all three carriages back to town when they would just be returning in a day or two to continue on to Gretna Green. Whether he liked it or not, Daniel had seen the sense in both arguments, so had finally capitulated. While the women were above stairs, the three men had snuck out of Radnor like thieves and ridden off in Daniel’s carriage.

As annoyed as he was at having to leave Suzette behind, Daniel had to admit it was safer. They were also traveling much more swiftly with just the three of them and one carriage. They had stopped three times to change the horses, and it wasn’t yet midnight, but he thought they were probably already about three quarters of the way back to London.

“They will get over their anger,” he said now, hoping that was true.

“Trust me,” Langley said dryly. “I have known the Madison sisters all my life. You will not get off easily for this. Either of you,” he added, and then glanced to Richard and said, “I was glad to see . . .”

Daniel didn’t hear the rest of what he said, his gaze had slid out the window to the moonlit sky as he wondered what Suzette was doing. He imagined she was still fuming over his defection. He supposed he would have some fence-mending to do when they returned to Radnor to collect the women. He would purchase a gift for her while in town, Daniel decided, and then brightened at the thought as he decided on an engagement ring and wedding band. He hadn’t considered the need for either item before this and he was trying to decide if she would prefer something simple like a solitaire or a more elaborate multi-jeweled ring when his thoughts were interrupted by a loud crack and the carriage suddenly pitching to the side.

Daniel grabbed instinctively for something to hold on to as the night filled with sudden shouts and whinnies, but he was too slow and found himself tumbling about inside the carriage. He crashed into one wall, then another, all the while taking blows from the various body parts of his companions as the three of them banged about inside the vehicle. The carriage seemed to roll several times before it came to a stop, and then everything was suddenly still.

Silence was a heavy cloak inside the carriage until Daniel found the breath to groan. He had come to rest on his back on a relatively flat surface except for something that was poking him in the lower back. It was damned uncomfortable, but not nearly as discomfiting as the fact that he couldn’t breathe. Something heavy had landed on top of him and was squeezing the breath right out of him. Probably one of the men, he thought a little faintly, or both of them, he corrected as the weight on top of him began to shift, stealing even more of his ability to breathe.

“Lord Woodrow?”

The darkness enveloping them suddenly gave way to blinding light as the carriage door opened above and his driver leaned in with a lit lantern to peer about. The light showed Daniel that it was indeed both Richard and Langley on top of him, but now Robert scrabbled to remove himself, making Richard grunt on top of Daniel as the other man sat up and then reached for the opening and pulled himself out.

“Damn, Richard, get off me, I can’t breathe,” Daniel gasped the moment he could get more air into his lungs, but Richard was already moving and muttering apologies as he inadvertently kneed and elbowed him during his efforts. Richard didn’t immediately follow Robert out of the carriage, however, instead shifting his weight to the side to kneel beside Daniel as he asked, “Are you all right?”

“Battered and bruised, but otherwise fine I think,” Daniel decided as he sat up. “You?”

“The same,” Richard said and glanced up.

Daniel followed his gaze to the opening and the still waiting driver. Robert was now also peering back in at them, but Daniel’s eyes sought out his driver.

“What happened?” he asked as he stood up.

“I’m not sure, my lord,” the driver admitted, sounding unhappy. He and Robert both shifted back to get out of the way as Daniel began to pull himself out through the open carriage door, before he continued, “We were riding along fine and then I heard a crack, and the carriage pitched and began to roll. Fortunately, the carriage body snapped just behind the boot and the horses weren’t dragged with it or they would have died for certain.”

Moving out of the way on the side of the carriage as Richard began to follow him, Daniel glanced over his driver with concern and asked, “And you weren’t hurt?”

“I was tossed, but landed on a bush. I’m all right,” the man assured him, but then added with disgust, “But the coach is a wreck. I don’t think it can even be fixed.”

“As long as everyone is all right,” Daniel said and glanced to Robert Langley in question.

“Fine,” the other man assured him, easing to the edge of the carriage to leap down. “I got an elbow in the face during one of the rolls and will probably have a black eye, but otherwise seem fine.”

Daniel grunted at this news and moved to inspect the two wheels on the upraised side of the carriage. Richard joined him as he inspected first the front and then back upraised wheel. Both appeared fine, so Daniel jumped to the ground and moved next to inspect the wheels presently lying flat on the ground. He frowned when he found the broken wheel and took note of the break of the spokes. Eyeing them suspiciously, he commented, “That’s a rather straight break.”

Richard was at his side at once. “You think they were cut?”

“Those three spokes certainly look like they could have been,” Daniel pointed out a trio of spokes next to each other where the breaks looked as straight as a cut. “The rest are more splintered and natural-looking breaks. They probably snapped under the pressure when those three gave way.”

Richard frowned and glanced around as they both straightened. “I agree. The question is who did it and why? And when?”

“The why is easy,” Daniel pointed out. “As far as George’s killer knows, the poison didn’t work. As for when . . .” He peered back at the broken wheel. “It couldn’t have been done in town. There were four of us in the carriage this morning on the way to Radnor and the wheel would have given out then under that kind of weight had it been cut before we left London. Besides, you weren’t even in my carriage on the way out of town.”

“So it was done at Radnor or one of the three stops since we left,” Richard reasoned.

Daniel nodded. Obviously George’s killer thought he’d failed and was making renewed efforts to rid the world of the man. A bit callous of the fellow to make the attempt in such a way that he and Langley could have died with Richard, Daniel thought dryly. He glanced to Richard to note that he was peering about again as if expecting the culprit to leap out at them and couldn’t blame him. If the spokes had been cut at Radnor or at one of the stops since then, it meant they’d been followed from town. The culprit may actually still be trailing them.

“Is that a carriage I hear?” Richard asked suddenly.

Daniel raised an eyebrow and listened for a moment, becoming aware of a faint sound that was definitely that of a distant but approaching carriage. “Yes, and it’s moving quickly. We’d best get off the road.”