Deadly Engagement: A Georgian Historical Mystery (Alec Halsey Crimance) (19 page)

Sir Cosmo shook his powdered head. “What gets into a man to want to force himself on a young girl? It’s barbaric! And killing the maid in the process defies my powers of reasoning. Ugly. Damned ugly!”

“Why kill a lady’s maid?”

“She saw him. That’s obvious. Had to shut her up quick before Emily or a servant heard her.”

“Why didn’t a servant hear her scream for help? There was a footman on duty in the corridor just outside the sitting room door.”

Sir Cosmo put aside the wine glass and randomly selected a cue from the rack. “Mayhap she didn’t get a chance to scream? Jumped on her quick. Mayhap the candles had guttered or he snuffed ’em? It was dark, wasn’t it?”

“How would he find her in the dark? How did he get the opportunity to snuff out all the candles, lie in wait, and then pounce on Jenny? She wouldn’t have gone two steps into a darkened room. She’d have called a footman for a taper.”

Sir Cosmo looked glum. He placed his billiard ball in the middle of the baulk line, lined up his cue and with one eye closed took aim and made the break. “So the candles weren’t snuffed. We’re back to what I first said. She saw him and he shut her up quick.”

“Or she saw him and knew him, and thus not fearing him did not cry out. Perhaps it was she who let him in?”

“What about the footmen? Why didn’t they see him?”

It was Alec’s turn to frown. He had taken his time to select a suitable cue and waited for Sir Cosmo to end his run of easy shots, wine glass in hand.

“As much as it gives me a feeling of utter disgust I think you’re right,” Sir Cosmo agreed and failed to score so stepped back for Alec to begin his run of play. “She knew him. Can’t imagine Emily’s maid being free and easy with access to her mistress’s rooms. And you said she was found in the bedchamber. Not a place to invite strangers, is it?”

“Not a place to invite anyone.”

“What about that footman on duty?”

“Neave said the two footmen at the end of the corridor were adamant they saw no one.”

“Lying,” Sir Cosmo said flatly. “Got to be. Wandered from their posts. Not likely to confess to Neave, are they?”

“Or the murderer used the servant stairs from start to finish. And how in the name of Zeus am I to discover the murderer’s identity before the weekend is over?” Alec wondered aloud. “How do I go ferreting into people’s lives, discovering the whereabouts of each and every male guest after they left the drawing room last night? And without offending the innocent, and more importantly, without causing Olivia and Emily discomfort and embarrassment?”

“I don’t know,” Sir Cosmo said lamely, watching Alec play a winning hazard. “I’d like to help. Mayhap I can ask a few discreet questions in a couple of ears? And of course you can eliminate some of us. I mean, it wasn’t her uncle Macara, or you, or I. And it certainly wasn’t old General Wallbright with his gout and cane to get about. Then there’s the vicar and Ned. Wouldn’t be Ned. He’s engaged to Emily. Some of the fellows were too drunk after dinner to even join the ladies for coffee. Footmen had to carry them up to their respective rooms.”

Alec looked up before making his next shot, unconvinced. “Whose to say one of those drunken gentlemen wasn’t faking it? That’s why I have Neave trying to learn what he can from the valets—”

“Ha! They’ll be as easy to extract information from as a good tooth from a young head!”

“Mm. There are those gentlemen I can obviously discount for one reason or another. That still leaves a handful unaccounted for, besides myself, you, and Delvin.”

“You can’t think—”

“I don’t know what to think!” Alec snapped and mistimed his shot, thus leaving the way open for Sir Cosmo to clean up the game. “A day ago I wouldn’t have thought it possible for a young girl to be near raped in her own home, her maid killed into the bargain. It’s the stuff of Haymarket melodrama, yet it’s happened under this very roof. Will the others discount us so easily when they learn that last night you were running about in your Chinese banyan looking for me, and there was I, alone on the terrace in the rain. Delvin has an alibi in Selina—”

“I’ll not believe that!
Ever
. She loathes him.”

“Why shouldn’t I believe my own eyes? I walked in on them. Thinking about it I’m convinced that’s exactly how Delvin planned it. He wanted me to see them together. He wanted to gloat in my face.”

Sir Cosmo clenched his jaw. He hesitated taking his final shot and faced Alec. “I don’t care what you say you saw but it wasn’t what you think you saw!” he said stubbornly “Ned’s been acting like a lunatic lately. Of course he wanted you to see Selina and he together. He’s lusted after her since I can remember. But that don’t mean she wants anything to do with him!” He lined up his shot again, saying with a huff, “Ned! That show he put on at breakfast had me coming up for air. Never heard such rot. Can’t blame the man for being crazy with anger, but to accuse you…”

“You shouldn’t be surprised by Edward’s behavior. You’ve always known how it is between us.”

“But I never realized how much he hated you,” Sir Cosmo answered. “You’ve not done him a harm. You’ve kept out of his way. And as for this engagement, you’ve been more than decent about it considering you’d set your cap at Emily… Hadn’t you?”

“I was heading in that direction, yes.”

Sir Cosmo made successive misses and stood back unconcerned by his bad play because his mind was elsewhere. “A lesser man would’ve come between them before now.”

“Yes, a lesser man would have.”

Sir Cosmo groped for a reply, at the very least an apology but Alec’s accompanying smile made him feel foolish to think his friend would take offense. “What the devil is Ned’s problem?” he wondered aloud. “It’s not as if he’s got anything to be concerned about. He’s engaged to Emily, you’re not. She’s in love with him, not you. He’s the earl, you’re the acknowledged second son.”

Alec came away from the window and repositioned the three billiard balls on the green baize. “What do you mean
acknowledged second son
?”

Sir Cosmo put his chin in the folds of his stock. “I’m sure I need not repeat the whispers about your mother…”

“Please, I beg you to elaborate.”

“Tell you a truth, dear fellow, it’s quite laughable,” Sir Cosmo said in an off-handed manner to hide his embarrassment. He avoided his friend’s smoldering blue-eyed gaze by choosing another cue in readiness for a second game. “The whole episode is something out of the Middle Ages. No doubt you’ve had a chuckle over it.”

“Over what?”

“Oh, do come about, Alec!” Sir Cosmo scoffed. “You know damned well what I’m talking about. You’ve always played too close for your own good. I’m a friend, a sympathetic ear, not judge, jury, and executioner.”

Alec chalked the tip of his cue. “I have nothing to say about Lady Delvin.”

“Perhaps you don’t, but Jack’s mamma has had plenty to say. Lady Margaret says she has a letter written in your mother’s fist. Says it proves your birthright.”

“You’ve seen this letter?”

“No. Thing of it is, Selina says her aunt has misplaced it.”

Alec huffed in disbelief.

“But that don’t mean it don’t exist! Lady Margaret has the servants turning her townhouse upside down looking for it. And when it’s found she’s determined to see justice done!”

“Cosmo. Lady Margaret must have dozens of letters written to her by Lady Delvin. But I doubt very much that amongst their number there exists a letter of confession. Even if the sordid rumors about my mother’s past are true, she would never write them down for posterity. To what purpose? Such a confession would certainly ruin my brother, and that could not be Lady Delvin’s object. She always supported his claim to the Earl’s title. Lady Margaret’s motive is simplistic. She wants her revenge on my brother for killing her son; that is understandable. But blind grief has clouded her judgment and given way to wishful thinking.”

“What if Lady Margaret produces a letter written by Lady Delvin that substantiates the rumor? Wouldn’t you want to see justice done?”

“Justice has nothing to do with it, Cosmo.” Alec stepped to the table to lead off the play, feelings of uneasiness making his tone harsh. “Tell me if you find plausible this well-worn fable: When Lady Delvin learned she was pregnant she hid this fact from the world because she was unsure who had fathered her child, her husband or her lover; a lover she had taken while the Earl was north visiting his estates. She intended to give birth in the seclusion of the country estate in Kent. However, the Earl returned unexpectedly. News had reached him of his wife’s adultery. He was not prepared to entertain the idea that in all probability he, and not the lover, had fathered the child before his departure. He was determined to be rid of his wife’s bastard. No sooner was the boy born than he was sent north to closed-mouthed tenant farmers on a remote estate in Northumberland.”

“But that can’t be the end to the story,” Sir Cosmo said quietly.

“The child remained with the tenant farmers for a twelvemonth, when the Earl’s brother tracked him down. The baby had not thrived, was puny and not expected to live. Yet the Uncle would not give up on the boy. He returned him to his parents in Kent. By this time Lady Delvin had given birth to a second son just months before and it was this second son whom the Earl had declared his first born.”

“But the first son was born in wedlock and so, legally, was heir to the earldom,” Sir Cosmo argued, “whatever the Earl’s suspicions about the boy’s paternity. That is the law! Besides, what proof did he have that the first born was not his?”

“Yes, that is the law, Cosmo, but the damage had been done. Lady Delvin had been unfaithful. That’s all the Earl required for him to reject her firstborn as his. The best the uncle could do for this outcast son was to ensure the boy was at least acknowledged by his parents. He threatened to expose the Earl’s gross deception if he did not. The Earl agreed on condition that the Countess’s second son be declared the firstborn and thus heir to the Earl’s title and lands. This satisfied the Earl’s brother who took the outcast son to live with him, the Earl refusing to have in his house a daily reminder of his wife’s infidelity. Publicly it was said the boy was consumptive and carrying the danger of contagion could infect his brother. Because there was only eleven months between the boys and they had been born in the seclusion of the country no one in society was the wiser.”

Sir Cosmo stepped up to take his turn, devoid of all enthusiasm for a game he knew he could not win from here. “When did you discover the truth?”

Alec returned to the window seat and poured himself another glass of wine. “When I was fifteen years old Uncle Plant explained that my father had disowned me because of my mother’s unfaithfulness. I hardly cared. My parents had never made the effort to know me. My uncle was all the family I’d ever had and ever needed.”

“And—and Ned?”

“The favored son? The Earl went to great pains to instill in him the pride and haughtiness of his class. My brother was brought up to believe he was the eldest son and that one day the earldom and all that he surveyed would be his. He had no reason to question or believe otherwise.”

“And the Countess, did she make a confession before she died?”

“The old Earl died unrepentant and never acknowledged his first born. In his eyes he had only one son and that son would succeed to the title, which Edward did with our mother’s blessing. Then, quite unexpectedly, Lady Delvin asked to see her estranged son. It was only at the prompting of Uncle Plant that I made the effort. After all, she was a stranger. By this time my mother was bedridden. Yet, I do not believe her mental faculties were at all diminished. She made a confession of sorts…”

Alec drained his glass. Sir Cosmo dared not line up his cue. He was all rapt attention.

“Even now, I still find it incredible that the Earl and Countess were able to carry off such a deception,” Alec continued. “No one would’ve been the wiser, certainly not I, had not Lady Delvin felt the need to make amends before she died. Naturally, Edward felt betrayed. He thought she’d gone mad. He sent two doctors to certify her insane. I went to see her every week… But I was abroad when she died. I regret that. She had no one else. No one except Uncle Plant, and near the end even he was too distraught to ride into Kent.”

“If what your mother confessed is indeed the truth then—then there has been a hideous miscarriage of justice! Ned’s whole life has been a-a—lie.”

Alec smiled. “My dear Cosmo, Lady Delvin was shrewd enough not to reveal the identity of my father. So I could very well be the product of my mother’s adulterous affair. Thus, despite our birth order, Edward could be the rightful heir to his father’s earldom and I? My use of the name of Halsey may be a grand presumption.”

Sir Cosmo let out an involuntary cough that raised Alec’s eyebrows. “Well, that’s a moot point, dear fellow, if,” he explained awkwardly, “you are in fact your uncle’s son…?”

Alec stared at his friend not at all surprised but made no comment. They were interrupted then by Neave who came into the Billiard room on a discreet knock. He had the key to the padlock and this he gave to Alec.

“I’m going to take a look about Emily’s bedchamber,” Alec said to Sir Cosmo, opening the servant door. “Don’t feel you need come up. I shouldn’t be many minutes.”

Sir Cosmo remained a moment longer, indecisive, watching Neave decant the left-over wine from three glasses into one of the discarded bottles. It was only when the butler had scooped up the forgotten frockcoat and departed with this crumpled article over one arm while juggling two bottles and three empty wine glasses that Sir Cosmo came to a sense of his surroundings. He hurriedly set aside his cue and scrambled through the servant door, Neave hearing him shout for his friend to wait up as he closed over the door, making a mental note to take to task the lax servant who had failed to clean up the Billiard room earlier that morning.

“What does it really matter if your uncle is your father?” Sir Cosmo argued, watching Alec remove the padlock and scrape back the bolt. “The Earl and your uncle are brothers, both Halseys. It’s all the same blood if you think about it. Lady Margaret’s been telling everyone you are the Earl’s firstborn. She says your mother confessed the truth to her in that letter that’s gone missing. Of course, even if she finds the letter it may not, in all likelihood, reveal the identity of your father.”