Deadly Engagement: A Georgian Historical Mystery (Alec Halsey Crimance) (29 page)

The balcony was deserted, but on the wide steps that gave access to the velvet front lawns there lounged a group of young gentlemen in padded frockcoats and tight fitting satin breeches, smoking cheroots and drinking wine from tumblers. Two couples seeking fresh air after the perfumed claustrophobia of the ballroom followed Alec and Selina into the night air and so Alec guided Selina past the group of merry-Andrews and to the far corner where the ballroom’s French windows, shut tight on the night air, flooded the balcony with light from within and gave an uninterrupted view of the dancers. The light did not reach as far as the balustrade and here Alec took up position, half in shadow.

“I apologize for taking you away from the entertainment but this can’t wait until morning.”

“If it’s about Emily’s awkward behavior this afternoon I may be able to help you,” she answered levelly, grateful to have the light at her back and still feeling uncomfortable with him after her emotional outburst at the jetty. When he waited for her to continue she glanced down at her hands. “Charlotte had Sir John Oliphant examine Emily. On the surface that wasn’t such a silly thing after what happened last night. But Charlotte being Charlotte, her concern wasn’t for Emily’s welfare; she wanted Oliphant to certify Emily a virgin.” She winced when Alec swore. “Delvin put Charlotte up to it. Which leads me to wonder if I was wrong to suspect him of the attempted rape, for why else would he want such confirmation?”

“Perhaps that’s what he wants us to presume? Very cunning to deflect suspicion away from himself by seeking Oliphant’s assurances that his bride remains untouched. No one is then likely to cast suspicion his way if he makes out he is also an injured party.”

“If you are prepared to suspect your brother of attempted rape then you must be prepared to suspect him of murder; and I just don’t mean of Jack’s murder, but of that poor maid’s…” When Alec nodded in his abstraction she smiled wryly. “Why this sudden change of opinion, Mr. Halsey?”

Alec looked at her then. “What was Delvin doing in your rooms?”

Selina stared back at him and said calmly, “Over the years, your brother has made an annoying habit of trying to coerce me to commit adultery. Naturally, he chose his moments well, when J-L was not about;
coward
. I can only presume that his vanity permitted him to think it was the threat of J-L’s violence that stopped me from falling into his arms. I guess he presumed that with widowhood I’d have an immediate change of heart. Thus he came to my rooms. For such gross presumption I intended to punish him.” She swallowed and averted her face, her lovely profile silhouetted against the window of the chandeliers’ bright lights. “Just because my husband—just because J-L took liberties with my person didn’t mean I had to take such treatment from any other man. And certainly not from one I’ve always despised and mistrusted. And when I think of his perverse pleasure in presenting himself to you as my—that he and I—that we were
lovers
. Ugh! I wish that wax had been acid!”

“I’m ashamed to admit it but for a moment he had me convinced,” Alec confessed quietly, watching her pace in the light from the ballroom. He managed a lop-sided smile. “I only hope you can forgive me.”

“What else were you to think given the sight that met your eyes?”

“That is very magnanimous of you. I hardly deserve—”

“It was stupid of me to let him believe I was not adverse to his embraces. I should’ve thrown him out at once! But I was determined to teach him a lesson.”

“And did you?”

Her black eyes suddenly sparkled mischief. She stopped her pacing and faced him, a hand up to her mouth to stop a sudden involuntary giggle. “I threw hot wax on him at the
vital
moment.”

Alec’s shoulders shook with laughter. “How marvelous! Trust you to met out fit punishment, my clever girl!”

Selina smiled. “For one frightened moment I wondered if I could do it. Oh, and then when I did—to see the look of outrage on Delvin’s face—Oh, it was worth it! I wish… I wish now I’d had the strength of character to do the same to J-L.”

A cheer went up amongst the satin-clad young men on the stairs. One of their number had managed to down half a bottle of red in one gulp. A passing couple skipped deftly out of the way as another of these merry-Andrews plunged into the shrubbery to relieve his stomach of its contents. Alec crossed to Selina’s side in the subsiding din. He wanted to take hold of her hands but instead thrust them into his frockcoat pockets, one hand hard-gripping his gold-rimmed spectacles.

“Strength of character you have in abundance,” he said gently. “Self-preservation too. Jamison-Lewis was possessed of many demons, wasn’t he, Selina? He never came to terms with his homosexuality.”

Selina gave a start and after one swift look up into those deep blue eyes she looked away and shook her head. “No. He would never admit to it. Not even to me, who knew all about his relationship with Jack. Jack, like me, was abused by J-L, but in a different way. J-L wasn’t physically abusive toward Jack. He loved Jack as much as it was possible for him to love anyone, but he could not be faithful to him and that’s what Jack wanted.” She swallowed, embarrassed to be discussing matters that was so out of the realms of an ordinary person’s experience that it gave the whole a dreamlike quality. But it hadn’t been a dream; it had been a nightmare. “When Jack met Simon Tremarton and fell in love, that’s when matters took a turn for the worse for Jack. He told J-L—”

“When did he tell him?”

Selina thought about this. “It was before Jack took Simon to his shooting box.”

“Around the time of J-L’s final beating?” he gently prompted.

“Yes. Jack was so happy. He told me that it was because of Simon that he’d finally found the courage to tell J-L he wanted an end to their relationship.” Selina stared through the long windows of the ballroom and watched the dancers turn and go down the line in pairs. “J-L blamed me for Jack’s desertion. You see, it was I who pushed Jack to break off with J-L. There was no legally binding document holding them together.” Unconsciously she took the handkerchief Alec offered her and wiped dry her eyes. “Jack came down to Jamison Park for the weekend, to say his farewells and that he would see me in London on the –
^th
. That night, Jack and J-L argued in the library. I knew it was about Simon. J-L was trying to convince Jack not to go away. Later Jack came to my rooms and we discussed it all, and he told me he intended to leave before dawn, so as to avoid another flare up. Then J-L came to my bedchamber and he told Jack to get out. It was almost four in the morning; he hadn’t been near me in six months—” She faltered and then resumed. “Jack refused to leave so J-L dragged me into the closet and bolted the door. When—When he’d finished with me he let Jack in. He knew the effect that would have on Jack but he showed no remorse; he had no conscience, so how could he? Of course J-L blamed Jack for what he’d done to me.” She broke off again and swallowed. “Poor Jack! The look on his face; I’ll never forget it.”

“Can you tell me what happened next?” he asked, taking hold of her hands, his gaze never leaving her face.

“Later that morning, or was it early afternoon? Jack came to my rooms with a breakfast tray. I was surprised to see him because he was supposed to have gone, and that’s when he told me there had been an accident; that J-L was dead.”

“Was it an accident?”

Selina withdrew her hands from his and wandered away from the bright light of the windows to stand in the shadows by the balustrade. Alec followed her, an eye to the young men on the stairs who had risen as one to saunter back within doors at an announcement made by an officious footman that the fireworks were about to commence.

“When Jack told me the news there was a decided gleam in his eye,” she answered slowly. “And for one heart-stopping moment I had the oddest feeling that J-L’s death was not an accident. But then the moment passed and I didn’t care one way or the other. What mattered was fthe beast was dead and Jack and I had been set free. That’s all we cared about.”

“But you don’t think he shot himself, do you, Selina?”

“It hardly matters now!” she flung at him angrily. “I want Jack’s memory to be left in peace. God knows when he was alive he never had a moment’s peace. I was married to J-L for six years, but Jack, Jack suffered him for three times as many years! Please, just please let us not talk of it any more! I want to think about the future. I don’t want to relive the past. Can’t you understand that?”

“Yes. Of course,” he said soothingly and took her in his arms to rest his chin lightly on the top of her soft curls. “We shall speak of it no more. Let’s preserve Jack’s memory as he would wish it. He deserves to be left alone.” But what he was thinking made his heart race. If sweet placid Jack had shot J-L in cold blood then perhaps Jack had forced the fight on Delvin? And if that was true then were his suspicions about his own brother unfounded? Then what the deuce had their duel been about?

He felt Selina stir in his arms and lift her head off his chest where she had rested her cheek. He smiled down reassuringly into her upturned, flushed face with its lovely trembling mouth and dark questioning eyes, and had an overwhelming desire to want to protect her from the ills of the world. They stood so still, locked in the moment, neither one wanting to make a false move, yet each waiting for the other to take the first step. It was Selina who moved time on, cross with herself for foolishly thinking he meant to kiss her when it was obvious he regarded her as a brother does a sister not as a lover does the object of his love and desire.

The ballroom was now quiet and emptied of guests. The dancers had crossed to the terrace with its view of the gardens that led down to the Thames and where bobbed punts stocked with fireworks waiting to be set alight. Distant rumblings like thunder came from that side of the house, then seconds later flashes of bright light like lightning illuminated the stars above. The fireworks had commenced. The eerie silence of the balcony was enough for Selina to realize they were now quite alone and she pulled out of his comforting embrace.

“Please, Mr. Halsey,” she said, flustered. “I would be most grateful if you’d stop regarding me as a lost puppy in need of a home! I am quite capable of taking care of myself and have done so now for—”

Alec blinked at her and flushed up. He was too angry to be distracted by the bang of the doors or notice the laughing couple who ran out onto the balcony, mistaking it for the terrace, then just as quickly disappear again in a swish of silk petticoats and perfume.

“Dear God, Selina, you are the most infuriating woman of my acquaintance! Mr. Halsey indeed! What a ridiculous thing to call me given the history between us.”

“It is precisely because of that history that you take great delight in throwing my married name in my face at every opportunity!” she answered bitterly, gathering up the folds of her velvet gown in readiness to excuse herself. “The fireworks have started and we shall be missed. Her Grace will be expecting us to—”

“Olivia can damn well wait as long as I have!” he growled, a hand about her upper arm. “Do you think I derive any pleasure from addressing you by that offensive name? Christ, how you wrong me! Every time I uttered it I wanted to make you a widow there and then!”

“Did you indeed?” she answered archly, her anger now as all consuming as his and making her throw caution to the four winds. “And by such declaration am I to take it that whenever you pleasured one of your countless lovers you fancied yourself taking me to Heaven and back? Ha! You never gave me a thought!”

“You are sadly mistaken in my character, Madam,” he enunciated in a low voice and, before she had time to turn away, pulled her into a suffocating embrace and savagely pressed his mouth to hers, murmuring as he kissed her a second time in a wholly different manner, “Damn you for forcing me to act no better than he…”

The Duchess of Romney-St. Neots stood on the terrace surrounded by her family, the happy couple beside her and the noisy, laughing crowd at her back. Neave had sent a footman down to the riverbank where workmen waited to light the fireworks and all heads looked out expectantly to the night sky in the direction of the Thames.

Sir Cosmo was the last to join the perfumed multitudes and he stood at the back of the crowds pressing forward in awe of the skyrocket spectacular, head craning to catch sight of Alec and Selina. But after five minutes of standing on tip-toe he gave up the attempt and opted for the open space of the gardens where many of the guests had taken up position on the steps and along the paths bordering the formal flower beds to escape the crushing confinement of the terrace. More than once he passed a shrub in shadow to hear giggles and moans and the sounds of love making. He thought he saw Macara dart behind a bush in pursuit of a lady with her petticoats pulled up to her knees. He was not surprised then when there came the high-pitched squeal of capture. He rolled his eyes at such crude behavior and continued on his way.

Before he had strolled much further another round of sky rockets burst forth into the night sky in quick and deafening succession and sent a shower of diamond stars across the blackness; the sparkles of light illuminating the whole gardens for an instant then falling in a dim cascade into the Thames. Then yellow stars, and orange, then white again, and finally an explosion of such magnificence that it seemed the sun had come out, and with such an accompanying rumble of thunder that many thought it about to rain.