A Regency Charade (27 page)

“I don’t know how to tell you this, my lord, but I am convinced that my husband and your … w-wife are …” She wrung her hands miserably and looked down at the floor. “…
lovers
!”

Alec took a deep breath. “You are quite mistaken, ma’am. I don’t mean to be unkind, and I can see that you’re sincerely upset, but I think it ill-advised of you to go about maligning my wife. You must see that I cannot permit you to do so.”

“I don’t mean to malign anyone! Do you think me a complete fool? I have not breathed a word of this to another soul! I only want to put a
stop
to it, don’t you understand?” She got up and began to pace about the room again. “I shall be frank with you, my lord. I’m not a pretty woman, and I know that Blake did not love me when we wed. I had the wealth he wanted … that was all. But I loved him, and I persuaded myself to … to … believe the promises he made to me … of loyalty and fidelity and devotion. It was not long, however, before I began to realize that his promises were worthless.”

Alec found the tale unbearable. “If that’s true, ma’am, why did you wait until now to speak out?”

“Because his earlier indiscretions were the sort I could put up with. I am not the first woman who has closed her eyes to her husband’s … activities with servant girls and opera dancers and that sort.” She turned and faced him squarely. “In this case, however, there is a difference. I have always known that Lady Braeburn had … how shall I describe it?… a special place in his heart. Such a liaison is fraught with danger. Doesn’t it seem to you, my lord, that this can lead to the destruction of our marriages? What if they should decide to run away together?” She sat down and put her hands up to cover her face. “I simply couldn’t … face it …”

Alec stood up and went to the window. Out on the lawn below, the dead leaves were blowing about in a mad dance. The whole world suddenly seemed mad to him. It was, all of it, a mad dance … a stupid, illogical whirl of unfulfilled desires, clashing wills, senseless accidents and unpredictable fortunes. This poor woman was sitting there behind him silently weeping for her hopeless future and her destroyed pride; and he was standing at the window engaging in pompous philosophical trivialities so that he could avoid facing the question she was about to ask.

As if she heard his thoughts, she asked it. “What are you g-going to d-do about it, my lord?” Her voice was choked with tears.

He didn’t turn, but he answered in the only way he could. “I don’t believe a word of your accusation, ma’am. Therefore, I intend to do nothing at all.”

“But, Lord Braeburn, what if I t-told you I have proof?”

He turned around, sickened. “Proof? What proof?”

“There is a gentleman staying under your roof by the name of Ferdinand Sellars, is there not?”

“Yes, but—”

“He has a valet named Smoot. Send for him.”

Alec stared at her and then shrugged. He went to the door, called the butler and gave him an order. Mr. Smoot appeared on the threshold in a very short time. “You sent for me, my lord?”

“Are you Smoot, Mr. Sellars’ man?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Come in, then, and close the door. Are you acquainted with Lady Edmonds here?”

The man started at the sight of Lady Edmonds and licked his lips nervously. “Yes, I am. Good afternoon, my lady.”

“Mr. Smoot,” Lady Edmonds said, shading her reddened eyes with her hand so that Smoot should not see the state she was in, “tell his lordship what you told me.”

“But … you said … I wouldn’t never
have
to—”

“Never mind what I said!
Tell
him. I shall reimburse you properly, never fear.”

Mr. Smoot looked decidedly uneasy. “I don’t want no more payment. I never said nothing about telling anyone else.”

“It’s too late for qualms now, Mr. Smoot,” Alec said coldly. “Either you should learn to keep such information to yourself, or you must be prepared for the consequences of telling it. Go ahead. I’m waiting.”

There was something in Lord Braeburn’s tone that quelled him. “It ain’t nothing so terrible, you know. I have a female acquaintance, y’ see, over at Three Oaks. Works in the kitchen there. I go over to see her when I have the chance. And the other day, when I was leaving, I saw … well, I saw yer … Lady Braeburn …”

“Yes? Go on.”

The fellow shuffled his feet uncomfortably. “She was walking away from me through the grass with a man in a blue coat.”

“What libelous rubbish is this?” Alec burst out. “You didn’t see their faces, yet you make an accusation—! It could have been
anybody
. Another woman … or the man with the blue coat could have been
me
!”

“Yes, my lord … only the man was broader than you … and not as tall. And the blue coat … well, the color ain’t one which a gentleman like you would usually choose.”

“But Blake
does
have such a coat, my lord,” Lady Edmonds put in quietly. “I showed it to Mr. Smoot, and he recognized it.”

“And the lady?” Alec asked drily. “Are you equally sure of
her
identity?”

The man lowered his head. “Well, all those blond curls …” he mumbled.

“I see. So they were walking through the grass. Is there anything more?” Alec asked, feeling sick with self-disgust at finding himself forced to discuss his wife with this repellent Peeping Tom.

“I saw her turn and … hug him.”

There was a moment of silence. “Is that all?” Alec asked icily.

“Yes, my lord.”

Alec walked around the desk and took a seat behind it. “Now, then, Smoot, how did you happen to feel it necessary to give this information to Lady Edmonds?”

“Well, sir, my female acquaintance … her cousin is an abigail at the Beardsleys. And she said Lady Edmonds might easily part with a hatful of yellow boys … I mean … might be interested—”

“I know what you mean. In other words, you told your ‘female acquaintance’ what you saw, and she, in turn, told her cousin … is that it?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“And you all saw a way to extort a few guineas—”

“Well, I didn’t
ask
Lady Edmonds for anything. She
gave
me—”

“No, of
course
you didn’t ask. And, besides, your true motivation, no doubt, was your desire to be kind and helpful, isn’t that it?”

There was no mistaking the scorn in his tone. Smoot was clever enough to hold his tongue.

“One thing more, Mr. Smoot, before you take yourself out of my sight. You are not in my employ, and therefore I cannot … er …
reward
you as I think you deserve. I shall, however, tell Mr. Sellars about your enterprising activities and leave it to
him
to act on the information. But if I learn that you, your ‘female acquaintance’ or her cousin ever breathe a word of this affair to anyone at all, I shall seek you out and with my bare fists teach you a lesson in the results of malicious gossip. Do you understand me, Smoot?”

“Yes, my lord.”

When the fellow was gone, Lady Edmonds spoke up in a voice that indicated how deeply shamed she was by what had transpired. “I … I’m sorry about having used … these methods, my lord. You’ve made me see myself in … in a most unflattering light. I only wish to say that I didn’t
intend
to spy on my husband, but …”

Her voice petered out, for she became aware that he was not attending. Alec, in fact, was listening only with half an ear. The rest of his mind was struggling to face the revolting fact that he now had to take some action. Here was yet another instance of the dire results of Priss’s unforgivable interference with his solicitor’s attempt to obtain an annulment six years ago. If she’d only permitted Newkirk to go ahead with it, this humiliating and degrading business would be none of his concern. Under
these
circumstances, however, he was still her husband and thus a proven cuckold. He was being
forced
, therefore, by custom, to take some action.

He ground his teeth in frustration and anger, frowning down at the unhappy woman who sat blinking up at him so pitifully. “I do not blame you, ma’am,” he said shortly. “I can see you’ve not had an easy road in your marriage. You have my profound sympathy.”

Lady Edmonds looked up at him tearfully. “Will you … can you tell me wh-what you intend to do?”

His jaw clenched, and he couldn’t prevent his disgust from showing in his expression. “
Do
, ma’am? What do you
expect
me to do?”

“You’ll not … kill him?” she cried in sudden alarm.

“I can’t say. Anything is possible, I suppose,” he answered curtly, crossing to the door and holding it open for her.

She jumped up, ran across the room to him and grasped his coat. “You must
promise
me you won’t! There must be some other way—!”

“There is, Lady Edmonds, and I shall try my best to accomplish it. If I can possibly keep my temper in control, I shall merely blacken his eyes, bloody his nose and send him home to you. Good day to you, ma’am.”

Chapter Twenty

Nevertheless, there was murder in his eyes as he stormed up the stairs to his dressing room. If he
did
find Priss and Edmonds together at Three Oaks, he knew that giving Edmonds a couple of blows to the face with his fists would never suffice to sate his fury. Even a horsewhipping might not be enough! He pulled his riding crop and a pair of riding boots from his wardrobe with hands that were not quite steady. A picture repeatedly flashed into his mind of those same hands choking the life out of a blue-coated Corinthian, and he was not at all certain that he could keep himself from making that vision a reality.

As he sat down on the cot and began to pull on his boots, the hall door to the dressing room unceremoniously opened and Kellam burst in. He closed the door behind him with ominous deliberation, put his back against it and spread out his arms. “Y’ain’t goin’!” he declared.

“What?” Alec eyed his batman as if the fellow had lost his mind. “What are you going on about
now
?”

“Ye’ve no need t’ play innocent wiv me. I knows all about it.”

“About what?”

“I seed ol’ Smoot when ’e come downstairs. ’E’d been pitchin’ gammon afore that ’e know’d somethin’ t’ do wiv Lady Braeburn. So when I seed ’is white face, I deducted that somethin’ smoky wuz brewin’, an’ I got wind o’ the lay.”

“Oh, you did, did you?” Alec muttered disgustedly. “And who asked you to pry into matters that are not your concern?”

“If you ain’t my concern. I don’t know ’oo is. Ye c’n climb down off them ’igh ropes, guv, ’cause y’ ain’t goin’ nowheres.”

“Since when, Harry Kellam, do I need your permission?”

“This c’n be the first time, then. I won’t let ye go spyin’ on ’er. It ain’t fittin’.”

“See
here
, man, I don’t need
you
to tell me—!” He was interrupted by a violent knocking at the door. Kellam opened it a crack and found himself being inexorably pushed backward as Ferdinand Sellars forced himself in.

“Good heavens, Ferdie, what—?” Alec began.

“Getting ready to go somewhere, may I ask?” Ferdie demanded.

“’E ain’t goin’ nowheres,” Kellam told him firmly.

“Good!” Ferdie seated himself on the room’s one chair and crossed his legs. “And I’m going to sit here and see that he doesn’t.”

Alec stared from one to the other in open-mouthed disbelief. “Is this some sort of joke?” What maggot’s gotten into
your
brain, Ferdie?”

“I’ve just had an enlightening visit from my man Smoot. You can see him, by the way, if you look out of the window, making a hasty retreat down the road to Wirksworth, bag and baggage. But the important thing is that he has just revealed to me some details of an intersting bit of skulduggery in which he was involved. I suppose he hoped that, by confessing to me before
you
reported it, he might save his post, the dolt. I hope you weren’t taken in by his stupid lies.”

“If you thought they were lies, you wouldn’t be here,” Alec said bluntly.

“Of course they’re lies. The only reason I’m here is because I was afraid
you
might believe them, knowing about your … your …”

“Obsession,” Kellam put in with a knowing nod of his head.

“Yes, obsession. Thank you, Kellam.”

“No, permit
me
to thank him,” Alec said witheringly. “Permit me to thank you
both
. It fills a man with pride to know that those nearest and dearest to him have such high regard for his judgment.”

“My regard for your judgment, old fellow, is second to none in most matters. But on the subject of your wife—”

Alec’s temper snapped. “I am
sick and tired
of being told how to regard my wife!” he bellowed, jumping to his feet and threateningly waving the one boot he hadn’t yet put on. “What makes you—or even
you
, Kellam—so damned expert on—?”

Again a hammering at the door interrupted him. Alec’s eyes sought the sky in disgusted and desperate appeal. “What
now
?” he asked of the heavens.

It was Gar. He put his head in the door somewhat diffidently, but when he saw all the others inside, he let himself in and closed the door. “
Thought
there was something brewing when I couldn’t find anyone downstairs but Clio and Ariadne. May I join you? If something’s the matter, Alec, you might want the advice of someone a little less … er …
dissolute
than Sellars, there.”

Ferdie snorted, and Alec groaned and sat down on the cot again. “There’s nothing I
need
advice about, Gar, so you may as well take yourself off … and take these … these
meddling fishwives
with you, too!”

“No, Alec, let the fellow stay,” Ferdie said magnanimously. “Sit down, Garvin, old man, if you don’t mind sharing the cot with our mutual friend. Give us the benefit of your very
un
dissolute opinion. Alec, you see, is about to seek out the notorious Sir Blake Edmonds for the purpose, if that riding crop is any indication, of giving him a memorable horsewhipping.”

“But, why?” Gar asked, looking at each one in the room with a rather suspicious frown and seating himself gingerly on the cot.

“Because Alec has convinced himself that the fellow is playing fast, and loose with his wife,” Ferdie explained briefly.