Deadly Affair: A Georgian Historical Mystery (Alec Halsey Crimance) (24 page)

The footsteps had ceased.

Annie took a tentative peek along the passage, the sobbing Sophie pushed behind her woolen skirts, to see if the stairs were now clear of travelers. Just as she did so Selina dashed forward, across the mouth of the stairwell, and scooped up the little girl and turned away from Annie so the girl could not make a grab to take the child back. She held the little girl close to the warmth of her own body and spoke soothing words in French about being reunited with her mother and having something warm to eat and drink, all to stop the child’s struggles and her frightened sobs.

With Sophie soon quiet and clinging to the perfumed lady’s brown velvet cloak, Selina rounded angrily on Annie, a hand covering the child’s bare feet which were as cold as blocks of ice.

“Where’s Mrs. Bourdon, girl?”

Startled, Annie was too frightened to speak or move. She stared wild-eyed at the splendidly dressed lady, with her translucent skin, dark eyes and wild flamed-colored curls mussed from travel, as if she was staring at an apparition. But in two blinks she knew who she was. She gulped. There was a large painting of this lady over the mantle in the drawing room back at Ellick Farm. Billie told her the London lady’s brother had painted it. Annie liked to gaze upon the portrait every time she cleaned soot from the grate, dreaming of herself in such splendid petticoats of sky-blue silk and riding about in a horse-drawn carriage. But Billie hadn’t said anything about the London lady being at the inn this night. Perhaps she was a friend of the London gentleman come to collect Miss Sophie?

“Dun rightly know, m’lady. Billy says she’s gone to Bath.” Annie bobbed a clumsy curtsey for good measure. “M’sister Janie went with her.”

“
Bath
?” Selina did not believe her. She held Sophie closer. “Why have you and Billy brought Sophie to this place?”

So the London lady didn’t know about the London gentleman. Annie hoped Billie would be back very soon. He could explain matters much better than she ever could. But Billy had been gone a long time now and that’s why Annie had ventured out of their hiding place to find him. She didn’t think Billy would want her to mention the London gentleman to this London lady. He might not give her the promised half guinea if she did. But now the London lady had Sophie what were her chances of receiving anything?

Annie glanced at the stairwell, wondering if she could make good her escape, and her eyes widened at the sight of a tall stranger in a many caped greatcoat and jockey boots standing in shadow and blocking the entrance. Maybe she could turn tail and flee back along the gallery? The London lady wouldn’t be able to follow her with Sophie tight in her arms. For now, best to remain ignorant. It was all Billy’s fault anyway.

So Annie shrugged, a sullen pull to her mouth, in response to Selina’s question and retreated a few paces along the passage, a fearful glance at the stranger in shadow.

Selina saw the glance and looked over her shoulder. As she did so Annie picked up the hem of her Sunday-best gown and fled back along the passage. She was caught around the neck in two strides.

Annie squawked and struggled and tried to break free but there was no chance of escape from the stranger, and so he told her in a measured tone as he brought her back to stand once more before the London lady.

“What are you doing here?” Selina demanded, astonished, though she felt a huge relief and strangely uplifted all at the same time.

“I took pity on you,” Alec commented, a firm gloved hand about a terrified Annie’s upper arm, though there was amusement in his blue eyes at Selina’s wide-eyed shock. “I’d no idea Talgarth also suffered the family trait of poor traveler.” He glanced at Sophie cuddled into the crook of Selina’s neck. “Best get the child indoors. I’ll return shortly.”

Selina blinked. “Where are you taking her?”

The amusement went out of his eyes. He was grim-faced. “To identify a body.”

By the time Alec returned, Evans had the little girl scrubbed, fed and tucked up asleep in Selina’s bed, a hot brick wrapped in cloth between the sheets to keep her warm. Selina had tidied her hair but her dinner remained uneaten on the sitting room table, a glass of wine half consumed. Each time there was footfall on the landing she was at the window thinking it was Alec, only to return to pace in front of the warmth of the fireplace. Evans had retreated to the bedchamber, to sit by the bed to watch over the little girl lest she stirred, though she purposely left the door to the sitting room ajar in anticipation of Lord Halsey’s arrival.

Two short raps and Selina wrenched open the door, saying without preamble, “Where’s Annie Rumble?”

“May I come in, Mrs. Jamison-Lewis?” Alec asked, though his smile was at odds with the formality in his deep voice. He stepped off the landing into the cozy sitting room and dumped a small calfskin portmanteau just inside the door. “I hope you didn’t wait your dinner for me?”

“Did she run off? Where’s her brother Billy?”

“Ah, I see you couldn’t stomach the inn’s fare,” he continued, spying the untouched plate of cold roast lamb and a indefinable mass covered in white sauce which he presumed to be an assortment of vegetables. Through the connecting doorway he saw Selina’s long-suffering lady’s maid sitting by the bed. “Mrs. Jamison-Lewis, you really should have eaten something while it was hot.”

“There’s only an audience of one, y’know,” she enunciated in a loud whisper, following him to the hearth. “You didn’t explain about the body. Whose body? Why did you need Annie Rumble?”

“Yes, Mrs. Jamison-Lewis, I am rather cold and tired. Hungry too,” Alec continued loudly, stripping off his gloves. He spread his long fingers to the warmth radiating from the small fireplace. “But coffee would suffice if it isn’t too much of an inconvenience...?”

“Stop it, Alec,” Selina hissed at his back as she helped him shrug out of his greatcoat. She dumped this and his gloves over the arm of the sofa. “And stop repeating my horrid name! There’s only Evans here; the audience of one.”

Alec looked over his shoulder, an eyebrow raised in question. “But the walls, my dear, are thin, so we must observe the formalities. There is your reputation to think about. Oh, and speaking of formalities, it’s
my lord
when in company.”

Selina pouted and looked mutinous. “You’re being difficult to prove a point!”

“Yes.”

She put up her chin. “I won’t call you
my lord
.”

“Won’t you?” he threatened, turning back to the fire, but not before Selina caught his smirk. “Indeed, a bedchamber is the perfect place for a mistress to call her lover
my lord
.”

“
Ballocks!
” Selina said rudely and threw her arms about his neck to be gathered up in his embrace. She smiled up into his handsome face. “Between the sheets, mayhap I will condescend to call you my lord. But... only if you please me. Now kiss me so I know you are not angry. Evans has been most upset since you stormed out of my dressing room.”

“Evans and I both,” he murmured and stooped to kiss her passionately. When he came up for air he said seriously, “This doesn’t mean I’m at all happy with the arrangement you’ve imposed upon me. But because I want us to be together I’m willing to put up with it—for now.” He pinched her chin. “It isn’t final. Understand me?”

“Yes,” she answered with a trembling smile, staring up into his searching blue eyes from the circle of his embrace. “But in time, you’ll come to understand why this is our only recourse.”

Alec wondered how much time she needed before she confided in him why they could not now marry and why she felt able to tell the Duke of Cleveley, yet could not share the reason for her change of mind with him. He just hoped he had the patience to bide his time until she was ready. He smiled reassuringly, though he felt anything but pleased, and gently kissed her forehead.

“Now send for food and coffee. I haven’t eaten since breakfast and that was at Marlborough.”

“But your arrival in Bath with your uncle was uneventful?” she asked anxiously, disengaging herself from his arms to fuss unnecessarily with the pining of a stray curl, aware that Evans had risen from her chair by the bed. With a look Selina sent her in search of food.

“I left him in Tam’s capable hands finding fault with Barr’s excellent bill of fare.”

“You should’ve stayed to nuncheon,” Selina admonished him, seeing the tiredness in his eyes. “You needn’t have ridden all the way back here. I was managing.”

Alec gave a bark of laughter. “Yes, so I saw at the Marlborough Arms. My poor darling, it’s been a frightful journey from London, hasn’t it?”

“Surprisingly, the time went by faster than usual,” she confessed reluctantly. “What with Talgarth’s bouts of ill-health and my preoccupation with a certain lordship’s displeasure...” She touched his stubbled cheek. “I’m pleased you came. I’ve been wretched since we parted in Hanover Square.”

“Likewise,” he answered softly and kissed her wrist.

She led him to the sofa and they sat down, her hand in his. “Shall you tell me about Annie and Billy?” she asked as casually as she could manage, “Or shall you dine first?”

He grinned, knowing her curiosity would be at bursting point if he made her wait, but the thought of what had confronted him in the stables removed his smile. “The news isn’t pleasant,” he said soberly. “A boy was found dead in the stables...”

Selina sat up very straight. “Billy?”

“Yes. A sword thrust to the heart.”

“My God... That poor boy...” Selina put a hand to her mouth, swallowed and then took a deep breath before saying quietly, “
Why
?”

“That has yet to be determined.”

“Who then? Who would want to kill Billy Rumble? The boy is harmless and a cripple. I saw him only a few hours ago leaving the inn. Did he get in some sort of fight? But with a sword... I don’t understand.”

“No. I don’t think it was a fight. He has a slash to the upper arm and another across the knuckles of his left hand, but there was no real sign of struggle. A local physician should bear this out, but such minor injuries and the single thrust to his heart suggests the boy knew his assailant.

Selina was still nonplussed. “Knew his assailant? Billy know someone who carried a sword; who could do that to a boy? It doesn’t seem possible!”

“It doesn’t, but his sister confirmed that Billy was here to meet a gentleman from London.

“Gentleman from London?”

“Annie said she has no notion of the identity of this gentleman,” Alec continued patiently, “as she never met the man in the flesh and Billy always met
the London gentleman
, as Billy called him, alone. That was clever. All Annie knows—”

“You believe her?”

“Yes. The poor wretch had to identify her brother’s body. The shock was enough to purge her of any tendency to lie. Mind you, she didn’t know much at all.”

“What have you done with her?”

“I left her in the care of the landlord’s wife... for a price. She’ll be given a hot meal and a bed for the night. In the morning I will make arrangements for her to accompany her brother’s body back to Ellick where, no doubt, she’ll have plenty of explaining to do before her—Aunt Rumble, isn’t it?”

Selina nodded. “My cook and housekeeper at Ellick Farm. The only family the three Rumble children have. Both parents perished from the sweating sickness some years ago.” She touched his hand that lay across the worn back of the sofa. “Thank you for taking care of her... and Billy. Though Annie hardly deserves her hot meal for the mischief she and Billy were about. Poor Mrs. Rumble. Billy’s death will be a great shock to her. What were they about being here and with little Sophie in tow? Did Annie tell you?”

“Yes. From what I gathered from Annie’s blubbering confession, Billy brought her along because he couldn’t manage the child alone. He offered Annie two crowns. God knows what this London gentleman had promised Billy to snatch little Sophie from her home, but my guess it was in guineas.”

“But how did they contrive to lure Sophie from her home?”

“With the promise of being reunited with her mother who, incidentally, is at Bath.”

Selina was surprised. “Why would Miranda travel to Bath and leave Sophie behind in the care of servants? That is most unlike her. The few times she’s travelled to Bath, she’s taken Sophie with her.”

“Whatever her reasons for leaving her daughter at Ellick Farm, there is a Miranda Bourdon registered at Barr’s of Trim Street. As luck would have it, I spied her name in the register as I was signing my moniker. I very much doubt there are two Miranda Bourdons. She arrived in Bath two days ago.”

“You saw her?”

Alec shook his head. “I barely had time to shuffle my uncle upstairs to his rooms before I turned tail to ride back here in daylight.” He smiled. “I’ve given Uncle the honor of making her acquaintance at the earliest opportunity. He can’t wait.”

Selina smiled. “He’ll be smitten. Not only is she the prettiest creature I’ve ever set eyes on, but she’s all that’s good in the world. She could be a slave-trader and I challenge your uncle not to fall under her spell!”

“Hence your brother’s infatuation.”