Deadly Engagement: A Georgian Historical Mystery (Alec Halsey Crimance) (37 page)

Alec tried to stand but was forced to his knees again by a series of sharp stinging blows across his bare back. He heard his brother’s raised voice and then Selina’s pleading demands that he stop. But the whipping continued and, in one last act of defiance, Alec dragged himself up again only to have a boot heel come down heavily in the small of his back. He was in pain but what drained the fight from him was the realization that it was his own brother who was inflicting such torment.

Delvin lifted his whip hand again, his rage by no means burned out. He had not meant to join in the fray, merely to be an interested spectator to ensure his brother was taken into custody. Seeing Selina naked in his brother’s arms changed that. Her look of serene fulfillment told him she had already given herself to his brother. She should have been his; she was
always
meant to be
his
. He wanted to hear his brother beg him to stop but Alec’s silence goaded him on and the whip came down time and again.

“Damned mulatto bastard! Beg me to stop!” the Earl finally burst out. “Come on!
Beg me
! Lower that sniveling, stinking misplaced pride! Do it! Aye,
freak
—”

“For God’s sake, Delvin! Stop it!
Stop it
!” Selina screamed and made one last effort to break free by kicking the thug in the shin with her boot heel. She stumbled forward and tried to wrest the whip from Delvin but he merely pushed her away and she fell to the ground, grazing her arm from elbow to wrist. “Cosmo? Oh, thank God!” she gasped, dragging herself to sit up as a large figure thrust his way to the Earl’s side and demanded to know what was going on.

For a stunned moment all Sir Cosmo could do was stare at Delvin’s handiwork. But he was not about to stand idly by. He lunged for the Earl’s whip hand and easily took the weapon from the surprised Earl who had let down his guard in his bid to get a response from his brother. Sir Cosmo flung the whip as far from him as he could.

“You’re damned-well mad!” Sir Cosmo thundered. “
Jesus Christ
, Ned! You’re a damned lunatic!” He dropped to the ground beside Alec. “Alec? Alec, dear fellow, are you all right? Speak to me!”

“You interfering dolt!” the Earl screeched. “Can’t you see he deserved a beating? The filthy, poxy
bastard
!”

Sir Cosmo stared up at him incredulously. “Have you
no
feeling? This man is your
brother
.”

The Earl stared back at him, unmoved. A heavy trickle of perspiration ran down his flushed cheek. “What? This half-breed bastard a Halsey?
Never
,” he said flatly, turned his back and walked away.

Sir Cosmo helped Alec to sit up. “Dear God, what a bloody mess,” he murmured, surveying his friend’s lacerated back. “Selina? Selina, are you hurt?” When she shook her head he said softly, “Put on your clothes, my dear. Then give me a hand. I can’t manage him on my own.”

Through a haze of pain Alec lifted his head. “Frockcoat.”

“Don’t speak,” Sir Cosmo advised. When Alec grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, he had to lean closer to hear him. “What is it, dear fellow?”

“Frockcoat… Get it… Keep it safe…”

Selina and Sir Cosmo looked at one another. They thought Alec’s mind wandering. Sir Cosmo squeezed his hand. “Anything to oblige, dear fellow.”

“Get it…
now
.”

“Of course,” Sir Cosmo said soothingly.

Alec shook his head, slumping sideways onto Sir Cosmo’s arm as he did so, face contorted with the throbbing pain in his lower neck. He was close to passing out but first he had to make Cosmo understand. The last thing he wanted was for Delvin to get his hands on their mother’s letters. What names had Delvin called him?
Mulatto
?
Half-breed
?
Bastard
? He pushed himself up and felt a hand on his forehead, gently brushing the hair back off his hot face. It was Selina. And there were voices all around him, and people. He closed his eyes and made one last attempt to speak. “Cosmo. I want… I want… Don’t let him—”

“Hush,” Selina soothed, moping his face with a corner of her purple cloak.

“No! It’s important!
Important
. My frockcoat. Keep it safe. Don’t let him find the letters.” But Selina and Sir Cosmo continued to attend to his hurts. He had no idea that they couldn’t hear him; that all this he had said in his head. If they were not about to help him then he would have to do it himself. He tried to look up and felt curiously light headed. There was a buzzing in his ears. He heard the familiar barks of Cromwell and Marziran. What were they barking at? One of Olivia’s deers? He smiled. Far off, people were shouting at one another. He winced. It was all so distracting. He needed to get to the big oak, to get his frockcoat, to keep the letters safe. Didn’t Cosmo understand how important it was? More important than dressing his cuts and bruises. It didn’t even hurt that much; just the ringing in his ears and the pain in his head. Now that was almost unbearable. But he had to ignore the pain. He had to get to the big oak before the others. If those letters fell into the wrong hands… If Delvin discovered… Why was it so difficult to move his legs? Why couldn’t he stand up? It was such a simple thing to be able to do. Why couldn’t he…

The Duchess of Romney-St. Neots was furious. Normally a placid woman who thought it beneath her to indulge in fits of rage, nevertheless, when provoked, she was capable of a white-hot temper that did not easily burn itself out. She was in one now as she stormed through Alec’s rooms without announcing herself, scattering the Runners placed by Lord Gervais to keep an eye on the accused.

“Get out!” she screeched at two surly ruffians who lounged on her furniture, and cast a smoldering gaze about the room. It came to rest on Alec who was stripped to the waist and having his wounds dressed by his valet. “How could you?” she demanded. “How—how
dare you
?” And not caring to dismiss the valet, proceeded to strip Alec’s character of all credibility and human decency, her language so scathing that despite his preoccupation Tam’s ears burned brightly. She paced to and fro in front of the ribbonback chair Alec straddled, her bosom heaving, her voice becoming hoarse, until she finally took a great shattering breath and said, “You only have yourself to blame for this predicament! As if this absurd accusation isn’t enough to ruin your career you get yourself caught out playing at Adam and Eve with Selina in the Grove! Her husband’s been cold little more than a month, for God sake!
Damn you
! How could you do this to her… To—to
yourself
?”

Slowly and with great effort, Alec lifted his head off his arm that was across the top of the chair. There was still a drumming in his ears and such a throbbing at the base of his neck that he was certain his skull must be cracked. He had refused Tam’s offer of an opiate. It would have considerably dulled the pain and he didn’t want that. He needed to be alert, to think, to tell them what he knew.

He flinched. He wished Tam would hurry and dress up his wounds. What was the boy doing back there? “Careful!” he growled.

“Sorry, sir. Only one more cut to clean and dress and then we’ll be done.”

“Haven’t you anything to say for yourself?” the Duchess asked bitterly.

Alec winced as an astringent-soaked cloth was applied to his back. “No,” he answered placidly. “Where is Selina?”

“Putting a decent cloth on her back.”

“But is she all right? They didn’t hurt her?

“No. Merely wounded her pride, wicked girl!” the Duchess answered with annoyance. “That buffoon Gervais has two thugs posted at her door too. It seems he is determined to turn my house into Newgate! Dolt!” She stared at Alec’s bent head with its mane of blue-black curls pulled forward over one shoulder and said tersely, “You didn’t even have the decency to defend yourself!”

There was a moment’s silence.

“I was not in a position to do so.”

Her lip curled. “No, you weren’t, were you?”

He lifted his head enough to look at her. “Olivia, I make no excuse for our behavior. Why should I? Convention dictates that we must wait out Selina’s mourning before we can marry, and I will abide by that, but why should we deny ourselves earthly pleasures in the interim?” When the Duchess looked away in embarrassment he said with asperity, “God knows Selina deserves her Heaven on earth after what that monster was permitted to put her through!”

“Permitted to put her through…?” The Duchess bit her lip. “Yes, we let him be a monster, didn’t we?”

Alec dropped his head back onto his arm and it was then that the Duchess caught sight of the bloody welts that crisscrossed his back and had to turn away, a hand to her mouth to stop a sob. An arm encircled her shoulders and pulled her into a comforting embrace. “I—I never cry!” she said, sniffing back tears. “I’m—I’m acting a fool!”

“There ain’t nothin’ wrong with havin’ a good cry once in awhile,” Plantagenet Halsey said cheerfully and made her sit in a wingchair by the bed. “I’ll fetch you a glass of claret, and mind you drink it all.”

The Duchess was too taken aback to reply. She had had no idea the old man was present. It wasn’t until he disappeared that she realized that he must have been in the dressing room the entire time of her tirade of abuse. The old man returned with a bottle of claret and handed her a glass with a smile.

“If you don’t mind, we’ll be gettin’ back to patchin’ the boy up before he passes out on us again,” he said in the same cheerful voice. “I’ve been brewin’ a nasty concoction of Tam’s making. Stinks of rotted vegetables and garlic—
garlic
! He assures me it will do the trick. If you ask me we’ll all be passin’ out on the smell alone!” He slid in beside the valet and set a dish between them, wrinkling his nose. “You certain this ain’t a recipe you swiped from the kitchens?”

“I’m to be marinated, is that it?” Alec quipped. “It smells putrid.”

“Oh, it is!” his uncle assured him with a crack of laughter and a wink at the Duchess. He handed Tam a wad of clean cloth. “Now you be quiet and let us get on with it or I’ll force feed you an opiate!”

The Duchess shuddered, a handkerchief to her mouth.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” the old man assured her, keeping on with his task. “He’s lucky he’s got a good head of woman’s hair. It saved him from losing his skin altogether.”

“Hasn’t he been given something for the pain?” When no one answered her she said, “But he must…How can he…”

Plantagenet Halsey put a finger to his lips and when his task was complete led the Duchess through to the sitting room while Tam set about cleaning up his medicinals and soiled cloths.

“What’s Gervais up to?” the old man demanded without preamble as he closed over the door.

“He’s downstairs with the rest of his thugs. He’s determined to drag Alec from his bed and clap him up in Newgate.”

“Over my dead body!”

“It may very well be over your dead body because nothing I’ve said has made him waver,” the Duchess argued. “He merely spews back inanities about his duty, and due process of law, and poppycock of that nature. I’ve threatened to bring the whole Privy Council down upon him and he had the audacity to inform me that I would be obstructing the course of justice. The man is certifiable!”

“Alec will come out of it all right, you’ll see,” the old man said unconvincingly. “The accusation won’t stand. It’s absolute rot. Everyone will see that.”

“Of course it’s rot! But Alec’s foolhardy behavior hasn’t made it any easier for him. A man known to him in the Foreign Department was murdered in my gardens and next morning Alec is nowhere to be found until a search of my home wood discovers he and Selina thinking they are in the Garden of Eden. You may smirk but this is serious. Gervais wants to add the charge of rape—”

“
What
?” thundered Plantagenet Halsey.

“Of course it’s all nonsense! But you don’t seem to understand the seriousness of Alec’s predicament. Gervais can and will bring that further accusation, whatever my objections, merely because he can. That Alec was accused of seducing Selina when she was barely eighteen can only make it worse for him. As for Delvin’s appalling behavior beating his brother as if he was an animal in need of taming.” She shuddered. “To own a truth, Delvin scares me. I’m only too pleased Emily has decided to postpone the wedding.”

“He’s the very devil, ain’t he?” the old man answered dryly. “Father was the same. My father. No heart. Not enough brain to be a decent human being but just enough to keep him out of Bedlam.”

Despite everything the Duchess couldn’t help a smile. “This is no time for levity!”

“No, it ain’t,” mused the old man. “As I said, don’t you worry. This trumped-up charge of murder won’t stick. It won’t because Alec is innocent. And because it’s our word, and the word of those who were at the ball, against Gervais. He hasn’t a hope!”

The Duchess blinked at him. “Oh, but don’t you see?” she said in exasperation. “What does it matter if the charge is finally dropped? It’s the very fact Alec was charged at all that will be his downfall. I’m not fearful of Alec getting as far as a courtroom least of all the gallows. Dear God, I’ll have every member of Cabinet—of the Lords—petitioning the King if it ever came to that; but it won’t. One word from me in the right ear and Gervais will be forced to withdraw his accusation.” When the old man scoffed she said, “You can look mule-faced at me, but that’s what I shall do! It’s all very well to have high ideals. Proclaiming your innocence and smugly waiting for the world to finally vindicate you is all very noble, but it ultimately doesn’t work in practice, when it is society who will condemn—”

“Society? Madam—”

“No! Allow me to finish! I know what you think of that and you can go on at me all you want about the parasitic four hundred or whatever you call us, but what society dictates does matter! It matters a great deal if one wants to do well in one’s profession, as Alec does. No amount of hard work will see him advance in diplomatic circles; he’ll never be an ambassador, he’ll never even make minister, if he is publicly charged with murder. He’ll be shunned. Backs will be turned on him. No one will want his company, here or on the Continent. He might as well retire to the country tomorrow!”