Johanna Lindsey (20 page)

“Hello, Juliette,” Margaret said.

Juliette turned and smiled. She was an extremely lovely looking woman. Her blond hair was artfully curled, her figure as trim as ever, her green eyes sparkled. She wore makeup, but only enough to enhance her beauty. She always dressed in the height of fashion, but then she frequently visited the seamstresses in London to assure that.

“Maggie! How good to see you back. I did not expect you to return so soon. If I had gone to Europe, I certainly would not have hurried home. But I would have hurried home from London if I had known you were here.”

Juliette hugged her. Margaret expected it. Juliette had actually taken to her during her time at Edgewood. She was aware that Juliette considered her a friend, quite possibly the only one she had in England. The other women in the neighborhood had never forgiven her for her part in The Tragedy. They might not shun her, because she was a Townshend, after all, but they’d never warmed to her. She wondered if Juliette thought that might change once she was an earl’s wife and enjoyed a higher rank than many of the neighbors.

Juliette stood back and eagerly asked, “So did you enjoy your trip? And visit all the places in Paris that I mentioned? Come now, I wish to hear…every—”

Her words trailed off. Sebastian had come to stand in the parlor doorway. Apparently Juliette had noticed him and had turned so pale that she could have been witnessing her own death—or seeing it in Sebastian’s expression. Margaret turned to glance at him and was taken aback. This was The Raven, cold and deadly. He looked even more menacing than when she’d first met him in those old ruins he called home. It was his eyes. There probably wasn’t anyone, with or without an active imagination, who would doubt there was murder in those golden eyes.

Mr. Hobbs must have thought so. Margaret had never seen him move as fast as he did just then, disappearing down the hall. She too felt a distinct urge to leave, and Sebastian wasn’t even looking at her. So she could imagine what Juliette must be feeling.

“Run along, Maggie,” Sebastian said, his tone even—until he chillingly added, “Denton’s wife and I have some unfinished business to discuss.”

“Stay, Maggie, please,” Juliette whispered urgently at her side.

“Maggie, go!” he bit out.

She bolted up the stairs and hurried to Denton’s room, where she pounded on the door.

When he opened it, she simply said, “You might want to go downstairs and prevent your brother from being charged with murder.”

“Murder?”

“Your wife is home.”

“Bloody hell!” was all he said as he rushed down the corridor.

Margaret followed, though she remained at the top of the stairs. Juliette, seeing her husband coming to rescue her, ran up them herself and into their room.

Margaret heard Denton tell his brother, “You can’t kill her.”

“Why don’t you divorce her, then?” Sebastian demanded.

“You think I don’t want to?”

“Well?”

“I can’t. So leave it alone, Seb. Please, just leave it alone.” Denton said no more and returned to his room as well. He barely glanced at Margaret in passing.

He looked like a defeated man. That was the first time she’d ever heard him say that he wanted quittance from his wife.

Margaret was reluctant to meet Sebastian’s gaze as he mounted the stairs. Now would be a good time for her to hide in her own room, but the trouble with that was he’d just follow her. She stared at her feet instead, feeling quite guilty now for calling Denton and cutting short Sebastian’s talk with Juliette.

He lifted her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. “Why did you do that?” he asked her.

She squirmed but told him honestly, “I was afraid you were going to kill her.”

“I wasn’t, but how in the bloody hell am I going to get the truth out of her if I can’t speak to her alone?”

“It’s not as if everyone here doesn’t know what you’ll be asking her. You don’t need privacy for it.”

“You’re missing the major part of that scenario, Maggie. Having others around will give her the courage to lie. She’ll feel safe doing so.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that,” she replied with some embarrassment.

“No, you were too busy thinking you’d hired a murderer,” he replied.

A lot of embarrassment now. “You did look like you had murder on your mind,” she said in her defense.

“Good to hear, since that was intentional,” he said dryly, then sighed. “Very well, a new tactic, then. If it’s all been about the bloody title, then let’s see how long it takes them to try to kill me.” She didn’t like the sound of that, not one bit. “You’re going to set yourself up as a target?”

“That is the easiest course of action, since the lady will no doubt go to extremes to make sure I never find her alone now.”

“Do you really think your brother is part of this?” she asked him.

“Don’t you?”

“Well, yes, I did but that was before I learned that he’d like to divorce her but can’t. What d’you suppose is preventing him?”

“Blackmail would be the logical guess, though with that lady, anything is possible. However, you might as well know I never suspected my brother of having harmed our father. He may have harbored some resentments, but not against our father. I believe he resents me because he loves Douglas and felt I was the favored one. On the other hand, I doubt Juliette is alone in this.”

“Who, then?”

“Timothy mentioned that one of the grooms in the stable here speaks with a French accent. I checked into that with Hobbs. The chap was hired to work here at Juliette’s insistence, right after she married Denton. So he is definitely an acquaintance of hers.”

“Or accomplice.”

“Exactly. Which could explain how my father had another accident yesterday while Juliette was in London. Her accomplice could have been hiding behind one of the trees and thrown something out on the road to spook the horse, then removed the evidence.”

“People have been known to break their necks falling off horses,” she remarked.

“True, though the chance of that is rather bad odds, which leads me to wonder…”

“What?”

“If the intention is actually to kill him, or just make it appear so.”

“For what purpose? To frighten him?”

Sebastian chuckled without humor. “If so, they’re failing miserably. He has to suspect something for that premise to work, but from all that you’ve told me he seems to suspect nothing. But no, I was thinking along different lines, that perhaps these accidents are meant to frighten Denton instead, which could be the hold Juliette has over him.”

“Goodness, I never would have thought of that.”

“It’s just supposition.”

“Have you considered the possibility that Douglas just doesn’t want to frighten the rest of us by admitting something is amiss?”

“Actually, I’d guess that is more likely the case, rather than his concluding there’s nothing odd about the number of accidents he’s recently experienced. My father isn’t stupid. We’ll have to see what my talk with him turns up.”

“If he’ll speak to you.”

“I don’t intend to give him a choice in the matter,” he said.

Margaret bit her lip. “I’d really prefer that you wait a day or two to question him until he can regain some of his strength. The fever drained him, as did the loss of blood, and he’s barely eaten anything yet to help him recover because he’s slept almost all day.”

“You really think he’ll keep to his bed that long?”

“I think he’ll need to follow the doctor’s orders for at least a few days.”

“Very well. That will give John time to nose about in the lower quarters, I suppose. By the by, Maggie, have you had a chance to think about my suggestion of a trade?” She gasped at his audacity in bringing that up again, but before she could reply, he drew her to him there at the top of the stairs and kissed her hard, almost angrily. It caught her completely off guard.

Considering what they’d been discussing, it was also uncalled for, leaving her to wonder if Sebastian had been thinking about kissing her the whole time without giving her the least clue that he was.

There was no getting out of his hold, either, not that she had any thought in that direction at the moment. He had one hand gripping her derriere, one firmly across her back, and both were pressing her so close to him that she could feel his arousal.

Despite her resolve to resist him, desire rose up in her with alarming swiftness, so it was a few minutes before she managed to break away to give him an answer.

“That suggestion was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard!”

“In other words, no?”

“Most definitely no.”

“Then I’ll have to think of some other way to improve my sleeping arrangements,” he said idly.

He left her there to wonder what he meant by that.

T
HERE WERE ONLY TWO PEOPLE in the dining room when Margaret arrived, grandmother and grandson. And she caught them laughing. Not for the first time, she thought how incredibly different Sebastian was when he was around Abbie. Like night and day. It made her yearn to know the old Sebastian…

Sebastian rose from his seat when he saw her, and Abigail said, “There you are, m’dear,” and patted the seat on the other side of her.

Margaret hesitated to take that particular seat, which would put her directly across from Sebastian. But since they were the only three there and quite possibly would remain just three for dinner, she couldn’t very well refuse. And besides, Sebastian was courteously holding the chair out for her with an amused expression on his face. It reminded her of how this family used to fight for her attention.

Douglas had wanted her to sit near him, Juliette had wanted her to sit near her, and Abigail had wanted the same. And of course those three camps had never sat near each other, so it used to be a matter of who spoke up first when she arrived at the dinner table.

No sooner had she sat down when Sebastian asked Abigail, “You don’t hear that?”

“Course I do, but it’s just a normal sound in this house, sort of like the pots banging in the kitchen.”

“Someone should mention to the two people making this ‘normal sound’ that they should be more considerate while Douglas is convalescing,” Sebastian said.

Abigail chuckled. Margaret couldn’t help smiling herself, he’d said that so dryly. The noise, of course, was the muffled shouts of Denton and Juliette fighting upstairs. And Abigail hadn’t exaggerated. It really was a normal sound in this house, so normal that half the time the inhabitants didn’t notice it. But Sebastian had a point. Douglas needed to rest, and his son and daughter-in-law’s shouting at each other down the corridor was definitely going to disturb him.

“I’ll speak to them,” Margaret offered as she chose one of the two wines the footman came forward to present to her. “I’m sure they can be persuaded to take their battles outside for a few days.”

“Not refrain from having them?” Sebastian queried.

Abigail snorted. “That would be asking a bit much. We’ve all tried—uselessly.” The shouting got louder, indicating that they were coming downstairs. In fact, they could all hear Denton clearly now saying, “I don’t give a bloody damn whether you want to face him or not. He’s here.

Deal with it.”

“You will regret this—!”

“I’m sick to death of hearing that as well. Say it again and I may be the one you need to fear.”

“You don’t care if he knows?” Juliette’s voice sounded amazed.

“By God, I may tell him myself.”

A laugh, full of scorn. “You won’t.”

Was Denton actually dragging her downstairs? Yes, he was, which was apparent when he shoved her into the room ahead of him. Juliette jerked her arm out of his grasp, stiffly straightened her clothes, and then, without a glance at the others in the room, took the seat as far away from Abigail’s end of the table as she could get, without actually sitting in Douglas’s chair.

Surprisingly, though, Denton followed her and yanked her to her feet. “Forget it. For once we’re going to behave like a normal family and actually eat together.” More than one brow rose when he dragged his wife again and shoved her into the chair next to Margaret, then went around the table to sit across from her. Considering Juliette’s volatile nature, Margaret was surprised she stayed there. Actually, she did seem a bit intimidated by this new, forceful side of Denton. Usually she walked all over him, held the upper hand, as it were. Perhaps Sebastian’s return was giving Denton some long overdue courage.

Abigail, with her usual calm, brought some normalcy to the table, or tried to, by asking Juliette about her trip to London. Juliette didn’t take the hint, though, that it was time to behave.

“That city is filthy,” she replied scornfully. “I do not know why I continue to subject myself. I would go to Paris to shop instead, but I have been denied that pleasure.”