Laurie Brown (19 page)

“Speaking of the library,” Josie said to no one in particular. “I think I’ll go down and pick out a book. I’ve nearly finished
mine.” It was a lie, but she needed an excuse to inspect the library before the séance and put her pitifully few traps in
place.

“I’ll come with you and get Master DuPree’s book,” Honoria said.

“If you don’t mind keeping an eye on Josie for me...”

“I don’t need a chaperone to get a book.”

“Yes, you do,” both women said simultaneously.

“Remember your reputation,”Mrs. Binns added. “Right now is an especially precarious time. Considering your...adventure this
morning.”

“I’ll see her safely to the library and back,”

Honoria promised.

“Thank you. I’ll have a bit of a lie-down,” Mrs. Binns said. She turned to Josie. “And you should too, my dear. It will be
a late night.”

“I will. Later,” Josie promised.“I’ll be right with you,” she said to Honoria.

Josie went into her room and grabbed the small bundle of potentially useful items she’d prepared the night before. It was
too big to fit into her teensy-weensy reticule, so she tied a loop into the large handkerchief, stuck her arm through the
makeshift handle, and then draped her shawl in such a way as to cover the entire package.

She wasn’t sure how she was going to get rid of her substitute chaperone, but she’d think of something. She would need to
be alone to set her traps before the séance.And then she would decide what to do about Lord Waite and his scheming.

Fourteen

G
ETTING RID OF HONORIA WAS EASIER THAN
Josie had anticipated. After only two minutes in the library, a servant rushed in with a potential disaster that required
her immediate attention or else the supper for the ball would be utterly ruined.

“Oh, dear. I really must see to Cook immediately,” Honoria said.

“No problem. I’ll wait right here for you to return.”

“The last time she locked herself in her room with a bottle of schnapps, it took Mrs. Osman and me three hours to talk her
out. She was hungover for two days. Cook, not Mrs. Osman.”

“Then you should go right away.”

“I could call for Dora or...”

“Don’t bother poor Dora. Hopefully she’s resting.”

“Mrs. Binns...”

“Already asleep, I’m sure. Go on. She’ll never know the difference.”

“Oh, dear. Oh, dear. I don’t know what to do.”

“Really, I’ll be fine. Look on the bright side. You’ll probably take care of the emergency in a few minutes. But if it looks
like you’ll be tied up for hours, you can send me word and I’ll go back to my room like a good little girl and take my nap.”

“You are a sweet child,” Honoria said, thanking Josie several times before rushing off.

“Well, that was easy,” Deverell said as he popped into the room.

“Did you have something to do with that?”

“If you mean did I lock Cook in her room, then the answer is no. If you mean did I open the cabinet door and move the schnapps
bottle a few inches to where Cook could see it...?”

“You didn’t? That was a terrible thing to do. Poor Cook has had such an awful day, and now you cause your poor mother additional
worries.”

“She will cope magnificently. She always does. And
someone
had to help you.Would you rather have spent the afternoon discussing the relative merits of your many suitors?”

“You were eavesdropping.”

“I was waiting for you to do what we came here to do. Did you devise any traps?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I did.” Josie plopped her bundle on the table and crossed her arms.

“Well, don’t just stand there.We only have about twenty minutes.”

Suddenly suspicious, she asked, “And how do you know that? Did this exact incident happen before? I mean, do you have a memory
of it? Or are you ‘remembering’ the revised version? Or...”

“Don’t get your garters in a knot. I simply know Mrs. Osman had a duplicate of Cook’s key made after she locked herself in
with a bottle...”

“Your mother told me about that. But that means we only have a few minutes.” She removed a twist of Mrs. Binns’s finest silk
thread and began to position five- to six-foot lengths across sections of the wood paneling and bookshelves. She kept the
thread near the floor, and the brown color blended perfectly. If someone used a secret door, he or she would inadvertently
break the silk. “You could give me a hand with this.”

“I’m conserving energy. You have time. The housekeeper will have to find the key first.”

His self-satisfied grin prompted her to ask,“Did you take it?”

“No, but I did move it to a spot behind a footlocker. I don’t know why you’re doing that. I’ve told you there aren’t any secret
passageways into this room.”

“Look for the simplest solution first. It’s usually the right one.” She stood back to admire her handiwork. Unless you knew
the threads were there, they would go unnoticed. She returned to the table to set her next trap. She removed the box of rice
face powder and fluffy applicator from her bundle and then crawled under the table.

“What are you doing now?”

“I’m dusting the area with a fine film of powder. If she touches the underside of the table, or the legs, it will leave a
trail.”

“I don’t see how that will help. If we are going to figure out how...”

“Before we can deduce
how
,we have to find out
what
she does.” Josie stood up and dusted off her hands. “And I don’t see you coming up with any brilliant ideas.”

“Isn’t that why I brought
you
?”

“Then stop second-guessing everything I do.”

She removed a small vial and a plain handkerchief from her bundle. “Before you ask, I’m applying a thin coating of oil to
the top of the chair where Madame sits. Hopefully, the so-called spirit will place his hands on the chairback again and leave
a residue of whatever it is that glows in the dark.”

“Is that oil of cloves? Makes me think of a toothache.”

“I borrowed it from Mrs. Binns’s medical kit.”

“Won’t the smell be a bit obvious? Won’t someone question why...”

“Not likely with all the other odors emanating from those protective charms she’ll insist we wear to the séance.”

“What else have you got in that bundle?”

“Only these tiny beads I’m going to put on the window sashes to indicate if they are opened.” She took out the tiny glass
vial with the cork stopper that she’d borrowed from her chaperone’s sewing basket.“That’s all I could think of. Hopefully
it will be adequate.”

“How do you expect to use the information you gather to reveal the charade?”

“Sometimes evidence of foul play is enough to cause doubt.”

“But is doubt sufficient to convince Honoria to cease having these séances?”

Josie shrugged.“You know her better than I do.” She carefully placed the tiny glass beads on the sides of the window sash,
not that anyone coming or going that way in the dark would notice a few red and blue bugle beads.

“I suppose it will depend on how the gypsy defends herself,” Deverell said. “Damn, I hate that the future we want hinges on
uncertain odds.”

“So now you’re back to thinking we can change history.”

“After reviewing the relevant facts, I realized my original reasoning was correct.”

Heaven forbid he should admit to being wrong.

Deverell continued, “I have concluded we can change this particular piece of history because we are rectifying a wrong, serving
justice. Madame X preys on emotional vulnerability for monetary gain and deserves to be stopped.”

“But you don’t deserve to have your history changed?” she asked over her shoulder as she knelt to place more beads.

“I am not looking for redemption. I must be content with carrying out the task I accepted as my penance. I can only...”

At the sudden silence, Josie stood and spun around. He’d disappeared mid-sentence.“Deverell?”

A surge of panic seized her. Had he blinked into oblivion and left her alone and stranded? Despite knowing he was no longer
there, her gaze darted from one corner to another. “Yoo-hoo, Deverell?

Lord Waite?”

Then she realized his disappearance must mean Dev was near. She quickly returned to the table and tossed her shawl over the
unexplainable supplies just as the door opened.

“I thought I heard your voice,” Dev said. Actually he’d been headed to the stables when he’d thought he heard his name called.
Spending time with her had more appeal than a ride.

Because she was alone in the library, he left the door open for propriety’s sake. He also motioned to the footman. “Please
fetch Miss Drummond’s chaperone.”

“No,” Josie said.“Don’t disturb her. She’s resting. Your mother said she’d be right back.”

Dev signaled the footman. “Please inform Lady Honoria her presence is requested.”

The footman scurried to do his bidding.

“That wasn’t necessary.”

“I see you did not attend the picnic luncheon with the other guests. Do you not enjoy picnics?”

“Don’t change the subject. I find this obsession with chaperones a great inconvenience.” She scooped up her shawl in an awkward
manner.“I shall return to my room now.”

“One moment, if you please.”

“I’d rather not.”

She stopped a few steps away, her expression indicating she was impatient for him to move out of the doorway. He didn’t budge.
Every time he saw her, she intrigued him all the more.What was she hiding under that shawl she held clasped so tightly to
her lovely breasts?

He stifled a smile at the sound of her foot tapping impatiently.“I am delighted to see the shower had such a restorative effect.”

“You’re keeping me here to discuss your plumbing?”

Her blush and rapid shallow breathing revealed more than her bold words.

“I would rather discuss our mutual...” He paused when the voices in the hallway behind him became louder.

“I told you she is not receiving,” the butler said.

“Step aside, old man. I will see Miss Drummond.”

“Wait here,” Dev said to Josie. He stepped into the hallway and closed the library door behind himself.“Thank you, Carleton,”
he said to the butler. “I will deal with Lord Hargrave.”

“Very good, milord.”

He waited until the servant was out of earshot before speaking to the piece of filth before him.“If you leave immediately,
I will not...”

“I’m here to do my duty toward Miss Drum-mond,” Hargrave said, raising his chin. “I offer her my name in order to salvage
her reputation.”

“You what?” Josie screeched.

Dev spun around.“I asked you to wait...”

“Why? So you could politely...”

“Miss Drummond.” Hargrave pushed past Dev and rushed toward Josie.

Dev reached for the man’s arm and missed. Josie automatically backed away from the oncoming villain.

“Miss Drummond, you must forgive my precipitous actions of this morning. I was driven mad by your beauty.Wild by the need
to be with...”

“Oh, shut up,” Josie said.

Dev had to give her credit. Once she’d recovered from her surprise, she stood her ground. He came up behind his former friend.“Har...”

“You stay out of this,” she said, rounding on Dev.

He raised his hands in submission and backed off. But not too far.

Josie turned back to Hargrave. “I can’t believe you had the balls to show up here. You’re lower than low.You’re...”

“I am here to restore your good name by giving you mine.”

“What?”

“Once we’re married...”

“Listen, you thick-skulled cretin, I told you before but I tell you again. I will never marry you. Never. After what you did
to...”

Hargrave fell to his knees and groveled. “Please, forgive me, Miss Drummond. Your beauty drove me to it.” He grabbed her foot
and tried to kiss it.

In her futile effort to escape his grasp, she fell backward. She dropped her bundle and scrambled to retrieve an odd assortment
of objects even as she shook her leg to dislodge Hargrave’s desperate grip. He held on like a dog with a bone.

Dev had started moving the instant the other man’s hands had reached for her. He didn’t understand the fury deep in his gut,
but he knew for certain the villain would never touch Josie again.

“Let go of me,” she said, grabbing the nearby chair for leverage and kicking her captor in the face with her free foot.

“Enough,” Dev said. He leaned over, grabbed two fistfuls of coat, and lifted Hargrave to his feet. “Time for you to leave.”

“The bitch bloodied my nose,” Hargrave complained as he was half carried, half pushed out the door. “This is not over,” he
called back over his shoulder.

Dev stopped short of throwing the despicable man down the front steps—not out of any consideration for Hargrave, but because
the guests were returning across the lawn from their picnic. Any comment caused by his actions would come to roost on Josie’s
head.

Hargrave straightened his coat and dabbed at his nose with his handkerchief.

“You are no longer welcome in my home.” Dev turned away without the courtesy of a bow.

“You won’t be so high-and-mighty once word of your precious guest’s activities...”

Dev spun back to face the bounder. “I demand satisfaction.”

“Which I gladly give.The woman as the prize, eh?”

“My second will call on your second,” he said, refusing to validate that last comment with a reply.

He spun on his heel and reentered the house.

“I’ll be at the inn in the village,” Hargrave called through the closed door.

Dev dismissed the matter from his mind and anxiously returned to Josie. He wasn’t sure what he’d find when he reopened the
library door, surely not her on the sofa in a faint, but possibly she would be in need of comfort. He scoffed at his own thinking.
She was more likely stomping around the room in a towering rage at his interference. He certainly never expected to find her
sitting cross-legged on the floor examining the back of a chair.

“What the hell?” Josie had sensed his presence and for a nanosecond couldn’t tell if it was the ghost or the man. When his
deep voice sent an electric thrill down her spine, she knew Dev was still keeping Deverell away. She was torn. On the one
hand she wanted to share her find with the ghost, and yet she wanted to be near the man. Considering her position, she had
no choice but to offer an explanation.

“Look what I found. This chair has a secret compartment. I must have knocked the release with my elbow when I fell.”

Dev went down on one knee next to her.“Are you hurt?”

She dismissed his concern with a wave.“Did you know this was here? Don’t you find this fascinating?”

“No, and no. In this old place secret compartments are as common as dirt. Is anything in there?”

“Empty,” she said with a sigh.

“What? Did you expect to find the mythical emeralds?”

Now he was making fun of her.“Actually, I find the access to the compartment the most interesting part. Very cleverly hidden.
See, this lion’s head moves to the right, that releases this catch, and the door flops down.”

“Absolutely enchanting,” Dev said, but he was looking at her, not the chair.

“See how the door folds out and then a second level flips open? I’d bet it’s strong enough to stand on.”

“Library chairs that incorporate steps are not all that uncommon.What is all this?” Dev asked, indicating the near-empty vial
of beads, powder container, and other stuff.

When she’d spotted the secret compartment, Josie had totally forgotten the remainders of her supplies that had spilled from
her shawl when she fell. Caught red-handed and unable to think of another reasonable—or even far-fetched—explanation, she
told him the truth. During her account he helped her to rise and to pick up the leftover bits of her traps.