Maggie MacKeever (30 page)

“Innis!” Lady Bliss looked shocked. “My dear, you didn’t tell him——”

“No, no! Heavens, Adorée, I’m not such a goose-cap!” Jynx caught Lady Bliss’s skeptical expression. “I don’t suppose you’d consider telling Lord Erland that you misjudged him?”

Charitably, Lady Bliss refrained from pointing out that she was not the one guilty of misjudgment. “Certainly!” she responded scathingly. “When pigs may fly! No, my dear, the breech will not be healed. Our paths lead in different directions, Lord Erland and I.” Stricken by her own nobility of character, and the grievous misuse she’d received, she allowed a few tears to fall. “Should I ever set eyes on the wretch again, I vow I’ll strangle him!”

This was all very interesting, but it got them nowhere. “About Innis,” Jynx began, then paused. Adorée’s sentiments toward her brother were at best ambiguous. Perhaps this warning would best be delivered with subtlety. “Bow Street is exceptionally busy just now.”

Subtlety had no place in Lady Bliss’s scheme of things. “That’s nice, my dear,” she said absently.

“Adorée, you must listen!” Miss Lennox was privy to an unChristian wish that she’d never so much as heard of the provoking Ashleys. “The theft of property worth no more than one shilling may be punishable by death! I know all about it, as does my father, and it is a very serious thing!”

Lady Bliss did not share this knowledge, as she speedily made clear. “Theft!” said she. “I may have led a reckless life, but I have never
stolen
anything, except perhaps a few hearts.” She looked contemplative. “Oh, let us be honest, a lot of them! But one cannot place a monetary value on human hearts, and you may tell Sir Malcolm so for me. Or I suppose one
could,
but my heart is not for sale, even if someone wished to pay
all
my debts, and you may tell Sir Malcolm that also! I would not have thought him so mercenary. Which just proves that one
does
learn something every day, and most of it one would much rather not know!”

“You have it wrong,” protested Miss Lennox, and sought support from the writing desk. “Not you, but Innis!”

“Sir Malcolm and
Innis?”
Adorée was dumbfounded. “Now this does beat everything!”

“Not Sir Malcolm, but theft!” wailed Jynx, herself on the verge of tears. Torn between frustration and amusement, she could only persevere. “Remember that Innis pawned my ring.”

“You told your father that? Why, you ungrateful girl!” Never one to long hold a grudge, Adorée relented immediately. “Not ungrateful, but misguided, which isn’t surprising in one so young and inexperienced! But
why
did you tell Sir Malcolm that Innis niched your ring? It makes no sense to me!”

Jynx sought desperately to set this deranged conversation back on course. “I didn’t! Sir Malcolm told me that Innis is behind the thefts that have been plaguing Bow Street.”

“Innis?” Adorée was equally relieved to have the confusion cleared. “How very enterprising of him!” Miss Lennox choked. “My dear, you must admit that it is very clever of Innis to have contrived so well.”

Miss Lennox was incapable of admitting any such thing; Miss Lennox was possessed of an overwhelming impulse to weep hysterically and drum her heels against the floor. That she did not was due to Tomkin, who appeared in the doorway. “Lord Erland,” he announced, in tones of doom. Dominic walked into the room.

Lady Bliss could hardly, no matter how strongly expressed her wish, strangle the earl. Her pretty hands lacked sufficient strength to choke the life out of a man; and Miss Lennox was not the sort of young lady to keep quiet if she witnessed such a thing. Denied the satisfaction of seeing Lord Erland’s swarthy face turn purple and his wicked lips gasp futilely for breath, Adorée did the next best thing: she swooned.

Chapter Twenty-four

Miss Lennox returned home to learn that her aunt had during her absence embarked upon a shopping expedition. She found no ground for suspicion in this enterprise, though Eulalia was parsimonious by nature, and not one to derive particular pleasure from the establishments of linen drapers, silk mercers, milliners and dressmakers. Jynx might have been a great deal more concerned had she realized her aunt’s destination lay not in Oxford Street or Mayfair, but was an elegant gentleman’s home, built by Sir Christopher Wren.

However, Jynx was spared that knowledge, and the inevitable speculation upon just what had prompted Eulalia to seek out Shannon Quinn. She divested herself of her bonnet and pelisse, then proceeded to her father’s study, a comfortable wood-paneled chamber. The walls were lined with shelves that held countless heavy legal tomes, most of which would have greatly benefited from an encounter with Tomkin’s feather duster. Sir Malcolm’s desk was in equally disgraceful condition, and piled high with papers and more dull-looking books. Miss Lennox fished a deck of playing cards out of a desk drawer.

Many years before, her nanny had showed her how to read her fortune from the cards; and Miss Lennox was in sore need of learning what her future might hold. Time and again she laid out the cards, and read from them doom and destruction, betrayal and heartbreak. Jynx considered the ominous nature of these portents, and fervently hoped that she hadn’t got the knack of the thing. When a footman appeared to announce a gentleman caller, Jynx was consequently relieved. She assumed the gentleman was Shannon, and said that she would see him.

Not Lord Roxbury but Lord Erland was ushered into the room. Miss Lennox scrambled to her feet with alacrity.

“You left so quickly that I had no chance to speak with you.” Dominic’s face was set in extremely ill-tempered lines. “Forgive me for this intrusion, Miss Lennox, but you appear to possess a modicum of sense, and I wish that someone would tell me what the devil is going on!”

“I suppose,” Jynx replied gloomily, “that Adorée told you who I am.”

“She did.” Lord Erland looked even more grim. “Since that’s the only thing she told me that was at all coherent, I remain scarcely enlightened. I am the vilest wretch this world was ever cursed with, I am given to understand; and additionally I have deprived her of the only happiness left her to enjoy upon this earthly world. And
then
she professed herself penetrated with grief and said not another word.”

A great many people, reflected Miss Lennox, did not share her aunt’s scruples about what was fit for a young lady of breeding to hear. “Percy was right; I have made a rare mull of it. You had better sit down.”

“That bad, eh?” Lord Erland sat. “You know my cousin, Miss Lennox? Lord, of course you do! You must be Percy’s Jynx. I must tell you that my cousin thinks you are——”

“A very good sort of girl!” concluded Miss Lennox, in long-suffering tones. “So he has told me. May I offer you refreshments, sir?”               

“No. I will be content if you tell me what has reduced Adorée Blissington to blithering idiocy.” An ironic gleam appeared in his eye. “She has given me to understand that you Know All.”

“Good God! Not all, I hope—though not because Adorée was stinting of detail. She remembered just in time—several times!—my maidenly sensibilities.” Jynx studied Lord Erland, an elegant figure in buckskins and top boots, a blue coat and buff waistcoat. “Did you ever reclaim your opera cloak, sir?”

“What has my cloak to do with anything?” Dominic quirked a brow. “Adorée seems to have confided a great deal more to you than she should. In truth, that you are even acquainted with her is dashed irregular, Miss Lennox.”

Tall, dark and short-tempered, reflected Jynx, who was assessing the Earl’s points very much as if he were a horse; not handsome but compelling in a rough way; with a deep harsh voice that had probably sent shivers along many a lady’s spine. “If you mean to scold me,” she said plaintively, “I wish you would not. I am very well aware that Adorée Blissington would be considered a highly questionable associate for a delicately nurtured damsel like myself. Still, I like her very much. And I am not so callous that I can abandon her in her present dire straits—though what I am to do about them, I don’t know.”

It occurred to Lord Erland that Miss Lennox was on the way to acquiring the Ashley lack of intelligibility. “I’d be very presumptuous to scold you, wouldn’t I? Though I am old enough to be your father, we have just met. The circumstances of that meeting do not concern me, Miss Lennox, and I have no especial curiosity about what you were doing in Blissington House. On the other hand, I have a very great curiosity about why everything is at sixes and sevens there.”

Jynx decided, abruptly, that she approved of Dominic. “I suppose you deserve to know the truth.” Or, she amended silently, a portion thereof. “You will be greatly out of humor with me—not that it signifies! Everyone is out of humor with me these days. I fear that Adorée’s upset is very much my fault. I led her to think that you, er, sought her out merely to alienate her from Percy.”

“What the devil has Percy to do with anything?” Lord Erland inquired irritably. “You disappoint me. Miss Lennox; I’d begun to think you a level-headed young woman.”

“I was, once, but I’ve gone off into the oddest humors of late. I fancy it’s the influence of the Ashleys.” Lord Erland uttered a crack of laughter, and Jynx looked at him. “As for yourself, what else could I think? Lady Peverell had already offered to buy Adorée off! Then you appeared and immediately lay siege. I am devoted to Lady Bliss, but not even her most doting admirer can deny that she’s a nitwit! I could not simply sit by and watch you lead her up the garden path.”

“Watch,
Miss Lennox? Dominic inquired wickedly.

“You know what I meant.” Jynx did not so much as blush. “I will admit that I misjudged you, but how was I to know? As Adorée reminded me this morning, my experience with gentlemen is not great.”

Lord Erland discovered, rather to his surprise, that he was enjoying this interview. As a result, he smiled. That smile was of such bewitching quality that even Miss Lennox noted it. “Adorée thought all along that I was mistaken,” she added; “But she is not one to stand firm, you know.” The earl observed that he had heard something of the sort, and Miss Lennox frowned. “We will not advance with any speed if you keep throwing me innuendoes. And if we do not advance, we will be interrupted by my Aunt Eulalia, and that will be the end of any assistance I might offer.  Eulalia is an expert on propriety, and she would not in the least approve of you.”

“You’re not missish, at any rate.” From Lord Erland, this was patently a compliment. “Very well, I shall tease you no more. I hope you won’t take offense, Miss Lennox, but thus far I can make neither head nor tail of your account.”

“I don’t wonder at it! There is something about the Ashleys that sets coherence at naught.” Jynx sighed. “Anyway, I said what I did to Adorée, and then you broke her faro bank, which somehow not only convinced her that I had been wrong about you but also that she was at her last prayers.”

“If you mean to tell me that I’m solely responsible for the chaos in that house,” Lord Erland interrupted, “I must tell you in turn that you’re out! There’s more to this than a paltry five thousand pounds.”

“Paltry!” echoed Jynx. “If you are
that
wealthy, you should give Adorée her cottage in the country immediately! There could be no better resolution for a great number of things.”

“Such as?” Dominic looked intent. “You forget that I am the greatest rascal unhung, Miss Lennox. The lady is not likely to accept any offers of assistance from such a rogue.”

Jynx did not remark that the lady had a great weakness for rogues. “Someone must look after her; I certainly cannot! Think, sir! Adorée Blissington has been a much-courted lady, and she has been surrounded by spendthrift idle gentlemen who are hell-bent on living high without regard of the consequence, such as her brother. She hasn’t the least notion of economy, or the least restraint, and as a result she has gone on headlong to disaster. I truly think it would be in the best interests of you both were you to rescue her.”

Lord Erland, well-acquainted as he was with ladies of every station in life, regarded Miss Lennox with something akin to awe. So far removed was the phlegmatic Jynx from all common notions of maidenly rectitude that he half-expected her to point out that Lady Bliss’s stubborn retention of his opera cloak argued a strong passion for himself. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”

A vast number of things, Jynx amended, but she kept that reflection to herself. “It may be an odd thing to say, but I have no other view but that of amending the damage I have wrought. You could do nothing better than to remove Lady Bliss from her brother’s influence.”

“You are also acquainted with Innis Ashley, Miss Lennox? I begin to be grateful that I am
not
your father! I would be driven distracted by trying to keep you from these highly improper goings-on.”

Jynx regarded her caller in an unfriendly manner, and recalled Percy’s remark that his cousin was a very disagreeable man. “As you have tried to do with Percy? I shall be presumptuous, Lord Erland, and point out that if Percy wasn’t half afraid of you he wouldn’t be in his current predicament.”

“Afraid of me?” Dominic looked taken aback.
“
What predicament?”

Miss Lennox wondered if she should play the prattle-box and betray Percy, or be loyal and stay dumb. Since she could not, after judicious rumination, see that virtue brought with it any reward, she chose the former course. “Gambling debts,” she said succinctly. “Innis Ashley is threatening him with them. He has not told you because he fears your temper. It is rather hypocritical of you, sir, to scold Percy for gambling when you yourself just broke Adorée’s faro bank!”

“I’ve nothing against gambling,” Dominic replied absently. “Percy’s sin is that he never wins. But this still doesn’t hang together! Percy told me he doesn’t care for gambling.”

“I don’t suppose he does.” On thin ice, Jynx trod cautiously. “There was another reason why Percy went to Blissington House. Innis was aware of that reason, and in return for his cooperation demanded that Percy continue to play. There you have it! You would be best advised to buy up Percy’s vowels and use them to prevent the possibility of such a thing happening again.”