No Decent Gentleman (28 page)

"How lovely and sad," Sabrina said, enchanted by the tale and the man. How could she not trust him?

"I know another tale about a wallflower," he said.

"Is it sad?"

"Yes."

"Then I don't want to hear it today," she said.

"You have a soft heart," Adam whispered, leaning close to kiss her.

"Have I told you yet how delicious you taste?" she asked when their kiss ended.

"Mint freshens the breath," Adam told her. He drew her down one of the rows of herbs and picked a tiny sprig, then offered it to her.

Sabrina popped it into her mouth and said, "Now I taste like you." Recognizing the parsley growing in the pot beside the mint, she picked a few pieces to garnish their lunch.

"Come, Princess," Adam said, taking her hand in his. "I want to show you everything."

He escorted her up and down the rows of hothouse flowers. Here were nodding violet bellflowers, dangling bleeding hearts, blue bachelor's buttons, blue Cupid's dart, and many others.

Sabrina admired his flowers and the man. Her husband had an interesting tale of how each flower got its name.

"Are you hungry?" he asked finally.

Sabrina reached up and drew his head down to hers. She planted a kiss on his lips and said, "I want no locked doors between us."

"Never," he promised, and raised her hands to his lips.

Sabrina smiled. He seemed so sincere, yet the east wing's door stood between them. Unless what lay behind it was truly unimportant ... She would never know the answer to that unless she got through the door. And that brought her back to faith and trust again.

"Come on, husband," she said. "I will make you lunch, we'll eat at the kitchen table."

"And we will pretend to be ordinary people?"

"You can be the duke's gardener," she told him. "I will be his cook."

"Which duke would that be?"

Sabrina gave him a jaunty smile. "The Duke of Kingston, of course."

Adam laughed. Taking her hand in his, he said, "Oh, I am definitely looking forward to the next forty or fifty years with you."

Winston had waited outside the hothouse, and wagged his tail in greeting when he saw them. Followed by the dog, Adam and Sabrina returned to the mansion. Their unexpected arrival startled the servants in the kitchen.

"Everyone take the next two hours off," Adam ordered. "My wife and I want the kitchen to ourselves."

Nobody moved, just stared at him in surprise.

"That means get out," Adam said.

The servants sprang to life. They tripped over each other in their haste to leave the kitchen.

"Well done, my lord," Sabrina said.

"I'm the gardener," Adam corrected her. "Remember? Winston, sit down."

The wolfhound obeyed instantly.

"How do you do that?" Sabrina asked.

Adam smiled. "Winston knows that I am the top dog in this family."

"Are you implying that I'm a b—?"

"No."

"Shall I make you some French sunshine first?" Sabrina asked. "It doesn't take long."

"I'm still working on what you brought from London," Adam refused, patting his stomach.

"Would you like a piece of the sweet while I am making lunch?" she asked.

"I left it upstairs."

Sabrina hadn't seen the box anywhere in his chamber. "Tell me where it is, and I'll get it."

"Only a heartless wife makes her husband wait to eat," Adam said.

"I'll make a new batch of sunshine tomorrow," she promised. "What would you like to eat now?"

"Something light."

"How about eggs?"

Adam inclined his head.

"Scrambled eggs with mushrooms and truffle oil and a cup of tomato soup," she said.

Like an ordinary wife, Sabrina gathered the necessary ingredients for the egg dish along with bread and butter and then put the soup on to simmer. Like an ordinary husband, Adam sat at the kitchen table and watched her work.

"I really like James and Lily Armstrong," Sabrina said over her shoulder.

"We can visit them in Scotland next autumn if you like," Adam told her.

Sabrina turned around. "James has a home there?"

Adam nodded. "All of the Quality go grouse hunting from mid-August until late autumn."

"I don't like hunting," she said.

"I don't either."

Sabrina put the mushrooms and butter into a small pan and fried them for a few minutes. Then she added some parsley and truffle oil. "Prince Adolphus doesn't know that I know he's my father," she said. "How should I behave when I meet him again?"

"Be your wonderful self."

Sabrina walked over to the table and kissed him, saying, "Thank you for the compliment." Then she hurried back to the stove and added beaten eggs, cream, salt, and pepper to the mixture and began scrambling the eggs. "I feel guilty about not telling Courtney," she said. "Do you think she'll forgive me?"

"How could she not?" Adam replied.

Sabrina scooped the scrambled eggs onto hot buttered toast and added the mushrooms on top of that. Then she garnished the eggs with parsley and set the dishes on the table before returning to the stove for the soup.

"It looks delicious," Adam said when she joined him at the table. He raised a forkful of egg to his mouth and then said, "And it tastes as good as it looks."

Sabrina set a dish of eggs and a bowl of soup on the floor for Winston, who instantly began gobbling it up. "I won't be completely happy until my father rests in hallowed ground."

"I'll go to work on that as soon as we return to London," Adam promised. "Tell me what you know about that day."

Sabrina shrugged. "I've told you everything I can remember."

"Will you be upset if I ask you a few questions?" he said.

"No."

"What did your father use?"

Sabrina stared at him blankly. "I don't understand."

"Did he use a rope, a belt, or something else to hang himself?" Adam asked.

"My father did not hang himself," Sabrina insisted. "My father died by hanging."

Adam grinned at her. "Princess, you would make an excellent barrister. Now, answer my question."

"A rope."

"Did he usually keep a rope in his study?" Adam asked.

"No, is that important?"

"It could be," he answered. "Either he brought the rope into the study that day or—"

"—someone else did," she finished for him.

"Was his neck broken?"

"No."

"What shape was the bruise on his neck?" Adam asked. "Was it a straight line or an inverted
V
bruise?"

Sabrina closed her eyes and tried to conjure the horrifying scene in her father's study. Again she saw Forbes and Edgar kneeling beside her father. Closer and closer she stepped to gaze down at his lifeless body.

"The bruise was a
V
," Sabrina said, opening her eyes. "Is that important?"

"I won't lie to you," Adam said. "A
V
bruise usually indicates suicide and a straight line indicates murder."

Sabrina knew her father could never take his own life. He would never wish to leave her and Courtney to fend for themselves. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she insisted on a choked sob, "My father did not commit suicide."

"Do you believe he was murdered?"

"I didn't say that," Sabrina answered, wringing her hands folded in her lap.

"Your father's death was no accident," Adam told her, reaching out to take her hands in his. "Suicide and murder are the only options."

"You just said a
V
-shaped bruise indicates suicide," Sabrina reminded him.

"If an assailant knocked him out and then hanged him, the bruise would appear to be a suicide's," Adam said.

"My father had no enemies," she replied.

"Princess, think hard," Adam said. "Was anything out of place or unusual about the study?"

"No, I didn't notice anything amiss," Sabrina said, looking him straight in the eye. She realized that nothing being out of place pointed to suicide.

"We will solve this puzzle with logic," Adam said. "Do you agree that your father's death was no accident?"

Sabrina nodded.

"Princess, our choices are murder or suicide," Adam told her. "No one knows your father better than you and Courtney. If given a choice of the two, which is the most likely to have happened?"

"Murder."

"Now, forget about the problem of how the villain could have entered a locked room, murdered your father, and then escaped without leaving any trace of evidence," Adam said, and then gave her an encouraging smile. "The man or woman who murdered your father had a grudge against him or something to gain by the earl's death. Do you know of anyone harboring a grudge against him?"

Sabrina shook her head. "My father was a wonderful man who treated everyone with respect."

"Then the person who murdered your father is someone who would gain by his death," Adam said.

Sabrina sat back against the chair. Suddenly she felt weak, as if she were going to faint. For some strange reason, the thought of Edgar's disappointment at being refused her hand in marriage popped into her mind, but she quickly banished such an absurd notion. Edgar Briggs had been a family friend for as long as she could remember. He would never do anything to hurt her or her family. She couldn't accuse him without any evidence.

"I will discover who that person is," Adam told her. "I promise you."

"I believe you will do it," Sabrina said, managing a smile for him. "That villain is no match for you."

"Thank you for the praise, Princess." Finished with his eggs and soup, Adam lifted the parsley garnish. "I always eat the parsley, though I know most people do not."

"That was laughing parsley," Sabrina told him. "Legend says you will die of laughing if you eat it."

"I will take my chances," Adam said, and popped the parsley into his mouth. Then he chuckled at her feigned look of horror.

"You see, the parsley is already working," she told him.

Adam threw back his head and shouted with laughter. "You must eat some too and die with me."

"Feed it to Winston," Sabrina said. "I never saw a dog laugh."

Adam picked up the sprig of parsley and tried to put it into her mouth. When he reached out with his free hand and tickled her, Sabrina laughed, and he popped the parsley inside.

"I have need of you upstairs, wife," he announced, rising from his chair to scoop her into his arms. "The servants will clear this mess."

Leaving Winston in the great hall with Razi, Adam carried Sabrina up the stairs to the third floor. She fixed a troubled gaze on the door to the east wing as they passed it.

"I'll have you for dessert," Adam said, tossing her onto his bed and falling gently on top of her. He gazed down at her and then dipped his head to claim her lips in a tender kiss. "Princess, you are sweeter than French sunshine. ..."

Chapter 14

Four days
, Sabrina thought.
Four glorious days of wedded bliss
.

Dressed only in her chemise, Sabrina stood in her bedchamber and gazed out the window. Sheets of rain slashed the window, making the village across the bay invisible.

This was the first stormy day since her arrival. God shield her, but she hoped the storm did not herald a bad omen for her marriage.

For the first time in her life, Sabrina was sublimely happy and knew she loved her husband. She refused to say those words to him until he said them to her, but her husband didn't seem to think that she longed to hear him profess his love.

Only the uncertainty of what lay behind the east wing's door had marred the almost perfect four days of her married life. Three times each day—morning, afternoon, evening-—her husband disappeared into the east wing. Several times she'd tried to get inside, only to find the door locked.

"How about this gown?" asked a voice behind her.

Sabrina turned around to look at her newest acquisition, a lady's maid. Tilly was a seventeen-year-old from the village, whom her husband had hired to play lady's maid to her. After all, he couldn't let his valet help her dress and undress.

Tilly yearned to leave the dull life of Marazion and knew being lady's maid to the Marchioness of Stonehurst would be exciting. At least, that's what she'd said.

Sabrina shifted her gaze from the girl to the high-waisted forest-green gown with crossover bodice. "That will do."

Tilly helped her into the gown and then fastened the row of tiny buttons in the back. Then she handed Sabrina a matching cashmere shawl.

"I'll take the other gown downstairs and try to get the wine stain out of it," Tilly said, grabbing the soiled garment and heading for the door.

Sabrina stood motionless for several moments and wondered what she could bring to her husband's study to keep herself busy while he worked on his ledgers. Finally, she decided to take a book and her needlework.

After gathering those items, Sabrina left the bedchamber and walked down the deserted corridor to the stairs. She paused at the east wing's door and turned the knob. Locked, of course.

Sabrina continued down the stairs until she reached the study. She knocked on the door and heard her husband calling, "Enter." He didn't sound especially happy.

Opening the door, Sabrina stepped inside and closed the door behind herself quietly so she wouldn't disturb him. She smiled as her husband rose to his feet at her entrance.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"No, I am experiencing a minor difficulty with this column of numbers," Adam said, gesturing to the ledger book on the desk in front of him.

"Would you like me to try my hand at them?" Sabrina asked.

Adam grinned and shook his head, seemingly amused by her offer. This didn't sit well with Sabrina, but she remained silent.

"Make yourself comfortable," Adam said, gesturing to the study.

Sabrina crossed the chamber and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I'll sit over there near the hearth and keep busy."

"I should have these accounts finished soon enough," Adam told her. "Then we can move on to more pleasurable pursuits."

Sabrina crossed the study to the hearth, and Adam resumed his work. Placing the book and the needlework on the floor, she struggled to turn one of the chairs around to face the desk.