The Duke and the Dressmaker (The St. James Series) (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Philip drove his phaeton into the city. He could not let this go. The only thing to do was confront Sara. When he stopped in front of her shop, he froze. Cold fear crept through every ounce of his being. The door was destroyed. Someone had broken into her shop.

Stinky, it had to be Stinky. He prayed it was
anyone else. He found his way through the splintered wood and searched inside. Cold sweat poured down his neck and his forehead as he stared at the destruction. Torn gowns and ripped material covered the floor. Blood drizzled over the floor and the gowns. Whose blood?

Someone yelled at him. He jerked his head around to see who was there.

“Brentwood, that you, Your Grace? What happened here? Someone reported a break-in. Seems they have it correct.” A gentleman from the Horse Patrol stood in the entranceway.

“You don’t know, Officer? Shouldn’t you know? Someone breaks into a woman’s shop in broad daylight and you don’t know?”
He struggled to rein in his temper.

“Well, we heard the commotion but we didn’t get here in time to talk to the man. There were so many people strolling about the crowd held us back. We saw your arrival from across the street.
Thought you might know something.” The officer stared into his eyes with his hands on his hips.

“What man? What man did you see? Who? Who did this? Where is
Lady Downey?” His voice trembled as he battered the officer with his questions.

“
Ardleigh, Your Grace. The Earl of Ardleigh’s carriage was here. He broke the door down to get to Lady Downey.”

“Is she all right?
What happened? What do you mean he had to break the door down?” A claw reached down his throat as he spoke. A hand lashed out and grabbed his heart at the same time, squeezing as he waited for the answer to his question. It was entirely possible he was about to vomit or have an apoplexy.

“Lady
Ardleigh swept her to her house. She said she needed to get a physician for her. That was all she said.” The officer studied him a little too hard. “Any idea who would try to hurt Lady Downey, Your Grace?”

Philip
flew out the door and jumped into his phaeton.

“No, I don’t know who did this,” he tossed back over his shoulder.

He hated lying.

Stinky was his.

***

The trip to
Ardleigh’s was the longest journey of his life. With all the drama recently, the thought of life without Sara never crossed his mind. Why was he so obsessed with getting her to live with him as his mistress instead of guaranteeing her safety first? When was the last time he had spoken with his private investigator? He berated himself over and over again.

He had broken one of his own caveats.
Never let lust run your life.
Bloody hell, why didn’t he follow his own edicts?

He knew why, b
ecause it was Sara, and Sara made him lose the ability to think rationally.

He barge
d in past Ardleigh’s butler, yelling for Edward.

Ardleigh
and Phoebe both appeared. He didn’t care for the expressions on their faces. The squeeze on his heart kicked in again.

“Where is she? I need to see her. What happened? Is she all right?”

Ardleigh ushered him into the library.

“
Brentwood, have a seat.” Ardleigh gestured toward a chair.

“A seat?
I cannot sit! Where is she? Ardleigh, stop playing games and speak!” he shouted.

Phoebe stepped beside him and placed her hand on his arm
.“Physically, she is fine, Your Grace. The physician is with her setting her broken finger as we speak. Emotionally, she is questionable. We do not know the whole story yet.”

“Setting her
finger? More broken bones? Blast it, I need to be with her.” He bolted out the door and up the stairs. A maid at the top of the stairs pointed him in the right direction.

He vaguely heard Phoebe yelling
up the staircase.

“Your Grace, you have no right!”

“I have every right; she is mine,” Philip declared for all to hear.

He stopped in the doorway and stared at Sara
lying in the middle of the bed. The physician probed her arm as he talked to her. She was breathtaking even in disarray. His heart sank as he noticed how slight she was in the bed. He stepped into the room as softly as he could.

The physician’s head popped up.

“Your Grace, this is not proper. You cannot stay. I will take care of Lady Downey.” His straight posture was formidable, but nothing would stop Philip. He belonged at her side.

“Sara
?” He approached the bed cautiously. Her head turned to find his voice, but her eyes were blank. There was no recognition in her eyes.

“Sara? It’s me, Philip. Can you hear me?” His voice faltered as he took in her
bandaged arm, her swollen fingers. He pushed past the physician, but stopped in shock. The bruising on her cheek was evident along with the swollen black eye on the other side of her face. He fought to unclench his fists and slow his breathing to normal. He didn’t want to upset her anymore.

She said nothing.
She didn’t respond to him at all. Her eyes found his but they were empty. Oh, saints above, what had happened? He had never seen eyes like hers; they unnerved him.

“Dr.
Newberry, how many broken bones?” Philip whispered to the doctor while smiling at Sara.

“One more finger, same hand. Brutal man she was accosted by.
Thought the arm may be broken, but after examining it, I don’t think so. Will bother her for awhile. You can see the damage to her face; she also has a bruised hip. Someone needs to help this poor woman.” He peered over his glasses at Philip as he held Sara’s arm. “I don’t care to see what comes next.”

“
I will sit with her while you set her finger.”

“Fine, Your Grace, I cannot bodily remove you from the room. I have given her enough laudanum to make the pain tolerable. Please sit and don’t aggravate her. She is very fragile right now.”

Philip moved to the other side of the bed. He grabbed a chair and took her hand in his. Sara’s eyes followed him, completely void of emotion. He kissed her fingers and whispered, “I am sorry, Sara. I am so, so sorry. I should never have let this happen to you.”

Dr.
Newberry gave him a perplexed look, but Philip ignored him.

“Hold her tight,
Brentwood, she may scream and come off the bed. This is a nasty break. Whoever did this knew what he was doing.”

Dr.
Newberry gripped her hand firmly and wrenched.

Sara never flinched. She stared into
Philip’s eyes and never blinked.

Philip dropped his head to the bed to hide his tears.

***

Philip entered
Ardleigh’s library after Sara had fallen asleep.

He ran his hand down his face and stared at
Ardleigh. “What happened?”

Phoebe
followed him in and closed the door. “We’re uncertain as to what happened. Sara was not coherent enough to tell us everything. I might ask you why you are here. How did you know she was here?”

Phoebe’s eyes locked with his. She wasn’t going to make this easy. Why the devil did
Ardleigh allow his wife to run things?

He
stuck his hands in his pockets and paused for a moment, feeling the crumpled paper inside. Confusion danced through his mind. He strode over to the window to clear his head. What the devil was this letter about? His purpose had slipped his mind as soon as he noticed the broken door at Sara’s shop. He had almost lost her. The fear, the clench in his gut when he noticed the blood on the floor in her shop, all foreign sensations to him, clamored for his attention now. What if something had happened to Sara? He unfolded the paper in his pocket, and read the words silently.

His head jerked up in response. That’s right
. How could he forget? She would prefer a larger necklace. A small fortune in jewels was not enough for her. She wanted more expensive gems. His mind had momentarily lost its focus, but it was back now. Hellfire, how was he going to explain this to Ardleigh and his wife? Perhaps it was best he was honest.

He turned, immune to the fire he knew was now in his eyes
.“Do you really want to know why I was at her shop? If you think you can handle it, I will tell you. How close are you to Sara?” His voice dropped to a whisper. He probably sneered, but he couldn’t stop himself. Sara had fooled everyone, even his mother.

“I am quite close to Sara, Your Grace,
but with all due respect, I would like to know your business with her. I know some of the events that led her here, but perhaps you can fill in some of the voids I have.”

Phoebe’s stare did not soften. Fine, then he would tell her.

“All right. I will give you the events as I know them. I sent Sara a necklace, a very expensive necklace. She returned it to me with this very short note.” He yanked the note from his pocket and attempted to smooth out the creases from the way he had crushed the letter in his hand. He had to do something with his hands, didn’t he? As his temper flared, he almost ripped the note as he handed it to Phoebe.

“I think she has us all fooled
.” The duke shook his head as he paced around the office. “She is no kind, innocent lady. I suggest she is a conniving, lying female, not unlike most of her gender, present company excluded, of course.”

Phoebe scanned the note and handed it back to the
duke. A small smile crossed her face. “Is that what you believe? You believe Lady Downey to be a liar, a cheat, and what else should we call her?”

“
Humph!” was the only sound he could express in Phoebe’s audience.

“Shall I tell you the events as I understand them, Your Grace? Or perhaps you are afraid to hear the truth?” Phoebe settled herself in a chair and folded her hands on her lap.

Philip crossed his arms. “Go ahead, Lady Ardleigh. Please try to convince me of her innocence. I will gladly change my opinion.”

“Very well, I will tell you what I know. I sent my footman to Lady Downey’s to deliver a gift. She has been searching for the matching beads to her dead mother’s
bag for some time now. I believed I had found the perfect match and sent them to her for her perusal. I instructed my footman to wait for an answer to my note. Actually, I believe I will ask Frederick to repeat the events as he observed them.”

Phoebe opened the door to call for her footman. When he arrived, the man’s eyes darted around the room as he wrung his hands.

“Frederick, if you please, explain to the duke what you saw in Lady Downey’s shop after you arrived.” She stepped back to allow Frederick to step closer to the duke.

“Of course,
Your Ladyship.” He nodded briefly at the duke.“Your Grace, it was madness. Why, I have never seen a lady act as she did. I was waiting as my lady instructed me, and Lady Downey was behind the counter, when this wild woman walked in. She accused the lady of stealing her man, and called her some inappropriate names. And then she took a knife out of her reticule and just started cutting at the gowns on the wall. She was acting quite mad. I didn’t know what to do!”

Philip
’s face lost all its color. “What? Who was it? Who treated her like that?” He leaned toward Frederick with fire in his eyes. “Tell me who did this to her! What was her name?”

“I think Lady Downey called her ‘Lady Monster’ or something like that.
I think she knew her. Must be she has acted like that before.”

Philip glanced at
Ardleigh. “Lady Monster? Who the devil is Lady Monster?”

Ardleigh
spoke softly to his footman. “Could it have been ‘Lady Montrose’?”

“Yes!” Frederick started. “That was it
. ‘Lady Montrose.’ That’s what she called her. Pretty woman with dark hair and big… Oh, pardon me, Lady Ardleigh.” His head dropped to stare at his feet.

Phoebe patted his shoulder. “It’s all right, Frederick. Please continue. What happened next?”

“Well, sir, I tried to interfere, but the woman threatened me with her knife, and I got a wife and kids. I couldn’t stop her. Then Lady Downey reached for her and she cut her.” Frederick’s words flew out as his hands started to swing. “And the crazy woman said she was going to kill her if she didn’t leave her man alone. The duke, that’s who she said.” Frederick stammered as he peered nervously at Philip. “I think ‘twas you she was talking about, Your Grace.”

Philip
’s face was stone. Not a muscle moved in his body. He recalled how Eli had tried to tell him something, but his anger had overtaken his ability to listen.

“And is that the person that broke Lady Downey’s arm, Frederick? Did she push her? Is that how her face became bruised?
” Philip was seething at the thought of Miranda hurting Sara. What an idiot he had been to get involved with Miranda. Would he ever learn to make his decisions with something other than the javelin between his legs?