The Regency Season Collection: Part Two. Кэрол Мортимер

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СКАЧАТЬ She had never been a good liar, that was the trouble. She had never been one of those people who could conceal everything behind an implacable mask.

      Like her husband.

      ‘It seems we will be at Montcliffe longer than we had anticipated, but I must say that the area is growing on me. The rolling hills and the greenness and the peace of it all.’ Papa was effusive in his praise and Julia laughed.

      ‘Everybody says that after a few days’ residence. I could never understand why the Lady Wylde did not come here more often. If it were mine, I should never leave it.’

      ‘But you live here now, do you not?’ Papa sounded more than interested.

      ‘Only for another few weeks. I will be travelling north to stay with my sister after that.’

      Again Amethyst saw a look on her father’s face that made her puzzled, but she could dwell on it no longer as the door opened and a well-dressed woman she had never seen before stood before Daniel, a look of utter disdain upon her beautiful face.

      ‘I have come to take your sisters home, Daniel,’ she said, her voice imperious and harsh. ‘I also presume that this woman’s presence here means that this foolish alliance of yours has already taken place much against my wishes.’ Her disdainful glance swept over Amethyst without the slightest degree of interest.

      ‘Indeed it has, Mother,’ the Earl replied frostily as he stood. ‘This is my wife, Lady Amethyst Montcliffe, and her father, Mr Robert Cameron. I think you know all of the rest.’

      ‘I do.’ Lady Montcliffe made no attempt at niceties whatsoever.

      ‘If you would wait in the library, I will come to you directly, Mother, for there are a few things I need to tell you. Gwendolyn and Caroline shall be readied to leave presently.’

      But the newcomer was going nowhere. ‘Is that you, Andrew Howard? Was it you who put this nonsense into the girls’ heads and led them on to a merry goose trail that could have ended in such tragedy?’

      The bravado on Andrew’s face wilted, though it seemed Lord Montcliffe had had enough of his mother’s poor manners as he took her by the arm and shepherded her from the room.

      ‘Daniel’s mother was always a difficult woman,’ Lucien offered into the silence. ‘And his father was little better. Daniel would come and stay with my family most holidays and, looking back, I cannot even remember one where he went home. Nigel came too, sometimes, but he was melancholic and nervous.’

      ‘When he died I didn’t feel surprised, really.’ Andrew spoke up now. ‘Mama used to say that he was not long for this world, remember?’

      Lucien took up the tale now. ‘Well, Daniel looked after him as best he could, but sometimes even he lost his patience and that’s saying something. Nigel was in London when he got home from La Corunna. Daniel had a fever and a leg that looked like it might be septic and he’d lost so much weight from dysentery that the doctors thought he wouldn’t make it, yet Nigel only talked incessantly about his own problems. Daniel yelled at him to go away and come back when he was in a better mood, but Nigel was killed in a hunting accident two days later here at Montcliffe.’

      ‘And Daniel blamed himself?’

      Her words fell into the silence and Lucien looked at her quizzically.

      ‘I think he did. He seldom spoke of his brother afterwards.’

      Glancing around at Julia, Amethyst saw her worried blue eyes were swimming in tears.

      * * *

      Lucien walked into the library late in the afternoon as Daniel was tidying up the deeds from the minister and filing them into the family bible. A marriage of convenience this might be, but it would be recorded in posterity as real. Daniel was glad for that. After yesterday he understood his bride was not the trembling sort of girl that was so predominant in society. No, Amethyst Amelia knew how to wield a knife and ride a horse with the best of them.

      Lucien looked more than concerned. ‘Could I speak to you, Daniel, in confidence?

      The serious tone of his oldest friend alerted him to the fact that something was wrong. ‘Of course. Is Andrew—?’

      He didn’t finish as Lucien broke in. ‘After the fracas at the Herringworth ball I took it upon myself to look further into the death of Mr Gerald Whitely and there are things I think you should know.’

      Closing the cover of the family bible, Daniel sat down.

      ‘What things?’

      ‘He spent an inordinate amount of time at the Grey Street brothel and word has it that he...he liked to play rough.’

      ‘Damn.’

      ‘My thoughts exactly.’

      ‘Define rough.’

      ‘He gave several of the women there black eyes and split lips. Worse if anyone ever mentioned his...affliction.’

      ‘Affliction?’

      ‘He had had some sort of accident to the groin as a child. I don’t know what damage it caused.’

      Lord. Had Amethyst ever been hurt by him? he wondered.

      Lucien wasn’t finished. ‘Perhaps Miss Cameron failed to tell you of the relationship between them because it was so terrible. Not lying exactly, just a bending of the truth. She never kept the bastard’s surname because...’ He tailed off.

      ‘Because he was a bully. Because she was glad he was dead.’ Daniel finished the thought for him.

      Amethyst with her knife in hand and the ability to use it well. Had she learnt because she had had to? Because she’d had a husband who had taken his anger out on her?

      His eyes went to the clock. Too late to try and find out the truth tonight. Yet would she want him to confront her with it tomorrow? His wife was proud, independent and capable and her marriage to Gerald Whitely must be something she would have liked to have forgotten about altogether. He needed her to tell him of it, on her own terms and in her own time.

      As a confidant, not an interrogator.

      If he picked his moment and had patience she would come to understand that she could trust him.

      Finishing his drink, Daniel poured himself another and indicated to Lucien to join him.

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