Ezra bowed his head. ‘How well you appear to understand me.’
‘I am a student of human nature. The manner in which people react to a particular situation fascinates me. Take last night in my aunt’s drawing room, for example. I watched the ladies being drawn to you like a moth to flame and I wondered how you could stand it.’ She sighed. ‘It all seemed so clinical. If this is what I have to look forward to when I am presented next year—a marriage mart that more closely resembles a cattle mart, I mean—then perhaps I shall spare myself that indignity.’
‘And deprive the ton of the pleasure of your presence?’
Clio smiled and waved the compliment aside. ‘I am not sure that I like the idea of matrimony, at least not at any cost, so it seems like an unnecessary torment. I did promise my cousin Adele that we would go through it together though, and I cannot break my word.’ She turned towards him with a capricious smile. ‘However, your friend Lord Fryer seemed very taken with Adele last night. If you could persuade him to offer for her than I would be released from my promise.’
Ezra laughed. ‘I would happily oblige, but for the fact that my friend falls in love on a weekly basis. Charming as your cousin appears to be, I’m afraid that I am unable to guarantee his constancy and cannot therefore recommend him as suitable husband material.’
‘How very disobliging of him.’ She sighed and threw up her hands. ‘Perhaps someone else will come along and fall for Adele’s myriad charms before next season commences. One can but hope.’
They fell into a momentary silence, which Clio eventually broke. ‘You asked if this site is haunted. Can you sense a presence? I have always thought that I could, but it is not malevolent, which is what draws me here. There again, perhaps that feeling is simply a product of my over-active imagination and I use it as an excuse to return here frequently. However, I don’t suppose ghosts from centuries past were the reason for your private discussion with Mr Godfrey.’
And so, Ezra thought, they returned to the substance of her earlier question. He had hoped to distract her but had clearly failed. She was a determined little minx and he knew that a haughty ducal reprimand for eavesdropping would not have the desired effect. He must tell her something, if only to prevent her from speaking publicly about what she had heard and misinterpreted.
‘Godfrey and I were attempting to decide who is out to kill me,’ he said, surprising himself by settling upon the absolute truth.
‘Kill you?’ She blinked at him, looking dumbfounded. ‘Someone here at this party wants you dead?’
‘Whether or not the person is here is open for debate,’ Ezra replied, watching a frown creep across her forehead. ‘But what is beyond question is that if I do not find and stop him first then I am likely to meet the same fate as my father and brother.’
‘You think they were both deliberately killed?’ she asked, her mouth agape.
‘My brother was, without a doubt. It was made to look like an accident, but it was clumsily done. I was with the army at the time so I wasn’t here to ask the right questions. By the time I returned, the matter had been investigated by the local magistrate and a decision reached that it had been an accident. He fell from his horse and broke his neck.’
‘You do not believe it?’ she asked, touching his arm.
‘Not a word of it,’ Ezra replied, covering her small hand with one of his own.
Clio glanced up at him, eyes wide, and withdrew her hand. ‘I am so very sorry,’ she said, tears swamping her eyes.
‘There, now I have made you cry, sweet Clio, and that was not my intention.’
He had been addressing her informally inside his head and did so aloud now without conscious thought. She raised no objections.
‘Life is so cruel,’ she said simply.
‘Richard was an expert horseman and had been seen by one of our keepers moments before the supposed accident, trotting along a fence line. The story goes that a shot was fired which spooked Richard’s horse, but the keeper is convinced it didn’t happen that way. Richard was riding an old favourite of his who seldom spooked at anything.’
‘Did the keeper not give evidence at the inquest?’
‘He was never called.’ Ezra threw back his head. ‘Someone in a position of authority ensured that he kept what he had seen to himself. When I asked, I was told by the magistrate himself that since the keeper hadn’t seen Richard actually fall, his evidence would have been of little value.’
‘Do you think he was bribed?’
‘The possibility occurred to me, but I dismissed it. The magistrate has been in his position for two decades and is generally respected as being fair. He has earned a reputation for dealing in facts alone and getting to the truth. He’s right that if our keeper didn’t actually see the accident then he couldn’t swear on a bible that the horse wasn’t spooked,’ Ezra said, attempting to be fair himself. ‘Horses are unpredictable.’
‘Who fired the shot?’
Ezra sent her an approving look. ‘A very astute question, and one to which I haven’t been able to find a satisfactory answer. No more could the magistrate. One assumes that if one of our keepers had fired he would have made that admission.’
‘Not necessarily. Not if his having done so resulted in the death of a duke.’
Ezra acknowledged the point with an inclination of his head. ‘Even so, the keepers’ whereabouts at the time has been established beyond doubt. It wasn’t one of them. It could easily have been a poacher, but of course no poacher has ever been found or his presence on the estate that day established, which is why the magistrate was unable to rule that the killing had been unlawful.’
Clio absorbed that information for a moment or two without speaking. ‘What happened to your father?’ she asked eventually.
‘Again, I was not here, but all the signs point to deliberate poisoning misdiagnosed as food poisoning. I might have accepted that view but for the fact that my mother, my cousin Silas and several guests all ate the same thing that evening but only the pater was struck down. The others suffered no ill-effects. They tried to tell me that a rogue oyster might have been the culprit. I have heard of it happening and might have believed it, had it not been for Richard’s accident occurring so quickly afterwards.’
‘Goodness, someone really doesn’t like your family.’ Clio closed her eyes and swallowed. ‘Two brothers and a father dead. I can quite see why you are so concerned.’
‘My elder brother died of natural causes. That at least has never been in question. He was sickly from the cradle. Nothing could be done to ease the congestion on his lungs and no one was surprised when he caught a summer chill and succumbed to his ailments. It was almost a relief. He had no quality of life.’
‘If your father was poisoned,’ Clio said in a considering fashion, ‘then the poisoning had to have been carried out by someone who had access to him or his food, which points the finger at your own family members, or a senior servant.’
‘Precisely.’
‘Have any attempts been made on your own life?’ she asked. ‘Is there something that proves beyond doubt in your own mind that the previous deaths were not the accidents they were made out to be?’
‘I was set upon in London recently but managed to fight my assailant off.’
‘Not a very efficient attacker then.’
‘Wishing me dead?’ he asked with mock severity.
‘It was merely an observation. One would imagine that a rogue with murderous intent would be better prepared and not so easily deterred. Anyone willing to kill a duke would, I assume, be a proficient assassin, prepared for his victim to fight back.’
‘It would have had to look like an accident, and the man very nearly succeeded,’ Ezra admitted with a wry smile. ‘If I had not been on my guard, and if I had not seen a movement in the periphery of my vision moments before he launched his attack then things could have worked out very differently.’
‘You do hear of wealthy men being set upon in London after dark, if th
ey are foolish enough to stroll about unprotected.’
Ezra sent her an amused glance, wondering if she realised quite how much he enjoyed her spirited retorts. No one in his recollection had ever spoken to him so brazenly, certainly not since he had become duke. ‘Are you accusing me of being a dullard?’
‘Certainly I am. You are aware that someone wants you dead and you have responded by making it easier for them to bring that situation about. If that is not the height of lunacy or arrogance, then I do not know what is.’
Ezra chuckled. ‘No one has ever dared to refer to me as a lunatic before.’
‘If the cap fits,’ she replied with a sweet smile. ‘What else has this mystery assailant done to arouse your suspicions?’
‘Pharaoh is a new acquisition,’ he said, nodding towards his stallion.
‘He’s magnificent.’
‘I thought so too, and he agrees with us both.’ They laughed. ‘He was a bargain at Tattersall’s because he has a reputation for depositing his riders on the ground.’
She sighed. ‘And you couldn’t resist the challenge, of course.’
‘Where’s the fun in riding a docile beast? I know you agree with me because I can see that your gelding is a lively animal and is probably considered unsuitable as a lady’s mount.’
‘Well…’ Her eyes glistened with amusement. ‘Even so, if Pharaoh tried to evict you from the saddle, no one would think anything of it.’
‘Especially if the stitching attaching the reins to the bit had been cut almost all the way through.’
‘Ah, that does point to a deliberate act. Did you take a bad fall?’
‘Thankfully, my head groom is diligent and noticed the sabotage. It would be relatively easy for a stranger to slip into the tack room while the grooms were about their business and the work of a moment to cut the stitching. I trust all my grooms and have no idea where to look for answers.’
‘So you came to this party, made sure the world knew you had accepted the invitation, and now are waiting for someone to strike again.’ She scowled at him. ‘Has it occurred to you that he might succeed on this occasion?’ She shook her head in exasperation, not waiting for a reply. ‘I cannot decide if you are reckless, desperate or completely insane.’
He chuckled, moved by her obvious concern for his wellbeing. ‘It seems to me that I can either spend the rest of my days looking over my shoulder or else make plans to draw the killer out.’ He sent her a challenging look. ‘What would you do in my situation?’
‘Well,’ she replied pensively. ‘I suppose, when you put it like that…’
Ezra gave in to temptation, picked up a strand of her hair and ran it repeatedly through his fingers. ‘Precisely.’
‘Stop that!’ She pulled her hair free of his fingers. ‘I cannot think coherently when you distract me by being provocative.’
‘Perhaps I enjoy being provocative.’
‘I suspect that you rather enjoy living too, but that situation will not endure if you continue to behave with such little regard for your own wellbeing.’
‘No one can get to me here, on Lady Fletcher’s land, not unless I want them to. I will see them coming a mile off.’
‘I told you earlier that this is not part of the Fletcher estate.’
‘So you did.’ He raised a brow and shrugged.
‘I rest my case, at least insofar as your cavalier approach to your own welfare is concerned.’ She huffed. The gesture caused her breasts to swell as they fought against the confines of her habit. Ezra’s eyes were drawn to the sight and he found it hard to look away again. ‘This monastery was occupied by monks from the Benedictine order, who were apparently dedicated to a balanced life filled with work and prayer. Quite what happened to this particular order once the monastery was sacked is unknown. I would like to think that they fled to a more liberally-minded land.’
‘There is no such thing, at least in religious terms. Every faith I have studied insists that it worships the one true god and that all the others are infidels. The Catholics are no better than anyone else in that regard. In fact, they can be downright cruel. Haven’t you heard of the Inquisition?’
‘Of course I have.’ She conceded the point with a tilt of her head. ‘And for your information, you left the confines of the Fletcher estate about a mile behind you. Not that you will be especially safe there since there are no end of places where people can gain access. I have mentioned it to my aunt but since my uncle’s death she has left everything to do with the estate’s management to her steward and probably doesn’t spare it a thought. Her priority is to marry her daughters off, and you are expected to oblige in that regard by admiring my cousin Beth, who has quite the sweetest nature imaginable, to say nothing of a lovely face.’
‘She is a vision.’
Clio shook her head at his diplomatic response. ‘Clearly, my aunt has set her sights too high.’
‘When it comes to my own wellbeing,’ Ezra said, keen to turn the subject away from his own matrimonial ambitions, or lack thereof, ‘I shall just have to depend upon Merlin to protect me.’ They both glanced at the snoozing dog and simultaneously burst out laughing.
‘Whom do you suspect of wanting you dead and why?’ she asked, her expression sobering. ‘Who succeeds to the title if you are no more?’
‘No one, that is the problem,’ Ezra replied. ‘I have no other male relatives who could possibly raise a legitimate claim.’
‘So the title and its properties would revert to the crown.’
‘Precisely so, but there is a substantial family fortune independent of the duchy.’
‘Ah-ha! Your maternal cousin, Mr Conway, will doubtless harbour expectations in that regard.’
‘I can see that you have already taken his measure.’
‘As I say, I enjoy watching people.’
‘Silas makes himself useful to my mother and in so doing assures himself of a comfortable living, but he is incapable of violence. He almost faints at the sight of blood.’
‘Don’t underestimate him. All that business with the handkerchief is for show. He wants people to see him as a harmless fop and to underestimate his ambitions. I noticed him several times last night, watching you with a bitterness that he couldn’t properly disguise.’
‘I have never seen it.’
‘Which is precisely why you underestimate him. You see what he wants you to see, but I don’t doubt for a moment that the man possesses a calculating character. You are everything that he is not and never will be. Human nature being what it is, he naturally resents you for a situation that is none of your making. You did not ask to be born tall and strong and handsome and sought after and…’
He was charmed by the manner in which she blushed when she unintentionally, he was sure, blurted out what she was thinking. ‘Why, thank you!’
‘Ridiculous man! That was not intended as a compliment. It was a simple observation based on my understanding of human nature. We all aspire to be what we never can be. Anyway, when he was looking at you with a combination of envy and something more sinister, you had your back to him. I wondered about it at the time, but it makes more sense now.’
‘Oh, Silas is aware that his tenure at Wickham Hall is dependent upon my continued approval of his presence. It’s a situation which he pretends not to be concerned about, but which puts him on my list of suspects.’
‘Who else is on it? Oh, come on, your grace, you can’t clam up on me now that we are partners.’
Ezra flexed a brow. ‘Partners? I do not recall agreeing to any sort of partnership.’
‘Then why tell me all this?’
Ezra spread his hands, unable to think of a response.
‘It is obvious to me that you require my help. I live here and no one takes any notice of my comings and goings. I hear all sorts of things without arousing suspicion. You, by comparison…well, your every move will be noticed and remarked upon.’
Ezra shook his head, knowing when he was beaten. ‘If we are to be
partners then you should call me Ezra, at least when we are alone. And to prevent you from torturing it out of me, I will admit that I suspect Lord Brennan, my mother’s lover.’
‘Ah, that would explain the sudden display of reticence.’ She grinned at him. ‘You thought my sensibilities would be offended by talk of lovers, but nothing could be further from the truth. Everyone knows about the shockingly liberal attitude among those who are married, which would be the ruination of someone in my situation.’ She sniffed indignantly. ‘Most unfair. Anyway, Adele and I make a game out of observing the couples who come here to dine, trying to guess who is involved with whom.’
‘Do you indeed?’ Ezra couldn’t recall the last occasion upon which he had been so comprehensively entertained. ‘How do you discover whether you have got it right?’
‘You imagine, I suppose, that Lord Brennan would have no scruples in wiping out your family so that he can swoop in and help himself to the substantial spoils left behind.’
‘It seems more likely than Silas being the culprit. Besides, if it is Silas then he would be unwittingly clearing the way for Brennan—a fact that will not have escaped his notice. Silas is many things, but stupid is not one of them.’
‘There is something else.’ She sent him a considering look. ‘Tell me.’
‘I did wonder about the sudden appearance of my nemesis,’ he said with patent reluctance.
‘Captain Salford?’
Ezra nodded. ‘The very same.’
She wrinkled her nose. ‘It did not occur to you that he might actually have come in order to pay court to me.’
‘Oh yes, he would be a fool not to,’ he said softly, sending her an intimate smile imbued with a wealth of feeling. ‘But is he doing so for the right reasons?’
‘Killing two birds with one stone, I take it you mean.’ Clio didn’t appear to have taken serious offence at the suggestion. ‘Earning a fat payday by bumping off a duke…’
‘Except that he was not in the country when my brother died,’ Ezra replied. ‘We were both serving with the regiment at the time.’
Fit for a Duke: Dangerous Dukes Page 9