Three Nights with a Scoundrel

by Tessa Dare

Page 35

 

  There it was. The truth, laid down in black ink on white paper, in Levi Harris’s neat penmanship.

  Horace Stone and Angus Macleod had been apprehended the morning following Leo’s death, not a mile from the murder scene. Charged with smashing the window of a cookshop, with the intent to rob the place. According to Harris’s inquiries of the prison guards, the two matched Cora’s basic description.

  These men were Leo’s killers. Julian knew it in his bones. He read through the letter again, though by now he could have recited it from memory.

  “The Jericho,” he said wonderingly. “I’ll be damned. ” He’d spent months searching, trudging down every gutter and lane in the county of Middlesex and beyond, and here they’d been floating on a decaying ship in the middle of the Thames, less than ten miles downstream. Virtually under his nose the whole time.

  From his perch by the drawing room window, Tartuffe stretched his wings and squawked. “Jericho!” he trilled merrily. “Jericho!”

  Ridiculous bird. “What is it with you and names that start with J?”

  “Oh, Julian,” the parrot sang. “Mr. James Bell. Oh, Juuuulian. ”

  “Yes, don’t tell me. Guilty, guilty. Thank you, that will be all. ” Julian shook himself. He was conversing with a bloody bird. For once, the blasted creature’s nattering shouldn’t even disturb him.

  He did feel mildly guilty for pursuing the matter after he’d promised Lily he wouldn’t. But she’d been concerned for his safety, and he hadn’t done any of the investigating himself. He’d merely written to Harris and let him do the work.

  And now, less than a week later, Julian held deliverance in his hands. True liberation from fear and doubt, in the form of two names. After attacking Leo and Faraday, this Horace Stone and Angus Macleod had gone on to commit more criminal acts the same night. Impulsive ones, by Levi Harris’s account. Acts like those didn’t suggest the behavior of two paid assassins. Wouldn’t hired assailants have fled the area and reported back to their employer, rather than bruising about the same neighborhood, indiscriminately smashing windowpanes? The pattern of events pointed to two drunken louts on a petty crime spree. Nothing more.

  Lily and Morland—and he had to face it, pretty much everyone else—had been right all along, it would seem. Leo’s murder had been a random act of violence. The death was no less tragic, but the implications for Julian were markedly less profound. Of course, he would always regret not being there that night. Leo was a good friend, and his death cast a long, sorrowful shadow. But if Julian could see the killers punished—if he could feel certain, once and for all, that Peter Faraday was wrong and those men actually hadn’t intended to murder Julian—his future with Lily looked three shades brighter, instantly.

  Julian folded the letter from Harris, jammed it in his breast pocket, and crossed to the escritoire, withdrawing two sheets of paper and taking up a penknife to sharpen a quill.

  He needed to send an express to Ashworth at once. If the brutes were sentenced to six months’ hard labor, they were due to be released within weeks. Both witnesses to the killing were in points far West, out Ashworth’s way—Cora Dunn, the prostitute, had stayed on in Devonshire, and Peter Faraday remained convalescing in Cornwall. If Ashworth could deliver one or both of them to London before Stone and Macleod were released, they could bring the men up on murder charges before they ever tasted freedom. Leo would finally have justice.

  And Julian could feel some measure of peace.

  “Julian?” Lily’s voice, from the doorway. “Are you ready? The property agent will be waiting. ”

  Deuce it. With the arrival of Harris’s letter, he’d forgotten all about their appointment to look at houses for lease. She was excited; he could hear it in her tone. And now, with this news from Harris, Julian was excited, too. He didn’t dare tell Lily about this latest development, not yet. No benefit in raising her expectations or anxieties until he could be sure.

  He looked up. Spied his wife, a vision in sage-green muslin and frothy lace. Promptly dropped the penknife and quill, as if they burnt his fingertips.

  “What is it?” she asked, laughing at his clumsiness.

  He smiled. “Beautiful,” he signed expansively, putting face and shoulders into the gesture. “Beautiful. ” Because sometimes, spoken words just wouldn’t do.

  She looked to the clock and finger-spelled, “Late. ”

  “The property agent will wait. ” He readied his hands and waited for her attention. Feeling mischievous, he decided to test how her comprehension was improving. In swift finger-spelling, he described in explicit detail what he planned to do with that sage-green dress when they returned, and then what he planned to do with the body beneath it.

  Her cheeks burned crimson as he went on. When at length he concluded his indecent proposition with the words, “five times,” she laughed and put a hand to his cheek.

  She said aloud, “Finally. There’s the infamous scoundrel I know and love. I wondered where he’d been hiding these past few weeks. I was beginning to wonder if I’d truly married a boring, stuffy clerk. ”

  He dropped a playful kiss on her brow before offering his arm. “Shall we, then?”

  Lily, Lily. The things she must never know.

  “Oh, I like this one. ” Lily’s face lit up as they stepped over the threshold of the third house that afternoon. She gripped his arm. “I have a good feeling about this house, Julian. ”

  “We’ve only seen the entrance hall. ”

  “Yes, I know. But it’s a very fine entrance hall. ”

  Julian thought it looked rather shabby. The paper on the walls was faded and peeling, and cobwebs shrouded the far corners of the ceiling.

  “It’s been vacant for some time,” the property agent said. “The owners have only just decided to let it out. ”

  “The proportions are lovely,” she said, turning into what he supposed to be the dining room. With no furniture, it was difficult to tell. “And there’s so much air and light. ”

  True, for a town house, it did have a pleasant, open feel. Something about the number of windows and the harmonious arrangement of the rooms, he supposed. Julian would have liked to build her a lavish mansion from the ground up, surrounded by acres of green, rolling park. But such houses weren’t built in a matter of weeks, and a matter of weeks was all they had before Leo’s heir arrived from Egypt. Julian’s old house in Bloomsbury was out of the question, for a host of reasons. So they would choose from the available homes for lease in Mayfair. If Lily was pleased with this one, Julian was pleased.

  She asked the property agent, “Is there a garden?”

  “Yes, my lady. ” The man led them down the corridor to the morning room at the rear, pulling back the dusty drapes to reveal a stone terrace and an overgrown jumble of weeds.

  “Needs a great deal of work, doesn’t it?” Julian said.

  “I’m not afraid of work,” she replied, giving him a cheeky smile. “Are you?”

  He shook his head. No, he wasn’t. He dearly missed work, truth be told. Somehow he needed to find an excuse to visit his offices this week. They would only just now be expecting Mr. James Bell back from his journey north to visit the mills. He needed to settle his business affairs and quietly talk to his solicitor about selling off the whole concern—properties, mills. The thought left him feeling gutted and empty, not unlike this house.

  Lily is worth it, he reminded himself. Lily is everything.

  Surely he would find something to do with his time. Buy farmland and manage it, he supposed, like other gentlemen of leisure did. What he knew about agriculture could balance on the razor-thin edge of a scythe, but he could learn. He’d tutored himself in the principles of trade once. He would just start all over again. And if he occasionally woke in the night, roused from nightmare echoes of clacking looms and tolling church bells and scratching rats … well, Lily would be there next to him, her pale, sle
nder arms and rosemary scent, ready to soothe his pounding heart.

  “Tartuffe will love these high ceilings,” she mused, tilting her head.

  The property agent led them on a tour of the second and third floors. With each bedchamber they toured, Julian found himself becoming oddly aroused. Since the object was to decide whether this house could be their house, it only felt logical to picture himself and Lily in every room. Dining in the dining room, sitting in the parlor … and now bouncing off the walls of each and every bedchamber.

  Viewing the nursery gave him a very queer feeling indeed. A feeling that was not quite arousal, but extremely compatible with it.

  “There’s the kitchen below, of course,” the property agent said as they descended the staircase once again. “And we haven’t yet properly seen the hall, but …” He checked his timepiece. “I’m afraid time is drawing short. I’ve an appointment back at my office in a quarter-hour. ”

  “Why don’t you leave us here?” Julian suggested. “We’ll show ourselves around the rest, then lock up. I’ll send a man round to your office later, to return the keys. ”

  The agent happily complied, no doubt sensing that the deal was within reach. He dropped the keys into Julian’s waiting palm. “Very good, sir. ”

  After Julian had seen the man out, Lily wandered into the hall. He followed her. She stood in the center of the large, open room, flanked on one side by a row of high windows. On the opposite wall, dark ovals and squares marked the spaces where portraits and mirrors had once hung.

  “Oh, Julian. They don’t build houses with halls like these anymore, not in Town. We could have the grandest parties, with an orchestra and dancing. ”

  He smiled at her excitement. “Happy thought, indeed. ”

  Yes, they would throw grand parties, the two of them. With exotic foods and outlandish amusements and coveted invitations. Place cards engraved with whimsical creatures would live in the keepsake boxes of debutantes, for years and years to come. Lily would sparkle at the center of it all, joyous and carefree, surrounded by friends and admirers. And right there, it would be enough. Julian would know he’d lived his life to good purpose.

  Yes. This house was going to be their house.

  “We’ll need to replace the paper on the walls and give all the trim a fresh coat of paint. ” As he moved forward, his boots clomped noisily over the parquet. The report echoed off the vaulted ceiling. “The flooring feels sound. Only needs a bit of wax. ”

  “Look, there’s even a pianoforte. ” She went to the far corner, where the large instrument sat hidden under a dust cover. “I wonder why they left it here. ”

  “Couldn’t make it fit through the door, I’d wager. ” Julian slid the canvas cover from the piano and let it drop to the floor. “It’s a great beast of an instrument. ” He touched a few keys and winced at the discordant result. “Horribly out of tune. ”

  “I don’t care about that,” she said, leaning against the piano. “Do play something for me. I love watching you play. Love feeling it, too. ” Her breasts plumped atop the closed case, like two silk-covered pillows sitting on a shelf. His mouth watered, and sensual excitement gathered in his groin.

  “I have a very wicked idea,” he told her, rounding the enormous instrument to stand before her.

  She shifted her weight onto her back foot. “Do you?”

  “I warn you, I won’t be dissuaded. ”

  “Oh, dear. ”

  He slid his hands to her waist and lifted her straight up, then deposited her atop the pianoforte. He pulled at the fabric of her petticoat and gown, yanking her skirts out from under her, so that nothing but the thin lawn of her chemise would come between her intimate flesh and the surface of the closed instrument.