The Three Evesham Daughters: Books 1-3: A Regency Romance Trilogy

by Audrey Ashwood

  Felicity closed her eyes a second time. “It was only a very short moment of doubt. I wondered where such a poor and uneducated woman had learned how to write.” For a few heartbeats they were both silent, each one lost in thought.

  “What happened next?” He gently led her back to the actual topic of conversation.

  “She left me there and then stood a little distance from me. After that, the man came. At first, I thought that he was a man looking for amusement, much like the one you knocked to the ground.”

  He nodded and gestured for her to continue. “Unfortunately, I cannot remember many details, because I could not think of anything other than what he might try to…”

  “I understand.” Lord Layton interrupted her. He gently squeezed her fingers in his warm hand.

  “He said that on Friday at half-past eight in the evening, I should be at the same place where Greywood died.”

  “Repeat his words as precisely as possible.”

  Felicity closed her eyes again. “Be at the Red Rooster Inn at half-past eight on Friday. You will pay for what you have done,” she quoted from memory. She shuddered when she remembered the hatred oozing out of his relentless demeanour. “Bring one hundred guineas.” Felicity could not stop her voice from shaking. “I cannot possibly get that sum together.”

  “Do not worry about the money,” Lord Layton reassured her. “I will bring the money. In addition, we have three days left until Friday to come up with a decent plan. I promise you, I won’t fail a second time.”

  “You did not fail,” Felicity objected. “The criminals escaped us, but you saved my life, my Lord. Nobody would be able to consider this a failure, unless they had excessive expectations of themselves.”

  “Much like you, Lady Feli,” he retorted. “How about we agree not to make our lives difficult with self-blame, but instead look into the future. What do you think?”

  “It sounds too good to be true.” She paused for a moment. “As concerns the money, I will not be able to accept your generous offer. I do not know how I will ever be able to repay you one hundred guineas.”

  Lord Layton rose from the chair and pulled her up with him. For a man who had been shot twice last night, he behaved rather hale and hearty. In fact, this was the side of his personality that she associated with ‘the priest.’ It was astonishing how he could change his personality from one moment to the next. Or had she just been blind to the two sides of his character?

  “Forget the money. You owe me nothing, my Lady. Lift up your head and show the world your brightest smile. Let us dance and drink champagne and forget all our worries. At least for tonight. Tomorrow… I will pick you up for a ride in my carriage, and there we can discuss how to discover the blackmailers and eliminate them.”

  “A dance and a drink with you would be most pleasant, my Lord, but have you not forgotten something rather important?” For one second, Felicity had almost forgotten that this was not a romantic rendezvous. “Firstly, this establishment only serves tea or lemonade, and secondly, you are indisposed. I do believe your doctor would have a heart attack if he heard you speak in this manner.”

  “A truer word has never been spoken,” a voice sounded at Felicity’s back. It was Sir John, who was being pierced by Lord Layton. “Please forgive me, Lady Felicity, but… you and my brother have been here in the garden for well over an hour now, and your mother is becoming restless. I think you should gradually return to the dinner hall.”

  “So long… my goodness, I did not notice how much time has passed!” Felicity raised her hand in front of her mouth and wanted to haste out of the pavilion, however, Lord Layton held her tightly by her arm and leaned towards her.

  “Lady Felicity, my coat,” he whispered. She quickly let the warming spencer glide from her shoulders. He reached for it and slipped into the coat. Sir John, who was waiting patiently, looked discreetly in another direction.

  “One more thing,” Lord Layton murmured, “... please allow me to include my brother in our plans. He is a good man, loyal and reliable.”

  Sir John had described his brother in almost identical words. The two half-brothers had to be very close to each other. Felicity looked at Sir John contemplatively. The more people who knew her secret, the greater the likelihood that it would come to light. On the other hand, what did she have to lose?

  “All right. I trust you to do so.”

  “Thank you.” Now, he smiled again. “I will come to pick you up from your parents’ house at half-past three in the afternoon. Just one last thing, my Lady.”

  Her pulse began to race as his voice became darker.

  “Yes?”

  “The dance that you promised me – I will follow up on that.”

  It was silly, but she felt a wonderful warmth spreading inside of her.

  “That sounds more like a threat, Sir. I cannot recall that I agreed to it.” She paused and turned her face up at him. “But it will be a great pleasure for me to reserve my entire dance card for you, if you so wish.”

  Chapter 16

  “I am willing to bet that Lady Evesham does not understand the world anymore,” John noted, as he and Luke were driving home from Almack’s. “What have you told Lady Felicity, that all of a sudden, she felt so smitten with you? To be honest, I, myself do not understand very much anymore.”

  “Then you will be pleased to hear that I have her permission to bring you into the loop,” Luke replied dryly to the unpronounced question. He leaned back and closed his eyes. The pain was not too bad, but he felt tired – almost drained. “But please, let us just wait until we get home. I will be able to tell you everything much more easily over a brandy.”

  “All right.”

  The clatter of the horse’s hooves sounded muted through the walls of the family carriage, which the duke had given up in their favour that evening. It unfolded a soothing effect on both men. Luke only opened his eyes again when the trot of the noble black horses turned into a flat step and finally came to a halt.

  “Do you remember how the two of us tasted the special brandy that our father stored in the cellar back then, for the first time?” John asked, handing Luke a glass, once they were inside the house.

  Luke laughed. “Of course I remember,” he replied. “It was the first and last beating we ever received from him.”

  “Yes, but only after he saw which one of his precious bottles we had gotten into. If we had enjoyed the second-best brew, he may have even congratulated us.”

  “Yes, he always put a high value on our behaving like real men,” Luke concurred. “Or at least what his understanding of such would be.”

  John grimaced. “Wine, tobacco, and woman have always been his priorities.”

  “No wonder that he was the best spy of his era.” They grinned at each other in unison. “It must be a harsh disappointment for him that neither you nor I will follow in his footsteps.” John cleared his throat, causing Luke to take a closer look at him. “Wait a minute,” he said slowly. “Are you telling me that you are also working for the crown?”

  John shrugged his shoulders with embarrassment. “I know you do not think much of protecting the country from danger by this method.”

  Luke drank his entire brandy in one draught and expectantly held his glass out to his brother. “It is not that I do not value our homeland,” he explained slowly. “I do realise the need for having to resort to other means, particularly where an open, honest approach does not result in the desired outcome.” Would he have come to this realisation, had he not concealed his own identity from Felicity behind a black mask? “However, the biggest threat to the country had been the self-proclaimed French emperor who, after the devastating Battle of Leipzig, no longer posed a serious threat to Great Britain.”

  “I have never heard you talk this way,” John replied, surprised.

  Luke shrugged his shoulders. “I have seen, up close, what war does to a man who wants nothing more than to live in peace. In my eyes, almost everything that prevents mor
e bloodshed is a good thing.”

  John leaned forward and filled Luke’s glass for a third time. He eyed the rapidly emptying carafe critically. “If we keep drinking, we will both get us another spanking tomorrow.”

  “Quite possibly. But this time I won’t take the blame on myself and say that it was my idea.” They both laughed until Luke raised his left hand and pressed his right hand over to his side. “Enough,” he pleaded, but then he turned serious. “Are you actually ready to fill father’s shoes?”

  John nodded. “I am neck deep in my first own investigations,” he admitted. Luke thought that he looked almost absurdly proud. “... and as for Napoleon, well… as long as he is not in the ground, or is living on some remote island, I trust that he is a megalomaniac who is capable of anything. I know” – He foiled Luke’s attempt to object – “that most British people react in an absurdly hysterical fashion when they hear about a possible French invasion. However, I do not seriously believe that it will ever happen, but…”

  “… but you do not want to take a chance. I understand,” Luke ended his sentence. He was certain that John had another reason, which he was not telling him about – and that perhaps he was not even aware of himself. In this way, he would secure at least a little bit of his father’s respect – something he had wanted for so many years growing up.

  They fell silent for a while, each one engrossed in their own thoughts.

  “Well, now it is your turn,” John said casually. He set aside the carafe of expensive brandy and stared past Luke into the fire. “So what is the matter with you and the young lady?” He leaned backwards and made himself comfortable in the high chair. It was the same one where he had sat as a young boy, spending hours reading books.

  Luke repeated the whole story that Felicity had told him earlier. When he reached the point, where he explained the intrigues that the viscount had been involved in, his brother leaned forward, but did not interrupt. Luke ended with how the two criminals had tricked him, how he had ended up with a bullet wound, and how they had ordered Felicity to come to the tavern where Greywood had died.

  “What worries me the most, is the fact that there is no suspect anywhere that I could name,” he concluded with a gloomy expression. “That leaves only one conclusion, namely that anyone who was in the Red Rooster at the time, overheard or watched Greywood and Lady Felicity. As much as I wish I were able to identify the French woman and the manservant as suspects…” He shook his head.

  “Obviously, you can exclude the involvement of the two,” John confirmed his brother’s thoughts – the same ones Luke had been rolling around in his head. The absent-minded tone in which his brother spoke, however, did not stem solely from his conclusion.

  “What is the matter?” Luke asked. “Ever since I mentioned Greywood’s name, you have been more attentive. Did you know him? Did you meet him, perhaps, in your capacity as an employee of the crown? Yes,” he answered his own question, when he saw John’s facial expression shut down. “That’s it. Come on, tell me about it.”

  Now it was he, who grabbed the carafe of brandy and poured his brother a generous sip. “Drink,” he ordered John. “You look like I feel.” He tried to distract his brother from the grim thoughts that were probably going through his mind. “Contrary to my comment earlier, I will take the blame, should the brandy not last through the night.”

  John sighed and indecisively swirled the glass in his hand without even acknowledging the drink. “Do you remember my box containing medical instruments?” The change of topic irritated Luke, but he did not show it and gestured for his brother to continue. “Well, I have long been wanting to become a doctor,” John began. “But as you can imagine, the cost of studying medicine is very high, and I have not been able to pay for it myself. I would like to travel to Italy… but I will tell you more about that another time. Sorry.” Luke had trouble hiding his impatience at his brother’s digressions, however short they were. “To make a long story short – our father is financing my education and plans to give me the loan I need, in order to set up my practice.”

  Luke almost choked on the cognac that was about to slide down his throat. That did not seem like the duke at all! Had his brother not claimed that their father knew nothing about his studies in the medical field?

  “And what exactly does this have to do with Lady Felicity and the blackmailing?”

  “In exchange for his financial support, our father demands that I work for the Home Secretary for one year.”

  “And you agreed to do that?” Luke could not believe what he was hearing. John had always been the more stubborn of the two brothers. The fact that the duke was able to coerce him in such a way was – to put it mildly – strange. “He desperately wants one of us to follow in his footsteps… Does he not understand that he cannot force us to be what he wants?”

  “I do believe he is getting old,” John said calmly. “We should not be too hard on him. After all, we are all he has left.”

  “I know,” Luke replied. “Why do you think I agreed to be married?” They exchanged glances. The corners of John’s mouth started to twitch, and Luke returned the smile. “That damned rascal,” he said, but without the rancour he first felt.

  “It is only one year,” John said. “If by the end, I will be able to do what I want, I will consider that time well spent.” He sighed. “But to get back to the actual topic. I have received my first assignment from the Home Secretary.”

  “I think I finally understand,” Luke replied slowly. “Did you meet the two? Have you made the acquaintance of the woman?” A vague suspicion began to form in the back of his head.

  “I surely have.” John grimaced and rubbed his eyes. He looked tired, much as Luke felt himself. “The Home Secretary has created a new division, providing medical support for the active men in the field, and I am the leading agent. I investigate suspicious deaths and get at the truth of how the people who are brought to me have died.”

  Luke held his breath. His brother was a damned coroner on behalf of the crown!

  “Two days ago, one of our spies brought me two corpses: a male and a female. Both had been found in the river, and by a more or less fortunate coincidence, a constable thought that he recognised the man. They were identified as Lady Madeline Scorch and James Finch, the former butler of Marcus St. John.”

  “I see. At least I can now safely exclude the two as possible suspects. Are you absolutely certain that it was Lady Madeline and Finch?” He knew that he could rely on John, but for Felicity’s sake, he just wanted to confirm it once more.

  John nodded. “They have been unmistakably identified. I am sorry, Luke, but you will have to keep searching for your conspirators.”

  Luke felt as if icy cold fingers were clawing up his spine. One glance at the fireplace assured him that the fire was still burning.

  “The outrageous thing is that your Felicity is the innocent in all of this, but she is vulnerable because she feels guilty. Had she gone to the police after Greywood’s death, and had she confessed to Detective Hawthorne, it would merely have caused a scandal,” his brother said quietly.

  “That is easy for you to say,” Luke replied, and he felt a silent rage growing inside him. “You are a man, and a scandal such as the one Lady Felicity might have been exposed to, would not have harmed you in the same manner. Besides...” He fell silent.

  “Besides, I am just the bastard son,” John said, and for a moment, it looked as if he wanted to get up. Luke quickly leaned forward and laid his hand on his brother’s arm.

  “That is not what I meant, and you should know that by now,” he replied calmly. His anger at his brother’s light-hearted words was gone. “What I meant to say, is that you have the duke’s support and his fortune, and you do not have to worry about the reputation of your sisters, were you to be expelled from high society.”

  John let his shoulders drop forward, and Luke released his fingers from his brother’s arm. “I am sorry,” he mumbled. “I can’t even blame
the brandy. You know that I never…”

  “It is fine.” Luke interrupted him. “We do not have time for sentiment. The question now is: Will you help us, or do we have to solve this problem on our own?”

  It was the first night since the letter had arrived, that Felicity had been able to sleep peacefully. It was also the first time that she was looking forward to an outing with Lord Layton.

  “I honestly do not understand what has gotten into you, Felicity,” her mother said, but did not sound as worried as her choice of wording suggested. “Of all my daughters, you are the biggest riddle to me.” She observed her daughter critically and then nodded contently. “I do not want to complain, but I would like to know the reason for your abrupt change of heart. One minute, you reject a possible connection with the house of Somerset in every way imaginable, and after merely one hour alone with Lord Layton, you look at him as if there couldn’t possibly be another man for you in this world.”

  “Yes,” agreed Rose, who was sitting on Felicity’s bed, “I thought that you were determined to never in your life marry a nobleman.”

  “I just realised that Lord Layton is a man with a big heart.” At least that was not a lie, she thought, and checked her bonnet in the mirror. In the reflection, she saw that her mother’s finely drawn eyebrows shot up in question.

  “It certainly does not hurt that he looks very good,” Rose added. “I saw him in the summer before he left. He did not seem particularly remarkable to me. I like him better now. I mean, not just his appearance, but also his facial expression. He has always had pleasant features. But now he looks so much more masculine – almost as well as Annabelle’s husband.”

  “Not just almost,” Felicity corrected her without thinking. “I like him better than St. John.”

  “Rose, go to your room at once,” their mother commanded in a tone that would not tolerate any objection. “I do not want to hear any more about the merits of men from your mouth, particularly those to whom you have not been officially introduced.” When Rose did not react immediately, but instead just watched her mother’s outburst silently with an open mouth, her mother gestured firmly towards the door with an outstretched hand. “Your father was right; I have clearly been too lenient with all of you.”