Dueling With the Duke (Brotherhood of the Sword)

by Robyn DeHart

  “I sense there is more to the story,” Ellis said.

  “Indeed. When I got to the morgue, the body was gone and replaced with someone else’s. Someone who had been stabbed and not shot.”

  “You could have been mistaken.”

  “Yes, that’s what Potterfield said. It is the most logical conclusion, but I know what I saw.” Damnation, he knew that wasn’t the case. He had seen Thornton, and then the bastard had been replaced with someone else. “Even if I was wrong about who the man was, I know the difference between a gunshot wound and a stabbing.”

  “Why would someone trade the body?”

  “To cover up whom Thornton was working with. Obviously the threat is not gone if someone would risk breaking into the morgue to trade the body.”

  Ellis was quiet for a few moments and turned with the carriage in front of them. “Unless Thornton isn’t dead and got up and walked out himself?”

  “And replaced his body with someone else’s? That seems even more ludicrous. Besides my own observations after the fact, Somersby’s report was that the man in the park had been shot in the head. No one could survive that,” Gabe said.

  “Unless you were mistaken,” Ellis said.

  “Yes. Do you think I have not considered that?”

  “But you don’t believe it possible.”

  “Ellis, how many times have you known me to be wrong? I rarely express my views on anything, but when I do—”

  “You’re right,” Ellis finished for him. “I know. For now, I shall believe you, but we can only take this so far.”

  Her carriage pulled to a stop in front of the British Museum.

  They stopped farther back to avoid being seen and waited.

  Lilith descended from the carriage, said something to the driver, and then climbed the steps to the museum.

  “They’ve long been closed,” Ellis said.

  “Yes. It doesn’t seem to be deterring her.”

  “Perhaps she’s meeting someone.”

  “I’m going to take a closer look,” Gabe said. He stepped down from the rig and made his way across the street. No good could come from Lilith going to the British Museum in the middle of the night. He followed at such a pace that Lilith was far ahead of him, and he could no longer see her form in the dark. He kept going and saw a side door close, and he knew it was the one she had entered. He debated following her in but ultimately decided to wait outside for her return, knowing she would have to exit through the same door that she’d gone into.

  …

  Lilith stepped from the carriage and skirted a puddle on her way to the large black door. She slid the key in and turned it, hearing the low, heavy click of the bolt sliding free. With one quick glance behind her, she slipped inside. She’d often wondered how her husband had gotten a key to the British Museum, but she’d never had the courage to ask. Every time she’d inquired about his goings-on, he’d first been evasive and then increasingly more annoyed and then threatening.

  She crept down the corridor, across the marble floor, and into King George’s library room. The long room boasted floor-to-ceiling bookshelves as far as the eye could see. The story was George IV had paid to have his father’s books housed at the museum so they would be available to the public.

  Quietly, she crept to the farthest shelf to her left. She counted the books from left to right and tilted the eighth one down so she could grab it. It had taken her several hours to hollow out this book and three more like it to hide the money. She even had letters ready to be sent to Isabel with perfect instructions on how to locate the secret funds should anything happen to her. As it happened, Thornton had been killed, and now it was up to her to keep his niece protected. Lilith couldn’t remember when the money had become Isabel’s, but at some point that’s how she had come to think of it. Salvation money for Isabel, to save her from a fate that Lilith had endured.

  She opened the book and grabbed the handful of bills from inside, stuffed them into her reticule, and replaced the book on the shelf. She followed the same procedure with the other books until her reticule hung heavy.

  Freedom.

  A notion she hadn’t considered since she’d been but a girl, foolish and eager to leave her oppressive father’s control only to be forced into marriage with a man so similar. But there was no time for pity. Only fools indulged in such worthless behavior. Lilith had learned long ago that action was the only thing that kept her alive. As long as she kept moving, kept doing something, she could survive.

  She’d learned that from her Aunt Patience. Lilith had stayed with her widowed aunt for only a short amount of time, but that time had proved invaluable in teaching Lilith things far more useful than skills from finishing school. She’d filled their days with tales of her adventures since she’d gained her freedom, and in the evenings, she gave Lilith instructions on how to survive a marriage made for strictly financial reasons.

  She’d given Lilith a small sum of money and told her how to add to the pile so that it would continue to grow. As Patience had put it, you never knew when you might need a sum of money, and you could not count on a louse of a husband to provide it. Since that time, Lilith had been saving small amounts and eventually bringing them here to be hidden. This had been another of Patience’s ideas. Three years ago when Lilith had learned of Patience’s death, on her travels in the Greek isles, she had been devastated.

  She retrieved the last of the money and put it in her bag. This was it. Never again would she have to return here. She had the money, and now she would be free.

  She made her way back to the front door and then out to the waiting hack. There against her rig leaned Gabriel Campbell. Her heart stuttered at the sight of him, but she chalked it up to surprise. Of all the people she’d expect to seek her out, the Duke of Lynford was not one of them. As far as she knew, he loathed her.

  “I believe you were instructed to wait at your house,” he said.

  “You? You sent that young man to me?”

  “I did.”

  “On what authority?” She walked directly to him and then was immediately sorry she had done so.

  This close she couldn’t deny that Gabriel cut a handsome figure in his black trousers and overcoat, gleaming spectacles perched on his perfectly aristocratic nose. He looked nothing like his brother. Rafe had been dark, mysterious, and seductive with his raven-black hair and equally dark eyes. At least she’d thought so, until she’d realized he was not mysterious; instead he’d been reckless to the point of foolish. In contrast, Gabriel was lean and athletic with rakish waves in his light brown hair and intelligent hazel eyes that peered back at her from behind his gold-rimmed spectacles. A crooked smile slid into place, giving him an almost mischievous appearance, and again, her heart fluttered erratically.

  She shoved aside her observations. Whether or not Gabriel was attractive mattered not to what she was doing. “I believe I asked you a question.”

  “Ah, yes,” he said. “You were questioning my authority.”

  “Your authority?”

  “I see no reason to argue here on the street. I shall escort you home.”

  He opened the carriage door and helped her inside. He followed suit, closing the door behind him. “Now then, would you like to tell me what you were doing in there? The museum has been closed for hours.”

  She tilted her chin ever so slightly. As the carriage lurched forward, Lilith shook her hands in front of her, a vain attempt to rid herself of the nerves. Damned if Gabriel Campbell hadn’t reentered her life at the most inconvenient time. It was more grist for the mill, she supposed. Nothing in her life had ever been particularly simple. She did her best not to look at him, sitting across from her, no doubt wearing a smug expression.

  How was she supposed to protect the funds until she was able to get to Isabel? She had to come up with a way to get him away from her. She could do what she always did: use her wiles to the best of her ability. It had always served her well. It would distract him, and she could sli
p away. No one ever saw her true nature.

  “That is my own private business, and that is a public building. I have every right to be in there.”

  “Perhaps, but one might wait until morning to make such a visit. So they didn’t have to burgle the establishment.”

  “I did not burgle anything. And I prefer the night to the day,” she said, doing nothing to ease the starch from her voice. She peered out the curtained window of the rig and found the darkened streets useless in determining where they were headed. “Are you simply going to come home with me? Or are we going somewhere else entirely?”

  “I told you I would see you home. I am not in the practice of lying.”

  She couldn’t help but feel that jab was meant for her.

  Several moments passed before he spoke again. “You are looking well,” he said, as if they were nothing more than long-lost friends.

  “As are you. How long has it been?” she asked. Then she held her breath and waited for his answer. Gabriel and she had a past, a history. They hadn’t been lovers. No, she’d been courted by his older brother and Thornton at the same time; their competition to win her hand had nearly driven her mad. Her father had made it abundantly clear that there was no choice. A duke would always be preferable to an earl, so therefore she would wed Rafe. But then there had been the duel and the choice had been made for her.

  “I believe the last time I saw you, it was the day before your would-be husband killed my brother.”

  She winced. There it was. Why had she even asked him that ridiculous question? She’d certainly known the answer. There was no point in addressing the issue. It hadn’t been her fault. She’d been telling herself that for the past six years, although she never quite believed it. Certainly she could have done something to prevent that foolish duel from ever happening.

  “What do you want, Gabriel? What is so important that you insisted on seeing me so late in the evening?”

  He had been nineteen or twenty the last time they’d seen each other, and time had most assuredly been kind to Gabriel Campbell. He’d already been handsome then, but the man who sat across from her was the very picture of a dashing gentleman. His hair fell in soft brown waves, appearing both wild and restrained at the same time. Their first meeting had been a lifetime ago, when she’d foolishly thought marriage could be about love and affection instead of money and power.

  She knew better now, and though much of Gabriel looked the same, down to the locks of hair that fell onto his forehead and his same intense bespectacled gaze, he was not the same as he’d been so many years ago. He was harder; she could see the pain and jadedness in the tense tic of his jaw. Normally she was quite comfortable in silence, but under the weight of his stare, she buckled. “What do you want from me, Gabriel?”

  “Your husband is suspected of some questionable behavior, and I need to know what you know.”

  “I know nothing.”

  His right brow rose. “Indeed. Well, that might be more believable had you not just broken into the British Museum.” His forehead wrinkled in a frown. “Precisely what were you doing in there?”

  “Would you believe me if I told you I have a key and I was retrieving my own personal property?” she asked.

  “No,” he said plainly.

  Of course not. Because Gabriel, as most other people in this damned town, expected the worst of her. “I suspected as much. Then it matters not what I was doing in the museum. It is a public building and I owe you no explanation. Even still, I’ll tell you that I know nothing about Lord Thornton’s behavior, nefarious or otherwise.”

  “Would that I could believe you, but it has been my experience that you are not always so forthcoming with information. Honest information, that is.”

  His jab wounded her, but she was skilled enough to keep that to herself. She’d been fielding such attacks for years, ever since marrying Lord Thornton. If it hadn’t been his insane jealously, it was his general mistrust of her. He’d not thought highly of his wife, and he never missed an opportunity to tell her or anyone else who would listen. She’d stopped trying to defend herself years ago. It never mattered what she said, never mattered what the truth was. Thornton had believed what he’d wanted to believe, as had the rest of London. The men and women alike believed her to be nothing more than a loose-moraled woman. She’d never bothered disputing any of them; such reputations could be useful at times.

  It seemed Gabriel was no different. Pity. There had been a time that she’d thought him quite different from the rest of the men in this damned town. Of course then she’d heard all the rumors of what a rake he was. Stories of his seductions had reached her ears, but she’d never been able to reconcile them with the man she’d spoken to that night on the balcony. The man she’d thought would ask her to dance but had instead allowed his older brother to sweep in and take her off his hands.

  “Your husband. When was the last time you saw him?”

  She glanced out the window, wondering what she could say to Gabriel to make him go away. He took the opportunity to snatch her reticule from her grasp.

  “I beg your pardon, sir, but that is mine.” She reached to grab it back, but he was too swift for her.

  He opened it and peered inside, then he looked back at her, both brows lifted. “This is quite a sum of money, Lilith.”

  Why was it she could never get too far removed from a man wanting to control her? “This is all none of your concern.”

  “On the contrary, my dear lady,” Gabriel said, his tone stern and brimming with judgment. “Your husband is under investigation for crimes against the Crown. Being his wife, you are being scrutinized as well. Not to mention stealing from the British Museum is as good as stealing from the Crown.”

  “What sort of crimes against the Crown? Thornton might not have been the most gregarious man, but he was a patriot, always fighting in Parliament for something or another.” That was the honest truth; however, she never knew precisely what he’d been fighting for, though she knew enough to be certain it wasn’t for the benefit of the lower class.

  “And his feelings about the queen?” Gabriel asked.

  “How am I supposed to know? We never talked about such matters.” He rarely spoke to her. She had been an extension of his property. “You said that you sent that young man to my house on your own authority, but under whose authority are you making these inquiries? I don’t recall you working for the Crown.”

  Again she looked out the window and was pleased to discover the carriage had turned down her street. “Regardless, you asking questions does not mandate I answer them,” she said. She had a sneaking suspicion he would come inside with her. After all, he was the one who’d sent that boy tonight, confirming her suspicion that something had happened to Thornton. And there was the annoying little fact that he currently held her monies captive.

  Besides, she knew virtually nothing about her husband’s activities outside of their townhome. For that matter, she knew little of what he did when he was home with her, which he hadn’t been for the better part of a week.

  Once the carriage stopped, Gabriel stepped down and assisted her to the ground.

  “Perhaps you do not realize what you know. We shall talk when we get inside,” Gabe said.

  At least he had followed his word and returned her to her home. “If I answer your questions, you must return my funds.”

  He did not verbally agree, and her protest was lost as another carriage pulled up and stopped in front of the house. The man driving it jumped down and followed them as they went up the walkway to her front door. She glanced over her shoulder. “Who is that?”

  “Viscount Ellis, pleasure to meet you, Lady Thornton,” the man said, stepping forward and bowing over her hand when she turned toward him.

  But where had he come from? Had she been so distracted at the museum at the sight of Gabriel that she hadn’t noticed an additional hack? “Do you always follow Lord Lynford around?” She unlocked the door, and together the three of them b
reached her threshold.

  Her skin prickled. Though she might not be interested in answering Gabriel’s questions, she did want to know what he knew about her husband. Had Gabriel come to confirm Thornton’s death? Or perhaps he hadn’t been killed and was being detained somewhere? She had no notion of what had been happening with her husband, but she was counting on Thornton’s being gone for a prolonged absence so she could grab Isabel and run.

  “Do you know where he is?” he asked, though his tone suggested it wasn’t a real question, as if he already knew the answer.

  “Before I answer any of your questions, I want you to promise you will return my bag. That is my money,” she said.

  “And if I refuse?”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “Then so do I.”

  “Ah, but I can have you arrested for treason,” he said.

  “I highly doubt that. And you have no proof else you wouldn’t be here looking for clarification or additional details.”

  Viscount Ellis chuckled, and both she and Gabriel glared at him.

  The housekeeper came and took their coats and hung them. “I suppose our guest is still waiting in the parlor?” Lilith asked her.

  “Yes, my lady.”

  “Very well. You may retire for the evening.” After the housekeeper had nodded and left the foyer, Lilith turned to Gabriel. “I haven’t seen Thornton in several days, though I don’t see how that’s any of your concern.”

  Gabriel’s jaw muscle ticked. “I believe your husband was murdered.”

  She nodded.

  “You do not seem to be surprised.”

  “I have scarcely had time to react. But, no, I don’t suppose I am surprised. You met my husband. Perhaps it’s more surprising that he wasn’t killed sooner.” She tried to sound flippant. The truth was there was no love between her and her husband. Never had been. She didn’t even like the man. He was cold and cruel. That didn’t mean she had no feelings at all. But there was no sense in advertising that fact. Showing too much emotion only made you more vulnerable, and if Thornton were truly dead, it meant she needed to get to Isabel as soon as possible.