Joss and The Countess (The Seducers Book 2)

by S. M. LaViolette

  Joss had nothing to fear physically—he was the biggest man their by half—but the filth and stench were almost worse than the loss of liberty.

  Time passed slowly and it was agony without a book.

  On the second or third day—it was difficult to gauge the passage of time—a jailer pulled him out and escorted him to a tiny cell which he would have all to himself, although the trade to private quarters also included the addition of shackles.

  He’d spoken to nobody save the jailers and the two constables, who’d kept him up another eight hours after his arrest.

  They’d told him the evidence against him—damning—and they’d also disclosed the cause of death: a poker to the back of the head.

  Joss had declined both the opportunity to confess or to request legal representation. He was hoping Hugo would carry out the last orders he’d given him. Although. . . knowing Hugo’s unsavory sense of humor it was possible nobody knew of Joss’s incarceration. Although he could not imagine that would be true for long. Such a juicy story—the violent murder of a well-respected peer by his stepmother’s ex servant—was likely to be in every paper.

  Joss was lying on his dirty straw pallet, trying not to think of what was making him itch so badly, and watching two rats fight over his uneaten meal when the hatch on the door opened.

  “You’ve a visitor. You’ll have fifteen minutes and no more.” The hatch slammed shut, keys rattled, and the door opened.

  Joss scrambled into a sitting position, trying to avoid moving overly much as the shackles on his wrists and ankles had begun to chafe.

  He grinned. “Belle, what are you doing here?”

  His sister’s white face collapsed and she rushed toward him, but he shook his head and held out one hand, wincing as the heavy metal bracelet tugged against his skin.

  “Stay back. I am absolutely covered in something that bites.” He grimaced. “I’m guessing fleas or something worse. And I smell revolting.”

  She stopped where she was, throwing her hands over her mouth and laughing through her tears.

  “Oh, Joss, how like you to worry about such a thing at a time like this.”

  The door clanged shut and they both startled.

  “Pull that stool a bit closer, Belle.”

  She’d brought a large tapestry bag with her. “I’ve been trying to get in since I heard, but they wouldn’t let me see you. I’ve brought you some things.”

  “Who told you I was here?”

  Her flush told him who before her words did. “A gentleman who works with you? Er, a Mr. Buckingham?”

  Ah, so Hugo had done what he’d asked. At least part of it. She took out a package wrapped in paper, a towel, and a stoppered jug.

  “I imagine it is all over the papers?”

  She frowned, digging in the bottom of her bag until she found what she wanted—a small book.

  “It has been dreadful. Lord Selwood’s murder is on the front page of everything and they’ve mentioned your name as the only suspect.”

  She took out a wax-cloth wrapped package and then put her bag aside and came toward him.

  “It is a sandwich, Joss—tongue, your favorite.”

  “Thank you, Belle.” He took the package and made himself open it, even though he had no appetite.

  “I tried to come to you immediately but they wouldn’t let me,” she said again, glancing around nervously.

  Joss chewed and swallowed and she startled as if he’d said something.

  “Oh, what a ninny I am—here is this, a little bit of ale.”

  He took the jug, happier for the beer than the food. He’d not had anything to drink almost since entering. He’d broken down and taken a dipper of the brackish water they brought, but he had a terror of contracting some jail-house malady.

  “Mr. Buckingham came to me only hours after you’d been taken.”

  Joss silently apologized for maligning Hugo’s character.

  “He told me you wished to wait for a man—a Mr. Shelly.”

  “Yes, that is correct.”

  “Mr. Shelly, it seems, was delayed and he only just arrived back this morning.”

  “He’s been gone four days? Is anything wrong? Did something happen to Lady—”

  He only realized he’d raised his voice when she glanced nervously toward the door. As if on cue, the hatch opened.

  “Oi! Keep it down in there.”

  Joss slid back down to his pallet.

  Belle leaned toward him. “Nothing happened to Lady Alicia, Joss.” Belle smiled. “She is the loveliest woman I have ever seen.”

  “Alicia came to see you?” he asked stupidly.

  “Yes, she arrived with Mr. Shelly.”

  Joss closed his eyes and his head dropped back against the stone wall with a dull thunk. Why had she come back? If they hadn’t found out about Lizzy’s disappearance, which seemed bloody unlikely, they would eventually. And when they did, they’d have a second suspect.

  “She wanted to come see you,” Belle’s words made him open his eyes. “But Mr. Shelly said that would not be wise at this juncture.”

  “Thank God one of them is showing some sense.”

  “Oh, Joss, you cannot mean such a thing! She is so kind and clever and—and she says she loves you very much.” Her eyes were so wide with disbelief he laughed.

  “That’s not very flattering to me, Belle.”

  Her cheeks reddened. “I didn’t—”

  “Hush, sweetheart. I know you didn’t.” He chewed his lip, trying to think of a way to tell her that Alicia needed to leave. Now. Or better yet, yesterday.

  “You’ll never guess what she said to me, Joss.”

  That was probably true. “What’s that, darling?”

  “She said I could come and live with you both in France.”

  Joss stared—no, he wouldn’t have guessed that. Although he wasn’t sure why. Alicia was loving and caring and had always been fascinated by his family.

  “I told her I didn’t think my husband would like that.”

  Joss’s jaw dropped and she gave a low chuckle.

  “That’s not very flattering to me, Joss,” she said, her words a mocking echo of his.

  “Who, Belle?”

  Even in the dim light of the cell he could see her cheeks color. “You remember the new doctor who came to see Father?”

  Joss did remember him; he was far younger than their old doctor and a handsome young man. “Doctor MacLellan?” he said.

  She looked pleased. “Ian MacLellan.” Belle swallowed hard. “He said he loves me, Joss. And,” she dashed a tear from one cheek with the back of her hand. “He says he never even noticed the marks.”

  Joss grinned. “Of course, he didn’t notice them, you looby.” He hesitated, wondering how to couch his next concern.

  “I was worried that having our last name in the paper might cause problems for him,” she said, as if reading his mind. “But he said notoriety is always good for business.”

  Joss gave a weary chuckle. “He sounds like an excellent man.”

  ​“Oh dear, how could I be so selfish to be wasting our time with that when you’re suffering in here?” Before Joss could tell her just how much her information relieved his mind she went on, “I almost forgot.” Belle opened her reticule and took out a folded piece of heavy cream stationary he knew well. “Lady Alicia said to give this to you. That it would explain everything.”

  Joss took the single piece of paper and stared at it. Only one page? To explain everything?

  He shook his head and then cracked the seal.

  ∞∞∞

  Alicia waited until the girl crossed the square and turned onto Bruton Street before rapping on the panel.

  It slid open immediately. “Aye?” the grizzled driver asked.

  “That’s the girl there, the one just ahead.”

  Alicia put back her veil and tapped on the window as they came up alongside her. Annie Philips glanced at the carriage and then stopped, gaping.

/>   Alicia opened the door. “I’d like a moment of your time.”

  The girl had beautiful eyes which were as round as guineas. “I—”

  “Get in.”

  She flushed a dark red but climbed into the carriage and shut the door.

  “Where were you going?”

  Her pretty face was sullen. “Nowhere in particular, my lady. It is my half-day and I was just going to walk and look.”

  Alicia tapped on the roof. “Take us around the Park,” she told the driver. When the panel shut, she looked at the girl. “I think you know why I am here?”

  “Is this about Joss?”

  Hearing his name on the young girl’s lips was like coal to the inferno of jealousy raging inside her. She’d never suspected she was jealous and she certainly was not enjoying the experience.

  “I won’t beat about the bush, Annie. Tell me what happened the other night after he left?”

  The girl chewed her lower lip before saying, “Mr. Beamish had the footmen move Lord Selwood to the settee in his library and then summoned Lady Selwood to ask her what they should do. His lordship was unconscious and Mr. Beamish was that nervous that he would do the wrong thing.”

  Alicia recognized the smug satisfaction on the girl’s face because she felt it herself at the news. “He’s interfered with you, hasn’t he—Lord Selwood.” It was not a question, but the girl nodded.

  “Was it against your will?”

  Annie opened her mouth, but then hesitated.

  “You can speak openly, in fact I wish you would.”

  “He told me I could be head parlor maid if I let him—” she stopped and then shrugged.

  “Did he hurt you?”

  Her dark eyes flickered to Alicia and she saw surprise in them. “Yes, my lady. And then I—” She stopped, uncertain.

  “Go on.”

  “And then I found out he’d promised the same to all the girls. I went to him—”

  Alicia winced and the girl nodded. “Yes, he was not happy.”

  “Are you with child?”

  Annie’s face reddened and she swallowed. “Yes.”

  “Is it his?”

  “No, it’s . . . somebody else’s.”

  “How far along?”

  “Two months, my lady.”

  Alicia didn’t want to ask, but she had to. “Who is the father?”

  “Don’t worry, it wasn’t Joss.”

  She wanted to weep with relief, but now was not the time. “Who, Annie?”

  “I’d rather not say, my lady. He—well, he said he wouldn’t marry me. That he didn’t believe it was his. He said everyone knew I was a s-slut.”

  Her eyes were glassy and Alicia shook her head, anger warming her chest. “Every woman has to tolerate those accusations, Annie. All of us. Don’t ever let what some man says diminish you.” Not that she’d ever taken her own advice.

  The girl sniffed and wiped her eyes.

  “You know Joss did not kill Lord Selwood, don’t you?”

  Annie hesitated, and then nodded.

  “You weren’t just going to look at shop windows today, were you?”

  “No.”

  “How much money did she give you to hide?”

  “I wouldn’t have done it, my lady. I wouldn’t have—”

  “How much?”

  “One hundred pounds.” She saw Alicia’s look of disbelief and her eyes sparked with anger. “I know it’s nothing to you, but it’s the difference between starving on the street to me. And—and I never would have allowed Joss to hang for it.” She could not hold Alicia’s eyes. “I just needed to have a little something for when the baby comes.”

  Alicia tapped on the roof.

  “Take us to Mivart’s,” she said when the vent opened.

  Annie cocked her head. “Where are you taking me?”

  “It is a hotel. You will be able to rest and tell me what you saw. And then you will wait for me there, while I go and speak to Lady Selwood.”

  ∞∞∞

  Beamish’s face was redder than she’d ever seen it.

  “Tell her I am not leaving until she sees me, Beamish. And tell her it is in her best interest to do so sooner rather than later. Every minute I have to wait is a minute angrier I will become. Her ladyship does not want to make me angry.”

  Ten minutes later Lady Rebecca Selwood came into the smaller sitting room—the one that was tiny but had only one door and was in the corner, so had only two sides on which eavesdroppers could listen.

  “Alicia, I am sorry you had to wait. I should have told Beamish that my orders did not apply to family.” Rebecca’s eyes were suitably red-rimmed, as any devoted widow’s would be.

  Alicia had no interested in small talk. “I know it was you, Rebecca.”

  “Me? I’m sorry I don’t—”

  “I know you killed David.”

  “Are you mad?” Rebecca whispered, her usually placid face a mask of terror as she glanced at the doors.

  “I will not permit Joss Gormley to suffer for your sins. And I have a witness.”

  The other woman made a noise of pure fury. “That girl! I knew I should have—”

  “What? You should have killed her too?” Alicia could see by the other woman’s flush that was exactly what she meant. “And what about Lizzy—would you have killed her, too? Or just left her locked up in that dreadful place?”

  “She wouldn’t have been in that place if she had simply shut up and done what David told her to do.”

  Alicia had not expected this. She stared at the other woman with open, seething loathing. “You—you monster. It was your idea.”

  Rebecca tossed her head, the gesture oddly girlish on her middle-aged face. “What good was she doing anyone? This would have been a way for her to help all of us.”

  Alicia was simply too sickened to speak.

  Her silence infuriated the other woman. “What about me? Do you think I’ve enjoyed being pregnant almost constantly for twenty years? Do you? And nothing but disappointment after disappointment. And then the last time left me—” she stopped and bit her lip.

  “You are not pregnant at all, are you? You were only pretending until Lizzy had the baby. And then, if it was a boy, you would have claimed it as your own. And if she didn’t have a boy? What then? Would you have just kept using her as David’s broodmare?”

  Rebecca surged to her feet, shaking with her rage. “Don’t use that tone with me—you who were his whore for years. If you’d done what you were supposed to do your precious Lizzy would have been spared.”

  “You’re mad. You’re absolutely bloody mad. Do you think your husband’s—and his father’s—mania to preserve their precious bloodline was worth rape? Worth incest? I could almost feel sorry for you if not for the fact you have done this to Lizzy and would now watch an innocent man hang for murder.”

  Rebecca raised her hands. “Please, don’t be so hasty. Let me explain. I wasn’t—I wouldn’t,” she lowered herself onto the settee beside Alicia.

  Alicia shot to her feet. “Get away from me! You are a vile, vile abomination of a human being. You make me physically ill.”

  Tears rolled down the other woman’s cheeks.

  Her weeping just angered Alicia more. “Why did you do it?” She didn’t have to explain what she meant.

  “I had to kill him.” Rebecca’s shoulders shook. “I should have done it years ago.”

  Alicia couldn’t have agreed more.

  “He said—after that man beat him—that he would have to let Elizabeth go or there would be trouble. He said he would just have to find another way. And—and I knew then what he’d planned. I could see it in his eyes.” She dropped her head and sobbed.

  “So, you did not want what had happened to Lizzy to happen to your own daughter.”

  “You don’t understand what he was like. You don’t know…You just don’t know….” She kept whispering, staring at her clenched hands, her tears rolling down her cheeks.

  Alicia pulled
on her gloves and walked toward the door, afraid of what she would do if she stayed.

  Rebecca’s head whipped up at the sound of Alicia’s steps. “Where are you going?”

  “Where do you think I am going? To the authorities.”

  “No!” She lurched off the settee and came after her. “You can’t—you can’t.”

  Alicia fumbled with the door handle, the slick leather of her gloves unable to gain purchase. Rebecca—who was heavier, if not taller than her—grabbed her by the shoulders and slammed her against the wall.

  “You can’t! You can’t tell anyone, ever! I will have to make sure you don’t tell—I’ll—” her wild gaze settled on the marble bust beside the door and she reached for it. Alicia took the opportunity to kick her as hard as she could in the leg.

  Agonizing pain shot from her toe up her leg but Rebecca released her and Alicia lurched toward the door. Not until she reached the foyer did she understand the other woman had not followed her. Beamish, who must have been waiting off the main hall came rushing toward her.

  “Is aught amiss, my lady?”

  Alicia caught a glance at herself in the glass. She hadn’t realized she’d lost her hat and her hair had come down on one side. She also had scratches on her neck.

  “Lady Selwood is not well,” she told the white-faced butler in a shaky voice. “You must send somebody up with her—perhaps even two people, a maid and your biggest groom. She should not be left alone. She has already killed one person and just tried to kill me.”

  Beamish was clearly aghast. “But-but—”

  “I am going to the authorities, Beamish. But shall have to watch her. They will come here sooner rather than later, and when they—”

  The crack of a pistol cut off the rest of what she was going to say.

  “Oh my God,” Alicia ran toward the stairs, other servants emerging from rooms. She was heading toward the sitting room she’d just left when a scream came from the library.

  A maid came running out, still screaming, not stopping when she saw Alicia.

  Both doors to the library were open and there was Rebecca. She was slumped in David’s chair and had obviously found David’s gun.

  Epilogue

  Five Months Later

  A Chateau Outside Paris