Swept Away

by Candace Camp

  “Don’t be absurd,” Julia said loftily. “I realize that my plan was a mistake from start to finish. But we have to find some way to prove it. Perhaps if we could get a drawing of Varian and show it to the landlady…ask her if he was her lodger.”

  “Good idea. Can you or Phoebe draw a reasonable likeness?”

  She shook her head. “I’m all thumbs. Phoebe is more accomplished in such ladylike pursuits, but I don’t think she could do it unless Varian posed for her, and what reason could we give for that?”

  Deverel frowned, thinking. “Perhaps I should pay Varian a visit. There might be a miniature of him lying about the St. Leger house. Mothers always have portraits of their children, don’t they? I could look for one and, shall we say, borrow it for a day or two.”

  “Deverel! You are becoming positively larcenous.”

  “You’re a bad influence on me.”

  “I shall go with you,” Julia said. “Two sets of eyes are better than one.”

  He shook his head. “No. You are staying here. It’s too dangerous.”

  “Really, Deverel! What can be dangerous about visiting Varian?”

  “You can ask that after three attempts on your life?”

  “But you could as easily have been killed the last time! You are in as much danger as I.”

  “I can look after myself.” He could see Julia was about to fire up, so he reached down and pulled her up, stifling her words with a kiss. “However, if I have to watch and worry over you, it will be much harder to take care of either one of us.”

  “But, Deverel…”

  “Please, Julia. I am asking you as a favor to me. Let me handle this visit by myself.”

  “Oh, all right,” Julia said grudgingly. “But it’s hardly fair of you.”

  “I will tell you all about it.”

  She grimaced. “It’s not the same.”

  Deverel left for Varian’s after they ate their luncheon. Julia soon grew bored, and it was a great relief to her a few minutes later when the butler announced that her cousin had come calling.

  “Geoffrey!” she cried, leaping to her feet and going to him, holding out her hands. “It’s so good to see you. I was just sitting here feeling miserably bored.”

  “Oh, no.” Geoffrey hesitated at the threshold of the door. “You aren’t going to ask me to take you somewhere, are you?”

  “No. I wish I knew of someplace to go, but I don’t. Come in, sit down. Tell me all the gossip.”

  “Most of it is about you,” Geoffrey replied, sauntering into the room and sitting down. He was, as always, the picture of elegance, from his gleaming black boots to the gold-handled cane he carried as an accessory. “Everyone is agog about your and Stonehaven’s sudden marriage.”

  “I am sure they are shocked because Deverel married someone with such a scandalous background.”

  “Mmm, that and because no one knew anything about it beforehand. Old Mumford said something to me about its being sudden, so I told him that of course the families had known about it for some time.”

  Julia grinned. “But Dev told Fitz and Pamela that we were going to Buckinghamshire to tell his mother the news.”

  Geoffrey fluttered his hand. “Details. Can’t let yourself be swamped in them. With enough stories circulating, no one will know what to believe. Anyway, no doubt they’ll have a new story to chatter about in a week or two.”

  “I hope they will have the news that Selby was wrongly accused,” Julia said earnestly. “We found out something.” She went on to tell him of their encounter with the landlady.

  “I say, that seems very encouraging.”

  “It is. It was enough to convince Deverel, thank goodness, but I am sure it will take more than that for the general public. And Pamela—she loves having the Armigers as villains.”

  “Demmed unfriendly female,” Geoffrey agreed. He sat in thought for a moment. “So you don’t suspect Stonehaven anymore?”

  “No. I soon realized that it could not have been him.”

  “Didn’t think it was,” Geoffrey reminded her sagely. “But then, who was it?”

  “We’re not sure. The thing is, there was this rumor about Selby, that he had a mistress.”

  “What? Old Selby? Nonsense. Adored Phoebe.”

  “I know. But you see, I had not told you before, because I haven’t really talked to you alone. I didn’t want Phoebe to know.” She poured out the story of the suicide note and the rumors of the mistress and their inability to locate who had been spreading them. “If we could pinpoint the person who started the rumor, I think we would find that it is the same person who—who wrote the suicide note.”

  Geoffrey stared at her, goggling at all the new information she had thrust upon him. “You are saying that—that someone murdered Selby?”

  “He must have. I don’t see how it could have happened any other way.”

  “But who could it have been?”

  “I don’t even like to speculate on it,” Julia said sadly. “It was much easier when I thought Stonehaven was the villain. I didn’t like him. It has to have been someone close to Selby—someone who knew about the trust and Jack Fletcher. How could anyone close to him have killed him?”

  Geoffrey shook his head, bewildered.

  “The worst of it is, I don’t know how to find out who started the rumor. I’m not received in Society, and—”

  “That will be different now that you are married to Stonehaven. All the old biddies will be agog to meet you. I shouldn’t be surprised if you receive a flurry of invitations to parties now. ’Course, it would be a bit awkward asking everyone about whether your brother had a mistress.”

  “I don’t care for that. I’ll ask anyway.”

  “I daresay.” He paused, thinking. “You know, I’ll ask my man Bouldin. One’s valet is always the best source of gossip. Oh! That puts me in mind—why don’t you ask Selby’s old valet about the mistress? If anyone would know whether she existed, it would be his valet.”

  “Osgood! Of course! Why didn’t I think of him earlier? I would love to see him again. You’re right, he would be the one to know, oh, everything about Selby.” The man had left their employ right after the funeral, his services no longer needed. Julia had been too distraught at the time to talk to him, but she could see now that he might have invaluable information.

  “Owns a haberdashery now, you know. Quite a good one, too. I’ve bought several things there myself. Got a fine-looking shirt there not long ago.”

  “Where is it?”

  “The shirt? At home, of course, where else—”

  “No, no, his shop! I must go see him.”

  “You can’t—not by yourself!” Geoffrey exclaimed, looking shocked. “That wouldn’t be the thing at all. Women don’t go along Bond Street unaccompanied, you know. All men’s stores and such.”

  “Then you must take me,” Julia replied decisively. “That will make it all right with Deverel, too, I expect. He wouldn’t want me going out without an escort.” She blithely ignored the fact that Deverel had in fact not wanted her to go out at all.

  “I might have known you would wind up finding someplace for me to take you,” Geoffrey said with some bitterness. “All right. Let us go.” His expression brightened a little. “I’ve been needing some new gloves anyway.”

  Osgood recognized Julia the moment she entered the store on Geoffrey’s arm, and he hurried forward to greet her, his thin, almost funereal face lighting up. “Miss Armiger! I cannot tell you how delighted I am to see you. I have thought about you so many times these past years and wondered how you and Lady Armiger were.”

  “We are fine, Osgood, and Gilbert, too.”

  “But you must not stand out here in the shop,” Osgood said, always as expert in the proprieties of a situation as he was in the cut of a suit. “Please, come back to my office.”

  Julia left Geoffrey happily discussing the merits of a pair of gloves with a clerk and followed her brother’s former valet to the rear of the stor
e. Osgood fussed about, making sure that the chair in front of his desk was just right for her, then offering biscuits and tea. Julia smilingly declined.

  “You have a beautiful shop, Osgood.”

  “Thank you, miss—that is to say, Lady Stonehaven.”

  “Ah, so you know my news. I should have expected that.”

  “When I first saw you out there, it slipped my mind, but, yes, I had heard of your wedding to Lord Stonehaven. I wish you very happy, my lady.”

  “Thank you.”

  “The shop is Sir Selby’s doing, of course. As you know, he left me a legacy in his will, enough to set this up.” He sighed. “I’d happily give it back, though, if we could have the master with us again.”

  “I know. I am sure you miss him very much.”

  “Yes. I was with him from the moment he came to London, just a green lad.” He smiled reminiscently. “It must have been ten years that I served him.”

  “Osgood, I came here to ask you something. Will you answer me honestly?”

  “Of course, my lady!”

  “Even if you think it’s improper or…not something Selby’s sister should hear? This is very important. It’s about Selby’s innocence, you see.”

  He gazed at her for a long moment, then nodded his head. “Yes, my lady, I will answer you, no matter what you ask—anything if it will help to prove that Sir Selby did not take that money.”

  “Did my brother keep a mistress in London?”

  The man’s jaw dropped open. “My lady!”

  “I told you it might be improper.”

  “Your brother was always the most faithful of husbands,” Osgood replied firmly. “He was most in love with Lady Armiger, and she with him. Theirs was a very happy marriage.”

  “Yes, I know. But there have been rumors that Selby kept a mistress in London, that—that he stole the money so he could support her in secret.”

  “I have heard those rumors,” Osgood admitted with an expression of distaste. “But I give no credence to them. It is merely the work of petty minds.”

  “I think it might be more than that.”

  “I am sure that Sir Selby kept no mistress, my lady—although I did wonder about it when he said he was going to London right before his death.”

  Julia frowned, confused. “London? Selby didn’t go to London right before he died.”

  “Yes, miss, he did,” Osgood assured her. “That is where he was going when he left the house, three days before he died.”

  “He went to his hunting lodge. Don’t you remember?”

  “That is what he told everyone. But he told me that he was actually going to London. I had wanted to go with him as I always did, but he told me that I could not. He said that he was not going to his hunting lodge, at least, not at first. He was going to London beforehand. He said he would stay at an inn, since the house would be closed up, and that one of the servants at the inn would valet for him.” Osgood gave an expressive shudder at the thought of a mere inn servant being able to do for Selby what Osgood did.

  Julia stared at him. “I don’t understand. Why would he have told us he was going to the hunting lodge if he was really going to London?”

  “I don’t know, miss, but he was quite definite about it. I did wonder, then, if perhaps he might be slipping off to see a woman of a certain sort. I remember he said, ‘The ladies don’t know about it, Osgood, so you must keep your mouth clamped shut.’ As if I would have told anyone! And he gave me a wink. With any other man, I would have been certain he was going to see another woman, but I could scarcely believe that of the master. Of course, when I heard that he had gone to the hunting lodge, after all, I realized that he had told me that story about London just to keep me from accompanying him. He must already have been planning to do away with himself, and he knew that I would have stopped him.”

  “I am certain that he was not planning to kill himself,” Julia told the man firmly. “Osgood, Selby did not commit suicide. I am sure of it.” She explained to him about the note that had been left, confessing Selby’s guilt and an affair, and about the way the handwriting matched the embezzlement letters but not Selby’s old letters. By the time she had finished, Osgood looked at her as though his head was reeling.

  “But why…Do you suppose he really went to London? Did he go there first and then on to the lodge?” the valet asked, confused.

  “I don’t know. He traveled by post chaise, you remember, so he didn’t take Nunnelly, either. Looking back on it, I see that he was being very secretive. That would have fit, perhaps, with his committing suicide, but I am certain that he did not. He did not write that note!”

  “I never dreamed that day or any other that he might kill himself,” Osgood told her sadly. “He would not have left Lady Armiger like that. And I would have sworn that Sir Selby’s mood the day he left was not that of a man facing death. He was so cheerful, smiling and—oh, he was in a better mood than I had seen him in in months, since the scandal first began.”

  “But why would Selby have gone to London? And why keep it a secret from everyone?”

  “I’m not sure. He said something like he ‘didn’t want to get Lady Armiger’s hopes up.”’

  Julia stared. “Get her hopes up! About what?”

  “He didn’t say, my lady. He just looked at me so—oh, full of mischief. It reminded me most forcibly of the old days, when he was a young man and about to get into some scrape or another. You could have blown me away with a feather when I heard that the master had killed himself. But then I decided he must have been putting on a grand performance, to lull me into thinking that everything was all right. I wish he had let me go along! It wouldn’t have happened if only he had had me with him.”

  “You must not blame yourself, Osgood.” Julia leaned forward and patted the older man’s hand. “You know what Selby was like when he got the bit between his teeth. He would not have let you go if he didn’t want you to. And even if you had been there, you wouldn’t have been with him twenty-four hours a day. Whoever killed him could have slipped in and done it without your knowing.”

  “It would have been much harder.” He sighed. “However, you’re right. I could not have talked him into doing anything else, once he had his mind set on it.”

  “I wonder…” Julia nibbled thoughtfully at her lower lip. “Look, I am convinced that Selby was murdered by the same man who embezzled the money. Therefore, it follows that the story he told you was not to throw you off the scent, but the actual truth. He really was going to London, and the reason for his trip was something that excited him, but which he wanted to keep secret from Phoebe for fear it might get her hopes up. What else could it be except that he expected to find out something in London that would clear his name?”

  “My lady! Do you really think so?”

  “Yes. I do. Why else would Selby have been excited? Why else would he talk about not getting Phoebe’s hopes up? Oh!” Julia jumped to her feet. “I must go home. I have to tell Stonehaven about this. Thank you, Osgood, thank you. You have helped me so much. I think this is exactly the information we needed.”

  “I am happy to help, my lady, in any way I can.” Osgood looked at her with a slightly bewildered but hopeful expression.

  “You have. I promise you, you have.”

  Julia hurried back into the outer room of the store, Osgood following her. There she found Cousin Geoffrey involved in a deep study of two silk handkerchiefs. “Ah, Julia, there you are,” he said somewhat distractedly. “I say, which of these do you prefer? Do you think the peacock blue is a trifle…I don’t know, loud?”

  “It’s fine,” Julia said, scarcely glancing at the two elegant pieces of cloth. “Geoffrey, we need to leave.”

  “Yes, yes, we will, shortly. Just let me get my purchases wrapped up. I found just the right pair of gloves. I shall have to come back here more often. Kid leather, and as supple as a second skin.” He turned his attention back to the squares of silk. “But I can’t decide which of these would l
ook best for the pocket of my new dove-gray jacket.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Geoffrey, just choose. I have to leave.” She glanced outside impatiently. “You know, I believe that I shall just walk back by myself. It isn’t far, and I must—”

  On those words, she was gone, heading for the door determinedly. It took an instant for her cousin to realize what she had said, and when he did, he whirled in horror. “Julia! No! You can’t walk down Bond Street by yourself. It isn’t the thing at all!”

  But Julia, of course, was ignoring him, already opening the door and stepping out. Hurriedly, Geoffrey thrust both handkerchiefs at the clerk and grabbed up his cane and hat. “Here. I’ll take them both. Wrap them up, and I’ll send a servant for them later.”

  He hustled toward the door after Julia.

  Julia started down the sidewalk, not about to let a little thing like her cousin’s notions of propriety stop her. The only thought on her mind was to get home and tell Deverel about her discovery and the new theories that were tumbling about in her head. She paid scant attention to the carriage that sat in the street outside the door, slightly ahead of her. Nor did she glance that way when the door of it swung open and a man stepped out. It was only when he reached out and clamped a hand around her arm that she turned, with an outraged gasp at his temerity, and saw, to her amazement, that his face was a blank, black mask. She opened her mouth to scream, but he clamped his other hand over her mouth and, with a steely grip, began to drag her toward the waiting carriage.

  20

  Julia jerked her elbow back as hard as she could, slamming it into her attacker’s ribs. He let out a surprised grunt of pain. Julia stomped down hard on his foot.

  “You hellcat!” The man wrapped both his arms tightly around her, lifting her from her feet, and carried her to the carriage.

  This action freed Julia’s mouth, and she screamed with all her might, flailing her arms and legs. At that moment Geoffrey came hurrying out the door, intent on saving Julia from the solecism of walking down the street unattended. What he saw made his eyes bug out.