Sarah let out a big sigh of disappointment and Simon almost found himself laughing. Viscount Claredon’s youngest child was certainly a peculiar thing, but at the same time she was somehow very likeable. Suddenly he could see why David was so loyal to her. It was a shame his friend couldn’t find his way to having deeper feelings for the girl.
He sobered quickly when he saw Caleb push away from the wall he was hovering near and head off in the direction of the far entrance. Simon swung his glance over to the entrance and he just caught sight of William turning to speak to someone to his left, presumably Hannah, if the glint of golden hair was any indication
“They’re here and Caleb is on the move,” Simon whispered gravely. “I think now it would be best if Rose and I took over the job of trailing Caleb. You two”—Simon looked at Emily and Sarah—“go warn William and Hannah. We don’t want to cause them any undue stress, but if Caleb makes a move and we are not there to stop him, it will be up to them. Don’t do anything foolish. If Caleb poisons something, William needs to know not to eat or drink anything.”
Emily and Sarah gave Simon a curt nod and headed in the direction of William and Hannah. Within seconds, the crowd had swallowed them up and Simon and Rose gave chase to Caleb.
Trying to stay inconspicuous, they shadowed his path around the large room. Simon was also keeping an eye on William and Hannah, and the gap between the couple and Caleb was closing slowly but surely. Any time now a move was going to be made and Simon could only hope that the deadly action could be anticipated and prevented.
Chapter Nineteen
Stand on firm ground; from there, you can deal with anything.
—The Duke of Lancaster
Finally, after what seemed like hours, Rose and Simon followed Caleb to within yards of where William and Hannah were standing. The happy couple appeared to be completely unaware of the drama unfolding around them. They were laughing and talking with their parents. Lord Lichfield, Hope, Sarah and Emily were nowhere to be seen. They must have been held up by the larger than normal crowd surrounding the edge of the dancing area.
The group had stopped to gather near one of the beverage carts where everyone seemed to be partaking of the refreshments. Keeping his mannerisms slow and casual, Caleb sidled up behind the group and then ducked quickly behind a swag of silvery material hanging in front of a balcony entrance and partially behind the table of drinks.
From there, Simon and Rose could see that Caleb was in the perfect position to access any of the group’s drinks, provided they set them on the table next to them. Unfortunately, while Caleb was in the ideal location for his mission, Simon and Rose had no way to get any closer to the man without being seen themselves.
Simon turned to Rose and said, “Stay here.”
“Where are you going?” Rose asked.
“I’m going to see if I can get onto that balcony behind Caleb.”
Rose looked over at Caleb again and beyond him. If Simon could, indeed, find a way to access the balcony from outside, he would be able to attack Caleb from behind completely undetected. It was a brilliant idea, provided Caleb did not choose to poison William between now and the time it took Simon to get into place.
“Right,” Rose said, looking at him meaningfully. “I suggest you hurry.”
Simon squeezed her hand and left to find another way outside.
Seconds after he departed, Lady Lancaster appeared at Rose’s side as if by magic. “Where is Mr. Trumbull going?”
Rose jumped and clasped a hand to her heart, as if that would somehow calm her rapid pulse. “I really wish you wouldn’t do that,” Rose gasped.
“Do what, dear?”
“Sneak up on people.”
“My dear girl…I do not sneak. I merely approach…quietly,” Lady Lancaster explained. “Now are you going to tell me where Mr. Trumbull has gone? Surely now is an ill-advised time for a person to relieve oneself.”
Rose rolled her eyes. “He hasn’t gone to…you know. He is trying to access the balcony behind Lord Shrewsbury.”
“Ah,” Lady Lancaster remarked. “That is a much better use of his time, I must say. But if your young man cannot make it to the balcony in time, I suppose it will be up to us to stop Lord Shrewsbury.”
Rose nodded and she balled her hands into fists.
Ten minutes later, Rose saw Simon’s face appear on the other side of the reflective glass, and she breathed a huge sigh of relief. She had begun to think she really was going to have to stop Caleb herself.
Not that he had made the slightest move to do anything thus far. He seemed to be waiting for just the right moment, and honestly, until William set down his glass, there was not much Caleb could do…if, in fact, William was Caleb’s intended target. Rose realized he could just as easily attack Hannah.
“I see Mr. Trumbull has succeeded in his task,” Lady Lancaster remarked.
“Yes,” Rose replied. “Now all we have to do is wait.”
And wait they did, though not for too terribly long. It was just minutes later that Lord and Lady Rochester—Hannah’s parents—stopped by to say hello and William set down his glass to shake his future father-in-law’s hand. Rose quickly looked at Caleb, expecting him to make his move immediately. She was not disappointed, therefore, when Caleb turned an attentive eye on William’s champagne glass.
With a meaningful look at Simon through the glass, Rose slowly advanced on Caleb’s position. Simon, too, looked prepared to come through the balcony door. His timing would have to be perfect, for if he opened the door too soon, the chilly wind would alert Caleb of his presence instantly.
Rose held her breath in anticipation as Caleb flipped open his fancy bejeweled ring and slowly moved his hand closer to William’s glass.
What happened next was quite possibly the most insane sixty seconds of Rose’s life.
Just as Caleb tipped his ring over the top of William’s champagne glass—allowing a powdery substance to pour into the sparkling liquid—Simon burst through the balcony door and tackled him. Caleb let out a high-pitched shriek and every eye in the room turned toward the sound.
Rose ran forward, leaping rather gracefully, she thought, over the two men wrestling on the floor, to snatch the poisoned drink—which William had grabbed off the table in an effort to save from the scuffle—out of his hand.
With a pointed look, Rose silently urged Sarah and Emily, who had just managed to get to the couple’s side, to usher William and Hannah away from the commotion. Hannah sent Rose a confused and alarmed look, but Rose just smiled and waved her off, as if it were nothing. She didn’t think for a minute that her friend would buy her performance, but it was the best she could do under the circumstances.
Turning back around to check on Simon, she found that he was now sitting almost calmly atop the still wildly thrashing Caleb. He looked quite pleased with himself and suddenly Rose realized why. In his hand was the ring—the poison ring—and dozens of perfectly respectable witnesses had seen him remove it from Caleb’s finger.
Rose felt her own smile coming on and soon it turned into a full-fledged grin. Out of the gathering crowd, Lady Lancaster emerged with two very large, very official looking Bow Street Runners and one Dr. Mathieu Orfila.
“Gentlemen,” Lady Lancaster said to the Runners. “Please arrest this man at once.”
At the sound of her voice, Caleb became very still and he looked up at the imposing woman.
“On what charge, my lady?” one of the Runners asked.
“The attempted murder of the Earl of Pembroke and the suspected murder of Frederick Collicott, the late Earl of Shrewsbury.”
The entire ballroom gasped at the accusation and everyone turned to look at the sad little man currently positioned under the heavy weight of Mr. Simon Trumbull.
Caleb hissed, “You have no proof.”
“Oh, but we do,” Rose stepped forward to say. She held her hand out to Simon, who set the deadly ring carefully in her palm. She, in turn, presented the ring an
d the now fatal glass of champagne to Dr. Orfila and continued with, “We have the ring you used to transport the poison and the poisoned liquid itself.”
With a nasty sneer, Caleb said, “The ring is empty and the champagne looks just fine to me. I don’t see any poison, do you?”
“Hmmm,” Rose hummed, actually enjoying the attention for once. “I suppose if you were to drink the champagne in question, then I might be inclined to believe you. Does that sound fair?”
It came as no surprise when he mumbled, “I’m not particularly thirsty at the moment.”
Rose snorted. “Just as I thought. Well, as it happens, we don’t need you or anyone else to drink the champagne. The good doctor here”—Rose motioned to Dr. Orfila with a bright smile—“can test for the poison in both the liquid and on the interior of the ring. Once we have his results, you, Lord Shrewsbury, won’t have a leg to stand on…ah…once you are allowed to stand, that is.”
The sound of tittering laughter spread through the room, followed by the ever growing whispers of conversation. Soon the whispers turned into a roar and Rose realized they had lost their spectators in the face of this delicious new scandal. Which was fine with her. Suddenly, she was ready for the whole night to be over.
When the Bow Street Runners stepped forward to take custody of Lord Shrewsbury, Simon was finally able to remove himself from his cousin. Grumbling to himself, Caleb was dragged away by the officials amid the pointing and whispers of his peers.
Lady Lancaster turned to Rose, Simon, and Dr. Orfila, and said, “Now then, Dr. Orfila…have you everything you need to complete your studies?”
Dr. Orfila looked down at the ring and glass in his hands. “Yes, my lady. I believe I will be able to get the answers you need very soon.” The doctor then looked at Rose and Simon and said, “You two are quite remarkable. Lady Lancaster filled me in on the details of your mission. I am very impressed with your powers of deduction. Very impressed, indeed.”
Rose blushed and Simon grinned.
Smiling, Lady Lancaster said, “I will see you out, doctor. Please contact us as soon as you have your results.”
“Certainly, certainly,” Rose heard Dr. Orfila reply as he and the duchess headed toward the nearest ballroom entrance.
Grabbing Rose’s hand, Simon lifted it to his mouth for a kiss. “We do seem to make an excellent team, love.”
Rose felt her knees turn to jelly. “Yes, we do,” she whispered.
“So, what happened!” a number of voices said in near unison, startling Rose, who was quickly becoming lost in Simon’s eyes.
Moving to stand beside Simon while still clinging warmly to his hand, Rose turned to face their friends. In addition to Rose’s girlfriends, Alexander and David had joined the group.
“And where have you two been?” Simon said in exasperation to Alex and David. “I really could have used your help earlier.”
“We stopped by White’s for a drink or two before heading over here,” Alexander replied quite readily. “How were we to know you were trying to catch the biggest villain in London tonight?”
“We didn’t just try,” Simon grumbled. “We did catch him.”
“So you did, my good man. Congratulations!” David said, slapping Simon on the back. “Now tell us all the gory details,” he added in a low voice, rubbing his hands together in a positively Machiavellian way—much like Sarah had earlier in the evening.
Rose and Simon complied readily.
When they were finished, Rose saw that her friends looked somewhat disappointed.
“Is that all that really happened?” Sarah said, clearly disillusioned by the truth.
As Rose was nodding her head, Simon was shaking his. “Rose didn’t tell you the best part.”
Rose looked at Simon, confused, and everyone else perked up.
Smiling cagily, Simon elaborated, “When Caleb was protesting the accusations, he actually suggested that the champagne was not poisoned…so Rose suggested he drink it to prove it.”
“My, my…our little Rose has thorns,” Alexander said approvingly.
Rose blushed. She had forgotten about that. Now that she thought about it, it was a rather brilliant move on her part.
“Nicely done, Rose,” David chimed in.
“So, what happens now?” Emily wondered.
“Dr. Orfila does his tests,” Simon answered. “Once we have proof of a poisoning we will present our evidence to the authorities. Then it will be up to them.”
“This may be unchristian of me,” Hope said brusquely, “but if any man deserves the gallows, it’s him.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Now, if you will all excuse us, I think I will escort Rose home. It has been a stressful night and I think we both could use some sleep.”
Rose smiled her thanks to Simon. She was rather tired. And how amazing was it that Simon could tell? She really was a lucky woman to have fallen in love with such a good and kind man.
Their friends murmured their understanding and said a quick good night, once again offering their congratulations. Then Simon took Rose by the arm and guided her through the ballroom and out into the main hall. When Simon asked the footman to order around his carriage, they learned that Lady Lancaster—anticipating their needs—had already done so.
I must remember to thank the duchess, Rose thought with a wide yawn, as Simon helped her inside the vehicle. She really is such a dear.
Then Simon leapt into the carriage after her and within moments they were on their way.
Chapter Twenty
Some things are just meant to do in private.
—The Duke of Lancaster
The trip back to Rose’s house was taking quite a bit longer than Simon had expected.
Apparently, after the excitement of seeing a somewhat respected—though generally disliked—earl being wrestled to the ground, the ton decided that not even the chance to rub elbows with Prince George could compete with the aforementioned spectacle and it was therefore time to retire for the night. As a result, it seemed that every carriage in London was attempting to leave Grosvenor Square at the same time.
With a large and rather contented sigh, Simon slid his arm around Rose and pulled her close, instantly deciding that being alone in a private carriage with the woman he loved was absolutely not the worst place he could be— quite the opposite, in fact.
…
Rose echoed Simon’s sigh with one of her own. She was utterly exhausted, but could imagine no place else she would rather be at that very moment than safe in Simon’s arms. She sent up a silent prayer of thanks to God for their success in thwarting Caleb’s attempt on William’s life. She didn’t know if she would have been able to live with herself if they had not been able to stop him and, as a result, would have had to watch one of her best friends lose the love of her life.
“Now Hannah and William can get married without a care in the world except each other,” Rose said aloud.
Simon snorted. “From what William told me the other day, I gather the wedding is more than stressful enough.”
Rose nodded. “That is the impression I have received from Hannah, as well.”
The two sat in companionable silence for a minute before Rose added wistfully, “What I wouldn’t give to avoid a big elaborate wedding.”
Simon straightened slightly. “But, just to be clear, you do want to get married, right?”
With a teasing little smile, Rose replied, “Is that your idea of a proposal, sir?”
When Simon didn’t respond immediately with an equally teasing rejoinder, Rose looked up at him curiously. She was surprised to see that he suddenly looked very serious and it was obvious that he was thinking awfully hard about something.
Rose immediately began to regret her joke.
She had been so careful not to pressure him into anything for which he wasn’t ready. More than anything, Rose wanted Simon to come to the decision to marry her more or less on his own—which even she could admit was
somewhat silly considering they were already betrothed—but it was the principle of the matter.
“Simon, I didn’t mean—” Rose started.
“Hush,” Simon said gruffly, reaching into his jacket pocket. “There has been something I have been meaning to ask you lately…”
Rose watched as Simon turned away from her for a moment and began fumbling with something. Holding her breath, she impatiently waited for Simon to finish his thought. Somewhere deep inside, she knew whatever he was going to say would change her life forever.
Then, finally, he turned around and, looking deep into her eyes, Simon held up a truly exquisite diamond ring and said, “Rose Warren, my love, will you—”
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!” Rose squealed.
…
Although inside Simon was fairly giddy with excitement at Rose’s enthusiastic response, he felt he couldn’t just let her interruption go without comment. “What if I was going to ask you to hold onto this ring for me until I was ready to make it official?” he said, raising an eyebrow archly.
Rose opened and closed her mouth a few times—looking rather like a fish out of water, in Simon’s opinion—before finally whispering, “But that wasn’t what you were going to ask me, was it?”
The beseeching look in her eyes was more than Simon could bear, so he dropped the charade. He took Rose’s left hand in his and whispered, “Only if you agree to ‘hold’ the ring on this finger right here…” And with that he slipped the sparkling jewel onto her ring finger, which he followed with a tender kiss on the knuckles.
Rose watched his movements with a sort of awed intensity and when the ring was finally in place she looked up at him from behind her spectacles with the biggest, most luminescent eyes. “Does this mean our engagement is official now?”
Simon chuckled. “Yes, love, it is very, very official.”
“Oh good.” Rose smiled, looking back down at her hand, then lifting it up to watch how the round cut diamond twinkled and glittered in the dim light.
“You do realize that this means there is now a wedding in your future—your very near future,” Simon remarked.
Romancing His English Rose (Entangled Scandalous) Page 16