Stiffly Conroy said, “I thought we had agreed that I have nothing to gain from Her Majesty’s death.”
Justin said, “Not from her death, perhaps, but what if you had been the one to save her tonight, Conroy? What then?”
“That’s not what happened, though, is it?” Nonetheless, the deep flush on Sir John’s face, and the way he gulped the rest of his whisky told everyone there that Raventhorpe had struck a nerve.
“By heaven,” Raventhorpe said, “did you honestly think such a plot could prosper?”
“No!” Conroy turned on him, his face filled with fury. “I would never have placed Her Majesty in danger. I love her like my own daughter. Oh, don’t sneer. I don’t deny that I repeated your words to Morden. Nor will I conceal that he suggested such a plan might work to my benefit, but I refused to hear of it.”
“I would like to believe that,” Jervaulx said.
“Of course you may believe it,” Conroy exclaimed. “Only think what a stir the newspapers will make of tonight’s event! Some lunatic, angry with the government or with something—anything—that she might chance to say, might now decide to try where others failed. We must take every care of her!”
Admiral Rame said, “We will, sir. You can depend upon that.”
Conroy sighed. “Just the thought of planting such a seed in a madman’s mind was more than I dared risk. I told Morden so at the time. Please, believe me.”
Unable to remain silent for another minute, Letty said, “Charles Morden comes from Hanover, does he not, Sir John?”
“Why, yes,” Conroy said. “Though how you guessed that, I do not know. His English is excellent, though I suppose he does have a bit of an accent yet.”
“One presumes that he supplied you with references,” Justin said.
“Certainly he did. The queen’s own uncle vouched for him.” When the others exchanged glances, he said in dismay, “Surely, you don’t suspect the King of Hanover of plotting against—Good God, of course. He would inherit the throne!”
Sardonically, Justin said, “You have used men as pawns for years, Conroy. How does it feel to learn that you’ve become the pawn of someone else?”
What Sir John might have responded to that, they did not discover, for Wellington entered at just that moment, and Letty said, “What news, sir?”
“Her Majesty is suffering from great distress, as you might imagine,” the duke said. Then, with a slight smile, he added, “I believe we may all live to be grateful that Melbourne is still in power. Only consider the consequences if it were Peel in there now, trying to soothe her. No doubt the Tories would figure as the would-be assassins. As it is, Melbourne quite understands the necessity of keeping this as quiet as possible. He promises to put about some story or other to stifle the scandal. The only promise I made in return was to see that you cease to be a nuisance to Her Majesty, Conroy. I suggest that you leave the palace at once.”
Conroy set down his glass, looking as if he meant to obey instantly.
Jervaulx said, “One moment, Conroy.”
Conroy looked at him. A muscle in his cheek twitched, but he kept silent.
“I think you would do well to consider leaving England” the marquess said, as if he were merely thinking aloud. “If you do not, it is possible that tonight’s events may soon come back to haunt you. Certain other details we’ve heard tonight about your recent career, if made public, would ruin you, I believe. In fact, I think I can promise that they would. Do you understand me?”
Conroy looked from Jervaulx’s expressionless face to Justin’s grim one. “I do, damn you all. I’ll give it some thought.” With that, he left the room.
“What was that all about?” Wellington demanded.
“I’ll tell you later,” Jervaulx said. With a meaningful glance at his daughter, he added, “Just as soon as I have a clearer understanding of it all myself.”
“Why did you want Sir John to leave England?” Letty asked.
Jervaulx looked from Rame to Justin. “Just a little Tory plot, I’m afraid.”
The admiral’s eyebrows shot upward, but Justin chuckled. “I collect that you refer to the problem of the bedchamber ladies, sir.”
“You are quick,” Jervaulx said. “It did occur to me that Peel will continue to demand that the queen make significant changes, and Melbourne’s government is too weak to object. If we can offer Her Majesty Conroy’s departure in return for her dismissal of Tavistock and Sutherland, I think we can prevail without an upheaval.”
“Excellent notion,” the duke said approvingly.
Rame nodded. “It will certainly make government of any sort easier. As things stand now, no one has enough of a majority to get anything done. That will continue to be the case until something occurs to draw the Whig factions together or the Tories win an election. With some give and take on both sides, however, perhaps we can all muddle through.”
“I’m glad you approve, Admiral. Shall we go now? I want to have a little chat with my beloved daughter.”
Letty sighed but arose obediently.
Justin said, “With your permission, sir, can that little chat wait? I doubt that anyone will object to our leaving the palace now, and we have a rather urgent reason to go to Upper Brook Street. We left things there in rather a chaotic state.”
“Surely you can deal with that, young man,” Jervaulx said. “As I understand it, Letitia’s tenants are your relatives.”
“But it’s my house, Papa,” Letty said. “I must go.”
“As to that,” the admiral said, “perhaps I can—”
“No, she’s quite right,” Jervaulx said. “Moreover, we can have that chat in the carriage on the way.”
“I’m coming with you,” Justin said.
Jervaulx’s eyebrows shot upward. “The devil you are.”
Justin said, “It’s the best way, sir, believe me. I’ve got my carriage here, but we should go at once, and my mother will want to be there, as well as Lady Jervaulx, I’m sure. My man is here at the palace, and he can collect the pair of them.” With a grimace, he added, “He will need to fetch Witherspoon, as well.”
Wellington said, “Why the devil—”
Jervaulx looked stunned. “Raventhorpe, I have deduced that you feel some sort of need to protect my daughter—”
“On the contrary, sir, I have frequently wanted to beat her.”
“Then you know her even better than I thought. Nonetheless that does not excuse this mad desire of yours to assemble a party in Upper Brook Street.”
“Papa, it is not—”
“Let me do the explaining, Letty,” Justin said gently.
She looked at him, saw warmth and understanding in his eyes, and knew that this time he was not issuing an ultimatum. She waited a beat to be sure, but he held her gaze, and his expression did not change. “Perhaps you’d better,” she said.
Jervaulx’s eyes narrowed. He waited patiently for Justin to explain.
Glancing at the admiral, who seemed rooted where he stood, Justin sighed and said, “I am trusting you to keep this quiet, sir. My lord, Lady Witherspoon is at the house. Charles Morden may have murdered her.”
“Murdered her!” Jervaulx, Wellington, and Rame said as one.
“We don’t know yet if she will survive, but in any event, we must protect the reputations of your daughter and my great-aunts, not to mention Lady Catherine’s. We must hurry, so I’ll explain on the way, but if you will just write a note to the marchioness, I’ll write to my mother and Witherspoon. Then Leyton can—”
“There is no need for you to trouble your man with those tasks,” Admiral Rame said in a tone that reminded them all he, too, was a man accustomed to command. “I’ll undertake to collect Lady Jervaulx, Lady Sellafield, and Witherspoon and deliver them to Upper Brook Street. I’ll need a moment more to arrange for someone to see my wife home, but then I am quite at your disposal.”
“Really, sir,” Justin protested. “I cannot impose on your good—”
; “It is no imposition, I assure you. I have a stake in this, too, after all.” With that, he strode off, leaving them to stare at each other in bewilderment.
“I haven’t the faintest notion what he’s talking about,” Letty said. “Do you?”
“None,” Justin said.
Wellington said, “Sound man, Rame is. Wouldn’t expect him to push himself in where he has no real interest. Won’t, myself. I will leave you to deal with this, Gideon. You may call upon me at Apsley House tomorrow.”
“I’ll do that, sir,” Jervaulx said, “but I begin to think that I am a mere onlooker in this myself. Come along, you two,” he added as the duke strode from the room. “The sooner we get this business sorted out, the better it will be for all of us. I still have a few things to say to you, Letty.”
Bracing herself, Letty looked at Justin.
“Don’t expect any help from me,” he said. “You know what I think.”
“Well, at least you didn’t try to leave me behind tonight,” she retorted.
He smiled, taking her hand and drawing it into the crook of his arm. “I was hoping you’d noticed that,” he said. “I daresay you cannot convict me of trying to control everything that happened here tonight, either, my girl.”
TWENTY-TWO
LETTY ENTERED THE CARRIAGE first, but to her surprise, Justin followed, and when she would have sat in her usual place, he caught her arm and pulled her toward the forward seat, leaving the rear seat for the marquess alone. If Jervaulx disapproved of his daughter sitting beside the viscount instead of beside him, he said nothing.
By the time they reached the house in Upper Brook Street, Letty and Justin had put the marquess in possession of most of the facts. Letty knew her father was unhappy with her, but he did not seem as disappointed in her as she had feared he would be. He said little, in fact, other than to ask one or two pertinent questions.
At one point, he said “It seems rather ingenuous of your tenants to pretend that they were unaware of their servants’ activities, don’t you think?”
“No, sir,” she replied. “You won’t think so, either, when you meet them. It never entered their heads that the maids or Liza, certainly, would take their generous attitude toward their so-called patrons as tacit approval of the activities in which those patrons engaged.”
“Moreover, sir,” Justin put in, “since the maids only recently began to accept clients, I would not be amazed to learn that Morden put them up to it.”
“To what purpose?” Letty demanded.
“Hoping to put you in fear of criminal charges being laid against you, thus giving him the whip hand,” Justin said. “I daresay, even though he ought to have seen what a stubborn chit you are, he hoped to force you to do his bidding.”
Letty knew he called her a stubborn chit only because he was trying to keep her mind off what lay ahead. She made a face at him.
“That makes sense,” Jervaulx said. “He wanted a scapegoat, did he?”
“Yes, sir,” Justin said, “and he seems to have used the queen’s preference for Whigs as a means of concealing his true purpose throughout. It is possible, you know, that at one point or other he had planned to get your daughter to give the parcel to Victoria. If they could have blamed the Tories for Victoria’s death, it really would have put the cat amongst the pigeons.”
They drew up before the Upper Brook Street house a few minutes later, and Jackson opened the door as they were hurrying through the front courtyard. “Good news, my lady,” he said to Letty. “Lady Witherspoon has regained her senses twice more, and the doctor says she may very well live, after all.”
“Oh, thank God,” Letty exclaimed. “I’ll go straight up to her.”
“There is no need for that, my dear,” Miss Abby said from the doorway into the stair hall. “She is sleeping quite naturally now, and the doctor says we must let her get her rest. I don’t believe I know this gentleman,” she added gently.
Begging her pardon, Letty introduced Jervaulx.
Miss Abby’s eyes widened. “H-how do you do, my lord? Has dearest Letty told you …? Yes, I can see that she has told you everything.” Her countenance crumpled. “I daresay all our happiness has come to an end. Miranda will be so dreadfully vexed.”
“Don’t be cast down, Miss Abby,” Letty said. “I have an idea that may answer the purpose for everyone. Let us go straight up to Mrs. Linford before I tell you about it, though.”
Miss Abby looked unconvinced, but collecting herself, she said, “Then you had better order refreshments for everyone, Jackson.”
They found Mrs. Linford with Liza in the drawing room. Liza looked much her usual self, Letty thought, although at the sight of them, she had colored up to the roots of her hair.
Mrs. Linford murmured something to her, and she got to her feet and bobbed an awkward curtsy. “Is Justin going to play the pianoforte?” she asked.
“Not tonight,” he said. “Isn’t it time you were in bed?”
“I told her she could stay up,” Mrs. Linford said. “The events of this evening have distressed her, as one can well imagine they might.”
“Still, Aunt Miranda, I do think—”
She cut him off, saying, “Where have your manners gone begging, Justin? This gentleman looks vaguely familiar, and I imagine I know who he must be, but nonetheless …” She paused expectantly.
“This is Jervaulx, ma’am, Letty’s papa.”
Jervaulx nodded.
Mrs. Linford said, “I expect Abigail has given you our good news. We had a little mishap here earlier this evening, my lord.”
“He knows all about it,” Justin told her. “He knows everything.”
“Everything? Oh, dear.”
“Yes, precisely,” he said. “The game is up, ma’am.”
Looking dismayed, Mrs. Linford seemed to slump a little in her chair.
Letty said sharply, “Don’t talk to her like that, sir. Everything will be fine, ma’am, I promise you. I have an idea that I think you will approve.”
“Oh, my dear, if only—” She broke off when sounds of new arrivals wafted to their ears from the stair hall. “Who can that be, at this hour?”
Glancing at Justin and at Jervaulx, neither of whom offered to reply, Letty said, “I believe it must be my mother, ma’am, and Lady Sellafield, with Lord Witherspoon and Admiral Rame.”
“Merciful heavens,” Mrs. Linford said, turning pale.
“Papa!” exclaimed Liza. She jumped to her feet and ran toward the door, startling the marmalade cat, which had curled up on a pillow near the doorway. The cat darted through the doorway ahead of her, and a masculine oath sounded afterward, followed by a gurgle of laughter that Letty recognized as her mother’s.
“Well, that was not one’s usual ball, I must say,” Daintry said as she entered the room. She looked at her husband. “First an explosion, then an arrest, and then you and Wellington disappeared with my daughter. Then, out of the blue, this very kind gentleman arrives to tell me that my husband desires him to deliver me and two strangers to him like a parcel. You have some explaining to do, sir.”
Behind her, Admiral Rame entered with Liza clinging to his arm. “I tried to explain what I could, Jervaulx, but I hesitated to say very much, you know, not knowing exactly what you wished me to make known to Witherspoon.”
Letty scarcely heard what he said. She was staring at the admiral and Liza. “Did I hear her call you ‘Papa,’ sir?”
“Yes,” he said, putting his arm around the girl. “I guess you had not yet learned all of the secrets of your house, Lady Letitia. Liza is the result of a liaison I had with my housekeeper when I was a carefree bachelor, long before I married my darling wife. When her mother died suddenly, I was still in a position where I thought it necessary to keep her existence a secret. The dear ladies here were kind enough to take her in and treat her as befitted my daughter, which led at times to some confusion on her part, I fear. I have long meant to tell my wife about her, however, and I believe the time has co
me, don’t you?”
Witherspoon brushed past him. “What’s the meaning of all this? Who the devil are you, sir,” he said to Jervaulx, “and where is my wife? The admiral said I would find her here, but I do not understand how that can be the case.”
Lady Sellafield, who Letty suspected had come upstairs with Witherspoon, hesitated in the doorway, looking uncertainly at her son. He smiled reassuringly at her, then turned to Letty.
“No more secrets,” he said.
“No,” she said. “I think you had better handle this part. Then I’ll tell everyone what I think we should do next.”
He nodded, then turned back to his mother, saying baldly, “Ma’am, I think you should know that Catherine Witherspoon was nearly murdered here tonight.”
Lady Sellafield gasped and clutched a hand to her breast.
Witherspoon exclaimed, “What are you saying? Catherine? Impossible! She was in bed when I left the house. She has been feeling poorly for two days!”
“She told you that only so she could get out tonight to meet her lover,” Raventhorpe said. “If I seem brutal, sir, perhaps you will agree that you deserve no less. I mean to tell you exactly what transpired here, so that you can help us put the best face on it for public consumption. I do not care to have my family dragged through scandal, and I daresay you don’t want that, either.”
“Good heavens,” Witherspoon said, clearly very much shocked. “Did you say Catherine has taken a lover?”
“She has been meeting him here, just as you have been meeting my mother,” Raventhorpe said.
Witherspoon looked at Rame, then at Jervaulx. “I say, Raventhorpe, I can understand your resentment, but need we air this all before such an audience?”
Letty nearly spoke, but catching Justin’s eye, she subsided.
He said, “This house belongs to Lady Letitia, sir, and therefore, whether she likes it or not, her father and mother have a right to know what has gone on here. As for the admiral, I daresay there is little about this house that he does not know.”
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