A Good Rake is Hard to Find

by Manda Collins

  It was something that had never occurred to her, and she was suddenly glad that Frederick was investigating this situation with her. “What did he say?”

  “Jonathan did stay here that night,” Frederick said, the frown lines around his mouth pronounced as he spoke.

  “And his things?” Leonora asked, trying not to think about what her brother’s last moments had been like. Here, in the home of a man who had planned his demise.

  Far from the father and sister who loved him.

  “They are here,” Frederick said with a sigh. “Or they were. Gerard said that he’d had them boxed up and put in the attics, but the footman he sent to retrieve them couldn’t find them. I thought perhaps you and I could look for them later.”

  She wanted to go look for them that very minute, but Leonora knew that if either of them didn’t show up downstairs at the appointed time for the trip to the folly, Sir Gerard and Lady Melisande would remark upon it.

  As if reading her thoughts, Frederick touched her cheek and said, “We’ll go as soon as we can after dinner tonight, I promise you.”

  Nodding, she went in search of her hat and pelisse and they made their way downstairs to the drawing room.

  If the good cheer she’d felt after last night’s festivities had dissipated in the wake of recalling their true reason for journeying here, that was all right. Perhaps she’d needed to recall that their engagement was just an illusion created for the sake of the hunt.

  Twenty

  “I couldn’t help but notice that you and your young man disappeared last night during the game,” Lady Darleigh said to Leonora as they walked behind the others along the winding path leading through the landscaped gardens of South Haven.

  Leonora had thought she would escape the walk without any reference to the evening before. After all, the game had clearly been chosen because it offered the opportunity for couples to find a quiet corner in which to euphemistically spend time together. Lady Darleigh, it would seem, either hadn’t known, or was simply too curious to stop herself.

  “We got trapped in a closet on the upper floors,” Leonora lied with ease born of years spent deflecting the snide remarks of society gossips. “By the time we managed to get the door open, everyone else was gone and we decided to go to bed.”

  “I meant nothing by it,” Lady Darleigh said with a dark blush. “I only meant that you missed the to-do when Lady Melisande shouted at Sir Gerard. It was quite a scene, I can assure you.”

  Despite her dislike of gossip in general, Leonora found her curiosity piqued. “What happened?” she asked, careful not to walk too quickly lest they move into earshot of the others.

  “Sir Gerard went to look for a hiding place with Mrs. Chater,” Lady Darleigh said in a low voice. “I hadn’t realized he had any interest in her. She’s such a mousy little thing.”

  Astonished, Leonora could not disagree.

  “I think perhaps they’d come to some sort of understanding about things, because when Lady Melisande found him with Mrs. Chater in the study, she accused him of going against their agreement. It was quite a loud altercation. I’m rather surprised you didn’t hear them shouting. I know the rest of us all came running as soon as she shrieked.”

  Leonora didn’t bother offering up an excuse for why she and Freddy—supposedly trapped in a closet—hadn’t been able to hear the contretemps. “I must say, I’m rather shocked that her reaction was so strong,” she admitted. “I find Lady Melisande to be rather cold, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” Lady Darleigh said quickly. “That is why I was so surprised at her strong response. I supposed she was indifferent to her husband at best. But apparently, she cares about his affair with Mrs. Chater. Either that or she’s angry because he went back on his word. Whatever that promise might have been about.”

  “Perhaps he said he would not see Mrs. Chater during this particular party,” Leonora said, pulling her pelisse more tightly around her. It was chilly out today, just as Lady Melisande had said it was. And she was grateful she’d changed into the wool for she’d have spent the entire walk miserable otherwise.

  “Perhaps,” Lady Darleigh agreed. “But there seemed to be more to it than that. It felt like the ending of something. I don’t know, though. One never really knows what goes on within the privacy of a marriage.”

  Speaking of marriages, Leonora thought. “I wonder about that issue you mentioned to me before—your fears concerning what Sir Gerard might do to your husband if he leaves,” she said to the other woman. “Has that changed at all, or are you still worried?”

  Lady Darleigh paused a moment before responding. “I did think that it was getting better,” she admitted, brushing at a lock of hair that had worked its way out of her chignon. “But that was before we made this trip.”

  Before Leonora could reply, Lady Darleigh continued, “You know that as the crow flies, Sir Gerard’s estate isn’t far from the stretch of road where your brother was found.”

  Leonora gasped at the other woman’s words. It hadn’t occurred to her the place where her brother had been murdered was in the vicinity.

  But if the racers had departed from South Haven, then it made sense. “I didn’t know,” she said, her voice calmer than she felt. “If you’ll forgive, me, I thought the Anarchists were meant to travel from London to Dartford when they drove as a club.”

  Lady Darleigh shook her head. “London to Dartford is only for the monthly processions involving the whole club. These smaller races, which are only open to those of Sir Gerard’s choosing, take the route from Basildon to Dartford.”

  Yet another circle within a circle for Gerard, Leonora thought, biting her lip. It was becoming difficult to tell the difference between the club for regular members and those aspects of the club Sir Gerard showed only to a special few.

  “I’m afraid I didn’t tell you the whole truth when we spoke about that day before.” Lady Darleigh tucked a strand of her windblown hair behind her ear. “I was afraid, you see. That you would refuse to help us if you knew the truth of the matter.”

  She might have known it was only a partial truth, Leonora thought with frustration. It seemed that no one involved with the club—not even the wives—was capable of telling the honest truth. Still she could hardly rip up at the other woman when she was prepared to speak now.

  “I hadn’t realized,” Leonora said in what she hoped was a neutral tone. “I hope you’ll tell me now.”

  “I was here,” Lady Darleigh admitted. “The day of the race. A few of the club members—including your brother—Sir Gerard and Lady Melisande and my husband and me all stayed here at South Haven the night before the race.”

  Not unlike the house party now, Leonora thought with a frown. With the exception that her brother wasn’t here. But perhaps Freddy’s presence made up for that in Sir Gerard’s eyes?

  “I thought my husband was going to be the one to race against Lord Payne that day,” Lady Darleigh continued, “but Darleigh spoke with your brother that morning, and suddenly it was Jonathan who was competing against Sir Gerard. I can’t deny that I felt a certain measure of relief at the knowledge.”

  Thinking of her brother and his propensity for rescuing those in need, Leonora had no difficulty believing that he had convinced Lord Darleigh to trade places. Jonny was one of the best drivers in England, and so too was Gerard. It would have been a much fairer competition than the earlier matchup would have been, since Darleigh, while competent, was no match for Payne.

  “I know my brother changed places with your husband because he and Payne were more evenly matched,” she said aloud, “but why then did Lord Payne trade places with Sir Gerard?”

  “No one knows for sure,” Lady Darleigh said in a low voice, “but Lady Payne confided to me that she learned from her husband that Sir Gerard had wished to race your brother for some time, but your brother always refused. In this case, because he was driving in my husband’s stead, he could not cry off.”

  A chill raced down Leonor
a’s spine. It was almost as if Gerard had seen his opportunity to get Jonathan alone on a deserted stretch of the road, and went in for the kill. Closing her eyes against the image of her brother dead on the roadside, she took a deep breath.

  Lady Darleigh was watching her closely, worry in her eyes. “I cannot tell you how sorry I am for what’s happened.”

  “I cannot blame you,” Leonora said, placing a hand on the other lady’s shoulder as they continued to walk several yards behind the rest of the party. “You cannot have known what the outcome would be.”

  “Certainly not,” Lady Darleigh said sadly. “And when I learned what happened, I was guilt-ridden. I hope you know, Miss Craven, that my husband had no idea that the race would have an outcome like that. Your brother took his place purely by chance. If we’d known…”

  “It’s all right,” Leonora assured the other woman. “You can hardly be blamed for not foretelling the future. But I wonder if you noticed anything untoward that day? Or perhaps your husband did?”

  “It seemed unremarkable enough,” Lady Darleigh said, trudging along the path beside Leonora. “We were waiting at the Black Dog in Dartford for them to finish. I didn’t know anything was wrong until Sir Gerard came riding up in a cloud of dust calling for a physician.”

  “He was alone?” Leonora asked, frowning. For some reason, it seemed odd that the baronet would not stay with her brother, though she supposed it was necessary that someone go in search of a surgeon.

  “Yes,” Lady Darleigh said, shaking her head. “He was as calm as you please. He said there had been a terrible accident. If it had been me, I’d have been trembling from head to toe, but Sir Gerard kept a cool head.”

  Perhaps too cool, Leonora thought grimly.

  “I didn’t know at that point that your brother had taken my husband’s place, or that Sir Gerard was riding for Lord Payne,” Lady Darleigh explained, shuddering at the memory. “My first thought on seeing Sir Gerard shouting for a physician was that my Robert had been killed. I was beside myself with worry, but finally Lady Melisande managed to get through to me that it had been Jonathan driving and not Robert. I’m so sorry to admit such a thing to you. But if you knew how much I rely upon my husband.”

  “Please don’t apologize,” Leonora assured her. She could imagine herself in the same position and knew she’d have been frantic with worry. It wasn’t Lady Darleigh’s fault that her husband had switched places without her knowing it. “I don’t blame you one bit.”

  “Thank you, Miss Craven,” the other woman said with genuine appreciation. “The thing is, my poor husband was devastated at what happened to Mr. Craven. I don’t think he knew what was going to happen, either. And I know he was terribly upset about it. That’s what made me wonder if he knew that your brother’s accident was intended for him.”

  Something occurred to Leonora. “Lady Darleigh, if your husband wasn’t with you, and he wasn’t driving the race against Sir Gerard, then where was he that day?”

  The other woman started, as if the question had never crossed her mind.

  “I … I’m not entirely sure,” she said with a frown. “He wasn’t with me and Lady Melisande at the Black Dog. I suppose I thought he’d just driven back to South Haven when he learned he wasn’t going to race.”

  Hmm. It was a puzzle. Because Leonora wasn’t entirely sure that Lord Darleigh was innocent in the matter. A man would do a great deal to protect his own life and that of his wife. A great deal that he might otherwise find unconscionable.

  Aloud, however she reassured Lady Darleigh. “I wish you wouldn’t trouble yourself so,” she said. “Your husband is safe and that’s all there is to it. I know my brother would say as much.”

  “But that’s just it,” Lady Darleigh said in an undertone. “My husband examined his own carriage later that day before we drove back to London, and he found something that made him think that perhaps despite your brother taking his place, he was still someone’s target.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My husband’s groom found that one of his traces had been cut,” Lady Darleigh said in little more than a whisper. “They discovered it before we departed for London, thank goodness, else we’d have risked our own necks. But he did wonder if it had been done as some sort of payback. For trading places with Jonathan.”

  Leonora was quiet. What a tangled mess this affair was.

  “Robert never goes anywhere without examining every bit of his leather and checking the vehicle for soundness, as well,” Lady Darleigh said in a low voice. “And I rather think he blames Lord Payne for what happened. He believes Lord Payne thinks him a coward for agreeing to switch with your brother in the first place.”

  Since Lord Payne’s whereabouts during the race had been, like Darleigh’s, unknown, it was not impossible that the two men had been together.

  Working on behalf of Sir Gerard? There was no way of knowing without speaking to the men herself.

  By this time they’d caught up with the others, who were nearing the crest of the hill where a pretty Grecian folly had been built by South Haven’s previous owners. The façade looked to be stone, but upon closer inspection, it was revealed to be painted wood. The floor of the enclosure proved to be real marble, however, and as she climbed the steps and walked between the Doric columns, Leonora felt as if she were walking into an adult version of a children’s playhouse.

  “You looked to be deep in conversation with Lady Darleigh,” Frederick said as he stepped up beside her, taking her arm in his.

  “Later,” she said in a low voice as they ventured into the small edifice and then out the other side into the pretty garden that lay between the folly and the wood. “I wonder that your cousin has kept this place up. It doesn’t seem like the sort of thing a sportsman would find interesting.”

  “I suspect,” Freddy said with a wry smile, “my cousin feels that a gentleman of property is required to have a folly on his estate. He once said as much when we were boys, playing in the folly at my father’s country estate. Gerard has some very stringent ideas of what it takes to be a gentleman, and most of them have little to do with conduct and everything to do with possessions.”

  “Like the shelves of books in his library that remain uncut and never read,” Leonora said with a moue of distaste. “It goes against my own code to let books go untouched. Especially when they were obviously chosen for the color of binding rather than the content within them.”

  “Exactly,” Freddy said, taking her elbow as she took a seat on a stone bench. “It is about appearances. And perhaps on some level proving a point to those he sees as looking down on him.”

  “He’s certainly not destitute,” Leonora said. “He is the nephew of a duke and appears to have as much money as he could wish—no matter how he might have acquired it.”

  “It might interest you to know that this folly looks a great deal like the one at Lisle House.” Freddy dropped down beside her, picking up a blade of grass and splitting it in two.

  But Leonora was not distracted by the grass.

  “How is it possible that his folly is so like your father’s?” she demanded.

  “An unusual coincidence?” He shrugged. “I was rather less polite when I saw it from the road yesterday.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, remembering he’d seemed fine when they arrived at South Haven’s entrance.

  “I didn’t really want to talk about it,” he said. “Gerard has been jealous of my father from the time he and his mother first came to live in Lisle House. I think he was bitter because my father was a duke, but his father wasn’t.”

  Leonora’s eyes widened. It hadn’t occurred to her that Sir Gerard and Lady Melisande were trying to compete with anyone in particular. “Just like this one?” she asked, looking back at the folly.

  “This is perhaps grander,” he said ruefully. “My grandfather built the one at Lisle House. My father has always hated it, though as children we had great fun there. I suppose Gerard re
calls only that the Duke of Lisle possessed a folly so he decided that he should have one, too.”

  “Curious,” she said, rising to look closer at a statue of a stone cherub. “His mother is your father’s sister, then?”

  Freddy nodded. “I suppose he’s felt the sting of being a mere baronet when he himself is the grandson of a duke. It’s not something I’ve ever refined upon. I certainly don’t envy my eldest brother his position as the heir. I’d find my life constricted in any number of ways that I don’t now need to worry about.”

  “Like being forced to marry a wealthy titled lady?” she asked, suddenly realizing that if he were the eldest he’d never have given her a second glance. Or if he had, they’d be discussing an arrangement far less respectable than the one they had.

  “Like that,” he said, kissing her head. “But mostly being at the beck and call of any number of poor relations or petitioners who see you as the means to an end. My father has spent most of his adult life responding to various queries from aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, tenants, villagers, and the like. I’m a selfish fellow. I like being able to come and go as I please, without having to see to the needs of a dozen other people before my own.”

  His meaning was clear.

  He didn’t wish to be tied down.

  She almost laughed it was so ludicrous. Had she really been protecting him from a childless marriage? From the way he spoke now, he disliked the idea of anyone under his protection.

  She might have been relieved at his obvious reluctance for children, if only she didn’t desperately want them. Yesterday when things had been going so well between them, she’d even allowed herself to imagine that they could find some poor child without parents to adopt as their own.

  But clearly that was just a fantasy.

  She disentangled herself from him suddenly and walked briskly toward the little pond at the center of the folly’s garden. Busying herself with removing a tangle of vines from the plaque there, she heard him approach without turning to greet him.

  “I didn’t mean you, Leonora,” he said quietly from behind her. “I was talking about the myriad of people who place demands on the ducal estate. I would rather not feel that kind of responsibility. That’s all I meant.”