“You think I need protection?” she asked, a small bubble of joy bursting in her stomach.
“Franco plans to contact you in the next few days,” he replied, his expression bland. “Wiggins may be able to find where the man lives by keeping close to you.”
She merely nodded. Of course, what had she been thinking? Devlyn was concerned for her well-being?
“What should I tell Franco? I have to protect Cecily’s son.”
“Tell him you will pay him and have already picked out the jewelry you will give him. I do not believe he will let you choose the location of your meeting. Wiggins or I will follow you whenever you leave the house.”
“And when I meet with him you will trap him,” she said. “You will hand him over to the magistrate?”
“If I do so, he will ruin Lady Pickerel and her son,” Devlyn replied, reminding her of the reason she was being blackmailed.
She shook her head to clear it. Their recent lovemaking had robbed her of all rational thought. “Do you believe the man will go away and leave me alone once I pay him?”
“Franco may not contact you for a short while, but I believe he will always be a threat to Lady Pickerel and her son.”
“What can we do?” Anna realized she had said ‘we’ although there was certainly no good reason Devlyn should help either her or Cecily.
“I will think of something. Try not to worry for the moment. Wiggins has taken up his post in your back garden.”
“May I meet this Wiggins? It would be nice to be able to recognize him as an ally.”
Devlyn rose from his chair and moved to the French doors. He disappeared through the doors and returned in a moment, a tall handsome man beside him.
Devlyn made the introductions. “Lady Stafford, my valet, Wiggins.”
The man bowed. “My lady.”
She acknowledged him with a smile. “It is a great pleasure to meet you. Thank you for your services.”
“I will do my utmost to ensure your safety,” Wiggins replied in cultured tones. The man bowed again before making his way back out the terrace doors.
“Your valet has impeccable manners.”
“He is a paradox, is Wiggins. Any messages you have for me can be sent through my valet.”
The finality of his words pierced her. He didn’t want her to contact him directly.
“Devlyn, what’s wrong?” A moment ago they’d shared ecstasy and now he treated her as if she were a stranger.
“Franco must be dealt with and the child protected. Any further intimacy between us serves no purpose. You are intent on a passionless marriage. You should resume your search for a husband to give you children.” He turned from her, walked to the terrace doors and was gone.
She sat for what seemed like ages although the clock on the mantle showed only a few minutes had passed. Devlyn had done the right thing, the honorable thing. In all honesty he had behaved far more nobly than she. After their first tryst he’d given her every opportunity to refuse him. Lord knows tonight she’d all but thrown herself at him. What must he think of her?
“Devlyn…” His name came out almost a sob. She’d been using him. There could be no future for them even if he’d wanted it. As for herself, what did she want?
The image of a family came to mind. The unknown father of her future children now had a face.
* * * * *
Devlyn moved undetected through the mews behind the Stafford mansion and found his carriage waiting on the corner of Oxford Street. The cool night air helped erase the memory of lying warm and cocooned next to Anna.
He spied Wiggins in the shadows. The man saluted him and made his way back to the garden of Stafford House. Anna would be protected. Despite his assertions otherwise, the reason he’d posted Wiggins at the house was indeed to keep her safe.
His driver turned on his seat but remained silent as his employer entered the coach. Devlyn tapped the ceiling with his cane and the carriage rolled forward, taking him away from Anna.
“I love her,” he said aloud, still shocked at the realization.
His first thought had been he merely felt concern for her safety. He’d helped women in distress before and never been moved to such emotion. Lust he knew. Romantic love had been a stranger to him. Having seen the love between his parents he was open to the idea of its existence, he’d just never expected it to find him.
His father had told him once he would know what love was when he felt it. Love had been a bolt out of the blue for his father and the same had happened to Devlyn. The feelings he had for Anna were strong and unmistakable.
He tapped the ceiling again and the carriage came to a halt.
“I will walk from here,” he said to the driver after he alighted from the coach. They were now only a short distance from The Grange. He needed exercise, a distraction from his thoughts. “Go along.”
His brother’s carriage rolled away into the night. Although it was well past midnight, Devlyn wasn’t worried about his safety. His cane, constructed of solid rosewood, would be a formidable weapon. He knew how to defend himself. Although it was virtually unheard of to see a footpad in Mayfair, right now he would welcome the diversion.
His feelings for Anna forced him to consider other feelings he’d put aside three years ago. The news he would be unable to father a child had been a shock. He’d never given his future much consideration. Growing up as a Maitlin had been a privileged existence.
He knew Cameron had married merely to bring a woman into the family for their mother. The dowager had been ecstatic to learn Millicent was expecting. Now it appeared neither son would provide their mother with a grandchild.
The sound of a woman’s screams met his ears as he climbed up the short flight of stairs in front of The Grange. He sprinted up the last two steps to fling the door of the townhouse open. He briefly noted the butler was nowhere in sight. Several footmen rushed up the main staircase.
He shouldered his way past the servants and followed the sounds of distress to the second floor where the family rooms were located. The screams had turned into hysterical sobs. He recognized the sounds as coming from Millicent.
“It could have been me,” his sister-in-law repeated several times as he hurried to the end of the corridor where his mother stood with her arms around the younger woman.
The dowager wore a dressing gown. Millicent was still in full evening dress and held her hands over her face. His mother whispered soothing words to her daughter-in-law and with one arm still around Millicent began to lead the younger woman away from her bedchamber. As his mother passed him in the corridor she nodded toward the housekeeper, Mrs. Hopkins, who stood nearby.
He understood her gesture. His mother would see after Millicent and he would take care of the crisis.
“What the devil is going on here?” he asked the housekeeper.
“It’s Lady Cameron’s maid.” He had known the woman since he’d been a small child and he’d never seen any expression on her face other than a confident serenity. The housekeeper now looked pale and visibly distressed. “The girl is having a fit in Lady Cameron’s dressing room.”
The sound of a woman retching mixed with a calm male voice greeted him when he entered Millicent’s bedchamber. He followed the noise into a spacious dressing room. He found Millicent’s maid and the butler, Thomas, seated on the floor of the room. Jane was slumped against the butler’s side. Thomas held a wash bowl while the young woman vomited into it.
The butler briefly looked up at him, returned his attention to the maid next to him and continued his encouraging words.
“There’s a girl, Jane. You need to get it all up to make yourself feel better.”
Devlyn took in the scene before him and noted a small box on the floor in the corner of the room, brightly colored candy papers scattered nearby. Had the girl become sick from the candy?
The sound of retching was now replaced by moans from the maid as she continued to convulse.
“I need some milk,” t
he butler said, his voice calm.
The housekeeper must have overheard the appeal for she peeked in the room and forestalled Devlyn’s exit from the dressing room. “It’s coming.”
A housemaid soon appeared with the milk and quickly handed the glass of liquid to Devlyn. The girl looked scared and dashed away after she’d given the drink over.
Wordlessly, Thomas accepted the milk. The girl still convulsed violently. The butler placed the glass to her lips and poured as much of the liquid as he could down her throat. The maid sputtered and proceeded to retch again. When her body had stilled somewhat, he poured more of the milk into her mouth.
“That’s a good girl, Jane,” Thomas said to the maid. “You have to drink all of this, my dear. It will help.”
The maid was sick into the bowl again. Devlyn stood by, helpless.
“I need ash from the fireplace,” Thomas said, with a direct look at him. “Small, cold flakes of ash.”
Devlyn nodded. He understood the request. The man needed charcoal.
The housekeeper appeared with a doctor in tow not five minutes later as Devlyn placed a handful of flakes in the butler’s hand.
“What do you make of it?” the doctor asked Thomas.
“I’d say some type of poisoning, sir.”
The man nodded and knelt to take a closer look at the girl. She still shuddered violently but was visibly losing the strength to do so. The doctor helped Thomas get some of the ash into Jane’s mouth.
“Let’s get her off of the floor.” The doctor’s eyes moved to him and the man started, apparently not noticing the peer in the room before.
The doctor was an elderly man. Thomas looked hard put to figure out a way to stand what with Jane nearly in his lap. Devlyn leaned down and with little effort took the now limp girl in his arms. The maid had lost consciousness. Her chest rose and fell with her shallow breaths and he was relieved the young woman still lived.
“Her quarters?” the doctor asked the butler.
Thomas got to his feet and moved to the doorway of the dressing room. “Follow me.”
* * * * *
“Will she recover?” the dowager asked her son when he entered the parlor.
“Dr. Lyle isn’t sure.” Her offer of tea or brandy he met with a negative. “The girl hasn’t yet resumed consciousness. How is Millicent?”
“She’s asleep in the yellow bedchamber. The housekeeper gave her quite a potent tonic.” His mother shook her head. “Millicent is far more concerned about the maid making a mess of her dressing room than she is with the girl’s condition.”
He wasn’t surprised by the statement. His thoughts turned to the caramels he’d retrieved from Millicent’s dressing room. There had been no unusual odor about them. Without eating one he couldn’t be sure, but his guess was they were laced with arsenic. The maid’s symptoms were too severe to be a simple upset stomach.
His mother coughed. “Devlyn?”
“Pardon my wool-gathering, mother.”
“Millicent was meant to get sick, wasn’t she?”
He was surprised to hear his mother’s theory. “I believe so. Thomas told me a box of candy was delivered to the house this afternoon while Millicent was out for fashionable hour in the park. The maid obviously decided to taste one.”
“Poison?” his mother asked in horror.
“Possibly rats bane. There is no smell to the sweets and the girl does have similar symptoms to arsenic poisoning.”
“Will there be an inquiry?”
“I had a few words with Dr. Lyle. I told him the poisoning was an accident. The girl had mistaken a liquid the maids use for cleaning for something to drink.”
Although his eyelids started to droop and his head to nod, he had no desire to yet move from his comfortable chair. He sat with his mother in companionable silence until a brief knock came at the open door.
“Come,” he said. He shook himself.
Thomas entered the room and bowed.
“You may speak freely,” he said to the butler when the man hesitated upon seeing the dowager in the room.
“According to the footman who relieved me for supper, the package for Lady Cameron arrived during my meal and was sent straight up to the lady’s rooms. The only description of the delivery boy: small and none too clean.”
He sighed in frustration. “The boy could be any ruffian off the street.”
“No reputable sweet shop would use a street urchin as a delivery boy,” the dowager replied.
He looked at his mother and nodded. “The culprit gave a coin to a passing boy.”
The butler cleared his throat. “There are no distinguishing marks on the candy box. It could have come from any shop.”
“A note was enclosed?” he asked.
Thomas nodded and handed a small card to him.
“To Lady Millicent Cameron from an admirer.”
He said to Thomas, “Your actions this evening were heroic and we thank you. You most likely saved Jane’s life.”
“Yes, thank you, Thomas,” the dowager said. “Get some rest. I want you to take a half day.”
The butler nodded, bowed again and left the room.
“Do you have a suspect in mind?” his mother asked.
“Only one,” he replied. “As far as Franco knows, Millicent is the only person who knew the blackmailer’s real name. That knowledge has made her a target.”
“A lucky thing Thomas was here.”
“Very lucky,” he replied, a question in his voice. The man didn’t have the look of coming up through the servant class.
“He is a veteran of the war. The agency knows I prefer to give our returning men a job if possible. He served as a footman at one time and must have picked up some medical knowledge while fighting Napoleon. I preferred to hire from outside the house rather than create a rift by promoting one of the footmen.”
He knew his mother had a soft heart. In this case her hiring Thomas had been fortunate, although a bit unorthodox. If the maid had any chance of survival it would be due to the swift actions of their butler.
His mind turned to Anna. He realized she might also be in more danger than he first supposed.
“Mother, I want Lady Stafford to stay here for a few days and I don’t want to explain why.”
“I think the ‘why’ is obvious, my boy,” the dowager replied. “Lady Stafford is involved with the blackmailer?”
His mother’s tone of voice gave the impression she was disappointed. He rushed to defend Anna. “Lady Stafford is involved because she put her trust in the wrong person.”
He didn’t know if his mother would guess he had feelings for Anna or simply decide he was concerned about her welfare. Were they not both the same thing after all? Before he left the room he bent over to kiss her cheek. “Get some rest, mother. It is very late.”
* * * * *
“No.” Anna was dismayed to hear about the attempt on Millicent’s life, but she knew returning to The Grange with Devlyn was not an option. “I’m not leaving Stafford House.”
“It would set my mind at ease if you would join my household. Michael Bradley has shown us he will stop at nothing to protect his identity.”
She didn’t look at the man across from her, but down at the hands resting on her knees. Devlyn knew about her struggle with alcohol. Not only had he not left her home in disgust earlier that evening after her revelation, the man was willing to take her into his family’s home.
Not more than two hours ago they’d made love in this room. It seemed ages ago from where they were now. For her to decamp to The Grange would signal to the ton she had a close relationship with Devlyn and possibly put her plans to find a suitable husband in jeopardy.
“I’m glad your mother and sister-in-law are well. I hope the maid will recover. I will stay here. You’re not responsible for me.”
“I am,” he replied. “All of this trouble began with my brother’s wife. I am duty bound to ensure you come to no harm because of her actions.”
She thought about that for a moment. She should have known some of his protectiveness stemmed from honor. A tiny part of her stubbornly believed he wanted to protect her for another reason as well.
He said, “Wiggins is here to look after your welfare.”
Warmth seeped into her chest. Devlyn, despite his protestations to the contrary, must care a little bit about her well-being.
“I am satisfied that I will be well looked after.”
Devlyn sighed heavily and asked, “You won’t reconsider?”
“Why would Michael Bradley harm me? He expects to make a large sum of money from my jewelry.”
Devlyn nodded in what she saw as both agreement and defeat. “Let me know straight away when the man contacts you or if anything untoward occurs.”
“Goodnight, Devlyn.” She couldn’t suppress a yawn. Having sent Mary to bed before her earlier meeting with Devlyn, she’d fallen asleep on the chaise in the drawing room fully clothed. She smelled his scent on her gown. Devlyn needed to leave straight away before she embarrassed herself by asking him to stay. “It has been a long and eventful day. I would like to sleep now.”
“Goodnight, Anna.”
She watched him stride to the French doors where he paused a moment. When she thought he would turn and say something more, he merely opened one of the doors and slipped into the night.
* * * * *
The townhouse situated across from The Grange was currently unoccupied. To Michael’s good fortune, the family who lived there had left for a fortnight in Bath. He crouched on the steps to the area below stairs and could see anyone who entered or left Lord Cameron’s residence.
He’d observed Millicent return from her evening entertainments and wondered if she would be tempted to taste her gift or if she would wait until the morrow.
Devlyn Maitlin had just arrived home on foot when Michael heard screams coming from inside The Grange.
“She ate a piece of the candy.”
He rubbed his hands together to combat the chill of the night air. His last pair of gloves were threadbare and hardly worth wearing. Very soon he would have funds to remedy that situation.
A footman exited the townhouse and rushed toward Park Lane. A few minutes later a carriage stopped in front of the Cameron townhouse. A man with a black bag exited the coach and climbed the front stairs of the house. He hadn’t expected help for Millicent to come so soon. The doctor must live close by.
A Lady's Addiction (Honor Prevails Book 1) Page 14