He emptied his second glass and then set it down in the midst of the other shards of glass, before he crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You should never forget that my brother is not only a very desperate man, but also an extremely smart one, despite his… condition. He has been able to get away with murder once already. Surely, he thinks he can get away with it a second time, because there is no one who suspects him.”
His mouth had become a white, hard line in a face that seemed to be nothing but rough edges. “Then you go and throw yourself into his and his wife’s arms, with some far-fetched, although possibly well-meaning plan. Did you honestly think that you would be able to find and confront a cold-blooded murderer all by yourself?”
“I am sorry,” Minerva gave in quietly.
The trembling had now reached her limbs and she sank to the nearest seat, unable to stand upright for another second. The silence between them expanded. “But if he has laudanum and opium at his disposal, why–” … did he resort to using arsenic, she had meant to say, but the duke did not let her finish.
“You might have courage, but you are a very foolish creature,” the duke said.
There was a knock at the door, and Johnson entered the room. This time, the tray contained only tea and two cups. Johnson gave Minerva a calculating look after exchanging a look with his master, and then took it upon himself to serve the tea.
The duke waited until Johnson had left the room, before he continued. “Now I have no other choice but to send you away, and once and for all bury my hopes of holding him accountable for what he did. Either that, or I have to accept your childish plan.”
Minerva tried desperately to read his face. The initial rage the duke had felt seemed to have vanished, and now he looked tired and exhausted. Her own shaking disappeared. Now it was up to her to make a decision and convince him that she could support him, if he allowed it.
“My Lord,” Minerva said and got up from her chair, not really sure if her legs would carry her. Surprisingly, they did. “You are hurt. Please let me have a look.”
She walked over to him. “Do you have a handkerchief?” she enquired and took the one he pulled from his breast pocket. She took his reluctant hand into hers, dabbed the almost dried blood from the back of it and tied the formerly white cloth like a bandage around his hand. He looked at his hand and its new bandage, and then he looked up to her. A second time, she reached for his hand, with a pounding heart and the certainty that she would not be able to take back what she was about to do.
She laid the palm of his hand against her cheek and snuggled right into it.
“I trust you completely,” she whispered. “With you I am brave and even more than that. I am sorry that I…” how could she best describe it, “… have destroyed your plans. Please let me make it up to you.”
The hazelnut-brown specks in his golden eyes started to dance. “I believe I have no other choice, if I do not want to lose you too.” It took almost two heartbeats before Minerva realised the true meaning of his words. At first, she did not want to trust her own ears, but when she looked up into his face, she read the answer to her never-asked question.
“Minerva,” he said with a hoarse voice and kissed her a third time. It was like a fairy-tale, she thought in a rather far-removed part of her mind – or was it her heart?
This third time tipped the scales. Everything she had meant to say was erased by the feelings that his lips caused within her. When he released her, her mouth was burning, she was gasping for breath, and she was as happy as she had ever been in her life. The Duke of Scuffold smiled cautiously, but it was the most beautiful smile she had ever seen. She could have stared at him forever, soaking up all of his expression and remaining in his arms for eternity. But his next question brought her back to reality.
“What exactly have you told my brother and his wife?”
She told him everything.
First, he turned pale and blushed, and then paled again, when the strong emotions got a hold of him. Fearfully, she looked up into his face and sighed with relief, when she saw his lips twitch treacherously.
Minerva could not have expected what happened next. He fell onto one knee, right in front of her, took her hand in his and pressed a kiss onto it, before he spoke. “Miss Honeyfield, would you do me the great honour of giving me your hand in marriage?”
Chapter 20
But that was not the end of her ordeal, yet.
In the end, he agreed to her plan, although only after numerous arguments and objections. For three days they were meticulously checking all the clues again and again to make sure they were not mistaken. Only when they were absolutely certain that they had discerned the suspect, beyond doubt, did they begin to concoct their ironclad plan.
Minerva loved him for the way he worried about her and his eagerness to protect her at all costs, but she also knew that he would never find peace as long as just a little speck of doubt remained in his mind. Maybe her own desire to help him was the female version of his protective instinct. Not that he would approve of such a notion – he was much too masculine to do so. What had ultimately convinced him, had been the fact that he would be able to help his brother and still be able to resolve the events that had occurred that night.
“What are you thinking about,” he asked her as they sat in the library, side by side in a precious moment of peace and privacy. “I am thinking about your brother and his wife and about what we are planning to do tonight.”
“Are you scared? You can voice your fears to me at any time. I shall find a different solution, which will not put you at risk.” He pulled her close until her head rested against his chest, allowing her to listen to the regular beating of his heart. “I am not scared, because I know that you will be with me at all times,” she replied. “Johnson will be there, too. On top of that, we have discussed every detail over and over again. We can no longer delay the execution of this plan, because it will eventually become obvious that I lied,” she added, remembering the piercing look Lady Beaufort had cast on her belly. Of course, there was no trace of what nature had allegedly given her, but Minerva had been in favour of not delaying their plan much longer. Lord Beaufort and his wife could decide to leave Beaufort Castle, at any moment. That meant another wait for the right opportunity to elicit a confession from Thomas.
Their plan was for Lady Beaufort to tell her husband, the murderer, about their imminent marriage. Lord Beaufort would then be forced to act, as he had when he murdered his brother’s first wife, because she had stood in the way of his inheritance. Thomas was known to be a notorious gambler with a mountain of debt, added to which was his need to numb himself with all sorts of substances. Robert himself had said that his brother envied everything that he called his. Whether it was his brother’s urge to destroy Robert’s happiness, or his pure greed for the wealth and title that would come with an inheritance, Minerva was not entirely sure. However, when Thomas heard that his brother was planning on marrying a second time, and on top of that to a woman who was supposedly carrying his child, then the younger man would be forced to act immediately. Or lose everything.
Something flashed in the duke’s eyes, a memory perhaps. “I still do believe that you deserve to be put across my knee for your recklessness.” He shook his head, but in a loving way. “How on earth did you come up with the idea to create such a ludicrous story? What do you think would happen if your parents heard about it?”
“Don’t you dare,” she said with a warning look. “My parents do not have the slightest idea about any of it, and the only man who has ever physically reprimanded me, is my father. I do not intend to change that.”
It seemed as if he was willing to continue this short battle of words, however he straightened his posture without loosening his hold on Minerva. “You are right. We cannot change it now, anyway. You have planted the seed, and tonight is the time to harvest.” His mouth had taken on a bitter cast as he thought about the trap they had concocted for his brother. “All
right, let’s go through everything one more time and from the beginning.”
“Do we really have to? We have discussed this over a hundred times already.” Minerva pulled a face, but then quickly straightened out her features, as she remembered that she was now an engaged and soon married woman. “I shall take the opportunity right after breakfast, whilst you distract Lady Beaufort on a pretence.”
“I shall ask her to watch Beaufort Castle whilst we are on our honeymoon in Italy. They are supposed to believe that we want to avoid the rumours that will inevitably arise in the face of a hasty wedding.” She was still rather uncertain as to whether Lady Beaufort would believe such a story, but Robert made her understand that he would make sufficiently dark comments, until Lady Beaufort had no other choice but to believe him. His tone of voice sounded confident, and she assumed that he had some kind of secret knowledge about the mechanisms within a marriage, of which she had no idea. Therefore, she let the subject rest and decided she would simply trust her man.
“At the same time,” she continued, “... you will let her know that you are aware of your brother’s financial and health struggles, which is the reason why you are asking her and not Thomas for her presence at Beaufort Castle. Of course, you shall ask Thomas officially at the dinner tonight, to keep everything in order.” She smiled a little desperately, for she really knew every step of his plan by heart. “In the meantime, whilst you will inform her about all of the upcoming tasks, I shall mention to Thomas that the impending wedding and the duties of becoming a duchess are making me nervous. I shall pretend that I would like to confide in him and talk to him about my biggest fears –that you still love Julianna more than you will ever love me. I shall play the helpless and scared little woman.”
She did not like that part very much, but it would give Thomas the impression that he had nothing to fear in her presence.
Robert took her hand in his. “It’s very important that you don’t show your true feelings at all,” he warned her. “Thomas has a very sharp nose for lies. It would be useful if you whispered a mixture of truth and lies into his ear. You can ask him if I will allow you to continue writing your books, just as Julianna did back then. This will steer his thoughts in the right direction. He is supposed to see parallels between you and Julianna, which might cause him to react impulsively.” As he uttered the last words, Robert’s look turned dark, and he pulled his eyebrows tightly together.
He didn’t like the idea that Minerva would present herself as a victim to his brother. However, she believed that his brother’s addiction would cause him to confuse the present and the past, and thereby also her and Julianna.
Then Robert only had to catch him red-handed, so that he could demand a full confession from his brother.
Minerva rolled the plan back and forth in her head. Something did not sit right with her, but she could not really say what it was.
“Just do not overdo it,” Robert warned her once more.
The thought, which she had almost been able to grasp, was gone again.
“You only have to get him to meet with you, somehow.”
“I could lure him to the pavilion,” Minerva suggested. “I think that the calmness of the place will give him a false sense of security, and I might be able to get him to confess. I will tease him with my knowledge, until he admits to what he has done, or until he tries to put his hands on me. That is the moment when you and Johnson intervene. Voilà, he confesses, and you have the undeniable assurance that your instincts have not deceived you.”
She gave him a gentle kiss on his mouth. “Robert, given the circumstances, this is the best you can do. Do not forget that those substances have made him ill. You will help him to get well. Once he has recovered from his terrible addiction, he can go to the colonies and start a new life there.”
“I am not so much worried about the scandal, as I am about him falling back into old habits, once he arrives in the colonies. What if he keeps murdering there? Here, I at least have some control over him. But there…” His voice trailed off.
“There, he no longer has a reason to come after your life,” Minerva reminded her future husband. “You will be thousands of nautical miles away, and your wife is expecting a child, do not forget that.”
“As if I could ever forget that,” he murmured and finally returned her kiss. “This day will be the most exhausting of my life. Johnson and I will not let you out of sight for a second. In my case, you must take my words in their strictest sense.”
“Come, my love,” Minerva said, tasting the unfamiliar name like a candy on her lips. “We have a few minutes before breakfast is served.”
“And we should use them wisely,” he added to her sentence and pulled her towards him.
Chapter 21
He put his hands around her neck and squeezed her throat.
Having to get up after a night like this and dining with the others was bad enough. What made matters worse for Minerva was not being able to show her nervousness. She asked Sally to put her hair up in a nice little bun and slipped into her dark-blue muslin dress. It had a modest style, as was currently the fashion, and Minerva loved the colour. She found that it gave her blue eyes extra depth, and her light hair shone even brighter, to the point where it almost seemed colourless. This unusual colour, as well as the tight hair style, would help her to play the role of being someone else. All in all, Sally had done well in the short time she had been in Minerva’s service as her maid.
It would only be this one morning, she told herself. She just had to be brave this one more time in her life. After that, she and the duke would be able to begin a new life – one they would share without having Julianna’s ghost hovering around them or his brother’s evil intrigues poisoning their love. Minerva looked at the portraits of the ancient Scuffolds as she walked down the long corridor. Some of them, like the gentleman with his pointy beard and lavish hat, seemed to gaze down at her disapprovingly. In turn, there were those, like the voluptuous woman in an enormous skirt with a greyhound’s intelligent eyes peeping from underneath it, who seemed to wish her good luck in her endeavours. Deep in thought, she realised too late that there was someone standing around the corner. A collision could barely be avoided, and she took a clumsy and unladylike step backwards. She stumbled and was caught at the last minute by her future brother-in-law.
For a moment, the two of them stood in the hallway, inappropriately pressed against each other. With her sensitive nose, Minerva could not help but notice the unpleasant smell of an unwashed body emanating from Lord Beaufort. He seemed to look even paler than he usually did, and his eyes were gleaming feverishly.
She swallowed hard. Not even the few minutes to reach the breakfast room remained for her to find her composure.
“Good morning, future sister-in-law,” he said and gave her a watery and somehow cautious smile. “I hope, you are feeling well?”
“Thank you for asking, Lord Beaufort,” Minerva replied, and she pondered what she should say next. Whenever she had played the planned conversation with him in her head, she had been the one in charge of the situation. She had spoken, and he had given her the correct answers. Robert had warned her that it wouldn’t be as easy as that, and of course, he had been right. Instead of saying anything, she lowered her gaze and wrung her hands.
“You do know that you may speak with my wife at any time, should there be anything that concerns you, do you not?” he said in an almost concerned tone.
The offer was so unexpected and friendly that Minerva stared at him with a startled look. She would have expected anything from this man, but not the sensitivity and delicacy with which he addressed the possible distress she might feel, and on top of that, in such a discreet manner.
“You are too kind, my Lord.”
“Thomas,” he corrected her with the hint of a smile. “I think that – for the time we are alone – we may forget about formalities such as lords and ladies and dukes and future duchesses.”
He hid his sh
aking hands behind his back and offered to walk the rest of the way to the breakfast room with her. “My wife is already there,” he said. Not if Robert has been successful, Minerva thought, and realised that he had relinquished the idea of holding out his arm to her. Minerva knew that Robert had been up early this morning, since he knew that his sister-in-law would always be the first one to arrive in the breakfast room. Minerva had always thought this to be odd. For a woman who had once been an actress, but also for her habits and by the way she looked, one would assume she was a lady who slept in late and had her breakfast brought to her bedside. However, Lady Beaufort was of those people who would go to bed last, and in the morning rise first. It could very well be due to Lady Beaufort’s burdens, she thought whilst Lord Beaufort led Minerva towards the stairs. After all, the lady had to be strong for herself and her husband, which most probably took every ounce of strength in her.
“Thank you, Thomas,” Minerva said timidly and walked as slowly as courtesy allowed. They reached the stairs, and she felt a cold shudder when she remembered that Robert had found his wife at the bottom of these very stairs, which she was about to descend herself, with the murderer himself! Sometime the night before Julianna’s death, the first duchess must have stood here with her brother-in-law, alive and unaware that she would soon die.
Minerva felt dizzy. Almost automatically, she searched for the banister and shivered as she touched the cold stone. The world turned blurry, and it seemed as if a fog lay in front of her eyes. She only perceived her brother-in-law only as a dark shadowy figure, whose face shone brightly and yet hazily.
She knew he had said something to her, because his mouth was moving, but she didn’t understand the words.
“Minerva!” Without further ado, he grabbed her by her arm.
Minerva was unable to suppress a scared gasp. Now, he would push her down the stairs, just as he had done to his previous sister-in-law.
Miss Honeyfield and the Dark Duke: A Regency Romance Novel Page 18