by Lee, Jade
Her gaze went to his. “And how will you do that?”
“I have a man in my employ with connections throughout London.” He squeezed her hand. “He has found Mr. Fisher for me.”
Her head snapped up. “My footman? The one who poisoned Oscar’s tea?”
“Yes. I am heading now to speak with him. He must testify that Geoffrey paid him to kill your husband.”
“Then Geoffrey can be arrested and punished lawfully for his crimes.”
“With luck, this will soon be over.”
She had the strongest urge to kiss him. She did, in fact, grip his shoulder, stilling him for a moment as he started to get up so that they were nearly nose to nose. She searched his face as he gazed at her, his eyes turning dark and intense.
She wanted so very much to kiss him. Not just because he made her heart beat fast and her legs go liquid with desire, but because he made her feel safe. No one would harm her while he was here, least of all him. Not with casual neglect nor overwhelming authority. He simply remained beside her, caring for her as she accomplished her tasks. It was a heady experience having a man be a help rather than a hindrance. And she wanted him beside her always, but most especially now when she felt so vulnerable.
His hand came up to cup her face. She watched the movement of his lips as he whispered her name. “Diana.” There was longing in her name, and she echoed it a thousand times.
“Lucas—”
But then he shut it all down. “I must go.” He pulled away from her. “Ruben has already called for the constable. If I am to have a chance at speaking with Fisher first, then I must make haste.”
“Ruben?”
“My associate. The one who found Mr. Fisher.”
She nodded, then made a quick decision. “I will go with you,” she said as she pushed to her feet.
“What? No. You’re safe here. Well protected—”
“I need to see it for myself, Lucas. Mr. Fisher was a part of my home for three years. I need to know why he would do such a thing.” It was the truth, but it was also a lie. She certainly wanted to speak with her footman, but mostly she wanted to stay with Lucas. It was only with Lucas that she allowed herself to feel, and she was reluctant to give that up even to the point of inventing excuses so she could remain at his side.
“Diana, this is not a place a gently reared woman should go.”
“I am never safer than I am beside you.” Then she resorted to doing something she swore only weak women did. She softened her expression and used every feminine wile she had. “Please,” she begged. “I swear I won’t interfere and…” She blinked tearful eyes at him. “I want to be with you.”
He exhaled in a kind of growl. “I am a weak man around you.”
She brightened, seeing that she’d won. “Really? I’ve found you incredibly, almost frustratingly strong.”
He shot her a heavy look. “Flattery is a cheap trick.”
She laughed. “It is the simple truth,” she said. “I shall be but a moment.”
“Bring a cloak,” he said. “One that covers your face.”
Five minutes later, they were in a hackney that smelled of boiled onions. Not a pleasant odor, but she overcame it by pressing close to Lucas’s side and turning her nose toward him. He had bathed recently, so he smelled clean, though she could still detect his own personal scent. It never failed to capture her attention, and she smiled as she inhaled deeply.
He set her firmly away from him.
“Lucas?”
“This is beneath you, Diana.”
She jolted, her tone stiff. “What are you talking about?”
“You cannot toy with me like this. I would swive you right now, right here if I could.”
A shiver swept down her spine as she was unexpectedly titillated by the thought. “I—”
“But you know my conditions.”
She blew out a breath. “It is too soon for me to give up my freedom again. Surely you understand that.”
“Of course, I understand it. But I want a wife, not a passing fancy.”
How like a man to be so black and white. “It is too soon for me—”
“All I ask for is a promise that you will be mine. We won’t have the banns read right away. We can wait for that, but I have been too long in limbo as I wait for my life to begin.” He shrugged. “I see that now, thanks to you. But I’m ready now to be the man I was meant to be.”
She smiled. “That’s wonderful, Lucas, but I hardly think I had anything to do with it.”
He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Every day I watch you stand your ground, fight for what you believe in, and hold firm, despite being a woman. It shames me that I have done so little since—”
“Returning from war? Healing from near mortal wounds? You have men who still follow you long after the war is done. Believe me, I know how hard it is to get anyone to follow, and you do it effortlessly.”
He was silent as his cheek rubbed across the top of her head. She felt every catch of his evening beard and relished his closeness. Nothing could ever hurt her while he held her so close.
“I want a wife and a family, Diana. It will not be easy for me to be an earl with all the pomp and circumstance that it entails. But I could do it with you.” He pulled her fingers to his lips. “Swear you’ll be mine eventually, Diana. I know you will keep your promise.”
She would, which is why she couldn’t say yes. Not yet. Not when she had yet to take a walk outside as a free, independent woman. When she hadn’t gone shopping without wondering if Oscar would scold her for her purchase. She hadn’t even danced once at a party without worrying over who cared for Oscar in her absence.
“Not yet,” she whispered. “I can’t.”
He accepted that with a grim nod. Then before she could say more, the carriage came to a halt. He pulled the hood of her cloak down over her face, then said in a harsh whisper. “Stay right behind me. And don’t say a word until I tell you it’s safe.”
He waited for her nod and then stepped out of the carriage into an area of London so rank that she was grateful for the darkness. It hid whatever foul thing was festering nearby. It also gave her a moment’s terror. Just where were they going?
Chapter Twenty-Six
She was driving him mad with wanting. Even as he led her into the dark rooms beneath the Lyon’s Den, her scent teased his nostrils, her breath whispered across his thoughts, and heat burned on his skin whenever she was near. It was distracting as hell, and damn if he didn’t ache to give her everything she wanted in every way possible.
Instead, he focused on the miserable man tied loosely in a chair. On the opposite side of the room, Reuben Bates lounged with a cocky expression on his perpetually happy face. Lucas had met the man in the army, and they’d become fast friends. But it was only in London that Reuben’s real skills had come to the fore. He had a huge family and connections throughout the upper and lower society. If ever there was an unacknowledged king in London, it was Reuben. So it was no surprise that he had been the one to find the missing footman, Donald Fisher.
Reuben acknowledged Lucas with a jaunty whistle and a cock of his head toward a side door. The constable would be waiting there, listening to every word spoken. The official would step out when it was time, but for right now, Lucas needed to see the idiot footman face to face and ask a few very important questions.
That is, after Diana stepped around him and gasped at what she saw. “What have you done?”
Lucas couldn’t tell who she was speaking to. Did she ask the footman about his crimes? Or did she ask Lucas why the man had a dark bruise on his cheek or why he was bound at the wrists and ankles?
Whatever the truth, the footman seemed to believe it was directed at him because the man started protesting his innocence in the most hateful voice.
“I’ve done nothing but visit me mum, you filthy witch!” he spat. “A cow like you, you’ve always had it in for me. Wanted to have me, you did, and when I said no, you set your dogs
to grab me out of my mother’s arms—”
Lucas punched him straight in the face. He held back another blow. He didn’t want to kill the man, but it was enough to snap the bastard’s head back and cut off his words. Beside him, Diana blew out a breath and spoke with admiration in her tone.
“You cannot know how often I have wished I could do the same.”
He glanced at her in surprise. “It’s less effective than you might think but enormously satisfying.”
And as he guessed might happen, the man quickly recovered his breath and started spewing insults that were so commonplace as to be boring. He had heard it all—in multiple languages—during his time in the Lyon’s Den. Except, obviously, the words were new to Diana.
“Do you know what he is saying?” she asked.
“Nothing worth repeating. Or hearing.”
“But I’ve never heard some of those things. What do they mean? Beyond the obvious, of course.”
Lucas shook his head. He should have known she wouldn’t be thrown by a man’s curses beyond a little curiosity. Meanwhile, Reuben grew tired of the noise, so he quickly looped a rope around the man’s neck. He didn’t tighten it, but just the drop of the thick cord on Fisher’s chest was enough to set the footman to screaming the same insults in a louder voice.
Lucas blew out a breath as he caught Reuben’s eyes. “You’ve made it worse.”
“Not if I tighten it.” To prove his point, he began pulling the rope high enough that it just touched the man’s throat.
The scream was ear-splittingly high, and it went on a very long time. Fortunately, he didn’t have endless lung capacity, and when he paused to draw breath, Lucas spoke.
“Scream again, and I’ll have him kill you now. You’re giving me a headache.”
Mr. Fisher choked off his next screech only to sit there and glare resentfully at the entire room.
“Why did you poison Lord Dunnamore’s tea?” Lucas asked.
“I never did! I liked the old bastard!” He would have gone on, but Reuben picked up the edge of the rope again. He didn’t pull it, but Fisher took the hint and cut off with a squeak.
“Several people saw you put something in his tea tin. They saw you and will testify to it.” It was a lie. They didn’t have a witness. In fact, the only proof they had was that Fisher disappeared the day Lord Dunnamore died.
“They lie! I didn’t!” He spat at Diana. “She poisoned him. I gave him medicine. I kept him alive for weeks while she tried to kill him!”
Now there was something interesting, but he didn’t have the chance to pursue it as Diana took a step forward. She even squatted down so she could look at him eye to eye. “Mr. Fisher,” she began, then she moderated her stern tone. “Donald. I gave you money when your mother was ill. A great deal of it. I forgave it when you came in late to work with bloodshot eyes and shaking hands. I could have sacked you any number of times, but you pleaded with me that you were the only support of your ailing mother and pregnant sister.”
Reuben spoke up from behind Fisher. “He’s got no sister. His mum isn’t actually his mum, but she gives him a bed every now and again. That’s where we found him. Drunk as a sot in her back parlor.” He looked up at Lucas. “She’s the one who contacted me. Said she’d be glad to be rid of him.”
Diana sighed. “Lies, then. I thought as much, but Oscar liked him.” She straightened up. “They played cards together, and he told Oscar jokes.” She shrugged. “Jokes Oscar wouldn’t repeat to me, but some days it was the only thing that kept his mind off the pain.”
“Cards, you say?” Lucas asked, and at Diana’s nod, he knew exactly what had happened. Reuben, too, by the expression on his face. But mindful of the constable, he had to walk everyone straight to the truth.
“I bet you’re pretty good at cards, then,” Lucas said in a casual way. “To play with the likes of Lord Dunnamore. He was pretty good, and if you held your own with him, then you’re a right dab hand.”
Fisher straightened up at that, and his sullen expression softened.
“You probably win most of the time, too,” Lucas continued. “If the game’s played straight, that is. But I bet you didn’t win with Geoffrey, did you? He’s a good cheat. Doesn’t even have to play with a bad deck. He starts early, you see, with your cards. And as he plays, he starts to mark them. You don’t even notice because you’re winning. But as the night goes on, he can see what you got ’cause he’s marked them. And pretty soon, you’re in too deep. You owe him.”
Phillip’s eyes widened, and the confirmation was on his face. The more Lucas talked, the more his lip quivered as he realized he’d been duped.
“What did he want you to do?”
“Nothing,” he said, the word thick with hatred. “Said he knew she was poisoning his father. Just wanted me to put medicine in the old man’s tea. I’d be doing his lordship a favor, he said. Saving him from his wife’s poison.”
Diana sighed. “I wasn’t poisoning him.”
“Says you!”
“Who gave you this medicine?” Lucas asked.
“I picked it up from the potion place in Cheapside. Straight from the doctor there.”
Reuben shook his head. “He’s not a real doctor. What did you tell him?”
“To give me Mr. Geoffrey Hough’s medicine.” He glared at Diana. “I put a couple spoonfuls in the tin once a week. It was to keep him alive.”
“It was to poison him with arsenic, and he made you the perfect gull. Why’d you put in more the night he died?” Lucas asked.
Fisher was sweating now, and he shook his head as he spoke. “Mr. Geoffrey found me and gave me a pouch of medicine. Said the mistress were getting desperate, and I needed to put it all in or his lordship would surely die by morning.” He looked back at Lucas. “It must not have worked! She must have given him too much poison, ’cause he died!”
Diana sighed. “You don’t really believe that.”
“You witch! You killed your own husband, and he never did nothing against you!”
“You know that’s not true,” Diana shot back. “You know I’d never—”
Lucas stopped her by touching her shoulder. She cut off her words, tears in her eyes as she turned to him. He spoke to her in a gentle tone. “He does believe it because he can’t think otherwise.” He looked to Reuben, who gave him a nod.
“I already talked to the doctor. He told the constable a week ago that he gave rat poison to this idiot.”
“It’s not true.” Fisher’s eyes were wide with panic. “You forced him. You forced him to lie. You’re going to make it looked like I killed him. I didn’t! It was her! I swear it, it was her!”
Diana pressed a hand to her mouth. Lucas could tell that she was shaking, and he pressed a gentle hand to her back.
“We can prove all of this,” he said to Fisher. “The doctor has already given his statement. You’ve just confessed to putting the poison in the tea tin.”
“It were medicine!”
“Do you think Geoffrey will admit he played cards with you? A servant? Never. He’s going to say he had nothing to do with it. That you did it all yourself just to ingratiate yourself with him. That in your deluded mind, you thought you were doing him a favor.”
“It’s not true!” the man kept screaming. “You’re lying!” His voice was hoarse by the time he stopped screaming enough to hear Lucas’s next words.
“It’s what he’ll say. Unless you tell your side first. Every word. Every honest and true word.”
“I will! I will tell the constable. It was Mr. Geoffrey’s medicine for his father. Against her poisoning. It weren’t me! It were her or Mr. Geoffrey. Not me!”
No one responded because, at that moment, the constable pushed through the side door. He was followed by two of his men, and all three had grim, disgusted expressions. Fisher saw them immediately and turned his pleading eyes on the constable.
“They tied me up. Hit me. It wasn’t right what they did. You can’t believe a word they
say!”
“I don’t,” the constable responded in gruff tones. “I believe what you said. How you put a powder in his lordship’s tea.”
“Medicine!”
“So you say. But if it were medicine, why didn’t you stick around and tell us instead of making us search all of Cheapside for you?”
“I was afraid. She killed her husband. What was she going to do to me?”
“Or maybe you were afraid Geoffrey would find you and kill you to keep quiet for what you did for him.”
Fisher blanched and looked down. His shoulders were hunched as he shook his head. “No, no. I was afraid of her.”
“Do you know where Geoffrey is now?” Lucas asked. “Might go a long way to helping your case if you tell us where he is.”
Fisher shook his head. “He said it were medicine. That’s what he said.”
Meanwhile, Reuben smiled. “Don’t worry. I know all the steep gambling that goes on in London. He’ll show up at one of them eventually.”
Diana spoke up. “But he doesn’t have any money. Everyone knows that now.”
Reuben chuckled. “Gambling’s like a poison in his blood. He can’t stop doing it. And once he shows, I’ll have him.”
Assuming Geoffrey didn’t get some sense and bolt for the colonies. But with Fisher handed over to the constable and Reuben on the watch, there was nothing left to do but take Diana home. They had to wait for Geoffrey to make his move. Whatever he did would bring him out of the dark, and they’d get him. He was sure of it.
“Thanks, Reuben,” he said as he took Diana’s arm.
“Just pay my bill, and we’ll be square.”
Lucas chuckled. Reuben’s bill would be a long night of drink and chess. He had so few worthy opponents that he would go to a great deal of effort just to have a good evening’s entertainment. And though Lucas lost more than he won against Reuben, he was one of the very few who could win occasionally, and that made his company valuable.
“I’ll be waiting for your missive,” Lucas said. Then he escorted Diana up the stairs and out into the fetid night air. She went easily enough, but once outside, she stumbled. Or not quite a stumble as a retch. She lurched to the side and cast up her accounts into the street sewage.