The Countess (Madison Sisters #1)(20)
Author: Lynsay Sands

Her eyebrows flew up at the question. It seemed to suggest he would trust her judgment in this very serious matter, which definitely made a nice change from George, who hadn’t even trusted her judgment in the day to day running of the house or the choosing of clothes.

"Yes," she said simply. "He is like family."

Richard nodded. "Then I shal take him aside and explain matters to him."

Christiana felt something unclench the slightest bit around her heart. She also felt the sting of tears in her eyes and turned away from Richard before he could see them. She didn’t know where they were coming from anyway. It was foolish to want to cry with gratitude just because he was being both kind and apparently respecting her opinion. Ridiculous. Pathetic, real y, she decided with self-disgust.

"There you are! I thought I heard voices out here."

Christiana glanced around to see Robert Maitland standing several feet away, in the parlor door. Grateful for the distraction he offered, she beamed a smile on the man, but her smile dimmed when she noted Lisa behind him. The displeasure on her youngest sister’s face had her eyebrows rising, but then she glanced back to Robert as he spoke again.

"The tea is growing cold. You should real y come join us," he said firmly.

"Actual y, Langley, if you don’t mind, I need to have a word with you first," Richard said, taking Christiana’s arm and urging her up the hal toward the other man.

"Oh?" Langley narrowed his eyes and then glanced to Christiana.

Reading the silent question as to her wel -being in his eyes, she smiled gently and said, "He has the strawberry. Though, it’s real y more of a rosebud if you ask me, Robert."

Langley didn’t comment, in fact he didn’t look any happier to know Richard was Richard and Christiana supposed it was because he worried she was now stuck in this marriage to a man who had been horrible to her the last year. Sighing, she reached out to squeeze his arm in passing and said, " ‘Tis al right. He’s not the man we thought he was. He’l explain everything."

Christiana then continued on into the parlor, leaving Richard to sort out Robert.

She didn’t get far into the room, however; Lisa blocked her way and didn’t appear eager to move.

"Shal we sit and pour the tea while we wait for the men?" Christiana suggested uncertainly. When Lisa didn’t respond at once, but merely glared after Robert as he moved off with Richard, she asked, "Is something amiss?"

Lisa let her breath out on a smal impatient, huff. "He’s just so . . . annoying."

"Robert?" Christiana asked with surprise.

"Yes, him." Lisa turned abruptly and stomped back to drop into a chair by the tea tray. "He wouldn’t stop worrying about you. From the minute you left he was watching the door like a hawk and then started asking where you were and even sent Grace to check on you. Good Lord, he was acting like Richard was some murderous fiend.

He’s your husband. What did Robert think was going to happen to you?"

"Ah." Christiana sat down on the sofa across from Lisa, unsure what to say. Part of her wanted to babble out al that had happened. However, she’d rather explain it to both sisters at the same time than have to do it twice, so merely said, "Robert is aware that things have not been ideal between Richard and myself this last year and is just worried."

"Wel , he worries too much about you," she grumbled, unappeased.

Christiana’s eyebrows rose. Lisa actual y sounded jealous and it made her wonder if the girl’s feelings for Langley weren’t more than just the sisterly type affections Christiana and Suzette felt for the man, but merely said, "He worries about al of us: you, me and Suzette. Speaking of Suzette," she added with a frown.

"Where is she?"

"Oh, she muttered something about changing her slippers and left shortly after you did," Lisa said on a sigh.

"Oh." Christiana glanced toward the door, wondering where the girl was . . . and where Daniel was as wel . Lord Woodrow had left her and Richard upstairs some time ago and, she’d thought, joined everyone in the parlor, but it seemed not.

"We may as wel drink the tea before it grows stone cold," Lisa decided and began to pour.

Christiana murmured a thank-you as the younger girl handed her a cup.

"I knew he wasn’t you," Langley muttered, peering over George’s face when Richard pul ed back the blanket for him. "Not at first, or I would have warned Christiana away from him. But then I saw little of him at first. It wasn’t until they were married and living here in London that I began to suspect something was amiss.

Christiana was so tense the first time I came to visit, her smile strained, her eyes constantly dancing to him as if afraid she may have said or done something to upset him. Then the next time he had the butler turn me away. The second time that happened I knew something was wrong and waited until I saw Grace come out. I made her tel me what was going on and when she told me how he was treating her .

. ." Langley’s mouth tightened and then he sighed and said, "The bastard has treated Christiana like dirt this last year, and from what I recal ed of you from school, you just didn’t seem the type. George, on the other hand . . ."

Richard pul ed the blanket back up to again cover George’s face. His brother looked worse every time he looked at him and it was becoming obvious they couldn’t keep him around much longer. While the open window was keeping the room cool, he would soon start to smel . They had to resolve the matter of who had poisoned George swiftly so they could lay the man and the matter to rest and get on with life.

"Wil you be moving him to the family vault on the way to Gretna Green then?"

Langley asked, heading for the bedroom door, apparently eager to escape the room.

"Daniel seems to think we should keep the body here until the situation is resolved, just in case," Richard admitted as they left the bedroom.

"Wel you aren’t going to be able to keep him here much longer," Langley said dryly as he watched Richard lock the door. "Surely he would be fine in the family vault? At least you needn’t worry a servant or someone else wil come across him there."

"True," Richard murmured and liked the idea of moving his brother to the family vault. Real y it was starting to get a bit disturbing having him here, and it was becoming obvious that their efforts to keep him chil ed weren’t working al that wel . "I think perhaps you’re right. I wil talk to Daniel and see if he can come up with any faults in the plan."

"Faults in what plan?"

Both men turned to peer at Daniel as he strode toward them. Richard couldn’t help noticing that the man was already halfway up the hal to them and yet the hal had been empty just seconds ago when they’d stepped into it. That realization made his eyes shift instinctively to Suzette’s bedroom door, which was just steps behind Daniel now.

"Where did you come from, Woodrow?" Langley asked abruptly, apparently having noted the same things Richard had. Or perhaps it was the fact that Daniel’s hair was a bit mussed, his jacket was wrinkled, and his cravat missing that put the displeased suspicion in Langley’s eyes, he thought with amusement as he waited for Daniel to explain himself.

"Oh . . . I . . . er . . ." He waved vaguely back the way he’d come, and then paused abruptly as Suzette’s door suddenly opened and she hurried out, headed for the stairs, hissing, "Daniel! Daniel, you forgot your cravat."

Richard bit his lip to hold back a laugh, and glanced to Daniel to see him rol ing his eyes. It was Robert, however, who snapped, "Suzette!"

Coming to a shuddering halt, she glanced back, her already wide eyes growing even wider as she spotted the three men in the hal .

"Oh." Straightening, she turned to face them, and gestured toward the stairs, but stopped as she noted the cravat waving about, and quickly jerked the hand behind her back as if she hoped they hadn’t noticed it. "I was just going downstairs."

Richard coughed into his hand to hide the laugh that would not be held back and Suzette scowled at him, and then sighed with exasperation and moved up the hal toward them. She shoved the cravat at Daniel without another word and then simply turned to march silently away up the hal . Daniel put his cravat back on as he watched her go, his eyes locked on her behind, Richard noted. When he’d finished, he turned back, took in Langley’s narrow-eyed gaze and said stiffly, "We are getting married."

"You’ve decided for certain have you?" Richard asked with amusement.

"I am not certain that is the correct phrasing for it," he said wryly. "It would be more fitting to say I have bowed to the inevitable. The woman is a force of nature."

"That she is," Langley agreed, his tone dry and attitude relaxing now that he knew Suzette’s reputation and future were safe. "So, when is the trip to Gretna Green to occur? I should like to accompany you."

"The sooner the better," Daniel said grimly. "If Suzette jumps out and drags me into one more room I cannot guarantee she wil reach Gretna as pure as she is now, and she is already less pure today than she was yesterday."

Richard burst out laughing.

Even Langley smiled, apparently not minding the frankness now that Daniel had assured him he was marrying the girl, but he also raised an eyebrow in Richard’s direction and asked, "What are you laughing about? From what Christiana said to me earlier she is definitely not pure anymore."

"She told you that?" Richard asked with amazement.

"I was assuring her that we could get the marriage annul ed and she had to explain that that wasn’t the case anymore," he said dryly, and then shrugged.

"Since last night at the bal was when we realized it could be annul ed, I’m guessing last night after the bal was when that situation changed."

"Erm . . . yes, wel  – " Richard paused and raised his eyebrows as he noted Christiana’s maid, Grace, striding up the hal leading two maids. Al three women carried a col ection of bedding, blankets and pil ows. As she drew abreast of them, he frowned and asked, "What’s al this?"

"I asked Mil y and Sal y to help me make up a room for you," Grace said calmly as she opened the door to the guest room across from the master bedroom.

"A room for me?" he asked with surprise as she ushered the younger girls inside.

"Yes. You cannot sleep in the master bedroom until the bed is repaired," she said sensibly.

"No, but there is no need to go to this trouble, I wil just sleep – "

"In the spare room until a certain situation is made legal," Grace said firmly. She gave him a hard smile and added, "Lady Christiana asked me to see to it, and so I am."

Richard gaped after the woman as she slipped into the bedroom and closed the door.

"Hmm. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised," Daniel said, not hiding his amusement. Langley was no better, chuckling openly without even bothering to try to cover it behind a cough.

Richard scowled at them both. "I think we should head for Gretna Green this afternoon. There is real y no need to wait."

"Er . . ." Daniel glanced to Langley and then urged Richard a few feet away to say quietly, "What about the business with George’s murder? Do you not think we should try to sort out who kil ed him before we do anything else?"

"Langley knows everything, Daniel," Richard said quietly. "You can speak in front of him."

"He does?"

"I do," Langley assured him closing the distance between them.

"Oh, wel ," he frowned and then repeated, "As I was saying, do you not think we should resolve that matter before we – "

"No," Richard interrupted firmly. "You are the one who pointed out that the kil er would now think he’d failed and may try again. I think the most important thing is to ensure Christiana is legal y wed to me in case a second attempt is successful."

"You may be right," Daniel murmured.

Richard relaxed a little, glad he didn’t have an argument on his hands, and then added, "Langley suggested stopping off at the family vault on the way and dropping off George there. I think that may be a good idea."

"I suppose it’s better than leaving him here unguarded for days," Daniel said dryly.

Richard nodded.

"Wel then, al we have to do is convince the girls to go," Langley said dryly.

"Oh, I’m sure that wil not be a problem," Richard assured him, quite certain the women would be as eager to get to Gretna Green and get married as he and Daniel were.

Langley snorted at the suggestion and started toward the stairs commenting,

"You have a lot to learn about women, my friend."

Richard frowned after him and then glanced to Daniel, who shrugged.

"Suzette is definitely eager to be wed, I do not think she wil be a problem.

However, Christiana may fuss a bit."

"Nay." Richard shook his head. Christiana had been like wildfire in his arms last night, she too would be eager to be wedded and bedded. At least he hoped she was.

It hadn’t even occurred to him that she might frown on the idea of sleeping together again before they ensured their marriage was al legal and proper. But if that was the case, he wanted it done with quickly so that he could have her in his arms again. Surely she would feel the same way?

"Are you two coming?" Langley asked, pausing at the top of the stairs to glance back at them. Richard and Daniel started forth at once, Richard marshaling his arguments in his head as he went. They needed to ensure their marriage was legal in case anything happened to him. She could be pregnant after al . The other reason for the rush was that they needed to then get back and look into who could have poisoned George. Of course, he hadn’t yet told her that George had been poisoned, Richard realized and didn’t suppose now was the time to do it. Suzette and Lisa weren’t even aware that the Dicky of the last year had been his brother George who was now dead, and that he himself was the true Richard Fairgrave, newly returned from America.

"Good luck."

The words, accompanied by a pat on the back from Langley, drew Richard’s attention to the fact that they’d arrived at the parlor door. Glancing to the man, he noted the pitying look he was giving him and frowned, but merely led the way inside the parlor, where Christiana, Suzette and Lisa were al chattering cheerful y away.