The Countess (Madison Sisters #1)(32)
Author: Lynsay Sands

"Hmm." Madison grimaced. "Of the three of them she has always been the most stubborn and difficult." He glanced to Daniel. "Are you sure you know what you’re getting yourself into? She won’t make life easy."

"Perhaps not," Daniel said with unconcern. "But life shal certainly never be boring with her either."

Madison relaxed and nodded solemnly. "There is much to be said for that. She is like her mother and that woman had me hopping to keep up with her from the day we wed. Never regretted marrying her even for a moment."

"So you won’t tel her that there is no need to marry?" Daniel asked hopeful y.

Madison pursed his lips, his gaze moving first to Lisa, who nodded solemnly, then to each of the men before he heaved a sigh. "I shal talk to her, and if Suzie doesn’t seem averse to marrying you, I wil keep the sale of the townhouse to myself for now."

Daniel relaxed and nodded. "Thank you."

Madison turned to Richard then, his gaze moving slowly over his features, and then he shook his head. "You look remarkably like Dicky."

"We were twins," he pointed out quietly.

"Aye, wel , there is a difference in the eyes. When you looked into his they were usual y empty or calculating. Yours . . ." He shook his head, apparently unable to come up with a way to describe the difference.

"Perhaps we should move inside now," Richard suggested, his gaze sliding to the road as a carriage passed.

"Aye. Let’s go in. I could use a cup of tea nice and sweet. I got myself al wound up to come here and now feel quite worn out," Madison admitted.

"Tea it is, then," Richard said, opening the door and leading the smal group into the house.

"What are you doing? Unlock that," Christiana snapped, trying to grab the key from Freddy, but he merely caught her hand with one of his own, while his other dropped the key in a pocket.

"Shut up and sit down while I figure out what to do," Freddy barked, pushing her toward the bed. Christiana stumbled back under his push, landing in an ungraceful heap on the edge of the bed, but promptly sprang back to her feet. "I demand you unlock that door this instant and let me – " The rest of her words died as he slapped her face and pushed her down on the bed again.

"I said sit down and shut up," he growled, looming over her to prevent her rising again. "I need to think what to do."

Her hand clasped to the spot where he’d slapped her, Christiana stared at him for a moment, and then slowly let her hand slide away. "You are the blackmailer."

"Yes, and I want that money. I’m not going to spend the rest of my life as some lackey to the gentry, helping them pul on their drawers and pul off their boots."

"You knew what George had done to his brother from the start?" Christiana asked, though she was sure she already knew the answer to that.

"Yes, yes," he said on an impatient sigh. "I knew from the beginning and was paid wel to keep my mouth shut. You and your sister had the right of it."

Christiana jerked back as the words struck her. "How do you know what my sister and I were talking about? You were listening?"

"I was in the office trying to find something when I heard your voices approaching the door. I slipped out through the French doors but left one cracked open to hear when you left so I could continue my search and instead heard a whole lot more." He grimaced with irritation, but went on, "The moment I realized you were heading to look for me I rushed around the house to try to get here before you, but was not quick enough."

realized you were heading to look for me I rushed around the house to try to get here before you, but was not quick enough."

He turned his back to her then and paced the floor a couple times. Christiana glanced around, hoping to see something to use as a weapon, but real y the room was as sparse as a monk’s cel . Glancing back to the man, she asked curiously,

"What were you looking for in the office?"

He hesitated and then apparently decided there was no harm in tel ing her and admitted, "Your father’s marker. Between that and the blackmail money, I can set myself up wel in France or Spain. Have a good life as a man of means." He sighed at the thought.

"Why would Dicky have the marker?" Christiana asked.

He scowled her way and then propped his hands on his hips. "Bloody women, always asking questions, just have to know everything. I suppose you won’t shut up and give me a moment’s peace until you know everything?"

"Probably not," she admitted unsympathetical y.

His mouth twisted and he snapped, "Fine. I knew al from the start. I knew when George hired those men to kil his brother, I knew he then stepped into his shoes and pretended to be him, enjoying his wealth and title in his place. I knew when John Butterworth told George about the dowers for you and your sisters. I – "

"So it was al for the dowers," Christiana interrupted with disgust. While she’d suspected it for quite a while, actual y hearing the words made her angrier than she’d expected.

"Oh, yes," Freddy said with amusement. "He drugged your father and dragged him to the gaming hel to make him think he’d gambled so deep he would accept an offer of marriage for you in exchange for George’s supposedly paying off markers he already held. And he did the same again, this time to force Suzette to be married to one of his friends. The markers were to be George’s payment for acting as procurer."

"Who was the friend who was supposed to marry Suzette?" Christiana asked curiously.

"Does it matter? She’s set her mind on marrying that damned Woodrow," he pointed out dryly, and then shook his head. "Were George stil alive he would have arranged an accident for the man or some other such thing, but the stupid bastard went and hired idiots to kil his brother. They failed him and now Richard is back and poisoned him to get his title back."

"Richard did not poison him," Christiana said firmly.

"Wel someone did," Freddy snapped.

"Yes, but it wasn’t Richard," she assured him and then tilted her head in question.

"How did you know he was poisoned?"

"Because I saw him die," he said grimly. "He dragged me into his office the morning your sisters arrived to crow about the latest success of his plans. He was sure they were there about your father’s latest apparent faux pas," he explained, and then continued, "Once assured I was properly impressed with his cleverness, George sent me for snuff. When I got back the whiskey was there, and he was clawing at his throat, then he died right there in front of me."

He grimaced. "Wel , I know trouble when I see it and got myself out of there right quick. Told the cook I was unwel and his lordship had excused me to recover, then came in here to await the hue and cry that he was dead. But there was none," he added with exasperation. "When I final y ventured out it was to be told his lordship was feeling unwel and resting abed. I came back to my room to try to puzzle that one out. I knew damned right wel the man was dead. So I waited until the servants were al abed and you were at the bal and then snuck upstairs to see for myself, but as I started up the hal your bedroom door opened. I ducked into the guest bedroom across from yours and watched through the cracked door as a man came out carrying George over his shoulder with a second man fol owing. I recognized the one man as Lord Woodrow and while George’s body obstructed my view of the other man’s face, when Woodrow cal ed him Richard I knew he wasn’t dead after al

."

"I stood there in that room for a long time that night, watching the comings and goings as a plan formed in my mind. I could blackmail Radnor about George’s death, take the markers and force your father to pay his debts, and then head for the continent." He fel silent, his lips twisting with displeasure.

"And it would have worked perfectly. By this time tomorrow I would have the blackmail money. The money for the gaming debt would have fol owed and then I’d be on my way."

"Except for Suzette and myself," she murmured.

"Aye," he agreed grimly, his gaze scouring her with displeasure.

"You realize she knows I went in search of you and wil soon worry that I have not returned," Christiana pointed out quietly. "You may as wel release me and just go. I promise if you do that no one wil pursue you."

"I’m sure you think that a very kind offer," he said dryly. "However, I am not going anywhere without the money."

anywhere without the money."

"Do you real y expect my husband simply to pay, knowing it is you?"

"He doesn’t know," Freddy pointed out. "And he wil pay. In fact, I think I wil just up the price now that I have an added bargaining chip in you."

"Me?" she asked with surprise.

"Aye. Judging by the caterwauling that’s been coming from your room the last couple nights, I think it’s safe to say he wil pay handsomely for your safe return."

Christiana flushed and glanced away. She was definitely going to have to stuff a bit of cloth or something in her mouth when she and Richard were alone. It was too humiliating to know everyone could hear them.

A tearing sound caught her ear and she turned back, frowning when she saw that Freddy had retrieved an old shirt and was rending it into strips. Wariness creeping up her spine, she asked, "What is that for?"

"To bind and gag you. We cannot stay here and I want to find that marker, but I am not sneaking you around to the office until I am sure you wil not scream and give us away."

Christiana stared at him wide-eyed, her mind working quickly. She was in a bit of a spot now, but if he bound and gagged her she would be helpless and she just didn’t feel like al owing him to put her in that position. She needed to draw attention while she could. Drawing in a deep breath, she opened her mouth to scream, but al that came out was a moan as his fist suddenly slammed into the side of her head, sending her into unconsciousness.

"I thought I heard voices out here."

Richard glanced toward his office door as Suzette stepped out into the hal . She pul ed the door closed as she glanced over them. Her eyes widened with surprise when she spotted Lord Madison there and she started forward at once.

"Father, what are you doing here?"

"He came to rescue us," Lisa told her before anyone else could speak. "He even held Richard and Daniel at gunpoint until Robert and I explained the new situation to him."

"Oh, how sweet," Suzette said pausing before her father and hugging him, which seemed to leave the man a little startled. Apparently, he hadn’t expected a warm greeting from her, but she said, "I am sorry I was so angry when we arrived in London, Father. You didn’t deserve it." She pul ed back and added,

"Chrissy says the men think Dicky drugged you and just made you think you’d gambled the money away. It was al a trick to try to get our dowers."

When Lord Madison glanced his way in question, Richard nodded solemnly and said, "There are rumors that I, or Dicky real y, had become quite chummy with the owner of a gaming hel famous for the trick."

Lord Madison sagged with relief and nodded. "I had begun to suspect as much. I have no recol ection of gambling at al , and what recol ections I do have of the gaming hel are quite fuzzy flashes of being led through it, people talking and laughing, being told to sign something . . ." He grimaced and shook his head. "I have never cared for gambling and don’t even know how to play the games of chance in those places. Yet there was the marker with my signature on it."

Suzette patted his back and hugged him again.

"Wel , now that that is al straightened out, why do we not sit down and hear what everyone has learned?" Daniel suggested, moving to Suzette’s other side so that she stood between the two men.

Richard managed to restrain the grin of amusement that wanted to claim his lips.

He knew Daniel’s main concern was changing the subject before anyone could mention that Lord Madison had sold his townhouse to gain the money to pay off his debt without the need for Suzette’s dower. The man was going to be itching to get Suzette to Gretna Green before someone spil ed the beans. It seemed he’d definitely settled on the woman to wife, but wasn’t sure she would wil ingly wed him in return were it not for the circumstances she had found herself in. Richard wasn’t so sure Daniel had anything to worry about though. He had noted the way Suzette seemed always to track him with her eyes, and the way she tended to stick close to him. And then there was the scene he’d walked in on that morning after leaving Christiana to straighten her clothes. By his guess the pair had been a heartbeat away from anticipating their vows. He suspected Suzette’s feelings for his friend were much deeper than anyone suspected.

"Yes, let’s move into the parlor," Richard suggested and then glanced to Suzette to ask, "Where is Christiana?"

"Oh." She frowned and glanced along the hal . "I was just going in search of her.

She was going to have Haversham fetch Freddy to us to interview, but has taken an awful y long time so I thought I’d best check on her."

"George’s valet, Freddy?" Richard asked with a frown. Freddy had been his brother’s valet for twenty years and, like Robbie, wouldn’t have been fooled into believing George was Richard. The man must have known al along.

"Yes, George’s valet," Suzette said now. "We realized that he might not have been fooled by the switch George made and if he somehow saw you the last day or two may realize you are not George. If so, he could be the blackmailer."

"Of course," Richard growled, and then glanced up the hal as Haversham came hurrying out of the kitchens, heading their way. He knew at once that there was trouble. Haversham was a proper En-glish butler to the core of his being and simply never hurried anywhere. It was considered unseemly, and butlers were never unseemly. Stil , Richard was more interested in Christiana’s whereabouts than any smal emergency the butler may be approaching about and asked, "Haversham, have you seen my wife? She apparently went looking for you to have you send Freddy to her."