Dalliance with the Duchess (Seducing the Duchess #3)

Chapter Fourteen

T he duchess did not scream, to Nicholas’s relief, otherwise he would have had to put a hand over her mouth. Being quick witted, she saw at once who was in her coach, and told the servant it was perfectly all right. The bruiser gave Nicholas a dubious look, but a moment later the door was closed on them, and the vehicle began to move.

“What on earth are you doing?” Sophia said, her low voice doing nothing to disguise her anger. “You’ll ruin everything!”

He wanted to smile. “I think you’ll find I am better at dragging information out of people than you, Duchess.”

She huffed, the emotion draining out of her. “I was going to take him to Berkeley Square and sober him up.” Her dark eyes clouded with worry. “Nicholas, there is something very odd going on.”

Nicholas went to answer, just as their unconscious friend raised his head and spoke in a calm and completely sober voice. “I knew it.”

Sophia turned to look at him, but she didn’t seem as amazed as Nicholas by the transformation. “Just what are you playing at, Sir Gordon?”

Gordon straightened his cuffs. “I could ask you the same question,” he said levelly. His gaze slid to Nicholas. “I knew you couldn’t keep away. And the duchess is quite right. You’ll ruin everything, Nicholas.”

Nicholas paused. Whatever he had expected Gordon to say, it wasn’t this. “I was worried about you,” he replied, but it sounded feeble.

“You shouldn’t have been. I know what I am doing. I just hope you haven’t messed it up before I can get the answers I need. That you need.”

Nicholas was still at a loss. “What in God’s name are you talking about? Perhaps all that drinking really has rotted your brain, Gordon.”

Gordon snorted. “I barely touch the stuff. If you really knew me you’d know I don’t drink. Not after my grandfather drank himself into the grave. I swore off it then, and I haven’t changed my mind since.”

Nicholas sighed and slumped back into his seat. Outside the London streets passed them by, and someone called out while someone else shouted with laughter, but inside the coach it was very quiet.

“Tell me then,” Nicholas spoke at last, “because I haven’t the faintest idea what you are on about.”

Gordon smirked, as if he had won the argument. “It isn’t often one can say they have bamboozled Nicholas Blake,” he said. Then his face turned serious. “As I was saying to the Dowager Duchess earlier, Sir Tomas Arnold has a sickly brother. I knew him, and at school he was always in the infirmary.” He looked at Sophia. “I was trying to pass that piece of information on to you without giving myself away.”

Bewildered, Sophia shook her head. “Why is that information even important?”

Gordon sighed, then turned to Nicholas. “Arnold’s brother’s name was Joseph,” he said sharply. “Surely you remember him?”

“Joseph.” Nicholas’s eyes narrowed. “In the infirmary, you say? At school? At our school?”

“Yes.”

Nicholas felt his heartbeat speed up. “Tell me what you know, Gordon, and stop playing games.”

Gordon ran a hand over his face. “It’s a long story. Wouldn’t it be better if I waited until we found somewhere more comfortable? We can go to my rooms if the duchess prefers not to—”

“I very much want to hear what you have to say,” Sophia cut in. “I want to know why I have wasted so many hours of my life doing something I loathe, with gentlemen I loathe, and it seems it was all for nothing.”

Nicholas reached out and took her hand. “Not for nothing,” he assured her gently.

Her rigid poise relaxed a little. “We will go to Berkeley Square, and then we will talk,” she informed them, before leaning back and closing her eyes.

Nicholas looked across at Gordon, who seemed startled by the level of intimacy between them, and grinned. “The duchess has spoken,” he said. “We will wait until we are all comfortable and then, my young friend, you will explain to me why you have me worried out of my wits.”

Gordon seemed a little shamefaced, but he nodded and said no more.

*

Sophia hurried into the Yellow Room and was glad to see that the fire was already burning. She tugged off her cloak and gloves and tossed them aside. Webster had followed her in, appearing baffled by two unexpected guests at such a late hour, but bowed in response to her request for refreshments, before he hurried out again.

Gordon began to speak, but she held up her hand. “Coffee first, and some of Cook’s delicious fruit cake, and then you can explain yourself, Sir Gordon.”

Nicholas chuckled and sank down on the armchair, as if he were perfectly at home. She almost laughed at the sight but firmed her lips and prepared to wait. Gordon sat down on a chaise longue which was, as Sophia knew only too well, extremely uncomfortable. Serve him right, he deserved to have numb buttocks for the trick he’d played them.

When the coffee arrived, and the fruit cake, she made certain everyone had some of each, and there was silence apart from sipping and chewing. Then at last, when she felt ready to hear whatever there was to hear, she nodded regally to Gordon.

For the last twenty minutes he had looked ready to burst with all the information he was holding inside. Now, he took a deep breath and turned to Nicholas. “It is about your sister.”

Nicholas sat forward, startled out of his relaxed pose. “Fern?”

“I discovered something. Only a snippet, but I knew if I came to you with it, you would try to find out the whole story for yourself, and they would never tell you—these men hate you. So it had to be me. I thought about it, and I came up with a way to uncover the truth. I would infiltrate their group, ingratiate myself into their clique, and at the same time make myself harmless, so that they would talk of confidential matters in front of me. That is what I have been doing these past few months since I came to London.”

He looked so pleased with himself, Sophia couldn’t help but bring him down a peg. “Apart from losing lots of your money.” But her heart wasn’t in it, and neither Gordon nor Nicholas seemed to hear her comment.

“Tell me,” Nicholas said again, and even in the flickering light of the fire he looked pale. “Don’t leave anything out.”

Gordon settled himself to do just that. “I had not seen Joseph Arnold for years, not since school, but I happened to be attending a horse race in the country and recognized him. He was pleased to see a familiar face and we began to chat about the old days, and then he mentioned his brother, Tomas.”

Sir Tomas Arnold. Sophia felt herself go cold. She had never liked Tomas. The way in which he stared at her... She had never trusted him but had always had a hard time pinning down exactly why. Was her mistrust about to be justified?

“Joseph told me that Tomas had visited him at school when he was ill in the infirmary and saw a girl there. Tomas had been smitten. He persuaded Joseph to be go-between, and Tomas and the girl would meet in the infirmary, where Joseph spent much of his time with his sickly stomach.”

“Who was this girl?” Sophia asked.

Nicholas’s gaze barely left Gordon’s face as he explained, his voice dull with shock. “The girl was my sister, Fern. She used to sit with the students who were poorly and read to them or play games.”

“Was she happy to have Tomas drooling over her?” Sophia spoke sarcastically, but she was beginning to feel a little queasy herself. She could already tell where this story was going.

Gordon shrugged. “According to Joseph, she thought herself in love, and why would he lie? He even seemed proud of the fact that he had helped in the affair, although when I asked him where Fern was now, he said he didn’t know, and changed the subject. I suspect he feels some guilt over the matter—after all, he sent an innocent young girl into the arms of a heartless rake.” His face twisted. “He said she was meeting Tomas the evening she left, and she was planning to go to London to be with him. Evidently by then Tomas had convinced her he loved her as well as making her all sorts of promises. According to Joseph, those promises included a house and a carriage, as well as pretty clothes and jewels. A sort of fairytale ending.”

Nicholas swallowed. He looked sick, and Sophia wanted to go to him and wrap her arms around him. “Young girls dream of such things,” she explained. “It is a normal part of growing up. I did so myself.” For about two minutes, before Oldney brought me back to reality, she thought, but she did not say it aloud.

Nicholas seemed stunned. “She should have told me, or our father. Why keep it a secret? Why didn’t she tell me?”

“Because you would have stopped her,” Sophia replied gently, “and she had made up her mind to embark on this adventure.”

He struggled a moment, as if he wanted to argue, but she could see he knew it was the truth. “And then?” He turned back to Gordon. “What became of Fern after she came to London?”

Gordon’s expression was apologetic. “I don’t know. Only Tomas Arnold knows what happened to her. That is why I have been wheedling my way into Tomas’s group of friends.”

Nicholas lurched to his feet, his hands in fists at his sides. “You should have told me! You should have—”

Gordon cut him short with a sharp, “And then what? They would never tell you. They would find enjoyment in taunting you, hurting you. You are my friend , Nicholas! I want to do this for you . I will never forget how kind you were to me at school. You saved me from the bullies, and you brought me books to read. You made sure I was as happy as I could be. I just wanted to give you something in return.”

Nicholas looked as if he didn’t know what to say. Sophia’s own eyes stung with emotion because it was perfectly clear that Gordon meant every word.

“Gordon...” He sighed and rubbed his chest as if there was an ache there. “Fern went off with Tomas,” he said, as if trying to convince himself. “All these years I have wondered why she was waiting at the school gate that evening. And now I know. I thank you, Gordon, I truly do. And yet somehow... the truth seems almost worse than not knowing.”

“That’s just foolish,” Sophia informed him brusquely. “It is always better to know.”

He managed a smile. “My clear-headed duchess,” he said. “Ever the practical voice of reason.”

Sophia wondered if that were really true. She hadn’t been very practical when it came to him.

“I need to question Tomas,” Gordon said eagerly. “I know you want to do it, but he won’t tell you anything, Nicholas. It needs to be me.”

“I can beat it out of him,” Nicholas retorted, but he sounded dispirited.

“And be arrested and thrown in jail?”

Sophia interrupted before they could get into an argument. “Gordon is right. He needs to do this. Although,” she said, “you do know our friends have a plan when it comes to you, Gordon? I heard it from Chatham. They are going to place you in a precarious position, one in which you will be ruined unless you ask for Nicholas’s help. And if Nicholas helps you he will be ruined, too.”

Gordon frowned. “They are using me to get at him?”

“Yes, it is Nicholas they really want to hurt. You are just the means to the end.”

“And I will have to decide whether to help you and destroy my own reputation—such as it is—or let you sink.” Nicholas watched his friend take this in.

“I’m not surprised,” Gordon said at last. “Let them! Once the truth comes out about Fern and Tomas, we will have the advantage. They’ll have to stop whatever this plan of theirs is if they don’t want everyone to know what they’re capable of.”

Nicholas sat down with a groan. “Not such a good idea, Gordon. You might be hurt. You might be killed. You know I cannot allow that to happen.”

But Gordon wasn’t to be dissuaded. “Just give me just another day or two,” he wheedled. “I’m close, I know it. They think I am such a fool and a sot that I don’t know what they’re saying. I know I can get them to give away what happened to Fern. Please, Nicholas.”

Nicholas turned to Sophia and raised his brows.

“It seems a reasonable request,” she answered his unspoken question. “And I will be there to keep an eye on him.” She fixed Gordon with an imperious look. “Just don’t go anywhere with them unless I come, too.”

Nicholas added, “And come to me as soon as you feel you are in danger. Or if you discover what happened to Fern. Don’t delay even for a minute, do you hear me? These are men who have no conscience. They are rats, and if they feel trapped or threatened, they won’t hesitate to attack.”

Gordon nodded, trying to look chastened, but there was a spark of excitement in his eyes.

Seeing they had come to an agreement, Sophia rang the bell for a servant. “Are you staying or going back to your rooms?” she asked Gordon.

Gordon looked at Nicholas, hesitated, and then rose to his feet. “I am going back to my rooms,” he said. “Thank you, Your Grace. I appreciate you watching out for me. And you too, Nicholas.” He sent his friend a warm smile. “No, don’t come with me,” he added, his smile turning into a grin as he headed for the door. “I’m too old now for you to tuck me in.”

Nicholas snorted a laugh but remained in his seat. Sophia walked over to him, looking down into his upturned face. “Not going with him?” she asked quietly.

Nicholas’s mouth curved up at the corners. “I think I will stay.”

Sophia told herself she was every kind of fool as she smiled back.