Dalliance with the Duchess (Seducing the Duchess #3)

Chapter Seventeen

N icholas was late arriving at Lucifer’s. An important government official, or so the man believed himself to be, had arrived at his rooms just as he was getting ready to head out. He was forced to linger and make polite conversation. In the way of most of the “important” government officials he was acquainted with, it seemed impossible for him to get to the point.

Nicholas longed to tell him to get out, but some of his most lucrative cases came from this fellow, and so he waited. And waited. Until eventually he was able to escape and rushed off to Lucifer’s.

Only to find them gone.

As luck would have it, however, they hadn’t left quietly and unobtrusively. The people Nicholas spoke to knew what had happened and where they had gone, along with quite a few curious observers.

Nicholas wasn’t that far behind them, and he tried not to panic. He set off at a brisk pace, past a number of lanes and rickety buildings. This part of London was home to rookeries and slums, and although he couldn’t see anyone watching him, he was certain they were there. At least Sophia had been with a group and would be safe, for now. And what of Gordon? Would Mountfitchet kill him if he could? The earl had a reputation for teaching his detractors a lesson, as he called it, and he didn’t hold back.

He wondered, too, if this was the plan Chatham and the others had had all along. And now he was late. They were relying upon him, and he had let them down. He wouldn’t blame Sophia if she was so angry about his tardiness that she never wanted to see him again.

“Damn it!” he shouted, startling some children sitting on a doorstep. Where was this place?

“Sir, sir!” one of them called. “Can you spare a penny?”

He could barely spare the time, not really, but with a sigh he walked over to them and searched in his pocket. “You haven’t seen some gentlemen and a lady pass by?” he asked, as he held the coin out, not expecting to hear good news.

“Yes, sir, we did,” the child said with a grin. His face was dirty, but his smile was brilliant. “Does that mean we get two pennies?”

Nicholas searched desperately in his pocket. “A shilling... two shillings,” he declared recklessly.

The boy pointed back the way he had come. “They went into the cul-de-sac,” he said. “We aren’t allowed to go down there—everyone knows it ain’t safe. Sometimes there’s fisty cuffs down there, or gents with swords.”

Nicholas looked at the entrance to the narrow alley and felt his heart sink. But he gave out the reward and thanked the children before he began to jog.

He heard voices, the murmur of a small crowd, and then Chatham calling out.

“Wait until I give the signal!”

“Why should I listen to you?” It was Mountfitchet, a sneer in his voice. “First you lie about what I said, and then you bring this beardless boy to fight me.”

Nicholas’s eyes adjusted to the gloom, and he could see a circle of people, with Gordon and Mountfitchet in the middle. Chatham was leaning on his cane, and close beside him was Sophia, her gaze fixed on the two men.

“This is insanity,” one of the earl’s group said loudly. “Are you really going to do this, Mountfitchet?”

“I didn’t start it,” the earl retorted.

“We all heard you insult the duchess,” Chatham said. “You cannot lie your way out of it. You need to be punished, sir. Robinson, hand him his weapon.”

The earl pointed at Sophia. “I did nothing of the sort, but even if I did insult her it would be justifiable. Anyone with the name Oldney is a disgrace. Now this is your last chance. Let me pass and we will say no more about it.”

“Too late for that!” Was that Arnold? “Come, Robinson, on guard!”

There was a laugh in his voice, as if it was all a game to him, and Nicholas went cold. Gordon was no fencer, at least he hadn’t been when Nicholas had known him best. Now he could hear Sophia’s voice, but not what she was saying. She seemed to be arguing with them. There was the sound of steel clashing—good God they were really going to fight!—and then a cry of pain.

In a flash, Nicholas was running, pushing his way through the crowd, which was larger than he had thought.

There was a flaring torch held by a lamplighter who had been pulled into the situation, and it shone on the faces, gleaming in their eyes and giving everything a nightmare quality. Sophia lifted her head, almost as if she had sensed him arrive, her face a white oval within the hood of her dark cloak. Before he could call out, there was another clash of steel.

“Stop!” he shouted, but it was too late.

Even as everyone froze and turned to stare, one of the men in the center slumped to the ground.

“What do you want, Blake?” Chatham said. “Have you come to champion your apprentice?” The words were chosen for Mountfitchet’s ears, chosen to cause the most trouble.

“You know this young fellow?” Mountfitchet demanded, striding closer. His eyes blazed in the firelight. “If I find you have had anything to do with this, I will speak directly to the Prime Minister. You will never work for us again.”

It was exactly what Chatham and his crew were hoping for, but Nicholas did not have time to argue. He could see now that it was indeed Gordon who had been hurt. He was sitting on the wet cobbles with his head bent and holding his arm. Sophia was kneeling beside him.

“Nicholas,” she said. “Thank God.”

There was a hiss from Chatham at her words, but it took him only an instant to use them to his advantage. “Young Robinson here is Blake’s protégé, and my dear Dowager Duchess of Oldney is his mistress. Ask him!”

Nicholas shot them a look of pure disgust before he turned to Mountfitchet and his friends. “I came here tonight to put a stop to this madness, but I was too late. Chatham hates me more than most, and he concocted a plan to see me ruined by using my foolish young friend here. I don’t think it was particularly well thought out, but I am guessing Gordon would soon have found himself in a seriously awkward situation over this evening’s events and asked for my help, and then it would have been assumed I would help him and have my reputation destroyed.”

Chatham made a huffing sound. “What nonsense!”

“Who are you to tell us what to do?” Butcher sneered. “A commoner!”

“A commoner and a reverend’s son!” Arnold added sourly.

“Blake?” the earl asked imperiously, resting on the point of his sword. “Is this true? It is so ridiculous that I find it hard to believe sensible men would do such a thing.”

Gordon raised his head, still clutching his arm. There was the shine of blood on his fingers. “I went to the same school as Nicholas Blake. Sir Tomas has just said he was the reverend’s son, and he’s right. He knows because his brother Joseph went to that school, too.”

Nicholas moved closer and Arnold seemed to struggle to stand his ground. His heart was beating with a hard, fast rhythm, but he kept himself under control. “What happened to Fern? Tell me now and perhaps you won’t have to flee the country.”

“Who on earth is ‘Fern’?” Arnold spat, but there was a note in his voice that gave him away.

“My sister,” Nicholas said, his voice quietly ominous.

“Your sister?” Mountfitchet looked uneasy. He glanced back to his fellows and then to Sir Tomas. “I don’t like the sound of this. It has a whiff of serious scandal. Why do you think Arnold knows what happened to your sister, Blake?”

“Because he was the last to see her. What sort of ‘gentleman’ makes off with an innocent seventeen-year-old girl? What did you do to her? I swear I will see you and your friends ruined if you don’t tell me.”

Mountfitchet’s voice was suddenly very grave. “I would tell him if I were you.”

Arnold made another scoffing sound, as if he was about to deny everything, but Chatham caught his arm and moved so that their faces were very close. “Tell him,” he said angrily. “What does it matter now? No one cares about the silly chit. Tell him.”

Arnold nodded and drew away, his fists clenched and his voice tight with anger. “Very well, but there is little to tell. She came with me willingly, and she was my mistress for a year. She was happy with the arrangement, there was no force involved. I was fond of her until she began to whine about marriage. I got rid of her after that.”

Nicholas moved toward him purposefully.

“No!” Sophia cried out, and rising swiftly to her feet, she pressed her hands to his chest. “He knows.” To Arnold she said, “What happened to her?”

Arnold stared at Nicholas a moment as if he was going to tell them, but then he met Chatham’s gaze again and gave a nonchalant shrug. “Who knows? I presume she found someone else.” His gaze slid to Sophia, and he smirked. “Girls like that are ten a penny. They don’t mind who beds them, as long as they have a roof over their heads.”

“You’re lying,” Sophia said. “I know what the truth looks like on your face, and this isn’t it. Where is she? There’s more to this story. Something is missing and...”

“If you have harmed her,” Nicholas interrupted with a growl, “I will hunt you down. There won’t be anywhere you can hide.”

“I’m not lying,” he blustered. “She left. That is all I know.”

“It seems you are at a stalemate,” Mountfitchet said thoughtfully. “I could look into the matter, but the girl has been gone how long?”

“Nine years,” Sir Tomas said. “She could be anywhere.”

Mountfitchet sighed. “There is not much to be done then, Blake.” He looked about him. “I will take your word that none of this is your doing, but my patience is at an end with you all. My advice to you, Chatham, is to rusticate in the country. The Prime Minister may not be as eager to forget as I am. Blake is his pet, and he won’t take kindly to your treatment of him.”

Chatham jerked his cuffs into place. “Very well,” he said. “I will take your advice. My country house is calling to me.” He turned to Sophia, and she could see his eyes glittering with fury, but he hid it well. “You disappoint me, Duchess. I thought you had better taste. We wasted our time trying to avenge your honor—you did not deserve Oldney.”

Sophia said nothing, staring back at him. She watched as the three men walked away. The rest followed, eager to get back to their gaming now that the show was over. A cat slunk out of the shadows, hissed, and ran on. She met Nicholas’s eyes and there was an urgency about her, as if something important had just occurred to her, but there was no time now for a tête-à-tête.

Gordon was trying to get to his feet, and Nicholas reached down to hoist him up. “We must get you a doctor,” Sophia said.

“I can’t believe I let him under my guard,” Gordon muttered.

“He’s a practiced swordsman, and you are not,” Nicholas said, with a touch of humor. His smile died. “I wasn’t here to stop it, and I’m sorry for that.”

“You are not my nursemaid,” Gordon retorted savagely. “I chose to go with them.”

“So did I,” Sophia said, looking at Nicholas as if daring him to reprimand her. “At least this game is over. Do you think they will be punished?”

“Probably not. Unless being in the country for the foreseeable future will be punishment enough for men like them. Now that Mountfitchet knows the story he might help if I want to take it further, but I can only do that if I find Fern.”

Gordon groaned, clutching his arm. “I am so sorry I didn’t find out where she went after Arnold. I’ve mucked it up.”

“You did more than I could,” Nicholas retorted. “At least we know now what happened to her after she left the school. And I can’t believe Arnold when he says he doesn’t know where she went. Those three are close. One of them might have taken her as his mistress. I won’t stop looking.”

Sophia gave him a sharp glance. She was quiet as they made their way out of the cul-de-sac and back to Lucifer’s. She was quiet in the coach, too, and Nicholas found himself turning to her a number of times, wondering if she regretted having anything to do with him. Maybe they were over. His spirits sank even further.

“Gordon!” Sophia was propping Gordon up, with him close to swooning. Nicholas took off his cravat and wrapped it around the wound in the boy’s upper arm, to stem the bleeding, but Gordon had already lost a lot of blood.

His thoughts kept returning to his sister. He tried not to think about her life with Arnold, apart from hoping it wasn’t too awful. She must have realized shortly after he installed her in that pied à terre that he wasn’t the love of her life.

What had happened to her afterward? He felt sick at the thought. Had he discovered the truth about her leaving only to face the fact that he was less likely than ever to find her now?

“I will send for the doctor as soon as we arrive,” Sophia’s voice brought him back to himself. She was watching him from the other side of the coach.

“Thank you,” Nicholas said. “And I’m sorry—”

“Oh for God’s sake, there’s nothing to be sorry about!” Sophia said crossly. “You always do your best, we know that. And you came at the right time, just like some hero in a novel.”

He gave an involuntary crack of laughter.

She stared at him, and he could see there was something very wrong. She opened her mouth and then bit her lip, her eyes full of questions.

“What is it?” he said sharply.

“I...” She shook her head. “Something has occurred to me. I do not know if I am completely wrong, but I...”

“Sophia?” He leaned forward to take her hands, or he would have if Gordon weren’t leaning heavily against him. “What is it?”

But at that moment they reached the house.