Lily and the Duke (Regency Spinsters Alliance #1)

Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Lily grimaced. “I am afraid I cannot agree with the conclusion you have both drawn in regard to the Earl of Shefford having to be the guilty party in the situation you have just described to me.”

Once Lily had instructed a footman to take the message to her mother, she and the two gentlemen had retired to the privacy of the summer house in the garden, where Lily now sat, and the gentlemen paced.

It had given them the required privacy for Gabriel and Hellsmere to tell Lily of their investigations into the suspected spy in Salisbury’s government. A man who was passing on important information to those French people still interested in having Napoleon return as their emperor.

Because it was still rather cold out, Gabriel had insisted that she keep his jacket draped about her shoulders. Lily was grateful for its enveloping warmth.

“Why the hell not?” the Duke of Hellsmere now stopped his pacing to demand.

“Mind your tone and words, Hellsmere,” Gabriel warned the other man darkly.

“Despite our surroundings, I am not a delicate flower around whom either of you need to guard your language,” Lily dismissed. “I have a father and two older brothers who do not choose to behave so thoughtfully,” she assured derisively. “The reason I do not agree, Your Grace—”

“Lucien,” he invited.

“Absolutely not,” Gabriel bit out. “I forbid it.”

“The reason I do not agree, Your Grace,” Lily repeated.

She had no intention, by word or expression of revealing how much Gabriel’s vehement denial of her addressing one of his closest friends by his first name had hurt her.

Even though she dearly wished to tell Gabriel what she felt about him thinking he had the right to forbid her to do anything!

For now, they had far more important things to discuss than her annoyance at his highhandedness.

“Is because, as I have already stated, the Earl of Shefford was not a man to so publicly bring attention and scandal upon himself,” she continued briskly. “The spy you are describing is also a traitor to the Crown and his country. The Earl of Shefford, despite being an unpleasant man in the privacy of his home, was nevertheless a fierce patriot whom I do not believe would ever have betrayed the Prince Regent or his government.”

“Shefford was an unpleasant man in private?” Gabriel said slowly.

She nodded. “Very much so.”

“In what way?”

She sighed. “In that he never allowed his wife or daughters to ever forget what a deep disappointment they all were to him. His wife for presenting him with three daughters, and those same daughters for existing instead of the son and heir he had wanted. After the birth of their third daughter, the countess was unable to have more children, which meant there would never be a son. To that end, the earl no longer so much as spoke to his wife in the privacy of their home, and his daughters were treated as the disappointments to him that they were.”

“Despicable as such behavior is, it does not absolve him from also being a traitor,” Hellsmere reasoned.

“The names of his three daughters are Georgiana, Augusta, and Fredericka,” Lily informed them.

“George Augustus Frederick,” Gabriel muttered the full name of the Prince Regent.

“Exactly.” Lily nodded. “The earl’s loyalty to the Crown was unshakeable, steadfast, and meant more to him than anything or anyone else. Does that sound like a man who would have spied for the French?”

“No,” both men immediately acknowledged.

“There is also the problem of the half-empty decanter of brandy and used glass sitting on the earl’s desk when he supposedly put a pistol to his own head and pulled the trigger,” she added with a frown.

Gabriel looked at her through narrowed lids. “Why is that a problem?”

“Because I have just remembered that the earl did not drink alcohol. He believed, and this is a direct quote from Georgiana”—she grimaced—“that strong liquor was ‘the devil’s work and detrimental to a man’s intelligence and health.’ As such, the earl did not drink brandy nor any other alcohol.”

“He might have needed some this evening to give him courage to pull the trigger,” Gabriel pointed out.

“I do not think so.” Lily recalled Georgiana saying her father was positively rabid on the subject of the evils of alcohol. “Despite that being the obvious implication.”

“Implication?” the Duke of Hellsmere repeated slowly, a frown marring his brow.

“Do you not find it interesting that one of the few people left for you to investigate, the same person you now both firmly believe to be guilty of treason, is no longer in a position to be able to defend himself against such an accusation?” Lily reasoned.

Gabriel scowled. “Are you suggesting that someone…murdered Shefford and deliberately made it look as if he committed suicide?”

Lily snorted. “I am stating it as being a definite possibility.” The more she thought about it, the more it seemed likely that was the sequence of events of this evening’s tragedy. “To that end, I also suggest that you question the earl’s secretary, the man responsible for finding his dead employer, before you decide to involve anyone else.”

Gabriel’s brows rose. “You think the man might have more information he will not have told the authorities?”

She shrugged. “Tell me, did your secretary accompany you during your own investigations?”

“Yes,” both men confirmed.

Lily nodded. “And have you never thought it interesting how a secretary’s presence, and the fact that he is invariably privy to all his employer’s private business, is so often overlooked? For example, and Gabriel is already aware of this situation, my own father was totally ignorant of the fact that his youngest daughter, my sister Hazel, had fallen in love with his own secretary and that this same gentleman returned her feelings, until we all woke up one morning to discover my beloved sister had eloped with him.”

“Why did we never think of any of the secretaries, or any of the other clerical servants, of the men we were asked to investigate?” Gabriel speculated.

“Because, as our superbly intelligent Lady Tremayne has already stated”—Hellsmere gave her an acknowledging inclination of his head—“and I am a little ashamed to admit”—he grimaced—“we in the gentry have a habit of not noticing our employees. Indeed, in some cases, we pay them not to be noticed.”

“Exactly.” Lily nodded. “My prejudice against the deviousness of some secretaries might be a little biased, but I would still suggest you question the earl’s secretary as soon as possible. Because if he was not averse to killing a man in order to cover his own guilt, then he will surely also be more inclined to abscond sooner rather than later before that deed is discovered.”

“That sounds very reasonable advice,” Hellsmere nodded.

“I believe so.” Lily turned her attention to Gabriel. “I also advise you not to ever again have the mistaken belief that you have the right to forbid me to do anything.”

He had the grace to look shamefaced. “I—”

“Now, if you will excuse me, gentlemen,” Lily continued coolly. “I need to see whether Georgiana and the rest of her family have already been informed of the earl’s death, and whether they are still here or have already left. In either case, I intend to offer them my love and full support.”

She doubted that her parents would approve of her decision to align herself with a family in the midst of such a scandal, but Lily did not care that for what her parents thought. If Georgiana needed her, then Lily had every intention of being there for her friend.

“It has been a pleasure, Lady Tremayne.” Hellsmere took one of her gloved hands in his before lowering his head and briefly pressing his lips against the back of it.

Lily ignored the growl coming from St. Albans’s throat. “Thank you.” Her gaze remained fixed on the third button of Hellsmere’s brocade waistcoat. “If you could please find the time to inform me of your progress in this matter, I should be most grateful.”

“Go away, Hellsmere,” Gabriel rasped. “If you please,” he added grudgingly.

“My lady.”

Lily raised her startled gaze to find the Duke of Hellsmere had already turned to stride in the direction of the door out of the summer house. “That was very rude of you,” she admonished Gabriel.

“I said please.”

“As an afterthought.”

“Lily, I have no intention of arguing with you over the possible hurt feelings of someone I am well enough acquainted with to know that he is not hurt in the slightest,” Gabriel dismissed.

“No doubt that is because Hellsmere is well used to your rudeness—” Her words were cut off this time by the forceful claiming of her lips by Gabriel’s.

How easy it was to become lost in the passion that so quickly ignited between them. To kiss Gabriel back with the same passion as he devoured her. Utterly. Completely.

But it was not enough.

She knew it would never be enough.

Lily wrenched her mouth from his to push him away. “I have to go, Gabriel.”

“No—”

“I must,” she insisted, removing and holding out the jacket that had been keeping her warm this past half an hour.

“We did not finish our earlier conversation,” he protested.

“It is finished as far as I am concerned.” Whatever happened in future, she could not allow this intimacy between them to occur again. “I harbor no bad feelings toward you, but I believe I am worth more than these brief snatches of any gentleman’s time.”

“What if I were to offer you more?” he prompted guardedly.

She gave a shake of her head. “It still would not be enough.” Even Gabriel offering her three afternoons of his time instead of two still only amounted to them spending hours together. Hours when the two of them would need to hide away from the world. Lily loved him too much to settle for such half-measures. “I really am sorry, but I must go.” She turned on her heel and fled the summer house as if the hounds of hell were on her heels.

Or the Duke of St. Albans.

The man she loved beyond all reason.