see Daniel was unhappy about this, and my own anger stirred. If a man’s support and money led to the brutal deaths of others, should he not pay? It was the same situation as the conductor behaving politely to me while I rode in a first-class carriage in an expensive frock, and dismissing me when I rode third-class in my working-class garb.
“I will try to help as much as I can,” I told Daniel.
He viewed me in alarm. “You will do nothing today but say polite inanities to the duchess and her guests. No tearing through the duke’s home searching for incriminating documents.”
“I had no intention of doing so,” I said loftily, though truth to tell, I had already been thinking of ways I might slip into the house and find something that had eluded Daniel.
“For heaven’s sake, Kat, do nothing. These are men who thought nothing of striking down well-known gentlemen in broad daylight in a public park.”
“I saw the story in the newspapers.” I shivered. “It was gruesome. I do promise to take care.”
“You don’t, you know.” Daniel adjusted the curtain against a beam of sunlight that struck his eyes. “Take care, I mean. You should leave the problem of the poisoner to Inspector McGregor, but I know you won’t.”
“His hands are tied, as you told me. So are yours. That leaves mine free.”
Daniel’s voice turned hard, and he flicked the curtain from his hand. “It doesn’t have to have anything to do with you.”
“My dear Daniel, poor Lady Covington sought me out, very worried about what was going on in her household. Then her stepdaughter died before I could find out who would be wicked enough to put poison in the food. I cannot now tell her it’s none of my affair and turn my back.”
“I know.” Daniel deflated. “And I like you the better for it. But damn you, Kat, you worry me to distraction.”
“But it is all right if you worry me? You are living in the house of a man who might have paid assassins in his pocket. What happens if he finds you out? I should go on baking bread and saucing roasts without a thought to your fate, should I?”
“I’m used to this sort of thing, and I know how to defend myself. That is the difference.”
“I see. Fine if I fret and stew, but if you are a hair concerned, then I must stop everything and sit in my kitchen until you come to call?”
“Not what I meant . . .”
“I know.” My nervousness made me sharper than usual. “Forgive me—but you drive me to distraction too. When will you give up all this madness?”
Daniel’s mouth flattened. “When I have paid my debts.”
“Have you many of these debts?”
His nod made my nerves tighten. “Errol is not wrong when he tells you I am worse than he ever was. In the past, that is. I have reformed.”
“I understand. More things you refuse to tell me about.”
“More things I can’t tell you. One day, as I keep promising.”
“One day might not come soon enough,” I snapped.
I turned my face from him, my breathing rapid, my tight lacings cutting into my ribs. I usually wore my corset looser than this, much more practical for having a good row with my beau.
Daniel slammed himself back into his seat, highly annoyed with me. In this sorry state, we arrived at Esher, eighteen or so miles, as the train journeyed, from London.
* * *
* * *
Once alighting in Esher, I had to bury my frustration and become Daniel’s—Mr. Lancaster’s—bride-to-be.
A landau waited in front of the station, the top pulled down for the fine weather. Blue sky stretched overhead, dotted by a few puffy clouds. The landau belonged to the duke, Daniel said. He conveyed this information by exclaiming how kind it was for His Grace to send us, mere nobody guests, his personal carriage. Others leaving the station stared at him, which was Daniel’s intent.
We were not the only guests heading for the duke’s country estate. A stream of landaus, coaches, and light phaetons made their way along the road that led from the town and up a drive under a stand of tall trees to the duke’s home.
Having lived and worked in London all my life, I rarely had glimpses of vast estates, except in paintings hanging in the few drawing rooms I entered. I tried to pretend I’d seen plenty of these houses in my frivolous, pampered life, as the landau took us toward the