there was… Thought old Miserly would leave him at least something, but I soon saw the way the wind was blowing. The old man loves you.” He gave Dan a smile that was incongruously sweet from a man who had tried several times to kill him. “As I love Hugh. I don’t have long for this world. It’s time for me to face the clouds and stay away… And then who will look after Hugh? I had to do it first.”
“Hugh is six-and-twenty years old,” Dan pointed out, “Don’t you think he can shift for himself?”
“Didn’t work so well for you, did it?” Ames said, quite without anger. “Until the old man decided to favor you. I think it’s time to go. Tell Hugh…”
“You can tell Hugh,” Dan said, taking his arm and beginning to walk.
Ames frowned at him. “Aren’t you taking me to the magistrate?”
“To charge you with what? Being a rotten shot? Aiming at an empty and already destroyed hat?”
“Or putting rat poison in the mushrooms?” Juliet said severely.
Ames sighed. “A moment of madness. I picked up the tin someone had left in the back hall, put some in my snuff box. No one noticed at the table when I tipped it into the mushrooms. Dan didn’t even eat them.”
“Susan the maid did,” Dan said shortly.
“Oh,” He looked quite alarmed. “Is she…is she dead?”
“No, but it was close,” Dan said.
“Madness,” Ames murmured. “It’s the clouds. Can’t think straight. But I’m glad she didn’t die.”
Which left him ambiguous at best about Dan’s survival. They walked on in silence as Dan tried to come to terms with the danger lurking beneath his uncle’s vagueness.
“You will look after Hugh and Hetty, won’t you?” Ames said suddenly.
Dan stared at him. “Why the devil didn’t you ask me that before all this…palaver?”
Ames shrugged. “Didn’t know you and didn’t like you much. Didn’t think you would share. Perhaps I was wrong.”
“You were wrong,” Juliet said fiercely. “Very wrong.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Juliet’s bolt to the house of her father’s enemy gave Lord Barden the clue that she would not be so easily managed as he had assumed. Therefore, he rose early in order to accompany Cosland in retrieving her and was glad to find the earl alone in the breakfast room.
“I want the matter dealt with as speedily as possible,” he told the earl briskly. “I have already spent more time than I had intended on this matter. Therefore, I shall accompany you to Myerly, and I have taken the liberty of sending my man to your vicar with instructions to meet us there.”
Cosland blinked. “I’m not sure instruction is the correct way to deal with a respected clergyman like Mr. Coates. I do know that even more piling into his home will arouse the ire of Lord Myerly. He will be angry enough to see me.”
“His sister told me he was bedridden,” Barden said carelessly. “He need not see any of us.”
Cosland paused. “Sir, I do not think it advisable that you accompany us. It was largely because of you that my daughter fled in the first place. Your presence will merely make the matter more difficult.”
“We are agreed it was your handling of her that caused her to bolt,” Barden retorted. “Thus, forcing my hand. Most men would withdraw an offer of marriage after such a vulgar start, particularly considering she is already ruined. I, however, am still prepared to take the girl on the conditions we agreed, providing it is done today.”
Cosland’s face spasmed.
Which warmed Barden’s heart. He had waited a long time to insult the proud aristocrat who had cost him everything. He rubbed salt in the wound. “I brought a special license from London. If you can control her, she may stay with you until my return from Cheshire, by which time I shall expect our business arrangements to be complete.”
“You are running ahead of yourself,” Cosland said abruptly. “My daughter has not yet chosen, and Catesby also wishes to press his suit.”
Barden laughed. “I trust he knows there will no saving the reputation of his would-be wife. Without me, she will not be received in society. People will snigger behind their hands as he walks past, the husband of a—but there,” he finished hastily, catching the murderous glint in Cosland’s eye, “you understand me perfectly.”
“I do,” Cosland said grimly. “And it’s my belief that if she chooses Catesby, the power of the Alfords and the Coslands will easily counter your vulgar innuendo. Particularly once we prove you placed that disgusting piece