The Countess Page 0,115

George had been waiting for, and quite impatiently, I wil add. From the conversation I chanced to overhear afterward, I gather he had expected them to come to you much sooner, or for your father to come pleading his case.

"However," Haversham continued, "After leaving you ladies in the parlor, Master George was quite cheerful and ordered me to bring his best whiskey to him in his office. Freddy appeared then, headed for the kitchens and Master George took him to the office, where I overheard his gleeful announcement that the plan was final y moving forward again. He was sure the sisters were there about the gambling, and that it would be no time before he had Suzette married off to one of his friends."

"Who?" Daniel asked sharply, making Christiana glance curiously his way. His expression suggested the answer was important to him, though she couldn't imagine why he cared. He and Suzette were marrying. Whoever the friend was, he was out of luck.

"I'm afraid he did not speak the proper name of his friend, but referred to him as Twiddly."

"Twiddly?" her father echoed with disbelief.

Haversham nodded, and then continued, "Apparently Master George was to get a good portion of the money supposedly owed to the gaming hel from this gentleman, Twiddly, for acting as broker. Then they merely had to wait for Lord Madison to come to town again, drug and drag him to the gaming hel for a third time and force Lady Lisa into marriage as wel . Master George would gain a portion of her dower in that instance as wel . The gaming hel only took a percentage to keep its mouth shut about the fact that no money was actual y owing at al ."

"I wil see the place shut down," Robert growled furiously.

"No doubt you would be doing many unwary men a favor," Haversham assured him and then continued. "Once al three women were wed and fleeced of their dowers, the plan was to dispose of them al in one tragic carriage accident."

Haversham al owed a moment's silence and then added, "Once the women were dead, Master George already had his sights set on a certain young heiress who was too young to enter society yet, but should be on the verge of her debut by the time he was widowed. Master George was quite pleased with himself and his clever machinations," he added dryly.

"I considered warning lady Christiana," he admitted. "However, I fear I could not see how that would help. There was stil no proof of the man's perfidy, and while she might be able to warn her father and prevent his going anywhere near Master George again, I worried it would force Master George to kil the whole lot of them earlier than intended, including perhaps Lord Madison since he would know what was going on and be suspicious of any accidents to befal the women. It seemed to me the only other option was to stop Master George myself, and so I dropped cyanide into his glass of whiskey before taking it in to him."

He sighed. "I expected Freddy to be there when I took the poisoned drink in to Master George, and had not yet decided how to handle the man. However, he was nowhere to be seen, so I simply left the master to enjoy his celebratory drink and waited for matters to develop. It wasn't long after that Freddy claimed he wasn't feeling wel and Master George had excused him. For a short time I was quite concerned that he may have drunk the master's whiskey in his place.

However, when I checked on Master George, he was quite dead. I quickly emptied and wiped the glass to remove any proof of what I'd done, then refil ed the glass halfway and set it back before returning to the kitchens to await his discovery. But of course it never came. Lady Christiana eventual y went into the office, her sisters fol owed, and they were in there quite a while, but there was no hue and cry. Instead, the three ladies came out some time later lugging the dead George about in a rug."

"You knew he was in there?" Christiana asked with surprise.

"My lady, you real y were not gifted with a talent for subterfuge," Haversham said kindly.

Christiana flushed as she recal ed that her first words on running into Haversham had been We're just taking Dicky up to warm the rug. Honestly, she didn't lie wel