A Portrait of Love (The Academy of Love #3) - Minerva Spencer Page 0,122
door was closed she turned to Bella. “Explain,” she ordered.
Bella was clutching her riding gauntlets, which she was wringing like laundry. “It’s Raymond—” she stopped, the muscles in her jaw flexing, her expression agonized. “I hope to God I am wrong, but I think Raymond is trying to h-hurt—no—kill Simon.”
“What?” Honey shrieked. “But why?”
“For the dukedom,” she said, as though Honey were thick. “He wants the title—he always has. We don’t speak at all, now—he hates me—but years ago, we were—” Bella bit her lip and stared at Honey.
“Yes?” she prodded.
“He used to be obsessed with the title. He might not speak to me anymore, but I can still see it in his eyes—the way he sometimes looks at Simon. I’ve not seen him with the duke, of course, but I’m guessing it is the same as it was before.”
Honey’s brain couldn’t find purchase in the other woman’s words. “But—the duke—” she stopped, the dowager’s words from last week ringing in her ears:
Poor Wyndham has been so ill—this dreadful stomach problem just seems to go on and on. I don’t know what to do if the doctor cannot discover what is wrong—
“Good God,” Honey blurted.
She met Bella’s startled, questioning gaze and explained, “The duke—he’s been ill for months with some sort of stomach illness.”
Bella nodded. “Everyone knows that he’s been sick, but nobody knows what is wrong.”
“If Raymond is trying to kill Simon, then he must also be—”
“He’s poisoning the duke,” Bella said.
They stared at each other in stunned silence, awed and horrified.
“I feel like a fool. I’m so sorry,” Bella said, tears sliding down her cheeks. “I should have said something sooner. I’d heard of the duke’s illness and it reminded me of the baby’s, but of course I never had any proof—”
“Baby?” Honey repeated, her hands unconsciously going to her midriff. “What baby?”
Bella’s beautiful face was pale. “Edward.”
“Are you saying—”
Bella nodded.
Honey’s mind shrieked out against the other woman’s accusation: No! That couldn’t be true. Who would poison an infant?
She raised a hand to her mouth, her stomach pitching and roiling at the sickening thought.
Honey barely made it to the basin where she usually washed her hands before she voided the contents of her stomach.
Good God. Had Raymond really poisoned Wyndham’s son?
A small hand rubbed her back. “Are you ill, my lady?” Bella asked, and then gasped, “Lord, has Raymond been here? Do you think you’ve been—”
Honey dragged the back of her hand across her mouth, shaking her head. She didn’t want to tell the other woman that she was pregnant.
“No, I was just sickened by such a thought,” she said. “I don’t see how Raymond could have done anything to us. He was at dinner last night but—”
The mysterious letter that was found in the salver. Simon rushing off to confront Wyndham—
Honey groaned. “God, what an idiot I am—it must have been Raymond who left the letter.”
“What letter?” Bella asked.
“Simon received an anonymous letter saying your daughter was the duke’s.”
“That had to be Raymond’s doing,” Bella said.
Honey headed for the door. “I need to talk to Simon.”
“Where is he?” Bella asked, right behind her.
“He went to confront the duke—
Honey stopped and spun around, comprehension dawning. “Wait—how foolish I’ve been. Your child is Raymond’s—not the duke’s.”
Bella nodded. “If Raymond left a letter for Simon, it has to be some kind of trap. I daresay he’s hoping Simon will harm the duke. Even in the village people know of the enmity between the two brothers.”
“Good God! You think he hopes for one of them to kill the other?”
“Yes,” Bella said grimly. “And then whoever remains will hang for murder and Raymond inherits.”
“We need to get to Whitcomb.” Honey turned and ran, almost colliding with Heyworth and Rebecca, who were coming from the direction of the foyer.
“Oh, you are here, Rebecca,” she said, sounding foolish to her own ears.
“Why are you running? What is wrong with everyone this morning?” Rebecca demanded before Honey could speak. “I passed Uncle Simon on the way here and he was behaving so strangely I was frightened.”
“He just wants to talk to your father,” Honey said, striving for a normal tone. “I’m going over to Whitcomb right now to join them,” she added, trying to smile and failing if Becca’s expression was anything to go by.
“But Papa isn’t at home. He’s went to Lindthorpe today.”
“Did you tell your uncle that?” Honey shot back.
Rebecca recoiled at her harsh tone. “Of course, I didn’t want—”
Honey turned to Bella. “Take Simon’s fastest horse and ride for the sheriff. Bring