Mims nodded. “So of course we knew Sir Julian was calling on Mama so frequently because he wants to marry her.”
“Only we don’t want her to marry him,” Megs added. “We want her to marry you.” She paused. “For the stables and things. If you don’t mind.”
Harry, still pink about the gills, had to stifle another smile. “It’s very gratifying to me to have your blessings, even if they are solely to benefit your horses.”
Lissy shook her head. “Ignore Megs. She’s too mercenary. But I can tell you that you won’t have our blessings if you go and take part in this silly duel tomorrow because now we know the truth we can categorically say Sir Julian intends you harm. And if he gets to shoot first, he’s going to be aiming to kill.”
Harry frowned. “That’s very melodramatic of you.”
All three of them shook their heads in unison.
“Not at all,” Megs said. “I happen to know he nearly shot his old gardener’s boy because the boy, who’s a good friend of our, I meanyour, gardener’s boy.” She frowned. “Only now he’sourstable boy. Very confusing.”
“Nearly shot him?” Harry’s voice rose in shock.
She nodded with vigor. “He missed, but Dick told me the intent was there and the boy, whose name is Sam, refused to go back to work at Thornby even though his father beat him for it. Sam told Dick that Sir Julian is dicked in the nob.”
Lissy scowled at her. “That’s not at all a ladylike term, Megs.”
“But it’s what all his servants think, so it must be true. They’re all afraid of him.”
Harry digested this information. Whatever the boy Sam had told his friend, it was entirely possible Sir Julian had not meant to shoot at him. It could have been an accident. But…if all his servants thought him “dicked in the nob” as Megs had so succinctly put it, there might be some truth in it. After all, he did seem to be under the impression Miranda had been promised to him by her late husband and that the promise was binding in some way. Which wasn’t true at all.
He began to feel most uneasy about this whole affair.
“Can you ring for Crawford please?”
Megs obliged with a hearty tug on the bell rope, and Crawford was there in under a minute. “You rang, Sir Henry?”
He might as well be blunt. “I need another favor of you, I’m afraid. What do you know of Sir Julian’s mental state?”
Crawford hesitated and glanced at the girls. They all gazed back at him in what looked like breathless expectation.
Crawford cleared his throat, looking awkward. “It’s really not my position to say, Sir Henry.”
Harry shook his head. “Well, you’re going to have to. I’m asking you to be honest with me and tell me everything you’ve heard. Rumor, facts, everything.”
Crawford shifted his feet. “I suppose I would have to say that he is not known for his balanced outlook on life, Sir Henry. As witness, his challenge to you. He, er, he has a certain reputation in the neighborhood, even though he’s a magistrate.”
“Have you heard that he tried to shoot his gardener’s boy?”
Crawford nodded. “I have.”
“Do you think it’s true?”
The poor man shifted his feet again. “I do.”
“You think he intended to shoot the boy?”
“I do.” Crawford bit his lip. “And from what you told me of this morning’s events, I fear he might have tipped over the edge.”
Harry ran his fingers through his hair, regardless of how that made it stand up on end. He sighed. “He doesn’t sound as though he’s of sound mind.”
“Dicked in the nob,” Megs said.
Her sisters both poked her hard and she scowled at them. Clearly she liked that phrase too much to give it up.
Crawford pressed his lips together. “I suspect you might be correct, Sir Henry.”
