Duncan shrugged. “I imagine Aaran’s and my constituents have their own complaints regarding my choices as head of the Scottish delegation in the Lords, and there is more than one English lord who objects to a Scot giving orders in England.”
“True you have your enemies,” Benjamin said in caution, “but this matter feels more personal. I imagine most who truly wished Duncan dead would hire another to do the dirty work. Pardon if I am too analytical in this matter, but it all feels quite intimate. I do not believe this attack has anything to do with your position in government or your stance on certain proposals. The person meant to walk right up to you, Duncan, and see you dead. The man meant to look you in the eye and know you recognized him and that his ‘justice’ was well placed. I had many hours at the Lyon’s Den, while you were still quite ill, to consider what was what, as well as to walk the scene of the shooting over and over again, looking at it from various angles. My conclusion was this was something deeply especial in nature. The man did not initially run away,” Benjamin continued. “Like the rest of us, he was surprised by the outcome.”
“If he planned it, why was he surprised?” Beaufort asked in serious tones.
“I think he planned for Duncan to die on site. That he could stand over Duncan’s body and know he had had his final revenge. Yet, from the time Duncan’s knees buckled, it was obvious the bullet had found its target, but it had not known the intended results. There was still the chance Duncan would survive.”
There was a solid minute of silence before Hartley said, “Let us examine the coat’s pockets and see if we can discover who has had itfor the last month. I do not believe any of us think it was in one of the niches of the Lyon’s Den’s rear foyer and, somehow, we simply missed it.”
“I surely did not see it before tonight,” Benjamin said, “and I looked for clues every day I was with Duncan at the Lyon’s Den.”
“We each searched the area over and over again,” Orson stated the obvious. “Why has this coat just been found?”
No one objected as Hartley turned the coat inside out to look for secret pockets and the like. They examined every stain, tat, and loose thread.
“The more I study this coat, the more I am in agreement with Benjamin. He has a superior mind in such matters,” Duncan remarked. “I believe it has much to do with his nature, but also his training as a surgeon. He sees what others may overlook. Just like he and Rheem did when finding all the pieces of the bullet in my chest.”
His adoptive father’s words brought a swell of pride to Benjamin. He wished his own father was alive to hear the praise.
“Several of you should speak to Titan tomorrow and learn more about the coat’s recovery. Actually examine the area in which it was found,” Duncan instructed. “Perhaps Mrs. Dove-Lyon would also be willing to speak to the matter.”
“You should go to bed, sir,” Orson instructed. “This is your first evening below stairs, and we will not tolerate your setback. I will see that everything is set for tomorrow.” He pulled the bell cord, and, within a minute, Mr. Fields appeared. “His lordship wishes to retire, Fields.”
“Absolutely. Come along, my lord.”
Unsurprisingly, Duncan’s steps faltered, but Fields and a footman supported his lordship’s retreat. The rest of their group waited in silence until they could no longer hear Duncan giving orders.
Orson sighed. “I should see Lady Emma to her quarters.”
“What do you plan to do with her?” Beaufort asked softly asBenjamin assisted Hartley with refolding the coat.
“I hold no right to do anything,” Orson said with a lift of his shoulders in indifference, while Benjamin looked on. Though he, like the others, had recognized Orson’s interest in the woman, Benjamin had not considered how Orson might not know the perfection he sought. “There is no guarantee Lady Emma would accept the likes of me. After all, though we all have lines of aristocrats going back multiple generations on our family trees, what do any of us truly know of family?”
Orson’s words had Benjamin realizing he knew more of family than did any of his “brothers.” He had a living mother, though she still grieved the loss of her beloved husband, and he was often worried that she might grieve so much she would quit tending to her own needs.
“From what you said earlier, likely more than does the lady,” Beaufort countered. “Actually possessing a mother and father has not protected Lady Emma from knowing danger nor has it provided her a model for how a family should operate. We had that with Duncan and our Elsbeth. None of us could have asked for a better mother.”
As the last of Duncan’s sons, Benjamin knew “of” Lady Elsbeth’s legacy, but had not known the woman herself; however, he kept his thoughts to himself, for, in reality, at one time or another they had all known the comfort of their own mothers. None of them ever disparaged the women that had brought them into the world, but, rather, they blessed Lady Elsbeth for being the type of woman to give to those who were in need of assistance, a calling Benjamin had known from his own parents.
Beaufort continued, “Lady Duncan’s only fault was she was determined to provide her husband with an heir. She left us all too soon, but we each had a piece of her upon which to latch our own hopes. Do not permit Lady Emma Donoghue to slip through your fingers, Orson. I concur with the others; she is your chance for happiness.” Beaufort grinned in his usual good humor. “Actually, I was not speaking of yourproposing when I asked what you planned to do with the lady. I was simply asking if you meant to wake her so you might walk her to her quarters or would you be the cad you are and carry her in your arms so you might snuggle closer and claim a kiss. Though I suppose, theoretically, her quarters are your quarters. You could share.”
“You are an arse,” Richard noted.
Beaufort grinned widely. “Come, Hartley, I will see you home. You have more files to search tomorrow.”
“Take the coat with you,” Richard ordered. “We cannot take the chance that either Mr. Fields or Mrs. Braylon will take it upon himself or herself to be rid of it. They think it is beneath Duncan even to touch it because it came from the Lyon’s Den. However, it is our first major piece of evidence in solving who meant to kill Duncan.”
“I could send a message tonight and call upon the Lyon’s Den tomorrow to determine exactly where the coat was found and by whom. We must know whether it has been there all this time or recently moved there. When I tended to Duncan, Mrs. Dove-Lyon was very accommodating about my searching the area, though I would have preferred to have viewed each of her ‘ladies’’ rooms personally to determine what one might find within. For all we know, the man who raced away simple entered a door being held open for him,” Benjamin told them.
“I am confident you would be interested in the women’s rooms for other reasons,” Beaufort said with another grin.
“Why must you turn every situation into an innuendo?” Benjamin complained. When Beaufort offered no rebuttal, Benjamin continued, “Though I trust Mrs. Dove-Lyon to speak the truth, it is still possible that one of her women found the coat and purposely hid it, thinking to sell it. Then when the woman discovered its importance, she chose to be rid of it instead.”
“I just wonder why the man took the time to remove it,” Orson remarked. “Would you not, if you were running away from such acrime, simply keep running? Would you not race through the streets of Whitehall before you removed the coat and left it in an alley or behind a building for someone to find? Most in Whitehall or Parliament or one of the offices in that area would have kept it or placed it in the hands of someone who had a need of it. Assuming the person thought it necessary to be rid of it, why stop inside the Lyon’s Den to remove the coat and take the time to hide it?” He held up his hands to stop their obvious responses. “I know. It was likely easier to blend in with those rushing from the gaming hell after the gunshots. Yet, if such was true, then why did the culprit not retrieve the coat before now? It has been nearly a month. Why not return, enter the musicians’ entrance when the men show up for the evening, take the coat, and leave the same way you came in?”
Beaufort stretched and yawned. “Ask me all those questions again tomorrow when my brain does not cry out for sleep. We will leave Marksman’s coach for the earl and you to Lady Emma.”
“Call in at the office in the morning, my lords, and I will have information for you,” Hartley assured, and then they were all gone, including Benjamin, who had no true response to his suggestion of questioning Mrs. Dove-Lyon. Perhaps he would do so himself.
