There was no sign of either Chester or Lord Darling and no mention had been made of those two houseguests. Percival was burning to ask about them, but could not think of a way to introduce the subject.
If these gentlemen were relations of some sort, the conversation would be very comfortable. But what if they were not? How to bring up the subject without casting some sort of aspersion on the situation or hinting that it was odd or not quite the thing?
“As we know,” Miss Mayton said, “the duke gave up his fortune to Mr. Denbrow in order to wed his daughter, but he insisted on being named Mr. Denbrow’s heir. Now, the duke and duchess are living in poverty and, while Mr. Denbrow is rich, he is also fearing for his life. Will one of the many servants the duke was forced to dismiss attempt a murder? Or might it be the duke himself, in order to regain his fortune? The kitchen maid has just delivered another note full of threats. Chapter four.”
Mr. Denbrow could not go on as he was. He rarely slept, and when he did, he had one eye open. He was exhausted and it was very hard to enjoy being rich when one was exhausted.
He was determined to get to the bottom of the threats being delivered one after another. But how to do it?
The kitchen maid came once again to his library. “Here’s another one,” she said, dropping it on his desk. “They’s comin’ in like birds to roost.”
Mr. Denbrow ripped open the paper and read it. Again, another threat! This time, he would be tied to a tree and coated in bacon grease. Then, a bear from the circus would be let loose very nearby. After he was sufficiently mauled to death and half eaten, whatever was left of him would be used as fishing bait.
“Ya seem upset,” the kitchen maid said.
Mr. Denbrow glared at her.
“I’m only sayin’ you ought to take steps. If you was to marry and have a son, then that little fella just born would be the heir, no matter what you signed.”
“Is that true?” Mr. Denbrow asked, clutching at the idea as if it were a branch that might pull him out of swift water.
The kitchen maid nodded. “And what would you say to marryin’ a gal who already proved she can produce a babe?”
The girl turned and showed her profile. Mr. Denbrow had not noticed it before, what with his own problems to think about, but she was very clearly with child.
“We hitch up at the altar and then three months later, you got a son on the ground.”
“But wait, you cannot know it is a boy.”
“Oh, I know it,” the girl said. “I’m carryin’ low.”
Could that be the answer to his problems? It was not perfect, of course it was not. For one, he’d have to marry the kitchen maid. He did not even know her name, and he was fairly sure he did not like her. For another, it would really only solve the problem of the duke murdering him to get his fortune back. It would do nothing to appease the villagers who had been dismissed from the duke’s service.
“I reckon,” the maid said, “that you get a son and then take your piles of money and your wife and babe and move away so as nobody can touch you. I heard Spain is always sunshine, it don’t hardly rain there.”
Spain? That would be a nice change of pace. The dale seemed to trap clouds and rain overhead. And then, could any of these disgruntled servants chase him to the continent? He couldn’t think they’d have the means to do it!
He would be free. He would be able to sleep.
Miss Mayton laid down the book. “So now we wonder, will Mr. Denbrow marry the kitchen maid and move to Spain to escape the clutches of his would-be murderers?”
Percival, of course, already knew the answer to that question. And what an answer it was.
“I’m always left on tenterhooks over it,” the earl said. “What say you, Lord Harveston?”
All eyes turned in his direction. He said, “I find it simply astonishing.”
“Well said,” the earl answered.
Lady Juliet stood. “I suppose you’ll want to hear the ode I just composed?”
“I could not rest if we did not,” Conbatten said.
Percival could not tell if the duke was joking or not.
Lady Juliet held her book up to read. “Ode to a Traveler.”
He turns this way and that with no direction in mind
