Page 53 of Truly, Madly, Daring

What he did not want to think about, not for anything, was the contents of his bath.

He had known, the moment his toe had dipped into the water and bumped against unknown objects that were soft and round, that something was terribly wrong. How, he wasn’t sure, but his instincts had told him to get the hell away and he had, moving too fast and subsequently slipping arse over apex. He’d cracked his head on the basin on the way down and very nearly done his father the service of doing away with himself. His head was still throbbing like the devil was using it as an anvil, and his stomach pitched every time his imagination conjured the bath, and those bedamned eyes staring up at him. He swallowed hard and told himself not to be such a baby, but the truth was the event had rattled him badly.

Living under his father’s roof had been like living on a battleground. He’d not been able to let down his guard for a moment. Yet he’d got through it, and the main thing that had kept him going was the knowledge he would escape and come home to Cawston Hall, where he’d be safe.

Except he wasn’t safe, and now there was Emmeline to consider. What if his selfishness the other night had already put a babe in her? What if the duke decided she, too, was in his way? His blood chilled at the thought, and he sucked in a sharp breath. Emmeline was akin to a miracle, arriving in his life in his moment of need and, by some stroke of luck—or perhaps a lack of judgement on her part—she cared for him. No matter what happened to him, Emmeline must be kept safe.

He sat up at a knock on the door and smoothed down his hair.

“Come in.”

“My lord, Janet has come to speak with you,” Emmeline said, as he stood, inclining his head.

“Thank you, Janet,” he said, bracing himself to add. “And I beg that you will not be afraid to speak plainly to me. I am aware I have been a little… overwrought at the events of the morning. I… apologise. I will also address the staff after this meeting to say the same to them.”

“Lord Wrexham, there’s no need to go apologising to the likes of me, I can assure you—”

He held out a hand to stop her and smiled. “My wife has told me in no uncertain terms that I behaved like an ignorant arse. Her words, not mine,” he added ruefully. “If I were you, I should not wish to contradict her.”

“No, my lord,” Janet replied, though he heard the smile in her voice and relaxed somewhat.

“Tell me what you know, Janet.”

“Well, my lord. It ain’t much, truth be told. Mrs Tweedy was very kind to me when we arrived. My room was all ready and ever so pretty, and even Mr Bunting spoke politely to me. In the last house I worked the butler was a right piece of work. Oh, the stories I could tell—”

“Perhaps, for now, you might just tell us about the two men?” Emmeline suggested gently and Wrexham smiled. She was a managing creature, and he rather adored that about her.

“Sorry, my lady. I’m that nervous, and my tongue runs like a fiddle when I’m anxious. Well, the thing is, I was all settled in my room when I heard footsteps, someone running along the corridor outside. Well, being in a new place and all, I was a bit on edge, despite being ready to drop, so I looked out. There were two men at the end of the corridor, talking.”

“Did you see them clearly?” Wrexham asked.

“No, my lord. It was dark, and they were in the shadows, but they saw me looking and they hurried off. About five minutes later, I heard voices outside though, so I cracked open my window. I’d swear it was the same two men, and they were laughing it up and…”

“It’s all right, Janet. I know it’s upsetting, but tell his lordship what you heard them say.”

Janet’s voice dropped to a whisper, so that Wrexham instinctively leaned in closer. “They said their master had some clever notions about how to make a fellow want to slit his own throat. They said… they said you’d be having nightmares about drowning in blood and guts and howling like a babe, wishing for the end afore the month was out.”

Rex sucked in a breath, horrified. A moment later, he felt Emmeline’s hand on his shoulder and reached up to grasp it, steadied by her nearness.

“Is there anything else you can tell us about them, Janet?”

“Yes, my lord. They weren’t like the rest of your staff, leastways anyone I’ve spoken to yet.”

“How so?” Emmeline asked.

“Well, the rest of the staff have been kinder than I expected, though it’s awful difficult to understand them, for they don’t half talk funny. They all got the local accent, like, but those two devils I heard, well, I understood every word. They were city folk. London born. Like me.”

Once Janet had been dismissed to carry on with her day, Rex summoned Mrs Tweedy and Bunting. From them he discovered that they had hired two new underfootmen to replace two who had mysteriously upped and left about a month earlier.

“Their credentials were excellent, my lord,” Bunting said, sounding mortified. “They’d worked for the Earl of Wendover, and everyone knows what a stickler he is. Also, I well understood why they might seek positions elsewhere after such a er… challenging situation.”

“There’s no need to be coy, Bunting. I am well aware of Wendover’s tendency to instil obedience at the end of a crop, or a poker, or whatever else might come to hand.”

He heard Emmeline gasp and wished he did not have to subject his wife to such unpleasantness. They ought to be honeymooning, for heaven’s sake, not tracking down men hellbent on causing him harm.

“The two men who left so mysteriously, what do we know about them?” Emmeline asked, proving to him, as if he needed any further proof, that she did not shock easily and would not be distracted from her line of enquiry.

“Not a great deal,” Bunting replied, but was interrupted by Mrs Tweedy, who gave a disgusted sniff.