Page 31 of Lord of Loyalty

Someone thumped on the door.

One of these days, he’d teach the ape how to knock properly. “Who’s there?”

“It is I, sir—Manners.”

He stood, bringing Isobel with him. “Enter.”

She glanced up at him, questioning. He squeezed her hand. “It’s all right. You may speak English in front of Manners. He knows all my secrets. I pay him well to keep them to himself.”

“So, what have you there, sir?” He stepped to one side so Manners could empty his pockets onto the table.

“Let me explain, Isobel. As soon as Pike arrived here, I sent Manners to Marston House to break in and search for incriminating evidence. So, all the while your cousin was poking around in my home, my agent was doing the same thing in his! Well, your home, I should say. Now, do you understand my amusement?”

Manners showed his gap-toothed grin. “It was like taking milk from a babe, sir, so poorly guarded as the house was. There didn’t seem to be no one about, and it looked as if someone had already ransacked the place. There was things scattered everywhere, so it took a bit of searching to pick up anything useful. But you’ll be pleased with what I got, sir—I know you will. Locked away in a chest, these were, but I got in easy as butter.”

Will glanced down at Isobel and saw the understanding dawn in her eyes. A smile played around her lips. “Very clever, Will. I wondered why you were content to have Hubert remain here so long, despite the risk of him finding me.”

Good—he’d hoped she’d be pleased. She needed placating after that ill-advised kiss.

He cleared his throat. “So, what do we have, Manners?”

“I think you’ll find these documents interesting, sir. Particularly this one.” Manners handed him a folded piece of parchment. Will opened and scanned it, then read it again. His blood chilled, and anger roiled in his belly.

“If I’d known about this when Pike came calling, I’d have run him through on sight. I can only hope that I’ve not left it too late to do so.” He dropped the paper to the table.

“There are these as well.” Manners carefully tipped out the contents of the scrip attached to his belt, and several glass phials filled with liquid of different colors rolled onto the table.

Will let out a slow whistle. “Look at this, Isobel. Enough medicines to supply an army in the field. Or, viewed differently, enough to poison one person many times over.” He removed a cork and sniffed at one of the bottles. It smelled like rotting flesh—henbane. “I fear marriage was not the fate Pike intended for you.”

Her face had paled. Mayhap he should have spared her this, but he was too angry to think straight. She reached for the folded paper while he unrolled the other document.

His anger was stoked to a blaze. The first paper had been a draft of Isobel’s Aunt Jane’s will. Proof positive that Pike knew about the inheritance. The second, which now trembled in his hands, was a newly penned document, one Isobel was evidently intended to sign. It stated that, in the event of the deaths of herself and Edward, all the Marston property—including the legacy—should remain in the family, to be administered by Hubert Pike. The paper was neither dated nor witnessed, but Pike had doubtless expected to find some penniless clerk prepared to accept a bribe and give it the seal of authenticity.

Without a word, he handed the document to Isobel.

“There’s one more thing, sir, Mistress.” Manners placed a large silver locket on the table. Isobel looked up from the paper she was reading and gazed at it. Will’s gut clenched as her eyes brimmed with tears.

“What is it?”

“A miniature painted for me on my seventeenth birthday.” She held it out to him, and his heart bled as he absorbed the joyful innocence on the subject’s face, and saw how carefree Isobel had looked before her trials. The locket was engraved with her name, and that of her father, presumably because he’d made her a gift of the jewel.

He handed it back, closing her hand around it, then covering hers with his own. “Keep it safe. ’Tis proof of who you are, and to what you are entitled. Just in case Pike hasn’t yet given up his pursuit of you, and has some other contemptible scheme up his sleeve.”

A sudden loud pounding at the front door made his heart flip in his chest. Manners straightened. “Shall I answer it, sir?”

Will took a deep breath, then swept the papers into a chest beneath the table. “There’s no time to hide Isobel properly. If it’s Pike, throw him out on his ear. No, detain him. I’d like to get my hands on that scoundrel.”

Manners was peering through the panes. “It looks like a lady, sir. Nay, two of them. Shall I admit them?”

“Isobel, behind the drape, if you please. Forgive me—I need to see who this is. I’ll not tarry. We must make our plans.”

The desire to kiss her pale cheek beat like a storm in his body, but they’d agreed to forget that earlier kiss. He mustn’t trespass again—she might not let him off so lightly should he repeat his crime.

Moments later, he stood in the passageway by the front door, as Manners opened it to reveal the gleeful faces of Paulina Mathieson and her mother.

“Will!” Paulina flung her arms about his neck. “I can hardly believe it. I’m delirious with joy—we are to be married after all!”