Page 88 of The Bridal Quest

Gideon's grandmother let out a little shriek at the sight of the clock, and she flung her hands up to her face. "No! No! It can't be."

"It is her clock, is it not?" Gideon asked. "The one that her maid told us had belonged to her mother? The one that Lady Selene kept on her dresser? It was used to smash in her head."

Pansy cried out again and began to sob into her hands.

"Stop," Jasper said, turning back to Gideon, still avoiding the object in his nephew's hand. "It is Selene's clock. I already told you. Leave Mother alone. She knows nothing about what happened."

"Of course not!" Lady Odelia exclaimed, looking shaken. "None of us do. Some—some madman obviously must have broken in here and—"

"Enough!" Gideon grated out. "There has been enough lying, enough deception. My father killed her. And I am going to find out exactly what happened!"

Then he turned and strode rapidly out of the room.

* * * * *

The others stared after him, the silence broken only by Lady Radbourne's sobs.

"Now, where the devil is he going?" Rochford asked of no one in particular.

"To Owenby's," Jasper replied. "I will go after him." He started to follow.

"No, stay here with your mother," the duke commanded, taking Jasper's arm and pulling him to a stop. He nodded toward where the two elderly women were huddled together for comfort. "I will go after him."

"You don't know where to go," Jasper protested.

"I do," Irene said, already striding toward the door. "I will show you."

At Rochford's command, the grooms sprang into action, saddling a pair of horses in remarkable time, and Rochford and Irene set out. Gideon had a good head start on them, for he had taken the horse he had just ridden in on, which had not yet been unsaddled. However, Gideon, as his great-aunt had once said, was not at ease on horse, whereas Irene had ridden all her life, and the duke rode as if he might have been born on horseback. Moreover, their horses were fresh, and they took the more difficult but much faster course across fields and meadows, jumping fences and hedges, and coming out just east of the town.

They came galloping up the lane just in time to see Gideon dismount from his horse and storm into the valet's cottage. Rochford and Irene flung themselves off their own horses and, after tying them hastily to the fence, hurried toward the house.

Just as they were about to step inside, the maid came running out, shrieking. When she saw Rochford, she grabbed at his sleeve jacket, jabbering, "Stop him! Stop him, please! He's going to kill him!"

Rochford shook off the girl's hand and continued through the door, as unruffled as ever. Even the crash they heard deep inside the house did not rattle him; he merely strode forward, heading straight toward the noise.

They found Gideon in the kitchen, where apparently he had chased down his father's former valet. Owenby must have fled for the back door, but Gideon had cut him off.

Owenby huddled against the far wall, looking terrified and trapped. Gideon, a fireplace poker in his hand, stood in the center of the kitchen, easily able to move to block the other man's path whether he ran for the back door or the rest of the house.

"Don't deny it!" Gideon roared as Rochford and Irene entered the kitchen, and he brought the poker down on the table with a crash, gouging out a chunk of wood, and causing Owenby to jump and look wildly around, as if he were considering climbing straight up the wall.

"I know he killed her. You or him! Which was it?"

"I— I—" Owenby's hands fluttered nervously from his waist to his throat to the wall behind him.

"Tell me!" Gideon smashed the weapon down again.

"Gideon! Stop," Irene said crisply. "He can't answer, because you are scaring the wits out of him."

Gideon whirled around in surprise. "Irene! Rochford! What the devil are you doing here?"

"Did you think I was going to allow you to kill your father's valet in a fit of anger?" Irene retorted. "I have no intention of spending our wedding night visiting you in gaol."

"Don't be daft. I am not going to kill him."

"Of course not," Rochford agreed, going forward and wrapping his hand around the poker, easing it from Gideon's hand.

Gideon cast him a disgusted look and turned back to the cowering man. "I can still choke you to death," he told Owenby. "And, trust me, I will not hesitate to do so unless you start talking. And quickly. I was not raised as a gentleman."