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It was all most disconcerting.
Chapter Ten
“What is it?”
Matthew burst into the room, fearing that something was very wrong with Lord Templeton. He had received an urgent note from him that morning – although he had shouted at his butler for not rousing him at once when the note arrived after he had broken the seal and read it. Not that it had been the butler’s fault, of course, but Matthew had been so upset by what he had read that he had been unable to contain his emotions. The note had asked for him to attend Lord Templeton as soon as possible, for there was an urgent matter that required his presence. And now he was about to find out what that was.
He stopped dead, just as the door crashed into the wall and swung back towards him, such had been the force of his worry. Lord Templeton was leaning forward in his chair, holding a delicate china cup in his hand and, opposite him, sat none other than Miss Williams.
She, too, was sitting forward in her chair, as though she had been in deep conversation with Lord Templeton, and in front of her on the table sat a steaming cup of tea.
“Do come in, won’t you?” Lord Templeton asked, jovially. “And sit down. There’s tea that has just been made, and we had a cup set for you just in case you arrived in time.” He smiled and gestured for Matthew to sit down, but all Matthew could do was stare at the man, his heart pounding with the exertion of practically running from the carriage into the drawing room and his mind fuzzy and confused with thoughts.
“Lord Watt.” Miss Williams had half-risen from her chair, her emerald eyes glittering with concern. “Is something wrong?”
Much to Matthew’s ire, Lord Templeton merely chuckled. “I fear that I am to blame for this,” he said, with a heavy sigh. “I wrote to Lord Watt this morning and begged him to attend here at his earliest convenience, but mayhap I chose my words poorly and made it sound as though there was some sort of danger in the present situation.”
“Yes,” Matthew rasped, still not quite able to take in what he was seeing. “That is precisely what I thought, Lord Templeton. You are not in danger?”
Lord Templeton shook his head but gestured towards Miss Williams. “I am not. Although I cannot say the same about Miss Williams.”
Matthew’s heart, which had only just begun to settle, now began to hammer furiously all over again. “Miss Williams?” he repeated, coming to sit down and feeling his legs a trifle weak. “What has happened?”
Miss Williams smiled at him, although there was a concern in her eyes that she could not quite hide. “Lord Templeton summoned me also, else I would have written to you this morning and asked if we might meet,” she said, with a slight edge to her voice. “We did not manage to converse last evening.” A hardness lit her expression for a moment, and Matthew felt himself flush.
“I had to pretend to be in my cups,” he explained, realizing that he perhaps ought to have told Miss Williams in advance that this was what his intention was. “Lord Fitzherbert would not think it odd if a gentleman filled with liquor spoke much too openly about a lady of his acquaintance.” He gave her a half smile, filled with apology. “But if I was quite sober, then we would not have been able to discuss you with the same openness. He would have thought it a little odd and might well have been set on his guard.” Seeing the flickering frown in her expression, he sighed. “If it is of any consolation, Lord Fitzherbert told me that he fully intends to seek your hand, Miss Williams. He will soon ask to court you, I believe.”
Miss Williams did not appear to be gratified by this. Instead, she sighed heavily and passed one hand over her eyes. “He is not the only gentleman,” she answered, sending a wave of astonishment crashing over him. “This is what I wanted to tell you last evening, Lord Watt.” Her hands dropped back to her lap and she looked him straight in the eye. “Lord Stevenson has asked to court me. Indeed, he wanted to speak to Lord Northgate only last night!”
Matthew stared at her, before glancing towards Lord Templeton. Concern began to flood his heart, beginning to wonder why Lord Stevenson had done such a thing and what his intentions towards Miss Williams truly were.
“You are as astonished as I,” Lord Templeton muttered, reaching forward and pouring more tea into his own cup before adding some to the third cup that was for Matthew. “What is his intention, do you think?”
Matthew shook his head, quite dumbstruck for a moment. He had never once thought that Lord Stevenson would be at all interested in Miss Williams – not because of some failing on her part, but because Lord Stevenson had appeared to be less than interested in her.
“I wondered at it indeed,” Miss Williams said, her voice soft and her eyes filled with a good deal of concern. “I do not understand the man at all. He shows very little interest in me, then turns about and asks to court me? He even stated that he thought I would make him a very good wife, when the truth is that he has only shared a few words with me!” She rubbed her forehead, looking both puzzled and concerned. “I do not understand it.”
“And I also have news,” Lord Templeton interrupted, looking around to the small table on his right, twisting his body so that he could find something of evident importance. “A letter arrived this morning.” Finding it, he held it out towards Matthew, his face twisted. “We shall have to inform the League, of course.”
Matthew hastily unfolded the letter, scanning the lines quickly. Apparently it had been easy for the two men sent by the League to discover the whereabouts of the two gentlemen who had left England almost two years ago. The note stated that they had died on the voyage, catching some sort of disease and never quite recovering from it. Their names were both in the passenger logs and in the lists of those who had died. There was no reason for them to doubt it.
“I see,” Matthew murmured, shaking his head and looking down at the paper again. “Then we are even more in the dark. Either of these two gentlemen could have been behind the death of Lord Harrogate.”
/> Lord Templeton considered this for a moment and then shook his head. “I do not think so,” he said, slowly. “I might have agreed with you had I not heard from Miss Williams that Lord Stevenson has sought to seek her out as his wife.”
Frowning, Matthew glanced at Miss Williams, who was looking back at him with a troubled expression. His heart began to ache for her, feeling the overwhelming urge to get out of his chair and to draw near to her so that he might comfort her in some way. Although precisely what he would do, he was not quite sure.
“Do you not see it?” Lord Templeton asked softly. “Can you not make the connection?”
As hard as he tried to understand what Lord Templeton meant, Matthew simply could not understand how the man had reached the conclusion that Lord Stevenson seeking to marry Miss Williams had something to do with the two deceased gentlemen gone to America. He could not understand how they could be so easily pushed from the investigation simply because of their deaths!
“Does it not seem to you, Lord Watt,” Lord Templeton continued, as silence continued to grow around them, “that Lord Stevenson might be protecting Miss Williams in a way?”
Matthew thrust himself from his chair in a sudden flurry of understanding and excitement. “Yes! Yes of course! I do not know why I did not think of it before now!” He gestured towards Lord Templeton. “It is, as you say, quite clear!” He wanted to bang his head against his hands for being so foolish, but instead, he turned towards Miss Williams who was staring at them both with wide eyes. “Lord Stevenson is seeking to protect you.”
Miss Williams blinked, her expression remaining entirely the same. “What do you mean, Lord Watt?” she asked, her voice very quiet indeed. “I do not understand.”
Beginning to pace back and forth, Matthew began to speak quickly. “I spoke to Lord Stevenson at length about Lord Fitzherbert. I mentioned to Lord Templeton briefly that I had done so. I will not pretend that I spoke the truth, Miss Williams, for I did not. I told him that you were pursuing me again after an absence and that I was doing all I could to ensure that nothing serious was brought to the fore.” He waved a hand, seeing her mouth drop open and ignoring the flush of embarrassment that climbed up his face. “I have to tell many lies in such situations, Miss Williams, but it ensured that Lord Stevenson believed that I had no other choice but to introduce myself to Lord Fitzherbert.” He paused, freezing suddenly in place. “I remember now. When I told him that I intended to push you towards him regardless, he reacted as though he had been told the most dreadful of secrets. It was astonishing, in fact.” Closing his eyes, Matthew dredged up the memory of what Lord Stevenson had said and tried to recall it as best he could. “He practically made me promise I would not do so.”
