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“No!” Jane wiped her mouth clean with a linen napkin. “Then this is supposed to be your honeymoon. And here I am, intruding upon it.”
“Oh, it’s not like that. It wasn’t a love match.”
“He’s very handsome, Lord Hatherly. If my feverish rememberings can be trusted.” Jane smiled. “Are you certain you don’t want a romantic honeymoon with him?”
“Funny concept, honeymoon,” Alice mused. “From the Old English ‘hony moone’ referencing the sweetness of honey and warning of the changes of the moon. The first month of marriage is rapturous... yet love inevitably wanes.”
She and Nick only had one month. She knew the limits of their relationship.
“Alice?” Jane was looking at her with a worried expression.
Alice laughed softly. “There I go again, always delving into the origins of words when there’s work to be done in the here and now. It’s time you had a nice, hot bath.”
Jane sighed. “That would be lovely.” She touched one of the cheerful yellow daisies. “I used to hate this color. Now...” Her eyes filled with tears. “Thank you, Alice,” she whispered. “I hope I have the chance to thank Lord Hatherly and Captain Lear as well.”
“You will.” Alice rose. “I’ll go and see about that bath.”
“He’s in the carriage,” Lear said tersely. “Tried to run so I tied him to the hand strap.”
“Where’d you find him?” asked Nick. “I thought he’d be halfway to America by now.” They’d been searching for a month and hadn’t found a trace, but now Lear had Stubbs trapped inside a hired carriage.
He’d have his answers now, Nick thought grimly.
“He’s been hiding in a hovel in Cheapside,” Lear said. “Squandering the duke’s winnings on gin. When his funds ran low, the landlady turned on him and contacted me. Heard I’d been looking for him.”
Nick paused. “That doesn’t sound like Stubbs. I hired him from a respectable agency. I trusted him. He was a good caretaker and a gentle, sober man.”
Lear snorted. “He’s not sober now.” He opened the carriage door. “Isn’t that right, Mr. Stubbs? She sold you out the second you couldn’t pay. No loyalty these days, I tell you. I’ve brought someone to see you.”
Stubbs cowered into the corner when he saw Nick. “I didn’t mean you to be gambled away, Your Lordship, I didn’t know you’d have to marry the girl.”
Nick climbed into the carriage.
“I’ll stay outside,” Lear said.
“Don’t leave him in here with me alone,” cried Stubbs. “Help! Murder!” he shouted out the window, though they were far from the crowds, in a quiet alleyway off Fetter Lane.
“There’ll be no murder today.” Nick balled his hands into fists. “Though you’d best start talking, or I may be tempted to use these on you.”
Stubbs cringed. “I didn’t harm the duke in any way. Just a bit of fun. He had a lark, the duke. Loved every second of it. Loved the gambling.”
Nick paused. Could that be true? He’d always thought his father was happiest in the peace and quiet of Sunderland. The few times he’d taken him out, the duke had gone silent and wide-eyed with fear.
“Whether he enjoyed himself is neither here nor there.” Nick grabbed Stubbs by the neck cloth and pulled him closer.
The man reeked like a distillery. It smelled like he’d bathed in gin.
Grimacing, Nick twisted his neck cloth tighter. “I trusted you, Stubbs. What made you do it? Did someone force you into it?”
“It was my idea,” Stubbs said sullenly, his large, fair head lolling to the side.
He was definitely more than three sheets to the wind.
Nick threw him back against the seat cushion in disgust.
How could Nick have hired a secret drunkard to watch his father? Stubbs had never touched a drop of spirits before, not where Nick could see him, anyway. And he’d been so very mild mannered and trustworthy.
Nick could only surmise that Stubbs was lying, and someone had hired, or coerced, him to betray Nick’s family.
