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"How did I not see this before?" he asked himself aloud. How had he not seen it after the pickpocket incident, or even the carriage crash? "I am a fool."
Gabriel was shocked when Miss Pritchard reached out and placed a hand upon his on his lap. Compared to his freezing cold hand, she was a veritable fire burning against his skin, and he longed to feel more of her warmth. It was only reminding him of who she truly was and his reasons for avoiding her that he did not allow himself to draw closer to her.
"You are not a fool, my lord," she told him gently, and he only dared to look at her long enough to see her smiling at him with sadness behind her eyes. "It took us a while to uncover it ourselves, though Chelsea and I believe we may have come up with a plan to really be certain we are right."
"Yes," Miss Walker said with a nod before either of the brothers could ask. She was only cut off for a moment by Jonathan's gut-wrenching cough. It sounded just as bad as Gabriel’s. Once he had stopped, she added, "But in order to go through with it, we must get to the middle of everything."
Looking between the two brothers, Miss Walker stated, "We need you to invite your cousin to dinner."
"You want us to invite the man getting our own servant to poison us for dinner?" Gabriel exclaimed incredulously. His mouth dropped open, but he closed it again when he felt the tickling of a cough rising in his throat.
"It appears your cousin Barnaby has formed quite an attachment with my friend here," Miss Walker announced, gesturing to Miss Pritchard. "We both suspect that your poor servant knows nothing of this, and we think it would be best for her to find out. Maybe then she will be less eager to do his bidding."
"Why not simply tell her?" Jonathan asked, looking between the two women as though he thought them conniving.
Miss Walker looked at her betrothed with a disgruntled expression and asked, "If you were to learn that I was having intimate feelings about another, would you believe the gossip without proof?"
The look on Jonathan's face said he knew very well what the answer was even before he assured her, "I trust you with my whole heart."
"And so you should." Miss Walker leaned over and pressed her lips to Jonathan's cheek firmly. Gabriel glanced away, slightly jealous at their intimacy. Yet his gaze quickly found Miss Pritchard and it became difficult to know where to look.
Desperate to break the uncomfortable silence, he asked, "Why would you put yourself through this for us?"
Miss Pritchard gazed back at him, her blue eyes blazing with emotion. "Because whether you like it or not, I care for you, and Chelsea cares for your brother. We would not see either of you in harm's way without doing something about it."
It was then that Gabriel realised her hand was still gripping hold of his, and he felt her squeeze his fingers gently in a comforting and supportive manner.
"Trust us," Miss Walker insisted, "we know exactly what we are doing."
Chapter 25
When Julia dreamed of love, she would never have imagined that she would be putting herself in a situation to seduce the cousin of the man she was mad for in order to get to the bottom of a potential crime.
And yet here she was, sat at the Tatford dining table with the man she loved, his brother, their mother, her best friend, and the cousin who believed himself so high and mighty that he could not see what was right in front of him.
Though Debbie the maid remained away from the dining room, Julia saw her flitting about outside through the winging doors and knew without a doubt that behind the scenes, she was continuing whatever dastardly plan she and Barnaby had come up with.
It made it extremely difficult for Julia to consume the food on offer, but she quickly decided that perhaps tonight's meal was not spoiled thanks to the masterminds sitting at the table beside her. After all, his little lover would not poison him along with her master and his brother.
Surely, she would not poison them all or make it entirely obvious what was going on when an entire dinner party dropped dead. Julia gulped, only able to hope, but still every meagre mouthful felt like dirt in her mouth and for once she was pleased of her mother's teachings not to look greedy.
The dinner was an oddly pleasant experience, if a little awkward, after all Lord Sutthers avoiding her. Yet just being able to sit at the same table as him after so long made her feel well again, at least well enough for her heart to stop aching quite so badly.
And she was relieved to see that after their conversation in the library the day before when she and Chelsea had explained everything to him and his brother. He was actually beginning to look better. It was clear he had groomed himself, as his beard was not nearly so frizzy and unkempt. His dark hair was tied back at the nape of his neck with a strip of black leather.
If not for the semi-circles of dark skin beneath his eyes, she might have forgotten he had ever been ill.
The most awkward part of the dinner was being stuck sitting between the earl and his cousin, knowing that she had to keep her attention on Barnaby and yet so desperately wanting to put all of it on the earl himself. She was sure she felt him watching her several times and yet whenever she glanced in his direction; he was always looking elsewhere, as though he could not bring himself to look her in the eye.
Just before the dinner ended, Julia was forced to enact the plan that she and Chelsea had come up with, not wishing to give the earl too much detail. For all they knew, Debbie might have been listening in, and the last thing they wanted was for her to figure them out and tell Barnaby everything.
When Chelsea gave her a tap with her foot under the table, she knew it was time to remove the note from her reticle that she had written for Barnaby. Holding her breath and feeling quite sick at the thought of what would come next, she discreetly nudged her foot against the gentleman’s, watching the way his eyes widened as she leaned closer to him and gently knocked him with her elbow, drawing his gaze down with her own to her hand beneath the table.
When he noticed the small piece of folded paper in her hand, his eyes alit once more upon hers and he glanced along the table to be sure nobody else was watching before he cupped her hand over hers. Even through their gloves, Julia hated the thought of his hand touching hers and yet there they were, hand in hand, only the gloves and paper between them. And it made her feel anxious.
His fingers lingered upon hers for several moments before he finally slipped the paper from her palm and she watched him shove it beneath the napkin on his lap, into his pocket before anybody could notice what was going on.
Gingerly, Julia gave Chelsea a nod to let her know that everything was going to plan. Soon Barnaby would find himself a moment alone to read the note she had written, expressing a wish for him to find her alone in the study as soon as they both got the chance to slip away.
