The Unmarriageable Series Collection: Books 1-3: A Regency Historical Romance Collection by Lancaster Mary & Publishing Dragonblade

Author:Lancaster, Mary & Publishing, Dragonblade [Lancaster, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Romance, Historical, Fiction
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2019-06-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

In the drawing room at Finmarsh House, Cecily played around the keys of the pianoforte. She had already sung twice for the company, but she and Torbridge lingered at the piano while the others began a game of whist.

“How is our wounded friend?” Torbridge murmured.

Cecily picked out a key that was very slightly out of tune and pressed it twice. “Alive.”

“And our host?”

“I have no idea.” She spread both her hands across the keyboard and struck a couple of chords.

“Forgive me,” Torbridge said, low. “But did you see what happened?”

Cecily shrugged. “There was some kind of movement. He pushed me behind him, told me to go back to the house. I didn’t, of course. He dashed forward. I heard a sort of groan and then he was crouching over the poor man.”

“Forgive me, Cecily,” Torbridge said again. “But could Verne have done it?”

She stared at him. “Done what?”

“Stabbed our victim.”

“No! Someone else ran away into the darkness.”

“Did you actually see that? Or was it just an impression you had?”

“Both. You’re being silly, Torbridge, influenced by foolish gossip and an undeserved reputation. Of course Verne did not stab that man! If he had, why would he carry him into his own home and do his best to save him?”

“Because you were there?”

“Then why try to kill him in the first place?” she demanded.

“Because he might say something no one should hear? Least of all you. I don’t know. I’m thinking aloud.”

“He is not as black as he is painted, my lord,” Cecily said with dignity. “Far from it.”

“I know, but he is painted very black.” Torbridge hesitated. “You don’t know him, Cecily. You don’t know what he’s capable of.”

That much was true. When she thought about the sudden flurry of events in the darkness before the wounded man lay at her feet, everything was blurry. She could have conjured up the indistinct figure she’d imagined running away… but she didn’t think so. Nor did she see Verne attack the victim. and she didn’t believe he had.

“Neither do you,” she told Torbridge. “You are accepting his hospitality and yet saying such dreadful things about him.”

“Dreadful possibilities,” Torbridge corrected. “No more.”

She ran her fingers down the keys in an angry swirl. “What do you want me to do? Cry off my engagement already?”

Torbridge sighed. “All I ask is that you are careful, that you do not marry him this week or next.”

“There will be no marriage until after we have seen Alvan,” she said impatiently. “But that is my decision and Verne’s. You have no say in the matter.”

“Of course I do not,” he said humbly. “I care only for your happiness.”

*

After she and her aunt had retired, Cecily sat on the edge of her bed, deliberately not ringing for Cranston. She counted to one hundred and then slipped out of her chamber and downstairs toward the library.

Her heart thundering, she raised one hand to knock at the library door. Before she could touch it, it flew open, and Daniel appeared, halting his precipitous exit in surprise.

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