The Reluctant Earl by C.J. Chase

Author:C.J. Chase
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 1460304306
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Leah slogged up the stairs to the schoolroom, the magistrate’s final instructions to remain at the house still reverberating in her ears. As if she had anywhere to go even if she wanted to escape. She had no money, only a few worn clothes and two similarly indigent relatives. If the magistrate questioned her further, the truths about three years ago would eventually come out—truths she didn’t want to face, didn’t want to remember. Worse, truths that would end her employment and suggest a reason she might want Fleming dead.

She twisted the knob of the schoolroom door and trudged into the room. The scratching of quill on paper whispered from the table where Lady Caroline and Molly still drew pictures. Teresa glanced up from the desk where she yet sat. Nothing and everything had changed in the few brief minutes of Leah’s absence.

Teresa closed her book. “What did the magistrate want, Miss Vance?”

A murder suspect, it appeared. “He’s still investigating the circumstances surrounding Mr. Fleming’s death.” Would Chambelston divulge what he knew about Leah’s association with the radicals? She seemed destined to hang despite agreeing to betray her cousin and his friends.

“Poor Reggie! I can’t believe he is gone. I should have tried harder to stop those villains!” Teresa’s distress darkened the heavy black crescents under her eyes. “If only I had done more—”

“Stop!”

A hitch of her breath conveyed Lady Caroline’s apprehension at Leah’s sharp tones.

Leah swept across the room to Teresa’s side and dropped her voice in volume, if not intensity. “You are not to blame for being unable to rescue your cousin against the strength of five men.”

“But if I had done as Reggie instructed and ridden back for help—”

“Doubtlessly he would have died alone out there at their hands before any assistance arrived.” Leah covered Teresa’s cold, trembling hand with one of her own. “You did the best you could under horrifying circumstances. You distracted at least one of his attackers, possibly forestalling them long enough your cousin yet lived when help arrived.”

“And it was all for nothing. My best wasn’t good enough.” Bitterness edged Teresa’s voice and clouded her eyes. “Reggie died anyway.”

Leah peeked over her shoulder and met Molly’s uneasy gaze. “Perhaps you should escort Lady Caroline to her chamber. No doubt she could use a light repast.”

Molly nodded and slid the girl’s chair away from the table. “Come, Lady Caroline. We’ll ask Anna to get you some food.”

Caroline obligingly accompanied the maid.

Leah waited until the door shut behind them before sharing the remaining—worse—news with Teresa. “What you did wasn’t for nothing. The magistrate doesn’t believe your cousin died from the blows he sustained yesterday.”

Teresa blinked, her blue eyes a blend of self-recrimination and confusion. “But then...”

“Poison.”

“Poison! But—but how? When?”

Leah considered the magistrate’s last words before he had dismissed her with instructions not to leave Rowan Abbey. “This afternoon, I believe.” Whatever poison the assassin had administered, he had done it in sufficient dosage to kill Fleming in a very short time.

“Who would want to kill Reggie?”

Probably any number of women.

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