The Way to a Duke's Heart by Caroline Linden

Author:Caroline Linden
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Avon
Published: 2012-08-28T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Charlie’s temper was perilously close to snapping.

The day had not begun well, with a ringing headache from his previous evening’s overindulgence. Despite the strong temptation to remain motionless until the room stopped revolving around him, he dragged himself out of bed. Barnes, his unsympathetic valet, offered cold cloths and headache powders until Charlie snarled at him to go away. As much as it felt like he’d been rolled down a hill head first, he needed to think. Naturally, it took some time for his thoughts to settle down into order again

The inescapable conclusion was that he had to tell Tessa what he’d learned. Lester’s revelations hadn’t helped him very much, but they would make an enormous difference to her. He had told himself originally he didn’t want to interfere with her at all; the canal was more than Hiram Scott, and if it was a profitable investment, who was he to stop her from making it? It hadn’t pleased him, but he’d deliberately kept his business with Scott separate from hers. Still, he’d become increasingly disenchanted with that stance, and now that he knew crucial information about the canal, he was bound to tell her, and not just because he wanted to keep her away from Scott—even if she didn’t want to see his face at the moment.

But the lady was not in when he called. Mrs. Bates wrinkled up her face and wrung her hands when he reached the inn. “Oh, dear,” she cried. “I’m dreadfully sorry! She’s gone to Mells, my lord.”

“To Mells?” he exclaimed, jolted by the news. “Why?” Had Lester confessed? Had Scott drawn Tessa out to Mells to pressure her?

“Mr. Scott wrote and said he’d got the books ready for her to look at,” explained Mrs. Bates. “And she’d been waiting so long to see them, she would not be deterred from driving out straightaway, Lord Gresham, even though I begged her to wait . . .”

“She went alone?”

“She insisted,” she said, looking cowed by his sharp tone. “I did suggest she ask you, my lord . . . but she would not impose, even though it makes me dreadfully uneasy to think of her driving all that way alone . . .”

Charlie took a deep breath. It was no surprise she hadn’t wanted to ask him; he deserved that. And she had been waiting to see those books. He didn’t like the coincidence of it, but after last night, he didn’t like anything connected to Scott and his bloody canal. Odds were it was entirely ordinary. It wasn’t far to Mells, the road was straight enough, and Tessa knew the way.

“My lord?”

He blinked out of his thoughts at Mrs. Bates’s timid query. “Yes?”

“Did . . . Did something happen last night? At the dinner, I mean.”

He hesitated. “I expect Mrs. Neville was not in the best humor when she returned.”

“No,” she murmured, looking as though she was bracing herself. “She was not herself.”

“Some gentlemen of the party proved themselves unworthy of a lady’s

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