The Swordmaster's Mistress: Dangerous Deceptions Book Two(75)

Chapter Twenty Four


‘Excuse me,’ Guin said to Theo who was sitting next to her. ‘I have a slight headache. I must step outside for some fresh air, I think.’ She gestured to the gentlemen to resume their seats and stopped beside Bella’s chair. ‘Would you be so kind as to show me how to get out onto the terrace, Lady Ravenlaw? Perhaps we could stroll for a few minutes.’

‘Of course.’ Bella stood and went to the door. ‘We can go out this way.’

They paced along the terrace side by side for a while, then Guin said, ‘Is Mrs Quenten quite well, do you think? She seems strangely subdued to me.’

‘She lost her brother some time ago. It affected her deeply.’ Bella did not look at Guin.

‘How sad.’

‘I think you would describe him as somewhat of a loose screw,’ Bella added drily. ‘I never met him.’

They reached the edge of the terrace and turned. ‘But they lost their parents young and Lettie was more a mother to him than anything and she doted on him,’ Bella continued. The amusement had gone now. ‘She is a fiercely loyal woman. Her brother, her sons – I think she would do anything for them.’

Does she suspect? Is she afraid that her friend has stepped over the boundary into obsession and murder? ‘That can be admirable, if not carried to extremes.’

‘Yes.’ They walked on a few more steps. ‘It is very lonely here,’ Bella said abruptly. ‘Sometimes it gives me the shivers. One makes friends where one can.’

‘Allerton Grange belongs to Theo now. I have to admit to being quite pleased that I can retreat to London and leave it to him to decide whether to come up here in the winter.’

‘They say… Forgive me, but the rumours… They say he – ’

‘Murdered my husband and is having an affaire with me? No, neither of those things are true. If they were I would not need a bodyguard,’ she added, watching to see what the reaction to that would be.

‘But I thought my father-in-law said the problems you had been having were not serious, that they are more like practical jokes than attacks.’

‘The kind of practical jokes that could go seriously wrong very easily, jokes involving firearms and explosives,’ Guin said drily. ‘And then when we were coming back from Whitby, that day when you and Jared met, there was a serious attempt to kill all of us.’

‘Surely not?’ Bella stopped short of the balustrade and took Guin by the forearm. ‘Surely not.’

‘I do not know how else you would categorise weakening the axle and damaging the brakes on a carriage about to travel fully loaded over that road.’

‘But that is…’

‘Not a practical joke, no. Difficult to know who would have reason to dislike me so much. Although I suppose this latest attack may have been aimed at Lord Ravenlaw.’

‘Why would anyone want to attack Jared?’ Bella released her arm and went lean on the balustrade and look out over the moorland beyond the walls.

‘Hard to say. Of course, sometimes when people do something despicable to another person then they grow to hate the victim as a way of managing their own guilt.’

‘That is directed at me, is it not?’ Bella still did not turn. She gave a twist of her shoulders, a kind of shrug. ‘You are quite right of course. I was young and selfish and so very angry that I could not have what I thought I wanted because the Earl looked down on my family.’

‘Were you happy when you had it?’

‘Not very.’ Bella did turn then.

Perhaps she is talking to me because I am showing no hostility, simply a cool curiosity, Guin thought. And perhaps she really is lonely. If her only friend is a bitter and grieving woman obsessed with her dead brother, then who will help Bella?

‘William was just as young and just as selfish as I was. And then I could not give him sons, so both he and his father despised me. And Jack, Jared, hates me, doesn’t he?’

‘You would have to ask him. He was very badly hurt by both his father and his brother, I can tell that. But I do not know if you were important enough to him for what you did to hurt enough for hate.’

‘You do not need to carry a rapier, do you?’ The lovely curve of Bella’s mouth twisted into an ugly line. ‘That was as good a stab wound as Jared could inflict.’

‘I am not sure whether Jared is capable of hate. I think he has had long enough to come to terms with what happened, but you could apologise and see what happens,’ Guin suggested.

Bella raised her eyebrows. ‘Apologise? For something as bad as that?’

‘Why not? You have the nerve, I imagine, and you aren’t happy now, it might help.’

‘Why are you being so kind to me?’ Bella’s mouth trembled, became beautiful again, vulnerable. She bit down on it and the familiar expression of bored disdain returned.

‘Because I know what it is to be young and foolish and alone. To be full of regrets. To be lonely.’

‘Will you be my friend when you are mistress here? When you marry Jared?’

‘When I – I am not going to marry him. I am quite unsuitable for the heir to an earldom.’ And that was tactless, Guin.

‘After me? The Earl will accept you and be thankful. Besides, I doubt anyone says no to Jared these days. The way he looks at you makes what he wants quite clear.’