From Governess to Countess (Matches Made in Scandal #1)(31)
‘I think,’ he said ruefully, pulling her back to safety before reaching for the oar, ‘that someone somewhere is trying to tell us something.’
‘By dousing us with cold water, you mean?’
A clock chimed in the distance. ‘Or reminding us that tomorrow is rapidly approaching, and that our sightseeing expedition must end, for the time being.’
‘You’re right.’ She settled herself reluctantly on the rear bench.
He leaned over, cupping her face and their cold lips met once more. ‘I earnestly wish I was not.’
‘So do I.’ She pulled him closer, kissing him fiercely. ‘So do I.’
*
Morning broke too quickly for Allison. Having lain awake for hours reliving their kisses, her body thrumming with frustrated anticipation, she had fallen into a deep sleep just as the sun rose, only to be awakened what seemed like a mere five minutes later, by Natalya bringing her tea.
The children were fretful, Catiche sullen, Elena determined upon mischief, finally succeeding when she deliberately tore the ear from Nikki’s favourite knitted rabbit, resulting in an epic tantrum and a storm of tears which summoned the almost-deaf nanny from her room.
By now extremely relieved to surrender her charges to the old woman’s care, Allison resisted the temptation to return to her chamber and, with more than two hours to spare before she was due to open up her dispensary, decided to explore the succession houses again. She was in the first of the glasshouses, a fernery, eyeing the incongruous statue of a completely naked Aphrodite set under a palm tree, when the creak of the door alerted her to another presence.
‘I saw you from the study window, and followed you here.’ Aleksei was dressed in his formal uniform, freshly shaved, and looking ridiculously, sinfully attractive.
‘Good morning. The children were...’ She bit her tongue. He wasn’t in the least bit interested in the children’s mood. ‘I thought I’d take another look to see if I’ve missed anything.’
‘I am going to miss you.’ He took her hand, made to kiss it, then changed his mind, pulling her suddenly into his arms and kissing her lips instead.
‘Aleksei! You must not—what do you mean, you will miss me? Where are you going?’
‘I’ve been thinking. Since I couldn’t sleep last night, my—my mind being over-stimulated...’
‘Aleksei!’
He held up his hands in mock surrender. ‘I was thinking about my next move, and I came back to the question of possible motive. It is a long shot, but I thought it was worth trying to find out a bit more of Michael’s activities in the period before he died. I thought I could take up some of those invitations I keep receiving, attend the court, ask a few pertinent questions, reconnoitre the lay of the land, so to speak. If I’m very, very lucky, I might even find someone who knows where the Orlova woman might be hiding.’
‘That’s an excellent idea.’
‘Yes, it’s brilliant,’ Aleksei agreed sardonically. ‘Endless meetings and dinners and parties fuelled by gossip and speculation. All my favourite activities.’
‘But well worth it if it flushes out a new suspect, or more importantly, helps you to flush out our prime suspect.’
‘Indeed. I will be paying a call on my cousin, our only available suspect too. So I should warn you that I will require to be away from the palace a good deal in the next week or so.’ He took her hand again, saluting over it and pressing the lightest of kisses to her fingertips. ‘I hope it will not be too long before Aleksei and Allison can meet in more congenial circumstances.’
*
Watching him walk purposefully away, and hoping that the congenial circumstances were not too many days away, Allison reminded herself that Miss Galbraith had a fee to earn.
She began to wander through the fernery, enjoying the rich, loamy aroma of the compost, the slightly bitter scent of the larger ferns, testing herself to see if she could name them all. A fish pond lay at the centre of the succession house, stocked with colourful carp. A little woodland grove planted along one wall caught her attention. Here was yellow-leaved meadowsweet, which was good for the digestion. A late-flowering knotweed. Blowsy chrysanthemum in autumn gold and copper. The dried crimson spikes on this one suggested it was the lily known as red-hot pokers. This one, with its plumes of tall white flowers, she didn’t recognise, but beside it was a clump of delphiniums, one of the flowers Lady Hunter favoured for her vases. Allison had fond memories of trailing through the garden in her ladyship’s wake, carrying the trug.
Suddenly, she recalled the salutary lesson Grandmother had taught her when she had brought back a bunch of the blowsy blooms to the cottage as a surprise.
‘By all that is sacred!’ Allison exclaimed.
The drawing in the book which Seanmhair had shown her had looked, to Allison’s uninitiated eyes, exactly like the flowers Lady Hunter had given her to take home. It had the same shape and stature. But the stem and the leaves depicted in the drawing were a much darker green and, her grandmother told her, rough to the touch. Where the delphinium had bell-shaped flowers, the other plant had sinister, cowl-like hoods, a vivid blue in colour, the stamen almost black, glinting with moisture and, to Allison’s childish eye, malignant.
‘Wolf’s Bane. Monkshood. Devil’s Helmet. Aconite.’ She remembered pronouncing the strange words carefully. There were many names for this darkly beautiful and deadly plant, for every single component, from petal, to seed, to root, was poisonous. The roots and seeds were especially dangerous if ingested, but equally lethal if the skin was pierced by an arrow or a dart or a knife.