Loving The Lost Duke (Dangerous Deceptions #1)(74)

‘They caused a scandal. She was betrothed to someone else, my father saw her, fell in love with her, fought a duel with the discarded lover who shot himself a week later. It ruined my mother’s reputation, almost made my father an outcast, but they seemed oblivious to all that because they had each other. No-one else mattered.’

And not you, from the bitterness in your voice, she guessed, her heart aching for the child on the outside of that intensity.

‘When she died he was a broken man.’

And so you promised yourself you would never do anything so foolish as to fall in love. Then you marry a woman who loves you and you see how unhappy that made her… so you add guilt to a mixture of emotions as toxic as that spring water. And I love you.

‘I am so sorry,’ she managed to say.

Cal shrugged. ‘It was tragic for them, a lesson for me. When I heard you that evening at the ball I could hardly believe my good fortune. You are beautiful, intelligent – and we are totally in accord on what makes a good marriage.’ He leaned across from the saddle and dropped a kiss on her lips.

He did not appear to find it strange that she was silent as they rode on. Perhaps he assumed she had been shaken by what they had found, or was tired after the horrors of the morning or was happily digesting the good news that he felt himself incapable of love and saw it as a positive handicap to a marriage.

‘There they are.’ Cal raised a hand in greeting as Hunt and Flynn appeared around a bend in the road.

The others turned back as their route had been the shorter, and Sophie sat and thought while Cal told them about the mining village and the diverted stream and the polluted water.

She came to awareness of her surroundings when they began to discuss plans for the watch on the spring.

‘We cannot cover it with the three of us, or even four, with the addition of Prescott. Not for two days and nights without being missed,’ Hunt said.

‘We will tell Hooper. I would trust him with any secret. He’s been the stable master here for years, and he is grandfather to Ben, my tiger.’

They dismounted and when the grooms took the horses away Cal led the way into one of the empty loose boxes in a corner, gesturing for Hooper to follow them.

It took some explaining, working round why Cal had been suspicious of the water in the first place, but the old head groom was nodding intelligently, putting in a question here and there. ‘So you think that’s what killed Mr Ransome then, Your Grace? I did wonder if there hadn’t been some foul play, that he’d brought some danger with him from London. He was not a young man I took to.’

‘Foul play?’ Flynn said. ‘Not directed at Mr Ransome, that’s for sure. It has been going on for years. He drank water meant for the Duke…’

Sophie wasn’t certain, but she thought Hunt kicked Flynn who flinched, then went red and closed his mouth with a snap.

Outside something banged closed and they all went quiet. ‘Looks most likely it was an accident,’ Cal said smoothly when there were no more sounds. ‘But we need it proved, hence the dye. The water will need watching. Easy enough by day, by night we will need lanterns on it and the watchers will need to stay awake, so best make it short shifts of two men. Who can you trust amongst your staff not to gossip?’

‘All of ’em, Your Grace. I’d vouch for the lot of ’em. A bad business this, poisoned water. You could have been killed if he hadn’t drunk it by mistake. Leave it to me and I’ll tell the lads we want to find out where the water goes – they’ll understand we can’t knowingly let it pop up somewhere else, kill livestock, mayhap, or some stranger taking a drink. And they’ll see they can’t speak of it in case one of the neighbours thinks it’s a good idea to blame every dead sheep on our water.’

‘Good man, Hooper. We had best start with a pair up there now, just in case, and keep them changing over every three hours. They will need lanterns…’

Sophie wandered out of the box, too restless to listen to detail. Cal had shown her the stables quickly on their first whirlwind tour and she had promised herself a leisurely stroll around the spacious quadrangle with its big stone water trough in the centre. She had visited less elegantly designed houses before now.

The second stall held a big grey hunter who turned and came to snuffle at her hand when she held it out. ‘You are handsome,’ she told him. He was also rather warm and his saddle was casually dumped on the door of the stall. Her foot tangled with the bridle which must have slid off to the ridged blocks of the floor.

Sophie picked it up, noting the dirty bit. Someone had come in and untacked the horse in haste. She craned to look and saw he had at least got water in his bucket and hay in the net. Perhaps the stable lad had been called away and would be back in a moment.

The sound of men leaving the other loose box drew her back. Hooper went across the yard with his rolling horseman’s gait and called a group of grooms to him. Flynn and Hunt headed back to the house and Cal stood looking round. When he saw her his smile transformed his face, chasing away the bleak look that was beginning to haunt her. ‘There you are. Lord, Sophie, I think you are the only thing keeping me sane here. All these emotions swirling inside me and then there’s you. No emotion, no drama, just clear, frank common sense and friendship.’

She slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow and gave his arm a little squeeze. I could give you so much emotion you would not know what had hit you, she thought grimly. I love you, you wretched man, and you can’t see it and I dare not tell you, because what if you are appalled, what if you have to pretend out of pity? What if we have to start lying to each other? I do not think I can do this any more, she thought.