Wicked Temptation (Regency Sinners 6)(24)

Pru rose agitatedly to her feet to glare at him across the length of the room. “Did any of the men watching me manage to apprehend the person responsible?”

His mouth tightened. “Titus dismissed my men several days ago.”

“He did?”

The duke nodded. “Titus employed his own men without my knowledge.”

Her brows rose. “Which is why they did not report the shooting to you and you did not arrive on my doorstep earlier than nine o’clock this morning.” When Stonewell failed to appear during the night as she expected he would, Pru had sent a note to his home at eight o’clock this morning, informing him of the incident. His visit an hour later appeared to be a result of that letter.

“Yes.”

“Titus did not trust your own agents to protect me.”

A nerve pulsed in the duke’s cheek. “It appears not.”

She nodded. “I am sure you understand why.”

“Do I?”

Pru narrowed her eyes. “You may be a duke, and so above me in Society, but I advise you do not attempt to play the innocent with me. Not when we are both aware there is a traitor in our midst. One who has now committed murder three times in an effort to cover up their other crimes.”

The duke stilled, his gaze wary. “What do you know of this traitor?”

She gave a snort. “One thing I know with absolute certainty—it is not me! I also know,” she continued as he would have spoken, “that your own wife is one of the ladies under suspicion. Indeed, I believe the duchess is the only lady left of the original eight suspected of treason.”

His hands were clenched at his sides. “Titus should not have told you—”

“Do not presume to come here and tell me what Titus should not have done.” Pru stepped forward before moving up on tiptoe, her face now only inches away from the duke’s. “Look to your own household before you dare to criticize anything that happens within mine!”

The two continued to glare at each other for long seconds before Stonewell drew back slightly, his gaze flinty. “I sent my wife and mother-in-law to the country first thing this morning.”

“What purpose does that serve when your wife obviously has no trouble instructing one of her associates to carry out the murders rather than doing the deed herself?” Pru challenged.

His nostrils flared. “You have no proof of that.”

“Do you?”

He drew in a harsh and controlling breath. “Unlike Titus, I will not discuss Crown business with you.”

“Strange, I have absolutely no problem doing so with you.”

“I have done what I can, by having now placed several of my own agents temporarily outside this house. I have expressed my regret and sympathies regarding the death of another member of your household—”

“I want your action, not your sympathies!” she snapped furiously.

He gave a haughty inclination of his head. “I have already informed the relevant authorities that I shall be taking over the investigation into last night’s shooting.”

“How convenient for you.”

“Lady Prudence—” The duke broke off any tirade he was about to make, drawing in several calming breaths before speaking again. “I have taken your…comments this morning on the subject under advisement.”

“But you will do nothing about them,” she scorned.

The duke drew himself up to his impressive height of several inches over six feet, his expression uncompromising. “Might I see Titus now?”

Some of Pru’s fight left her at the thought of the man lying in one of the guest bedchambers upstairs. The second shot fired had entered Titus back before lodging high at the front of his chest, ripping through muscle and bone but miraculously not damaging any of his vital organs.

All had been chaos the previous night once Pru’s screams brought several of the footmen and maids, as well as the housekeeper, to see what all the ruckus was about. All of them had been wearing various night attire, several of the ladies with their hair curled and pinned. Parker would have been horrified at their lack of decorum—

A sob caught in Pru’s throat at thoughts of the Germaines’ butler, of his dead body sprawled in the open doorway of the house. The first bullet fired had struck him directly through the heart.

Pru had known Parker all her life, knew him to be totally loyal to the Germaine family and always kind and attentive to the family’s needs.

Pru had been in shock once she realized what had happened, but as all the servants fell into hysteria of one level or another—they were a close-knit bunch, and Parker had been the benevolent head of the household—Pru had been left with no other choice but to take charge of the situation.

She had immediately sent one of the footmen for the doctor so that he could attend to Titus’s wound and also confirm Parker’s death. After which, she had calmed the remaining servants, sending those not needed back to bed and utilizing the rest to carry Parker back into the house and place him on the couch in the drawing room and Titus upstairs so that she might stanch his wound and wait for the doctor to arrive.

It had been the early hours of this morning before the doctor left again, having located and removed the bullet by making a slight incision in his chest, before then stitching up Titus’s wounds, front and back. He left instructions Romney was to be watched carefully for the next twenty-four hours, at least. Pru had spent what was left of the night awake and seated at Titus’s bedside. He had not woken or stirred once. Pru had only left his bedside now, leaving one of the maids there in her stead, because of the duke’s arrival.