Read Skylark Online

Authors: Jo Beverley

Skylark (6 page)

BOOK: Skylark
2.81Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads
“But what danger was he in, eh?” Lord Caldfort demanded. “What were you doing to let him eat poison?”
“Poison?” she gasped, wondering what he knew.
“I hear you forced an emetic down him. Was that for amusement, woman?”
Laura sat down before her legs betrayed her again. “No, sir, of course not. But it may not have been necessary. I couldn’t afford to take any risk. Harry ate something he found on the ground. A bun, probably.”
“Rat poison, was it?”
She shuddered. Such deaths from poisoned bait were unfortunately common. “Who would put out rat poison in a graveyard, sir? Doubtless someone dropped the bun and there was nothing wrong with it, until my panic excited his stomach.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “But you don’t think so.”
She licked her lips and repeated what she’d said. “I couldn’t afford to take the risk, sir.”
He scowled, looking like a dyspeptic bulldog. “You’re a good mother. Thought you were nothing but a pretty flibbertigibbet when Hal married you. Didn’t the
ton
used to call you skylark?” He snorted. “Not for your singing, either. For your larking around.
But you’ve turned out to have all your wits about you. Hal was fortunate.”
It was the first time he’d said anything like that to her.
“Thank you, sir. I do grieve for him.”
“Aye.” He sighed. “He lived for hunting, though.”
“He would have chosen that way to go,” she agreed. He certainly wouldn’t have wanted to outlive his ability to ride and hunt, as his father had.
“I suppose you’ll want to put off your departure,” he said.
Laura’s stomach tensed. “I don’t think that’s necessary,” she said as casually as she could manage. “Children get over these things quickly. Unless Harry seems worse, we will leave tomorrow as planned.”
She braced for resistance, but he nodded. “Aye, that would be best.”
Laura curtsied and left, relieved in one way but not in another. Did Lord Caldfort share her suspicions? Could his distress this morning have been due not to a letter, but to something Jack had said?
She paused in the hall to go over everything, and she couldn’t make it fit. She was almost certain Jack hadn’t visited that early, and everything pointed to Lord Caldfort being alone, reading his correspondence when the shock occurred. . . .
“Laura? Is something the matter?”
She started and whirled, hand to chest, to find that she hadn’t imagined that distinctive, slightly drawling voice.
“Stephen! What on earth are you doing here?”
Chapter 6
Elegant, blond, lean, and quizzical, Sir Stephen Ball was indeed standing across the hall from her, though her stunned mind couldn’t imagine how. It was as if he’d appeared in a puff of theatrical smoke.
“What am I doing?” he asked, strolling toward her. “Attempting to speak to Lord Caldfort on a political matter, but I gather there’s a problem in the house. Cook’s burned the sauce? A rat’s invaded the larder?”
Stephen, here, sardonic as always. Wishing to speak to Lord Caldfort . . . ?
Her dazed mind suddenly sharpened. Was his arrival connected to Lord Caldfort’s earlier shock? Had a letter heralded political scandal or disaster?
“Laura?” His brows had risen, and his lazy eyes were now sharp. As her shock faded, she realized that he hadn’t appeared in a puff of smoke, but simply walked out of the reception room.
She gathered scraps of information. He’d come here to speak to Lord Caldfort and been shown to the reception room. Her drama had distracted all the servants and he’d been forgotten.
She managed a light laugh. “Stephen, I’m so sorry! As you say, we have all been distracted by a domestic matter, but how shameful that you’ve been neglected. You’re here to see my father-in-law? I’ll go and let him know—”
She began to turn, but he caught her arm, shocking her. As she turned back, she knew it wasn’t just the outrageousness of it. It was a man’s touch. It had been so long since she’d felt a man’s touch like this.
But Stephen . . . ?
“Take a moment to settle your nerves,” he said, letting her go. “I don’t wish to intrude, but is there anything I can do to help? I’m quite a hand at catching rats.”
To spill every detail to him now was perhaps the strongest temptation Laura had ever experienced, but she stopped herself. Once they had been as close as sister and brother, but once long ago. For six years, he had avoided her as deliberately as she had avoided him.
“Thank you, but the drama is over. My son ate something noxious and I had to give him an emetic. Lord Caldfort is upset because, of course, Harry is his heir.”
“What did he eat?”
“A bun of some sort, dropped in the churchyard.”
She managed to speak lightly, but shocked thoughts rushed in anyway.
And possibly deliberately laced with poison.
An arm came around her and she needed it, needed assistance into the reception room and onto the sofa there. She couldn’t afford to be so weak, but muscles and sinews don’t always obey will.
“I’m all right. . . .” she tried.
“Going sheet-white and swaying is Lady Skylark’s latest party trick, is it?” He went to the fireplace and rang the bell.
“All the rage in these parts.” She managed to say it lightly, but was relieved to be sitting down. She even closed her eyes and leaned her head against the back of the sofa for a moment, listening as if from a distance as Thomas arrived, apologizing fervently for having forgotten the visitor.
“Never mind that,” Stephen said with cool authority. “Mrs. Gardeyne needs a restorative. Sweet tea and brandy. Immediately.”
Thomas left and Laura opened her eyes. Despite everything, she even found herself smiling. “How typical of you, Stephen, to be giving orders in someone else’s house.”
“Playing lord of creation. Do you mind?”
“Of course not.”
But what if he’d come to tear her bit of creation apart?
A final act of revenge? No, she couldn’t imagine Stephen sinking so low. They had been friends once, good friends.
He came to sit beside her on the sofa and she noted a new grace in him. He had grown into his height and strength, but that shouldn’t surprise her. They had met now and then over the past six years.
He was in boots and leather breeches. Country wear, but London made, she noted. After all, they called him the Political Dandy. A riding crop lay with his hat and gloves on a table.
He’d ridden here. From where? People rarely chose to ride long distances—off the hunting field, that was.
His lips twitched. “As readable as ever, Laura. What am I doing here? I stopped by to speak to Caldfort about some Parliamentary matters.”
She straightened and gathered her wits. “Yes, you said. But stopped by? Berkshire is hardly next door to Devon or London.”
“A little out of the way. Am I unwelcome?”
Yes
. But she couldn’t say that.
“Of course not. It’s only that I’m still shaken by the incident with Harry. I fear you’ve wasted a journey, however. I doubt Lord Caldfort will appear in Parliament again. He can hardly leave the house.” She lowered her voice. “He may not last long.”
“Unfortunate. He’s always been a supporter of military reform, which is the issue in hand.”
She tried to read his expression, but he’d always been skilled at concealing thoughts and feelings. Was the explanation of his presence that simple? No connection to her father-in-law’s distress? She distrusted coincidence, but she supposed it did happen.
The tea arrived with the brandy decanter on the side. Stephen would have poured, but Laura insisted, even though the pot felt heavy in her still-unsteady hands. She stirred more sugar into her cup than she normally took, and let Stephen add some brandy. As soon as she sipped, her nerves began to calm and she smiled at him.
“This is exactly the thing. You must have thought me demented.”
“Just distressed. A threat to your son is explanation enough.”
She froze with her cup halfway to her lips. “Threat?” His brows rose. “Possible poison is a threat, is it not?”
She forced a laugh. “Yes, of course. It’s just that
threat
sounds deliberate, and of course it was not. An accident, that’s all.”
She was babbling, so she occupied her mouth with tea again.
When he didn’t say anything, she grimaced at him. “This has not been a good day, but there’s no mystery, so don’t turn your gimlet mind to it.”
“You know the source of the tainted bun?”
She should have known she wouldn’t deflect him.
She gestured it away. “Oh, it probably wasn’t tainted at all. Children’s stomachs are upset by the slightest thing, including excitement. If I’m distressed, it’s that I fear I forced the emetic on Harry for no reason, and he’s wrung out, poor mite. If not, I’d take you up to meet him. So,” she said, forcing the conversation back to his affairs, “what journey brings you past Caldfort?”
She thought he might reject the change of subject, but he relaxed. “I’ve been in Oxford—a neighboring county at least—and I’m on my way home.”
That route would bring him close. Relief unsteadied her almost as much as fear had, but she still had to deal with him.
Even in normal circumstances, Stephen’s arrival would be a strain. Today it was close to intolerable. How quickly could she speed him on his way? Not until he’d spoken with Lord Caldfort. She would arrange that now. . . .
But then the clock chimed five.
“So late?” The words unfortunately escaped her.
He put down his cup and rose. “I’ve kept you with this idle chatter when you have a sick child. Forgive me. I’ll put up at the local inn and return tomorrow to talk to Caldfort.”
She rose, too, and acted as she must. “Of course, you will stay the night here, and I’m sure Lord Caldfort will be happy to speak to you now if he is able. He misses involvement in the world’s affairs. I’ll go and see.”
This time he made no attempt to stop her, and Laura could escape.
She paused halfway across the hall, struck by a sickening new realization. Stephen did nothing without thought. He’d arrived here late in the day and then, yes, he had kept her talking when she had a sick child in the nursery. He’d made an invitation to stay impossible to avoid.
He and she had avoided each other for six years. He would never come to her home for a trivial purpose. Whatever the purpose was, however, she could see no way to prevent it.
She carried on to Lord Caldfort’s study and watched his reaction to news of the guest. Pure delight. She took Stephen to him and would have loved to linger and find out more, but Lord Caldfort would never stand for that.
In the hall again, she shrugged. If a sword was to fall on the Gardeyne family, it would fall. She summoned Mrs. Moorside and gave instructions for the preparation of a room.
“And tell Cook there’ll be one extra for dinner. A gentleman likely to eat more than the rest of us together.”
Despite Stephen’s slim build, he’d always had a healthy appetite, especially after riding. She remembered—
She blocked that. “Oh, and as there’s no sign of a valet, tell King to be ready to assist Sir Stephen if needed.”
King was Lord Caldfort’s man and might enjoy attending to a man of fashion.
Laura wanted to check on Harry, but she took a moment to be sure that she’d done all that was necessary. There was one more task. She went to Lady Caldfort’s room to inform her that they had a guest. Laura had taken over the running of the house, but she tried not to ignore the older woman.
“A
young
man?” Lady Caldfort asked, turning to face Laura, brandishing a beetle on a pin.
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“Good. You should marry again. Get away from here.”
Lady Caldfort turned back to her work and Laura left, wondering if that was a warning, but no one was less likely than her mother-in-law to know of secret plans. After all, she was clearly blind to the fact that Laura was pinned here like a beetle in a box.
Now, thank heavens, she could go up to the nursery. When she saw how much Harry was recovered, most of the knot of tension in her unraveled. He was awake from his nap and demanding his supper. Laura checked again for fever or pain, but no one would guess he’d been so unwell.
“Very well, but just soup with bread in it. And then some stewed apples and cream if you feel like them.”
His bright eyes said he did. She played with him a while, but couldn’t stay with him all evening when they had a guest and Harry was clearly recovered. She kissed his brow and went downstairs, but her mind wouldn’t stop circling the events of the day.
Had she imagined Lord Caldfort’s distress?
Had that bun really been poisoned, or had that been her own unbalanced interpretation?
Was Stephen’s arrival an innocent coincidence?
One shock after another after another had caused a turmoil inside her that was almost as violent as the one caused in Harry by that bun. She could no longer tell truth from fiction.
She entered her boudoir and leaned back against the door, trying to reason away her fears.
Lord Caldfort’s problem probably had nothing to do with her.
If Jack wanted Harry dead, why try such a clumsy way when better occasions would turn up in time? Boys will be boys, and in a few years Harry would be climbing trees, boating on the river, learning to ride, and even to jump fences. A fatal accident could literally be child’s play.
As to Stephen’s arrival, at least it must mean that he’d put old rancor aside. It might be time for her to forgive and forget, too. They were close to strangers now.
Laura’s maid bustled in. “With a guest for dinner, ma’am, you need to change.”
“Not for Sir Stephen, Catherine. We’re old . . .” Laura sought the right word and in the end settled on “acquaintances.”
BOOK: Skylark
2.81Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Shadow by Ellen Miles
Ready to Bear by Ivy Sinclair
Machinations by Hayley Stone
And the Bride Wore Plaid by Karen Hawkins