The Convenient Bride (19 page)

Max smiled at the idea. “
Or, what if Mr Porter left it? I’m given to understand that he purchased the scandalous underwear in question. Perhaps he wants to tempt me away, so that he can ravage you all night long.”

Lucy laughed. “I’m afraid that no amount of teasing is going to help us decide how to return it without embarrassment.”

“Well for now it stays there,” he said. “If whoever put it there doesn’t take it back, we’ll post it on to them after the guests have left.”

That sounded reasonable to Lucy. “How long do you think it’s been there for?”

“There’s no way to tell. I generally only use the dressing room, the bed never needs making and the maids don’t bother to light a fire in there anymore. I think they last changed the linens and dusted a few days ago, so it will probably be another few days before they discover it.”

“So I suppose we just have to wait and see what happens now,” Lucy sighed.

Max’s hands began to wander. “I can think of a few ways to pass the time.”

***

The next day Lucy headed to the orphanage for the day, although she made sure that the ladies had enough to occupy them. Most of the gentlemen felt like riding and once they were all sorted with their own or borrowed mounts, Max headed to the study.

He knew that detectives existed but he didn’t know how one went about finding an
d hiring one, so instead he wrote to his London solicitor and asked him to organise an investigation into the actions and history of Madam Marie Poisson and Giles Gibson. He gave them Marie’s address and since he didn’t know many details about Giles, he explained that he was related to the Northumberland Gibsons.

It wasn’t an awful lot of information to go on and he was surprised to realise that he didn’t know more about M
arie. Every piece of information that he thought he knew however, he suspected was probably false. He knew she wasn’t French and therefore, had not been born in Paris, he assumed that even her name was a lie, and she had given her age as 20 but he thought she looked older (it could have been from living a difficult life, or she could just as easily be lying about her age).

Having included all the information that he knew to be true about Marie and Giles, he sealed the letter and had sent a messenger off to London with it. He had no idea how long an investigation such as this should take but he had little choice but to be patient, so he tried to put it out of his mind as he joined his father in the library, where the older man was reading the morning paper
.

Max was surprised to receive a reply just two days later
, but the letter only confirmed that the solicitor had engaged the services of Pennington Investigations and that Mr Pennington would be communicating directly with Max from this point onward.

Another letter arrived the following day from Mr Pennington. The details were few but he confirmed that following a search of Madam Poisson’s rooms, they had confirmed that she was living there with a gentleman and were at present attempting to identify him. They had also discovered an
address in Wiltshire among Madam Poisson’s possessions and a man had duly been dispatched to that region to discover what he could.

As yet there was no news on Giles Gibson but another gentleman had been dispatched to
Northumberland, to make discreet enquiries among Giles’ friends and family.

Max was impressed with the speed and professionalism of the service (illegal searches aside) and wrote back
, thanking Mr Pennington.

***

That afternoon, Lucy discovered a hair comb, inlaid with mother of pearl amongst her combs, which were kept in her dressing table.

“Whitaker, do you know where this comb came from?”

The lady’s maid put down the dress she was laying out and came over. “I found that in the sitting room, Ma’am. I didn’t recognise it but I thought that it had to be one of yours.”

“Our private sitting room, you mean?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Thank you.”

Whitaker returned to the dress while Lucy pondered the strange comb, brushing out her hair all but forgotten, as her suspicious mind seized on reasons why Max must be having an affair.

This was the second item belonging to a lady that had been discovered in under a week, both in rooms where only she, Max and the servants should enter. She couldn’t honestly believe that anyone wanted to cause them to argue, which meant that both items must have be
en left by accident, which meant that one or two women had been in Max’s bedroom and their private sitting room.

Max had plenty of time to engage in illicit meetings since, with so many people in the house, they weren’t spending
an awful lot of time together at the moment. Then of course, Lucy was out of the house for two days a week, helping at the orphanage.

But assuming that Max had invited a woman into their quarters, would he really be so careless as to let the women leave her belongings behind? Unless she had intentionally left the items to be discovered, hoping that Lucy would discover the affair. But the chemise had belonged to Mrs Porter, who seemed to be very happily married.

And besides, Max had a whole house in which to carry on an affair, as well as the estate cottages and the Dower House; why would he invite her to their rooms, where he was most likely to be discovered?

Or perhaps he resented not being able to discuss his assignations with Lucy these
days, and this was his way of letting her know that he was seeing someone.

But when had he found the time? It was true that Lucy hadn’t been with him much during the day but he had been spending a lot of time with his father, as well as his sister,
May.

Perhaps the comb
belonged to May or his mother; it wouldn’t be untoward for one of them to be in their sitting room. Only Lucy had known both women for years and had never known either of them to own an item like this.

She rested her elbows on the table and cradled her head in her hands. An image of Max from last night entered her mind, how
loving he had been. Even if he did have the time and inclination for an affair, Lucy was keeping him worn out. Did Max really have the energy left for another woman?

And could he really be so heartless?

No, that wasn’t the boy she’d fallen in love with.

Max could be fickle but he wasn’t cruel. He could be irresponsible but he had never broken his word to her.
He could be careless but he wasn’t a liar.

“Are you all right, Ma’am?” Whitaker asked, looking worried.

Lucy raised her head and smiled at the maid in the mirror. “Yes, fine, thank you, just a small headache.” She picked up the comb and held it out to Whitaker. “I must have picked this up, meaning to find its owner and forgotten. Could you ask around the other lady’s maids and see if anyone claims it?”

“Of course, Ma’am.” She took the comb. “Can I get you anything for your head?”

“Thank you but it’s passing now. What dress did we choose for this evening?”

“The lilac,” Whitaker said, gesturing to where the gown was now hanging.

“I think I would prefer the midnight blue gown, if it’s not too much trouble.” Lucy said.

“Not at all, Ma’am.”

The blue dress was far more striking, lower cut around the neck and showed her figure off to its best advantage. Given that someone in this house clearly bore an ill will towards her and Max, she felt that she needed to look her best tonight.

***

Lucy found a few moments before dinner to talk to Max, and she could tell from his expression that he was both surprised and appalled by the comb discovery. Max had many talents and although he had a pretty good poker face, acting wasn’t one of his skills and the fear in her heart, that somehow she would lose him, eased a little more.

Seeing how worried she had been, Max took her in his arms and held her tightly.

“I wasn’t going to say anything until I had something to tell you, but I’ve employed a firm of detectives in London. They’re looking into Marie, her current movements and her history.” He decided not to tell her about investigating Giles, unless they discovered something incriminating. “If she has anything to do with this, they’ll find out.”

“That’s good thinking,” she held him tightly. “I hope they don’t discover a connection to our staff though, I would hate to think that one of them was behind this.”

“And I,” he said, tilting her head up so that he could kiss her. “Now, best foot forward for this evening?”

Lucy nodded and they headed down to the parlour for a
péritifs before dinner.

***

The next letter that Max received from Mr Pennington was quite long and detailed, but Max didn’t read past the first two paragraphs for the moment.

Some of the ladies had decided to do some drawing this morning and had set their easels in the south garden, as they tried to capture some of the
beautifully cultivated fauna. Since most of the gentlemen had been fairly active since arriving, many had decided to join the women, to read or simply sit on one of the many ornamental stone benches that adorned the garden, and enjoy the nice weather as they chatted to one another.

May
and a few of the other ladies with children, had brought them outside to enjoy the day. Some of the older children were attempting to learn to draw but the younger ones were mostly playing together, watched over by their nannies or mothers.

Max’s thunderous expre
ssion as he stormed towards the gathering made many curious but it wasn’t until he hauled Giles off the bench and hit him in the jaw, that they realised anything untoward was happening.

Cries
of “Max!” came from his wife, sister and mother but Max didn’t appear to hear them. He struck Giles again, sending him to the ground.

“Max!” Lucy grabbed his arm
, trying to stop him hitting her friend again, but he pulled out of her grip and pulled Giles back to his feet by his lapels. Giles tried to level a punch of his own but Max blocked it and punched him twice in the stomach.

By this time, G
iles had blood running from a cut on his lip.

“Max, stop it! You’re hurting him!” Lucy tried again.

Finally her words seemed to penetrate his rage and he looked at her.

“He’s living with Marie,” Max told her. “He’s her inside man.”

Lucy gasped and turned her gaze to Giles. “You did all this?” she asked.

The
ir audience, most of whom had no idea what was going on, were watching events unfold with interest.

“You were there!” she realised. “The day when I had the fall and you came to my rescue, it was planned wasn’t it? You knew exactly what she was planning, didn’t you?
Your job was to console me.”

To everyone’s surprise, she threw a punch of her own, catching him in the jaw. He would have fallen if Max hadn’t
still been holding his lapels.

“Get him out of here, Max!” Lucy cried, then turned and ran into the house.

Max was only too happy to oblige and dragged Giles through the house, throwing him out of the front door and onto the stone driveway.

“I’ll send the carriage to take you to town. We’ll send your things on to Marie.” And with that he slamm
ed the door on a rather shocked-looking Giles, then locked it.

Max asked Mr Kirk to have the carriage readied and drop Mr Gibson in town, then told him that under no circumstances was he to be let back into this house, ever.
The butler nodded and bustled off to do his master’s bidding. Max, meanwhile, went in search of Lucy.

He found her in their sitting room, with
May and his mother trying to comfort her while she cried. May knew everything that had been happening, but Eleanor had been kept in the dark and looked suitably confused.

“Maxwell, what were you thinking, striking that gentleman?”
Eleanor demanded.

“He deserved it, Mother. Now if I could have a few moments with
Lucy, I would be much obliged.”

“Come on,”
May said, leaving Lucy’ side and guiding their mother from the room. “I’ll explain everything.”

He trusted
May to only tell their mother a sanitised version of events and then, as little as possible. Max immediately took the seat next to Lucy that May had vacated and handed her a handkerchief, putting an arm around her shoulder.

“Oh, Max, I feel so foolish!” she said,
making an effort to get her tears under control and dabbing at her eyes. “How could I not have seen it? I met him that very day, for heaven’s sake! I'm such an idiot.”

“You aren’t a fool
or an idiot, darling. I didn’t like Giles because he was overly familiar with you and I confess, I was a little jealous, but even I didn’t think that he was in league with Marie.”

“How did you find out?” she asked.

“I asked the detective to investigate Giles as well.”

“So you did suspect him!”