Alaric stepped back.
“Aren’t you going to take a turn?” Monty asked.
“No. I, too, have something to check.”
With swift strides, Alaric strode back to the house. He entered via the front door. After the bright sunshine outside, he was, for an instant, almost blind.
Desperate hands seized his shoulders. “There you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”
Alaric blinked. “Percy?”
“You have to help me—I don’t know what to do!” White faced, Percy stared helplessly at Alaric. “They caught me searching Glynis’s room, and now they think I killed her!”
“Slow down.” Alaric caught Percy’s wrists, breaking his near-death grip on Alaric’s shoulders. “I was looking for you. Clearly, we need to talk.”
When Alaric released him, Percy lowered his arms and nodded, looking more pathetic than Alaric had ever seen him.
Alaric glanced up the main stairs. “Let’s go to the alcove off the gallery. None of the guests are likely to find us there.”
“Yes. Good idea.” Percy turned and rushed up the stairs.
After ascending the stairs more circumspectly, Alaric followed him into the deserted alcove.
Percy was waiting; he locked his gaze on Alaric’s face. “I didn’t kill Glynis—why would I have? We were hoping to marry…” Percy’s face crumpled. “It’s all gone so horribly wrong. I keep thinking this is all a bad dream, and I’ll wake up and she’ll be there, smiling at me…”
Before Percy could descend further into maudlin sorrow, Alaric commanded, “Tell me about this engagement. Especially tell me about why you suddenly wanted it kept secret.”
Percy calmed, then snorted. “The latter should be obvious to you—Edward! He arrived without warning—I had no idea he intended to come.”
When Percy all but weaved on his feet, Alaric pushed him toward the nearest window seat. “Sit.”
Percy tumbled back onto the cushions. Alaric sat opposite, his gaze fixed on his erstwhile playmate’s face.
Percy started speaking without further prompting, his tone that of one relating an occurrence that was now distant. “I met Glynis in London this Season. She and I…we simply got on. We felt…happy in each other’s company.” Percy wiped his hand beneath his nose and went on, “You know m’mother’s always been at me to wed, and Glynis…she wanted to marry me. I thought it would be perfect—it would have been. When I proposed and she accepted, I explained about having to carefully manage our announcement, as my parents were up in Scotland until…” He broke off, then continued, “They should be getting home today, but that meant I couldn’t do anything—couldn’t speak with my father—straightaway.
“So instead, I invited Glynis and Mrs. Macomber here, to my party, and this year I only invited others I thought would be…well, appropriate. So the company wouldn’t be risqué. I invited Miss Weldon and her chaperon, too, really just to lend verisimilitude, but as it turned out, Freddy Collins is keen on Holly Weldon…” Sadness seemed to wash over Percy, dimming what little animation panic had lent him.
After a moment, Alaric prompted, “Was there a reason you wanted to have Glynis here at the party?”
Percy gestured helplessly. “To introduce her to Aunt Enid. She—Aunt Enid—might be a crusty old soul, but she’s always liked me, and Mama and even Papa listen to her, at least in matters such as family alliances. I also wanted to show Glynis the Hall. To let her see it and meet…well, friends like you. I told her that if she wanted to slip away from the crowd for a moment, that you were the one to ask—that you would be safe for her to get to know.”
“I see.” Alaric wasn’t sure he appreciated being cast as a benign uncle, but that explained Glynis’s request for his escort for their stroll on the terrace.
“But then Edward arrived, and you know as well as I that if he’d learned of our engagement, he would have done everything he could to scupper it. He would have declared it a mésalliance and would have immediately gone off and stirred up his father and brothers, and they would have descended on Papa—all before I could make our case.”
Percy paused, then went on, “I wanted to get Aunt Enid and then Mama on our side first. Papa would have agreed, eventually, but if he’d first been pushed into a corner by Edward and Uncle Horace, there would have been no hope. You know how Papa gets once he’s taken a position on something—it’s as if it becomes carved in stone.”
Alaric did, indeed, know the present Viscount Mandeville’s tendency to adhere to a stated position in the face of all reason. Everything Percy said rang true. “So when Glynis and Mrs. Macomber arrived…?”
“I drew Glynis aside and explained about Edward and how things would play out if he heard of our engagement. I’m not sure she believed me at first, but then she met Edward and understood. We—she and I—had hoped to be more open about our engagement—we thought that once Aunt Enid was won over, we could let it be unofficially known, at least among those here.” Percy sighed—a bleak sigh of sorrow and loss—and raked his hand through his hair. “But that’s all beside the point now.”
“Did you or Glynis tell anyone here about your otherwise secret engagement?”
“No. Well, it wouldn’t have been a secret then, would it? We both agreed to keep it to ourselves—we were set on marrying, and if that was what it took to have our best shot at it, then…we decided that’s what we’d do.” Percy paused, then amended, “I daresay she told Mrs. Macomber—I imagine in London before we realized we’d need to keep things under wraps here. Glynis must have said something to her about us keeping mum for the nonce. The old lady wouldn’t have given us away—she’s been a good egg throughout.”
Alaric leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs and clasping his hands. His gaze remained locked on Percy’s face. “Do you know why Glynis was outside in the shrubbery on Monday night after everyone else retired?”
Percy blinked and refocused on Alaric’s eyes. “She came out to meet with me. That’s what we were reduced to—meeting in secret in my own gazebo out by the long pool.”
