“Was Ashley serious when he said he would kill the man responsible?” she asked.
“Were you serious,” he asked, looking steadily at her, “when you said you would help?”
“Yes,” she said after a pause.
“I believe, my dear,” he said, “that Ashley has a stronger motivation even than yours to stake his life on Emily’s protection.”
She said no more but lowered her gaze to Harry, who was beginning to tire and lose some interest in his meal. Luke sat quietly watching them. Wisely he did not reflect aloud on the fact that a man would willingly die to protect the peace and safety of his woman and of the children they had begotten together in love.
•••
“Comewith me, Rod?” Ashley asked. The two of them were sitting in the study, waiting. Waiting for Emily to wake up, Ashley supposed. There was little else to do. He had walked about on the hill behind the house with his friend while Luke had stayed at the house at his request, and it seemed to him that they had looked at every tree. They had found no bullet. And what would have been solved if they had, he did not know. Now his butler had brought word that Sir Henry Verney and Miss Verney had come to call on her grace and Lady Emily and that he had shown them into the visitors’ salon. Ashley’s first instinct had been to send word back simply that the ladies were not receiving.
“Of course. It would be my pleasure.” Major Cunningham got to his feet. But he clapped a hand on Ashley’s shoulder before they reached the door. “But ’twould be as well to keep a cool head, Ash. Despite what you have told me, there is nothing to prove that Verney has any reason to wish Lady Emily harm, or you either. Besides, I like the man.”
Barbara Verney was rising to her feet when they walked through the doorway of the salon. Sir Henry Verney was standing before the window, his back to it. Both looked somewhat surprised to see neither Anna nor Emily.
“Miss Verney.” Ashley made her a bow. “Verney. This is a pleasure my sister-in-law and Lady Emily will regret having missed.”
“Oh,” Miss Verney said, after curtsying to both him and the major, “they are from home. What a disappointment. You see, Henry? I told you this was rather a late hour of the morning to be paying a call.”
“Please do have a seat,” Ashley said, indicating the one she had risen from at his entrance. “I shall have some tea brought in. They are not from home. Lady Emily is indisposed and her grace is tending her.”
Both looked instantly and politely concerned. “I hope ’tis not a serious indisposition,” Sir Henry said.
“No,” Ashley said. “Not serious.”
“I do believe,” Major Cunningham said, smiling appreciatively at Barbara Verney, “that I must have been from England altogether too long. The styles of ladies’ hair and hats are far more becoming now than they used to be. Or perhaps ’tis just that the few ladies I have seen since my return have superior beauty and taste.”
Miss Verney laughed. “If you flatter the enemy as you flatter my sex, Major,” she said, “’tis no wonder France was defeated in the recent war.”
But the major insisted that she describe to him how ladies succeeded in dressing their hair so high and keeping its height.
“Pads,” he said after she had explained. “Ingenious, madam, and altogether enchanting.”
They drank their tea and conversed on a wide range of topics, all decidedly frivolous and all directed by Major Cunningham.
“’Tis a good thing, Henry,” Miss Verney said, setting down her cup and saucer and signaling an early departure, “that you did not leave me at the door as you suggested in order to go about your own business before returning for me. I would have been an embarrassment to Lord Ashley.”
“Not at all, Miss Verney,” he said. “I would have been pleased to show you the park and the river walk. Are you familiar with them?”
“From childhood,” she said, getting to her feet. “I am sorry about Lady Emily. You will convey our good wishes to her for her restored health, my lord? We would have called earlier this morning, but Henry was from home from first light until little more than an hour ago. ’Twas most provoking when he had promised to escort me on several visits in addition to this one.” She smiled at her brother to indicate that she was teasing rather than seriously scolding.
Ashley drew a slow breath. “Where were you?” he asked Sir Henry.
“I beg your pardon?” Sir Henry looked back at him with raised eyebrows.
“I asked where you were this morning between first light and one hour ago,” Ashley said. “I ask again. Where were you?”
“Ash—,” Major Cunningham said, touching him lightly on the arm. They were all on their feet.
Ashley jerked his arm away. “Where were you?” he asked again.
Sir Henry’s eyes narrowed. “I am not convinced that I owe you or anyone else an explanation for my movements, Kendrick,” he said. “And if you will excuse me, there is a lady in the room. I will escort her home.”
“I believe,” Major Cunningham said, “it might be wise to tell them what happened this morning, Ash.”
“‘What happened’?” Miss Verney was looking bewildered and rather pale. “Whatdidhappen this morning?”
