He pushed down his desire to pull her into his arms and continue where they had left off in the rain.There was too much to say.Too much that tied them in ways that he never expected.Matthew held out a hand.“Will you come sit?”
Elizabeth nodded.Crossing to him, she held out a towel.
“Thanks.”He accepted it and rubbed it vigorously over his head to get some of the damp out.
Then she went and sat on the long sofa.Her posture was ramrod straight; hands clasped together in her lap.
Matthew dropped down next to her.“You don’t have to tell me what happened if it is too painful.”
“No, it’s all like a dull ache now.”She didn’t look at him but stared across at the tin army regiments.“My mother was the daughter of the Marquess of Rollinsford.She was disowned when she married for love to a lowly newspaperman.She was happy in the life that she chose; we were happy.Then when I was eighteen, she died.”
He squeezed her hand.“That’s tough.My mother died when I was at a similar age.”
She did look over at him then.“My grandmother came to the funeral and met me for the first time.She offered to sponsor a season in society for me, and my father reluctantly agreed.I was so excited.She bought me a whole new wardrobe.I took lessons on manners from a private tutor.Not that my mother hadn’t taught me good manners.”She shook her head.“But I digress.This isn’t about her.At a ball, I rounded a corner and ran into the love of my life, Robert Barclay.We had a whirlwind courtship, and he asked me to marry him.But when he went to his father, he was told that a verbal agreement had been made many years prior to marry him to the Viscount Griffen’s daughter.But the daughter was still too young, only ten years old at the time.”
“Who was Robert’s father?”he asked.
“The Duke of Hartwick.”
Matthew whistled long and low.
Elizabeth sent him a wry half smile.“Yes, well, the Duke decided to support Robert and canceled the informal betrothal.But Lord Griffen was not happy and demanded satisfaction.”
She shifted in her seat to face him, pulling her hand from his.“Robert went to the duel as his father’s second.Both he and his father ended up dead.”Her hand rose to rub at the spot over her heart as though it still pained her to talk about it.“Later that night, Robert and his father were found in a carriage down on the Strand.Their deaths were attributed to a robbery gone bad.But I knew they had started the day at the duel.My father and I agreed that it was a cover-up.I was devastated.Two months later, I realized that I was pregnant.It helped to pull me back to life.I had a piece of Robert growing inside me; I had to persevere.”
His mind reeled.Her story lined up with what Seaton had said about her.Although Seaton hadn’t given the details of his father’s and half-brother’s deaths.What a bloody mess.Matthew didn’t have many clear memories of his father.He had been a tall, dour figure.One who hadn’t spared any time or attention for his younger son.Would he have been a killer, though?His father had always extolled the strict following of rules and morality.
“Why kill the second?”he murmured.
“I didn’t know the answer to that for many years.The current Duke of Hartwick, Robert’s younger brother, Alex, never accepted that their deaths were a random act of street violence.He had been quietly investigating for years.Two years ago, one of his father’s cohorts met with him to unload his guilt about knowing what happened.The carriage they met in was hit by a homemade explosive.Lord Galey was killed, and Hartwick was badly injured with burns that left scars along his face and torso.Further investigation last summer unearthed that his father had a group of friends since school days that, through a traumatic incident, had bonded and all looked out for each other.They were all there that day of the duel.
Apparently, none of them thought that Lord Griffen would actually kill Lord Hartwick.And when it happened, Robert was wild with anger.He yelled that he would get revenge on all of them for allowing it to happen.That he knew all their secrets, kept in a journal his father had.”She shook her head.“Someone then shot Robert in the heart.”
Matthew watched a single tear roll down her cheek.He enveloped her hand in his again.“How do you know all this?”
“Seaton.He had been hired by Lord Fleming to protect Hartwick from further harm, and he brought Fleming to Hartwick House.Lord Fleming told us what really happened that day but would not disclose who killed Robert.He is still protecting his friends, even at the expense of people’s lives.”Her tone was full of well-earned bitterness.
Matthew sighed.“Seaton received the property that houses the Blue Angel and the rest of the block from his father at his death.When he told me his father was a fucking duke, I laughed in his face.I have known him since we were fifteen, and trust me, nobody would ever guess he was an aristocrat’s bastard.”
Her lips briefly curled up into a small smile.“Yes, well, he was a great help to Hartwick when his wife was kidnapped by Lord Griffen.”
Matthew’s mouth fell open in shock.His father had kidnapped a lady?A duke’s wife?“Wait, why?”
“This journal of secrets the elder Hartwick kept.I do not know what it contained about Lord Griffen, but it must have been explosive enough of a secret to make him desperate.He ransomed Lady Hartwick for the book.Which the younger Hartwick didn’t even possess.Seaton found out where they were keeping her, and he and Hartwick rescued her.”Elizabeth stared at him curiously.
Matthew tried to wipe the shock from his expression.His “play by the rules” father had kidnapped and tried to ransom a duchess?Perhaps he shouldn’t be shocked.He knew exactly what secret his father would do anything to hide.Having an heir that was mentally unstable would forever tarnish the family name.And with his spare lost to the streets of London, he would have been desperate, indeed.He ran a hand over his beard.“Good Lord, what a tale.”
Elizabeth nodded.“The elder Lord Griffen died that night.An explosive detonated on his boat.”
He couldn’t help but wonder if his brother had been there.If he’d wanted to be free of their father’s control.Would Jonas have killed their sire?Matthew stared at the dancing flames of the candelabra on the table, his mind racing to put the pieces together.His brother, let loose from his father’s control, could be devolving into the killer that he had always been.
When they were young, his brother would capture small animals and torture them before snapping their necks.He would bully the smaller children in the village as well.Pushing and smacking to see how far he could hurt someone before they would quit fighting back and run off.Matthew hadn’t played with Jonas, preferring to stay safely at home with his books.Jonas hated his academics, always getting into trouble on purpose so their tutor would banish him from the schoolroom as punishment.But even with all he knew about his brother’s cruelty, he had never expected Jonas’s attack that night long ago.Never thought his brother would try to kill his own kin.
Chapter Fifteen
“If the son,Perrin, who is now the new Lord Griffen, is our killer, it makes this very hard to prove.”Elizabeth frowned.“He will have powerful friends looking out for him.”The conversation she overheard tonight reinforced that assertion.“We will have to have more proof than just a silk hat at the scene of the crime.”
She leaned back against the tall back of the sofa.She was tired already, just thinking about the difficulty of proving a peer of the realm was a murderer.Like father, like son.Dear lord, was the whole family rotten to the core?She sighed.
