A pucker appeared on Donata’s forehead. “As I explained, we never return home in September. Opening up the household will take too much time, and everyone on the estate is busy.”
“Oxfordshire then. To visit your parents.”
“Why the haste, Gabriel? We agreed to stay in London to take care of any business and then journey to Grenville’s home in the Cotswolds and await Gabriella’s visit.”
Earlier this summer, we’d planned a trip to France from Brighton with my daughter Gabriella to take her home. However, her French aunt and uncle had turned up, and they’d escorted Gabriella to her mother instead, with the promise she could return in October. This was to be Gabriella’s first Christmas with us.
Lucius Grenville, a famous dandy who was now my closest friend, had invited us to his large new home in Gloucestershire to enjoy autumn revelries and hunting. We’d arranged for Gabriella to meet us there.
“Because Denis has thrown down a gauntlet to a rival.” Rapidly, I told Donata what had transpired this morning. “If this man, Creasey, will strike at Denis through his associates, I do not want you in London.”
“I am hardly his associate,” Donata said, though I knew she was not dismissing my concern. “Even a hardened criminal—a smuggler and a thief, I am assuming—would hesitate to murder the mother of a viscount and daughter of an earl. The consequences would be dire.”
“That might be the case, but what if they aim for me—son of a minor gentleman—but hit you instead? Or Peter?”
“I take your point. Peter will go to Oxfordshire at once.” Her eyes softened. “Though Peter will object most strongly. He has become quite fond of you.”
Peter and I rode in Hyde Park together every day—he’d taken to rising and going out with me early in the morning. The fog had kept both of us indoors today, but I’d planned to take him out later this afternoon, even with the rain. In light of Creasey’s threats, I would change my plans.
“You will go with him,” I stated.
“I will finish what I need to in London,” Donata countered. She was not obedient, my wife. “Most of that I can do from this house, with a few visits from my man of business. I have already accepted invitations for evening outings, but on those I will be surrounded by friends. Many of these friends you do not care for, so you will not be with me to endanger me.”
“I hardly want you rushing about London without me at your side,” I began sternly.
“If this man will only hurt me if I am with you, as you have declared, then I willhaveto go about on my own.” Donata’s eyes were an intense blue, framed with black lashes. “I am not a fool, Gabriel. If there is true danger, I will stay home. But I must see to things. There are investments to look after, plans to make for Peter and Anne. You and I have three estates between us, plus the house in Brighton that will be let once the renovations are finished. I cannot allow Mr. Denis and his battles keep me from my affairs. It will be much faster to make arrangements while I am in London, with solicitors and men of business within reach, than wait for letters in Oxfordshire.”
“I wish you were an ordinary woman,” I said in despondency. “One who meekly tells her husband he has the right of it and lets him take care of her business.”
Donata gave a little laugh. “You would have grown hopelessly weary of me by now.Youtraded learning how to run estates to join the army, while I have been immersed in such things all my life, so you must leave them to me.”
“Even so …”
Donata laid down her pen and turned to me squarely. “We are having this argument the wrong way about. It isyouwho should flee to Oxfordshire or to Grenville’s so I will not have to worry about you being felled by this Mr. Creasey.”
“I would.” I leaned an elbow on her desk. “Except I met a friend today.”
Donata’s expression held wary curiosity as I launched into the tale of Eden and our visit to Bow Street.
“You wish to help him,” she said when I finished. “The fact that you will not turn aside when a person is in need is a reason I am fond of you.” Donata patted the arm that rested on the desk. “However, it is most inconvenient at times. I gather from your glumness that you are uncertain of Major Eden’s innocence.”
“He is vague concerning his whereabouts, as well as his reasons for visiting Warrilow and the ship’s hold, and for leaving Antigua at all. I will have to make him see that the truth will help him more than evasion.”
“Unless he did kill this man,” Donata pointed out.
“It would be unlike him. Miles Eden was always fair and level-headed. Even when others tried to provoke him or start fights—bored soldiers get up to much between battles—he managed to remain above it all, talking others into calm. He’s not a man to lose his temper and bash another over the head.”
“Yet he admits he came to blows with Mr. Warrilow.”
“In a fair fight. Not sneaking into the man’s rooms and finishing him off.”
Donata patted my arm again, gently. “Perhaps this time you ought to let things alone.”
“Possibly.” I could take Peter and Anne to Oxfordshire and insist Donata come with us, using my position as her husband to give the command weight. In theory, she had agreed to obey me when she took her wedding vows.
“If Eden is the only person who can be fitted for this crime, Pomeroy will arrest him again,” I said. “Sir Nathaniel wasn’t certain of Eden’s guilt, I could tell, though he had doubts. If I can help prove Eden is innocent, then I can leave London with a clear conscience.”
“Meanwhile, Mr. Denis’s foes hunt you down?”
