Danny and Syd shared a glance. “We’d only meant to reassure your captor that he held the upper hand until you made your move.”
“Then how did the gun go off?”
“I was hit.” Danny pulled out a rock from her pocket, small and rounded and with a drop of blood.
Percy’s gaze cut to the scrape on Danny’s wrist and his mind made the connection. “Oh.”Fucking hell!
“Where do you think it came—” Danny’s question cut off as her gaze flicked up to someone on the hill.
“Your Grace!” Everyone turned as Mr. Brinkley raced down to meet them, the old groundskeeper breathing heavily from the exertion, but his face bright with young adventure. He stopped and caught his breath before he addressed Danny. “Thank heavens you’re all right, Your Grace. We were all in an uproar when that shot rang out.”
“And that’s my cue to leave,” Syd said, doing just that with a quick farewell to Danny and an invitation to come visit when Her Grace got sick of her “pain in the ass, can’t tell a ruse from a rooster” duke.
“I like her,” Danny said when it was the three of them.
“What a surprise.” Not minding Mr. Brinkley, Percy pulled her into his arms and pressed a kiss to her temple. After his scare, he may commission the very leash he’d admonished so she could clasp it around his neck and keep him at her side for always. “You like anything that’s unlovable.”
“You’renot unlovable.”
God, he hoped that was true. Since he’d be keeping his spleen, innards, and his reason for existence for the foreseeable future, his most pressing mission now was to make his lovely duchess fall madly in love with him.
Her loveliness looked about the grounds. Aside from the cooling body the Merrys dragged in the direction of a waiting coach, there was nothing amiss.
“How did you manage all this?” she asked, awe evident in her tone. “How did you know the mastermind would show in person?”
*
Percy sighed. “Iknew whoever was in charge would never leave research of the grounds and staff to someone else. Every agent knows to pay attention to discrepancies between architectural plans and any additions before infiltrating enemy territory. Luckily for us, the very man who taught me such basics conducted himself in the same manner.”
His fingers curled into white-knuckled fists, and Danny felt Percy’s betrayal, imagining it was one more ache in a lengthy line of painful regrets.
Percy’s fingers relaxed. “That traitorous bastard lost by his own teachings.”
Thinking over his plan, Danny stared at him in disbelief, having heard or seen nothing as much as a mallet outside the kitchens. “You planted false prints of Fellow Hall?”
Percy chuckled. “Good God, no. That would take far too much time. I’d have had to find a decent draftsman and register the updates through the county committee.”
“Then how did you make it look like Grandfellow was under improvements?”
Percy clapped Brinkley on the back. “We changed the names of all the parks, officially.”
With all her previous research helping her brother turn a good portion of Bromley Estate into a protected nature reserve, Danny knew name changes went through the same office in the archives as new construction. Anyone taking note of the files coming through would see the name of the estate, but none of the details since the committee seat dealt with the landowners personally.
The plan was perfect in its simplicity.
Percy offered Brinkley his hand and pumped with vigor. “Those bastards were taken down by the greatest name-giving groundskeeper in England.”
Brinkley’s ears went red at the praise. “It was all brilliant, Your Grace.”
Danny shook her head, heartily in agreement.
“Now that I know Her Grace is all right, I should get to the others to ease their concerns,” Mr. Brinkley said.
Percy glanced towards the house and rubbed the back of his neck. “Start with the main house, would you?” He couldn’t seem to meet either of their gazes. “Call off the duchess’s family and send them home.”
Mr. Brinkley frowned but obeyed with a farewell bow. “Yes, Your Grace.”
When he’d gone, Danny laced her fingers with his, needing contact. “Youwereholding something back.”
