“At which point, she will berate them for their shortcomings. Does she still invite you to stand in front of her after tea so she can point out your failings?” Lucy snapped her mouth shut, and her cheeks heated. “I’m sorry, David. It isn’t my place—”
He waved her protest away. “Breakfast,” he said ruefully. “She attacks over breakfast now I’m grown.” The bleak shadows in his eyes tore at Lucy’s heart.
She wondered fleetingly why he didn’t send the old bat away or find her a charming manor in Scotland.The Orkneys perhaps… But he couldn’t manage the expense.She thought of her own mother, gone these many years. Perhaps any mother is better than none.
Emma joined them in the hall, having seen her brood off.
“How is Mr. Benson today?” the earl asked.
“Well. Why don’t you look in on him? I’ll join you after I have a word with Agnes.”
Lucy led him to the sick room. If Robert Benson felt uncomfortable to have an earl visit him while bundled up in bed, he showed no sign. The old gentleman’s perfect manners could put even an earl at ease.
Besides, he’s known David since boyhood.Lucy hung back while the men had a few words.
“Your job is to get well, Mr. Benson. You can be certain we will get to the bottom of what happened to you.” The earl stood to leave.
“I have no fear of that, your lordship. My Robbie will take care of it.”
David stiffened but didn’t argue the point. He nodded politely and took his leave. As they reached the hall, he glowered at Lucy. “His beloved Robbie leaves Spangler to me. The returning hero should do his own damned dirty work.”
He didn’t apologize for his language, a lapse so uncharacteristic that Lucy could only wonder the antipathy between them. “Sir Robert is a managing sort. I’ll grant you that.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Dusk wreathed thesky in darkening ribbons of color the following day before Eli trooped back to the Willow, sober and weary.
Rob had fretted over his agreement to leave the confrontation to Eli and Clarion all day. Looking at his brother, he regretted it even more. “Come sit in the office.” He motioned to Clara. “Ale for both of us.”
Eli dropped his valise next to a chair by the window, put an elbow on the little round table next to it, and rested his head in his hand. Rob reached for the ale from Clara. He addressed Eli over his shoulder. “Dinner?”
“Please. I haven’t eaten since morning.” The barmaid scurried off to the kitchen.
“I expected you hours ago.” Rob set a pint in front of Eli and lifted his own.
“Things went sideways.” Eli drank deep while Rob waited for him to go on. “First of all, you needn’t have worried about Clarion. By the time Spangler dragged in late, the earl’s temper had come to a fine boil. He outright accused the man. Showed him the sawn pieces of bridge. Asked the question six different ways. Cajoled, badgered, and damn well almost bribed the sod. I even started to pity the fool.”
“And the result?”
“Predictable. Denied it. Expressed outrage at the accusation, at the perpetrator, at the disrespect. No matter how Clarion asked, he had an answer.”
Clara returned with ale, meat pasties, and baked potatoes, momentarily disrupting Eli’s report.
“Clarion should have jailed him.” Rob’s words brought a startled glance from Clara, who finished her work and disappeared into the corridor.
“No evidence, Robbie. None. Remember that. Besides—” Eli paused to get his brother’s attention, holding up a fork that had speared a potato. “Spangler sounded convincing. By the end, even I was tempted to believe him.”
Rob let out a string of curses, but Eli ignored them. “His final argument was that he meant to buy the place. Why would he damage property he expected—not hoped,expected—would be his one day.”
“He admitted it?”
Eli shrugged and washed down another bite of pasty. “He’d run out of ways to claim innocence. He thought it might deflect blame.”
“What did Clarion say to that?”
“He said he wasn’t aware you had agreed to sell it—small stretch of truth—and that Miss Whitaker still lived there. You won’t like this next part.”
At Lucy’s name, Rob dropped his fork and looked at his brother directly. His chin came up. “What?”
