“Thank goodness for you and Lady Clifford, Emma. Poor Lord Lovell might have found himself at the end of a noose, but for you.” Lady Crosby slammed her hairbrush down on the dressing table, her cheeks red with anger. “What pure evil, to try and implicate an innocent man in such awicked crime.”
The loose thread Emma had been toying with snapped between her fingers. “That’s true enough, but someone’s neckdoesdeserve to be fitted with a noose, and I’ve still no idea who’s neck it is.”
“But youwill, dearest. I have the utmost faith in you, and so doesLady Clifford.”
Emma gave Lady Crosby a grateful smile, but doubt was niggling at her. Perhaps their faith in her was misplaced. “I suppose I’ll go and see this folly, then.”
Lady Crosby whirled around to face Emma, startled. “Not by yourself, I hope!”
Emma hesitated. She had no wish to tempt fate, and Samuel would be furious if he discovered she’d been wandering the grounds by herself, but their villain must be offered an opportunity to strike, or he’d never show himself. “I’ll fetch Daniel tocome with me.”
“Yes, all right, but do wear a cloak, won’t you? It’s a cold, drippy sort of afternoon. You’ll come and fetchme before tea?”
“Yes, my lady.” Emma pressed a quick kiss to Lady Crosby’s cheek. “Iwon’t be long.”
When Emma reached the first floor, she found Samuel’s study door still closed, with muffled masculine voices coming from inside. So she made her way down the servants’ staircase to the kitchen door and out to the stables, where she found Daniel fussing over Lady Crosby’s carriage horses.
He turned when Emma entered. “Aye, lass?”
“Good afternoon, Daniel. Will you walk down to the pond behind the kitchens with me? There’s a folly down there that was apparently the scene of some secret assignations, and I want to havea look at it.”
“More secrets, eh? Lymington House is full of ’em.” Daniel’s face darkened. “Too many aristocrats in one place,if ye ask me.”
Emma smothered a smile. “Youmay be right.”
Daniel gave the horse’s nose one last rub, then turned toward the door with a grunt. “All right, then, let’s go.”
The folly was further from the main house than Emma anticipated, a quarter mile or so down a short, steep hill, the pathway hidden from sight by the spreading branches of a stand of English oak. She and Daniel were nearing the end, picking their way over the exposed roots studding the pathway, when a deep voice cameout of nowhere.
“Well, good afternoon, Lady Emma!”
Emma nearly jumped out of her skin. “Mr. Humphries! My goodness.” she patted the center of her chest to calm her wildly beating heart. “I, er…didn’tsee you there.”
“Beg pardon, my lady. I didn’t mean tofrighten you.”
“That’s quite all right, Mr. Humphries.” Emma cast a sidelong glance at Daniel, who gestured toward the folly, just visible to the left of the pathway. Emma nodded, and Daniel slipped into the trees, while Emma made her way down the pathway towardMr. Humphries.
He was perched on the edge of the pond, up to his ankles in mud with an angling rod in his hands. “I didn’t expect any young ladies to venture down to the pond. A bit dirty, what?”
Emma looked down at her muddy boots and wrinkled her nose. “Indeed. I didn’t realize you were a sportsman,Mr. Humphries.”
“Ach, no—not me, my lady. Just a bit of angling now and then, you see. I like the quiet, and it’s pretty down here, with the water and the trees.” Mr. Humphries chuckled. “I don’t catch many fish, I’m afraid.”
Emma edged a little closer. The pond was bigger than she’d expected from Hannah’s description of it. A towering stand of oaks overhung a good portion of the eastern side of it, and the shadiest parts were still covered with a thin layer of ice from the past winter’s freeze. “It is rather pretty, isn’t it? Goodness, those trees are enormous. They mustbe quite old.”
“What, Lord Dunn’s trees? Oh, yes. It takes hundreds of years, I believe, for them to reach that size.”
Emma turned to him, puzzled. “Are those LordDunn’s trees?”
“Yes, yes, indeed. That’s his lordship’s property, just there.” Mr. Humphries waved a hand toward the other side of the pond. “He’s got a tidy little hunting box over there. He’s very fond of hunting,is Lord Dunn.”
Emma frowned, vaguely recalling that Lady Crosby had said something about Lord Dunn’s having purchased a hunting box near Lymington House.
But this wasverynear, much more so than she’d imagined. So close, she couldn’t help but wonder why Lord Dunn should need it at all, when he could just as easily hunt from Lymington House. “What, ah…what sort of hunting does Lord Dunn prefer?”
“Oh, birds mostly, I think. He’s an avid birdsman, perhaps a bit more so than he should be, if you take my meaning.” Mr. Humphries gave her a mischievous wink.
Emma shook her head. “I beg your pardon, Mr. Humphries, but I don’t.”
