Chapter 12 #2
“You ought to have thought of that earlier. Damn me, but I shall make you pay for this,” the duke replied wrathfully, and Alice heard the anger in his voice.
Oh, lord. Whatever had Aubrey done? That the duke was involved in Aubrey’s mad scheme appeared to be the only explanation, but that he was not pleased about it was undeniable.
They headed towards the stairs as Alice willed Aubrey to hurry. Closer, closer to the servant’s door they got, as did the footmen struggling to keep Tommy Greaves in hand.
“Leave go of me!” he protested. “It’s a fit up, I tell you. I ain’t taken nowt. It’s that bleedin’ Alfie Marwick and I’ll slit his bedamned—”
“Shut your mouth, you devil, ladies present,” one of the footmen said, twisting Tommy’s arm savagely up being him until the man yelled in pain. “You can explain it all to the magistrate.”
Alice’s heart thudded hard. That her estimation of Tommy’s reaction and his desire to throw Alfie to the wolves was spot on was not the least bit surprising, but she felt sick all the same. If she didn’t get those lockpicks, there would be a trail back to Alfie, back to her.
Time seemed to slow as they moved through the throng, people gawking on all sides, trying to get a look at the usually austere and prideful Duke of Hawkney as he escorted his scandalous cousin and the fellow’s chère amie from the house.
Simultaneously trying to keep her head down and her eyes on Tommy was not easy, but they drew closer and she knew this was her only chance.
“Let me go,” she whispered urgently, feeling Aubrey’s grasp on her loosen.
“Oh, the villain, the blood!” she cried, swaying dramatically and falling into the path of the footmen hauling Tommy. With no free hands to catch her, they watched helplessly as she staggered and fell heavily against their captive.
“My love!” Aubrey cried out, and she willed him not to move too swiftly as she slid her hands into Tommy’s pockets. Her heart thudded hard as the fingers of her right hand closed around the velvet pouch and pulled it free. “Come away from the villain!”
Alice, now all too happy to come away, fainted into Aubrey’s arms this time, keeping the lockpicks hidden beneath the cloak as Aubrey lifted her with ease.
“For God’s sake, let us get out of here,” came Hawkney’s clipped tone as the two men hurried through the servant’s door.
Alice cracked her eyes open to see Aubrey was carrying her down the servants’ stairs.
“You’re a terrific sport, Hawk,” Aubrey said quietly, sounding a little breathless as they hurried down the stairs.
Hawkney glanced over his shoulder at Aubrey, his expression unreadable. “Oh, believe me, cousin, you are going to be repaying me for the rest of your ill-begotten life, you damned fool.”
Alice groaned inwardly, wondering if Aubrey would still think she was worth the trouble once the dust had settled.
She suspected not. Lifting her hand, she tugged the hood of the cloak across her face, ready to exit via the kitchen, and lay still.
The moment they got out into the chill night she shivered, though she knew it was a delayed reaction to all the excitement rather than the cold, as her body got used to the idea that they’d done it. They’d bloody well done it!
Aubrey practically hurled her into a carriage, not that she cared, as he and the duke climbed in after her. The carriage set off but had hardly gone more than a dozen yards before Aubrey hammered on the roof.
“Stop!”
“Now what?” the duke demanded crossly, as Aubrey leapt down, sprinted across the road to the side of the house Alice had just robbed, picked up Alfie’s discarded clothes and shoes, and hurried back again.
Once inside, the carriage lurched into motion again and there was an icy silence as the duke looked from her to Aubrey.
“Which one of you is going to tell me what in blazes is going on?”
“It’s her brother, Alfie. He’s a thief!” Aubrey spoke before Alice could even open her mouth.
She gazed at him, wondering if he’d lost his mind, but Aubrey ploughed on.
“Alice went there, disguised as a footman, to stop him because she’d heard that some very dangerous criminals were targeting the same house. ”
Hawkney frowned, glaring at Alice suspiciously. “Wait, I know you. You were are at my grandmother’s ball. You’re Miss… Miss…”
“Marwick,” Aubrey supplied, once again cutting in before Alice got the chance.
“The thing is, Hawk, Alfie was only trying to help. He heard some villain had sold Mama’s jewels to Lord Jefferson, and knowing Alice was sweet on me, he decided to get them back.
For Alice could not bear to consider my suit because her brother is a bit of a rogue, but in his odd way, he thought this might make things right. ”
Both Hawkney and Alice stared at Aubrey in appalled silence.
Alice thought she had never heard such a ridiculous fairy story in all her life and could not believe an astute man like the duke would swallow a word of it, but she held her tongue all the same.
This was Aubrey’s party. He had kept faith with her, letting her retrieve the lockpicks and trusting her not to mess it up, she owed him his chance.
If Hawkney didn’t believe a word of the tarradiddle, she would take the blame.
Seeing as it all fell on her anyway, it was only fair.
Hawkney folded his arms, leaning back against the squabs. “So, I am to understand that Miss Marwick’s brother has just robbed Lord Jefferson to retrieve the diamonds that were stolen from your uncle.”
“That’s it,” Aubrey said, smiling. “I knew you’d understand.”
“I do not understand a benighted thing!” the duke exploded, banging a fist on the seat beside him.
“What I do know is that I have just embroiled our entire family in a scandal that will delight every gossip in the country and make my life exceptionally uncomfortable, and all for a woman I know nothing about and who appears to be involved in criminal activity.”
Alice glanced at Aubrey, who had gone very still, his face suddenly devoid of emotion.
“No,” he said coolly. “You did it for me, and I did it for the woman I love.”
The duke groaned and sat back again, covering his hands with his eyes. “Damn me,” he muttered savagely. “Damn me.”
“Your grace,” Alice began, only to fall silent as his piercing green eyes skewered her.
“No,” Hawkney said, his tone implacable. “We will speak, Miss Marwick, let me assure you. But I have had enough for one evening. I know that my cousin here thinks me well cast as the villain of the piece, but I have done serious damage to our name and I am… not… pleased.”
The words were bitten off, announced with such precision that his white teeth seemed to snap in the air. Alice sat back, deciding that in the circumstances, discretion was definitely the better part of valour.
They arrived at the duke’s town house a few moments later and Alice hesitated. “I can’t stay here,” she whispered to Aubrey.
“If I can do anything of service this evening, it is to assure you of my staff’s discretion, if you are worried for your reputation,” Hawkney replied, a touch of acid behind the words.
Alice blushed, and Aubrey glared at his cousin. “Pack it in, Hawkney. You and I have a good deal to say to each other, but you can leave Alice out of it.”
“Oh, if only I could,” the duke replied with a snort, and stalked off into the house.
Alice waited, wishing she could disappear into the corner of the carriage, feeling small and insignificant. It was an unpleasant sensation, and one she had not experienced since she was a child. It seemed horribly familiar, though.
“You shouldn’t have made me promise,” she said, feeling wretched. “I could still go, Aubrey. I don’t want you to be cut off from your family, your father. I don’t want them to hate you and turn their back on you because of me.”
Aubrey frowned, looking bewildered. “Cut me off? Whatever do you mean?”
She sat up again, impatient now. “You said your father would cut you off, and Hawkney is furious with you!”
His expression clearing, Aubrey laughed, shaking his head.
“Oh that! That was just for show, so people were more interested in the scandal than the fact that you are wearing a small fortune in stolen jewels. Hawkney didn’t know precisely what was happening, but he knew we needed to get out.
He improvised, which was dashed decent of him, and I followed along. ”
Alice blinked, staring at him in consternation. “But you said yourself, you have a good deal to say to each other.”
Aubrey’s expression softened, and he smiled at her, an expression of such fondness that her stupid heart gave an uneven beat, and she wished more than anything that he would embrace her again.
“Well, of course we do, he’s livid, and rightly so.
The scandal is going to be rather dreadful, and Hawk cannot abide a scandal.
His father was an appalling man and forever the subject of vile stories, all of them true, sadly.
Hawk feels responsible for polishing the name up and this sort of thing reflects badly on the whole family.
He’s protective of all of us, but he has Della and Vinnie to think of, remember. ”
“Will he cast you out?” Alice asked, feeling horribly guilty. She refused to be the cause of a family rift.
“Cast me out?” Aubrey gave a bark of laughter.
“Lord, do you and Lill read a lot of ghastly melodramas? Cast me out, indeed! No, he won’t, you foolish creature.
He’ll give me a frightful lecture about the importance of the family name and a worse one about marrying outside of my class and all the dreadful implications, and he’ll likely punish me with withering comments for a few weeks, but that’s all. ”
Alice stared at him, refusing to believe it, but too startled by the words ‘marrying outside of my class’ to articulate a word.
“Come, love.” His voice was gentle as he held out his hand to her. “It’s been a long day and a longer night, and I’m shattered. You must be worn to a thread.”
“Tired, yes,” she said with a huff of laughter. “Jittery though. I won’t sleep.” He squeezed her fingers, regarding her with concern.
“Is there anything you’d like? What would help?”
Alice though about Lill at home and wished they were there, her and Aubrey and Lill, sitting by the fire. But it was late and Hawkney wanted to speak to her in the morning.
“Cake.”
Aubrey smiled. “Cake it is then.”
So Aubrey showed her to her room where she was attended by a kindly housemaid, who found her a nightgown that belonged to Della and helped her to bed, where she was given a cup of hot chocolate and a large slice of cake.
The diamonds rested carefully on the bedside table, where she could see them, and her gaze kept drifting there as she sipped her chocolate.
When the cup was empty and the cake consumed, the housemaid bade her goodnight and crept quietly out.
Thus fortified, Alice fell into a dreamless sleep, waking a few hours later with a start of anxiety as she wondered where the devil she was.
Reaching out a hand, she felt the cold, sharp edges of the diamonds and gave a sigh of relief.
She may have plunged Aubrey into a family crisis, despite his assurances that all would be well, but she could now return the diamonds to their rightful owner, and she had thwarted Silas Mourney’s plans to get her hanged.
All in all, it hadn’t been such a terrible day, and with that she had to be satisfied.
Sleep eluded her now, though. The desire to reach for the footman’s outfit the maid had silently hung up in the wardrobe nagged at her, the urge to slip out of the house and disappear into the night tantalising.
Not that she would disappear. She had given Aubrey her word, and she did not do so lightly.
A promise was a promise. But the longing to go home, to tell Lill everything and cry on her shoulder was hard to resist. But Alice was no coward.
The Duke of Hawkney wanted to discuss things with her and no doubt rail at her for leading his cousin astray.
She could hardly deny him that much. That did not mean, however, that she was looking forward to it.