Chapter Seventeen #3
“So I had to hit him over the head,” Lady Valor said, charmingly swaying in her sedan chair.
“She was very brave,” Weston said.
“Yes, I really was,” Lady Valor said, sounding surprised.
“Who would have guessed?” the duke said. “My one daughter who has nightmares about a fox’s cries knocks out a would-be murderer.”
“Do you have nightmares?” Weston asked. He noted her blush as they passed under a street lamp.
“I’m afraid so,” Lady Valor said. “They cannot be helped.”
“I’ll help,” Weston said.
The duke chose to ignore any hint of his daughter being in a position to be helped by a gentleman in the middle of the night.
Weston went on to explain that he had wondered if the count had a foreign spy in his household, thereby leading to the mention in the newspaper.
He speculated that the count had become suspicious of him and wished to eliminate him for that reason.
Perhaps the count had even imagined he was in contact with the spy in his household.
Lord Ledderbey said, “Well all of this has been very unfortunate, and terribly frightening for Lady Valor, which I cannot like. But I wonder if we might be led by Shakespeare’s wise words—all is well that ends well.”
“And Papa,” Lady Valor said, “your dream of an empty house has finally come true.”
“Ah yes, that,” the duke said.
Weston did not think he looked quite as enthusiastic as one might when one’s dream had come true.
They walked on in silence for a few minutes. Weston walked along Lady Valor’s sedan, his hand resting on the side of it. Lady Valor put his hand over his, which he was hoping she would do.
“What do you suppose will become of the count?” Lord Ledderbey said.
“He ought to be hanged,” Weston said. “He’s in league with the French. It was even in the newspapers, so I am not the only one that knows it, and now the Crown has him.”
“As to that,” the duke said, “it has recently come to my attention that our housekeeper put that bit in the newspaper. She was afraid our Val would end up miserable in Sardinia, all because the count was promising a quiet life in Hertfordshire.”
“I frighten easily,” Lady Valor said.
“Yes, I know,” Weston said with a laugh. “But you came through it tonight.”
She nodded. “Still, very dear of Mrs. Right to try to save me from a terrible decision, even if I never would have done it.”
“You’ll find, Tramondeley, that there is nothing our Mrs. Right won’t do for her girls.”
“I’ll say,” Weston said, a little alarmed that a housekeeper would take such steps.
“Though I will soon prove that di Compressio was just as Mrs. Right speculated. I’ve sent the sketches of him to Cornwall to confirm that it was he snooping around down there, attempting to locate the Mosquito.
I am also sure he had discovered it was me.
That’s why he came with the knife. He’ll come to the bad end he deserves. ”
The duke laughed. “I do not think the count will pay too high a price. The whole thing will be hushed up and he’ll be sent home. The Crown will probably take his English estate and explain to him that he is persona non grata.”
“Papa! Why would they let him go?”
“Because he attempted a murder at the prince’s fête, which was advertised as an honor to the exiled French nobility. Can you imagine the talk that would go round? The prince had invited a murderous agent in the employ of Napoleon to mingle with French nobility?”
Weston took that in and saw the sense in it. The count would probably keep his life, as unfair as that was. However, he would never set foot in England again.
Far more importantly, he was an engaged man. What a night.
A new thought suddenly occurred to him. “I believe in circumstances such as these, the lady receives a token of affection from the gentleman.” He reached into his coat pocket and handed Lady Valor the velvet box.
She opened it. “Look, Papa, it is a sapphire necklace. It is simply perfect.”
“Well done, Tramondeley,” the duke said.
Receiving the necklace necessitated a stop to the sedan chairs to put it on, despite Lady Valor already wearing a necklace. Once that procedure was complete, they set off for home.
*
Lord Tramondeley had seen Valor and her father home and then the duke had invited him and Lord Ledderbey inside for a brandy as it was still on the early side of things.
As it happened, Valor had a brandy too. It was not her usual drink, but she felt some combination of shaken and swashbuckling after the evening she’d had.
Mrs. Right was invited in too, as the duke claimed Lord Tramondeley might as well get used to their way of doing things.
He was very agreeable to it, and even more agreeable to be led to the back of the drawing room by Valor, leaving the duke and Lord Ledderbey to relate the events of the evening to Mrs. Right.
They sat together, sipping their brandies, as Valor made faces over it.
Lord Tramondeley laughed and said, “You do not have to drink it, you know.”
“I know,” she said. “It tastes terrible, but it will have a good effect, I think. If ever there were a night when I might be woken by a nightmare it would be this night.”
“When we are wed, I will wake you up from them and tell you everything is all right.”
That was a rather delightful idea. Scary, but delightful.
“I’ve given up using my sloop to harass the French,” he said. “I was reminded that it would not be very responsible for a married man to do.”
Valor let out a long breath she did not know she’d been holding. “I can only say I am relieved. I would not be able to sleep wondering if you’d drowned.”
“In any case, I think I would find you too difficult to leave at night.”
This hinting at what might go on behind closed doors was another scary thing. Interesting, she wished to know all about it, to experience all of it, but scary nonetheless.
“It will be all right,” Lord Tramondeley said, squeezing her hand.
She nodded. She believed him.
They spent the rest of their time with Lord Tramondeley admiring her mussed hair and pretty eyes and other such nonsense a man in love is likely to go on about.
The duke finally got the lord and Lord Ledderbey on their way. Lord Ledderbey looked ready to fall over from the exertions of the night and the duke pointed out that the grooms left outside with his sedan chair had likely had their fill of it.
Despite the terror of the evening, Valor did not have any nightmares over it.