Chapter 10
Mr. Chelsea interrupted the breakfast that Darius had been enjoying with Meredith and Frances Petersham, though he did so in his practiced, unintrusive manner.
“There is a Mr. Henry Doyle from the Bow Street Runners to see you, Your Grace.”
“Show him into the drawing room. We shall be there shortly.” Darius rose and looked to Meredith. “I believe it would be wise for you to accompany me. Doyle will wish to question you about what you saw. I sent him a message early this morning detailing the incident in the garden.”
Mrs. Petersham shared a look with Meredith before saying, “May I come as well, Your Grace?”
Darius assented. They had just shared the story with Mrs. Petersham not five minutes before Mr. Chelsea had come in, and she was eager to help in any way she could.
They met with Howard Doyle in the drawing room, and Darius made the proper introductions.
Doyle was a man in his early thirties, the son of a banking clerk who had developed a knack for reading people, which made him quite useful in the Bow Street ranks.
Doyle had come to respect Darius as well in the last five years as Darius had assisted him with Bow Street matters.
Doyle wrote in a small notepad as he interviewed Meredith. Darius was proud of how calmly she conducted herself as she gave Doyle a thorough account of last night’s events. When she had finished, Doyle turned to Darius, asking him what he had seen on the other side of the garden wall.
“I cannot be certain but I believe it was Dobbs, the Crells’ butler.”
Doyle brooded for a long moment as he stared at his notes, then let out a sigh.
“Very well. You and I shall pay a visit next door.” Doyle stood and motioned for Darius to join him.
“Please stay here.” Darius told Meredith and Mrs. Petersham. “We do not know what we will encounter there. If it is dangerous, I do not want either of you in harm’s way.”
What he actually feared was a body or something equally horrendous being discovered. He did not want Meredith to have such a vision in her memories.
He and Doyle walked around the street corner to the street behind Knightley. Doyle knocked on the door of the Crell house. It took several minutes before someone answered. Darius recognized the man as the butler, Dobbs.
“May I help you?” Dobbs asked. His gaze then slid to Darius and his brows lowered. Darius didn’t miss the man’s reaction to him.
“My name is Howard Doyle. I am an investigator with the Bow Street Runners. This is the Duke of Tiverton. I have been informed by him that a crime has been committed on this property.”
“What? No crime has been committed here.” Dobbs lifted his chin and frowned.
“Nevertheless, I have a duty and a right to investigate such matters. I believe there is evidence of a crime buried in your gardens. Kindly move aside.”
Dobbs was forced to let them into the house.
Darius had only been inside the Crell house once before, many years ago, but it seemed most of the furniture had been sold off, and that which remained had been covered with white dust cloths.
Darius’s skin crawled as he felt that distinctive empty feeling of an abandoned dwelling.
“Show us to the gardens,” Doyle commanded.
The butler led them to the back door. No one else seemed to be inside the house except the curmudgeonly butler, confirming his suspicion that the servants were either in the country with Crell or they’d been let go, leaving Dobbs to finish whatever tasks Crell had set to him.
“Where did you see it?” Doyle asked Darius. He kept his tone quiet as they walked toward the back garden wall.
“It was here.” Darius pointed to a spot of soil that was freshly turned over. He glanced up at own home over the garden wall, seeing Meredith’s window.
Doyle looked to the butler. “Where do you keep your gardening tools?” The man pointed to a garden shed in the corner of the garden.
Once armed with shovels, Darius and Doyle removed their coats and rolled up their sleeves to dig.
After several fruitless minutes, Doyle plunged his shovel into the soil and leaned on the handle, eyeing Darius with worry.
“We’re nearly twice as deep as you said you dug last night, and we still haven’t found anything.” Doyle wiped his brow with his forearm, his face solemn.
Darius dragged a handkerchief over his own face to clear it of the sheen of sweat. The cloth and the bag of jewels he discovered last night were gone.
“I swear on my soul they were there, Doyle.” He couldn’t have dreamed that he’d climbed the wall last night or dug up that cloth.
The smell of blood and death had been so fresh in his mind, even this morning.
His stomach still ached from leaping to get back over the wall from last night.
And, of course, Meredith had been there. Then how…?
“Mr. Dobbs, where are your master and mistress?” Doyle asked the butler.
Dobb straightened, his face a mask of austere pride.
“They retired to the country. I’ve been instructed to close the house down and sell the remaining furniture.”
“Are there any plans for them to return to London?” Doyle asked.
“I do not believe so,” Dobb said with an arrogant sniff. “The master mentioned the house would soon be sold.”
Doyle watched the man carefully as he continued his questions. “What of Mrs. Crell? I understand she was an invalid.”
“She is much improved and is the one who wished to move to the country.” Dobbs explained.
“Was your mistress blonde or dark-haired?” Darius asked as he remembered what Meredith had asked Warren the day before.
Without hesitation, Dobbs replied that she was dark-haired.
Darius thought for just a moment he saw a flash of something in the butler’s eyes as Doyle turned back to face him.
“I’m sorry, Your Grace. We must leave.” Doyle took hold of the shovels and returned them to the shed. Darius retrieved their coats from the ground and met the butler’s gaze once they were alone.
“Did your master pay you to lie for him?” Darius asked.
Dobbs scowled. “How dare you accuse me of lying! I do not care if you are a duke. You will leave this house at once!”
“Gladly.” Darius growled. He met Doyle at the entrance to the house and they left without another word to that foul butler.
Once he and Doyle were on the outside doorstep with the door shut behind them, they put their coats back on and returned to Darius’s home.
“For what it’s worth, I believe you saw something, Tiverton. But without proof or something more than a young girl hearing screams and seeing something in the shadows through a coach window, I cannot make an arrest.”
“Meredith is not some silly young girl,” Darius said with more force than he’d intended.
Doyle shot Darius an amused grin. “She’s Meredith now? Not Miss Montague? I thought this woman was your ward? Have you taken to other nightly activities with her other than digging up your neighbor’s gardens?”
“Careful, Doyle,” Darius warned. “She’s a lady.”
Doyle lifted his hands with a devilish grin. “If you’ll recall, I’m happily married, and you’ll end up that way too if you aren’t careful.”
“We are trying to prove a possible murder, Doyle.”
“All I know is that if anyone discovers you’re digging around in gardens at night with an unwed woman, you’ll end up married. Heed my warning, Your Grace.” Doyle touched the tip of his hat and parted ways with Darius at the turn leading back to Knightley Street.
The investigator was right, of course. He and Meredith shouldn’t be skulking around at night together. There were many things they shouldn’t be doing together, such as private kisses and what had happened last night. He’d…
Christ, he’d had his hand between her legs in his bed. That was enough to drive them to the altar if anyone should learn what had happened. But no one knew, and Darius would have to keep it that way.
He’d done a fine job this morning of briefly forgetting what he and Meredith had shared in his bed a few hours before, but now it had come back to him and it was the only thing he could think about.
The truth was, he’d been dreaming about her in his arms when she’d arrived, which is perhaps why he had not woken when she entered.
That and the brandy he had shared with his friends before turning in.
Then he had stroked her to climax. Somewhere in all that he had woken, and when she cried out, he’d realized it hadn’t been a dream at all.
She really had been beneath him, her lovely eyes dark as the night as she’d gazed up at him with such emotions that made his throat tighten even now just to think about them.
He would give anything to have her. To call her his darling wife and give her the world. But he couldn’t.
When he forced himself to re-enter his home, Meredith and Mrs. Petersham were waiting for him in the entryway.
“What happened? We watched you and Mr. Doyle dig from the window in my room. It didn’t seem like you found anything…” Meredith confessed, her cheeks rosy with excitement. Lord, she was so damn beautiful. It sometimes hurt to look at her, because it reminded him he couldn’t have her.
He let out a slow breath, steeling himself. “Unfortunately, what I found last night was gone.” Darius removed his coat and gave it to Chelsea, who would have his valet clean it of dirt.
Meredith gasped. “How could it be gone? I watched you re-bury it last night.”
“Wait,” Mrs. Petersham said. “You dug the cloth and jewels up and you returned it to the ground back just after midnight, correct?”
“Yes,” Darius said warily.
Meredith’s chaperone tapped her chin thoughtfully.
“That wretched butler Dobbs must have seen you climb over the wall and dig the cloth up. He could have waited for you and Meredith to leave, he dug it back up, and probably destroyed it. Did you check the townhouse? He might have tried to burn the cloth in a fireplace in one of the rooms or perhaps the kitchen…He wouldn’t burn the jewels, they’re too hard to destroy and too valuable. ”