Chapter 11
Meredith hadn’t been able to get the mystery out of her mind.
It seemed on the quiet nights, just when she was drifting asleep, she imagined she saw Minerva standing by Meredith’s bedchamber window, looking out upon the gardens.
Minerva had turned, the moonlight touching upon her face, a face that seemed troubled.
“I feel so very far away,” the dream Minerva had whispered. “I miss my gardens…”
Meredith had shoved her bedsheets back and wiped at her eyes.
When she’d opened them again, the strange vision was gone and Meredith was more than certain then that what she’d feared was indeed true.
Minerva was no longer alive. She’d resolved that night that no matter what she would find out what happened to her neighbor.
It was a full two weeks later when Meredith was struck by an idea. Not one about finding a husband, but rather the mystery of the Crell house and how to solve the mystery of Minvera Crell’s disappearance.
It came to her as she stood in the middle of a ballroom, facing Warren for a dance at one of the half-dozen balls she had attended in the last two weeks.
Her mind had been wandering back to that hole in the garden wall and the void it represented.
She could not let what had happened to Mrs. Crell go unanswered.
“I have it!” she whispered as Warren came toward her, their hands clasped as he spun her around.
“Have what?” Warren asked. She grinned at him. He had become such a close friend, always dancing with her and sitting with her at dinner, much to Darius’s annoyance.
“I believe I know what to do to get Mr. Crell’s attention.”
“You want a possible murderer to pay attention to you?” Warren frowned slightly.
“Not when you put like that.” Meredith hastily ducked her head when she realized that someone might overhear so she lowered her voice.
Warren clasped one of her hands with his over their heads, drawing them close to each other.
“But after Mr. Doyle made it clear we needed evidence, I’ve been pondering how to find some. I think I have the answer.”
They danced away from each other and then came toward each other again. Then it was their turn to dance down the aisle of the other couples. She remained quiet until they were close once again, dancing in their own small circles where she felt confident no one would overhear what they were saying.
“You followed Mr. Crell to his house in the country, correct?”
Warren nodded.
“Could find your way back there?”
“Easily,” he assured her. “Why?”
“I wish for you to deliver a letter to Mr. Crell from me. I will not sign it, nor will it have any identifying information on it. I want you to leave it at his house without any idea who has left it for him. It cannot be traced back to Darius or his home.”
Warren’s brows lifted. “Crell already suspects Darius is involved because he went with Doyle to Crell’s house. That butler will surely have reported the event to his master.”
“You’re right. Why don’t one of you take Darius hunting in the country for a few days?
Chelsea could make sure Dobbs would hear that Darius is gone from the city, then it wouldn’t look as though he had sent the note, or at the least there would be a witness that Darius was nowhere near Crell’s country estate and Felix will be able to testify that Darius didn’t hire a messenger to send it either. .”
“Dare I ask what will be in this note?”
“An accusation,” Meredith replied. “I will tell him that I have proof of what he did to Mrs. Crell and I want to be paid for my silence.”
Warren’s eyes widened. “You want to blackmail Crell?”
“Not at all. I only wish for him to think so. I will ask him to meet me during the day when Darius is off in the country. Then I can have Doyle listen in on my conversation with Mr. Crell and have him taken into custody if he confesses.”
“And how exactly do you plan to make Crell confess in front of Doyle?”
Meredith grinned at her own cleverness. “He won’t know Doyle will be there. I will have Doyle listen on the other side of the garden wall. He will be invisible to Mr. Crell.”
Warren’s eyes brightened. “You know, that’s not a half bad plan.”
“So you will agree to deliver the letter to him?”
Warren considered the matter. “Perhaps Felix can convince Darius to leave. His country house has fine grounds for shooting. I will speak with him about it tonight.”
“Thank you, Warren.” Meredith felt positively giddy when she and Warren finished their dance.
He escorted her back to Mrs. Petersham and Darius, but she slipped away for a quick visit to the refreshment tables.
She wove her way through the crush of bodies and smiled when she saw Suzannah and Kit twirling out on the dance floor.
Her heart twinged with longing. To have what they did, that easy love, that sense of rightness and belonging to one another… She would give anything to have that.
Her smile faltered. She had managed to forget only briefly that she might never have that, not unless she resolved to find someone who would love her the way she deserved to be loved.
She paused behind the table laden with treats, but her appetite was now gone.
A group of young women had their backs to Meredith as they watched the dancers.
It was clear they had seen her approach because they started speaking, and Meredith was meant to overhear their whispered conversation.
“She’s illegitimate, you know. Yes, that’s what I heard.” One young woman said to her companion.
“What is she even doing here? Why would Tiverton bring her out into society?”
“They say his uncle made Tiverton agree to take her in as his deathbed wish. He must have agreed out of honor and pity. Tiverton is quite gracious after all. He would not wish to turn her out, even if she is no better than a beggar.”
“You don’t think he…” one whispered, but the rest of what the woman said went unheard as a swell of music drowned out her words.
“Choose her over you? No, you are the daughter of an earl, he would never pass you over for some street born creature.”
Street born? A flash of rage and pain gripped her. She wasn’t street born, she was… she was…
She was no one. No one worth caring about, worth saving, worth…loving, especially not by someone like Darius. He had admitted as much to Mrs. Petersham.
She gasped in horror as Darius and Warren came toward the refreshment table. Meredith ducked behind a tall potted plant a few feet away before they spotted her, but she was close enough to continue to hear what the young women were saying when the two gentlemen approached the refreshments.
“Would you settle a point for us, Your Grace?” one asked.
“Yes?” Darius asked.
“That woman… your ward … will you soon be rid of her so that you might hunt for a wife soon?”
“I beg your pardon?” Darius’s voice deepened. “I have no desire to be rid of Miss Montague. She is a lovely young woman. Even the prince approves of her. Soon she will marry—”
Another woman laughed. “You must be teasing, Your Grace. But truthfully, you must see that woman is damaging your hunt for a wife. Can’t you pay her and simply send her away?”
The silence that came from Darius was a knife to Meredith’s heart. He wasn’t going to defend her. He was going to let those women insult her as if she didn’t matter.
Because I don’t matter, not to the one person who matters to me.
She smothered a balled fist against her mouth to silence herself. Warren started to speak., but Meredith couldn’t bear to stay and hear what else was said. Without a backward glance, Meredith bolted for a set of balcony doors that she prayed led to a terrace outside.
Air, she needed air…
* * *
“Can’t you pay her and simply send her away?” Lady Mary Raikes asked Darius.
She was, objectively, a lovely brunette who possessed a pedigree dating back to the days of the Norman invasion. By the standards of the ton, she was the sort of woman who would be perfect as his duchess.
But all Darius could do was stare at her with a rage beyond words.
Send Meredith away? Pay her? Raikes’s blunt rudeness took him completely off guard. So much so that he just stared at her in terrible, thunderous silence.
“Ah, Lady Mary, I see you are as detestable as always,” Warren said with a cool smile.
Lady Mary arched a brow at him. “Who are you again? Oh yes, an untitled gentleman. You’ll forgive me if I have no care to what your ilk thinks.”
At this, Warren laughed harshly. “To forgive you, I would first have to have the misfortune of caring about your opinion…which I don’t.
Miss Montague is worth a thousand of you, Lady Mary.
Perhaps that’s what has your petticoats all twisted up?
The thought that if Tiverton were to marry her over you, you’d know you aren’t worth anything to him. ”
“Are you going to let him speak to me like that, Your Grace?”
Darius, finally able to see past the seething anger, opened his mouth to speak, but someone jumped out from behind a potted plant. It was Meredith. His Meredith…running from the ballroom, running from him. Because she’d overheard their conversation? She must have.
That black rage swelled within his head again as he met Lady Mary’s gaze.
“Actually, I will let Mr. Burville speak to you like that, because if I dare stay in your presence one moment longer, I will say something that you will wish I hadn’t.
” Without even excusing himself, Darius skirted around the refreshment table and headed for the balcony doors.
He had to find her, tell her that he didn’t agree with Lady Mary.
That he’d never send her away. That she was worth far more than a thousand Lady Marys. She was worth everything.