Fourteen
Thea
Abandoned by Arnaud while he arranged to open his brother’s shop and tavern, with Fort and Lavender preparing for their spying mission—Thea was left to glare at the invalid’s ugly salon. The alternative was the schoolroom.
Thea loved her weird little brother but she wasn’t any more inclined toward babysitting Davy—or the annoying earl—than she was toward writing her old society acquaintances.
She wouldn’t call them friends. She’d had little interest in their activities or gossip even when she’d been in London, attending all events.
She’d come to the Priory for her brother’s sake, but she’d happily settled in with the odd ducks and beautiful old furniture without regret.
If her new family and home was in danger due to a pack of lucre-loving mushrooms, then she would find a way to blow the ground out from under their boots. For the moment, though, she scribbled letters and waited for the patient to stir.
“You are glaring at that writing desk as if it might explode in your hands.” Finally acknowledging her presence, the earl struggled to reach a glass of water.
“If I could turn paper into gunpowder, it might.” Setting aside her writing desk, she fetched the water for him. “You never did say if there is any connection between the Priory and your assassin.” She’d had time to ponder her own list of questions.
“Can’t say.” He sipped the water while considering his reply. “I made the speech, went home, ordered my valise packed and my horse brought around. I remember intending to visit Venetia for the evening.”
“Through Covent Garden?” she prompted, knowing the lady in question.
He nodded. “Drunken protestors poured out of nowhere. I remember attempting to find a path around them. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground, in danger of being trampled.”
“Horsemen and not drunken rioters brought you down, your brother says?”
He nodded, careful not to move his shoulder. “Assassins make little sense, unless they thought me someone else. My footman and a local merchant got me out. I had my man write the letter to send ahead. He must have arranged the rest.”
“I note your trusted servant is not with you, my lord,” Thea said dryly.
She supposed she was feeling guilty and a little left out with Lavender and Fort preparing their roles in spying on the American. Hoping to learn more from the close-mouthed earl felt better than writing useless letters. Clare and Eleanor, their local scribe, wrote better than she.
“Traveling in a farm cart with a liveried servant might have been noticeable,” Weston said wryly. “Why aren’t you dressing up in peasant clothing and spying with the others?”
“When the encroaching mushrooms start attending art galleries, I shall. Until then, I am writing my acquaintances in search of anyone willing to threaten my father into removing his petition. I fear, though, they are all hen-hearts.”
He snorted, but weariness wrinkled lines around his eyes. “Worked out the culprit, did you? Marry my brother. Your trustees will approve and the duke’s solicitors will turn your father inside out preventing him from stealing your inheritance.”
Thea was terrified she might have to do something that drastic if it meant saving the Priory. “I fear neither Lord Fortescue nor Arnaud would be happy with the arrangement you have with your lady, my lord. Since the wolves are at our door already, there isn’t time for a fight that complicated.”
Apparently following voices, Arnaud leaned on the door frame.
“I will kill your father and Humphries before I allow you to sacrifice yourself. I can always return to France.” With those endearing words, her antisocial beloved crossed the room to study the courtyard outside the enormous windows. Shadows were already growing long.
Knowing he’d sacrifice himself, rather than tear her from her home, Thea didn’t smack him for his stubborn protectiveness. “I’ll hire someone to shoot my father before letting you commit the kind of violence you abhor.”
Her lover was a large man, capable of killing with his fists. But Thea knew his soul. He was an artist, not a soldier.
Arnaud sent her a faint smile but maintained his watchfulness.
“Noble of you.” The earl picked at a selection of fruit and cheese the kitchen had sent up. “I am more interested in learning if sedition is behind any plan for a lawless exclave. I need to be in London, where I have informants. Your isolation is dangerous.”
“Half the kingdom is isolated,” Arnaud said scornfully. “Given time and more evidence than speculation, we can call on the authorities, if we must. You, however, are the immediate problem. Were you struck down for carrying information to us—or for other reasons?”
“Impossible to say.” The earl nibbled at his fare and considered it.
“Few are aware of the problem Gravesyde presents or would even care if they knew. Many of us are keeping an eye on the insurrectionists. The petition in the Commons caught my eye because I’m familiar with the exclave.
I had intended to learn more of who is behind it, for fear men of authority are using the rabble to plan sedition, as happened in France.
Until we learn more of Humphries and his fellows, I recommend we play cards so I may earn my coins back. ”
They were all stuck in the manor’s empty wing, relying on a couple of inexperienced spies. Thea had no interest in cards but grinned wickedly. “Perhaps you are good at puzzles, my lord? We have one that might reward you with immense ruby and diamond pendants.”
Weston actually looked interested. “The Wycliffe jewels? You have clues to their whereabouts?’’
“We do. I’ll send the boys in to explain.” With malice aforethought, she abandoned the sick room to send the students in with their puzzle pieces, thus putting an end to both her babysitting duties.
Arnaud sent her a look that said he knew what she was doing, but he could paint while watching windows. She needed people.
Her brief visit to Clare earlier to reassure her about the gunshot had caused Thea to rethink some of their decisions.
Yes, Clare just had a baby. Physically, she needed rest and to learn to be a mother.
But Clare’s active mind had not turned into turnip mash.
She’d been full of questions and knew she was being kept from something.
Her cousin would start fretting if she had no explanations.
The Priory’s invisible strength was in its female occupants. Men never expected women to have the knowledge or power to fight back. Protecting the earl might require secrecy, but when a problem affected the Priory itself. . .
It was time to engage the rest of the family. All her life, Thea had solved difficulties on her own. Given her lack of parental support, and her knowledge of spirits no one else believed in, she’d had little choice but to trust herself.
But now, she had people who had faith in her, who listened when she spoke. It was time to access their greater knowledge and abilities.
Everyone would be dressing for dinner shortly. She had to catch them before they vanished into their chambers. Abandoning Arnaud to school and sickroom duties, Thea rushed down the wide corridor to the library, where she caught Minerva picking up for the day.
“Did the design books help?” the librarian asked, shelving the final book. Short, slender, with her dark blond hair tucked into a knot, she looked the part of harmless librarian or curate’s wife.
Daughter of a former colonel and spy, Minerva was never harmless.
“The boys are bored and the designs give them new ideas, thank you.” Thea glanced around to verify they were alone. “Do you have time to come up to Clare’s suite? I’d like to discuss what the men are trying to hide.”
“Not very successfully,” Minerva said with a laugh, removing her dusty apron. “We wondered how long it would take you or Lavender to break. With Paul still out of town, I was planning on staying here again tonight. Shall I round up anyone else?”
“Not yet. I’m not entirely certain I am doing the right thing, but this is apparently more dangerous than the parlor trick we originally assumed. Clare is strong enough to sit now. I’d like her sensible opinion. You, I’m not so sure about. But you have information we need.”
Knowing her own busybody reputation, Minerva laughed. “Most excellent. Lead on.”
Clare’s corner suite in the new wing had large windows on two walls and a working fireplace.
They found her on a chaise longue overlooking the courtyard, feeding her son.
An anxious nursemaid hovered nearby. Brown-streaked blond locks pulled back in a loose tangle at her nape, Clare scarcely looked older than Lavender.
She smiled in delight at her visitors. “Oh, finally, we are to conspire.”
She handed her sleepy son to the nursemaid and waved them off. “I was fairly certain Arnaud had not accidentally discharged a pistol. He hates them. Who are we hiding?”
She arranged a colorful shawl over her bedgown and sent her lady’s maid for tea and refreshments. Normally, the household met in the parlor before dinner for nibbles and drinks. Without the men for entertainment, the ladies lingered in their rooms.
After all these years of avoiding it, Thea was beginning to understand the value of socialization. “Lord Fortescue has sworn us to secrecy. I’m no longer certain that is the best path to take.”
“Fortescue?” Clare asked in surprise.
“Birdwhistle,” Minerva explained. “The Duke of Castlefield’s youngest son is a cuckoo in your nest, I fear. I agreed to stay silent because he is harmless. I thought he was hiding from his overbearing father, who wants him to marry and be a soldier or a vicar or some such.”
Clare’s eyes widened. “I have a duke’s son tutoring Ollie?” She turned to Thea. “Did you know?”
“No. Fort has never entered society, so I never met him. But I did assume he was hiding. I have never met a tutor as intelligent or understanding of Davy’s problems.”
Clare nodded. “That was my assessment. I just hoped he’d stay until Oliver is ready for school.”
“You may lose your tutor after this. He is currently hiding his older brother, the Earl of Weston, in the abandoned east wing.” Over exclamations and appalled reactions, Thea explained everything she knew.
When she was done, Clare and Minerva looked as worried as Thea felt.
“Weston will heal?” Minerva asked anxiously. “He is a grumbleton, but we need his intelligence in parliament.” Her father had been injured out of the army and become the duke’s steward. She’d grown up with the duke’s sons.
“Meera is taking excellent care of Weston. He cannot send missives without revealing his presence, however, so he is as bored as the boys and is now attempting to solve Wycliffe’s puzzle.
After that incident with the intruder, we fear the assassins may have found him.
” Thea tried to explain the inexplicable.
“Or one of the maids has a suitor,” Minerva said pragmatically. “A stupid one if he thinks he can reach her through the garden door. If Walker were here, he would kill him first and ask questions later.”
“Except Walker is with Hunt, acting as his good eye and reading documents.” Clare frowned. “We must ask Quincy to keep a footman at the garden door all the time. Perhaps I ought to ask Meera and her son to stay upstairs instead of in that lower hall.”
That was the kind of thing that did not occur to Thea. She fetched Clare’s portable writing desk to take notes. “Fort and Lavender mean to act as spies at the inn. If we can’t stop them, how do we protect them?”
Minerva held up her hand. “First, we write Lieutenant Jack. He’s at Elsa’s estate and can be with Hunt in a few hours.
Hunt has Walker and Damien with him, but they are not trained soldiers.
With all three men at his side, Hunt should be safe.
Then we need to determine when Kate’s husband will return from sheep buying and enlist his aid in the manor. Paul should be back by tomorrow night.”
Kate’s husband was a former soldier, but the curate wasn’t, although he had an enormous circle of associates in the area, along with his entire flock. Thea unwound little by little as her cousins took over the task of protecting the manor.
Once those burdens were passed to others more competent than she, she could set her mind to the task of destroying her grasping, immoral father.
She might have done so sooner, but she hadn’t wished to burden Davy with a title and estate at so young an age.
But he had good guardians now. The time had come.