Chapter 26 #2
“I see,” said the duke. “I’m a horologist who’s always believed in scientific principles.
I analyze evidence and draw logical conclusions from what is before me.
But for once—and most inexplicably—all that doesn’t matter to me.
While I still don’t understand how your magic works, I’ve somehow come to accept that you can make seemingly impossible things perfectly possible.
Perhaps I believe you because I trust you. ”
Emmeline smiled shyly. Hearing the duke had absolute faith in her meant so much. “I trust you too,” she said. “Although, Mrs. Temple would be very miffed if she found out that I’ve shared so many of the Parasol Academy’s secrets with you.”
The duke’s expression shifted into the realm of concerned. “You’ve taken a huge risk coming here the way you have. Which begs the question: Why? Why did you choose to teleport—is that the word?—into my study tonight? Is it something related to my wards? Are they all right?”
“Oh yes. They’re fine. Perfectly fine,” replied Emmeline hurriedly. “Snuggled up safely in their beds in Kent with one of the maids sleeping nearby. And there are footmen on all the doors. So you have nothing to worry about on that score.”
“So why are you here?”
Emmeline inhaled a bracing breath. “I found out something significant early this evening. Something you’d want to know straightaway. I learned the name of the servant who’s been upsetting things in St Lawrence House and who may have had a hand in Gareth’s attempted kidnapping.”
The duke’s eyebrows shot up toward his hairline. “You did? Who is it? How did you find out?”
“My brother, Freddy, told me. He came to visit me in Kent.” And then she recounted everything that her brother had disclosed to her.
“Ollie,” said the duke in a voice that contained an ominous note like distant thunder. “It was Ollie all this time?” Then under his breath, “The devious dog.”
“It would seem so,” said Emmeline. “As I said, Freddy didn’t hear the name of Ollie’s sweetheart, so it’s unclear whether she has been involved in all the household havoc. Perhaps he might share that information.”
“Perhaps. Do you have an idea who she might be?”
“Fanny springs to mind.”
The duke gave a decisive nod. “I agree.” His mouth had compressed into a hard grim line. “With any luck, Ollie might also disclose the ‘guv’nor’s’ actual identity.” He crossed to the bellpull and gave it a tug. “I’ll have Woodley summon the man himself.”
“What will we tell Woodley and the other servants? About my out-of-the-blue arrival that no one witnessed?” asked Emmeline.
“We’ll simply say that you arrived via the kitchen entrance when no one was about. Do you think that would suffice?”
Emmeline smiled. “It seems more plausible than telling them the wind blew me through the window or down the chimney.”
The duke shook his head. “Part of me thinks I must be dreaming. The idea of you teleporting from Kent is… fantastical. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”
“How do you know you’re not dreaming?” teased Emmeline.
The duke smiled. “Because in my dreams you’re never wearing that horrid cap, Mrs. Chase.” Leaning closer, his warm breath caressed her ear as he added, “Aside from that, no dream I’ve ever had smells as wonderful as you.”
And then, damn it, there was a knock on the door and the duke couldn’t say anything more because Woodley had arrived.
“It wasn’t me, Your Grace. Honest. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” declared a white-faced Ollie.
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing frantically above his collar when he noticed that Xavier was holding his silver-topped cane.
It was wellknown amongst the staff at St Lawrence House that there was a sword hidden inside that innocuous-looking gentleman’s accessory.
“I’ve done nothing wrong. I swear. Everyone says it’s the ghost who’s been upsetting things. ”
“What rubbish. There is no ghost,” returned Xavier hotly.
He gripped the top of his cane tighter to stop himself from grabbing the footman by the lapels and then pummeling him to dust. “Are you seriously going to tell me it was a ghost who tried to kidnap my young ward in the middle of Hyde Park? A five-year-old child? I should hand you over to Scotland Yard. In fact, I can ask Woodley to summon the constable outside in the square right now.”
The butler, who was blocking the study door, gave a sharp nod. “I’d be happy to, Your Grace. Tom is on duty at the front entrance. Ned is waiting outside in the hall too.”
Ollie’s countenance turned as green as pea soup. “I-I d-didn’t do anything wrong,” he stammered weakly.
“Then how do you account for everything Mrs. Chase’s brother heard?
” demanded Xavier. He gestured at Emmeline, who was standing by the fireplace, observing the exchange.
“How do you explain your association with this scar-faced man named West? The same cur who tried to abduct my ward! While you were standing close by!”
“I can’t,” whispered Ollie, transferring his weight nervously from one foot to the other. His gaze darted about Xavier’s study, landing everywhere except on Xavier. “I can’t say anything. Otherwise—”
“Otherwise, what?” snapped Xavier, his tone sharper than his rapier.
Ollie swallowed and pulled at his collar. “Otherwise West or the guv’nor might have something to say about it. You don’t know what they’re like.”
Aha! So Freddy Evans had been telling the truth.
Despite the fact Ollie seemed genuinely afraid, Xavier had not one speck of sympathy for the man.
“Yet you didn’t seem to have any problem taking money from this guv’nor character to create chaos in my household.
For months and months. If you tell me his name, Ollie, and why he’s orchestrated this whole insidious campaign against me, perhaps Scotland Yard will go easier on you.
Maybe you won’t be thrown in prison for the rest of your days for aiding and abetting the kidnapping of an innocent child. ”
Ollie shook his head. “I don’t know the guv’nor’s name. Only that he wanted you to be constantly disrupted and unsettled. So that’s what I did. That’s all I can tell you. He’s the one who arranged for West to try to kidnap Gareth. I wasn’t involved in that.”
“Yet you were there when it happened,” Xavier all but snarled. He stalked over to the window behind his desk and braced his forearm against the wall. He needed to put some distance between himself and the footman to stop himself beating the truth out of the sniveling swine.
Emmeline cleared her throat. “Ollie, was the goal to stop the duke from completing his work? So he wouldn’t be able to meet the submission date for the Westminster clock competition?”
The footman shrugged, his expression sullen. “How should I know?”
Xavier snorted. “Well, if it was, he hasn’t succeeded.” He glanced at Emmeline and managed to throw her a small smile. “I completed my design two nights ago.”
Emmeline’s answering smile was as bright and joyous as a sunbeam striking the sea on a summer’s day. “Oh, that’s absolutely wonderful, Your Grace. Congratulations. I’m so happy for you.”
He inclined his head. “Thank you.”
“Yes, well done, Your Grace,” added Woodley. “That’s quite an achievement. I know you’ve been working on your plan for such a long time.”
“I have another question for Ollie, Your Grace,” said Emmeline.
Xavier gestured with his cane. “Ask away.”
The nanny faced the footman. “When you saw West at the pub off Fleet Street a few nights ago, you mentioned you had a sweetheart waiting for you. Who is she, Ollie? Is she one of the maids at St Lawrence House? Has she been involved in this plot to undermine the duke too?”
Ollie looked down his nose at her. “That’s none of your business.”
Undaunted, the nanny asked, “Is it Fanny?”
The footman snorted. “Hardly. She’s not my type. If you must know, I’ve been courting a housemaid who works at one of the other nearby toffs’ houses. Her name is Flora. We both sneak out at night sometimes and meet up in the mews. She’s Scottish, and like you, a redhead. A right cracker of a wen—”
“Enough,” snapped Xavier. “There’s a lady present.
” He didn’t want to, but he withdrew his rapier from his cane.
As he moved forward, the gaslights glancing off the steel blade, Ollie stepped back a pace, his expression fearful.
“I’ve heard quite enough. Perhaps you’ll be a little more forthcoming when the police arrive to take you to Scotland Yard for questioning.
Woodley?” He addressed the butler. “Ned’s outside, you say? He can help you escort Ollie to—”
“I won’t go!” cried Ollie. He looked wild-eyed and green again as he began to back toward the door, but Woodley—a tall, imposing man despite his middle age—was barring his way. “You can’t make me.”
All of a sudden, Emmeline was moving swiftly toward the panicking footman. “Ollie, you look like you’re going to be ill or faint. Here”—she thrust a small, cut-crystal bottle beneath his nostrils—“my smelling salts might help.”
And then she whispered something that Xavier couldn’t quite hear.
A second later, a few tendrils of pale purple mist wafted out of the tiny bottle and straight into Ollie’s face… or rather straight up his nose. The footman’s gaze grew soft and dreamy. “Oh, hullo there. Give us a kiss then, pet.”
Emmeline stepped back just out of reach.
“Oh, I don’t think so, Ollie. Why don’t you accompany Woodley outside into the hall?
He and Ned are going to make sure you’re nice and safe and comfortable for a spell.
” She caught the butler’s eye—he appeared not to have noticed anything odd taking place as Ollie’s back had been facing him—and she murmured, “That lockable storage cupboard beside the servants’ stairs might be a suitable place for Ollie to wait and contemplate his life choices until a certain Scottish ‘you know who’ arrives. ”
Woodley bowed. “Great minds think alike, Nanny Chase. I’ll have Ned stand guard until they do.”
“Does that meet with your approval, Your Grace?” asked Emmeline over her shoulder.
Xavier quirked a brow. “It does indeed.” The nanny had somehow made Ollie as malleable as a warmed pat of butter, so he wasn’t going to second-guess her.
Woodley summoned Ned, and then they both escorted a pleasantly bemused and still inanely grinning Ollie out of Xavier’s study.
As the door closed behind them, Xavier resheathed his sword. “Brava, Mrs. Chase. I don’t know what you did exactly, but it was truly marvelous to behold.” He was grinning a little inanely too, which was not like him at all.
“I cast a confusion spell. But I’m afraid it only works for a few minutes,” she said. “I suspect Ollie will soon be back to his normal self and no doubt he’ll try to escape from the storage cupboard. I hope the lock is sound. Ollie isn’t a small man. A few well-aimed kicks and he might break free.”
Xavier nodded. “Good point. I’ll have a word to Woodley and have Ollie moved to the coal cellar if needed.
While I’m waiting for Scotland Yard to arrive, I’ll also take the opportunity to speak with Mrs. Lambton about the maids.
I don’t believe for a minute that Ollie was courting a Scots lass from a neighboring house. Do you?”
Mrs. Chase shook her head. “No. At this point, I’m still inclined to think it might be Fanny who’s the accomplice. But I don’t have any real evidence. Only a suspicion.”
“I trust your suspicions. You have good instincts. Right.” He sighed. “I’d best send word to the Yard before I do anything else.”
The nanny nodded. “Before you do, I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you did for Freddy. The reason he traveled to Kent was to tell me about the Markwick pocket watch he received. I know it was you who gave it to him, Your Grace, and you didn’t have to do that. You’ve done so much already.”
Xavier cleared his throat. “Think nothing of it, Emmeline. That watch should have been yours all those weeks ago. I bought it off Howell not long after you started here, with the intention of giving it to you sometime in the future. To make your life a little better. Just like you’ve made my life better. ”
Her expression softened. “You say and do the loveliest things sometimes, Your Grace. You might not wish to acknowledge it, but you do have a heart that is capable of much more than you give it credit for.”
Before Xavier could respond—he was, for the moment, quite flummoxed—she continued. “Well, I suppose I should teleport back to Kingscliff—”
In a handful of strides, Xavier crossed the short stretch of carpet separating them and caught one of her hands. “Don’t go, Emmeline. Not yet. I might need you again. We still haven’t worked out who this blasted guv’nor is. I’m sure my wards will be safe for the time being.”
Emmeline bit her bottom lip and that’s all Xavier could seem to focus on. “If you’re certain.”
“I am.” Because he couldn’t help himself, he raised her bare hand to his lips and feathered a light kiss over her knuckles.
Then he turned it so her palm was facing upward before pressing a soft kiss to her wrist, right where her pulse fluttered.
“Will you wait for me in my Horology Room?” he murmured.
“Of course, Your Grace.”
He gave a sharp nod. “Good. But you must call me Xavier when we are alone. I decree it.”
When she smiled softly and said, “Very well, Xavier,” his heart—the one she’d brought to life—practically performed a somersault in his chest.
He hadn’t lied when he’d said he needed her.
He needed her more than words could ever express.