Chapter 6
Alastair was still reeling from Lady Arabella’s outburst and what she’d accused him of. How dare she say that? To think he would have something to do with Fairleigh’s death was insulting.
He wanted to argue back, but it was clear that Lady Arabella wasn’t going to back down.
She was certainly confident that he was guilty of playing a part in Fairleigh’s death, and it was making her exhausted.
He could see it in her eyes, in the way she held herself.
She was in a lot of pain, and she was trying to find answers.
He wanted to help her, but there wasn’t anything they could do. Fairleigh had died by his own hand through his guilt, and there wasn’t anything they could do to change it.
Nevertheless, despite his annoyance and upset about being accused, he was surprised to find that he was happy to see the fire back in her now. She was not afraid and more than prepared to tackle the situation head-on.
Maybe there was something they could do. It would be difficult, but not impossible. Maybe some answers would give her some closure. And then she might stop accusing him of another man’s death.
They traveled the rest of the way to his townhouse in silence, and once they pulled up outside, Alastair glanced at Lady Arabella’s maid.
“Would you give us a moment?” he asked. “I want to talk to your mistress.”
The maid looked surprised at that, but she nodded and got out, leaving the carriage door open. Alastair shifted to the edge of his seat and waited for Lady Arabella to look at him, trying not to fall into the depths of her purple-blue eyes. They were hypnotic. Her eyes narrowed.
“What are you doing?”
“You think that your father came to foul play, don’t you?”
She snorted. “Of course I do! I’ve been thinking that since he died.”
“Even if evidence says otherwise?”
“You can’t change what my gut says. He was killed by someone.”
She sounded so sure about it. Alastair wondered what would happen if she found out that it had nothing to do with foul play and it was a genuine accident.
He wanted to give her some comfort, aware that she was feeling a lot of pain, but he stopped himself.
He wasn’t about to get close to a woman who was clearly accusing him.
And yet he couldn’t bring himself to put distance between them. There was something about her that pulled him in. And, if Alastair was honest, something was not quite right with the whole thing. Perhaps it would put some suspicions to rest, even if everyone else had.
He shouldn’t help someone who’d just accused him of something heinous, but he couldn’t bring himself to walk away.
“I can help you.”
She blinked at him. “What?”
“To find out what happened to your father,” Alastair said. “I can help you uncover what really happened.”
She stared at him as if he’d gone mad. She sat forward, her face inches from his and close enough that he could feel her breathe tickling his cheek. Something made his heart miss a few beats, and he almost pulled back abruptly. However, Alastair forced himself to stay where he was.
“Why would you do that?” she asked quietly, her gaze piercing. “Why should I accept help from someone who didn’t care about this before? How can I trust you?”
“You can’t, but I hope to gain it eventually.
” He kept his gaze locked with hers even as the pounding in his chest moved to his head and made his skull feel like it was throbbing.
“I know it’s a difficult one for you to accept, and I understand.
But I hope you can accept my help. You need it if you want to get any further with what you’re looking for. You can’t do all of this on your own.”
She sniffed. “I’ve been doing it on my own for six months now.”
“And how far has that gotten you?”
That made her pause. She hadn’t really gotten very far at all, and Alastair knew that. She wouldn’t have the resources to go as far as she wanted. He did, and while he was still smarting from being accused of being involved, Alastair was prepared to give that help to Lady Arabella.
If it made her calm down and accept the events, then that would make it worth his while.
Finally, Lady Arabella sighed heavily and nodded.
“All right. But don’t leave me out of anything. I need to know the truth.”
“Understood.” Giving her a slight smile, he alighted from the carriage. “Let’s go. I’m sure Mother’s wondering where we’ve gone.”
“As long as she doesn’t think we’re doing anything…”
She didn’t finish the sentence, but she suddenly blushed bright red.
Chuckling, Alastair reached in and took her hand.
She didn’t pull away until she was on the pavement beside him, and he noticed her absently rub her hand on her skirt.
She was still struggling to trust, he could understand that, and opening up to the offer of help was foreign to her.
He wondered how long she’d been on her own, coping with life. He had a feeling it was longer than six months.
There were voices coming from the drawing room when they entered the house. As the two divested themselves of their coats, Helena came out of the drawing room, wearing a lovely golden dress with her hair piled neatly on top of her head. She beamed at Lady Arabella.
“Good evening.” She clasped Lady Arabella’s hands. “You look beautiful, Lady Arabella. I love that dress on you. It sets off the color of your eyes.”
Lady Arabella blushed again, and she suddenly appeared to be shy. Alastair was curious about this brief transformation. Wasn’t she used to compliments? Or didn’t she get many of them?
“You look stunning yourself, Lady Helena,” she replied warmly. “That is a gorgeous dress.”
Helena beamed. Then her smile faded a little and she glanced at the partially open drawing room door. She lowered her voice.
“Just to warn you, Alastair, but Miss Rosamund Linton is here as well.”
Alastair stared.
“What? But it was supposed to be a family affair with Lady Arabella.”
“I know, and I reminded Mother of that, but Miss Rosamund turned up shortly after you left, and Mother ended up inviting her to stay for dinner.” Helena made a face. “From the way she’s dressed, I think she was expecting to be invited to dinner.”
Alastair groaned. What was his mother thinking? She knew this was just meant to be for themselves, Edmund, and Lady Arabella. He hadn’t wanted anyone else to join them. Lady Hartwood was aware of that.
And it sounded like Miss Linton wasn’t going to take the rejection easily, either. She seemed determined.
Lady Arabella glanced at him, her expression worried. Alastair took a deep breath and laid a hand on her back.
“Let’s go in,” he said. “Don’t leave my side if you’re not comfortable.”
“I would rather not go in there,” she muttered, but she allowed him to escort her into the drawing room.
The curtains were open, letting the setting sunlight in and trailing dark orange light across the floor and furniture.
Lady Hartwood was sitting by the recently made fire, holding a glass.
She was talking to Miss Linton, who sat beside her.
Helena was right; she looked like she’d been expecting to be invited for dinner.
Edmund was also present, talking to Sebastian. Alastair was surprised at that; he hadn’t expected his cousin to have turned up as well. He crossed the room, Lady Arabella hovering beside him as she glanced around nervously.
“Seb?”
His cousin turned, breaking into a broad smile.
“Alastair! You’re looking well?” They shook hands. “I came by to see how you were, and I ended up getting invited to dinner.”
“Oh, really?” Alastair raised his eyebrows. “Interesting, seeing as I wasn’t aware.”
“Well, your mother said there was going to be an odd number of couples at the table, so she wanted to even it out.”
“It’s only odd now because she invited Miss Linton without our permission,” Helena muttered. “We never invited her.”
Sebastian looked bemused, a slight smile tugging at his mouth. Then his gaze flittered over to Lady Arabella, who gave him a slight nod. He bowed.
“Lady Arabella. Good to see you again.”
Alastair frowned.
“You two know each other already?” he asked. “I wasn’t aware.”
“I’m acquainted with the current viscount Fairleigh. I met Lady Arabella a few days ago.” Sebastian’s eyes glittered. “We had a very…enlightening conversation.”
Lady Arabella arched an eyebrow.
“I wouldn’t call discussing the current state of affairs enlightening.”
Before Alastair could ask more about what Sebastian meant—he did tend to talk in riddles, and it was taxing at times—he heard Miss Linton saying his name. He bit back a sigh before turning. Miss Linton stood with her arms folded, her face one of annoyance.
“Miss Linton.” He gave her a slight bow. “I wasn’t aware you’d be joining us tonight. Did you receive an invitation?”
“Your mother invited me.”
“Really? Well, that was a slip on her part.” Alastair shot a look at Lady Hartwood, but she seemed to be interested in sipping her drink and looking at the fire. “I wish she hadn’t done that…”
“You wouldn’t throw me out now?” Her eyes widened. “I’m here now, and it would be rude to take away the invitation.”
“You weren’t invited by Alastair in the first place,” Helena said hotly, but Alastair waved her into silence. He didn’t want to deal with the argument right now. Things were going to be tense already without this issue.
Miss Linton sniffed, giving Helena a cursory glance before focusing on Alastair again.
“When were you going to tell me that you were courting someone else?” she demanded.
“I didn’t realize I needed to say anything.” Alastair gestured at their surroundings. “And are you really going to have this conversation in front of everyone?”
“When else?”
“It’s not very polite, Miss Linton.”
“I would say what you did wasn’t very polite, either, son,” Lady Hartwood said from her seat on the settee.
She fixed Lady Arabella with a hard stare.
“After all, you’re the one who didn’t tell us about you courting someone else.
You made Miss Linton believe that you two were going to be announcing your courtship eventually. ”
Alastair shook his head.
“It’s my private life, Mother. And I never let Miss Linton believe anything. I made it clear that I didn’t want to consider courtship with her.”
Miss Linton gasped.
“What? How could you say that?”
“If you misread what I was saying, then that’s not my fault.”
“Why don’t we discuss something else?” Edmund said hurriedly, resting a hand on Alastair’s shoulder. “This isn’t a topic of conversation we should be pursuing tonight. It’s supposed to be a pleasant dinner. We shouldn’t lower the tone of the evening.”
“I agree,” Helena chimed in. “This is for another time and preferably not with an audience.”
Silence fell, and it was tense. Alastair glanced at Lady Arabella, who was looking at the floor. He couldn’t begin to imagine how she was feeling right now; this wasn’t how his family normally behaved. Then again, he wasn’t normally confronted by a jilted woman.
Miss Linton turned to Lady Arabella, his jaw tightening.
“Well, then,” she said. “I’m sure I can make Lady Arabella…welcome accordingly. I’m sure things will go the way they’re supposed to go.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sebastian asked.
But Miss Linton simply gave him a sweet smile that didn’t reach her eyes and turned away. Alastair turned to Lady Arabella as they were left alone.
“Are you all right?” he whispered.
“I’ll be fine.” She glanced after Miss Linton. “She’s going to make it difficult for me, isn’t she?”
Alastair didn’t answer, but he knew it was going to happen. Between his mother and Miss Rosamund Linton, they were going to try and get their own way. Neither of them liked to lose.
He began to wonder if it was him who had the tougher end of the deal or if Lady Arabella had more to contend with.