Darling Beast (Maiden Lane #7)

“No, you wouldn’t,” Apollo muttered.

“How did you know about Lord Kilbourne’s difficulties, may I inquire, Your Grace?” Trevillion asked quietly.

“Oh,” Montgomery murmured, bending to peer at the mechanical hen, “one hears these things.”

“Usually only if one has paid informants,” Trevillion said, very dry.

“They do help.” Montgomery straightened and smiled sweetly. “Now, if we’re done with the pleasantries, I suggest we discuss how we’re going to prove Lord Kilbourne’s innocence so he can get back to work on Harte’s Folly. I really must insist my garden be open for business by next spring, and this… hiccup… threatens to put the whole thing back months.” He made a moue of discontent. “I really shan’t have it.”

“My garden,” Makepeace muttered, but his heart was obviously no longer in it. He fetched the steaming teapot. “Right. Trevillion sit there”—he indicated his vacated chair—“you”—he pointed at the duke—“can sit on the bed or not at all. Now, who’s for tea?”

And a few minutes later they all had steaming—if mismatched—cups of tea in what had to be the oddest tea party Apollo had ever attended.

“Now then.” Makepeace slurped noisily at his teacup merely, Apollo suspected, to annoy the duke. He’d dumped half the contents of a rather fine gilded sugar bowl into his tea and it must have been like drinking treacle. “Let’s hear it. What’s your grand plan?”

Montgomery sniffed cautiously at his tea and took a very small, very delicate sip. Immediately his eyebrows shot up and he hastily set the teacup down on a pile of books. “Obviously we must find and expose the real murderer.”

“Obviously,” Makepeace drawled back.

The duke ignored that. “Am I to assume from Captain Trevillion’s presence that you’ve already made some inquiries?”

Apollo exchanged a glance with Trevillion and Apollo nodded.

“Yes, Your Grace, I have done some investigation into the matter.” The captain cleared his throat. “It seems Lord Kilbourne’s uncle, William Greaves, is in some debt to his grandfather’s, the earl’s, estate.”

Montgomery, who had been poking at his teacup, looked up at that. “Splendid! We have a viable candidate for a substitute murderer. Now to simply alert the authorities with a well-placed hint—”

“A hint about what, exactly?” Makepeace exploded. “We don’t have a scrap of real evidence that ’Pollo’s uncle did anything.”

“Oh, evidence is easily manufactured, I find,” the duke said carelessly as he dropped a marzipan orange into his tea. He watched it sink with interest.

There was a short, appalled silence.

The duke seemed to realize something was amiss. He glanced up, his blue eyes wide and innocent. “Problem?”

Fortunately it was Trevillion who replied. “I’m afraid we can’t simply manufacture evidence, Your Grace,” he said calmly but firmly. “We must discover the evidence naturally.”

“How tedious!” The duke actually pouted before assuming a rather alarmingly crafty expression. “It’ll take much less time my way, you comprehend.”

“Oh for God’s sake!” Makepeace burst out and for a moment Apollo was afraid he’d have to physically restrain him. “You’re discussing falsifying evidence to hang a man.”

“Don’t be a hypocrite, Mr. Harte,” the duke snapped. “You believe him just as guilty as I. You just want to salve your conscience by working for the evidence. The end result is the same, I assure you: an arrested man and Lord Kilbourne saved from Bedlam.”

“Nevertheless,” Trevillion said. He didn’t raise his voice, but such was its command, the other two men looked to him. “We’ll do it our way. Your Grace.”

For a moment the soldier and the aristocrat glared at each other.

Then the duke suddenly knocked over his teacup, spilling the mess on a stack of papers. “Oh, very well,” he said, petulant, over the squawks of Makepeace. Apparently the papers were broadsheets he’d been meaning to read. “I suppose there’s no help for it. We’ll have to go to William Greaves’s country house outside Bath and hunt around like farmers’ wives after chicken eggs.”

They all stared at him.

“What now?”

Trevillion cleared his throat, but Makepeace, perhaps because of his sodden broadsheets, beat him to it. “How do you propose we get into Greaves’s country house? Surely he’ll notice four men tramping through his rooms.”

“I doubt it,” Montgomery purred, “since he’ll be holding a country party in a little over a fortnight’s time with an especial play as the centerpiece of the event. Naturally, I have been invited. I’ll simply arrive with my very good friend, Mr. Smith”—he sent a significant glance at Apollo—“and there you are.”

“There we won’t be, because the first thing Greaves will do will be to have ’Pollo arrested,” Makepeace objected.

“Actually,” Apollo interjected thoughtfully, “I’ve never met… the man.”

Makepeace swung on him, looking betrayed. “What, never?”

Apollo shrugged. “Perhaps… as a baby? I certainly have no… memory of him or the rest of his family. He probably’s never… seen me.” He looked over at Trevillion calmly sipping his tea. “Can Lady Phoebe find… a way to get an invitation to… the house party?”

“No,” the captain said with certainty. “Her brother does not want her to attend social events except those held by a family member. There are very few exceptions. However”—he looked considering—“I believe Wakefield has a house in Bath. It shouldn’t be too hard to suggest Lady Phoebe take the waters. And, since she enjoys the theater very much, she might be able to attend a private theatrical performance for one night. I shall look into the matter.”

Montgomery clapped his hands. “Then it’s settled. As I see it, there’s but one thing to do in the intervening two weeks.”

“And what is that?” Makepeace grated.

The duke turned his bright-blue eyes on Apollo, making him exceptionally nervous. “Why, outfit Lord Kilbourne as the aristocrat he is.”

Chapter Twelve

Ariadne followed the winding corridors of the labyrinth for days and nights. She ate the cheese and bread her mother had hidden in the folds of her robe and drank the dew that collected in the crevices of the stone at night. Sometimes she would hear an animal’s roar or what sounded like a man’s shout, but often she heard nothing at all except the scrape of her slippers on the hard earth of the labyrinth. And then, on the third day, she found the first skeleton…

—From The Minotaur

Two weeks later Lily looked up at the gray stone facade of William Greaves’s country house and thought she should be excited.

It was the first opportunity in months and months for her to perform—and it would be in one of her own plays. By dint of nearly killing herself, she’d finished A Wastrel Reform’d on time and sent the manuscript by porter to Edwin, despite her misgivings. He’d already had a buyer, after all, and they both needed the money rather badly.

She hadn’t been terribly surprised when the Duke of Montgomery had introduced her to the other players and she’d found out she was performing in the play she’d only just finished. William Greaves was the duke’s friend who’d commissioned A Wastrel Reform’d, and she had the lead as Cecily Wastrel. A plum breeches role—and she should know.

All in all a lovely turn of events. Usually she’d be happy and looking forward to both the party and the work.

Instead she felt a persistent melancholy. Caliban—Lord Kilbourne—had to all appearances escaped the soldiers, but she had no idea where he was. Indio had spent the week she’d been frantically writing moping about the garden, bemoaning his loss and driving her half mad. Even Maude, who should’ve been glad all her dire warnings about the man had proven correct, was silent on the subject. The afternoon after the soldiers finally left the garden, Lily had crept into the musician’s gallery and found his meager nest. He’d left a few clothes, an end of bread, and his notebook. This last she’d pocketed as some pathetic token—of what, she wasn’t exactly sure.

So it was with false cheer that she entered the Greaves House hallway. It was an older manse with narrow, dark rooms. She glanced around, already worried about where they could put on the play.

“Ah, our players,” Mr. William Greaves said rather pompously. He was a man in his sixties who’d probably been handsome as a youth. Now, however, he had a uniform dreary grayness about him, with a lined, sagging jawline and a puffiness around the eyes that bespoke too much drink or rich food. “I collect you must be Miss Goodfellow?”

She curtsied. “Your discernment is quite amazing, sir.” She swept wide her arm to indicate the other players behind her. “May I introduce Mr. Stanford Hume.” An older, florid-faced actor bowed stiffly. Poor Stanford suffered from lumbago. “Miss Moll Bennet.” Moll curtsied low, drawing Mr. Greaves’s eye to her lush bosom. “And Mr. John Hampstead?” John grinned and swept a lavish bow. He was tall and thin and wasn’t particular as to the sex of his paramours.

They four were the principal players, though of course there were other actors to fill the remaining parts of the play.

“Welcome, welcome to Greaves House,” Mr. Greaves said expansively, and then rather ruined the effect by becoming practical. “I believe my butler has your rooms ready. I do hope you’ll be joining us for dinner. A most jolly company, I think. Ah, here’s my son and his wife arrived. You’ll excuse me?”

And they were left to the direction of the butler.

Who, naturally, looked faintly contemptuous. “Lake.” He snapped his fingers and one of the footmen came forward. “Show these persons to their rooms, please.”

“Ta, love,” John said cheekily to the butler.

And they tramped after Lake the footman.

“Well, at least they have us inside,” Moll said philosophically as they mounted the stairs. “Last house play I did would you believe they wanted us to bunk in the stables like gypsies? No, indeed, I said. Inside in a room at least as nice as the downstairs maids or back to London I go on the next stage. They grumbled, but I had my way in the end. That was Richard II in Cambridgeshire, d’you remember, Stanford?”

“I do indeed,” Stanford intoned in his plummy voice. “Most depressing production I’ve ever been in.”

“Don’t know what they were thinking,” agreed Moll. “A history play for a house party. Can you imagine?”

The footman, who, unlike the butler, seemed rather in awe of them, showed them to two rooms. After hearing Moll’s story about being housed in the stables, Lily was a bit afraid of what they’d be given. But other than being quite at the end of the hall, their rooms seemed to be nice.

“Better’n the stables anyway,” Moll said cheerfully as she poked her head in the wardrobe. “We’ll be sharing the bed, looks like”—she nodded at the canopied bed—“but I don’t snore, so it should be fine. Best tidy ourselves and go on downstairs. I’ve a feeling we’re the entertainment for the night.”

That was often the case, Lily reflected as they took turns at the washbasin and changed out of their dusty traveling clothes. The actors hired for a private performance were also considered professional guests by their host—there to enliven the party.

They were ready to appear in a little less than an hour. Moll was in dark brown and mauve, while Lily had on one of her favorite dresses, a scarlet affair with a deep, square neckline and white ruffles on the bodice and sleeves.