Page 59 of Daring the Forbidden Earl
The Baron said nothing for a long while, as his eyes flitted left to right, reading the words upon the page. As his gaze trailed down to the end of the letter, his eyes snapped up again.
“That is not my handwriting, Lord Sinclair,” he said, with a surprising note of alarm. “I have sent you no letters. If I were going to pursue justice via correspondence, I would not have come to your residence in person.”
Mark hesitated, feeling suddenly uneasy. “I suppose you are going to tell me that you did not come to Hyde Park last night, as you instructed in your last letter, and gave me this pistol shot scratch on my arm?”
“I… w-was here all of l-last night,” the Baron stammered.
Puzzled, Mark looked back over his shoulder at Kenneth, who wore his usual, indecipherable expression. However, there was a flicker in his eyelids that seemed to suggest he was just as bemused as Mark.
“Our assailant last night was, perhaps, somewhat taller,” Kenneth said, his lips pursing ever so slightly. “Though it is always difficult to judge a gentleman’s height when he is wearing a top hat.”
Miss Steele cleared her throat and took a few tentative steps toward Mark, adopting an anxious expression that only increased the unease that was spreading through his limbs. Something felt wrong here, but he could not put his finger on what it was.
“Lady Clevedon asked me to keep my father occupied last night, and I did as they asked. I created a falsehood that I was with child, and my father was, indeed, here as he has said.” Miss Steele folded her arms across her chest. “It is peculiar—Lady Keswick and Lady Clevedon looked equally as confused as you do, when I informed them of that. They also asked if my father had an injury, but he does not.”
Mark loosened his grasp on the Baron’s collar and took an unsteady step backward. In truth, he did not understand what Miss Steele was saying. His head was too busy trying to swim through the stormy seas of complete bewilderment. It was not possible for a man to be in two places at once, yet he did not feel as though Miss Steele was lying. She had no reason to, after all Johanna had revealed about her loving another man.
Miss Steele gulped loudly. “Please, Lord Sinclair, if there is anything I can do to help, I will do it. Lady Keswick and Lady Clevedon have been nothing but kind to me, and I cannot stand the thought that someone has hurt them.”
“If you did not write the letters, then who did?” Mark turned his attention back to the Baron. “Did you ask someone to do it on your behalf?” He remembered Lord Dresday’s business endeavors, and a notion came to him. “One of your prizefighters, perhaps?”
Lord Dresday shook his head effusively. “I would never delegate this task to another,” he protested. “To do so would mean revealing my daughter’s transgression, and as I am sureyoucan understand, that is something I could not do. These fighters are loyal to a point, but they would not hesitate to extort me if they discovered something they could use to blackmail me.”
Bizarrely, that made a great deal of sense to Mark. Even more bizarrely, he had an awful feeling that the Baron was telling the truth, just as his daughter was. But if Lord Dresday had not crafted those threatening letters, and he wasnotthe “HS” signed at the bottom, and he had not come to Hyde Park… then who was responsible?
Kenneth approached the scene, having lowered his pistol. Mark turned to him, praying his friend would have some kind of suggestion to offer. If he did not, then there was only one person remaining who had the answers Mark sought, and that person was out cold on his settee, with no assurances that she would wake up.
“I believe there is trickery afoot, Dear Boy,” Kenneth said. “And I believe that these tricks have been played upon you and the Baron both.” He looked to Lord Dresday. “Are you close to anyone who has spoken ill of my friend, Lord Sinclair? Do you know of anyone within your inner circle who might wish to do him harm, and have the wherewithal to use you in order to conceal their intentions?”
Lord Dresday hesitated. “I can think of no one, for I am the only one with a complaint against Lord Sinclair.” His eyes glinted with anger. “Unless you have dishonored someone else’s daughter, and they seek the same recompense that I do.”
That is not an impossible idea… But they would have to know about Miss Steele’s lie in order to manipulate it for their own ends.
As if sensing Mark’s thoughts, Miss Steele raised a shaky hand. “I have not told anyone but my father, Lord Sinclair.”
In a rush of movement, Lord Dresday suddenly launched himself at Mark, knocking him to the floor. Mark wheezed as his back collided with the hard ground, his lungs struggling to take a breath as he felt the full weight of the Baron upon him. Flailing, Mark tried to find purchase on the Baron, in order to push him away again, but the Baron was surprisingly quick for his advancing age and managed to pin Mark’s arms to the floor with his knees, as he straddled the younger man.
“You are the one who ought to be strangled by the collar, you despicable cretin!” Lord Dresday rasped. “You have besmirched my daughter, and youwillmarry her, or I shall be forced to challenge you to a duel! I will have satisfaction, you degenerate!”
Miss Steele and Kenneth both ran forward at the same time, and while the Baron attempted to pummel into Mark with his fists, the unlikely pair worked together to haul the furious man off Mark. Although, in the end, it was Kenneth’s brute strength that did the lion’s share of the work.
“That is quite enough,” Kenneth warned, hauling the older man away to the other side of the room. As he wrangled the fellow into submission, Kenneth eyed Miss Steele, as if to say, “Do you not think it is time you told the truth, and put an end to this?”
But first, and likely in an attempt to purchase some time for herself, Miss Steele took hold of Mark’s hand and helped him to his feet. He bent at the waist for a moment to catch his breath and wait for some of the aches from the Baron’s fists to ebb, before he stood to his full height and looked at Miss Steele expectantly.
She gave a slight shake of her head. Clearly, she was afraid, and while he might have felt some sympathy for her on any other day, he had no patience for her silence now. The longer she maintained this façade, the longer it would take for Mark to leave this place and go in search of his beloved Johanna.
“Do you have something to say, Miss Steele?” Kenneth said brusquely. “I think it high time you ceased your lies. If not for my friend, then for Lady Keswick and… Lady Clevedon.” He used the falsified name after a brief hesitation. “My friend loves her, Miss Steele. If you continue to lie, nobody will achieve their heart’s fulfillment.”
Very clever, my friend!
Miss Steele obviously understood the subtext in Kenneth’s words, for her hand flew to her mouth in shock. Indeed, if Mark had been in a better state of mind, he might have thought of using her hopes of running away with her lover against her. But that was why he adored Kenneth—the fellow was always one step ahead.
“Please… do not make me,” Miss Steele whimpered through her fingers.
Kenneth shook his head. “Ordinarily, I would have no qualms about believing your story, for I know my friend better than anyone. However, it is because I know him better than anyone, that I know he has not dishonored you.”
Lord Dresday went limp in Kenneth’s hold. “What do you mean?”
