Page 84 of Project Duchess
Her brother sighed. “I was in Leicester at a healer’s when Uncle Armie died. I go to her every time I have business in that town.”
“Her?” Grey asked, an eyebrow raised.
Joshua scowled at him. “She’s seventy years old if she’s a day, so just get that nasty thought right out of your head. She would no more share a bed with me than . . . well . . . any woman would.” A flush rose in his cheeks. “Why do you think I’ve been going to her? I want to be able to find a better, more secure position, so some woman will marry me without having to endure this”—he tapped his calf with his cane—“useless lump of flesh.”
Beatrice saw the flash of pity in Grey’s eyes and prayed that Joshua didn’t see it.
Fortunately, Grey masked it swiftly. “And are her efforts helping?”
Joshua stiffened. “Not that I can see, despite all the blunt I’ve given her. I should have known. Nothing helps.”
Ready to cry at the hopelessness in her brother’s voice, Beatrice said, “The point is, he was with the healer all evening. The price for a night of her ministrations included lodging, since her method of healing was to wrap his leg in an herbal poultice overnight, then remove it in the morning. He’s certain she will testify to his being there, too. She has no reason not to.”
“Why the hell didn’t he just tell you this?” Grey asked.
Beatrice sighed. “Because he’s Joshua, the proudest fellow this side of the Channel. God forbid anyone learn of his willingness to do almost anything to gain a wife . . . or that he’d turned to some questionable healer for his cure, even though the surgeons said they’d done all they could.”
“Damn it, Beatrice, why don’t you just tellallmy secrets to His bloody Grace?” Joshua muttered.
“It’s better than seeing you hang,” Beatrice said.
“And understandable to a man as proud as you,” Grey said. “What about Maurice?”
“What about him?” Joshua stepped up to her to murmur, “What’s he talking about?”
She wanted to throttle Grey for that. “Sheridan thinks you might have killed his father,” she told her brother.
“You knew he suspected me of that, too?” Joshua shook his head. “Is that why you took Greycourt into your bed? Because you thought I was a double murderer?”
She rounded on him. “I have told you over and over that I seduced him. But you won’t believe me!”
“Because I know how men like him are.” He shoved the pistol into his coat pocket. “And you aren’t the type to do something so foolish on your own.”
“Stop painting me out to be a dissolute rogue!” Grey snapped. “Yes, she and I got carried away and went too far, but I mean to do right by her, whether you murdered my stepfather or not. She’ll be safe, I promise you.”
Joshua swore under his breath. “For God’s sake, what the devil do you chaps think I am—some sort of master criminal? I haven’t murdered anyone, and certainly not Uncle Maurice. Why would I? He was good to us.”
“But he was planning on selling the dower house,” Grey pointed out. “You could have decided to get rid of him once you learned that.”
Beatrice rolled her eyes. “This is absurd. I already told you Joshua and I were together all night.”
Grey looked uncomfortable. “What else are you going to say, sweetheart? He’s your brother.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Are you doubting my word?”
“I’m merely saying I wouldn’t blame you if you wished to protect him. It’s admirable, but you’re forgetting there are things he hasn’t accounted for. Like the matter of his having summoned Maurice here that evening.”
“I didn’t summon anyone,” Joshua protested. “Beatrice and I were here doing the books all night. I had no reason to call him here.”
“That’s not what my mother says,” Grey retorted.
“No surprise there.” Joshua leaned heavily on his cane. “Has it occurred to youshemight have killed him? The woman has been widowed three times and managed to gain something out of it every time. Don’t you find that a tad suspicious?”
Grey’s eyes turned the color of arctic ice. “Now see here, you bloody arse, my mother would never—”
“That’s enough, both of you.” Beatrice stepped between them. It was time to put an end to this. As long as her brother kept provoking Grey, she couldn’t make Grey see reason. “Joshua, go inside. I need to speak to His Grace alone.”
“The devil you will!”
