Page 43 of Her Heart's Rightful Earl
“Indeed, I shall. Thank you, Lord Carrington.”
As soon as the couple left the room, Arabella found page sixty-seven, where Thomas had underlined two sections in the text. The first was simply the word ‘garden’,and the second was ‘not safe’.
Arabella frowned, hoping this did not mean she could no longer meet with Alexander, and she hurriedly turned to page ninety-eight, where he had underlined ‘old chapel’and scribbled next to it the number twelve.
Arabella intimated that Thomas no longer considered the garden a safe place for them to meet, and she thought of the abandoned chapel on the outskirts of the town; she supposed she should go there at midnight.
A shiver ran through her, which was partially fear and in equal parts, thrill.
***
As Arabella flung herself through the heavy oak doors, she was relieved no longer to be walking out in the silent, pitch darkness and even more relieved to find that Alexander was already standing inside the chapel, waiting for her.
The comfort of seeing him made her want to fling herself into his arms, so to ensure her body did not act without her mind’s consent, she bristled instead, tensing her shoulders and composing her face as a woman who was in control, the opposite of how she was feeling.
“Arabella!” Alexander breathed, and in his greeting, she identified a warmth that spoke less of relief and more of joy.
“Good evening, Alexander,” she replied curtly.
“You were not followed?”
Arabella’s eyes glinted green and pink in the rainbow moonlight that shone through the stained-glass windows, and she asked in alarm.
“Is it likely I should be followed?” Certainly, she had been fearful of it but had assured herself it was the fascinations of an imaginative mind.
“It is possible, I regret to report. I am relieved you are safe.”
Arabella lifted the black velvet hood that covered her head and thought, obscurely, how she had hoped to be lifting a veil from her face in a chapel, standing opposite Alexander and not a black hood, on a dark night, in hiding.
“Before we discuss the developments, Arabella, I must warn you that the situation has escalated quite significantly, and I would appeal to you—please—not to ask me the details but to gracefully bow out so you cannot be implicated-”
“I am already an accomplice. And I will continue to be so, Alexander. So, please, explain to me how the situation has developed.”
Alexander shook his head, standing firm.
“I do so wish you would not involve yourself further. The more you know, the more vulnerable you are to the malicious intent of whoever this perpetrator may be. Please, I implore you, walk away now and do not ask any more questions–”
“It is my right to be involved, Alexander. Whoever killed your father set a trajectory of events that changed my entire life. I cannot be expected to let it lie.”
“Then, I refuse to tell you any of the developments. That way, you cannot participate.”
Arabella stamped her foot with impatience. “If you do so, Alexander, I shall simply launch my own investigation!”
“You are quite impossible!” Alexander muttered in frustration.
Arabella tilted her chin upwards in defiance.
Alexander sighed and ran a hand through his hair, pacing a few steps away. Arabella watched him, repressing the feeling of wanting him to stay close, whilst noting with gratitude that he was respecting her request for distance.
“The captain has identified that the poison used on Edmund was an expensive, continental toxin, which places the murderer as a person of great wealth and with a strategic brain.”
A frown bothered Arabella’s brow as she listened.
“I have received several more playing cards. Which is not only disconcerting, but fully alarming as I change my address every night, yet still they find me and deliver …”
Now, Arabella’s mouth fell open at the proximity of the threat.
“Thomas’s house is being watched—he has observed activity that never usually plays out on his street. And it stands to reason that if Thomas’s townhouse is under scrutiny, the Wellwood estate will be too.”
