Page 50 of Her Heart's Rightful Earl
Arabella bristled that Margaret might hear, but there was no hiding from the reality anymore; the truth of his madness was clear for all to see.
Chapter 16
Thomas had warned against Alexander and Arabella meeting in daylight, but since they reasoned the boathouse by the lake at the far end of the Wellwood estate was secluded and far away from the residents and staff areas, it felt relatively safe.
Alexander watched as Arabella wandered around the wooden outbuilding, looking at the peeling paint and boats covered in thick dust. The air was musty, and dust motes floated in the shards of sunlight that cut through the dimness of the walls between the windows.
“Captain Morrison provided evidence,” Alexander announced.
“That suggests he has a perpetrator in mind?” Arabella swung around to look at him.
“He believes he does, sadly.”
Arabella frowned. “But how can that be unhappy? Finding the murderer is precisely what we need to take your plight to the magistrate!”
“He suggests the killer is my younger brother, Marcus,” Alexander advised, regretfully.
He waited for Arabella to react in outrage, but instead she dropped her eyes to the dusty wooden floor and simply said, “Oh.”
“Oh?” Alexander frowned. “Are you not astounded and appalled?”
Arabella looked up at Alexander with sorry, sad eyes. “I cannot claim the news shocks me, no.”
“But why?” Alexander breathed, indignant.
Arabella shrugged and stared out the window at the lake wistfully.
“Marcus is not like you. Alexander. His behaviour is erratic and frightening. He is hell-bent on agendas that nobody else values. I cannot honestly say I would put any extreme atrocities past him.”
“But to kill our own father?” Tears sprang into Alexander’s eyes. He could not accept that Arabella was not as outraged as he felt; he had assumed she would be his compatriot.
Arabella looked sadly at him, but he did not want her pity. He kicked out at a rotting timber that lay on the floor.
“Tell me what evidence the captain has produced?”
Alexander sniffed. “Gambling markers with signatures and documentation outlining debts to dangerous criminals. Captain Morrison and Thomas suggest Marcus is so caught up in this criminal underworld that he killed our father to gain complete control of the Wellwood estate finances.”
“That does sound rather incriminating …” Arabella observed gently.
“My brother is a victim in all this mess! Why am I the only person who can see it? He is clearly being victimized by sophisticated criminals who prey on inexperienced young men from wealthy families!”
Alexander’s face flushed with the stress of the situation, and he paced the floor in agitation.
“He is naïve and vulnerable. Remember, he was barely out of university when the responsibility of becoming an earl fell to him. He is young of mind and out of his depth.”
Arabella listened, but Alexander noted how she did not nod or oblige him with any form of agreement. She turned and wiped a finger over the hull of an upturned rowing boat, observing the dust between her finger and thumb, distractedly.
“Have you spent much time with Lord Carrington since your arrival back here in London?”
“Thomas? A little. Though no meeting of substance. Our time together has been merely to discuss the logistics of this malignant predicament.”
Arabella did not meet his eyes, feigning nonchalance. “Does he speak of my sister at all?”
“Miss Charlotte!” Alexander laughed and rocked on his heels in a moment of forgotten levity. “He does!”
Arabella’s eyes lit up, and she looked up at him. “Is that so?” she teased. “Pray, tell me, what does he say?”
Alexander simply smiled at Arabella without speaking, as he contemplated how to respond. Holding each other’s amenable gaze in this way felt comfortable and warmly familiar.
