Page 82 of Avenging the Earl's Lady
Chapter 20
“Pull it out,” Jane said.
The girl eased out the canvas and handed it over to Jane.
Holding it up before her, she let it unroll.
Felicity and Perpetua looked imploringly up to heaven.
Captain Kingsley snorted.“I take it the Duque de San Sebastian is involved in this fight today?”
The Duque?
The Captain reached for the edge of the painting, tugging it straight, and she remembered.He’d taken the painting from the Duque many years ago.
“I called on him this morning,” she said, “to sell him this.The Duquesa told me he went out to attend a duel.”
“Might he be this major’s second?Perhaps Shaldon will fighthim.”
“I don’t see how.It will have to be my son and the Major.”
Ewan cleared his throat.“Begging your pardon, my lady, but I don’t believe his lordship means for your son to fight at all.”
Ewen looked nervous.She’d been led to believe that the consummately professional Shaldon servants refrained from all gossip.
But Jenny was a Shaldon servant, and she had, somehow, through a network of gossips, heard all of the news from White’s.
“For heaven’s sake, boy, tell us,” the Captain said.
“It’s summat to do with the brandy, sir.One of Lord Bakeley’s rare bottles.They opened it last night, then corked it again right away, like new, and after Mr.Penderbrook and Mr.Everly drank half the bottle this morning, they poured the rest out.”
“You learned all of that while waiting outside for me?”Jane said.
Jenny gave the boy an appreciative look.
“Who arethey?”Captain Kingsley asked.
Ewan bit his lip.“I don’t know exactly, sir.”
“They…dear God.”Her heart lurched.“Shaldonand Kincaid poisoned them?”
“I don’t know, my lady.”
“Did Bakeley partake?”Kingsley asked.
“They say not sir.”
“Shaldon?”
“No, sir.Only the two of them, Mr.Penderbrook and Mr.Everly.”
“Well.”Kingsley shook his head.“And I thought I’d find London dull.”He chuckled.“Do not worry, my lady, if Shaldon dosed his own son, I don’t imagine the potion will be fatal to yours.Graciela must not know I’m meeting my new son-in-law for the first time in a bad state, else she wouldn’t have encouraged me to come.What will it be, do you think?Casting up their accounts, the flux, or the sleep of the poppy?”
“Not the poppy.”Not after Shaldon’s drugging in Yorkshire.It had taken him days to shake off the effects of the laudanum.
She thought about his renewed offer of marriage—perhaps he still hadn’t shaken the full effects.
The Captain nodded.“Well, in any case, no matter the poison, Shaldon means for it to come down to a fight between the Duque and himself.”
