Page 73 of A Fearless Heart
Trevor’s lip curled into a sardonic smile. “It was the courting that undid me. Got a little difficult to hide my inclinations when I kept ignoring the young ladies he tossed toward me and I kept getting caught with the stable boy or an old schoolfriend down for the week, or the blacksmith’s son…oh, Lord,hewas worth getting caught for. Those arms. Anyway, Papa got the message eventually and I was soon on my merry way to merry old London and I’ve never looked back. Why are you here again?” Trevor gave him a puzzled glance. “Did Cady send you for something?”
“I actually have a question for you. Cady has a minor problem, which I volunteered to help her with.”
“Oh, that’s very decent of you. What’s the problem?”
“She’s been accused of murder.”
“What?” Trevor jumped to his feet. “Who? Why? Don’t they know her? Who’s dead?”
“Your father. His unexpected demise left the locals with a lot of questions. It’s been suggested that perhaps Cady poisoned him.”
“Oh, Lord, tell me a doctor didn’t go poking around in his body like some ghoul.”
“There was no autopsy. And the inquest found nothing either. But the rumors happened anyway.”
“They would,” Trevor muttered. “I need a drink. Do you need a drink? I’ll make you a drink.”
He beelined to a cabinet that hid several bottles of liquor and the various accoutrements to mix any cocktail imaginable. When he walked back he offered Gabe a glass of amber liquid that smelled like it could start a fire. Gabe gently placed it on the table.
“What I need to ask you, my lord—”
“Christ, call me Trevor. You’re calling Cady Cady, aren’t you? That practically makes you family. Can I call you Gabriel?”
“I usually go by Gabe.”
“Even better. I love short names, they’re easier to remember. What’s the question, Gabe?”
“Do you remember Cady giving you a bottle of a chemical she asked you to dispose of? She may have called it clephobine.”
Trevor frowned. “Of course I remember. I’m not a simpleton. Cady told me it had to be dumped at sea, because it was some deadly stuff that she couldn’t allow to get loose. I’d already booked passage across the Channel anyway, so I chucked it overboard when the ship got about halfway. Then I spent a very pleasant few days in Paris with a gentleman I was quite enamored of at the time.”
“Leaving no proof that you did what she asked.”
“My darling man, what proof could there be? The whole point was to have nothing left.”
“God damn it,” Gabe muttered.
“Cady makes things difficult sometimes,” Trevor said sympathetically. “But she’s very brilliant, you know. And I’m sure she knows the right way to do these sorts of things. I mean, no one wants to leave poison lying about, do they?”
Gabe leveled a look at Trevor. “I hope you’re telling the truth about this, for her sake. Because someone has a supply of that poison, and they’re using every drop. Maybe not on your father, but possibly him too.”
“I swear on my mother’s grave that I dumped that bottle overboard. I watched the stuff spill into the water, and I hope it didn’t take too many fish to the grave.” His eyes widened. “God, do you think I’m a fish murderer?”
“Even if you are, you won’t go to prison for it. You swear on your mother’s grave, yes?”
“Indeed. I mean, I swear on my father’s grave too, but a very different sort of swearing.”
“You’re not sad at all?”
“Sad? The sun has shone brighter every day since he departed. He was a terrible father, and of course it was a thousand times worse for Cady, stuck there with him all alone. He did his best to knock all the spirit out of her, make her into a proper young lady, whateverthat’ssupposed to look like.” He shuddered. “Not that I’m any judge. But by the time he was done making Cady into what he thought she ought to be, there wasn’t much of Cady left.”
“Sounds like a reason for murder.”
Trevor’s easygoing demeanor evaporated. “Don’t ever say that. Cady would never evendreamof that.”
“You might.”
Trevor held his gaze, then said, “Oh, nowIdreamed of a hundred ways to hurt him. But every time, I remembered that I was already having the best revenge I could have—living the way I want, with him not able to do a thing about it. That’s why he petitioned to get the letters patent altered. If Cady could inherit, then he wouldn’t have to pass it all on to his disgusting excuse for a son…plus there was a chance for another generation of Osbournes. Because I’m sure as hell not sowing wild oats anywhere they’ll actually take root.”
