Page 63 of Long Live the Baron
Michaels cleared his throat from near the door. “I have sent for Briggs, and I have arranged to notify her ladyship’s family of what has happened. Should I bring a drink for Lady Filminster? For the shock.”
Brendan did not move at all, maintaining his embrace while responding. “Nay, Lady Filminster does not imbibe.”
“Perhaps some sweetened tea, then? Or coffee, perhaps?”
Lily shifted. “Coffee? I have never tried coffee before. Is it any good? It is certainly expensive! I saw the household accounts at my parents’ home, and I could not believe what Papa pays for his. He is usually so frugal about expenditure.”
Brendan chuckled, raising his head. “Coffee, then. But, Michaels, lots of milk and sugar.”
Michaels’s heavy tread announced his departure.
“I would not recommend developing a fondness for coffee. You are lively enough without its effects.”
Lily nodded, then squirmed. “I think I would like to sit up now,” she announced.
Brendan carefully swung her off his lap, settling her on the settee next to him. Lily tugged at her dress, straightening her clothing out while trying to think what she wanted to say. Brendan did not say a word, just clasping her hand between them.
Michaels arrived back with the tray of coffee before she had settled her thoughts. Brendan poured her a cup and added the milk and sugar he had requested.
Lily blinked as he stirred the cup. “So much sugar?”
“To help you focus after your shock. And coffee is very bitter.” He proffered the beverage to her.
Leaning forward, she took it up, taking a sip. “How strange it tastes!”
“It would be better to drink tea. Coffee can have some strange effects on one’s energy.”
Lily nodded. She did not want to babble any more than she already did, if that was what he was alluding to.
“Why did you come ba?—”
“Lily!”
She looked over to see her brother striding in. He must have been exerting himself, because his flushed face was covered in a sheen of sweat, his hair mussed and his cravat askew. “Aidan? How did you get here so quickly?”
“Ran here … as soon as we heard the news … Left our parents … to take the carriage … Terrifying … to hear you had been attacked. I …” Her brother raked his hands through his damp hair before crossing the room to drop on a knee by her side. Taking her hands up in his, and shaking his head as he sought words, he exhaled sharply. “This is my fault! If I had taken care of you that night, instead of abandoning you to carouse with my friends …”
Lily frowned, pulling him closer and lifting her arms to hug him. “It is not, Aidan. I am well. Gracious! You must have run like the wind to arrive here so quickly.”
“I should never have left you alone.”
“But you did, and now I am married. Life goes on.”
Aidan groaned. “Until it does not.”
“I am safe. See, you are speaking with me at this very moment. The entire matter is settled.”
Aidan pulled away. Her brother was so tall that even lowered to one knee, they were practically eye level. From this close, she could see his pupils were dilated. “Is it over? Was the footman the one who committed the murder?”
Brendan cleared his throat. “No, I am afraid not. He claims he was paid to conceal the identity of the killer. At least we know now that it was nobody in the household.”
Aidan jumped to his feet. “How do we know it is true?”
Her husband must have felt uncomfortable with her brother towering over them. He rose up, walking into the cleared space in the middle of the room. The drawing room had plenty of the large, wooden furnishings of the rest of Ridley House, carefully placed around the perimeter of the room. They were surrounded by the exceptional strapwork of very fine pieces, even if their home was as gloomy as a cave. But Lily had heard that the King preferred to arrange his furniture in a different manner. Perhaps when they renovated Ridley House, they would rearrange the furniture into the informal groupings of the royal household.
Brendan’s voice called her back to the more pressing subject at hand. “I suppose we shall search his things to find evidence of the payoff.”
Aidan’s nostrils flared. “If it is true, then there is still a killer out there. Someone who might harm my sister!”
