A Disappearance in Drury Lane (23 page)

I’d been seeing Perry as a grand villain—not surprising after he’d had me beaten and hauled off the street. Mrs. Collins, the tragic heroine, spirited away or murdered. Mrs. Wolff, Mr. Coleman, and Marianne—the heroine’s faithful retainers, loyal until the final curtain. I was not certain who played the romantic hero—perhaps I hadn’t met him yet, or perhaps he didn’t exist. Or perhaps he was me, the fool who ran about the stage wailing in despair without doing a bit of good.

“I am walking in circles,” I said. “I dragged my family and friends to Bath, when the solution is likely in London. I was about to drag them off to Brighton to scour that town as well.”

“Cheer up,” Felicity said. “I bet your little girl liked Bath. It’s pretty, I’m told.”

“She did.” The thought of Gabriella pulled me to my feet. I had to help myself up using the warming brick wall for balance, but I managed. “I am finished, Felicity. I believe I will turn the entire problem over to Pomeroy and let him run up and down the country looking for the missing actress. Perry, a threatening man, is dead. I will spend all the time I can with my wife and daughter and leave Mrs. Collins in peace.”

Felicity rose with easy grace and reached out to steady me. “You know you’ll never do that. You’re like a dog after a bone.”

“Thank you,” I said. “But perhaps Mrs. Collins might be safer if I leave her alone. Someone tried to send her an incendiary device—if I find her and expose her, they might try again.”

“Unless Mr. Perry did that,” Felicity said.

“Perhaps he did, and then someone killed him. No, Mrs. Collins is still in danger, depend upon it.”

“You see? You’ll never give it up, and you know it.”

I let out a breath. “At the moment, I only want my bed.”

Felicity’s grip on my arm softened. “Sure you don’t want to stay? My bed’s a bit narrow, but it would be warmer for all that. Your bed will be empty and cold tonight.”

I gently pried myself from her. “Then I will make sure the footman tucks in plenty of hot bricks.”

“Ah, well. Can’t say I didn’t offer.”

She showed no regret, but I did see a flash of loneliness in her eyes. Very brief, then gone. She might not necessarily want
me
to fill that lonely place inside her, but she wanted someone.

“Thank you,” I said. “For everything.”

“Thank
you
for pulling that lunatic off me,” Felicity said. “Couldn’t see your way to thanking me with something a little more solid than kind words, could you? Like a crown to see me through the next weeks?”

“I gave everything I had left to the landlord,” I said truthfully. I did not have enough even for hackney fare back to Mayfair. “I will return with a coin tomorrow.”

“I don’t believe you. But you’re kind to say it. Good night, Captain.” Felicity stepped close to me again, wound her arms around my neck, and kissed me full on the mouth. She danced back, laughing, as I pulled away.

“Good night,” I said, giving her a dignified bow. I was pleased to hear her laughter, even at my expense. It meant the cruel man who’d beaten her hadn’t left a darkness in her.

*** *** ***

I departed the house, found a messenger boy, and directed him to South Audley Street with a message for Barnstable to send a carriage for me. I told the lad the butler would give him a shilling for the message, as I had no more money. The lad gave me a wary eye, but he went.

While I waited, I walked about, lost in thought. Part of me truly did wish to give up the wearisome investigation. Another part of me admonished me, telling me I could not abandon Mrs. Collins and also Marianne, who was very worried. Marianne must know more than she was telling me, and so might Mrs. Wolff and Coleman. They might not know what they knew, but even so, I should speak with them again.

The curiosity that was my besetting sin rose again. Drury Lane theatre was not far. I knew there would be a performance tonight, but perhaps I could speak to Mrs. Wolff while the play was going on.

Nothing for it. I tramped down the cold but crowded streets and made for the back door of Drury Lane theatre.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get in. Mr. Kean was performing tonight, and a large man, not Coleman, was stationed at the door to keep those without tickets from slipping inside. He was a surly man and not inclined to listen to me. When I asked him to find Coleman or Mrs. Wolff, he did step inside to inquire, but returned a few minutes later to tell me they were too busy to see the likes of me. I’d have to return after the performance.

I decided tomorrow would do. I made my way back to Covent Garden, where I’d told the boy to send the carriage, and found Lady Breckenridge’s coachman waiting for me.

I at least had a warm ride home, with coal boxes inside the comfortable landau to cut the cold. When I arrived at the South Audley Street house, Bartholomew was there, and also the party from Bath. Mrs. Lacey, Gabriella, and Peter, Bartholomew informed me, were upstairs and had already gone to bed.

“Mrs. Lacey made the journey in one go?” I asked in surprise. “I would have thought it too tiring for her.”

“She was adamant, sir.” Bartholomew gave me a warning look. “Her ladyship’s not in the best of tempers at the moment. Just thought I’d give you a hint, sir.”

Meaning he advised me to quietly go to my own chamber and leave Donata until morning. Donata’s maid passed by above, her face grim. The entire house seemed tense, not the haven of peace I’d sought.

I thanked Bartholomew for looking after everyone and climbed the stairs, my leg aching from the cold and all the walking I’d done. I decided I would leave Donata alone, not because I feared her mood, but because she would need to sleep. She’d be exhausted from the long journey.

When I entered my bedchamber, Donata rose from my armchair. She was clad in a blue silk dressing gown, her hair in a single plait under a white lawn cap. We stared at each other a moment, then Donata rushed to me.

“Gabriel.” She flung her arms around me, and I swept her into an embrace, burying my face in her neck.

This was why I’d married, to come home to the soft warmth of a woman, to lose myself in her and forget my sins. I held her and felt the pain inside me ease.

Donata pulled back to look up at me, her dark blue eyes holding fury. “Gabriel, what in heaven’s name possessed you to let yourself be
arrested
? Running off to Bow Street in the middle of the night? What the devil were you thinking?”

Chapter Seventeen

I took a step back, releasing her with reluctance. “I went because Spendlove was about to insist we make a family party of it. All of us in Bow Street together.”

Donata turned away from me, her nightdress swirling about her slipper-clad heels. “Good Lord, Gabriel. The entire town was agog with it.”

“I am pleased I could supply the diversion. I came to London to clear things up so you could return home to quietness. I haven’t quite finished yet, but you can see I managed to keep myself out of Newgate.”

“Bloody hell.” She swung to face me. “I have three solicitors employed to handle various situations for my family, and
they
keep solicitors for more complicated events. If you had waited, I would have had all those solicitors on our doorstep, ready to do battle for you. You wouldn’t have had to leave ignominiously, dragged from our house like a common criminal.”

“I was accused of murder, Donata. That is common enough.”

“
Accused
, yes. There is no reason for you to be tried for it until they have the evidence. This man, Spendlove, has an obsession about you. You know that, and yet you let him sweep you up without regard to what might happen to you. Do you think your daughter wanted to watch you be bundled away by Runners, leaving her alone with strangers? She was quite upset.”

My anger fled before the wave of worry for Gabriella. “Is she all right?”

“Gabriella is resilient,” Donata said. “But she is angry at you. When I explained that you ignored all offers of help to let yourself be hauled to Bow Street, she was most indignant.”

“As you are.”

“Indeed, Gabriel. I would go so far as to say I am furious. How could you?”

“Because, damn it, it occurred to me that you might not want a battle between Spendlove, Pomeroy, the patrollers, and myself in your dining room. I thought I’d take myself and my sordid life out of your house.”

“
Our
house.”

“
Your
house, Donata.” My sleeplessness, temper, exhaustion, and worry got the better of me. “Your house, your leases, your life tenancy, your money. Everything protected so I cannot touch it. I prefer it that way. You married
me
, a man who is in scrape after scrape and to whom finances are wavy lines on a piece of paper. When I’m about to touch you with one of my scrapes, I will do my damnedest to leave you out of it.”

Donata planted herself in front of me again, her anger matching my own. “Is that what you believe? That I married you to have you hang on me like an illicit lover, while I dole out an allowance? No thank you. I had such a wretched time of my first marriage, I thought I’d try marrying a man who could be a partner and friend. Foolish of me for supposing you might feel the same.”

“I
do
feel the same, devil take you. What I do not want is to drag you into disgrace, which I have done only days after our wedding. I wanted to sort it out and spare you the humiliation.”

“Oh, it is far too late for that. The newspapers are making a meal of us. That is another reason I’d prefer you to have the solicitors handle things instead of bursting about like a lit firework.”

“A lit firework is what I am. I have no idea how to stay home and be quiet. That is why my first wife fled me for a stolid Frenchman. The poor woman was terrified of me.”

“You might take note, Gabriel, that I am
not
that poor woman. I met her—she must have been quite pretty when she was young, because that is the only explanation for your madness in marrying her.”

I stopped, startled. “When did you meet Carlotta?” I’d done my best to keep the two ladies apart.

“I made it my business to, when she was in London for the divorce. Do not worry; she had no idea at the time who I was other than a friend of Grenville’s. I did not take her to task for being a limp ninny, though I longed to.”

I was torn between laughing and shaking her. I settled for scrubbing my hand through my hair. “You do not have a good opinion of women, do you?”

“My opinion is my opinion, regardless of whether the person is male or female. Lady Aline is a fine specimen, not a mean bone in her, nor does she find it necessary to pretend to be frail and weak. Louisa Brandon is a kind woman with a core of steel, though she ought to have bashed both her husband and you over your heads years ago.”

“I quite agree. And
you
are the most exasperating woman of my acquaintance.”

“I believe I am. That is what you look for in a bride, is it? The first Mrs. Lacey must have been very exasperating.”

“She was.”

“Then I am pleased to carry on the tradition.”

Her eyes sparkled, and her color was high. She was outraged, and I’d embarrassed her. Donata had been subjected to endless gossip about her first husband; I doubted she wanted to go through it again with me.

“Spendlove would not have waited for your London solicitors,” I said, trying to speak evenly. “If I had not gone alone without fuss, he would have found a way to punish
you
for it, or perhaps demand that the parish constable lock us both up for the night. Your neighbors would have had much more to talk about then.”

“My family never would have stood for that, do you not understand? My father wields much power and has influence in high places. Mr. Spendlove is only a commoner who works for the magistrates. His position is tenuous, while mine is unshakable. The newspapers might twit me about my choice of husbands, but I will weather such things. Spendlove, on the other hand, had better have a care.”

I balled my hands. “Perhaps I dislike using my wife’s position to pry myself out of trouble. I see that often enough—I saw it tonight—gentlemen who think nothing of running roughshod over others and hiding behind the security of their family’s position. Do you wish me to be such a man?”

“Of course not. But when you are in trouble, I only ask that you trust me to remove you from it. I can. Allow me to.”

I drew a breath to continue, but I let it out again. Donata was right that I had enough pride in me to float one of the Montgolfier brothers’ balloons, but I knew I’d never make her understand. I did not want her to have to clear up after me. She’d married all of me, the rough underside as well as whatever polish I’d acquired—not that there was much of the polish left.

Donata’s dark blue eyes narrowed. “I have not convinced you, have I?”

“We shall see.”

“Hmm.” She folded her arms over the dressing gown, the blue embroidered with oriental patterns. “I suppose we have had our first quarrel. Who has won, do you think?”

“No, this is by no means our first quarrel. I believe we have had plenty in the past, beginning with the billiards game in Kent. You did your best to ruin my shots every time.”

She shrugged. “I dislike to lose. I was a bit generous in tallying up my points, I will admit. I waited to see whether you’d say a word, but you never did. You paid up like a gentleman.”

“I’d never accuse a lady of cheating.”

“Not out loud anyway.” The corners of her mouth turned up the slightest bit. “If you are not happy with my tally, we shall have a rematch.”

“I would not mind. I will trounce you thoroughly.”

Her brows rose. “Threatening a lady? And this hard on the heels of me being so very angry with you. I still am. Your overblown sense of honor is most aggravating.”

“I’d rather have too much honor than not enough.”

We regarded each other warily. Outside, winter wind swept against the walls, rattling shutters and howling through the eaves. Inside, I was truly warm and comfortable for the first time in years, and I was grateful. I had enraged this woman I had only just married, and humiliated her. And yet, she had not shown me the door.