Amanda Scott (30 page)

At the same time, the porter snapped, “Here, get that hound out of here! Fine goings-on. Scat, you!”

Not liking his tone, Max turned toward him and growled, and when the man stiffened with alarm and stepped back away from him, Max took the movement as a sign of encouragement and growled louder, showing teeth.

“Here! Hold that dog! Looks vicious to me.”

“Well, he is,” Nell said instantly, “and I cannot hold him. As you see, he has no lead, and he is much too strong for me, in any case. You will simply have to let us in.”

“Oh, no, I will not,” he said, beginning to shut the door.

Seeing the prey about to disappear, Max leapt at the door, pushed it open, and sent the porter sprawling. Making no further effort to defend the place, the man scrambled out of his way, and the two ladies passed unmolested the hall.

“Find the master, Max,” Nell said urgently. “Find him!”

Max pricked up his ears, wagged his tail, and turned toward the stairs with Nell and Lady Flavia following in his wake. Until he reached the landing and turned down a corridor, he moved at no more than a trot, sniffing the air as though casting about for a scent, but when he had passed the card room, a sound from farther up the corridor galvanized him suddenly into action. Racing ahead, he flung himself at a half-open door.

His entrance was greeted by an uproar of male voices, but Manningford’s was heard above all the others when he roared, “To heel, Max! Now, sir!”

Nell, having passed the card room without drawing so much as a glance from its four murmuring inhabitants, reached the doorway in time to hear next her cousin’s soft voice, saying, “Very wise, Manningford. I should have disliked killing him. Really, the porter was very careless to have let him in. But now, Nigel, I do hope you will get on with signing those papers. My patience is wearing a trifle thin.”

From where Nell stood, she had an oblique view of the room and could now see Manningford and Mr. Lasenby, but not Jarvis or Nigel. Then, as she stepped forward, she caught a glimpse of another, unknown man, seated at a desk, and stepped hastily back. She knew Manningford had seen her but thought Mr. Lasenby had not. Glancing at Lady Flavia, she hesitated uncertainly.

Lady Flavia looked up and down the empty corridor, tiptoed back to peep into the card room, nodded in satisfaction, and came back, silently taking the pistol from her reticule.

Nell’s eyes widened and, frantically, she shook her head.

Putting a finger to her lips, Lady Flavia moved up beside her, close to the doorway. Nigel’s voice could be heard now.

“Before I sign anything, Jarvis, I want to know the truth about that damned duel. I am quite certain now that that affair did not proceed as you described it to me.”

“Perhaps it did not, dear boy, but if you expect me to say anything different at this late date, much less before witnesses, you are quite beside the bridge.”

“It is my belief you shot Bygrave yourself in order to keep him from telling the truth about the wager.”

“And what—just out of curiosity, you understand—does your fertile imagination suggest might be this truth you speak of?”

“That your father, knowing the betting book had already been falsified—and he must have known since he was one of the owners of the place—decided to falsify it again to serve his own end, by bribing Bygrave to change the wording, either to cheat my father, or merely as a joke. You took advantage of it after Reginald died and then decided you had to shut up Bygrave rather than chance his revealing the truth later.”

Jarvis shrugged. “If I made a mistake that night, it was in getting you out of the country. You can have no notion what a deal of trouble that caused me. I’d no idea your father would shoot himself, and afterward there was probate to be got through before anything could be done about the wager, and I hadn’t a notion where you were and no real wish to try my luck with a Chancery Court, though I did think that threat would encourage Nell to look favorably upon my suit. If she had, I might have bided my time, knowing it would all come to me in the end.”

“I might have married,” Nigel said.

“Oh, my dear boy, surely not with a cloud over your head. Careless you have always been, but you know as well as I what is due to your name, just as I fancy you know you must honor your father’s wager, for it was quite real. If your irresponsible parent did not read the thing before signing it, that does not make it any the less binding, between gentlemen.”

Manningford said sharply, “Hardly a gentlemanly thing to try to cheat a member of your own family out of his birthright.”

Coldly, Jarvis said, “I think I will shoot you first, Manningford. You have been something of a thorn in my side.”

Impulsively, Nell stepped forward, but even as she did, she was shoved aside by Lady Flavia, who pushed past her into the room, brandishing the pistol wildly in Jarvis’s direction as she snapped, “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, sir!”

Involuntarily, he swung his weapon toward her; whereupon, startled by the movement, she pressed her trigger, discharging the pistol and sending a bullet whistling past his right ear. Wolsey, still seated behind the desk, yanked open a drawer and reached inside; and Manningford leapt into action. Flinging a nearby small chair at Wolsey, he did not so much as pause to see if it struck him before turning his attention to Jarvis.

One quick stride closed the distance between them. Then, grabbing Jarvis’s pistol hand before the astonished man had recovered from the shock of Lady Flavia’s shot, Manningford gave it a twist. To everyone’s amazement, Jarvis seemed to turn a somersault in mid-air before crashing to the floor, where, since his head hit with rather a bang, he lay like one dead.

Taking advantage of Wolsey’s surprise at having a chair flung at him, Nigel had dealt roughly but effectively with the man, while Max, teeth bared and clearly believing he was helping, held a furious Mr. Lasenby quite motionless.

Into the sudden silence that fell, Manningford, gently taking the pistol from Lady Flavia’s hand, said, “You never cease to astonish me, ma’am.”

“But I didn’t really do a thing,” she protested. “It simply went off! And what on earth did you do to Jarvis? Is he dead?”

“No, he seems to be breathing well enough,” he said, gazing dispassionately down at his victim. “It was a little trick I learned from Sydney Saint-Denis, but I still haven’t quite got it right. When Sydney or that man of his does it, whoever goes flying always gets up again straightaway. I shall have to ask them what I did wrong.”

“Bran,” Mr. Lasenby said grimly, “call this devil off, will you? Dash it, he’s got rats in his belfry.”

“Max, come,” Manningford commanded. Then, chuckling as Lasenby, freed at last, moved to gaze down at Jarvis, he added, “Look here, everyone, we’ve got to get out of here. Someone is bound to want to find out what all the noise was about.”

Nell said, “But we didn’t see anyone but a porter and four men playing cards in the card room. They didn’t even look up when Max ran past, so they must be pretty deaf, I should think, and the porter is afraid of Max.”

Manningford grinned at her. “So that’s how you got in. I wondered. But—” He broke off. “Quiet, someone’s coming.”

Even as he spoke, two rough-looking men came hurriedly into the room. “What’s amiss here?” the burly, grizzled one in the lead demanded. “Heard shots, we did.”

Manningford said casually, “Pistol misfired, is all. Two men fainted from the shock. Nothing to worry you.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear it, for it ain’t none o’ our business, sir. Just stepped in, finding the door ajar, ye see, ter discover if one Joseph Lasenby might be on the premises.”

Mr. Lasenby stiffened, drawing the man’s attention, but Manningford said instantly, “No use to protect the man,
Giuseppe
. It would be wrong to impede these gentlemen in the course of their duty. That’s your man, gentlemen, on the floor. Here, Sep,” he said, pulling rather clumsily at Lasenby’s coat and then bending over Jarvis, “help get him up. Fellow ought to pay his bills, you know. Not the thing to cheat his creditors.”

“That’s right, sir,” said the spokesman. “A pleasure it is to find someone so understanding, sir. We’ve been a-searching of this cove all the way from Lunnon, we ’ave, but once we learnt there were a club here, we knowed where to look. A gamester, he be, by what we’ve been told. But we won’t be requiring yer assistance so long as you be sure he’s Lasenby.”

Sure as can be, my friend, but he’s no doubt got a card case on him, you know. You may see for yourselves. In his waistcoat pocket, it would be, I don’t doubt.”

And to Nell’s surprise, not to mention Mr. Lasenby’s, the card case was found there, just as Manningford had suggested. She held her breath when the man opened it, but let it out again when he nodded and said, “Just as you say, sir, ‘the Honorable Joseph Lasenby.’ That’s our man. We’ll just be taking him along now. Not to worry,” he added, looking at Mr. Lasenby. “He’s only to pay off his debts and he’ll be free as a bird in a twink.” Then, laughing, he bent to Jarvis’s shoulders while his companion took the feet, and a moment later, they were gone.

The others looked at one another, and when Nell’s gaze encountered Manningford’s, she began to chuckle and then to laugh until tears streamed down her face. Then he laughed, and Mr. Lasenby, who had stood staring at the doorway as though he expected the men, at any minute, to discover their error and return for him, looked first at Manningford and then at Nell. Smiling doubtfully, he said, “I shall never ignore the duns again, dash it. I couldn’t think what you were doing when you snatched at my coat, Bran. My best card case, too.”

Manningford chuckled again. “I had the greatest fear that you might have forgotten to put any cards in it.”

“Oh, no,” Mr. Lasenby said. “I don’t forget such things as that. One never knows when one might need his card. Oh, but look, that fellow is waking up.”

“Yes,” Manningford agreed, “and that means Jarvis may be doing likewise below, you know, so it will be as well for you to play least in sight, Sep. Since I took the liberty of removing his card case when I put yours in his pocket, we must hope that our friends will detain him for some time, though not, one fears for as long as he deserves. Here you, Wolsey,” he added, as the secretary tried to sit up, rubbing his jaw where Nigel’s fist had connected with it, “that fellow you helped is a rogue, as I think you know, and I doubt the affairs of this club can stand much examination. What with all that’s been going on, you’ll likely have the magistrates here any minute, so if you know what’s good for you, you’ll get out.”

The man needed no further invitation. He was gone.

Manningford then regarded Nigel. “I think your problems are over. We’ll take the betting book with us, and I think the best thing to do with it is to turn it over to the nearest magistrate, for you can depend upon it that if one entry is false, others are, as well, and that will be enough to shut this place down for good. The affair of Bygrave, as of now, is unsolved, and likely to remain so. I doubt there was a duel at all, but whether Jarvis killed Bygrave because the man meant to kill you or to silence him on his own account, we’ll never know. At present, I think, the important thing is to get your sister and your great-aunt away from this place. Did you ladies keep your chairs?”

“No, we sent them away,” Nell said. “We didn’t think the men ought to see us going into a gentlemen’s club.”

He grinned at her. “Certainly not. This is no place for a lady. Very well, then, Nigel and Sep, take her ladyship to the Monmouth Street corner of the square and call up a chair for her. I am going to allow the pair of you to accompany her to Laura Place, while I drive Miss Bradbourne there in the phaeton. I’ve a few things I want to say to her.”

Nell looked at him rather doubtfully. “If you are vexed with me for coming in here, sir, I must warn you that I cannot be sorry for something I would do again.”

“We must hope that you never find it necessary to do such a thing again, my dear, but I am not vexed in the least.”

“Oh.” She saw that her brother was regarding her quizzically, and said, “I am afraid that Nigel will object to my traveling through the streets in an open carriage with you, sir.”

Nigel shook his head. “You’ll have Max for a chaperon,” he told her with a teasing grin. “Couldn’t ask for a better one.”

Manningford murmured for her ears alone, “Afraid you’ll ruin your reputation, my dear?”

“I wish you would stop that,” she said.

“What?”

“Calling me your dear in that odious way. It is just what Jarvis always called me, and I dislike it enormously.”

“Very well,” Manningford said, “come along with me, my love, and we will discuss the matter at some length.”

Feeling suddenly in that instant very much more aware of him, and in a way she had not been before, she said hastily, “What about this place? Should we not do something?”

“What would you have us do?”

“But what about Jarvis? He will prove that he is not Mr. Lasenby soon enough, you know.”

“Yes, well, we shall have to discuss that. I cannot look forward to a future with Jarvis Bradbourne constantly on my doorstep, so we shall have to dispose of him more permanently.”

“I knew it,” Lady Flavia exclaimed. “I suggested it at the outset, you know. You must tell them, Nell. From the very beginning, I said Jarvis deserved to be murdered. And really, you know, if he did kill that man, Bygrave—”

“But we do not know that he did, ma’am,” Nell protested. “We know only that he might have done.”

Chuckling, Manningford urged Lady Flavia toward the door. “We are not going to murder him, ma’am. I had something rather less violent in mind. It will take some thought, but I rather believe he can be persuaded to make his home in the future on the Continent. He must be made to see that his reputation will suffer if he remains here, and since he cares for it so much, I believe he can be made to see reason.”

“Oh, yes,” Nigel said sweetly, “we can convince him.”

“Yes,” Manningford agreed, “You take my meaning well. And now, my love,” he said to Nell, “you are coming with me.”