Barbara Metzger - Truly Yours

"Have you a guess?"

Rex knew Daniel meant about the murder, not whether Miss Carville was a virgin or not, which kept rattling around Rex's brain like a loose shutter on a windy night. "My gut says she's no cold-blooded killer, and Nanny Brown swears the countess would not have sent for us if she were. Other than that, the lady might have had good reason."

"Good enough for Sir Nigel and the courts?"

Rex did not know, which worried him. "Are you ready? I do not like leaving her alone in that household. Most of the servants are on holiday." He stood, with effort. Damn, but his bad leg was not up to this much activity. He took a last swallow of his wine for the trip back to Mayfair.

Daniel watched, without offering a hand. "Well, if she is convicted, at least your mother won't make you marry the chit."

The wineglass slid out of Rex's fingers. "What do you mean?"

"Stands to reason Aunt Margaret won't want a killer in the family, even if the gal is her goddaughter. Might shoot her husband next. That'd be you," he added, in case Rex missed the barb.

Rex was still on the dire word. "Marry?"

"Well, the wife of a peer gets special privileges in the courts, doesn't she? And there's no doubt that you compromised the female. Took her off on your horse, brought her to your mother's house with no respectable female present. Undressed her, too. If that's not compromising a lady, I don't know what is, unless you raise her skirts on a park bench in Hyde Park."

While Rex sputtered and tried to explain the situation, Daniel tied another spotted kerchief around his neck in lieu of a cravat and then hauled his trunk onto his shoulder. He looked more like a dockworker than a gentleman, but Rex was not in any position to cast aspersions, not with his shirt and coat stained with blood, his red-soaked neckcloth tossed in the trash altogether. Besides, who cared about neatness when Daniel spoke of nuptials?

"Deuce take it, I saved her from being beaten and raped! I took her to where she could be tended and healed."

Daniel headed down the stairs with his burden, as if he carried a bandbox instead of a trunk. "You ought to know the ton don't care a whit about the right or the reason. They only care about the looks of the thing. An earl's son, a spinster lady alone in a house. Sounds like wedding bells to me. You better hope she's guilty."

"No, I shall not hope for that. And no one can force me to the altar."

"I don't know about that," Daniel called back over his shoulder. "Your mother is a powerful woman. Made me take tea with her cronies and their daughters a few times. You know how I hate that kind of thing. Makes me break out in a rash."

"That's not pushing you to wed one of them."

"I don't know. Your mother had that look in her eye. I was glad she left for Bath when she did, except she did set a fine table. Oh, pull the door shut behind you, there's a good fellow."

There's a wed man walking.

Nanny Brown clutched her heart when she opened Miss Carville's door to see Rex looking as if he'd been run over by an oxcart.

Rex almost had palpitations too, when he saw the gun wavering in the old woman's gnarled fingers.

"My stars!"

"My pistol." Rex still had the mate tucked into his waistband. He gingerly reached out to take the weapon.

Nanny almost dropped it before he had his hands on the barrel. Daniel ducked, behind him.

"Oh, it is not loaded, but I thought it best to keep the thing nearby. My knitting needles are in my pocket and the warming pan is next to my chair."

"You needed a weapon to defend yourself from Miss Carville?" Good grief, had he carelessly left his former nursemaid alone with a homicidal maniac? He'd supposed that the younger woman had a good excuse for shooting Hawley, if she actually did commit the murder. Not that she was liable to murder a frail old woman in her sleep along with the rest of Lady Royce's household.

Rex shuddered to recall his last day in the army, when the same overconfidence in his intuition almost let a troop of French scouts fire on headquarters. He was the only casualty, thank goodness, or he never would have been able to forgive himself. Lud, if something happened to Nanny, he'd be in worse straits. She was not even a soldier.

He should have waited for morning to find his cousin, or left a message at Daniel's rooms. He should have posted guards, or stood sentinel himself. He should have-

Nanny sniffed, then scowled at the odors of cheap ale and fine wine and clucked her tongue. "How much have you been drinking to come up with such a foolish notion? Of course I did not need to fend off Miss Carville. She is a lady, not a criminal. But someone loose in London killed that unfortunate man." She stepped closer and peered up at Rex. "Did he attack you?"

"No, we encountered a spot of trouble at a gaming club, that's all." Rex touched his swollen nose. "A, um, discussion about the dice used."

"It looks broken, which is no more than you deserve, gambling and drinking and brawling, on your first night in London. What will her ladyship think?"

Rex was about to say he did not give a rap for what the countess thought when Nanny caught sight of the large man standing back in the shadows of the hall. She clucked again. "I should have known. Daniel Stamfield, you always were up to no good. From what my sister tells me, you are no better now than the nasty little boy you always were, getting my lamb into trouble."

Instead of taking offense, Daniel laughed and rubbed at his chin. "You always were blind when it came to your favorite. Everyone in Royston knew Rex was the ringleader. You must be the only one who thought he was an angel."

"I'll have you know I still do. Except for the gambling and drinking and brawling, of course."

"And Daniel was never little, Nanny," Rex put in, before he received another scolding.

"No, and he has never been other than a heathen, either. Is it true what my sister says about the night last month when you escorted Lady Royce to Almack's?"

Rex looked back at his cousin in amazement. "You actually went to that pillar of propriety? The place they call the Marriage Mart?"

"I told you, your mother is a strong woman."

Nanny poked at Daniel's chest, but she was too short and stuck her finger in his stomach, grown soft in London's clubs and pubs. "She said you scratched your arse right in front of your aunt's friends and Princess Lieven."

"I warned her that all that gossip and sham politeness made me itchy. It always did, but she insisted. Said I had to have outgrown throwing spots like a high-strung debutante. At least she never bludgeoned me into going again."

Rex was laughing out loud. The wine at Daniel's house might have had something to do with his hilarity, but the thought of his bumbling giant of a cousin among the dainty manners at Almack's cheered him up considerably.

Daniel muttered, too low for Nanny's hearing, "Keep laughing if you want your arm broken, too." To Nanny he said, "I apologized to Aunt Margaret."

"A great deal of good that did. Why, my sister said the poor lady decided to leave for Bath the next day, so she did not have to face any of her acquaintances. Which is why she wasn't in Town to help Miss Carville last week. As for you, Master Jordan, you ought to be ashamed of yourself, getting into a nasty brawl at your age. Why, you are supposed to be an officer and a gentleman, not sowing wild oats. For that matter, you are supposed to be proving Miss Carville's innocence."

Which reminded Rex of why they were all standing in the hall outside the woman's door. "We have come to see about that very thing, Nanny. Is Miss Carville able to answer a few questions?"

"At this time of night? I should say not. She is fast asleep."

Rex could tell by the red flashes that sweet old Nanny was lying through her false teeth.

"We'll just disturb her rest for a moment."

Nanny crossed her arms in front of her age-flattened chest and barred the door. "You will not come into a gentlewoman's bedroom looking like a prizefighter, the one who lost the bout. You will not come into a proper young lady's chamber at night at all, ever. Now you go on and get that man of yours to do something about your face before you give the poor girl more nightmares in the morning."

With Daniel's words about compromise and marriage echoing in his mind, Rex nodded. "We shall speak with Miss Carville early then. We have a lot to accomplish tomorrow."

The ancient martinet shook her head. "I promised the lass a bath and a hair wash if she has no fever in the morning. That will make her feel better about things. So you'll just have to wait."

"Devil take it, I have to insist."

"Insist all you want, my lord. I do not take orders from you, no matter how much you glare at me. I'm here because you need me, young man, not because I need a salary. Your father made me a generous pension, so mind your tongue."

"Yes, ma'am," Rex answered, stepping back on Daniel's foot to stop his cousin's snicker. "You will tell us when it is convenient to begin trying to prove Miss Carville's innocence. I am certain her clean hair will impress the judges."

Nanny used her pointing finger like a poker to Rex's chest. "And I won't have you dressed like a stable hand in my lady's chamber, either. You tell that valet of yours that, too, unless he's deaf as well as dumb. He refused to listen when I asked for your pistol, so I had to fetch it myself when he was out."

"Out as in out of the house? Or perhaps in the kitchen or the laundry room?"

"How should I know? The fellow does not talk, does he?"

He did when he got his first look at Rex and what he'd done to yet another suit of clothes, to say nothing of his face. "Sacre bleu!" Murchison yelled before he could recall himself, which Rex felt was worth the sore, swollen nose.

"He can speak?" Daniel whispered.

"In French," Rex whispered back, knowing full well that Murchison could hear every word. "But don't tell anyone. We'll have to puzzle that business out, too." Which, Rex reasoned, was fair notice to Murchison that he meant to investigate the gentleman's gentleman. Rex disliked secrets almost as much as he disliked lies.

"He ain't a spy for the Frogs, is he? I told you, I'm out of the espionage business for good."

"I doubt my father would keep on a traitor, but then again, I never considered that Lady Royce would befriend a convict."

"Well, I never thought I'd see you at your mother's house, either, so I guess you can't trust your gut. Except when it's telling you it's hungry."

With his size, Daniel needed far more sustenance than Rex. Hell, he ate enough for two men, and never seemed satisfied.

"Maybe there is some of Nanny's stew left."

There wasn't, but they did find a cured ham in the larder, a tin of biscuits, some fruit preserves, a wheel of cheese, and a bushel of apples.

"I told you your mother sets a fine table," Daniel said between mouthfuls, washed down with a bottle of excellent wine. "Even if it is the kitchen table."

"I saw no reason to stir up the butler and the footman to serve us in the dining room. Do you mind?"

Daniel laughed. "After sharing half a scrawny chicken with you in a sweltering tent, this is heaven. As long as the monster you call a dog does not steal from my plate."

Verity did not need to steal, not with Daniel sliding slices of ham across the boards to where her chin rested on the wooden table.

Rex relaxed and cut off another slice of cheese, pleased his two friends were getting along. He should have known they would, since both were more interested in food than conversation or physical activity.

He was pleased, too, with the meal. Daniel was right: The food did taste better than any Rex had eaten in ages. He ate more than usual, his appetite encouraged by Daniel's enthusiasm. Or else the fight had reinvigorated him. Yes, Rex thought, being hit in the head must have knocked some of the cobwebs out of his skull. Instead of that aimless wandering, that dreary melancholy he'd fallen into, he felt more like himself than he had since being shot. Perhaps better, since he was not interrogating captured soldiers; having the generals press him for faster, more detailed, results; or pretending not to notice the disdain of the other officers.

He could laugh, even, as Daniel and Verity both gazed longingly at the last biscuit, which happened to be on Rex's plate. He ate it.

Lud, a man could not stay in the doldrums with Daniel and a dog around. Besides, now he had a mission, and a partner.