A Matter of Circumstance and Celludrones (Dark Matters) Read online

  Her stomach lurched. How many tomorrows did she have?

  “Do you have somewhere else to stay for a while?” he asked. “I’d be happier if that woman didn’t know where to find you.”

  “What of Halver?” Panic tightened her throat. “He’s still at the house. What of the housemaids?”

  “They are of no consequence.”

  The hairs on Lily’s neck bristled. She’d temporarily forgotten how much she disliked Lord Adair’s nature. “They matter to me.”

  “Allow me to rephrase,” he muttered. “I believe they’re of little consequence to the woman bent on killing you. If you’re not there, they cannot get in her way and therefore will not be in any danger.”

  Lily wasn’t entirely convinced, but what else could she do? She’d already seen the outcome when they engaged that woman in battle. Her only choice was to stay as far away as possible and hope Lord Adair’s assumption was correct. “My aunt left for Bath this afternoon and I’m already packed to spend the duration of the season with Lady Harchings at their Belgrave Square residence.”

  “I’d prefer somewhere further away, but it’ll do for now.” Lord Adair glanced up at his driver. “I’ll take you directly to Lady Harchings and send my man to collect and deliver your trunks later.” He turned a warm smile on her. “Is Ana joining you?”

  “Yes, please bring her as well.” Lily returned the smile. Perhaps he wasn’t quite as intolerable as all that. “Thank you, Lord Adair.”

  “Greyston.” He grinned. “My friends call me Grey.”

  “We’re hardly friends, Lord Adair,” she reminded him primly. “We’re barely acquaintances.”

  “Ah, propriety must be observed, no matter how dire the circumstances.”

  “Especially then,” Lily said.

  Lord Adair was far too roguish and attractive.

  There was a hardness to him, layered from the rigid line of his jaw right through to his uncivil heart. And yet, even before the fleeting warmth of that smile and the odd softly spoken word, there was something about the man that weakened her defences and fed tingles to her pulse.

  He was dangerous, and he was a stranger.

  She certainly didn’t know enough about Lord Adair to warrant the seed of trust that seemed to have bloomed within her.

  “Address me however you wish,” he said, “but spare me your self-righteous outrage next time I’m more concerned with saving your life than attending to social norms.”

  “You needn’t trouble yourself at all next time.” She glared at him and had a revelation. “No one was trying to kill me until you came along. Why would anyone want me dead? The same, I’m quite sure, cannot be said of you.”

  “You’d not be wrong, but I know my enemies better than I know my friends and I’ve never seen that woman before, not until she accosted me outside your house.”

  “Neither have I.”

  “And then, today, again at your home.”

  She shrank away as he reached out. “After you’d already arrived. For all I know, she was following you.”

  “I’m not trying to cast blame here. I don’t know that woman’s agenda. I don’t know whether she wants me or you or both of us. I don’t know what she wants.” His hand came out again, landing lightly on her shoulder. “The only thing we do know is what she’s capable of and I intend to ensure she doesn’t get another chance.”

  The weight of his hand was comforting, an anchor when the ground seemed to be falling away from beneath her. The deep, concerned look in his eyes drew her in. She fought against it with cold facts. “You dragged me from my home. You shoved me into your carriage and brought me here. That’s what I know.”

  She shrugged free and slipped past him. She was at the carriage before she stopped and turned. Lord Adair was following at a sedate pace, his brows drawn into a frown as he watched her. She wasn’t afraid of him. Perhaps she should be.

  She really shouldn’t trust him.

  Nothing about this day made any sense.

  “You saw what Lady Ostrich did,” Lord Adair said.

  “Lady Ostrich?” Lily closed her eyes and an image of the tall woman with her plume of ostrich feathers bled across her lids. A nightmare straight from hell and Lord Adair had given it a pet name. Lily almost smiled. “I’ve seen plenty of arbitrary scenes inside my head that never meant a thing.”

  Dr. Ragon had finally concluded she was subconsciously compensating the loss of her mother. The timing was right. And in each scene, her mother was likely present as the one person who was blurred around the edges, not fully tethered to Lily’s reality. She was pretending a lifetime of memories that would never in actuality be shared with her mother.

  “Open your eyes, Lily. Open your eyes, look at me, and tell me you don’t believe this is different.”

  Lily opened her eyes and looked at him.

  Death hurts.

  She’d never forget the pain as her body desperately tried to cling to life, that final breath burning through her, never making it to her lungs.

  I’ve finally lost my mind completely.

  Then she remembered. Lord Adair had had a similar vision, at the same time. He hadn’t hesitated to act on it.

  Perhaps we both belong in Bedlam.

  “At least allow me to take you directly to Lady Harchings as planned,” he said when she remained silent. “For my own peace of mind.”

  Lily nodded her consent and it had little to do with Lord Adair’s peace of mind. She was in no hurry to return to the devastation they’d run from at Grosvenor Square, imaginary or otherwise.

  Chapter Four

  To all the world, Evelyn looked as if she’d just returned from a brisk walk in Hyde Park as she stepped down from the carriage. Although some might question the full-length jaconet cloak when it was a perfectly mild May afternoon.

  William went before her, opening the gate and ringing the bell, so by the time she reached the top step, the door opened.

  “Once you’ve collected Lady Lily, you may stable the horses.” She met his gaze and held it for a mischievous moment before she slipped passed. “I’ve no engagements tonight.”

  “Lady Harchings,” greeted Mr. Bryns, the stout, grey-haired steward of Harchings House. “Will you be taking tea in the drawing room?”

  “Yes, but not before Lady Lily arrives. William has just left to fetch her.” She ignored the hands that came up to take her cloak and walked briskly toward the staircase instead, pulling at her gloves as she went. “Is Lord Harchings home?”

  “Not yet, m’lady.”

  Thank the stars for small mercies. She hurried up the two flights of stairs and into her bedroom, had already removed her cloak and ruined slippers by the time Alice entered on a soft knock.

  The maid didn’t bat an eyelid at the discarded slippers or the mud-splattered skirts as she came forward to help strip Evelyn from her dress. “Did you have a pleasant walk, m’lady?”

  Evelyn met her gaze in the mirror. They both knew there’d been no afternoon stroll. “Exhilarating.”

  Once Evelyn was down to her corset, bloomers and silk stockings, Alice bundled the dress and slippers in her arms and suggested, “Should I take these down to the laundry room first?”

  “What would I do without you?” Evelyn gave her a wink and a smile.

  After pumping her curls in front of the mirror and adding a dash of powder to her flushed cheeks, she selected a fresh day dress of yellow and pale blue stripes from her wardrobe. The creator was Marcus Dallerton, an innovative designer whose fashions were all the rage in New York at the moment. The fluted petticoat lay flat on the stomach and flared down from the thighs to kick up around her ankles.

  But what she loved most about Dallerton was his genius in stitching the petticoat directly into the gown’s waistline and panels. Without any fuss, she stepped into the dress and pulled it up, sliding her arms into the long, narrow sleeves. The rows of buttons at the back, however, had to wait.

  Alice returned with news that
Lady Lily was downstairs.

  “But I only just sent the carriage for her,” Evelyn exclaimed.

  “Lady Lily is with a gentleman, m’lady.” Alice moved in behind Evelyn to do up the row of tiny buttons. “Mr. Bryns has shown them to the drawing room.”

  “How curious.”

  Evelyn was even more intrigued when she entered the drawing room. Not only was Lily’s mysterious gentleman the scrumptious Lord Adair from the previous night, but the two of them looked as if they’d been caught in flagrante. Lord Adair’s neck cloth looked as if it had been tied in unseemly haste—by a blind man. Lily’s skirts were scuffed and wrinkled and her bodice wasn’t sitting quite straight.

  Lily left his side to meet Evelyn halfway across the room.

  “If I’d known you were being ravished by Lord Dashing down here,” Evelyn declared in a whisper, “I would have stayed up there—” she raised her eyes to the ceiling “—another twenty minutes.”

  “Don’t be absurd.” Lily’s hands flew to her hair.

  “It’s your skirts that need patting down.” She linked her arm in Lily’s and strolled in the direction of Lord Adair, keeping her voice low. “What did he do? Drag you into the woods and toss you over a log?”

  Lily went white in the face.

  “By God.” Evelyn surged forward. “I’ll deal with the bloody Scotsman.”

  “Evie, no, wait.” Lily dug her heels in. “Nothing happened. Must you always latch onto the most preposterous conclusions?”

  Evelyn’s brows drew tight. Something felt wrong, but her friend made a valid point. She was rash and brash, a fact she’d never denied. She kept her sharp tongue on a leash and turned a smile on the man instead as they drew close. “How charming, Lord Adair, I was hoping we’d see more of you.”

  “Lady Harchings.” He inclined his head in greeting.

  Clearly not trusting her to keep the peace, Lily inserted breathlessly, “I was just telling Lady Harchings that we were riding in the park—”

  “And your horses tossed both of you?” Evelyn couldn’t resist.

  Lily rewarded her with a glare. “We were in Lord Adair’s carriage, but, um, yes, a rabbit or fox must have run across the path because one of the horses took fright—”

  “You really should train them better,” Evelyn told him.

  “The rabbits or the horses?” Lord Adair riposted dryly, his eyes never leaving Lily and a grin tugging at his mouth.

  “Since Lord Adair knew I was staying with you as of tonight,” Lily went on doggedly, “and Harchings House was en route—”

  Evelyn couldn’t let that go. “From Hyde Park?”

  “We were riding in Green Park.”

  “Of course.”

  “And as I was a little shaken from the ordeal, he offered to bring me directly here so I could recuperate from the shock.”

  “Then we are entirely in Lord Adair’s debt.”

  Lord Adair finally brought his gaze to her. He was not a man to miss the mocking edge to her tone, and yet it hadn’t chased the laughter from his eyes. “Not at all, Lady Harchings, I’m always happy to oblige.”

  “I have no doubt of that.”

  “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he said, “I promised to return for Lady Lily’s belongings…”

  Evelyn’s attention drifted as the door opened to admit the steward. He caught her eye and managed, as only Mr. Bryns could, to convey an entire conversation in that one look.

  “One moment, please,” she murmured, moving swiftly across the room. Up close, she saw the worry in Mr. Bryn’s eyes. The rest of him, naturally, was an impassive wall of austere fortitude. “What is it, Mr. Bryns? Whatever has happened?”

  “It’s William, m’lady.” He stepped from the room after her and closed the door behind them. “He says it’s urgent and concerns Lady Lily, otherwise I wouldn’t have interrupted. Now,” he went on as he led the way along a narrow passage, “I did inform him that Lady Lily had arrived shortly after he’d left to fetch her, but William still insisted he must speak with you.”

  William waited by a set of doors at the top of the kitchen’s service stairs. His lopsided smile was noticeably absent.

  “William, I’m sorry I sent you on a wasted journey.” Suspecting she was about to learn something of the puzzle of Lily’s odd day, she prompted with a smile, “What’s so important that it couldn’t wait?”

  His gaze flickered to Mr. Bryns and back.

  “I’ll take it from here, thank you, Mr. Bryns,” Evelyn said.

  As soon as the steward was out of hearing, William started talking. “I’ve just returned from Grosvenor Square, Lady Eve, and Mr. Halver is beside himself. He believes Lady Lily has been abducted and Lady Beatrice has already departed for Bath and he—”

  “Lady Lily is here and safe.” Evelyn took a deep breath as she absorbed the shock. “Abducted?”

  William nodded. “By a Lord Adair, if the gentleman’s calling card is to be trusted.”

  “Lord Adair is here as well.” Evelyn breathed easy again. “This must all be a big misunderstanding.”

  “I thought as much after speaking to Mr. Bryns, but there’s the matter of Mr. Halver. He hasn’t raised the alarm yet—”

  “He knows there’ll be no stopping a scandal once he does.” Was that Lord Adair’s game? Lily had a substantial fortune left for her in trust by her late father, enough to make her husband a rich man. If so, Lord Adair had either changed his mind or Lily had thwarted his master plan. Evelyn was willing to bet it was the latter. Part of Lord Adair’s almost irresistible charm was his uncivilised Scottish blood. “You must apprise Halver of the situation at once, William. Tell him all is well, that he must have been mistaken about whatever he thought he’d heard or seen.”

  William had already turned to go before Evelyn remembered what Lord Adair had been saying. “Oh, and William, you may as well bring Ana and Lady Lily’s trunks. I’d say Lord Adair has exerted more than enough of himself for one day.”

  The rascal was on his way out when Evelyn reached the drawing room. “There’s no need to rush off,” she informed him. “I’ve sent my driver for Lady Lily’s things.”

  “Unfortunately, I’ve other pressing matters to attend.” His apologetic smile was somewhat off, and then he turned to Lily. “I’d like to stop by your house anyway, if you have no objections?”

  Lily hesitated, a protest forming on her lips. But Evelyn must have read her friend wrongly because a moment later Lily said, “I’m sure there’s no reason to check up on anything, but I suppose it can do no harm.”

  After beckoning a hovering footman to see Lord Adair out, Evelyn crossed to the sideboard. She poured a small sherry for Lily and a large brandy for herself. “Your butler seems to think Lord Adair abducted you,” she threw out.

  “Oh my word,” gasped Lily. “With everything that’s happened, I completely forgot about poor Halver.”

  “He’s kept it hushed and William will set him straight.” She handed Lily the glass of sherry and moved to the sofa. “I can hardly wait to hear exactly what poor Halver did see.”

  Lily took a long sip before replying. “A mouse.”

  “A mouse,” Evelyn repeated flatly.

  “There was a mouse.” Lily perched on the far end of the sofa, not once meeting Evelyn’s sceptical gaze. “I screamed and jumped into Lord Adair’s arms.” Another extremely long sip. “Lord Adair carried me outside to get some fresh air.”

  “And since you were already outside, you decided you may as well go for an afternoon ride in Green Park.”

  “It was such a lovely, warm day?” Lily peered over the rim of her glass with large, hopeful eyes.

  Evelyn blew out an exasperated breath. “You don’t honestly expect me to believe this flottersnip?”

  The doe-eyed look dissolved. “You’re Mistress Spontaneity. I thought you, of all people, would understand.”

  “And I might, if you weren’t Mistress Propriety.”

  “We’ve been friends f
or so many years, you were bound to start rubbing off on me.”

  Evelyn gave in gracefully. “Every lady is entitled to her secrets.”

  Whatever had happened, and she was convinced something had, Lily had clearly forgiven Lord Adair if she was going to these ridiculous lengths to spare his name.

  Evelyn sipped on her brandy as she mused on that.

  Had Lily developed a tendre for the Scotsman?

  The liquid burned a delicious path down her throat and her thoughts turned wicked. And why not? She’d been trying to woo Lily over to the dark side for weeks and here was an opportunity begging to be taken advantage of.

  “That smile usually means trouble.”

  “Not at all.” Evelyn’s smile widened. “I’m simply enjoying the prospect of this new, impetuous you.”

  Lily nibbled on her lower lip. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  “Au contraire, we must go as far as possible and I know the perfect place to start.” She drained her brandy and set the glass down on a side table. “It’s decided. You’re joining William and me tomorrow.”

  “Absolutely not. You know how I deplore—”

  “You cannot have it both ways. Either I’m rubbing off on you or Lord Adair has been involved in some or other reprehensible act and if that’s the case, I won’t stop digging until I hit the bottom of his scandalous pit.”

  “You’re blackmailing me?”

  “I’m helping you embrace your new-found sense of adventure.”

  “A pea’s a pea, whatever name you call it, but it won’t work, Evie. I know you haven’t a mean bone and here I am, asking you to leave Lord Adair be.”

  “That’s unfair.”

  “No more so than your eternal badgering.”

  Evelyn hesitated before speaking. She hated revealing that she was aware of the full extent of her husband’s objections, even to her closest friend. Once the words were out, she just knew they’d be back to nip at her skirts the moment she most needed to pretend ignorance. But when all else fails, the truth must out. “Devon’s being stuffy about everything and I need a collaborator.”

  “You have William.”