Page 96 of The Duke of a Thousand Desires

“Why didn’t Bruxton dismiss you? Not because you are a skilled groom or can pick a winning horse?”

“He needed my silence. I needed his. He needed me to defeat you. He didn’t want to appear weak or have it known that he’d been taken advantage of by a woman and a servant. We had humiliated him. He threatened me with gaol and transportation if ever I revealed her betrayal. And, yes, I’ve talent with horses. He has a passion for racing and I told you that I can train a winner.”

“He’s blackmailing you.”

Griffin straightened. “It could be the other way around. Don’t believe everything you are told, Simon.”

“Why didn’t you have the courage to leave the estate or at least end the affair?” Simon demanded.

Kieran looked down. “Susannah said she would die if I left her. She trusted me to take care of her horse and her life.”

“You know she didn’t jump from that window.” Simon stared into the man’s face. “She didn’t take her own life.”

“I couldn’t see what happened from where I stood,” Kieran explained again. “Bruxton came up behind her, but I lost sight of his movements behind the curtains. Yes, I believe in my heart that he killed her. He has taunted me since with not knowing. The housekeeper was in the room at the time. But she was too upset afterward to make sense.” Kieran heaved a sigh of fatigue. “Her mind is muddled now. For all I know Bruxton had something to do with her decline.”

Simon sent Griff a sideways glance. He had poked his head back into the passage. “I had the same impression,” he said to Kieran. “I talked to her a few hours ago in the cottage where Bruxton has hidden her. She’s old and unwell, reluctant to leave the home he maintains for her. She depends on his care.”

Kieran slowly raised his face. “Do you think she’s hiding the truth?”

“If she is, she will not say. In her fragile state she isn’t long for this world and is doubtless incapable of spending her final days seeking justice. It would be said that her memory is unreliable and she should have spoken up before.”

Kieran shuddered. “I’ll kill him now. I don’t care if I lose my soul.”

Simon steadied the pistol in his hand. “Give me that satisfaction.”

“I heard Susannah call my name from her bedchamber,” Kieran repeated faintly. “Everything went slow. I shouted for help and ran for the window, but she landed on the ground before I could break her fall. She was gone when I reached her.”

“Did you try to lame my wife’s horse in London?” Simon asked after a pause.

“I care for animals more than I do my own wretched life. I’d never hurt a horse. Or a lady. Never.”

“But you attempted to murder me at my cousin-in-law’s party?”

“Bruxton swore you would ruin him, and that I would pay the price for everything that had happened. Yes. On his orders I shot at you. By my conscience I missed on purpose. He was infuriated that I failed. I accept the consequences.”

Griff withdrew his head from the black wedge in the wall. “Those consequences might arrive sooner than you expect. I hear shuffling at the bottom of this pit. You say the stairwell leads to the stables, Simon?”

“It could be the horses. It’s almost time for their feed.” He withdrew his other gun. “Kieran, did you come alone?”

“Yes.” The groom shifted on his feet. “It’s Bruxton. I warned you he would come.”

A metallic clunk echoed from the depths of the passage. A shovel, candlestick, a pitchfork? A scuffle but no voices?

He motioned Kieran to the panel. “Go ahead of me. Take one of my pistols.”

Griffin pivoted. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to arm the enemy. Make him walk between us.”

“No,” Kieran said with vehemence. “I’ll go first. One of you can follow. The other should alert the rest of the house. Have the stables surrounded by the men you employ. Bruxton won’t expect anyone to appear from a false wall. Susannah said she never told him about the hiding place. I pulled the door tight behind me.”

Simon nudged him forward and then ducked into the murky passageway. “I have no reason to trust you or your master. Deceive me and I shall not hesitate to make you sorry for the last time in your life.”

As he reachedthe bottom of the abyss, Simon detected a blur of light and instantly dropped to his knees. Kieran had darted ahead. Simon could not restrain him without revealing his own presence. He wasn’t even sure that Griff was still at his back.

By now the stable attendants would be leading the horses outside to the paddock to groom, water, and exercise. The kitchen maids would work the pumps and stoke breakfast fires. The estate roused in stages, a pattern followed every morning for over a century.

In fact, it might have been any other peaceful day at Caverley, except for the young male messenger sprawled out by the hay manger, a shovel at his side, and the silhouette of the earl, his attacker, visible against one of the stall doors.

Bruxton had not yet sensed Simon’s arrival.