With Mr. Oldman following her like a faithful hound, Eugenia ran out of the castle and across the grounds to the stables. Grooms smiled and knuckled their brows as she passed, offering her a deference that shocked her. She was a servant, just as they were. Why would they show her almost the same respect as they showed the Duke?
She found Max discussing a newborn foal’s future prospects with Fergus. As they stood outside the stall, talking, Eugenia stepped back and drank Maximilian in with her eyes. Though it had only been a few days since she had seen him last, it seemed a lifetime ago. With the knowledge that Maximilian had been in terrible danger, she felt ridiculous now, after she had swamped herself in her fears.
He saw her, and his lips turned upward in a smile. Fergus turned to see who he had smiled at, then also raised his own. “I will leave you alone, Your Grace,” he bowed and departed.
Mr. Oldman stood well back from them, remaining near the door in order to watch for anyone approaching. Eugenia felt grateful for his dedication, how he – without knowing her – risked his life to maintain hers. She assumed some of that selflessness came from his previous duties as a soldier but suspected the rest came from something else.
“Eugenia,” Maximilian said, his voice low, extending his hand to invite her closer. “It is so good to see you looking yourself again.”
Flushing, Eugenia longed to throw her arms around his neck and shower him with kisses. “I heard about last night. I had to come see you.”
Standing beside him, Eugenia brushed her fingers over his discreetly and with silent affection. “Lady Helena said you were not hurt.”
He shook his head. “Thus far, I have only told this to Nigel and Fergus, Eugenia. Those men last night were paid to kill me.”
Eugenia did not know why that surprised her, but it did. Shocked, she stared unseeingly into the stall at the little filly suckling her dam’s milk. “So, our villain is branching out,” she said. “Getting more desperate, perhaps?”
“That is my theory,” Maximilian said. “But something else is very odd.”
Eugenia glanced up into his sea deep blue eyes. “What?”
“I did not tell anyone where I was going yesterday,” Maximilian replied, leaning against the stall’s wall. “How did our villain know I would be on the road at that particular hour in order for me to ride into his trap?”
“Maybe they did not know,” Eugenia said, her brows furrowed as she thought. “Perhaps their orders were to waylay you the minute you rode out alone.”
“That is just it,” Maximilian said. “I seldom ride alone except when I am going to visit the Viscount of Mallen. I told only Edmund I would be there and when.”
“And only he knew when you left.”
“Exactly.”
Eugenia turned to face him. “Surely you do not suspect your friend.”
Maximilian shrugged and shook his head. “Of course, that crossed my mind. But he has nothing to gain from killing me. We have been friends for years, and there is little I do not tell him.”
He smiled down deliberately in her hazel eyes. “I told him about you, and he approves.”
“Then that certainly is a good reason to mark him off the list,” Eugenia replied tartly. “If he approves of you dallying with a ladies’ maid, then naturally he is one of the good ones.”
Maximilian’s smile faded. “Even if he did not, I still could not add him to that list. Why would he wish me dead? Again, there is no motive, no gain for him. He approves of you and I, so why would he want you dead? No, Edmund of Mallen is not our villain. But he did point me toward Sophia.”
Eugenia frowned. “Your former love? Why would she wish you harm? And how? She is not here, is she?”
“I do not know where she is,” Maximilian admitted. “Edmund suggested she is paying one of my servants out of a false desire for revenge – if I cannot have you, no one will sort of thing.”
“And would explain why I have been targeted,” Eugenia added with a nod. “Jealousy. You know, this almost does have a woman’s feel to it, Max.”
“Indeed, it does.”
“And a servant can come and go, unremarked,” Eugenia said, tapping her lower lip with her finger. “But as big as this castle is, she could have planted a criminal from London inside it and pay him to do her dirty work. He could have sneaked in any time during the night.”
Maximilian frowned. “Not a servant?”
“Think about it, Max,” she said. “Servants are simple folk, really. They are not criminal types, like the highwaymen who attacked you. Most would have no idea how to go about killing a duke. In fact,” she added with a wry grin, “most would be appalled at the very idea of harming you. Believe me, I know. I am one of them.”
“You make another good point, young miss,” Maximilian said. “Let us, for argument’s sake, say that Sophia is behind this. How does she find someone, a servant who already works for me, who might be willing to sell their services as a murderer?”
“In a place this big, with hundreds of staff members,” Eugenia replied. “That is almost an impossibility. Not unless she knows your people intimately.”
