“Get that wretched girl from this room,” shouted the Dowager Duchess. “Wilmot, take her out of here and send to York for the constables. I want her arrested right now.”
As Wilmot rose from his place, Eugenia saw the frozen, shocked tableau before her. Maximilian sat, staring at her, immobile, while the eyes of the guests gazed at her, stunned. Lady Helena’s mouth hung open. The Duke and Duchess of Dentonshire appeared dazed at the uncivilized behavior of a serving girl at a very polite brunch. Earl Whitington rose from his chair as though to approach her, his eyes wide. Eugenia pointed a shaky finger at the Dowager Duchess.
“She was going to poison His Grace,” she said, her voice trembling. “She and her son were behind the attempts to kill him. To kill me.”
“Why that is absurd,” the Dowager Duchess snapped. “Wilmot, I told you to take her.”
Eugenia tried to flee as Wilmot once again seized her by the arms. She caught a glimpse of Mr. Oldman’s furious expression but knew he would not dare lay hands on a Lord to protect her. Screaming with fear and rage, Eugenia struggled, kicking, and savagely bit down on Lord Wilmot’s arm. He screeched, and jerked his hand away, tearing open the top of her gown. Spinning, she struck him as hard as she could across his face with her fist.
“Stop!”
Maximilian’s voice roared across the room. Wilmot stumbled away, holding his hand to his cheek. “She bit me,” he mumbled. “That wenchbitme.”
“Just what in the devil is going on here?” Maximilian demanded, rising to loom over Eugenia and his brother.
“I heard them,” Eugenia said, rushing to get the words out. “They planned to poison you with monkshood, now, at brunch. They locked me in a closet, but Mr. Oldman let me out. Thank God you did not drink it, she planned for you to die so Lord Wilmot will inherit your dukedom.”
Maximilian gaped, his jaw slack. “What? Poison.”
Eugenia watched as he turned his stunned face toward Lord Wilmot, who cringed, licking his lips, his eyes darting everywhere than at his brother. Even if she had not known, witnessed for herself his deadly plans with the Duchess, she recognized his body language. Lord Wilmot’s face, his body screamedI am guilty.
It appeared that Maximilian had read it as well, for his jaw slowly closed. His fists clenched. He loomed over his smaller sibling. Maximilian’s dark blue eyes bored into his brother. “Greed,” he snarled. “Greed was the motive after all. Is that not right,brother?”
Wilmot suddenly bolted for the doors. He ran fast, but Mr. Oldman was closer and faster. The former soldier lunged forward, grappling Wilmot around his waist and taking him down to the floor in a crash. Wilmot, much smaller than Mr. Oldman, stood no chance as Eugenia’s bodyguard forcefully lifted him from the flagstone and held his hands behind his back. Maximilian approached his brother.
“Tell me the truth, Willie,” he growled. “You were trying to kill me? To kill Eugenia?”
Wilmot sobbed, tears running down his cheeks, and went slack in Mr. Oldman’s grip. His lank brown hair fell over his eyes. “Yes. I am so sorry, Max. Mother told me to. I did not want to, but she made me. She wanted you to die, I am so sorry.”
Eugenia followed Maximilian’s eyes as he turned toward his stepmother. Oddly, his tone was soft, menacing as he spoke. “Well, Madam? What have you to say to these accusations?”
Duchess Augusta stood, and without being asked, the Duke of Dentonshire also rose to stand behind her. Not as support, Eugenia suspected, but as a guard. The Duchess’s icy eyes flicked around the table, seeing the accusing eyes, the implacable faces. She licked her lips. “It is all rubbish of course. He is making it up. They both are.”
“No,” Wilmot shrieked. Sobbing, he slid from Mr. Oldman’s grip to kneel. “She made me do it. She kept after me, would not let me say no, said you needed to die, Max, your little maid had to die, I tried to stop, but she told me what to do. The carriage, I sawed the shaft, she told me to, she made me hire the Scots to ambush you, I paid the footman to let me read your letter to Mallen, and I knew you rode out alone so you would come back in the dark alone, no one would suspect anyone but robbers when you were found dead.”
“You let that black stallion into the foaling barn?”
Lord Wilmot nodded, tears streaming down his face, but he barked a short hysterical laugh. “The meanest horse in England, I watched the maid go in and went to get him, I knew he would tear her to pieces, and he even hissed me in the face, blacked my eye when I was leading him, make it look like a careless groom let him loose. Mother, she told me to shove the maid off the battlement. I swear I did not want to kill your friend, but I overheard you hire the soldier to guard her, I did not want to kill him, too, but I had to, he was in my way, you see, I poisoned the Countess –”
“My God!”
The Earl of Whitington stormed around the table. “You tried to kill my wife? What did she ever do to you?” He glared at the Duchess. “Why would you tell him to kill my wife?”
His fists clenched, he walked toward Wilmot as though planning to throttle him, but it was his daughter who rose and stopped him. “No, Father,” she gasped. “He will face justice. Do not do this, let His Grace handle it, please.”
“She is right, Whitington,” the Countess said, her face pale. “Sit down.”
The Earl hesitated but refused to return to his chair. “I want answers,” he snapped.
“She did not tell me to kill the Countess,” Wilmot confessed, still sobbing on his knees. “I do not know why I did it, I just thought she should die, I tried to stop myself, but I could not, I just did it. Made it look like dropsy, I set the stable on fire, I hit you, Max, I am so sorry, so very sorry, can you ever forgive me?”
Maximilian stared at his brother for a long time. “No,” he said finally. “I cannot. Mr. Oldman, I have cells in my dungeon that have not been used in a long time. Put him in a cell, please.”
He stared at his stepmother as Mr. Oldman lifted a still crying Wilmot. “When you return, you will take the Dowager Duchess down there as well.”
“You would not dare!”
Eugenia watched in dreadful fascination as Maximilian walked slowly toward the Dowager Duchess, his eyes like twin blue fires. He, a big man, loomed over her as she shrank from him in fear, sitting back in her chair. “Trying to kill me is a crime, Madam, and you will face the penalties for it. In other words, yes, I will dare.”
