“It was that guttersnipe thief you hired for a cook. Surely you know that. After all, it was her knife found in your back.”
“Now, that is a puzzle,” Percival said. “I would never have thought such a thing of her. Neither in the metaphorical or literal sense has she shown herself to be the kind of person who attacks from behind.”
“Backstabbing is what thieves do best, or didn’t you know that, Nephew?” Lord Ronald sneered. “Has it escaped your attention that the knife was sharp enough to slice bone?”
“Yet it did not. I am grateful, but one does wonder why the person wielding the knife struck in such a way that it skated across bone instead of piercing between the ribs as intended?”
“I think you can thank luck and your own strong bones for that, Percival. Perhaps you twitched or moved and caused the blow to fall awry.”
“While unconscious? You think me a candidate for Bedlam, but my wits have not gone so far begging that I can imagine being able to dodge a blow while having my pate addled by a bludgeoning object.”
“A point, Nephew. Definitely a point. But it makes the deed all the more heinous. The attacker must have been truly callous to have dealt such a blow while you were unable to defend yourself.”
“Therefore, all the more reason not to suspect any member of my household.”
“With such evidence before you?”
“Uncle! I pay them well. I treat them with courtesy. In the general way, courtesy is what I get back, along with a degree of respect. Perhaps, in the case of my oldest and most trusted servants, a degree of something that could even be called friendship.”
“Oh, Nephew! Listen to yourself. How can you be friends with a servant? That is almost the same as saying that your dog or your horse are your friends.”
Percival just stared at his uncle for a moment. “I had no idea you placed the men and women in your service at such a level. Although, I might add, I have had some extremely faithful dogs, and horses of such great heart that they would run themselves to death for me.”
“Is that what you want from your friends?” Lord Ronald asked.
“Hardly. Mutual respect is a much better trade. I fancy that I have achieved such an association with my household staff.”
“The bandages encircling your head and around your shoulder adequately attest to how well that is working. Nephew, I know you are going to resent me for doing this, but I promise it is for your own good. In due time, you will understand this.”
“Frankly, Uncle Ronald, I can hardly see how an arranged marriage, followed up by a room in Bedlam, will increase my enlightenment on that score. I am all agog to hear your explanation.”
“First of all, my dear nephew, it will put an end to the bleeding of assets from the estate.”
“Will it? How do you see that happening?”
“I shall take over as your next of kin, of course, and act as guardian for your unborn child.”
“Go on,” Percival said, a dangerous light beginning to grow in his eyes. “Then what happens?”
“Why, my dear nephew, I shall guide the footsteps of your offspring just as I did yours.”
“With illicit comfits, winning my allowance at cards, and allowing me to get soaked in the brook? Mother never quite forgave the destruction of my velvet nankeens, by the way.”
“Your mother was an incredible lady, but for all of that, she was a woman. Had she not been ill the day of the hunting accident, perhaps you would have been there to shield your father.”
Percival drew in a deep breath, but before he could speak, two sets of toes tapped against his foot. So he said mildly, “It is not well done to speak ill of the dead. Especially not of any gentleman’s deceased mother. Father used to say that she was his lodestone and guiding light.”
“Did he, indeed? Too bad, then, that you have no such anchor to restrain your frivolity. As it is, I have brought assistance for you.”
Even as he spoke, there was a scuffling in the hall. The captain of the Watch and the Watch’s physician appeared at the doorway.
Chapter 51
Tiffany boldly walked to the clothesline, as if she were one of the household servants, and calmly removed a set of workman’s clothing that looked as if they might be near her size.
With equal calm, she then walked around a small shed, then back into the orchard instead of up to the house. When no alarm was raised, she hitched up her petticoats, and pulled on the trousers.
“Watch the house,” she directed Michaels. “Make sure no one is coming out while I change into the shirt.”
