‘Late night card parties?’ The voice was suddenly clearer. She must be in the hallway.
‘No, Lady Radcliffe, but Mr James – ’
I didn’t hear any more. This was Luc’s mother and there was only one place Garrick could put her. I shoved plate and cup under the largest armchair and, as the door began to open, vaulted over the back of the sofa and slid down between it and the wall.
Chapter Sixteen
‘Breakfast, my lady?’ Garrick sounded perfectly calm. I rubbed the elbow I’d knocked on the way down, squinted out from my hiding place under the sofa and saw his feet shifting round as he scanned the room. The pair of very elegant half-boots I could see beneath the hem of a plum-coloured skirt showed that their wearer was facing away from him towards the shrouded incident boards.
‘Thank you, Garrick. Toast would be welcome. And tea. I will take it in here.’ There was a faint (ladylike) sniff. ‘I can smell coffee.’
‘Yes, my lady. I came in here carrying my breakfast cup with me to check on the room before the girl started work. Would you like the fire lit?’
‘Yes, thank you.’
Good thing I didn’t climb up the chimney then…
I saw Garrick’s legs as he knelt in front of the hearth, the scrape of flint on tinder box. He worked over it for a minute, getting a blaze going, then began to stand, stumbled and dropped a small log that rolled towards the sofa. ‘Excuse me, my lady.’ He knelt in front of my hiding place and reached under as though searching for the little log. I pushed it into his hand and touched the back of his fingers with mine.
Given the high standard of housekeeping I wasn’t afraid of dust making me sneeze and I’d only had one cup of coffee since I’d visited the loo, so I told myself firmly that there was no reason I couldn’t lie there undetected for however long it took Luc to dislodge his mother. Garrick would be waking him up now, I was sure – he wouldn’t want me lurking under the sofa any more than I wanted to be there.
So I lay still, tried to relax and focussed on those half-boots while I willed her ladyship not to give in to vulgar curiosity and go and twitch the covers off the boards. Stay there, stay there… Damn.
Up she got in an expensive rustle of skirts and walked across. ‘What on earth?’ Silence.
‘Your tea and toast, my lady. Shall I put the tray on this table?’
‘Garrick.’
‘Yes, my lady?’ It was remarkable how innocent he managed to sound.
‘What is this?’
‘That, Mama, is the latest method of approaching the solving of a crime.’ Luc, thank goodness. Leather slippers and the hem of his gorgeous silk bed robe brushed past my hiding place and there was the sound of cheeks being kissed. ‘Delightful as it is to see you, why are you here when James wrote explicitly to warn you that it was not safe?’
Lady Radcliffe rustled back to her seat and I heard the distinctive ting of a spoon against bone china. She was not going to be pressured into explaining herself. ‘You surely cannot think that I am going to sit in Suffolk while my sons are in danger? Let me see your head.’
Luc did not answer the question, probably wisely. I was beginning to think that his mother would cope with a razor-wielding valet better than I could. I heard a tsk which was probably at the sight of his scalp.
‘What about the twins?’ he asked.
‘I brought them with me – and before you protest that I am bringing them into danger, all three under-keepers are also with me – armed, of course. One is at the door here as my escort and the other two are guarding the boys. Nanny has strict instructions not to leave the house with them – the garden at the rear is quite large enough for them to run about in.’
‘Mama, there is nothing you can do to help. I appreciate the thought, but you are putting yourself in danger, bodyguards or not and – ’
‘And what about this young woman you have acquired from somewhere? I’ve had letters from at least six acquaintances mentioning her. America is it? And supposed to be a distant cousin? Really, Lucian, I know the Franklin family tree as well as you and probably better.’
‘The legitimate side
, certainly,’ he agreed. ‘This connection is distant and tenuous, I agree.’
‘Radcliffe.’ The sound of a cup being put down rather too hard only reinforced the switch from first name to title. Mama was not pleased. ‘Most men manage to keep a mistress without all this subterfuge.’
‘Cassandra is not my mistress,’ Luc said evenly. ‘I am certainly giving her a measure of financial support, but no more than I would any female connection under the circumstances.’
Don’t ask what circumstances, I pleaded silently. Luc was skirting a lie – I was his lover but not his mistress – but how would he answer if she probed any further?
‘How have you become involved in a crime?’ Lady Radcliffe demanded.