“I am not leaving my wife alone in the dark with a damn stranger.” Drake folded his arms across his chest, a clear sign he refused to compromise. He scanned the sea of faces seated in the drawing room—Juliet, Dariell and Ava—before his attention turned back to Valentine. “God’s teeth, you suspect this man, Cassiel, of stealing into Miss Kendall’s home and threatening to murder her servants.”
Valentine swallowed his frustration. He glanced at Ava seated on Drake’s blue damask sofa. The wrinkles around her eyes and between her brows conveyed her apprehension about meeting the mystic again.
Two days had passed since Ava sent Mr Cassiel a note asking him to attend Mr Drake’s dinner party. The scoundrel replied promptly, telling Ava that, as she would be in attendance, he did not need to meet with the Drakes prior to the event.
“Juliet can say she is unwell and does not wish to take part in the seance.” Valentine glanced at the mantel clock as it chimed a quarter past eleven. They had less than half an hour before Mr Cassiel arrived.
“Miss Faversham did the same when we met with Mr Cassiel,” Ava informed them. “She refused to go home and so sat in the hall, reading beneath the light of a candle lamp.”
Valentine thought it odd that a woman terrified by a character in a novel would want to stay in a house where the occupants were attempting to contact the dead. Then again, the dead did not get drunk and lose their temper.
Dariell sat forward and gave a curious hum. “This man who communes with spirits, it is important we let him believe he is alone in the room if we are to glimpse his true nature.”
Being slight of frame and extremely light on his feet, Dariell had opted to hide inside the window seat during the seance. Fortunately, the Frenchman had returned to town to meet with the actress set to play the role of Lockhart’s wife. Then again, Dariell always appeared when needed.
Drake sat forward. “I cannot sit alone in the dark and not know if Juliet is upset or distressed.”
Valentine might have mocked him, but he understood his friend’s need to protect the woman he loved. For a similar reason, Valentine had revisited the Pit and paid Connor Maguire a handsome sum.
“Please, Devlin,” Juliet said from her seat next to Ava. “What if Mr Cassiel has a genuine ability to speak to those who have passed? I want my paternal grandmother to know that I think of her often even though we have never met.”
Usually, Drake would berate anyone who believed such nonsense. He was a man who did not mince his words. Most men feared him. And yet with his wife, his gaze softened. “I swear if he does anything untoward we will send for the resurrectionists to take what is left of his body.”
Valentine smiled to himself. It seemed Drake would indulge his wife’s whims.
“Remember why we are all here,” Dariell said, clasping his hands together in prayer as he studied them. “Your expectations, they must be realistic, no? When I meet this man, I will know if his motives are honourable.”
Dariell excelled in reading the language of the body. Could he sense the intimacy whenever Valentine looked at Ava? Did he know that Valentine had slipped from the honourable path, had bedded an innocent and had yet to declare his intentions? Ava had remained at Valentine’s house since the night he rescued her from the Pit. She had slept in his bed last night, too.
“There is not much time,” Valentine said. “Are we all clear what we must do?”
Everyone nodded.
Dariell cleared his throat. “May I ask one question?”
“Of course.”
He turned to Ava, who sat with her hands clenched in her lap. “Miss Kendall, you are frightened. Yet I sense it stems from more than the terrible thing this man said about your parents. May I ask what it is about him that makes you tremble?”
Ava gulped. Heat turned her cheeks crimson. She glanced at the other people in the room before finally saying, “I—I find him too familiar.”
“Familiar?”
She shook her head. “Please, monsieur, do not ask me to explain.”
Valentine’s pulsed raced. Something else had happened in his mother’s drawing room. If that filthy rogue had put his hands on her, there would be hell to pay. He was about to jump up from his seat and insist they abandon their scheme but Dariel
l spoke.
“Know, madame, that at no time will you be alone with this gentleman. One word from you and I shall be at your side.”
“Thank you, monsieur. I only hope I can put on a convincing display, enough for Mr Cassiel to reveal his true intentions.”
“I have faith in your courage, madame.”
A growl resonated in Drake’s throat. “I do not like this. I do not like this one bit.”
The sudden echo of the brass knocker hitting the plate made the ladies catch their breaths.