‘That’s easy enough. He will be at Lady Maxton’s monthly musicale this evening, he never misses them. We can all attend, Madge Maxton is as easy-going as they come and will be happy for me to bring my new-found cousin.’
James shifted on the seat opposite me and a waft of the charnel house stink rose from his clothing.
‘When I have had a long, long, hot bath,’ I said, conscious that I must smell as bad as the men did. ‘I wonder if any of our clothes can be salvaged.’
‘Garrick will work wonders,’ Lucian promised.
We dropped James off at his lodgings. ‘My landlord will evict me if he gets within smelling distance,’ he grumbled as he stood on the pavement. ‘I will have to bribe the maids to bring me hot water.’ He looked up. ‘May I bring my clothes for you to work magic on, Garrick? Thank you!’
‘Is Garrick a most unusual servant?’ I asked as we drove on. ‘He seems to act as valet, coachman, butler and confidential assistant.’
‘I do not see the need to keep any other live-in staff. The apartment would be cramped for two menservants and he maintains he enjoys cooking. We have a daily housemaid, although you have not encountered her yet. As for the driving, Garrick does it when it involves matters that require discretion. He has been with me a long time, since I was a boy, almost.’
‘The matters that involve discretion are to do with women?’
‘Not necessarily,’ Lucian said coolly. ‘One’s friends need assistance from time to time.’
Sir Clement had come to him for help. Had other men turned to Lucian for his air of calm competence – to deal with what, exactly? ‘Perhaps the attack in the alleyway when I arrived was connected to one of those other friends’ problems? After all, you hadn’t got anywhere with finding Arabella at that point.’
‘I have not now either,’ he said grimly. ‘But I was asking around and I was making no secret that I supported Selbourne against Cottingham’s accusations. The true culprit, if there is one, might have decided I was better removed before I got any further.’
‘Which implies that this is more serious than an elopement. Those men were out to kill you, Lucian. That wasn’t just a rough warning.’
He didn’t answer me directly. ‘The longer this goes on and the more we discover – or fail to – the more I am convinced of foul play.’ Lucian was massaging his chin between thumb and forefinger, probably without knowing he was doing it. I watched the long fingers and the movement of the firm lower lip and managed somehow not to lean forward and nip it between my teeth.
‘If Arabella had eloped then she would, surely, have told Cottingham by now,’ he mused, apparently unaware of me watching his mouth, biting my own lip… ‘She, and her new husband, would need to discover what her brother’s reaction is going to be and either receive her inheritance, or settle down to fight for it. She will want to come back to Town, re-establish herself in Society, I would have thought.’ He was absent-mindedly biting one knuckle now, more distracted than I had seen him.
‘We are home,’ I said as the carriage stopped.
‘Hmm?’ He looked up and smiled, suddenly all his focus on me. ‘So we are,’ he said slowly, his gaze dark, intent.
I scrabbled for my reticule and my breath. Home and that smile. This was dangerous. Albany felt right, felt like home. And the man who lived there was beginning to feel like mine too. And he could not be. He is dead, I reminded myself as I stood to get out. Dead for two hundred years. He does not exist any longer.
‘What is wrong?’ asked the dead man, reaching out a very alive, warm, strong hand to help me down. ‘You have gone very pale.’
‘It is just that moving has stirred up that awful smell again,’ I said, grasping for an excuse. I was falling for a ghost and the frightening, worrying, utterly fascinating world that I had stumbled into was suddenly a bad dream.
Garrick leant down from the box of the carriage. ‘Leave your boots and anything else you can outside the front door, my lord. I’ll be in directly and the girl will be there.’
The girl proved to be a bright, wide-eyed, scrap of about fifteen. She opened the door when she heard the scrape of Lucian’s key and bobbed a curtsey. ‘My lord. The water’s hot and everything’s laid out in the bedchambers. Mr Garrick said as how you and the lady would be needing baths right away.’ Her snub nose wrinkled as we stood there wafting Thames water, mud and much worse in her direction. ‘I’ll just take his lordship’s water in and then I can help you, Miss.’
‘I will get my own water, Peggy,’ Lucian said as he levered off his boots. ‘You look after Miss Lawrence.’
An hour later I was clean, fragrant and in full possession of Peggy’s life story, family details and ambitions for the future – ‘To be a proper lady’s maid, Miss Lawrence.’ I tried to imagine her in my time and what her future might have held and then gave myself another talking-to. This was now and there was nothing I could do to change it, not safely. And yet I was changing things, simply by helping the search for Arabella. It made my head hurt and that spot between my shoulder blades itch.
‘Are you well?’ Lucian, also clean and rather temptingly fragrant with a subtle musky cologne, handed me a glass when I joined him. ‘Brandy. It might help.’
‘My head hurts,’ I complained. ‘Or, rather, my brain does.’
‘We will have some luncheon shortly, that will make you feel better.’ He flipped back the cloth covering the incident boards and stared at them. ‘There is nothing to add.’
‘Peggy,’ I began as I came to stand at his shoulder and study the notes. ‘Talking to her made me think about Arabella’s maid. There was something that has been teasing me about her and I can’t put my finger on it.’
‘Something she said? Something about her manner?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t know enough about the lives of women in service, I suppose. It is frustrating.’
‘It must be,’ Lucian hitched one hip onto the corner of the table. ‘I imagine finding myself in your time and trying to function.’