pulled her hood up over her head again before turning and striding back along the path in the direction of the house. 'But I do not want to know.'
He fell into step beside her. 'Because you fear that I really did kill him?' he asked her.
Was that why she was so reluctant to hear the truth?
'I did threaten to kill him,' he said.
'But you did not do it,' she said firmly. 'You told Aidan you did not when he asked at Lindsey Hall, and I believed you. I still believe you. Would you have killed him if he had lived long enough?'
He was a long time answering. They walked around the corner into the wind again, at their backs now.
'I really do not know,' he said. 'But I very much fear that perhaps I would not have.'
There! That was all she wanted to hear on the subject, Freyja thought, lengthening her stride. She had already heard too much. Something horribly serious had happened that night-apart from the nasty fact that someone had died. And she did not want to know what it was.
I wonder if Hallmere has thought to mention to you that he has the most adorable little bastard son living in the village close to Penhallow with his mother.
The remembered words came back to Freyja in the marchioness's whining voice.
She was the girls' governess until the unfortunate incident forced my husband to dismiss her. They appear not to be suffering. I understand that Hallmere still supports them.
The sordid story had nothing to do with her, Freyja decided. He was not her betrothed and she felt no inclination whatsoever to stand in judgment on him. But she had a horrible suspicion that the quarrel in the boat that night had been about the governess and her child. Had Albert delivered one of his stuffy, self-righteous lectures on the topic? And had Joshua . . . Well, how had he reacted apart from threatening to kill his cousin? Exactly how and why had Albert died?
She did not want to know.
'I have shocked you, sweetheart,' Joshua said. 'Does this mean there will be no more dalliance between us? You have slain me.'
'Is nothing serious to you?' she asked disdainfully.
But she knew the answer to that question now, of course, and really she wished she did not.
Yes, there were many things in his life that were serious to Joshua Moore, Marquess of Hallmere.
She should have said good-bye to him long ago, before she even began to suspect that he was not simply a laughing, carefree rogue too handsome for his own good.
He chuckled softly, found her hand beneath her cloak, and held it as they walked, lacing his fingers with hers.
CHAPTER XVII
Who is it?' Joshua asked, propping himself against the edge of his steward's desk and crossing his arms over his chest. It was early in the morning, but Saunders was already at work in his office.
'Hugh Garnett,' Saunders said. 'His land is on the other side of the valley-his mother was a baron's daughter. He is prospering by all accounts. He bought more land after taking over from his father a couple of years ago. He is not by any means a gentleman without influence.'
'Oh, I know Hugh Garnett.' Joshua frowned. 'He is a nephew, on his father's side, of Mrs. Lumbard, the marchioness's particular friend. I am not overly surprised. But what would be in it for him, do you suppose, apart from the fact that he has reason to dislike me? He is not the sort of man to do something for nothing.'
'He has been displaying some interest in Lady Chastity,' Saunders said, 'but without any encouragement from either the lady herself or the marchioness. Yet she did invite him to tea here with his aunt and cousin after the return from Bath. It would be a brilliant match for him, of course, especially if it came with her mother's full blessing.'
'And more especially if I were not likely to spoil things by coming here to live now that I am betrothed and likely to marry at any time,' Joshua said. 'I daresay the Reverend Calvin Moore has been brought here as much to woo Constance as to bring moral support and comfort to the marchioness. She rules her world with as much ruthlessness as she ever did, does she not?'
He got to his feet and crossed to the window. It looked out onto the upward slope of the hill. But it was a pretty view nonetheless. The kitchen gardens and flower gardens were back there, as well as several hothouses. Behind them a footpath snaked its way upward past cultivated bushes to the hardy wildflowers closer to the plateau above.
He remembered then what Constance had told him and swung about to look at Jim Saunders. He was a gentleman of perhaps thirty years, perhaps less, who would inherit a very modest fortune and property on the death of his father, though there were a younger brother and several sisters to provide for. He was a pleasant-looking fellow and a hard worker. It was easy to understand why Constance, living in such isolation from men of her own class, would cast her eyes and her dreams on him. Did he return her regard? He was sitting behind his desk, looking down at a closed ledger, no readable expression on his face.
'You must understand, my lord,' Saunders said, his voice carefully formal, 'that I am relatively new here and have not yet formed firm opinions on everyone in the house and vicinity. I do not know the marchioness well and do not presume to guess her motives. Neither do I know you well. But I am sensible of the fact that I owe my loyalty to you and not to her ladyship.'
It was a careful answer. It was not obsequious.
'So you are not sure if there is any truth to these charges you warned me were imminent,' he said. 'You are wondering if you are employed by a desperate murderer.'
'I like to think not,' his steward said.
'Thank you.' Joshua looked more closely at him. 'How did you know? Nothing has been said since my arrival. There has been no constable panting on my doorstep to arrest me. Who told you?'
Saunders straightened the ledger and brought its bottom edge even with the edge of his desk.
