Unmasking Deception, page 5
Dominic had, in fact, been thinking about that. “My brother Richard.”
Napper raised his brows. “The officer who came to see you in Newgate? I thought he lived with your father? Don’t you think the Runners will be watching the house?”
“Yes, which is why I’ll have to catch him somewhere else. But if I can speak to Richard, he can bring me Minton and Jarvey. Since they are, apparently, still in London. Sorry, Viola,” he added beneath his breath as he picked up the fork.
Napper snatched it from him and produced a narrow screwdriver from his pocket instead.
Dominic grinned. “Much better.”
Armed with screwdriver and knife, Dominic climbed the stairs to the cellar door.
“This a really bad idea,” Napper told him. “You can’t run. You’ve nowhere to hide unless you find your brother, and he’s prepared to help. I’d better come with you.”
“You can’t. I need your cloak and your hat, and you’re as wanted as I am now.”
“But not as well known in this part of London.”
Dominic, already working on the lock, allowed that but didn’t let it slow him down.
“Why don’t I go instead of you?” Napper asked.
Dominic spared him a glance. “Because you’ve done more than enough for me. You’re a good man, Nap, and I won’t risk you any further.”
“That’s the biggest load of—”
The lock clicked open, causing Napper to break off and Dominic to smile with satisfaction.
“Cloak and hat, if you pl—” It was Dominic who broke off this time, catching Napper’s arm and gesturing him to silence. For a strange snuffling sound could be heard under the door. Something was moving along the band of daylight that showed there.
Dominic held his breath, for it sounded like a dog.
A childish voice laughed close by. “Look! Pup wants in the cellar, too.”
“If it’s as dirty as Viola says, he’ll get into a horrible mess,” said another voice.
“She might have forgotten to lock the door,” said a very young sounding man. “Try it, Susie.”
There was no time to hide, or even dart behind the door, which flew open so quickly it seemed to astonish those on the other side.
Before Dominic and Napper stood an enormous black dog and four children.
The dog lunged at Dominic, then seemed to change its mind mid-leap and galloped down the cellar steps instead. The children, who appeared to range in age from about sixteen to ten, immediately flew after him.
Napper hastily closed the cellar door and glanced at Dominic, who shrugged helplessly. They turned and made their rather more stately way down the steps. The dog had wolfed the last slice of bread from the plate on the small table and was busily licking up the crumbs while the children scolded it. The dog looked up from the plate only to slobber over the youngest girl’s face and then returned for a last lick of the plate.
The dog looked around, wagging his tail so hard his whole body moved with it, spotted the unknowns once more, and galumphed over the floor to greet Dominic and Napper.
“Is that a puppy?” Dominic demanded, hastily pushing the dog to one side to avoid danger to his wound.
“He’s just over five months old,” the oldest girl said. “He’s quite harmless. It’s just that he’s so big.”
“He’ll make a fine cavalry horse,” Dominic observed, which made all the children laugh. He sat on the sofa, and the dog jumped—well, stepped—up beside him, the better to reach the wary Napper. Dominic pulled the pup toward him. Easily distracted, it rolled and stuck its massive legs in the air for anyone who liked to tickle his tummy.
Everyone—except Napper—liked.
“So, who are you?” one of the girls asked. “Are you cleaning the cellar?”
“No,” Dominic replied at the same time as Napper said, “Yes.” They exchanged glances while the children watched them.
“Does Viola know you’re here?” the boy asked.
“Yes,” Napper said, and Dominic stopped shaking his head. This was a complication none of them had thought of.
“It’s a bit of a secret,” Dominic said uncomfortably.
“Well, it’s very odd of Viola to put you in the cellar,” the oldest girl said. “Because you don’t seem remotely like a servant.”
“Does she normally keep servants in the cellar?” Dominic asked.
The children laughed. “Of course not, but she said she would get someone to clean it,” the youngest said before gazing around her siblings. “It isn’t dirty at all, is it? I think Viola made that up to keep us out. Because she’s hiding them.”
“Why would…?” The boy’s sudden frown cleared with something like awe. “I see what it is! You’re the fellows the Bow Street Runner is looking for.”
“What Bow Street Runner?” Napper asked quickly.
“He came to the house and spoke to Mama and Viola, then left again. Apparently, someone escaped from Newgate and ended up in this area, though I don’t quite understand how.” A wary look had come into the boy’s eyes. “What did you do?”
“He did nothing,” Dominic said firmly, nodding at Napper. “Except help me. And I…am guilty of nothing but idiocy.”
The boy’s eyes gleamed. “You escaped to prove your innocence!”
His sisters looked awed. The huge pup, noticing that the tummy tickling had paused, nudged Dominic’s hand.
“Something like that,” Dominic said uncomfortably.
Without warning, the pup sprang to its feet and flew off the sofa toward the stairs.
Viola stood at the top, framed in the doorway like an angel bathed in light. Her hair shone the color of a sunrise. “Oh, no,” she uttered. Then the sunlight disappeared as she closed the door and hurried downstairs to be greeted by the puppy, who bounced up to put his great paws on her shoulders and licked her.
Dominic rose to help, but she had already wrestled the dog off.
“How did this happen?” she demanded in distress. “This isn’t what I wanted at all.”
“You were keeping the adventure all to yourself,” the youngest girl accused. “But Pup found you out.”
“Well, he found them out,” the boy corrected, waving one careless hand toward Dominic and Napper. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because I didn’t want this!” Viola exclaimed. “This isn’t a game, and it’s going to be so much more difficult now to keep secret—”
“Don’t worry,” Dominic said. “We’ll go.”
“You can’t,” she said bluntly. “The Runners suspect you or your rescuers might be hiding around here. They must have connected the drunk to you at last, and the hackney driver will have told them where he dropped us. Which is what I came to tell you.” She swung on her siblings. “How did you get in? Surely that was not Pup?”
“Oh, no,” the oldest girl said. “The door was unlocked.”
Dominic sighed. “That was me.”
“But I have the only key,” Viola said.
Dominic held her gaze. “One meets all sorts in Newgate.”
He expected shock, disappointment, even anger. But unexpectedly, her lips twitched, and her eyes danced just before she turned away to lecture the massive pup trying to knock her over. Bored, Pup ambled away to the younger children.
“So, have you been introduced to my siblings or just to Pup?” she asked lightly.
“Pup does rather guide the conversation.”
“He is a sad trial to my mother, who finds him quite unsuitable for…well, for anything or anyone, really. But the children love him. These are my sisters, Catherine, Arabella, and Susan. And my brother Adrian. Make your bows, siblings, and promise you won’t tell anyone about this or who—”
“Lord Dominic Gorse,” Catherine interrupted. “Or so we guess. I don’t know you, though, sir,” she added to Napper.
“You can call me Napper. It’s not my name but a nickname from army days.” Napper leaned over the back of the sofa. “So, let’s sit down and make a plan, then. As long as it stops his lordship blundering about outside, I’m in favor.”
Chapter Five
“As it happens,” Viola said, “I am acquainted with Mr. George Minton, so I can easily question him.”
Several expressions she couldn’t read swept over Lord Dominic’s face. One of them might have been alarm, but before he could speak, Catherine did.
“What will you do? Ask him where he was while his friend was being murdered after a visit to a gaming hell ladies are not supposed to know about? Won’t he find that odd?”
“I can be subtle,” Viola said with dignity.
“Which means she’ll discuss the weather and then ask him about the murder,” Adrian translated.
“There is a perfectly good reason to discuss the murder,” Viola reminded him. “Since the world already knows Lord Dominic has escaped.”
“I’m surprised my father let the story into the newspapers,” Lord Dominic observed.
“It’s not in the newspapers,” Catherine assured him. “But the servants know, which means everyone in London does.”
“The Bow Street Runners won’t have helped,” Viola pointed out, “by visiting every house in the street and annoying the servants in the mews. The marquess might as well have placed at an advertisement about your escape. Which reminds me, how will I meet your brother? There is a ball this evening at—”
“Richard does not go to balls as a rule,” Lord Dominic interrupted. “He was wounded in the late war. He’s lame, and he lost an arm at Waterloo. My other brothers would carry a note to him.” He broke off, scowling. “Though they’ll think it’s an intrigue, so perhaps that’s not such a wonderful idea.”
“It doesn’t matter what they think, as long as they’re discreet,” Viola assured him. “But you had better write the note, my lord. I’ll fold it so that your handwriting won’t be seen.”
Catherine nodded. “And if you’re caught in the act, Vee, the note clearly is not from you. You are merely carrying out a favor for a friend.”
“In the meantime,” Adrian added. “We could follow this chap Minton and the other friend—Jarvey?—find out what they are up to.”
Lord Dominic and Napper both frowned, clearly about to oppose this and thus ensure that Adrian would find a way to do exactly as he suggested.
“You need not worry about Minton,” Viola said hurriedly. “I am engaged to drive out with him this afternoon.”
“Are you, by God?” Dominic murmured. He didn’t sound pleased, which was odd.
“Oh, is that the fellow who’s dangling after you?” Adrian asked, somewhere between amused and intrigued. “In that case, I should ask about his birth, fortune, and prospects, should I not?”
“No,” Viola said firmly.
“His birth is unexceptionable,” Lord Dominic drawled. “He has no fortune since his brother, the baronet, inherited everything, and his prospects are all at the gaming table.”
“Well, he won’t do for you then, Vee,” Adrian grinned. “One of you needs to have money.”
“Don’t be vulgar, Ade,” Viola snapped, unreasonably annoyed. Fortunately, by this time, Pup had gotten bored and was whining at the cellar door to get out, so it was clearly time to leave. “We’d better take him out of here before someone notices.” She rose to her feet, glancing at Lord Dominic and Napper. “We’ll bring you food when we can.”
“Thank you,” Lord Dominic said with a rueful smile as he stood with care. Unexpectedly, he took her hand. “This goes against the grain, you know. I’m wildly in your debt, but I never planned to involve you, let alone your entire family, in my problems.”
“I don’t think you plan things at all, do you?”
“No point. They never work out as expected.” He released her hand, and she let it fall to her side, where it tingled among her skirts.
“Rest your wound,” she said hurriedly. “So that you are fit for whatever is to come.” And with that, she hurried up the stairs after her siblings and the pup.
*
When she had changed her dress for her drive with Mr. Minton, she found she had still half an hour before he was due to call. Accordingly, she drew out her book and notebook to practice as she did every day, even when, as now, Miss Mather was not in residence to remind her.
Miss Mather, or Matty, was the children’s governess, whom Viola regarded as a friend and confidante. And one whom she wished never to let down. She was currently visiting her sick mother in Dorset, and Viola missed her. She wondered what she would say about harboring Lord Dominic Gorse.
After about twenty minutes, she stood up to stretch and look out of her window. It faced the back garden and the mews beyond. If she stuck her nose against the glass, she could just about make out a tiny portion of the cellar door. It still felt strangely exciting to know Lord Dominic was there. Under the same roof. She wondered what he was doing, what he was thinking.
Then, pulling herself together, she glanced toward the mews and frowned. Someone was wandering down the lane without much urgency or purpose, and he did not look like a coachman or groom merely waiting for a summons. He looked, in fact, very like the Bow Street Runner, Barnaby Smith.
She watched him uneasily as he strolled past their garden. He did not appear to be paying much attention, but somehow, she knew he was. He must still suspect that his fugitive was here in this street.
Which he was.
How much could the Runner see of the back garden from the mews? They were going to have to be careful not to be observed constantly going in and out of the cellar. But she was given no time to warn the children, for her mother came bustling into her chamber to make sure she was correctly dressed for her drive.
Mr. Minton was due to call for her at two of the clock. Since Viola positively hated the crush of carriages and people in the park at the fashionable hour of five, she had been quite happy to agree to this earlier jaunt. Her mother’s only interest in it was that she might be seen by someone more eligible, for Mr. Minton was not regarded as a suitable marriage partner, being, as Lord Dominic had pointed out, short of fortune and prospects, both of which Viola was expected to acquire by marriage.
That plan was not going so well.
She had first met Mr. Minton at a masked ball held by her cousin, the Countess of Wenning. She had never attended such an event before, and it had been a revelation to her. With anonymity, she had been able to relax and actually enjoy herself for the first time in the Season—hence her willingness to indulge in the forbidden pleasure of the public ball at Maida Gardens. Mr. Minton had been the first man to smile at her without clearly wishing to be elsewhere.
That, and the fact that he occasionally stood up with her at parties after that and took her driving, made her remember him, though he hardly “hung about her” as Adrian had claimed. But it did strike her that they could be more open with each other, even be friends, because no one expected them to marry each other. In vulgar parlance, they both needed to marry money.
Distasteful but necessary. In her case, her family depended on her. And now, for different reasons, so did Lord Dominic and Napper.
So, she allowed her mother to fuss over the carriage dress and the hat she wore and was almost delighted when Mr. Minton arrived. He drove a curricle and handsome matched chestnuts, and Pup danced excitedly at the upstairs window, desperate to make friends with Mr. Minton’s horses. Fortunately, the pup was shut in with the children.
“How charming you look this afternoon,” Mr. Minton declared, handing her into the curricle. He climbed in beside her, briskly taking the reins from the tiger who held the horses’ heads.
“Thank you,” Viola replied. “Everything looks better on such a lovely day.”
He looked slightly startled at that, so she hastened to make more comments on the weather, while he let the horses go and pointed them toward Hyde Park. Since the Doves’ house stood on the very edge of fashionable London, it was quite a long drive.
She glanced at Mr. Minton’s profile. She had never judged his appearance before, but it struck her now that although he was good-looking enough, his features were bland. But then she suspected his looks, and those of every other gentleman she knew, suffered from comparison with Lord Dominic’s. Brown hair seemed dull beside golden blond. Pale blue eyes were ordinary compared to those of a rare, dark blue intensity. And as for long, sensual lips always ready to smile…
“Shall I have the pleasure of seeing you at the ball this evening?” Mr. Minton inquired, interrupting her inappropriate reverie.
“At Mrs. Dorland’s? Yes, we shall be there. I suppose,” she added blatantly, “that everyone will be talking about Lord Dominic Gorse’s escape from Newgate.”
Minton seemed neither surprised nor alarmed. He merely shrugged with a hint of irritation. “The fool will end up hanged. I’m sure his papa had arranged a very soft voyage for him to Botany Bay, and no doubt, some very light labor. But that was always his problem. Act first and think afterward—if at all.”
“Then you believe he really did kill Mr. Crawley?”
“The courts believe it, which is what matters,” Minton said austerely.
She gazed at him with frank curiosity. “I heard you and he were friends.”
“Crawley and I? Or Dominic Gorse and I?”
“Both, I suppose.”
He shrugged again. “We were. I took it hard when poor Crawley died, and lost two friends, as it were, for the price of one.”
“Why do you think Lord Dominic tried to escape?” she asked, suitably wide-eyed.
Minton’s lips twisted. “I’m sure it was yet another moment of madness. Dom acts on impulse, not mature consideration, which is how poor old Crawley came to be dead and Dom in Newgate.”
“My romantic young siblings—who love tales of outlaw heroes like Robin Hood—believe he escaped to prove his innocence.”
Minton’s face jerked toward her, eyebrows raised before he had to look to his horses once more as they approached the park gates. “Where on earth did they acquire such an outlandish idea?”
Viola hid her crossed fingers in the folds of her skirts. “I have no idea. You know him. Do you think it possible?”
