Page 20 of Fatal By Design
Audrey regarded him, her expression brightening just as surely as his was. Lord Westbrook had been at Greenbriar when news of the abduction and killing had arrived, and he certainly had not seemed upset about his missing future bride.
“They are attached, Lord Westbrook and Millie?” Audrey asked.
“Not yet.” Her mother momentarily seemed to forget her daughter was missing and instead basked in the good news of a potential betrothal. “His wife recently died, and there has been rumor that he has set his hat toward Millie.”
“Why would he have said nothing about this at Greenbriar?” Audrey asked, though she was addressing Hugh rather than her mother. The baroness didn’t notice or care.
“Because he is a man who knows how to conduct himself properly.” Lady Edgerton leveled Hugh with a glare that needed no explaining. In her view, Hugh was not such a man.
“The answer is simple enough,” Edgerton said. “Millie and Westbrook were to be engaged, and Cartwright went mad with jealousy.”
Hugh could not suppress his groan this time. “Inquiries are not solved by supposition, Lord Edgerton.” The people of Hertfordshire were incredibly lucky this man had not been elected as a magistrate. His ego had significantly dulled his powers of logical thinking.
“Am I to believe you and my niece are handling this inquiry? Preposterous!”
It was time to go; the interview was beginning to spiral out of control, becoming muddied by personal grievances and prejudice.
“We will take our leave.” Hugh extended his arm toward Audrey. She nodded tightly, as anxious as he was to depart.
“I certainly hope you did not expect an invitation to stay,” the baron shouted at their backs with a mean laugh.
Hugh’s boots scuffed to a stop at the door’s threshold. He would leave the abhorrent man in no doubt of where he stood.
“Lord Edgerton,” he said, looking back, “I would sooner visit Dante’s ninth circle of hell before resting my arse under your roof.”
The baron spluttered and stammered before shouting, “How dare you?”
“How dareI?” Hugh slowly turned. As if knowing that he’d started tumbling past the hold on his temper, Audrey said his name, to beckon him back. But it was too late.
“I know what you did, Edgerton. I know where you sent her and why, and if I were a vengeful man, I would contrive a way to see you locked up there. To leave you there to rot for much longer than two years.” Stark fury and shock rippled over the baron and baroness’s faces. Audrey touched Hugh, closing her fingers gently around his elbow. He exhaled, forcing his temper down to a simmer. “However, small, pathetic men are unworthy of my trouble and my time. As are cold and bitter mothers.”
The baroness gasped in offense.
“You utter cur, I should call you out for your insolence!”
“Uncle, no,” Audrey said, but Hugh only grinned in amusement.
“Recall my previous dueling opponents, Edgerton, and you may wisely reconsider. I allowed Bartholomew to live. I didn’t show the same mercy to Thomas, and I certainly wouldn’t for you.”
Hugh turned and with Audrey’s arm hooked in his, they left through the front door, out onto the drive into a fine misting rain. Audrey pulled him to a stop, her stare a cross between amusement and disbelief. “You didn’t need to do that.”
“Maybe not, but I sure as hell wanted to.”
She pinned her lips, battling a smile. “I don’t think you’ll be invited back.”
“That was the general idea.”
Though it was only momentary, her delight brought forth a full smile—the kind that reached her eyes and cut fine lines at the edges. He had never heard her giggle before, but as she did now, a cord tightened in his chest and stomach. If he could inspire her to make that sound more often, he’d do whatever it took. It was the most pleasant thing he’d heard in a long time. Perhaps ever.
The triumph bubbling through him swiftly went flat as the memory of her confession last night cut in, the blade sharp and unforgiving. He held her stare, her smile dissolving as if she knew the turn of his thoughts.
Greer came around the side of the house. She had likely rushed from the servant’s entrance as soon as word of the altercation in the drawing room reached the kitchen.
“We are leaving, Your Grace?” Greer’s eyes were rounded with awareness, and Hugh imagined the maid was already well apprised of the tension between Audrey and her family.
“Yes, but first…” Audrey paused to look over her shoulder, to where a narrow, rutted lane diverged from the main gravel drive. It disappeared into a stand of trees. “Would you mind if we made a stop on our way to Fournier Downs?”
Traveling all the way to Greenbriar would have taken the rest of the afternoon and evening, and Hugh didn’t want to jeopardize the horses in the dark or encounter any highway ruffians. It was safer to wait until daylight.
