Page 37 of A Sister to Beguile (Sherton Sisters 5)

“Whatever for? Because of Augustus?”

“It would seem so,” Alex answered gently. “It seems there is very little trouble that can be brought against your father, so he started searching for issues with your father’s children. You’ll be happy to know your sisters and their husbands are all leading quite uncontroversial lives, so he had difficulty finding anything to stir up. And then he happened upon Lord Bertram, who had his own reasons to be fomenting trouble for your family. Of course, some of this is conjecture. We know they are acquainted. We haven’t confronted either of them, as of yet.”

The duchess stared at him with a puzzled expression. “Wasn’t Bertram’s grudge against Mr. Ashford Northcott? What could he possibly think to accomplish by involving us in his vengeance?”

“You’re right, and you might be happy to note that Lord Bertram has had a change of heart, from what we understand, and is a new man who claims to no longer hold anything against Northcott. But before he turned over his new leaf, he had sought ways to cause trouble and had discovered Rathnelly’s penchant for industry. He had also crossed paths with Griffiths and passed along what little he knew.”

Alex was pleased to see Rathnelly nodding along with his explanation.

“So, you and my sister have been jaunting about the countryside and found all this out? You surprise me.” The duchess continued to stare, at first admiringly but then suspicion grew in her gaze. “I also wonder why.”

“Would you have preferred it if he left me to fend for myself with this trouble?” Grace asked quietly. “It was not his fault, in any case. I asked him to call on me when the threat arrived.”

“Threat?” Felicity’s voice was fainter than usual, and she suddenly sat upon her husband’s knee as though her legs had given way.

“Yes,” Grace answered simply. “I’m sorry. This was one of the parts I didn’t want to tell you when you were in the sickroom. And I thought perhaps you knew when you told me to invite his lordship to stay. It was the morning after His Grace had left and you had just consigned yourself to quarantine with the children. A note was pinned to the kitchen door with a very large knife. The note itself wasn’t so very threatening, but the manner in which it was left was. Then I found out that it was, in fact, the third note left. And this one felt more threatening than the first two. So, I sent for Lord Sterling, as I knew he could arrive much sooner than anyone else. He had already found out a little of the troubles Rathnelly had been dealing with, so I left him no choice but to tell me as much as he could and to help me solve the problem.”

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