In lieu of managing her home, there was no reason she couldn’t manage Charles’s. In the absence of his mother-her godmother-there was no reason she couldn’t keep herself occupied by performing the myriad overseeing tasks involved in ensuring the smooth running of the Abbey.
Mrs. Slattery certainly wouldn’t mind.
Rising, she headed for the housekeeper’s quarters.
In the study, Charles noted their findings from the previous night and his consequent direction for inclusion in his next report to Dalziel. That done, he sat back and reviewed his plans for Penny. Despite his personal goal, if it had been possible to isolate her from the investigation he would already have done so, his preferred option being to send her to his mother in London with strict instructions she be kept under lock and key until he came to fetch her.
A lovely conceit, but not an achievable one. And given his personal goal, not a wise one, either.
He would have to work with the options fate had dealt him.
At least he now knew what his personal goal was; he just had to ensure she didn’t get too tangled in the web of his investigation while he was steering her to it.
The thought of steering, of influencing her female mind, left him considering the piece of the puzzle she’d given him that he was finding difficult to ease into the picture; to his mind, it didn’t fit.
She seemed to have accepted it, but his instincts were prodding him, experience insisting that pieces that didn’t fit meant he was seeing some part of the solution wrongly.
He couldn’t question Granville. There was, however, one thing he could check, and despite her apparent acceptance, it might go some way to easing Penny’s mind. After fifteen minutes of mulling over his contacts and how best to approach them, he drew out fresh sheets of paper and settled to write two letters. One to his mother, who suitably adjured would deliver the other to her old friend Helena, Duchess of St. Ives.
If anyone had a hope of establishing the details of how Granville Selborne had died, Devil Cynster, now Duke of St. Ives, was that man. He’d led a cavalry troop in the relief of Hougoumont; he would know, or know how to learn of, the survivors, and how to elicit the pertinent facts.
Charles hadn’t known Granville well; for all he knew, Penny might be right. Yet the contradiction between running military and government secrets to the French, and then enlisting to fight them at Waterloo, was too big for him to swallow easily.
If they could discover exactly how Granville had died, it might shed some light, and perhaps relieve him of the premonition that in all he’d learned of the Selbornes’ scheme, he was misreading something. His memories of Penny’s father, too, didn’t fit well with coldly calculated long-term treason.
The heat of battle burned away all falsity; if Granville had gone to his end unswervingly pitted against the French, then no matter Penny’s stance, he would find it very hard to believe Granville, at least, had knowingly assisted the enemy.
He’d just set his seal to the packet of letters when Filchett tapped and entered.
“Lady Trescowthick’s carriage is coming up the drive, my lord. Are you at home?”
Charles raised his brows. “I suspect I better be.”
Rising, he went out to meet her ladyship, one of his mother’s bosom-bows, also his sister-in-law Annabelle’s mother-no surprise Lady T knew he was in residence. If she didn’t catch him now, she was perfectly capable of laying seige to his house, and with Penny about…
He paused in the front hall, then turned to issue an order to the footman who’d come hurrying from the kitchen. The footman bowed and retreated. Overhearing the exchange, Filchett cast him a surprised look. Ignoring it, Charles donned an easy smile and went forth to greet her ladyship.
A small, rotund, matronly lady, Amarantha Trescowthick was delighted to have him hand her down from her carriage and escort her up the steps.
“But I really can’t stay, my boy-oh!” She lifted a hand to her bosom. “It’s so hard to think of you as the earl. Such a tragedy-first Frederick, then poor dear James. I’ve no idea how your mother kept her sanity-so brave, she was. But at least you survived and are here to take up the reins. I never did think to be ‘my lording’ you, bent on every dangerous venture as you were.”
“Such are the vagaries of fate,” Charles murmured, well aware that as part of those vagaries, her ladyship’s daughter, while still styled countess, would not be the mother of the next earl.
“To what do I owe this honor?” he asked as he guided Lady T into the hall.
“I’m holding a small party tomorrow night-just the usual crowd, those of us who haven’t gone up to town-and I expressly wished to invite you. It’ll be an excellent opportunity for you to get to know us better. Why”-she fixed him with a stern look-“what with one thing and another, we’ve hardly set eyes on you since you returned from Waterloo.”
His most charming smile to the fore, he bowed. “Tomorrow night will suit admirably.”
Her ladyship blinked, then beamed, having, it seemed, been girded for battle. “Excellent! Well, then-”
She broke off, following the direction of his gaze as he glanced to the rear of the hall.
The baize-covered door swung open, and Penny came through. She saw him-he’d positioned Lady T so the stairs blocked Penny’s view of her.
Penny smiled. “There you are.” She came forward.
Lady T leaned across and peered around the stairs. “Penelope?”
For one fraught instant, the two ladies stared at each other, speculation clearly rife in both their minds. Then Penny’s smile, which hadn’t faltered in the least, widened; she continued smoothly toward them.
“Lady Trescowthick! How lovely to see you. I hope you haven’t looked for me at Wallingham-I’ve been here all morning consulting with Mrs. Slattery over a recipe for quince jelly Tante Marissa gave me-it just won’t come right.”
Charles inwardly grinned; she was really very good at necessary lies.
Lady T offered her cheek to be kissed; Penny had known her since childhood. “I know just how difficult that recipe is-my chef Anton swore it was impossible, and he’s French, after all! But indeed, it’s fortuitous I caught you here, my dear-I’d intended to call at Wallingham on my way home. I’m giving a party tomorrow evening, and I’ve just inveigled Charles here into attending, and you must come, too, of course.”
Penny kept her smile in place. “I’ll be delighted. It’s been rather quiet since Elaine and the girls went up to town.”
“Indeed! I’m sure I don’t know why-” Lady Trescowthick broke off, raising a hand in surrender. “But we won’t retread that argument. For whatever reasons you dislike the ballrooms, you’re here, and must come tomorrow night.” She turned to the door. “Now I must be on my way. Oh-and George bumped into your relative, Arbry, yesterday, and invited him, but of course George forgot to mention you, assuming goodness knows what.”
With Charles on her ladyship’s other side, Penny saw her out of the house and into her carriage.
Lady Trescowthick leaned out of the window. “Eight sharp-none of your London ways here, Charles-Lostwithiel!” She sighed. “Will I ever get used to calling you that?”
The question was clearly rhetorical; the carriage lurched into motion. Her ladyship waved and sat back. Charles stood beside Penny on the steps, hands raised in farewell.
“Quince jelly?” he murmured.
“Your mama’s recipe is justifiably famous. Why the devil did you send for me?”
“I sent the message before Lady T arrived.” Just before.
The carriage was gone; turning, he waved Penny into the house. “I wanted to discuss how best to achieve an adequate watch on Nicholas.”
She was mollified. “Have you thought of something?”