The Heiress - Lynsay Sands [10]
“Really?” Suzette asked doubtfully.
“Really,” Daniel assured her, thinking George would have a lot to answer for, when all was said and done. He’d obviously married Suzette’s sister, Christiana, in Richard’s name, which meant it wasn’t a legal marriage at all and the poor woman had been living in sin for however long the marriage had supposedly gone on. Once the truth came out, Christiana, Suzette and their younger sister would be cast into scandal so deep none of them would be free of it.
Neither would Richard of course, he acknowledged. And then there was this business of George possibly being dead. If that was the case, it would make it much harder for Richard to reclaim his name and title. They had been counting on George’s confessing to prove Richard’s identity. Without that . . . well, Christiana could claim Richard was really George, that he hadn’t died in the fire as believed and was just trying to claim everything now that his brother was dead, and many would believe it. Hell, she’d probably believe it. She and everyone else would wonder why he hadn’t come forward before “the Earl’s” death with these claims, and would doubt every word he said. It was turning out to be one hell of a mess, Daniel thought.
“Then why are you helping Dicky like this?” Suzette asked with open disbelief, drawing his attention back to her.
“I am not doing this to help Geo—Dicky . . .” Daniel corrected himself and then rather than finish his explanation, he paused to consider the situation anew. Everyone so far had just assumed Richard was Dicky, which was obviously what George had insisted everyone call him. Richard would have never stood for the nickname. In fact, George was the only person who had called him that and had done it precisely because Richard hated it. But the point was, everyone was just accepting Richard was himself, and if George really was dead, surely the simplest way to handle the entire matter was for him to just step back into his life and continue as if he had never left it. Of course, that was, only if George was really dead. And it did mean Richard would have to uphold the marriage to Christiana, but—
“Then why are you doing it?” Suzette asked impatiently, apparently tired of waiting for him to finish the explanation.
Daniel pushed his thoughts aside for the moment and said, “I did this to prevent anyone else overhearing what I did back there. It all sounded just a bit too delightfully scandalous,” he said dryly, and then asked carefully, “Did you and your sisters really think Dicky dead and pack him in ice?”
Suzette sighed with disgust at the question. “Yes. Though, obviously it was a bit premature since the man is alive and well after all.” She shook her head and added with bewilderment, “Though I’m sure he was dead.”
“Perhaps he was just unconscious,” Daniel suggested.
“He wasn’t breathing,” she argued dryly, and then frowned and said, “At least he didn’t seem to be. And I could have sworn his body had begun to cool as we packed him in ice, but perhaps my hands were just cold from handling the ice.”
Daniel cleared his throat and asked delicately, “Well, what exactly preceded his apparent dying? Did he appear unwell?”
Suzette scowled, her expression turning thoughtful as she set her mind back, and then she said slowly, “He certainly didn’t seem ill when he was trying to shoo us away from his door like a pair of matchstick girls. He seemed hale and hearty and pompous as a rooster.”
“Shoo you away like a pair of matchstick girls?” Daniel asked curiously.
“Hmm.” Suzette scowled. “We went to see Christiana about—well, some family business. But the butler left us waiting at the door while he fetched Dicky and then Dicky wasn’t even going to let us see her.” She looked amazed as she said that and then added, “Fortunately, Christiana appeared and intervened and managed to convince him to let us in.” Her mouth tightened at the memory and she added,