The Heiress - Lynsay Sands [31]
“She is drunk, Lisa,” Suzette said patiently. “I wouldn’t worry about her saying strange things. Goodness, she was going on about strawberries and seeing Dicky’s bottom when we got her to her room earlier. I’m sure she will be fine in the morning.”
“I suppose,” Lisa said with a little sigh, and grimaced. “I am sorry I disturbed you. I shall go to bed now.”
“That is probably a good idea,” Suzette said solemnly.
Nodding, Lisa started to turn away and then paused and swung back to say, “Oh, I almost forgot. Dicky had to go through Chrissy’s room to get to his just now. We must remember to unlock his bedroom door in the morning.”
“I will,” Suzette assured her. “Now go on and get some sleep. It has been a long day.”
“Yes, it has,” Lisa mumbled and stumbled off along the hall.
Suzette watched until she’d slid inside her room before closing her own door. Sighing, she then turned away and walked to the window. A glance outside showed an empty yard. Daniel had already slipped away. He was probably out front, walking to wherever he’d left his carriage . . . If he’d brought his carriage. Suzette had no idea how far away his own townhouse was, if he even had one. He may have walked there for all she knew.
She closed the window and turned back toward the bed, but paused as a bit of snowy white cloth caught her eye. Recognizing it at once as Daniel’s cravat, Suzette rushed over to pick it up, and before she’d realized what she planned to do, was rushing out of her room. He was probably gone, of course, but she might still catch him, Suzette thought as she hurried toward the stairs.
Daniel’s driver was asleep on his perch when he reached the waiting carriage. He didn’t disturb the man yet, instead glancing through the window into the carriage, only to turn back to the house with a frown when he saw no one sitting inside. George’s body had been missing from where it had fallen when Daniel had dropped to the ground from Suzette’s window. He’d supposed Richard had moved the body to the carriage alone, and had hurried here expecting to find his friend waiting with George. Now he didn’t know what to think. Where the hell was Richard and what had he done with George?
The opening of the front door drew his attention and Daniel started to relax, expecting Richard to appear with George’s body. However, it wasn’t Richard. Instead, Suzette stepped out. A bit of bright ivory cloth fluttered in her hand as she glanced along the road one way and then the other. Before he could decide what to do, she’d spotted him standing beside the carriage and hurried forward.
Daniel frowned and started forward to meet her, but had only taken a single step when his eye was drawn to movement in one of the front upper windows. The sight that befell him brought Daniel to an abrupt halt and had his mouth dropping open with surprise. It also answered the question of where Richard was. The man was framed in the open window of the master bedroom, naked as far as he could tell and suckling at Lady Christiana’s bared breasts.
“Oh.”
That startled sound from Suzette reminded him of her presence and Daniel glanced down to find that she’d reached him and had apparently followed his own gaze to the window to witness what her sister and the man they all thought was her husband were up to. She was watching the display quite wide-eyed.
Daniel looked back to the window to see that Christiana had wrapped one leg around Richard and he had lifted his head to kiss her. Even as he saw this, Richard picked the woman up by the waist and carried her away from the window. It didn’t look to Daniel as if the man planned to join him again that night. However, it didn’t explain what Richard had done with George’s body, and he briefly debated going back into the house and interrupting the couple to find that out. It seemed to him to be a pretty important matter to resolve.
“You forgot this,” Suzette said quietly, drawing his attention from these