The Heiress - Lynsay Sands [37]
Daniel opened his eyes to glower at George, and then sighed and shook his head. He still had to hide the body somewhere, and they had to sort out who could have killed George and why. All this on top of sorting out his rather sudden and extremely passionate feelings for Suzette Madison. Frankly, it seemed to him that in a matter of hours his life had become one big bloody, confusing mess.
Chapter Five
“That is your emergency? You had my valet roust me from a dead slumber to ask me that?” Daniel asked with disbelief. His valet had awoken him only moments ago with the news that the Earl of Radnor was below, insisting he see him on an urgent matter. With all that was going on, that urgent matter could have been just about anything, most of it bad, so Daniel had thrown on his clothes and hurried below in a panic only to find out that the urgent matter was Richard’s worry over what he’d done with George’s body. The realization was rather annoying since the man hadn’t seemed overly concerned the night before when he’d been embracing Christiana in the master bedroom window. Besides, after taking care of George, Daniel had gone to bed, only to lay awake most of the night fretting about what to do about Suzette. He’d only dropped off to sleep a couple of hours ago and was exhausted and cranky at being woken up so early.
“Well you know who’s whereabouts is rather important to me,” Richard said stiffly, and then pointed out, “And I wouldn’t have had to wake you from a dead slumber to find out where he is if you hadn’t left without me last night.”
Daniel dropped into the nearest seat with disgust. You know who was George, of course. They had been calling him that since this conversation started just in case they were overheard by a servant. Scowling irritably at Richard now, he asked, “Well, what else was I to do? Sit about in my carriage while you gave you know who’s wife a tumble.”
Richard stiffened. “She is my wife, thank you very much.”
Daniel snorted and said dryly, “My, we’ve changed our tune this morning, have we not? Last night you weren’t at all sure you wanted to keep her.”
“Yes, well, I hardly have a choice now. I’ve—” He paused and scowled. “How the devil did you know I tumbled her?”
Daniel raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “Was it supposed to be a secret? If so, you shouldn’t have done it in the front window for anyone on the street to see.”
Richard’s eyes widened in horrified realization and he simply stood for the longest time, until Daniel was irritated enough to prompt, “Well?”
Richard blinked as if awaking from a dream and asked, uncertainly, “Well, what?”
“Are you really planning to keep her?” Daniel asked with exasperation.
Richard sighed and moved to settle in a chair himself before confessing, “She was a virgin until last night.”
Daniel blew out a silent whistle. “That was very remiss of you know who.”
Richard merely grunted. He looked pretty miserable, but Daniel wasn’t feeling much sympathy at the moment. Aside from having had to deal with George’s body on his own, he’d left the Radnor townhouse with aching balls and an erection that could have been mistaken for a pistol in his pocket. Richard on the other hand, had apparently had a jolly good time with his dead brother’s not so legally married wife, or his own not quite wife depending on how you looked at it. A woman, Daniel recalled, who disliked her “husband” intensely and had been obviously soused and, according to Richard, had