Read Online Double Deceit by Allison Lane - Free Book Online Page B

gesture of intimacy.
    Alex frowned. Was he really covering Linden’s vulgar manners, or did he think to win the fortune for himself? Vicars rarely earned enough to support the digging Torwell did. A curate might free his time, but it would also reduce his income. Since he was related to Linden, he could justify taking over the estate – on grounds that Linden did not deserve it, if nothing else. He’d certainly monopolized Sarah at dinner. Perhaps he was smitten by her beauty and thought to rescue her from his villainous cousin.
    But this was no time to brood. She had to make her own decision. Turning to Linden, she jostled his arm, meeting his bleary eyes. “I heard of your father’s misfortune, Mr. Linden. Are your parents all right?”
    “As well as can be expected, no thanks to you.” But the flash of pain crossing his face relaxed her. A man who felt his parents’ woe could not be all bad.
    “Miss Vale knew nothing of the encounter until long afterward,” she continued. “I trust you are not planning to retaliate.”
    “I—I—” His face flushed.
    Torwell suddenly towered over her. “What my cousin is trying to put into words is the question that has bedeviled him since he learned the facts four days ago: What kind of people would toss his mother onto the road without a penny to her name?”
    “Wha—” Sarah blanched.
    “If that is why you staged an accident on our doorstep, you came to the wrong door.” Alex rose, glaring at Torwell. “I—we were as appalled as you, but Miss Vale’s solicitor confirms that she has no power to change the agreement under which Lord Linden and Sir Winton formed the trust. She wrote to the London bankers who administer it, but they have not yet replied.”
    “He had expected to see Sir Winton.” Torwell’s voice was quieter.
    “Then he must go to London. Sir Winton is recovering from a broken leg.”
    “Divine retribution?” His eyes twinkled.
    “One might consider it so.”
    Linden suddenly groaned. “Tiring day. Good night.” Lurching to his feet, he made a grotesque bow, then staggered toward the hall, more than a little green.
    So much for deciding anything tonight. She stifled a grimace. He must have been half-seas over when he arrived. She’d been congratulating herself that the notorious drunkard had consumed only six glasses of wine at dinner, but she’d not considered other sources. No wonder he seemed so coarse and clumsy. He was nearly unconscious from imbibing several bottles of spirits. Pray God he would reach his room before losing it.
    “I, too, have had enough excitement,” said Sarah, collecting her crutch.
    Alex delayed her until Linden could escape. She wasn’t sure if Sarah knew why he’d left so abruptly, but the last thing Sarah needed was to tangle with a drunken libertine. Gentlemen three sheets to the wind assumed that all females were harlots – as she’d learned from dealing with her father’s friends. She’d had to slam Abernathy’s head into a door to discourage him on his last visit. Thank God she outweighed him.
    Finally, she turned to Torwell. “Unless you must help your cousin, would you care to see my workroom?” With Linden drunk as a lord, she need not fear for Sarah’s virtue tonight. Only time would reveal how common this situation was. In the meantime, she was free to indulge her own interests.
    “Simms will see after him. Lead on.”
    She took the proffered arm, directing him to a former still room in the old wing. Rough shelves covered two walls. She had moved an old desk against a third. The locked trunk sat unobtrusively in the corner.
    Torwell walked slowly along the shelves, fitting stone fragments together to clarify a chiseled phrase, fingering a curved piece of roof tile, part of a bowl, a rotted piece of brass that might have been anything from a belt buckle to a bit of armor.
    “How much of the site have you bared?”
    “Very little, if my calculations are correct. I’ve uncovered a quarter