Bound By Their Secret Passion

Chapter Four (#u46812283-97f3-5860-b942-d959e964a403)

Dell turned and encountered Dixon’s scathing glare.

Dell met the butler’s gaze. ‘I regret what happened, Dixon, but, I assure you, I did not push Lord Tinmore.’ He turned to leave.

Dell was willing to accept his part in the sequence of events that led to Tinmore’s death. He should have returned to his carriage instead of confronting Tinmore. But his intentions were honourable. He wanted to defend Lorene and prevent her husband from believing ill of her. But he had not killed Tinmore. Killing was what one did in battle. The images of those soldiers he killed could never be erased from his mind.

Dixon spoke. ‘You killed him, sure enough. You and Lady Tinmore.’

Dell whirled on him. ‘Enough of this talk. Lady Tinmore has done nothing.’

‘That is not what his lordship said,’ Dixon persisted.

‘Tinmore was wrong. His wife’s attachment is to her sisters, not to me. I am merely a friend of her sister’s husband.’

What was the use? This butler was as thick-headed as Tinmore had been. Not listening to reason. Nothing good would come of trying to convince a man who was determined to think otherwise.

Dell turned to leave again.

‘I could be quiet about it,’ Dixon called after him.

Dell looked over his shoulder, not certain he’d heard correctly.

Dixon smirked. ‘You have money, Lord Penford. You wouldn’t miss a few quid. You’d see how easily I could change my mind. Tell them I was mistaken and no harm done.’

Enough sympathy for this man. Dell had thought him motivated by grief, which Dell could well understand, not greed. ‘You want me to pay you to keep quiet?’

‘If you like.’ Dixon sounded all innocence suddenly. ‘I could say I misspoke—out of shock at losing my lord. I could say I didn’t see you push him.’

‘You did not see it. It did not happen.’ Dell’s voice deepened. ‘Perhaps you would like me to tell those gentlemen behind the door that you attempted to extort money from me?’

Dixon continued to look smug. ‘My word against yours, is it not? Who has the most to lose if it comes to that?’

The word of a servant against a peer of the realm. A lying servant at that. Dell would like to believe there would not be much contest.

Unless a jury were willing to believe a young wife of an old man would engage in an affair with a younger man who seized upon an opportunity to hasten her becoming a wealthy widow, assuming Tinmore made a generous settlement on her. That made for a good story. Especially if the young wife was one of the Scandalous Summerfield sisters.

‘Your lie against my truth,’ Dell countered. ‘I’ll bank on the truth and I suggest you do the same.’

He strode away.

Curse Dixon. Grief Dell could accept, even understand, but he’d be damned if he’d pay Dixon to keep the man from lying.

He headed back to the morning room, but Ross intercepted him on the way.

‘You look like thunder,’ Ross said.

‘I feel like thunder.’ He still reeled from the exchange with Dixon. ‘Do you know what that butler said to me?’

‘What?’

‘He asked for money. If I paid him money, he would not lie about what he saw.’ Dell shook his head. ‘Can you believe the man?’

Ross’s brows knitted. ‘He could cause you a great deal of trouble, Dell.’

‘I know that, but I’ll be damned if I pay the man.’

‘I’m not suggesting you pay him,’ Ross countered.

‘This death was not my doing and I’ll not be intimidated by some butler who thinks he can make it appear so.’

‘I want to talk to the coroner, Dell.’ Ross tried to pass him. ‘I’ll make him listen to me.’

Dell held him back. ‘You will have your chance. They wish to speak with all of you.’

‘Good.’ Ross nodded. ‘They need to know who you are and who your friends are.’

‘They know who I am. The Earl of Penford.’ He released Ross. ‘But all that is irrelevant. You being my friend is irrelevant. All that matters is what really happened. And I have nothing with which to reproach myself.’

They started back to the morning room.

‘Damned Tinmore,’ Ross said. ‘If anyone is to blame, it is he. Fitting end, I say. He tried to manipulate everyone. Tess and Glenville told me what he did to them.’

‘What did he do to them?’

‘Forced them to marry. They did not even know each other. They were caught in a storm together and Tinmore used that as an excuse to marry her off without paying her dowry. He put pressure on Genna to marry, too.’

Dell knew about Tinmore’s pressure on Genna. That was partly why Ross came up with his scheme to pretend to be betrothed to her.

‘Lorene should never have married him. She and her sisters deserved better than his treatment of them,’ Dell said.

Of course, it was really Dell’s father who put Lorene in a position to agree to marry the elderly, autocratic Tinmore. When Lorene’s father died, Dell’s father inherited the Summerfield estate. It was Dell’s father who turned out the Summerfield sisters. His father might have been generous to them instead. Allowed them to stay at Summerfield House; provided them dowries. He might have done so, but Dell’s father assumed the sisters were as morally loose as their parents.

What possessed his father to be so heartless?

A pang of guilt hit Dell.

How could he reproach a father he so tragically lost a few months after his father made that decision?

Ross went on. ‘I am going to tell the coroner and the magistrate just what I think. I would be remiss if I did not.’

‘Do not bully them, Ross,’ Dell insisted. ‘It will not work with this Walsh fellow.’

‘I can at least let them know I expect them to proceed properly,’ Ross insisted. ‘And that I expect them to protect Lorene’s reputation.’

For Lorene’s sake, Dell would not further argue with his friend. Her reputation must be protected above all else. After all, the Summerfield sisters had suffered enough damage to their reputations, most of it due to their parents, not themselves.

Lorene, though, had often been the object of gossip, accused of tricking the ancient, but wealthy, Lord Tinmore into marrying her. Yes, she had married Tinmore for his money, but not for herself. For her sisters and her half-brother.