The Theft of a Dukedom (22 page)

‘Ah, Your Grace.’ George said happily. ‘Lady
Amelia said we’d catch up with you before we reached
the outskirts of London.

‘George! Thank god! Help me get this bastard
inside the coach and then I can have some sleep.’
The coach slowed and suddenly the door was
flung open and Kitty was there. ‘I see you got him!’ she
spoke coldly and Robin knew what that meant. She had
treated him like a leper, because of one stupid moment,
when he did something he shouldn’t have done. He
closed his eyes and thought over all the incidents that
had occurred and wouldn’t have done if he’d thought
before he acted. He should never have tried to interfere
with Kitty, but he was curious about her, just like he
should never have gotten involved with Harriet, but she
was irresistible. The gambling, the women and the
drinking. It was all a road to the ruin his life had
become.
Richard helped Charles lift Robin down and he
was unceremoniously dumped on the floor of the
carriage. George tied the two horses to the back of the
coach and then they set off again.
Kitty stirred Robin with her foot. ‘Did he put up
much of a fight?’ she asked deliberately.
Richard sniggered and Charles shook his head.
‘No. He wouldn’t have lasted five minutes in the
Peninsular.’ Charles laughed coarsely, ‘the Frogs would
have had him for breakfast! The stupid bastard wasn’t
even galloping!’
‘Where’s Emily?’ she asked looking at Robin with
cold eyes. Kitty was astonished when Robin started to
cry. He buried his face in the crook of his elbow and let
go of all the grief his heart was holding onto. The other
three occupants of the coach exchanged looks of
surprise.
‘What happened, Robin?’ Kitty asked gently.
‘Everything sort of got away from me.’ He
mumbled around his arm.
‘This all started the day of the duel,’ Kitty said
firmly. ‘Tell us why you did it.’
Haltingly Robin explained just what had
happened between himself and Harriet Farrington and
just how much he loved her and how devastated he was
after the duel learning of her suicide.
He looked at Kitty through tear filled eyes. ‘I was
just going to explain it all to father and ask for his
advice. I know I shouted at you, Kitty and I’m sorry, but
you shouldn’t have heard anything we were shouting
about. I shut the door behind you and was going to try
and calm down to talk to him, but instead he punched
me, cut me off and told me to leave.’ He sobbed and
closed his eyes. ‘I was angry because he didn’t even give
me a chance to explain properly. So I took my bag and
left for the docks.’ He sighed deeply. ‘And that’s where
Emily was waiting like a spider!’ He shook his head.
‘Before I realised what I’d done, she was my wife and
was calling the shots. I tried to control her, but she just
threatened me with the runners.’ And he collapsed into
gales of tears again.
Kitty looked at Charles. He twitched and
squirmed and then rapped on the roof. As the coach
slowed he looked at Richard. ‘Will you keep an eye on
my brother, please?’ he asked politely as if he was
asking him to watch a child. Charles and Kitty got down
from the coach and walked up the road.
‘What are we going to do?’ Kitty asked softly.
‘He should hang!’ Charles said fiercely and paced
away.
‘I know. But can you do it now?’ Kitty asked
delicately. ‘Knowing that he’s grieving as much as we
are?’
‘He shot father!’ Charles snapped as he came
back towards her. ‘Can you possibly forgive him for
that?’
‘No.’ She said calmly. ‘But then I won’t be able to
watch him hang either.’ They were both quiet again.
Kitty sighed. ‘Of course, we have the perfect solution.’
She said quietly, looking at her feet with her hands
clasped behind her back.
‘We do?’ Charles said and looked at her
quizzically.
‘Robin Stafford is already dead.’ She said and
looked at her brother. ‘Colonel Bostwick has already
buried his corpse in Kingston and will be erecting a
headstone when we send him the money.’ She smiled
brightly. ‘I’m sure as the new Duke of Durham you’ll be
able to afford for him to visit the Americas.’
Charles actually laughed at the cheeky smile on
her face. ‘That’s got to be the stupidest idea you’ve ever
had!’
She looked at him totally affronted. ‘Have you
got a better idea, then? Clever clogs!’ She demanded
haughtily.
‘Unfortunately, no!’ Charles said evenly, ‘But I
don’t think we can just send him abroad. Somebody
other than Emily must know he’s still in London.’
‘This will need careful planning, and you can
leave Emily to me.’ Kitty said. ‘This time she has gone
too far.’ Kitty turned back to the carriage and climbed
in.
Charles only waited a few minutes before he
joined her and rapped on the roof again.
‘I can’t believe that Emily persuaded him to do
all of this.’ Charles said suddenly.
‘You’d be surprised.’ Kitty said. ‘You didn’t hear
her at Millicent’s wedding when she had Benjamin
cornered in the library. He didn’t know which way to
turn as she turned the screw, make love to her or she
would tear all her clothes and accuse him of rape. She
had Robin in a vice of his own making. The moment the
word went out that the Runners were looking for him;
she would have been ready to swing into action with
her plan to become the next Duchess of Durham.’ She
looked down at her eldest brother. ‘And you’re a stupid
idiot for not thinking that Albany wouldn’t have the
runners there to catch you if you should win.’ She
looked at Richard and Charles opposite her. ‘All men are
stupid, really, because you all think with your genitals!’
She put her foot on her brother’s hip and shook him.
‘What identity have you been using in London?’ Robin
shook his head, still sobbing. ‘Make another choice,
Robin, tell us everything or hang for the murder of two
Dukes.’
‘Emily knew of a young blood that needed to
disappear.’ Robin eventually stuttered out. ‘We
swapped identities. He went to Jamaica using my name
and I stayed here and used his. He owed money, but the
financier realised I wasn’t the same man so they left me
alone.’
‘How on earth did you live?’ Kitty asked amazed.
‘Emily had put by some of her pin money. She is
actually quite a wealthy woman.’
‘I always thought she was rapacious!’ Kitty
murmured.
‘You have no idea, sweet Kitty, of exactly what
that woman is capable of. I had no idea that hate could
make you do such things.’
‘Who does Emily hate?’ Kitty asked softly and
closed her eyes as he replied.
‘You.’ He sighed. ‘Millicent, Louise and Anne.’ He
shook his head. ‘All of the Frilly Five. She feels the
inadequacies of her title very deeply and her hate grows
every day as she watches her friends marry into the
higher ranks. Millicent becoming a Marchioness was the
final straw.’
‘But that’s ridiculous! I’m the only one with an
independent title!’
‘Precisely!’ Robin said. ‘You have the Earldom of
Stainmore, as Aunt Agatha is the Earl of Stockton. But
Emily is just an Honourable Lady and has no
independent title. She wants to be a Duchess and be
able to look down on all of you.’
‘But that’s madness!’ Kitty said in horror. ‘We
each have the titles we were born with or given. I can’t
help it that father made me an Earl on the day I was
born, anymore than you could help being a Marquis or
Charles being an Earl too. I do have the right to sit in the
house, but my gender prevents me from doing so,
otherwise I would have been a politician years ago!’
‘God forbid!’ Charles uttered. ‘That’s the last
thing we need, female politicians!’
‘Really!’ Kitty spat. ‘I think women in politics
would benefit the world immensely. At least we
wouldn’t go to war over the size of our cocks!’ She
blushed furiously at her brave outburst.
‘Kitty!’ Richard said in shock.
‘You’re going to have a job with her, my friend.’
Charles muttered under his breath. ‘She will sow the
seeds of discontent in your household.’
‘But it will be heaven making up afterwards.’
Richard murmured back.
‘I just said you all think with your genitals and I
wasn’t wrong.’ She turned back to Robin. ‘Why did it
take you so long to get around to killing father?’ she
demanded abruptly, but both Robin and Charles could
hear the distress in her voice.
‘Emily was becoming obsessed with causing you
as much trouble as she could.’ He looked up at Kitty and
down again. ‘I’m sorry about the punch bowl. I had no
idea that you were the target.’ Robin sniffed. ‘I’d spent
the day there as a footman...’
‘A footman?’ Kitty yelped, shocked.
‘...hired for the event.’ Robin stopped and
looked at his sister. He smiled quite mischievously. ‘How
many times do you look at the footman with a tray at a
ball? I served you and Louise twice and you never once
lifted your eyes off the tray!’
‘Impossible!’ Kitty spluttered.
‘Anyway, I managed to saw through the table leg
just enough so that if you gave it a firm push, the whole
thing would collapse. I was horrified when I heard the
crack and watched the bowl fall towards you.’ He
looked at Richard. ‘You have fine reflexes, sir. Thank you
for saving my sister from certain injury.’
‘Emily did that?’ Charles asked incredulously.
‘She did.’ Robin confirmed. ‘She pushed the
table and it went, just like it was supposed to.’
‘But Constance Beresford was standing there.
Why didn’t she stop her or say anything?’ Kitty asked
bewildered.
‘Because Emily has an agreement with Rochdale
and you’re the prize.’ Charles said coldly.
‘What?’ Kitty snapped in horror.
‘Exactly!’ Robin said. ‘Emily knows everything
about all of us, including father’s incautious night with
Connie last season.’ He sighed. ‘I tried to warn him off,
but he wouldn’t listen and Connie is not known for her
discretion.’ He shook his head. ‘Rochdale was beside
himself with rage and beat her senseless for it. Emily
knows all of his dirty washing too and his desperation to
get his hands on Kitty.’ He turned his eyes back to his
sister. ‘So, she approached Rochdale with a proposition
and asked for his assistance and when I am Duke, you
will end up Rochdale’s new Countess.’
‘But what about Connie?’ Charles asked and
looked Robin firmly in the eye.
‘Rochdale asked for me to kill her, but I refused.
So Emily has said she will do it.’
‘This is incredible!’ Richard said suddenly.
‘Nobody would believe it!’
‘This needs careful thought and planning.’ Kitty
murmured and turned her head to look out of the
window. ‘We need to slow George down, so next stop
let’s have a substantial break and make some plans.’
‘I take it you would like to avoid the scaffold?’
Charles asked his brother.
‘I don’t deserve it. I think you should just send
me to bedlam.’ Robin rubbed his forehead with the back
of his hand. ‘I think I’ve been there since Harriet died.’
‘How violent is Emily?’ Kitty asked softly.
‘Very. And with you it would be uncontrollable,
her hate is so strong.’
‘Is she still afraid of her father?’
‘Yes, that’s one of the reason’s she insisted on
marriage first.’
‘Does her father know that you are married?’
Robin shook his head and started to laugh
helplessly. ‘It was the only way I could protect myself
from her.’ He spluttered out in between guffaws.
‘Viscount Allen was king of the stage at Cambridge and
he has a few friends in the theatre.’ He took some deep
breaths to calm himself. ‘Once I realised Emily wanted
my blood too, I had David get one of his friends to dress
up as a parson and with a fake special licence I
“Married” Emily!’ He laughed again ‘She isn’t Mrs. Robin
Stafford, just plain Honourable Lady Emily Blunt,
daughter of the Earl of Alderney!’
‘That is going to cut her to the quick!’ Kitty said
in satisfaction. ‘There is just one question you must
answer for us now.’ Robin nodded his head incautiously;
not remembering his sisters cut throat personality.
‘Why did you kill father?’
‘Because I was stupid.’ He whispered. ‘Ever since
the morning in the study I have tried to tell myself that
it was my own doing in the first place, just as father
said, but Emily is enough to make you insane with her
constant nagging and harsh demands. She has stoked
my anger and played me like a harp and I didn’t even
realise it until I heard the shot, felt the gun jerk in my
hands and watched my father fall on his face.’
‘Where were you hidden?’ Charles asked softly
and Kitty looked at him sharply.
‘The poplar stand.’ Robin was suddenly silent as
he stared at the roof of the coach. ‘I think you should
hand me over to the Runners.’ He continued softly. ‘I
don’t know as I can live with the fact that I murdered
my father because I was overpowered by a girl!’
‘Nice shooting.’ Charles said softly still, ‘I’m not
sure I could have done better. You definitely should get
your arse over to Spain.’
‘Perhaps you would buy me a commission, Your
Grace?’ Robin asked politely.
‘Perhaps I will.’ Charles sighed. ‘There are worse
places to be. All I have to do is see a friend at Horse
Guards and I could probably get you a place in the
Household Brigade by the end of tomorrow.’
‘We need to see the Earl of Alderney as soon as
possible.’ Kitty muttered as she contemplated the view
again. ‘He’ll need to hear all of this and we need to be
able to let him hear Emily condemn herself.’
‘What will happen to her?’ Richard asked softly.
‘Her father will probably send her abroad for
treatment; after all, she’s mad!’
‘What happened to Timothy Dean?’ Robin asked
suddenly.
‘I take it that was the man you exchanged
identities with?’ Charles asked softly and Robin nodded.
‘He was killed in a duel for cheating at cards within a
week of arriving at Kingston!’
‘So you see, brother, you’re already dead and
Emily can’t be married to a dead man!’ Kitty said and
smiled happily.
‘Everybody at Mickleton believes your brother is
alive.’ Richard stated. ‘Just how are you going to
convince the magistrate that you were wrong?’
‘A case of mistaken identity.’ Charles said and
looked at his friend. ‘Will you support this action?’
‘Charles, I owe you my life. I will say nothing of
this matter.’
‘And you, Robin?’ Kitty asked harshly. ‘If we stop
you from hanging, will you go quietly into the Army as
Timothy Dean?’