Deadly Peril Read Online Free Page A

secretary to Sir Gilbert Parsons, the most punctilious diplomat in the service. He never wrote or dictated a report or letter the entire time I was his junior that he then didn’t have me rewrite at least twice!”
    Plantagenet Halsey chomped on the slice of apple. “Perhaps Mahon and Miss St. Neots ended up in Midanich by mistake. You did say Mahon has no sense of direction.”
    Alec chuckled. “There might be something in that. After all, they were supposed to be traveling on to Berne, which is in the opposite direction. They would be in Switzerland now if Selina—if Mrs. Jamison-Lewis—if—” Alec met his uncle’s steady gaze. “If she had not miscarried in Paris.”
    “You can’t blame her for that,” the old man replied quietly. “But—”
    “Uncle, I—”
    “—you do.
    Alec put aside the ivory-handled paring knife. “I don’t blame her. Miscarriages are a fact of life. It’s just—”
    “She did what she had to do to survive that hell of a marriage to a sadistic lunatic. As a consequence, she worries she can no longer bear children.”
    Alec was stunned. “She confided that to you?”
    Plantagenet Halsey shrugged as he reached for a second slice of apple. “I just happened to be there when she let down her guard… Fell all to pieces upon seeing Miranda and her newborn. Holding an infant can do that to you.” He gave a huff of laughter. “I remember holdin’ you for the first time…”
    “Uncle, it’s not what Selina did in her marriage that concerns me. God knows I’d forgive her anything—murder—where that monster of a husband is concerned. It’s just that she did not see fit to confide in me what happened in Paris. She miscarried our child. Not hers— ours . I had a right to know. As it was, I found out in the most public of settings. It was a shock. I was in shock. I think I still am.”
    “I dare say she was tryin’ to spare you the—”
    “—grief?”
    “That, and other particulars…”
    “Other particulars?”
    “I’ve said too much already,” the old man answered gruffly. “Not my place. What I do know is that she thinks you blame her.”
    “That’s not what I think at all!” Alec said bluntly, frustration with his uncle’s evasiveness making him sound harsh. “She should know me better!”
    “Well, my boy, you have a strange way of showin’ her differently. You left Bath without exchangin’ a civil word with her. A’course she thinks you blame her.”
    Alec scraped back his chair and went to the sideboard to collect the silver coffee urn off its warming stand. It gave him a moment to collect himself, to cool his temper, and to turn his thoughts from Selina, if only momentarily. He poured into his uncle’s porcelain dish then his own, before setting it back over the candle and returning to the table, adding coolly,
    “I don’t want to discuss this now. It’s stupidly self-centered of me to be maudlin over something that could have been, and now won’t be.” He looked across at the old man, saying gently, “And, it seems, may never be. Though I think that an overly dramatic reaction on her part… Did I tell you Tam is spending a fortnight as guest of the Cleveleys?” he said, abruptly changing the subject because his uncle was regarding him with sadness. “They won’t have anyone else attending on their newborn.”
    “Amazin’ how the love of a good woman brings out the best in a man…”
    “Yes. So you won’t be amazed then when I tell you Cleveley has agreed to be Tam’s sponsor for the final year of his apprenticeship.”
    “Ha! With the Duke’s backin’, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries just hands the lad his seal, no questions asked! So I take it Tam has reconciled himself to his profession and not being your valet?”
    “Yes. I can’t wait to share the news with Wantage that Mr. Thomas Fisher will be residing here as a member of our household. Jeffries will be accompanying me to