The Incorrigible Mr. Lumley (25 page)

“And the last for a while, unless Hannah
rushes into something.”

David turned away, set the shovel to one
side, and grabbed the rake. He didn’t want to think about
weddings.

“You’re eager to work today,” Knightwick
commented. “Frustrated about missing another race meeting?”

“No. I’ve sent word for Triton to be brought
to the Chester meeting.”

“Good plan. Perhaps he’ll win, since Patriot
won’t be this far north.”

David stopped and pushed his hair back from
his face. He needed to inform his brother what had taken place, but
didn’t enjoy the thought of going through it all again.

Knightwick opened the topic for him. “How is
the fair Lady Joanna? Did you come to a determination about whether
to continue your friendship with her?”

“There is no friendship between us anymore.”
He pushed the stall door open, forcing Knightwick to step aside,
and carried the shovel to the storage room. After putting the tools
away, David rolled down his sleeves and pulled on his jacket.

“Has she accepted an offer of marriage from
another man? From what I heard, you two were apparently quite
enamored at her aunt’s card party.”

Combing his fingers through his hair, David
looked toward the bright light washing through the open stable
doors. The pain of her refusal still stabbed at him like a fresh
wound. “It’s as you and Pierce warned me it would end. She and I
had an understanding. I spoke to Northcotte. That didn’t begin
well. He’s fully aware of the accusations we’ve made since Zephyr
died. He wanted to refuse me, but it appears he hates Sir Frederick
more than he does me.”

Knightwick folded his arms across his chest.
“That’s not surprising. Has he had dealings with the bounder?”

“His father had.” David didn’t feel he was
betraying Northcotte’s confidence, since the elder earl’s desire to
win had affected the entire Lumley family in some ways.

“So Northcotte accepted your offer for Lady
Joanna’s hand? This is great news.” Knightwick clapped a hand on
his back. “I had a feeling things might be headed that way.”

“Northcotte accepted me, but Lady Joanna did
not.”

“What? You said you had an
understanding.”

David shook his head and swallowed down
bile. “She heard us arguing. It was not a bloody brawl between
Northcotte and me, but his words were heated, and I reacted more
strongly than I should have. She must have been listening in the
hallway.”

“That sounds like something Hannah would do.
She didn’t allow you to explain your words?”

He shrugged. “I promised Northcotte I would
not let her know how badly her father had damaged their finances. I
shouldn’t even speak of it to you. Northcotte has almost paid off
all his father’s debts. He wishes for his mother and sister to have
nothing but happy memories of him.”

Nodding, Knightwick commented, “I imagine
I’d have done the same.”

“All this time we’ve been at odds with the
son, and he was merely acting as we would in his shoes. He’s more
like we are than I suspected.”

“He and I were friends, once. At Harrow.”
Knightwick’s eyes grew distant. “We ran in a small group and got on
well. Somewhere down the road, our fathers had their differences.
By the time we got to Cambridge, I guess we found it easier to
avoid each other than confront the issue.”

“You never mentioned this.”

He shrugged. “Never had reason to. It makes
no difference. That’s in the past. Perhaps if he spoke to Lady
Joanna, she might understand why you did what you did.”

“What I did was unforgivable. Whether or not
she comes to understand me one day, she deserves better than the
way I treated her.” David noticed a spot of dung on the side of his
boot and scraped his foot in the dirt.

“If Lady Joanna doesn’t marry you, she must
marry Sir Frederick, you’ve said. Surely you can’t be the lesser of
the two options.”

“At least I was able to resolve that
problem. I agreed to buy Patriot for an amount that will allow
Northcotte to pay off Sir Frederick.”

Knightwick offered him a wry grin. “Well,
that resolves one of our problems, too. We can’t enter two horses
we own against each other, so we can improve Triton’s chances of
winning.”

“No, we can’t. I thought to gift Lady Joanna
with the horse after our wedding.”

“You plan to bribe her to marry you? I don’t
see how that will improve her feelings toward you.”

“No. I’ll give her the horse outright. It
won’t make up for what I put her through, but it’s rightfully
hers.”

Knightwick studied him long enough that
David grew uncomfortable and looked away. His brother said, “I
can’t say anything you’ve ever done in the past has made me less
than proud, but at this moment, I’m quite pleased to call you
brother.”

Try though he might, David couldn’t bring
himself to smile. He was not proud of finally doing the right thing
for Lady Joanna. He wished he’d chosen that path from the start. “I
need to tell Father what I’ve done, even though I used my own funds
to pay Northcotte. I’d hate for Father to hear of this through
someone else.”

Going in search of his father, David found
him in his study, not at his desk, but in a chair near the window
looking out toward the paddock. David hesitated at the doorway.
“May I come in?”

Father didn’t shift his gaze from the
window. “Of course.”

“The household is bustling with preparations
for the wedding. Mother has the girls tying posies, and Trey and
Sam carrying vases too large for the maids to handle.”

“She should let the footmen do that.”

“They’re busy with other errands. I believe
Mother would move the entire drawing room out under the canvas she
has set up, if she could.”

Father didn’t comment. David sat in a nearby
chair and mentally tossed a coin as to how to begin. “I must tell
you some news that might upset you. But you’ve a right to
know.”

“I’m sure you’ve done the right thing, son,
whatever it is.”

“The situation is a bit complicated. I made
an offer for Lady Joanna Hurst’s hand.”

His father blinked, then turned to study
him, his expression unreadable. “Northcotte’s girl.”

“Yes. His son is the earl now, if you’ll
recall.”

“I think your mother mentioned that,
once.”

David waited, hoping he had more to say.
After a minute or two of silence, he pressed on. “In the course of
the discussion with Northcotte, I offered to buy Patriot.”

“He’ll be a fine addition to the stud. I’m
surprised Northcotte agreed to part with him. I hope you didn’t pay
too much.”

David shook his head, then realized his
father was not looking his way. “The price was fair, and my reasons
for purchasing him were sound.”

“That’s fine, then.”

“I’m not keeping him, though. I’m giving him
to Lady Joanna.”

Father shifted in his chair, sitting up
straighter, placing his palms on his knees. “Ah, I see. A wedding
gift. Not the usual sort of gift one might think of, but probably
fitting.”

“She refused my proposal. However, I’m still
giving her the horse. I…uh, I’ve done some things of which I’m not
proud, Father. While I was getting to know Lady Joanna, I was also
seeking evidence against her brother in the poisonings at the race
meetings.”

His father’s frown said as much as his words
could. Before the man could comment, David pushed on. “It was
poorly done of me, and I regret it, and I deserved her refusal. Her
hatred.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised to hear you
pursued Northcotte, after the way his father and I behaved.”

David cleared his throat and wiped his damp
palms on his breeches. “Would you care to tell me what happened?
You’ve been cold toward each other for as long as I can
remember.”

“It goes back before either you or
Knightwick were born. We were friendly enough in Cambridge until it
came to sports. He had a passion for winning. Well, more of an
obsession, I’d say. When a group of us would ride home on holiday,
he’d challenge anyone who’d accept. Point out a landmark in the
distance and off we’d go. Eventually, we were laying down bets on
the winner.”

All the starch went out of Father as he
sighed. “Obviously, we continued to compete after we left
university, and each began filling our stables with quality
runners. Yet Northcotte was not willing to leave the
competitiveness with the horses. When he learned I intended to
offer for your mother’s hand, he became determined to win her away
from me.”

“He made an offer to Grandfather?”

Father nodded. “My family and hers were
already friends, so I had the edge there, but your grandfather
asked your mother whom she preferred.”

“Well, thank goodness she chose you.”

“Northcotte couldn’t stand to lose. He vowed
to break me. The only avenue he had left was his horses.”

To some little extent, David understood how
a man could go mad over his runners, but not to the point of
destroying a perfectly good animal. “So when Zephyr began to win,
he had to remove the competition one way or another.”

“That’s what I assumed.” Father said. “But
we never found any proof.”

David had a sudden thought. “Was there
anyone else at that time that was angry with you?”

Father’s jaw shifted back and forth briefly
before he responded. “There were always losing bettors who might
wish for a horse to quit running. And the losing owners, of course.
Most of them took the losses good-naturedly, though. They knew
their horses would have another chance at Zephyr at the next race
meeting.”

“What about away from the horses? Anyone
with an old grudge? A tenant who might have been forced to remove
from the estate?”

“I’ve never evicted a tenant, and neither
did my father. As far as I know, they’re all happy to live in
Bridgethorpe.”

Shaking his head, David tried to think of
any other situation that might have angered someone enough to kill
Zephyr.

“Why all of these questions about Northcotte
and Zephyr? It happened so long ago. There’s no point dwelling on
it.”

“You don’t think there’s a connection to
Venus and Bacchus becoming ill at the meeting last year?”

“I thought they attributed that to moldy hay
in the course stables.”

“Wouldn’t more horses have gotten sick, if
that were the case? I can’t help but connect the two, especially
after one of Northcotte’s grooms died at Newmarket.”

Father breathed loudly and appeared to sag
in his chair. “If you have proof, speak to the constable. If you
have suspicions, I question why you wanted to tie yourself with
Northcotte’s family.”

“My suspicions were misdirected. Since I met
with Northcotte before leaving Town, I can’t imagine him capable of
such deeds.” David couldn’t admit his obsession had been based on
the desire to please his father. As he studied the man, he noticed
how the left side of his face seemed slightly slack, and his left
hand was curled hard into a first. He’d lost weight, judging from
the hollows in his cheeks. He looked ten years older than the last
time David had seen him.

He couldn’t imagine losing a horse could
have done this to his father. Bridgethorpe’s melancholy might have
brought on some other illness. “Are you unwell, Father?”

Shifting in his seat, his father glanced at
him, his right eyebrow raised. “My health is unchanged from
yesterday.”

That didn’t answer his question. “You would
tell me if there was reason for concern, wouldn’t you?”

“There’s no reason for you children to worry
about an old man.”

“You aren’t that old. And it’s natural for
us to worry. We love you, Father.”

His father smiled, although his smile was
unbalanced. “I love you, too, son.”

David forced the worry from his thoughts.
“Triton is doing well. He wins as many as he loses, if not more.”
He didn’t add that the only horse he lost to was Northcotte’s
Patriot. No need to mention that, after admitting he’d bought the
horse and was giving him away.

“That’s fine. You’ve done well with your
program. I’m happy for you.” He didn’t look happy. He looked
spent.

“You should come to a race meeting. It would
cheer you to watch him win. We can go to the Chester Meeting, as
it’s so close. Or come stay at Fernleigh for the October meeting in
Newmarket.”

“Perhaps. We shall see how I’m faring when
the time comes.”

David was defeated. Those words had been
spoken so many times over the past five or sis years, but his
father never fared any better. “I’ll look forward to it. I’d better
not sit here any longer, or Mother will find me. I’ll see you at
dinner.”

“Thank you for telling me what you’ve been
up to.”

“You’re welcome, sir.” Rising, David left
the room. He should have been relieved at having that burden off
his chest, yet he felt a full stone heavier than when he’d entered
the room. The man he remembered no longer existed. Even though
David had admitted he no longer blamed Northcotte or his father for
their problems, he felt he’d failed his father by not finding the
culprit.