Page 5 of Cupid Comes to Little Valentine (The Venturesome Ladies of Little Valentine #1)
“And did you offer the lady no compensation for the unpleasant occurrence?” Beau demanded, furious that Kirby had not dealt with the situation at once and saved him from this disagreeable interview.
“Seeing as how I was carrying you into the hotel and fearing you was about to turn up your toes from arsenic poisoning at any moment, I did not,” Kirby said with dignity.
“I see,” Beau replied with a heavy sigh. “Then pray do so at once,”
“I have brought them with me,” Miss Honeywell said, unwrapping a parcel that seemed to have been packaged in a potato sack.
“As you can see, they were a very fine pair of half-boots made of kid leather. They were a present from my aunt, who has since passed away, and I shall be unable to replace them easily.”
Though he did not much relish the idea of looking at the mess, curiosity compelled Beau to glance at the boots she held up for his inspection.
The young woman was very far from fashionable and, if the boots were so fine, he assumed they must have been a cherished possession.
And from a dead aunt at that… he’d excelled himself this time.
At a glance, his expert eye could see that though the half boots were sodden and stained, they had once been fine and had been made by a skilled craftsman.
Kirby, having made the same calculation, hurried to the bedroom and returned to place the sum of three pounds in the lady’s hand. She looked startled by his prompt acquiescence, and Beau wondered if she had expected him to quibble, or to be less than generous.
“Thank you, my lord,” she said, inclining her head.
Beau did likewise and hoped she would leave now. She looked to be on the verge of doing so, turning away from him, when she stopped, glancing back with an expression of curiosity.
“I beg your pardon,” she said, addressing Kirby. “But did you say Lord Beaumarsh had been poisoned?”
“Damn you, Kirby!” Beau glared at his indiscreet valet.
“You were not simply inebriated?” she pressed, speaking to Beau directly now. Her eyes seemed alight with interest, though whether or not it was the thought of someone doing him a mischief that delighted her, he could not say.
“I was not,” he replied crisply. “But I will thank you to keep that information to yourself.”
“I shall, of course,” she said at once, and her expression changed to one of concern. “But would you like me to summon a doctor? Surely if you have—”
“No, certainly not,” he said with some force. “Kirby has already forced me to endure the prodding of an incompetent quack, and I’ll not repeat the indignity. It because of the wretched fellow’s advice that I’m here at all. I’ll recover soon enough without the town’s ghastly waters. I usually do.”
“Usually?” she exclaimed, and Beau noted with interest that everything she felt was clearly expressed upon her face, judging from the scandalised shock he was looking at now. “You have been poisoned before?”
Beau felt his lip curl as he regarded her with well-earned world-weary cynicism.
“My dear, I am a wealthy man with a title. My cousin is my sole heir, and he’s so very eager to inherit.
He is ten years older than I am and has been trying to end my life since I was a boy.
Sadly, my health is shockingly robust, but he feels compelled to make these little attempts from time to time.
Yet, I continue to breathe. Pray do not trouble yourself over it. ”
“But… But that is sheer wickedness!” she said, outrage shining in her eyes. Good Lord, but she was a virago. He’d bet anything that she ran this misbegotten town, for she was too bold and outspoken not to. “He must not be allowed to get away with it. Have you informed anyone? A magistrate?”
“Miss Honeywell,” Mrs Adamson said in an undertone, but the young woman ignored the warning and Beau stared at her with interest before he replied.
“I have no desire for my family name to be dragged through the mud and to give the tattlemongers a field day.”
“But you are always in the scandal sheets for one reason or another. What difference does it make?” she demanded, looking genuinely perplexed.
Irked by the question, Beau stiffened. “There is a good deal of difference between being remarked at a certain gathering in the company of a certain person, or for wearing something the ton finds remarkable, or for cutting a toadeater down to size with a few choice words. Personal family business ought to remain in the family.”
“But surely you will do something?” she asked him, looking appalled by his sanguine acceptance of the situation.
“What do you suggest I do?” he replied, bored with this interview now. His guts felt most peculiar, his head throbbed like the very devil, and all he wanted to do was sleep. “Poison him in return?”
“Certainly not, but—”
“I think we had best leave his lordship to his recovery,” Mrs Adamson said firmly, for which kindness Beau made a mental note to give the proprietress a generous tip.
“It really isn’t seemly for you to be here, Miss Honeywell, and I do not want your papa here preaching at me about the impropriety I have allowed in my establishment.
It is hard enough to be a single female and run a respectable hotel.
I cannot allow you to jeopardise my standing in the town. ”
Miss Honeywell looked vexed and frustrated by this observation but did not argue the point. Instead, she turned back to Beau and dipped a curtsy.
“Thank you, my lord, for your understanding. I hope you recover quickly.”
Beau inclined his head and watched as Mrs Adamson escorted them to the door.
She had almost ushered Miss Honeywell through when the woman stopped, opening her mouth to speak once more.
What she might have said remained a mystery, however, as her younger sister gave her a firm shove and expelled her from the room.
Kirby gave a snort as the door closed behind them. “I like her. Got gumption,” he observed with approval.
“Just because she thinks like you do, does not make her right,” Beau grumbled, having heard enough from Kirby on the subject of how he ought to deal with his cousin.
“Yes, it does,” Kirby replied, picking up the cup Beau had sincerely hoped he might have forgotten about. “Now drink your medicine like a good fellow.”
Beau groaned.