Page 2 of Second Duke's the Charm
Daisy rose to her feet and dusted off her skirts, as Tess sank weakly onto the edge of the bed.
“Oh God, do you think people are going to think I killed him?” She shot a glance over her shoulder. “Daisy, your pistol’s under my pillow. I was going to threaten him with it if he tried to force himself on me.”
Daisy gave an approving nod. “Excellent plan.” She rounded the bed, slipped her hand beneath the linen, and withdrew the pistol. With the ease of long practice, she unloaded the weapon and slid it into her skirts. “There.”
The mattress sagged as she sat down next to Tess, and Ellie crossed to sit on her opposite side. All three of them gazed down at the corpse.
The duke’s lined face was pale and waxy, and the powdered wig he’d worn to hide his thinning hair lay on the expensive rug like a small, furry creature that had fallen from a great height.
“We need to think this through,” Ellie said levelly. “It’s quite possible that you’ll be suspected of killing him. After all, it was no secret that your father forced you to say your vows.”
Tess grimaced. Her father had, for all intents and purposes, sold her to the duke.
Her family had been wealthy once, but a series of badinvestments, a disastrous loan to Mad King George that had never been repaid, and her father’s drinking and gaming had squandered what they’d had.
Tess’s childish hope of marrying for love had earned her a scornful laugh from her father; her pretty face was his ticket to a fortune. When the twice-widowed Duke of Wansford’s roving eye had fallen on her during her first London season, her father had jumped at the chance to offer her up as an unwilling bride.
None of her other suitors could match the dual enticement of a titleanda fortune, so Tess’s objections had been soundly ignored. Her attempts to escape had been foiled, and she’d spent the week leading up to her wedding locked in her room, or under her father’s inescapable gaze.
“It’s obvious you didn’t shoot him,” Daisy said, breaking into Tess’s bitter recollections. “Or strangle him. There aren’t any visible injuries. But you could have poisoned him.”
Tess groaned. “As soon as the servants realize he’s dead, the whole house will be in an uproar. If they find you two here, they might even think we planned it together.”
“The first thing anyone will do is call the doctor,” Daisy said reasonably. “If he suspects there’s been foul play, then the magistrate will be called and he’ll start an official investigation.”
“But he’s not going to suspect anything,” Ellie said. “Because you’ve done nothing wrong. The duke clearly died of natural causes.”
Daisy pointed at the body. “I can’t think with him just lying there. We need to put him back in his own room so everyone will think he died in his own bed.”
Tess nodded. “Agreed.”
The three of them stood.
Ellie tilted her head. “How, do you suppose? I’ve never had to deal with a corpse before.”
“It can’t be that different from moving a drunkard,” Tess said. “Heaven knows, I’ve donethatenough times, when Father’s been three sheets to the wind. El, you grab him under his arms. Daisy, you and I can take his feet.”
“Good Lord, he’s heavy,” Daisy groaned as the three of them hefted the duke’s lifeless body. His head rolled forward so his chin rested on his chest.
“Who’d have thought someone so spindly could weigh so much?” Ellie panted. “He’s like a sack of potatoes.”
“When have you ever carried a sack of potatoes?” Daisy scoffed.
“Well, never. But this is exactly as heavy as I’dexpectone to be.”
With faltering steps, they staggered through the doorway and into the sitting room that separated the duke’s room from the duchess’s quarters. When they finally reached the duke’s bedchamber, they deposited him on the bedcovers with universal sighs of relief.
Tess wrinkled her nose. “We need to take his robe off.”
The duke had appeared in her room in a voluminous pea-green striped banyan, his skinny legs protruding from the hem like two pale sticks of rhubarb.
“I have a horrible feeling he’s not wearing anything underneath. Look, that’s his nightgown.” Daisy indicated a square of linen folded neatly on the pillow and Tess quelled an instinctive shudder.
“It has to be done.”
With a fortifying breath, she edged the duke’s arm outof the sleeve. The front of the robe slid open, exposing his entire—naked—body, and granting the three of them the unwelcome sight of his flaccid member lying limply between his legs amid a tangle of sparse gray hair.
“Eughhhh!” Daisy leapt back with a gagging sound. “My eyes! I’m never going to be able to unsee this as long as I live!”