Free Dangerous Diana (Brambridge Novel 3) by Pearl Darling

was. You have so many ladies running after you because you are the earl, because of your good looks, because of the legend that you have become. But who wants you just for who you are? Who knows your secrets and can share in your triumphs?”
    Hades paused and thought briefly. He was not going to be defeated by either that woman or the Viper. Finally he spoke. “Carter, my butler. And perhaps my mother.” With a grim laugh, he completed his step into the hall and, with one swoop of his hand, collected his gloves and his cane.
     
    The ride home cleared his head. It only took twenty minutes, but the regret for his actions started as soon as he left Mount Street. Victoria had her own crosses to bear.
    Leaving his horse in the stables, he untied the heavy double saddlebag of books and walked back around to the normally shuttered front entrance of the house. But instead of the usual calm that beset the Mayfair street, the front door of the house stood wide open, footmen scurrying in and out of the hall and a man with a large black bag and several silver instruments kneeled in the hallway.
    It was clear from the man’s stance that he was a doctor.
    Hades ran up the steps to the door, and with a sharp intake of breath dropped the saddlebags in the hallway as a pair of shoes appeared on the floor behind the doctor. Shaking his head, he took a step closer, ashamed relief coursing through him as the prone form of the kitchen boy appeared lying behind the doctor. The boy’s mouth was stretched open in a cry of terror, and yet he lay unmoving and his body rigid, his arms half in the air.
    The doctor finished feeling at the boy’s wrist and stood. “There’s nothing I can do for him.” He ignored Hades and spoke to Carter who was wringing his hands at the bottom of the stairs. “He’s quite dead.”
    Bloody hell. Hades took a deep breath and stepped inside the hall.“What did he die from?” 
    “I’m not sure,” the doctor said. “It is unlike anything I have ever witnessed.” He sniffed and frowned at Hades. “May I ask who you are, sir?”
    “It’s not poison.” Melissa stood imperiously at the top of the stairs. “And he’s the earl who owns this house.”
    Hades tapped his cane on the ground. Damn the woman. How come she always managed to, in military parlance, gain the upper ground? He should be introducing himself. And how did she know it wasn’t poison?
    “I beg your pardon my lady, but how do you know?”
    “Miss Sumner, please. I know about plants. There are no plants that would create a poison that would exhibit the same paralysis of limbs, and then gentle asphyxiation.”
    “I’m not sure the young miss knows what she is talking about.” The drop in deference in the doctor’s tone was audible. He pushed away his black bag and stood up. “She is neither a doctor nor a nurse. I will record a death of misadventure and heart attack. That is the only thing that explains the death. My carriage will take the body to the morgue.”
    Hades glared at the doctor. “The young miss is a guest in my home and rather special to me.” Hades opened the front door as the doctor scuttled through it. Hefting the saddle bags onto his shoulder and without looking at Melissa, he stepped into his study to allow the undertakers to enter the crowded hall and pull the kitchen boy out.
    He dropped the saddle bags onto his desk and opened up the right hand pouch, his hand deftly pulling the leather strap that held it closed back through the buckle. There was only one parcel in there. He hesitated, before kicking open the bottom desk drawer and sliding the parcel in, ripping the paper on the sharp undersides of the drawer dividers. He’d have to give the books to Melissa later.
    Devil take it! Melissa! With an oath, he caught up the still partially full saddle bag and swung back into the hall, throwing the heavy bag on the hall table. He was just in time to stride forward and pluck Melissa from her crouched position behind