Free Mandy by Claudy Conn Page A

don’t think they had a choice.”
    “Tell me one thing, Skip. Could Ned have been the father of this Celia’s child? And if he was, is he the sort that is capable of killing her to avoid being shackled?” The duke watched Skip’s face.
    “Never, and when you meet him, you will see that in an instant,” Skip returned in strong accents. “There isn’t the slightest possibility he is the father of that child. For one thing, he had only been home less than a month. Even if Celia had seduced him in that time, though I doubt it as she had her sights elsewhere when Ned first got home, but even if she had, it wouldn’t have been in the first week, so then…what, would she already know in two weeks that she was with child?” Skip shook his head, “ No , Ned is not the father. Besides, you had only to see his face when he declared he only kissed her, to know he was telling the truth.”
    “Do you know who might have been the father?” the duke asked quietly.
    “Dash it to hell, I don’t know. She had a string of admirers and she was well able to keep them dangling after her. How many had the poor woman bedded in the hopes of attaining a beneficial marriage?” Skip shrugged. “I don’t know. I did think her last ‘interest’ was someone she cared for. She had the look of a young woman in love, but perhaps, I just imagined that. I can’t be certain. I would wager a monkey’s uncle that it is all in that diary that has gone missing.”
    “Ah yes, the missing diary.”
    “Aye, ‘tis why Mandy and Ned need to stay hidden…wherever they are. Until we can locate the diary and Elly Bonner, Celia’s maid, Ned’s chances look dim.”
    “How are we looking into the matter of the missing maid?”
    “I did put out some informal inquires, however, I was waiting to find out what you might suggest,” Skip said pointedly.
    The duke suddenly grinned, “Were you? Well, before I left London, I too called in some favors owed to me. I have some people looking for this maid of Celia’s. We will get to the bottom of this.” The duke stopped a moment and eyed his friend, “Another mystery I should like to clear up…why the deuce have you been here in the country so long? Six months without one visit to London. Why?”
    “Did you miss me?” Skip grinned broadly.
    “As a matter of fact, I did,” chuckled the duke. “So then, you aren’t going to answer me.”
    “Do you still feel up to going to Sherborne?” Skip asked ignoring his friend’s remark.
    The duke eyed him, but let the matter drop, “Aye, then the sooner I settle this thing, the sooner I leave Yorkshire…and perhaps take you back to London with me?”
    Skip said nothing to this other than, “Your team is exhausted. I’ll go have my man bring up my carriage and fresh horses. Shall I accompany you?”
    “Not this time. I believe I may have more of an impact on the good Aunt Agatha if I arrive alone and lord it over her a bit. The way things stand, she hasn’t been very helpful to her nephew and I should like to see if I can frazzle her a bit.”
    “I quite agree. Till now, the Speenhams and this aunt Agatha of theirs believed they had free rein to railroad Neddy, but now with you, a duke and your…shall we say, hauteur, we may nab her in a lie and nip them back a bit.”
    Skip left the duke then to have the carriage brought round and His Grace looked after him curiously. Why was Skip being so secretive about his sojourn at his country home? In all the years he had known him, he had never found him so reticent about himself.
    The duke sighed and brushed this aside . One mystery at a time .
    * * *
    Twenty-five minutes later, the duke stood with his hands clasped at the back of his dark blue superfine, his feet apart and his mind deep in thought as he gazed up at a recent portrait of the Sherborne twins.
    It had been hung between two large bookcases in the Sherborne library. He could see that their coloring was much the same, but while the young man