Free Alyssa Everett by A TrystWith Trouble

wouldn’t say anything potentially damaging to her sister unless it became necessary.”
    “How does this Lady Barbara look?” my mother asked.
    I drummed my fingers on the table. “She’s a redhead. Tall and green-eyed, with a husky voice.” And positively spellbinding curves, I added in my head, since I was the only one at the table likely to care.
    My father’s face turned pensive. “Leonard’s daughter, did you say? I believe I met her once. Her grandmother was the late Lady Merton.”
    My mother sniffed. “Lady Merton! That woman was a scandal to her family. She ran away from her first husband—”
    “A brute who beat her,” my father put in calmly.
    “And when Merton met her, she was acting on the stage!”
    “She was a lady of great courage, and still a rare beauty even when I knew her,” my father said in an unruffled tone that nevertheless declared the matter settled. “And Ben’s young lady is a perfectly lovely girl.”
    “She’s not my young lady.” Crossly, I tore the crust from my toast. “I don’t even like her. In fact, I positively dislike her. I simply promised her I wouldn’t say anything that might reflect poorly on her sister. I did it as much for Teddy as for anyone else, since he’s determined to protect Lady Helen.” And because Barbara had threatened to publicize that embarrassing incident in the linen cupboard. It was just the kind of low, underhanded trick I’d expect from a girl like her. First she drove a fellow to distraction with that maddening body of hers, then she turned it to her advantage.
    “Oh, Ben, please don’t get involved,” my mother begged. “Or, if you must, insist you don’t know anything. I mean...a murder! The killer could be lying in wait for you even as we speak. And he could be an expert at throwing knives, like that little Italian gentleman who performed in the traveling circus at Greybridge last year, knocking the lemon off his assistant’s nose.” Her eyes grew round with horror. “And to think, you were out after dark last night. You might already be lying dead in the street!”
    My father reached across to cover her hand with his. “Ben will tell the truth, as I know you’d wish him to do.”
    It was a thoroughly supportive remark, but it rang hollow coming from my father. The truth? Since when did our family tell the truth? In our imaginary world, my parents’ marriage was happy and my father didn’t consort with men and the two of us were as close as any father and son.
    My mother looked imploringly at me, sending a silent plea that I should steer clear of the Leonard business. I pretended not to see it. I’d had a lifetime of training in ignoring inconvenient realities.
    Still, it wasn’t her fault our happy family life was nothing but a sham. “I’ll be careful, Mama. But at the very least, I mean to talk to Uncle Daventry today and make available for the inquest what little information I can.” I intended to talk to John too, but for now I thought it better to keep that to myself.
    “Let me know when the inquest is to be, and I’ll cancel my appointments and come with you,” my father said. “I’m sure Teddy could use a show of solidarity. Daventry will be there, I assume, but if one peer is likely to impress the jury, two should make an even stronger impression.”
    I had no doubt my father would make an impression on the jury all right, but exactly the wrong kind. He might be a peer, but he was also a sodomite, and as the Duke of Ormesby, he was probably the best-known sodomite in all England. His involvement would do Teddy far more harm than good.
    I rose and gave him a curt bow. “Thank you, Father, but I’d prefer to attend on my own.”
    Barbara
    With Ben’s recommendation in mind, I was up bright and early the next day, slipping into Helen’s room to search it as soon as she went down to breakfast.
    I knew I might not have much time. My eyes ranged quickly over the furnishings—the lace-covered bed, the