gave a less than elegant bow. ‘Please accept my apologies for any insult, real or imagined, that you may have felt during the conversation you overheard earlier. I do assure you that no insult was intended by either Lady Bancroft or myself.’ He turned sharply on his heel and took his leave.
Tears burnt Juliet’s eyes as she watched him go. She knew that Sebastian St Claire’s light-hearted pursuit of her was finally at an end. That she had rended his interest in her asunder with her criticism of him and the way he lived his life.
Chapter Six
‘You are here, too, Gray?’ Sebastian did not even try to hide his surprise upon finding his friend already seated in the Earl of Banford’s study when he duly presented himself there at the assigned hour of ten o’clock.
Nor did Sebastian attempt to conceal his irritation as he refused to take the seat the Earl offered, facing him across the width of his leather-topped desk; Sebastian had suffered through enough such interviews over the years with his brother Hawk, to know better than to meekly sit and accept the set-down he believed was coming. A set-down he deeply resented.
‘I am perfectly comfortable standing, thank you,’ he assured the older man, and he moved to stand with his back towards the window, hands clasped behind his back, the width of his shoulders blocking out most of the sunlight.
The Earl nodded. ‘My wife tells me that you and Lady Boyd have argued …?’
‘What the—?’ Sebastian’s scowl deepened as he stiffened resentfully. He had believed his earlier conversation with Dolly to be of a private nature, known only to the two of them. And in part to Juliet Boyd herself, of course … ‘Dolly had no right to relate any of that conversation to you,’ he said, outraged.
‘I am afraid that she did.’ The Earl’s expression was sympathetic, but at the same time determined. ‘You see, it is not in our interest that you argue with Lady Boyd.’
‘“Our interest”?’ Sebastian’s brow darkened ominously as he looked at the earl and Gray. ‘Would someone kindly tell me what on earth is going on?’
‘Calm down, old chap,’ Gray advised him.
‘No, I do not believe I will,’ Sebastian grated.
‘At least hear what Bancroft has to say before you threaten to call him out,’ Gray soothed.
The Earl rose to his feet, as if he too found the confinement of being seated irksome. ‘Have you not wondered why it was, when two weeks ago you made your request to my wife that she invite the Countess here to stay, she had already done so?’
‘Why should I?’ Sebastian shrugged. ‘The two ladies were friends once, were they not?’
‘Perhaps,’ the Earl acknowledged cautiously. ‘But I am afraid in this instance that friendship did not signify. My wife issued the invitation to Lady Boyd at my behest.’
‘You have lost me, I am afraid.’ Sebastian’s morning so far had not been in the least conducive to holding on to his temper, and the Earl’s enigmatic conversation now was only succeeding in increasing his annoyance.
‘I am sure you are aware of the … rumours surrounding the Earl of Crestwood’s death?’
‘Not you, too!’ Sebastian strode forcefully, impatiently, into the middle of the book-lined room. ‘You—’ he looked pointedly at the Earl of Banford ‘—gave every indication that you’d befriended the Countess yesterday evening. And you—’ his eyes glittered dangerously as he turned his attention on Gray ‘—flirt with the lady every time the two of you meet. Am I now to believe that you both think her capable of killing her own husband?’
‘That is the whole point of this conversation, Sebastian.’ Once again it was Gray who answered softly. ‘The simple answer is we do not know what the lady is capable of.’
‘Boyd has been dead these past eighteen months,’ Sebastian said coldly. ‘If by some chance Juliet did do away with him—’ his gaze narrowed ‘—then I am sure she was justified.’ That look of wariness, almost of apprehension, he had on several occasions seen in Juliet’s eyes, certainly seemed to indicate that someone—and who else could it be but Crestwood?—had given her good reason to fear.
‘Ah.’
‘Hmm.’
Sebastian easily noted the glance that passed between the other two men in accompaniment to their unhelpful replies.
He could not ignore the uneasy feeling that was starting to settle in the pit of his stomach. The Earl claimed Dolly had invited Juliet here at his behest. And Gray, Sebastian now recalled, had made only a nominal complaint at being dragged along to a summer house party he would normally have refused to attend. Gray had also been the one chosen to sit next to Juliet at dinner yesterday evening in Sebastian’s stead. Now he discovered that Gray and the Earl of Banford were far better acquainted than he had previously thought ….
‘Very well.’ He seated himself in one of the winged armchairs beside the unlit fireplace before looking at the other the two men with grim determination. ‘One or both of you had better tell me exactly what is going on, or you will leave me with no choice but to go to the Countess of Crestwood and inform her of this conversation.’
‘You know, Grayson, I do believe you and Dolly may have been correct in your opinion of St Claire’s intellect,’ the Earl commented with approval.
‘Seb’s a capital chap,’ the younger man answered blithely.
‘Seb is fast becoming a blazingly angry one!’ he warned them harshly.
‘Very well.’ The Earl looked him straight in the eye. ‘I am happy to talk frankly, but before doing so I will require your word as a gentleman that once this conversation is over you will not discuss its details with a third party.’
Sebastian knew without the other man saying so that in this case the ‘third party’ he referred to was the Countess of Crestwood ….
Up till now Sebastian had always found Dolly’s husband to be an affable and charming man. A man it was difficult not to like, but with no more to him than that.
These last few minutes of conversation showed there was much more to the Earl of Banford, and to his own friend Gray, than Sebastian had previously realised … and he didn’t like knowing that at all.
‘… and so you see you have totally misjudged poor St Claire, I am afraid, dear Juliet,’ Dolly admonished gently as the two women sat together in her private parlour.
Juliet had been reluctant to accept Dolly’s invitation to join her here when the other woman had come upon her still standing in the hallway after Sebastian had so abruptly taken his leave. After all, Dolly had been just as guilty of discussing her as Sebastian had! To now hear that he had actually been dismissing the idea of Juliet being guilty of any involvement in Edward’s death, rather than accusing her, made her feel more than a little foolish.
For now it appeared she owed Sebastian not one apology but two!
‘After all the gossip and speculation this last year and a half, it is a subject about which I am naturally a little sensitive,’
