“That might be the case, but what if they aim for me—son of a minor gentleman—but hit you instead? Or Peter?”
“I take your point. Peter will go to Oxfordshire at once.” Her eyes softened. “Though Peter will object most strongly. He has become quite fond of you.”
Peter and I rode in Hyde Park together every day—he’d taken to rising and going out with me early in the morning. The fog had kept both of us indoors today, but I’d planned to take him out later this afternoon, even with the rain. In light of Creasey’s threats, I would change my plans.
“You will go with him,” I stated.
“I will finish what I need to in London,” Donata countered. She was not obedient, my wife. “Most of that I can do from this house, with a few visits from my man of business. I have already accepted invitations for evening outings, but on those I will be surrounded by friends. Many of these friends you do not care for, so you will not be with me to endanger me.”
“I hardly want you rushing about London without me at your side,” I began sternly.
“If this man will only hurt me if I am with you, as you have declared, then I will have to go about on my own.” Donata’s eyes were an intense blue, framed with black lashes. “I am not a fool, Gabriel. If there is true danger, I will stay home. But I must see to things. There are investments to look after, plans to make for Peter and Anne. You and I have three estates between us, plus the house in Brighton that will be let once the renovations are finished. I cannot allow Mr. Denis and his battles keep me from my affairs. It will be much faster to make arrangements while I am in London, with solicitors and men of business within reach, than wait for letters in Oxfordshire.”
“I wish you were an ordinary woman,” I said in despondency. “One who meekly tells her husband he has the right of it and lets him take care of her business.”
Donata gave a little laugh. “You would have grown hopelessly weary of me by now. You traded learning how to run estates to join the army, while I have been immersed in such things all my life, so you must leave them to me.”
“Even so …”
Donata laid down her pen and turned to me squarely. “We are having this argument the wrong way about. It is you who should flee to Oxfordshire or to Grenville’s so I will not have to worry about you being felled by this Mr. Creasey.”
“I would.” I leaned an elbow on her desk. “Except I met a friend today.”
Donata’s expression held wary curiosity as I launched into the tale of Eden and our visit to Bow Street.
“You wish to help him,” she said when I finished. “The fact that you will not turn aside when a person is in need is a reason I am fond of you.” Donata patted the arm that rested on the desk. “However, it is most inconvenient at times. I gather from your glumness that you are uncertain of Major Eden’s innocence.”
“He is vague concerning his whereabouts, as well as his reasons for visiting Warrilow and the ship’s hold, and for leaving Antigua at all. I will have to make him see that the truth will help him more than evasion.”
“Unless he did kill this man,” Donata pointed out.
“It would be unlike him. Miles Eden was always fair and level-headed. Even when others tried to provoke him or start fights—bored soldiers get up to much between battles—he managed to remain above it all, talking others into calm. He’s not a man to lose his temper and bash another over the head.”
“Yet he admits he came to blows with Mr. Warrilow.”
“In a fair fight. Not sneaking into the man’s rooms and finishing him off.”
Donata patted my arm again, gently. “Perhaps this time you ought to let things alone.”
“Possibly.” I could take Peter and Anne to Oxfordshire and insist Donata come with us, using my position as her husband to give the command weight. In theory, she had agreed to obey me when she took her wedding vows.
“If Eden is the only person who can be fitted for this crime, Pomeroy will arrest him again,” I said. “Sir Nathaniel wasn’t certain of Eden’s guilt, I could tell, though he had doubts. If I can help prove Eden is innocent, then I can leave London with a clear conscience.”
“Meanwhile, Mr. Denis’s foes hunt you down?”
Donata spoke the words casually, but I saw worry in her eyes.
“I will find out what this business with Mr. Creasey is all about. He might have no interest in me at all. I might be an associate of Denis, rather against my will, but by no means do I work for him. I do not smuggle paintings or hire forgers or steal artwork, and whatever else he gets up to.”
“You are friends with magistrates,” Donata reminded me. “You can tell them about Mr. Creasey.”
“I intend to.”
The magistrate of the Whitechapel house, Sir Montague Harris, was wont to listen to me. Likewise, Sir Nathaniel would be interested to learn of a smuggler who’d threatened violence. I would also alert Mr. Thompson of the River Police, as I’d planned.
I had still other friends with influence on those in power. Denis had not warned me to keep silent, from which I inferred that he wouldn’t mind if I told as many people as possible that Creasey would be plotting something and had already struck.
It occurred to me that there hadn’t been much time between me delivering Creasey the message and the assassin going after Denis. Had Creasey been able to arrange the attempt in the time Eden and I had been in the Bow Street house? Or had he been scheming such an assassination for the day Denis and he ceased tiptoeing around each other? It was possible, I supposed. Denis had an amazing network of people across London, and I couldn’t be surprised if Creasey had the same sort of thing.
“Can you finish your business by the end of the week?” I asked Donata.
Donata, who’d turned back to her letter, sent me a look of exasperation. “The end of the week? It is already Tuesday.”
“I will try to make Eden see reason and tell me the truth, and have him tell the full story to Sir Nathaniel. Once he is cleared, you and I can leave for Oxfordshire. We’ll send Peter ahead tomorrow, well-guarded.”
“Though you will be in the most danger.” Donata’s eyes sparkled with heat. “I doubt I can finish by the week’s end, Gabriel.”
“Do what you are able, and then conclude the rest in Oxfordshire. Why not hire a secretary? You should not have to wrestle with estate business yourself.”
“I prefer to. I don’t mind assistance, but I will not put all my financial affairs in the hands of a secretary or even my man of business. I trust very few with Peter’s estates—you would be shocked to learn of the number of people who’d try to swindle a little boy.”
“I am sorry to say I am not astonished.” I laid my hand on hers. “I will be happy to assist as well. I should take more of an interest in the business end of things.”
I hid a qualm as I spoke. I was terrible at figures and financial decisions, which was why my cousin Marcus had taken over running the Lacey home in Norfolk. But Donata was my wife and should not have to slog through the accounts on her own.
She sent me a pitying glance. “I have finally managed to untangle the books of the Breckenridge properties. My late husband left them in an appalling state. I have taken on the challenge of looking into the Lacey estate as well, with Marcus’s assistance. I do not need you mucking it all up again.”