As the dance came to an end, I glanced outside into the thickening darkness.
“Expecting someone?” Rosamond Peters asked.
“Vainly checking my appearance in the reflection.” I gave her a smile and turned my attention to the room, where bowing and curtsying and offers for the first waltz were being exchanged. Across the room I spotted my ersatz Sir Denby, Lord Porthollow. He didn’t seem to have noticed me.
Sir Henry came over, momentarily at a loss as to who to ask first. I excused myself, leaving the field to Lady Peters, and walked away. As I closed the distance to Lord Porthollow, I saw Lady Ormond approach him. She appeared to be lecturing him, and he appeared to be running.
He saw me and beamed. “A waltz, young lady?”
“Please.” We waltzed away from Lady Ormond at top speed. “What is she upset about?”
“She’s trying to force a match between her niece and Tewes’s older son. Quite blatant about it. I told her to leave the poor young people alone. They’d have to spend the rest of their lives suffering from their decision. She didn’t think I should have said that in front of the young people. I said someone should talk sense to them.” He glanced over his shoulder. “She’s been after me ever since. What have you learned?”
“Tonight perhaps we shall discover all.”
“Good luck.”
He left me on the far side of the dance floor and headed for the card room. Blackford waltzed with Lady Harwin. The baron waltzed with Lady Bennett. Sir Henry waltzed with Lady Peters. I circled the room until I bumped into Mr. Nobles. “Everything quiet?” I asked.
“Sir William is taking a turn in the garden. I’m minding the store in here.”
Sweeping the room with my eyes, I said, “With a lot of goods on the shelves.”
“Half a dozen peers, a few baronets, a churchman or two, plus their ladies, younger sons with the courtesy title of ‘lord,’ a few debutantes, and guests at neighboring houses.”
“Quite a lot of goods in this store you’re minding,” I amended.
“Would you care to dance? We can watch them from the dance floor as well as here.”
“Thank you.”
Frederick Nobles escorted me into the center of the room and led me in a sweeping waltz, his hand placed correctly on the small of my back above my waist. He was light on his feet, and I was hard-pressed to keep up. I struggled so much that I nearly missed Baron von Steubfeld and Lady Bennett leave the floor and make their way to the French doors leading to the terrace.
“It’s hot in here. Would you like to step outside and get some air?” I asked.
“What?” He glanced around to where I stared at the French doors. “Oh. Yes, I would.”
We cut a tangled path through the dancers. Von Steubfeld and Lark Bennett had been outside for a minute or two by the time we reached the doors. Long enough to have lost us in the dark.
When Nobles opened the door, I discovered I needn’t have worried. Past the light of torches hung from poles around the terrace, I could see two figures strolling in the garden away from the house parallel to the baron and Lady Bennett. A familiar pale blue dress reflected the moonlight. It was Emma, walking with Sir William.
Suddenly, branches snapped and bushes shook at the end of the garden beyond where the baron and Lady Bennett stood. Two men fell to the ground. “Gracious,” I exclaimed as Mr. Nobles moved forward, saying, “Everyone all right?”
“Burglar,” Fogarty said as he struggled to stand on his injured leg. He made a grab for his leaner, more agile adversary.
The second man moved into bright moonlight in the clearing for an instant, and I found myself looking at Mick Snelling. Before I could glimpse whether he was carrying a package the size of the ship plans, he bolted into the darkness and escaped.
Fogarty chased after him, leaving his bowler hat on the path. Lady Bennett looked over her skirt with an expression that said she was furious. Either she’d been splattered by mud or she didn’t like Snelling taking chances on being caught. Mr. Nobles walked over and picked up the hat. “I say, we’ve had a bit of excitement.”
His wide-eyed enthusiasm was so at odds with his usual demeanor I nearly laughed. Baron von Steubfeld, who’d been closest to the action in the bushes, looked at Nobles and in a tone that said the incident had nothing to do with him, asked, “Do you often have burglars at house parties?”
“They go where the pickings are the best,” Nobles answered and strolled back toward the house.
Since I hadn’t been spotted by the baron or Lady Bennett, I slipped back into the ballroom. The dance had ended, and the orchestra was readying for the next number. “What happened?” a warm baritone murmured in my ear.
“Your Grace. Mick Snelling was discovered by Fogarty in the bushes near the baron and Lady Bennett. There was a scuffle and Snelling escaped with Fogarty chasing him. The baron didn’t seem surprised by any of this. Lady Bennett appeared annoyed.” I looked up at Blackford, wondering if he’d come looking for me or if he was checking on the action in the garden.
The music began. “Georgina. Would you do me the honor?”
He led me out onto the dance floor and held me in an intimately tight embrace. While Mr. Nobles was a fine dancer and Lord Porthollow an energetic one, the duke held me so I couldn’t fail to match him step for step. We gracefully moved as one across the shiny hardwood. My dreams of dancing with the duke had never been this smooth. This polished. This wonderful.
I smiled up at him and let him lead me where he wanted. He noticed my smile and squeezed my hand, whispering in my ear, “Was this worth waiting for?”
“Yes.” I sighed. The feel of his breath on my skin was enchanting. I memorized the swirl of brightly colored dresses in time to the music. The one errant curl brushing his collar. The smell of his soap.
We twirled around the room once, twice, and then I made the mistake of looking toward the entrance to the room. There in the archway, standing with two other evening-dress-clad men, was my parents’ killer.
“There he is,” I whispered into the duke’s ear.
“Who? Snelling?”
“No. My parents’ killer. Come on.” I pulled Blackford off the dance floor toward the doorway. By the time we reached it, the three men had vanished.
I stood in the hallway, looking in all directions. The duke said, “This way. Front entrance,” and hurried me along. My dancing slippers slid from rug to rug on the smooth floor as I tried to keep up.
When we turned the corner, we saw the butler closing the front door. “Who just left?” the duke demanded.
“Sir Wallace Vance and two of his guests.”
While Blackford spoke to the butler, I dashed around them and pulled open the door. A carriage was in motion, wheels grinding and horseshoes clomping on the gravel drive. All I could see was the back of a large, dark-colored coach.
“His guests’ names?”
If the butler found my behavior and the duke’s question strange, he didn’t hesitate or blink. “A Mr. van der Lik and Count Farkas.”
“I didn’t see them at the ball. Were they in the card room?”
The butler remained stoic. “I couldn’t say, Your Grace.”
Blackford took my hand. “We’ll call on Mr. Vance tomorrow.”
I sounded slightly breathless as I tried to pull him toward the door. “He might have left by then.”
It would have been easier to move a mountain than the duke. “No, he won’t. We’ll meet him tomorrow. Come on, Georgina. We have more important business tonight.”
Unfortunately, tonight was our best chance for catching my parents’ killer as well as retrieving the stolen designs for the new warship. I’d vowed to find the ship blueprints and prove Gattenger innocent. That was the reason I was there. And I’d promised Phyllida I’d succeed in this investigation.
I’d have to ignore the man I’d vowed to catch a dozen years before. But only until the next day. Then I’d have the duke’s assistance to confront Sir Wallace and his murderous guest. “All right, Your Grace. Lead on.”