Discovering the Devil

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PENELOPE knew better than to beg an audience with Violet. Still, she wrote a long, pleading letter to the duchess asking that she'd persuade her son to see sense. She hadn't expected a reply, but she got a biting letter back, saying that if anyone should see sense it was she and that if Solomon lost his life, Penelope had no one to blame but herself. The dowager needn't have bothered to cast the stone, Penelope already suffered from a guilty conscience.

She cornered Mr. Wilhelm and another friend of the earl's in the hall one day. "Forgive me for the intrusion," she said primly.

"Forgiven," Zachary said smilingly.

"I have begged Sol—the Duke of Burberry to forfeit the duel with no success. You are the earl's friends. Is there anyway you can convince him to see sense?"

"I would think that you would be more successful in that endeavor than us," said the other stranger. Mr. Wilhelm gave him a sharp look.

To Penelope he said, "You must forgive Mr. Cartwright. He does not know how to hold his tongue."

Penelope ignored the rude remark. "I am no friend to the duke or the earl." Mr. Cartwright snorted. "I have no weight. Please. You must convince him to surrender."

"I don't think anyone can convince Lord Hawthorne to stand down," Zachary said sadly. "He is a man of enormous pride."

"You're his friend!" Penelope cried hopelessly. "Can't you do something?"

"We've tried to get Lord Hawthorne to stand down in every way we know how," Mr. Cartwright said. "He's refused us at every turn."

Penelope had to work very hard not to scream. She dipped in a polite curtsy before muttering something about a chore that needed attending to, and darting away.

Penelope did not sleep a wink that night. The next morning, she approached the earl's valet. "Where are the guns kept in the castle?"

The valet's eyes narrowed a fraction. "His Lordship does not keep any guns in the house. He does not like to shoot."

Penelope managed a smile. "Our master is going to duel this weekend. He has a gun somewhere."

"If His Lordship has a gun he keeps it out of sight," the valet said shortly. After that statement, he promptly excused himself. Penelope did not let his evasiveness deter her. She found a pretense to be in Lord Hawthorne's room and searched every square inch of it. Nothing. She went about various parlors, certain to find some sort of weaponry collection somewhere. Nothing again. She finally settled on his study and opened every drawer imaginable. One drawer stayed locked. Penelope brightened like a girl who had won a prize. If there was a gun at Hawthorne, it was in that box. The only problem was finding the key. Penelope flipped through his numerous papers and books hoping to find it discreetly tucked away.

"Can I help you with something?" Lord Hawthorne asked crisply.

Startled, Penelope fell backwards and landed squarely on her bottom. She gathered herself as quickly as she could and then looked the earl straight into his irritable eyes. "You can, actually. Your valet told me to fetch an article and I can't seem to find it."

"My valet told you to fetch something?"

"Yes."

"And what was that something?"

"A bill, I believe."

"A bill."

"Yes."

"Not a gun?" he asked coldly.