Murder in Grosvenor Square Read Online Free PDF Page A

also been very helpful, after that, in my pursuit of the killer.
    “Blame the concoction,” I said. “I would have danced with you instead, but you were rather off-putting that day.”
    “I didn’t know you.” Donata waved away smoke and took a sip of brandy. “Even if I had been friends with you then, I certainly wouldn’t have let you waltz me about a drawing room full of rather tawdry people.”
    I raised my brows. “Your friends and acquaintance, I’d thought.”
    “Tawdry all the same.” One dark curl had escaped her cap and rested like coiled silk on her shoulder—I grew distracted watching the candlelight play upon it. “I enjoyed the gas—a new sensation and good for the humors. A pity Inglethorpe had to get himself skewered.”
    We both fell silent as we remembered the dire circumstances of that case. During that investigation, as well, had been the first time I’d kissed Donata.
    “I have been pondering the matter of Leland Derwent,” I said after a time. I took a deep drink of brandy, savoring its rich, burning taste. “I am thinking of him as a match for Gabriella.”
    Donata froze in the act of lifting her tea, the cup hovering in the region of her bosom. “You are joking.”
    “Not at all.” I rolled my glass between my palms. “You are right that Leland is unworldly and naive. Gabriella has also been sheltered, thank God, but she has a great deal of common sense. Leland is a fine young man, his parents are of impeccable stock and reputation, and Sir Gideon is wealthy. Gabriella would be well provided for.”
    Donata only pinned me with an amazed stare. Steam rose from the tea, curling around her face like smoke. Then she abruptly set down the cup.
    “Well, I never thought of you as a man of ambition, Gabriel.”
    I gave her a perplexed look. “Ambition?”
    “Indeed. I’d thought you fond of the Derwents, the only explanation for you craving their company.”
    It took me a moment to understand her implication. “You think I have simply been cultivating them for my daughter?” I asked, offended. “You believe me to be that sort of man?”
    “Either that or you have run completely mad. Gabriella and Leland Derwent?” Donata shook her head. “There are only two explanations for the idea, Gabriel—either you are ambitious or you are mad.”
    “I am thinking of Gabriella’s future,” I said, spreading the fingers of one hand. “I have nothing to leave her—no money, and only a rundown house in Norfolk that will go to the next Lacey heir, whoever he might be. Sir Gideon’s fortune could ensure Gabriella’s care for the rest of her days. The family is generous and, as we have agreed, kind. I can’t think of a better place for Gabriella than in the bosom of the Derwents.”
    “A fine idea if you want her to be great friends with them,” Donata argued. “But she cannot marry Leland , Gabriel. She would die of the tedium. She might we well provided for, but she’d be miserable.”
    “Miserable? Isn’t that taking it a bit far?”
    “I remain firm to the adjective,” Donata replied. “Gabriella has a lively mind. She questions, she speaks, she does not meekly wait to be told what to do as does Melissa Derwent. The Derwents read and converse, yes, but only on very safe topics. The music of the Bach family, Sheridan’s dreary comedies, the lovely landscape paintings of the East Anglians. Nothing controversial or challenging. Gabriella will become as stiff-necked as Hannah Moore and her manuals of morality. I would rather your daughter remain old-fashioned and forthright. It’s refreshing in a world of growing insipidity.”
    We studied each other, Donata resolute, I, troubled. I understood Donata’s objections, and in fact, shared them myself. But I was a father, one catching up on many years of watching and worrying. I needed to make certain that Gabriella, poised on the threshold of womanhood, would be safe.
    Donata had plenty of money, it was true, but her six-year-old