The Reverend's Daughter (Book 2 after The Duke's Daughter)

Chapter Twenty

Eleanor peeked over Betsy's shoulder covertly at Violet.

Violet tried to figure out where he would put her, as Brutus and Marcus already slept with the men. He groaned as he thought he would have to give up his cabin he shared with his wife. Why had they not waited and stopped on their way back. The Lady would have been to London anyway, they could have found her there.

He smiled weakly at the two women.

Eleanor did all she could not to laugh aloud, as his thoughts had been revealed on his face. She gave him a purely innocent look, "Oh my, yes indeed, 'tis just absolutely wonderful!"

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Gwen was not happy about this hitch in her plans. Alfred was not conforming to her wishes. Damn weak men, were she a man, the deeds would have been done by now. At least one of them had to go, and soon. Marcus.

"We must come up with our own way to be rid of Marcus. You are still willing to help me?" Gwen wheedled an answer from Jude.

"I'm assuming we just need to figure out how we would like to go about it. Did you have any ideas?" Jude acted as nonchalantly as possible, as if he were used to discussing murder over supper every night as simple idle conversation.

"That is one of the reasons I asked you out here to hunt. I was thinking if you could establish a story that there were poachers on the grounds...." Gwen looked at him hopefully. "If you find signs of them while out roaming, or even to say you were shot at accidentally yourself, it would be that much more believable it could be that which killed him"

"I see, so we would be setting our trap, so to speak." Jude needed all the ammunition against this woman that he could get in the short time he had here.

"He will be the easiest to eliminate, do you not think?" Gwen spooned berries and cream into her small, pinched mouth.

"Well, yes, out of the three of them, Trent is at sea, the Marquess is not so easily accessible, and Marcus will be more so. When is he due back?"

"I can not be absolutely certain, he has always kept a precise schedule, yet this time he varied and departed early. I do not know if he will come back early also. He usually stays gone a fortnight however, so that will give us time to solidify the poacher premise."

Gwendolyn, if possible, pinched her face in even more, "I do believe it is our best line to follow, he spends much of his time out with his filthy animals. He is out in the woods quite often, and as you will see when you are out 'hunting', the woods are thick with bramble and bush."

"So it would be easy to mistake a man for a stag." Jude nodded, she would be pleased if she believed he thought her plan a good one.

Gwen's face lit up, "Exactly! Is it not perfect? I could be free within a fortnight! He will no doubt have to see to his livestock first thing when he returns," Gwen shivered with distaste, "The filthy creatures are all he cares about. Why you should hear the way he speaks to Alfred, he is kinder to those animals he tromps about the woods with, than the young man he believes to be his own son."

It was not true, yet Jude believing it may help him want to carry out the deed, and she wanted it done as soon as possible. Anything she could do to be free of Marcus and available to Jude whenever the mood struck, was worth trying.

"He is unkind to Alfred?" Jude raised a brow in feigned concern. Alfred did not act as if he were beaten down, and if he were, Jude saw it coming more from this shrew of a cousin of his. A woman could only hide her nastiness to a certain degree, and he had known this one long enough to know she definitely had it in her.