Bridey and Emilia had dragged Pascoe into their discussion. They’d settled in the salon as far from the nursery and kitchen as it was possible to go inside the house. That lessened the household noises to a low roar. The conversation was too important to be distracted by childish shouts, rattling pots, and howling dogs.
Mr. Madden stalked up and down the length of the room, obviously irritated and restless, providing a lovely visual distraction. He was still wearing his traveling clothes, and his leather breeches and high boots held her fascination.
“Any man might settle an unwanted wife or mistress in the hut because he has no money, and he wanted her where she couldn’t ask for help,” Sir Pascoe corrected. “Don’t be a snob and assume he’s of a common class simply because he’s an animal. He could very well have been at your house party.”
Appalled, Aurelia could only stare. She’d lived a truly sheltered life if this was true. She couldn’t imagine a single gentleman of her acquaintance who would lift a hand to a woman or child. What more didn’t she know about the world most people occupied?
“If we assume the infant stands to inherit something a grown man wants, it doesn’t necessarily follow that it’s a title or fortune,” Bridey argued. “Men would beat up women over a pig.”
Mr. Madden snorted, apparently in agreement. “How long before she is well enough to be moved?”
He had a way of commanding the room simply with his presence. Aurelia tried to picture him in a gentleman’s tail coat and breeches and couldn’t. He belonged in the larger spaces of the outdoors. Even his gestures and voice were too large for the pretty salon.
“She cannot be moved until her wounds are healing,” Bridey replied, “and she is able to care for herself. Where would we move her?”
“As long as she is here, she’s a danger to all of you. It would only take a few inquiries to know we were the ones to remove her from the hut. We need to stage her death and remove her under cover of darkness,” Mr. Madden insisted. “And I need to take Lady Aurelia home immediately.”
Bridey, Emilia, and Sir Pascoe instantly fell into a discussion of possible safe places and logistics. Aurelia twisted her fingers and tried to tell herself that she really did need to go home and look after her sisters. They might have let a dangerous man into the house once already. He could return. And she had no purpose here.
But she had helped this afternoon, a little bit. She had let Mr. Madden talk to the invalid and relayed his information to the others. He could have done so himself, but taciturn fellow that he was, he might only have told Sir Pascoe. Leaving the planning to men would have been a bad idea.
The argument escalated inside her head. More outside noises intruded. Horses whinnied. The infant cried. The cook shrieked over a grease fire. The world was telling her to go home, where she belonged. But she had helped. She knew she had. She didn’t want to be a useless ornament any longer.
With a deep inhalation of determination, she fought back the distant din. “Are there any schools that work with deaf children?” she asked, interrupting the heated discussion.
They turned to stare at her. The blessed silence returned the distant noise level to bearable.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Emilia said. “None of the wealthy families of my acquaintance have deaf children. My family scours workhouses for able women and children to train for service, so I have some idea of the working poor. There are not so many deaf among them to start a school, or enough knowledge to help them even if they could.”
“But if Rose wasn’t with Mrs. Crockett, she’d be less noticeable. She said as much herself,” Mr. Madden pointed out, catching the direction of Aurelia’s thoughts. “If she believed Rose was safe and happy in a school, she might be more cooperative.”
“We’d be taking both her children from her,” Bridey argued.
As a woman who’d had difficulty bearing children, her cousin understood the sadness of losing them. Aurelia clenched her fingers into fists and tried to imagine how the patient would feel, but it was difficult. “We would return the children as soon as the abuser was caught. The babe won’t really know the difference.”
“And the babe might inherit a pig,” Sir Pascoe added with a laugh.
Mr. Madden cuffed his uncle on the shoulder as he stalked past his chair. “Or the patient could be gently bred. Don’t be such a prig, Pascoe. Appearances aren’t everything.”
Ignoring this byplay, Aurelia turned to Emilia. “Could your family take Mrs. Crockett if we stage a pretend funeral? If she disappeared into training for service, she wouldn’t be easily found without the children.”
“And we would know where she is so she couldn’t wiggle out of telling us the name of the bastard who hit her,” Pascoe said. “She wouldn’t want to lose her safe position.”
“Or Rose,” Bridey added. “We would essentially be holding her children hostage until the culprit is caught.”
Mr. Madden made an ungentlemanly snort and helped himself to Pascoe’s brandy. “You’re trusting that she actually wants them back and won’t run.”
Aurelia headed for the door. On the way out, she cuffed the dog trainer’s muscular arm the way she had seen him do to his uncle. Startled, he nearly dropped the decanter.
“Rose has just left the nursery and is undoubtedly looking for her mother now. She was not raised by a woman who doesn’t care for her.” The room erupted in laughter as she departed. She almost felt smug that she’d been able to shut the big man up.
She felt even prouder still that, despite the noisy argument, she’d caught the confusion from the nursery when Rose had disappeared. The nursemaids would have found her eventually, and Rose was in no danger in the abbey, but Aurelia so seldom sorted out the noises in her head, it seemed a worthy accomplishment.
The patient looked up worriedly when Aurelia arrived. The ever-present puppy Tiny was under the bed. Rose was sitting on top, showing her mother a piece of paper covered in alphabet letters. Bridey’s very pregnant secretary, Miss Thomas, glanced up from her bookkeeping. The wet nurse and babe were nowhere in sight.
“Miss Thomas, why don’t you take a break from nursing duties for a while? I’ll look after Mrs. Crockett and Rose.” Aurelia settled into a comfortable chair. Bridey had been feathering her nest lately. The cold infirmary would soon look like a parlor.
Appearing intimidated by Aurelia’s presence, the very young Miss Thomas bobbed a curtsy. “Thank you, m’lady. I’ll be back shortly, if you please.”
After the secretary left, Aurelia took Rose on her lap. “I do not even know your name, madam,” she said formally. Then louder, she shouted in Rose’s ear, “Can you write your mother’s name?”
As Rose scampered down to take Miss Thomas’s chair and pick up a pencil, the patient looked both amused and anxious. “The gentleman, he told you?”
“The gentleman wants to pack me up and haul me home because of you. I don’t want to leave. You must realize, Mr. Madden saved your life and that of your children. As he has told you, we have powerful families. We will see you safe. But if you betray Mr. Madden in any way, you will regret it for the rest of your days.”
The invalid’s sunken eyes widened. “You are scarcely out of the schoolroom and no bigger than a child, and you are threatening me?”
Aurelia beamed. “I suppose I am.”
Rose returned and handed her a paper with BESS printed neatly on it. Aurelia hugged her and steered her back to her mother.
“Shall I call you Bess or Mrs. Crockett?” she asked. “I prefer to be polite to those I threaten.”
“Bess,” the invalid said, looking wary. “Why do you believe I will betray your Mr. Madden?”
“Because it is what I would do if terrified and not trusting anyone. We have discussed your choices and although some might offer safety, none will offer you and your children happiness. The only alternative is to risk trusting Mr. Madden and give him the name of the man who hurt you and them.” She nodded at Rose. “Once the brute is eli
minated, we can find you a place where you may keep your children with you. That is especially important for Rose.”
“It is his word against mine,” Bess said wearily. “I am no one. I was a tavern maid and B. . . my husband’s mistress. When his wife died without giving him an heir, I was carrying Rose. So he married me in hopes of finally having a son.” She choked. “He died before he even knew I was carrying a second child.”
Aurelia pursed her lips, understanding the difficulty. Her father had taken on the task of magistrate these past years when all the other gentlemen in the area had died off or lived elsewhere. She’d deliberately listened to many of his cases, which often involved two parties claiming the other did them wrong, with no evidence on either part. Judgment often came down on the side of the person her father trusted, which wouldn’t be a tavern maid and woman of loose morals, unless the person she accused was of even lower moral fiber.
“You lived respectably as husband and wife for at least six years,” Aurelia said. “That must count for something.”
Bess looked sadder still. “Fairy tales do not exist in real life, my lady. I married him to stay out of the poor house. He married me for a son he didn’t receive. Worse yet, Rose was a sickly child, always catching fevers and colds and crying. He said I babied her and refused to waste coin on a physician. When I took her to an apothecary, he said she had infection in her ear which destroyed her hearing, and there was nothing he could do. I blamed my husband. We fought continually. He found another mistress. His family blamed me for driving him to drink. No, you’ll find no sympathy for my plight. I brought it on myself.”
“I think more than one party was involved,” Aurelia said dryly. “And absolutely none of that excuses him or whoever beat you.”
“But neither does it solve my dilemma. My children are of decent family. They are not bastards. They deserve a good life, but I cannot offer one. The most I can hope to do is to take Rose with me to the workhouse. I can keep her alive until she is strong enough to go out on her own.”
“You sound educated,” Aurelia reminded her. “You have more opportunities than that.”
A fleeting smile crossed her thin face. “My mother was a vicar’s daughter and a teacher who fell for a pretty face and a silver tongue. Does stupidity run in families? If so, Rose’s deafness may be her only salvation.”
Aurelia was starting to understand how a woman could be so foolish as to fall for a handsome face, but Mr. Madden lacked the silver tongue, she decided in amusement. Or, in her case, perhaps it was the lack of silver tongue that was an enticement. Either way, he would be as foolish a choice as Bess’s. Her father and brother would no doubt see him transported should they think she favored a poor bastard over the earls and heirs they selected.
“I refuse to believe we are doomed for life because of poor choices we made when young.” Not that Aurelia had ever given the subject much thought, but it seemed reasonable to her. Rose had obviously been raised in love. She had to believe that Bess could care for her best. “Everyone ought to have a second chance and be given the education or training needed to take advantage of it.”
The patient leaned wearily into the pillow and closed her eyes. Rose curled up beside her and slept. Tiny lay his head on his paws beneath the bed.
“He will kill us all if he finds us,” was the only reply Bess made.
Chapter 9
After Lady Aurelia returned to the salon and explained the ugly predicament she’d persuaded out of the patient, Will paced in agitation. How had he involved the duke’s damned daughter in this disaster? The duke would hold him responsible if anything untoward happened. He’d never wanted responsibility for more than himself and his dogs! And now he didn’t know whether he was more worried about the lady or the duke cutting off his head.
“We cannot take chances,” he argued when the lady opened her pretty mouth to protest his decision one more time. “Ashford is ready to leave Wystan and return home with his wife and new babe. No one will think twice if my brother and his family stop here to visit.”
Since Pascoe was their uncle, the abbey was an obvious stop on his family’s long journey back to Iveston in the south. Pascoe frowned in thought but nodded his agreement.
“The nursemaid can carry out both infants wrapped in a single blanket, and a wet nurse accompanying them makes perfect sense. No one expects a marchioness to nurse her own child,” Bridey added reluctantly. “I hate it as much as you do, Lela, but the men are right this time. If this would-be killer is so desperate, we cannot risk keeping Bess and her children here.”
Will tried to ignore the pink rising in the lady’s cheeks. He’d always considered her to be a delicate piece of porcelain whose sole purpose was to adorn the castle, and it had been simple to admire her from afar. If he were in her company much longer, he’d have to see her as a real woman. For the sake of his kennel and the secure future he planned with Miranda, he needed the lady to remain a gilded ornament.
Just being in the same room with her stirred visceral hungers he had difficulty suppressing. Long ago, he had promised his mother he would not sink into animal behavior just because he could think like a dog. Licking milk out of a bowl and gnawing a bone had brought on that particular demand, but Will understood better than most the depths to which he could sink. He needed to work alone.
Lady Aurelia, unfortunately, remained adamant. “A workhouse cannot possibly be good for an invalid and Rose. I simply cannot countenance them being treated that way.” She rubbed her temple. “They must come home with me.”
“They will do no such thing.” Will didn’t think he roared, but the lady winced as if he had. “Your father would have my head. He may do so anyway for involving you in this.”
“Will’s right,” Pascoe said. “From the tale you tell, the patient could easily be the widow of a man of stature. If so, his family apparently wants nothing to do with her or her children, or we’d have heard the hue and cry at their disappearance. With her past history, they’ll refuse to believe the infant is any relation. It’s best this way.”
“Rose needs a chance,” the lady pleaded. “She’s already paying for the sins of her parents. She will have no means of survival in a workhouse.”
“Lela’s right, too,” Bridey acknowledged. “What if we put Rose and her mother in a cart and send them to my brother in Northbridge? He’s never home and has no family to endanger. His housekeeper is elderly and could use extra hands.”
“You don’t fear Bess will seduce Fin?” Pascoe asked wryly.
“More power to her if she does,” Bridey said with a laugh. “My brother lives with his head in the clouds.”
Will heard the sadness behind her laughter. Lady Aurelia apparently did too because a line crossed the perfect smoothness of her white brow. The women with their soft hearts didn’t want to separate the mistreated family. Will refused to care. Bess had made her choices and now must live with them. Once the babe was safe, Bess would give him the name of the brute and action could be taken. That was the best he could offer.
“That’s settled then,” he announced. “Ashford should be here in the next day or two. The deerhounds are already trained to patrol. I’ll have them take turns walking the abbey perimeter until we stage the mock funeral. A few guards around the infirmary, keep the children inside, and you should be safe. I’ll stay until Ashford arrives. How soon can the patient be moved?”
He didn’t want to stay. He wanted to hit the road, ride over to toss Miranda into bed, then return to work. By spring, he’d have enough coin to buy the kennel. He had training schedules to maintain across half the kingdom over these next months. He didn’t need to be twiddling his thumbs here.
Still looking dissatisfied, the duke’s daughter drifted from the parlor.
Once he was satisfied she was out of the way, Will stalked out, intending to set the deerhounds loose. He’d like to have Ajax here as well, but it was too late now. He should have realized the duke wanted a trained guard dog for a r
eason.
“How will you go about looking for Bess’s family?” Lady Aurelia asked, waylaying him in the corridor and catching him by surprise.
Her scented soap aroused animal instincts he had to fight. He didn’t know the name of perfumes, but hers reminded him of the kitchen on baking day. He’d have the urge to nibble her slender neck if he didn’t watch out.
“I hadn’t intended to look for them,” he said gruffly, tugging his tweed coat over his crotch. He wasn’t fit for her company. “If she’ll give me the brute’s name once we have her settled, it will save time and effort.”
She wrinkled up her perfect nose. “I think we need to start making inquiries into Bess’s situation. Our families are widespread. Someone will know the gossip if her husband was a man of substance.”
“You think she won’t give us a name once she’s safe?” he asked warily, because that was his fear.
“I don’t think the babe is heir to a pig,” she said dryly. “This brute went to great lengths to drag Bess and her child to an outpost of nowhere. He beat her severely enough to kill her and the babe. We must assume murder was his intention. One does not go to those lengths for a small inheritance.”
“Then we must call him incompetent and stupid as well as a brute and a killer,” Will retorted.
He’d never spoken to a lady in such a manner. The animal was raising its ugly head.
Lost in her own thoughts, she didn’t seem to notice his growl. “He finds his courage in drink, I should imagine.”
Will grimaced. “So we need a list of all the drunks in Yatesdale that night.”
“For several nights before,” she answered in a small, unhappy voice. “And a list of our guests, which nearly doubles the possibilities. I really hate thinking we invited such an animal. They all seemed perfectly respectable.”
He knew he didn’t have to remind her that appearances were deceiving. She was talking to him, after all. Of course, the innocent lack-wit probably thought he was a gentleman simply because of his father’s name. “And what will you do with such a list? Send them polite letters asking if they beat a woman almost to death?”
No Perfect Magic Page 10
