Once Before (The Hero Next Door Series Book 3)

by Rebecca King

  ‘I wouldn’t sell anything I own to you,’ Lynchgate snapped. ‘Now get out of my way. My business is owned with my daughter and has nothing to do with the likes of you. If you really think you could make her happy you are off your head man. I had wealth and some very estimable connections and even they weren’t enough for her. What in the Devil’s name makes you think that you can offer her anything more?’

  ‘A title, for one. You may call me Lord Stanton from now on. Anything less will be considered a slur upon my status by an ill-bred buffoon who cannot understand good breeding,’ Daniel announced coldly.

  ‘You, a Lord,’ Lynchgate scoffed. His false mirth died when he found himself under Daniel’s steady stare.

  ‘Yes, it was awarded to me for services to King and country, by the Lord Chief Justice himself no less. You are more than welcome to challenge his wisdom, of course, however don’t be alarmed if he ignores you. The Lord Chief Justice doesn’t answer to arrogant country-bred buffoons like you. For now, you will just have to accept the fact that this ill-bred nobody from the workhouse might have fared a little better in life than you, has more money, a higher social status, and better manners.’ Daniel sauntered closer to him and leaned down until he could stare coldly into Lynchgate’s eyes. He didn’t need to say anything. Lynchgate, overwhelmed by his presence, leaned backward and flicked a worried look around the room in search of a way out. While he still hid behind a wall of false bravado, a tell-tale bead of sweat appeared on his flustered brow and began to slide down his florid features. ‘Mess with me, old man, and I shall use the might of the highest realms in the War Office to have you and your poxy gang of connections wiped clear off the map, do you understand me? Now you are in the presence of your social superior. Bow before me, or I shall disgrace you.’

  Lynchgate stepped back, clearly shaken, but he didn’t bow or apologise. Instead, he lifted a condescending brow and glared at him with eyes that were full of derision.

  ‘I do believe our business is concluded. Get out,’ Daniel snapped, pointing to the door.

  Lynchgate wanted to argue. Daniel didn’t doubt that he wanted nothing more than to issue another blistering insult, or to sneer at his parentage again. Whatever was running through his nasty little mind, Lynchgate didn’t utter a word before he stalked toward the door. Once there, though, he turned to scowl at Daniel.

  ‘You cannot make her happy, you know. No matter what title any damned fool has given you, you will always be the poor bastard from the workhouse who has ideas above his station. Until I see proof of your claims today, that is how you shall be treated. I will be back tomorrow. I expect my daughter to be ready to receive me.’

  With that, he slammed out of the house without a backward look. Daniel sighed and watched him through the window. The man was angry given how hard he slammed the carriage door behind him. As soon as the door was shut the carriage lumbered into motion and disappeared.

  ‘What do you make of that then?’ Mildred asked quietly.

  Tabitha returned to the room looking shaken.

  ‘I think that Lynchgate knows there is evidence of his guilt in the factory somewhere. Do you think you are up to a visit to the solicitor today? The sooner we can get into that factory the quicker we will know what he wants, and can set a trap for him,’ Daniel murmured, more to himself than to the women.

  Tabitha nodded. ‘I will do anything to get him out of our lives once and for all. While we have not really had anything to do with him, I don’t want him able to keep appearing in our lives like this,’ Tabitha whispered with a shiver. ‘Just what is he up to?’

  ‘Murder of course,’ Mildred replied. ‘Why else would he come here?’

  Daniel had to agree. The problem was he couldn’t be at all sure if Lynchgate was trying to hide the murder of Reynold Muldoon or planned to murder Tabitha to get his hands on her fortune.

  ‘Now what do we do?’ Tabitha asked. It was difficult to concentrate when he was standing so close to her. The urge to reach out and touch him was strong. It was only Mildred’s presence on the other side of the hallway that stopped her.

  Meanwhile he doesn’t even appear to notice I am here.

  Daniel was staring thoughtfully at the door and didn’t even appear to have heard her question. Eventually, he turned and said: ‘Get your shawl, we are going to the solicitor now. My colleagues will find out what Lynchgate wants out of that factory and will make sure that he doesn’t get it. If Lynchgate tries to take the law into his own hands and force his way into that factory, we can arrest him for breaking and entering and trespass.’

  ‘Even though he has ten shares in it?’ Tabitha asked.

  Daniel nodded. ‘Does he have your permission to be in the building?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘There you go then,’ Daniel smiled.

  ‘A trip to the solicitor’s it is then,’ Mildred announced. She suddenly stopped and frowned. ‘Although I had promised the vicar I would go and visit Mrs Wensley today. She is rather ill, and he had arranged with her husband to call upon her. I was meaning to go and take that pie for her.’

  Tabitha sighed because this was the first time that she had heard her aunt mention it.

  ‘You don’t need me to come with you, do you?’ Mildred asked as she turned to face the kitchen.

  Tabitha opened her mouth to remind her that she needed to chaperon but was painfully aware of Daniel watching her closely. ‘No, that’s fine,’ she murmured vaguely and was rewarded with a wry smile from Daniel.

  Half an hour later, Tabitha was handed into a carriage and was followed by Daniel, who rapped sharply on the roof. Within seconds, the carriage began to roll down the street.

  ‘Do you know where the solicitor’s office is?’ Tabitha asked quietly for want of something to break the slightly awkward silence.

  Daniel rattled off the address.

  Well that’s that conversation ended then, Tabitha thought with a heavy sigh.

  Daniel stared out of the window mostly to stop himself from gawping at Tabitha. He wanted nothing more than to spend the entire journey gazing at her delicate features, but she was clearly uncomfortable. All sorts of possible reasons for her discomfort flowed through him, but he refused to contemplate anything other than she might be as aware of him as he was of her.

  ‘We need to talk,’ he began.

  ‘About what?’ Tabitha replied, reluctantly dragging her gaze away from the passing scenery.

  ‘About what happened back then.’

  Tabitha smiled, and carefully ignored the sinking in her stomach.

  ‘It was the last time we saw each other, and the day that both our lives changed,’ Daniel murmured.

  ‘It could not have been easy to leave everything you knew behind to start all over again in a strange place.’

  ‘If I am completely honest, it was a relief to get out of that workhouse. The uniforms we were made to wear were a physical reminder of our poor circumstance, that we should always remember our lowly place in society,’ Daniel murmured. ‘It felt odd to wear ordinary clothes once I had left.’

  ‘You still felt like you belonged in the workhouse uniform,’ Tabitha said.

  Daniel’s lips pursed in a parody of a smile that went nowhere near his eyes, which remained solemn. ‘You always did have the uncanny ability to read what I was going to say, or what I was thinking, before I could say it.’

  ‘That is what made us friends, remember?’ Tabitha whispered. ‘We always used to be able to tell each other everything because we were so connected. Am I wrong? About the workhouse clothing?’

  Daniel shook his head. He gazed out of the window, but his thoughts were many miles away. ‘I have travelled to foreign lands. I have wealth now, and a title awarded to me for duties to King and country, but there is always going to be a part of me that still resides in that workhouse.’

  ‘Only if you allow the memories of living there to control you.’

  ‘But they are a part of my past. I cannot ignore them
anymore than you can ignore where you came from or what moulded you into the person you are today.’

  ‘Maybe we can never forget but then maybe we shouldn’t. Maybe we are not designed to forget because if we were, we would never learn, would we? I can never forget my father no matter how much I wish to because he is a part of my past. Maybe it is good that I cannot forget him because it reminds me of everything I am not, all the mistakes I have not made of my life. Maybe it is good that you are reminded of your time in the workhouse because it should remind you of how far you have come in life; how much of a difference you have made to your future. You could have stayed in the workhouse and died there like everyone else, but you didn’t. You left, forged a life on your own, and look at you now. Look at what you have turned yourself into. Don’t look back on your time in the workhouse as something you should feel haunted by. Be proud of the man you have become. I know that I have not made half as much of my life as you. I haven’t travelled, or done anything as exciting as you, but I am still able to look at my father and be pleased that I haven’t turned out as selfish and greedy as he is.’

  ‘You always did have a different way of looking at things. In other words, I should not lament the past, I should look at the present and the future and be glad that I am different.’

  ‘Exactly. What we both know about David Lynchgate is that people like him never change. A bully will always be a bully. Someone who is greedy and selfish will always be greedy and selfish. It doesn’t matter how many years have passed, Lynchgate is no different now to how he was the day he and his men set on you. He certainly sees you as the same young boy because it is convenient for him to see you as nothing more. You, however, are different and so am I. Life has changed us both. It has made us grow up and consider our choices without his interference. He has to learn that.’

  ‘In other words, Lynchgate isn’t the oaf who can beat up a young boy anymore. When he tries, Lynchgate is going to find he has a trained operative from the Star Elite on his hands,’ Daniel murmured with a grin.

  ‘Exactly. It is his lesson, and it serves him right if he must learn it the hard way. Do whatever you need to do, Daniel, but do it for your work with your friends.’

  ‘What do you think he has been doing?’ Daniel asked. ‘Do you think he is capable of murder?’

  Tabitha sucked in a breath. ‘I should like nothing more than to be able to say that he isn’t capable of taking a man’s life, not least because I don’t want a murderer in my family. However, I know that he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. If Reynold Muldoon was stopping him taking over control of that factory, Lynchgate is likely to resort to murder. I don’t know what hold he had over Muldoon that made him want to kill himself, though.’

  ‘Maybe it wasn’t suicide, Tabitha. Maybe it was murder just staged to make it look like Reynold Muldoon killed himself,’ Daniel informed her solemnly.

  Tabitha looked him straight in the eye. ‘Then if Lynchgate is responsible he must go to gaol for it like every other criminal.’

  They were interrupted by their arrival at the solicitor’s office.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Later that evening, Tabitha eyed the vast factory before her and felt a shiver of foreboding slither down her spine. All was eerily quiet. Too quiet. She could hear the pounding of her own heart, the wild rushing of blood through her veins, but it had nothing to do with her attraction to the man standing beside her. Now that dusk had started to creep over the county everything was being cast in a sinister gloom that was oppressive and frightening, and that included Daniel Berkley. Tabitha avoided looking at him not least because his tall powerful presence was overwhelming in the daylight. At dusk he was a dark, overwhelming mass that looked sinister.

  ‘What are we doing here? Can this not wait until tomorrow?’ she murmured, tugging her cloak even tighter about her. She almost wished they were still in the solicitor’s office listening to the man drone on about how Reynold Muldoon had started the factory with just one cotton machine and had built his fortune through hours of long, arduous work.

  ‘I can return you home if you wish, but I doubt your father will allow a little thing like nightfall to stop him going after whatever he wants from here,’ Daniel said, eyeing the empty street on either side of them intently.

  ‘Do you see him? Is he here?’

  There was something in her voice, a hint of panic maybe, that made him hesitate and look at her. A frown marred his brow. ‘Don’t allow your father to frighten you,’ he said sharply.

  ‘I just don’t like standing outside an empty factory after dark,’ Tabitha bit out.

  ‘Let’s get you inside then,’ Daniel suggested removing the keys from his pocket. He knew he should really wait for his colleagues to join them, but there was something, a gut instinct, compelling him to come here tonight. One thing he had learnt during his time on the battle fields was never to ignore his gut instinct. It had saved his life on many occasions.

  Besides, I want her to come here before her father turns up to fetch her in the morning. If she sees it now, here, tonight, Tabitha may be able to spend the rest of the evening thinking a little more clearly about what she is going to do with the factory.

  It took him a few minutes and several tries before he found the key on the bunch that opened the large gate. Eventually, Daniel waved her into the courtyard at the front of the factory.

  ‘Great, it creaks,’ Tabitha murmured when he slid the gate shut behind them, and the loud grating of the metalwork broke the tense silence.

  Daniel grinned. He paused long enough to lock the gate behind them leaving Tabitha to study the buildings lining three sides of the huge factory’s courtyard. The fourth side of the courtyard was occupied by a massive four-storey building. Two tall chimneys sat beside it like small fingers pointing to the stars.

  ‘They are for the forges. Because a lot of the machinery has metal parts and the factory regularly uses carts and the like to move goods around, there is a forge here which produces the metalwork the factory needs to operate,’ Daniel explained eyeing the deserted buildings. ‘Or used to.’ He sighed heavily at the air of decay that hung about the place even though he knew it had been fully operational until four weeks ago. ‘Come on, let’s go inside.’

  ‘Are you sure we should be doing this?’ Tabitha asked.

  Daniel stopped and turned to face her. ‘This is your factory, Tabitha. You own it. Nobody has any right to come onto the property and order you out of here.’

  ‘It’s difficult to believe,’ she murmured, studying the factory a little more closely.

  ‘Believe it. I know it is highly unusual for a woman to inherit something like this, which is why it has drawn so much gossip, but it is yours and nobody can legally challenge you for it.’ Daniel held his arms out. ‘This entire place is yours.’

  ‘But I don’t want it,’ Tabitha wailed.

  ‘Well it is yours anyway. You have to keep it for now because we need to investigate what went on here and how Muldoon died,’ Daniel replied, planting his fists on his lips and glaring at her as if daring her to deny it.

  ‘Then is it wise for you to bring me to the factory after dark?’ Tabitha asked, lifting her brows at him.

  ‘Well, it is better than coming here in the daytime and having everyone in the area watch you arrive. They would follow just to engage you in conversation and try to find out what you are going to do with the factory,’ Daniel argued. ‘Now it is dark, nobody can see what we are doing, so we are free to roam around here as much as we like.’

  Tabitha shook her head at him. ‘Why do I get the feeling that you are in your element here?’

  ‘In the factory?’

  ‘No, outside in the middle of the night,’ she countered.

  Indeed, for the first time since he had arrived in her sitting room that morning, Daniel was relaxed; far more at ease with himself and his situation. Consequently, he was considerably more outgoing and talkative.

  ‘I love doing wha
t I do,’ he murmured gently with a grin. ‘I cannot conceive of ever wanting to do anything else with my life.’

  ‘Have you tried to do anything else?’ Tabitha asked.

  ‘No,’ he replied simply. ‘Because I have never really wanted to. Nothing has tempted me enough to make me want to change my life.’

  Suitably reminded that Daniel would never contemplate a future with someone like her, Tabitha lapsed into a melancholy silence. Together, they walked across the empty courtyard toward the equally deserted factory until they reached two huge iron doors. While Daniel began to fumble for the right key again, Tabitha turned to study the long row of outbuildings to their left. The narrow windows were like eyes staring unblinkingly at them in the darkness. With a shiver, she turned away. Against such vast buildings she felt small and insignificant and suddenly wanted to be somewhere, anywhere else.

  ‘After you,’ Daniel murmured waving her into the factory.

  Tabitha purposefully ignored his presence as she stepped into the building. Again, Daniel stopped to lock the door behind them leaving Tabitha to study the large empty factory floor lined with rows of machines, some of which had cotton still attached.

  ‘It looks like everything has been frozen in time,’ she mused as they wandered past, the clicking of their booted feet echoing all about them.

  Daniel stopped to eye the cotton coming off one of the machines. ‘I suppose to the trained eye it all makes sense, but I wouldn’t know where to begin.’

  ‘One would have to be very skilled to know how to use something like that,’ Tabitha agreed. ‘It seems wrong that the people who are so skilled barely get paid enough to survive.’

  Daniel lifted his brows at her. ‘Would you want to pay your workers more than the average?’

  ‘Yes,’ Tabitha replied simply. ‘Because this factory cannot survive without the workers, can it?’