Julian put his arm around Chloe’s shoulders as the stable hands hurried out to take care of the carriage. Even though she did not ease her hold on him, he managed to get them both inside the house. He immediately took her to the blue salon where he knew there was some brandy. After forcing her to take the drink he poured her, he poured himself one. The liquor burned down his throat and soon warmed him enough that he could shake off the chill of fear.
The only thing he had been able to think of as he had climbed out of the carriage and into the driver’s box was that Chloe was in danger. This time Arthur and Beatrice had put Chloe in danger. Julian suspected his deep need to get her to safety was why he had managed something that he admitted scared him half to death. He urged her into a seat and sat beside her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and holding her close.
“I cannot believe you climbed out and up to the driver’s box,” she muttered and took another drink.
“Todd was not going to be able to hold the reins much longer. Someone had to do it,” he said. “I was the one who had done it before.” He laughed softly. “I had forgotten how damned terrifying it was, too.”
“I am glad I was not alone in being terrified, then.”
Before he could say anything, Leo strode into the room. The man went straight for the brandy and drank nearly half of what he poured himself before he sat down across from them. He looked more furious than afraid but, in the work he did for the government, perhaps being shot at was not so unusual.
“How is Todd?” asked Chloe.
“He will be fine. It is not a mortal wound, just hurts and bled a lot, weakening him,” replied Leo. “How are you, Chloe?”
“I expect I shall have some bruises but no more.”
“I will admit that this was unexpected. We shall need to take guards with us wherever we go from now on. Whether it is Arthur or Beatrice does not matter. We can not be caught off guard like that again.”
“Agreed,” said Julian. “Which is why I have just come up with a plan.”
“And this plan is?”
“In two days we leave for Colinsmoor.”
Leo said nothing for a moment and then nodded. “A good plan. There are too many places for your enemies’ hirelings to hide in this city. In the country any stranger is immediately seen and spoken about. I will make some plans for the securing of the area,” he said even as he stood up and left the room.
Chloe looked up at Julian. “Colinsmoor?”
“Yes,” Julian said and kissed the tip of her nose. “We have done all we can here to make life a misery for my enemies. Time to return home.”
“And search for the proof you want?”
“That is certainly one good reason to go there, but it will also be a great deal safer for you and Anthony. Leo was right about that.”
Chloe touched her snifter to Julian’s and they made a soft chiming sound. “To Colinsmoor. I think I will enjoy returning to the country.”
Chapter 14
“Look! Horse!”
Chloe kept a firm grip on the back of Anthony’s coat to ensure that the boy did not tumble out of the window he was so avidly staring out of. “Aye, it is a horse.” A hearty stallion, she thought, and prayed that Anthony did not notice the rather startling appendage on the beast. “Ah, look there, Anthony. There are some sheep.”
Pleased when the child’s attention was immediately drawn to a small herd of sheep peacefully grazing on the hillside, no rude appendages visible, Chloe sighed and glanced at the two men seated across from her. Both Leo and Julian were grinning like fools. They obviously knew exactly why she had quickly diverted the child’s attention. Her scowl did nothing to dim their amusement.
“Did you hear anything about where Beatrice and Arthur may have disappeared to before we left town?” she asked.
Julian laughed softly and shook his head, amused by her attempts to ignore a stallion that had obviously scented a mare in heat, but then he grew serious. “No. They have gone to ground. If that attack on us was Beatrice’s idea, I believe the next word we have of her will be that she is”—he glanced at Anthony—“gone. Arthur will hate having to hide, to stay away from all his usual haunts. He is a man who has a great love for all the pleasures society offers. I would not be surprised if he has begun to feel that all his grand plans are crumbling about his ears, and he will be looking for someone to pay for those failures.”
Although Chloe was glad to leave the city, she had to ask, “And you still believe we should be going to Colinsmoor? You do not think he will follow us there?”
“He might, but he found us often enough in a crowded city, did he not? At least here in the country he cannot hide so easily. It is too open and too many would recognize him and send us warning.” He glanced out the window and started to say something about wanting Anthony to come to know his heritage only to see a group of men preparing to breed a mare with the barely restrained stallion. “Divert Anthony’s attention again. Quickly.”
“Oh! Cohee, look! More horses!” Anthony reached up to put his little hands over Chloe’s when she covered his eyes. “I cannot see. I wanna see what the horses were doing.”
“They were wrestling,” Chloe said, removing her hands from his eyes the moment the men and the horses were no longer in view.
“Wrestlin’? Like me and Papa do in the garden?” asked Anthony.
“Uh, nay. The horses were doing a sort of animal wrestling. It is not something people do.”
When Anthony just nodded and returned to looking out the window, Chloe looked at the men. They both had a hand over their mouths and their shoulders shook with the laughter they valiantly tried to smother. Men can be such children, she thought with disgust, and turned her attention back to the same scenery that so fascinated Anthony.
It was beautiful countryside they were passing through, she mused, realizing how little of it she had seen or appreciated when she had been in the area three years ago. Then suddenly the beauty was gone. She was seeing the city again. When she realized she was staring at Lady Evelyn’s elegant townhouse, Chloe felt an icy finger scrape down her spine. Then she was inside the house and the vision began to flow past her eyes at an increasing speed. A blood-soaked settee. A pale hand lying limply on a bed. Items knocked to the floor. A broken vase, its pieces scattered next to the twisted form of a young woman. When the face of that young woman passed through her mind, Chloe screamed and everything went black.
Strong arms wrapped around her and Chloe began to hear things. Anthony was crying and she could hear Leo trying to calm the child. Julian was ordering her to open her eyes. Nay, not just her eyes, she mused. Her damn eyes. She almost smiled. Then remnants of her vision wafted through her mind and she gasped even as she opened her eyes. Looking around, she was reassured that she was safe inside the carriage with Anthony, Leo, and Julian.
“I am fine, Anthony,” she quickly reassured the child. “It was just a bad dream.”
“You scareded me,” Anthony said as he climbed up onto her lap.
“I am sorry, Anthony, but, truly, I am fine. Listen to my heart,” she said quietly as she rubbed his back. It was not until Dilys appeared at the door of the carriage that Chloe realized their little caravan had stopped. “Oh, I am so sorry. I had not meant to cause so much trouble.”
“Nay, you did not cause trouble,” said Leo. “It never hurts to let the horses pause for a moment now and again.” He leaned forward and ruffled Anthony’s hair. “Hey-ho, lad, Dilys is here. Why not go with her so that Chloe can rest a bit after having such a bad dream?”
Chloe was reluctant to let the boy leave. It had been a long time since she had held him close as he slept, something she knew he would soon do, and his weight in her arms was a comfort. After kissing his cheek and reassuring him that she was fine, she handed him into the care of Dilys. She had to tell the men what she had seen. Although she could not tell them exactly when the danger would strike out at Lady Evelyn and her daughters, she knew the women needed to
be taken out of the city right away. Since the rest of them were traveling to Colinsmoor, she decided that Lady Evelyn and her daughters would probably be safest with them.
“What did you see?” demanded Leo the moment Dilys and Anthony were gone and the carriage had begun moving again.
“Mayhap it should wait until she is calmer,” said Julian, for he could feel the fine tremors of fear rippling through her body as he held her close.
“Nay, it cannot wait,” Chloe said, and straightened up in her seat, pulling away from Julian just enough to look straight into his eyes. “I think Arthur has gone mad. Or it might be Beatrice who has allowed fury to rob her of all reason.”
“Why would you say that?” asked Julian, alarmed by how white she was. He could almost smell her fear.
“You must go and bring your mother and sisters here, Julian. Bring them now. They need to be taken away from London.”
A cold fist tightened around Julian’s heart, and that was when he realized that he believed in Chloe’s gift. He had no doubt in his mind that his family was in imminent danger. “Tell me what you saw.”
After taking a deep breath to steady herself, Chloe told him everything she had seen and watched all the color drain out of his face. She knew she would remember other details later, whether she wished to or not, but they could not wait. One thing her vision had made horrifyingly clear was that someone intended to turn Lady Evelyn’s lovely home into a charnel house.
“An act of blind, mindless fury,” murmured Leo, yanking on the boots he had shed so that he could be more comfortable in the carriage. “This is a strike at all that you hold dear, Julian.”
“Which means it could be either Arthur or Beatrice. Either is fully capable of such brutality.” Julian was surprised he could speak so calmly when everything inside him shook with fear. “Your vision did not happen to show you when this would happen, did it?” he asked Chloe who looked as terrified as he felt.
She shook her head. “Only where. Do you think he has heard that he is, more or less, already convicted of murder and treason? That you and Leo now hunt him and can kill him without fearing punishment?”
“It is quite possible,” replied Leo. “Ready, Julian?”
“Yes. Chloe.” Julian lost the ability to speak when he saw how glassy her eyes had gone. “Another one? S’blood, Leo, can she bear them coming so often?”
“I have no idea. If it is any comfort, I have never heard of any of our other relatives with such a gift going mad or the like.”
“No, it is not much comfort. Chloe,” he urged when she groaned softly.
Chloe slowly opened her eyes and stared up at Julian’s too pale face. “You must bring your aunt and cousins here, too. Safety in numbers, Lady Marston said.”
“But Aunt Mildred lives in a direction quite opposite from London, where my mother and sisters are.”
“They are not safe, either. He is clearing the fields. If he cannot have what he wants, no one else will.”
“I will go after your aunt and the girls, Julian,” Leo said. “I have men there who can help, and they will be needed at Colinsmoor.”
“But if we both hie off after the others, that will leave Chloe and Anthony alone,” Julian said. “He has to be planning to come after them as well.”
“They will be guarded and guarded well. My men have already cleared away the ones who were faithful to your wife and not just terrified into doing as she asked.”
“Go, Julian. I will be safe.”
“And have you seen that, too?”
“Nay, I just know it. Go and save the rest of your family.”
He gave her a brief, hard kiss and, the moment Leo ordered the carriage stopped, leapt out. Leo was right behind him. Chloe watched as each man gathered a horse and one man to ride with them. She sent a prayer with them, one that asked that they were successful in saving Lady Evelyn and Lady Mildred and their daughters.
The rest of the ride to Colinsmoor was peaceful. Chloe wished she could have enjoyed it. Instead her mind clung to her worry about Leo and Julian and the ones they had gone to save. Things had become so much worse than they had been. Either Arthur or Beatrice had clearly gone mad. No longer was this a matter of protecting the heirs until proof could be found to end Arthur’s deadly game. Now it was about the survival of all the Kenwoods.
When the manor house came into view Chloe could not stop herself from gaping. She had only seen a brief glimpse of it from a distance when she had stayed with Laurel. Never had she thought it would be so huge or so beautiful. A flutter of unease struck her in the belly. How could she ever be mistress to such grandeur?
The carriages rolled to a halt before the big doors of the mansion, and one of the waiting footmen hurried over to put down the steps and open the carriage door. Chloe reluctantly stepped out, her gaze fixed upon the place she was expected to call home. Feeling a little helpless and lost, she looked toward the man who held the carriage door open, only to see another man walking toward the horses, and she gaped.
“Jake?” she whispered, recognizing the man who had left the papers with Anthony, the ones that had helped them prove he was Julian’s son.
The man stopped and turned to look at her. “Miss? Do you know me?”
She moved closer to him. The man looked suddenly pale and she realized that the fear Beatrice and Arthur had bred in these people had not left them yet. “I was in the cottage on the moors, hiding in a niche by the fireplace.” She caught him by the arm when he stumbled back, his face twisted in fear. “Nay, do not fear. I will not harm you, nor will the earl.”
“But what I did—” he began.
“You had no choice. That is understood. But I do believe you and I have to talk.”
Julian leapt down from his horse and ran up to the door of his mother’s townhouse, praying that she would be at home. He was filthy and sweaty, but he had no care for his appearance. Fear for the safety of his family controlled him. He did not think he had ever ridden to London with such speed and lack of care for his mount. When the door was opened, he shoved past the butler and strode into the hall.
“Mother!” he bellowed.
Before he could take a breath to call out again, Lady Evelyn rushed to the top of the stairs and looked down at him in open-mouthed shock. “Julian? What are you doing here? You were on your way to Colinsmoor. What has happened?” she asked as she hurried down the stairs and then she suddenly stopped only a few steps from the bottom. “Anthony?”
“He is fine. Chloe is fine. But you and the girls need to pack and come with me.” He grabbed her by the arm and started to take her back up the stairs.
“Julian, you have to tell me what is wrong. I cannot just leave. I have plans, invitations I have accepted,” she babbled, only to stop speaking when Julian dragged her into her bedchamber and ordered her maid to start packing her belongings. “What are you doing?”
“Getting you and the girls out of here. You are coming to Colinsmoor.” He looked at the maid. “Jane, get someone to pack up the girls’ things, enough for a few days. The rest can be sent down later. Then get back here and do the same for my mother.” He then tugged his mother along with him as he strode into her sitting room.
Lady Evelyn sank into a chair near the fireplace and watched her son pour himself a large drink of wine. For a brief moment she feared he had taken to drink again and this madness was a result of that. Then she saw that he was covered in the dust of a long journey. His hair had been pulled free of its queue and he smelled of sweat and horses. There was a look on his face that told her he was consumed by some fear.
“What is it, Julian? You are frightening me.”
A little calmer, Julian sat down in the seat next to her. “There is something I have not told you about Chloe. You have heard the rumors about the Wherlockes, have you not?”
“Foolish things about them and the Vaughns. Tales of witchcraft and how they can see spirits and the like. Nothing worth repeating.”
“Well, it is
not all foolishness. This is to be kept secret,” he said and she nodded. “A lot of them do have some strange, er, skills. Chloe has visions.”
“Visions?” Lady Evelyn frowned. “You mean she sees the future as some gypsies claim they can?”
“I suspect they claim a gift they do not have. Chloe really has the gift. Have you never wondered how she managed to save Anthony? How did she come to be there when her sister needed her, when my son needed her? She saw it. She never would have gotten word that she was needed in time to help in any other way.” When his mother said nothing, just stared at him, he told her of other ways Chloe’s gift had aided and protected him. “She truly has visions. I doubted at first, but no longer. If you could see her when she is gripped by one, you would believe it, too.”
“How miraculous, but what does that have to do with you rushing in here like a madman and demanding we all go to Colinsmoor?”
“She saw you and the girls murdered.” He quickly rose and poured her some wine when she paled. “Here,” he said as he handed her the drink, “steady yourself. I do not mean to upset you, but I do not have time for delicacy. There is more. Leo has gone to get Aunt Mildred and the girls because Chloe said they, too, were in danger.”
“And you trust in what she has told you? You are certain we need to flee?”
“I have just nearly ridden my horse to death to get here as swiftly as I could. Yes, I believe it. Even if I did not have full confidence in what she says she has seen, I would still do as she asked. Arthur or Beatrice have acted with a recklessness of late that hints at madness. But I do believe in what she says she has seen. Since she cannot tell me when this will happen, I must insist that you come with me now.”
Lady Evelyn finished off her wine in a very unladylike hurry and then stood up. “Then we will go with you. You go and clean up while I see that we have packed enough to last us until the rest of our things can be sent on.” She pulled him to his feet and started to push him toward the room he had once used. “I believe there are some clothes stored in your old room. Some of yours, some of your father’s, and even some of Nigel’s. There will be something you can use. I will tell my companion to send our regrets to all the people we have agreed to visit and have the carriage brought round.”
If He’s Wicked Page 19
