by Laura Landon
Austin wasn’t sure what that had to do with anything, but he wasn’t about to ask. Teeth weren’t nearly as important as her accusation that the child was in danger. “You said you thought someone intended to harm the boy.”
“No, Captain Landwell. I didn’t say I thought someone intended to harm Jonathan. I said someone tried to kill him.”
Austin studied the determined look on her face. “Tell me what happened.”
She lifted her gaze. “May I ask you a question first?”
He nodded.
“How did you find me?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes. I thought I’d covered my trail enough that no one would find me. I just want to know what mistake I made that led you here.”
He couldn’t help but smile. “You didn’t make a mistake, Lady Fledgemont. You made yourself obvious.”
“How?”
Austin lowered his gaze to the babe sleeping in the cradle. “People are naturally drawn to a woman with a babe. They remember her. They remember the babe. All I needed to do was mention that you were recently widowed and traveling with a babe. I explained that I was your brother and had come to take you home to be with your family but you must not have received my letter because you left before I arrived.” He looked at her and smiled. “Everyone was more than willing to offer any information that might assist me in finding you.”
“I see.”
“Don’t feel bad. There wasn’t anything you could have done to hide the babe.”
She sighed. “I suppose not.”
“Now, continue with why you’re convinced Lord Penderly hired someone to kill his grandson.”
She sat in a chair beside the cradle and reached out to touch the babe. Her fingers trembled as if reliving the event was uncomfortable. She lifted Jonathan’s tiny hand and placed her finger in his palm. He clasped his fist around it as he slept.
It took several more long seconds before she spoke. “Miss Bentley and I stayed at the cottage in Wakemoor where Gregory and I had made our home. I fully intended to remain there forever.” She looked up. “I thought we were safe there. I didn’t think Penderly would bother with us once he realized I wasn’t a threat to him. Then, one night, I found out how desperate he was to rid the Penderly name of any connection to an actress.
“Jonathan woke during the night. He was hungry.” She smiled. “But that wasn’t unusual. He still wakes up during the night demanding to be fed. I fed him and he fell back to sleep. But I couldn’t sleep. That’s when I heard it.”
She released the baby’s grasp and stepped to the opposite side of the room. A small fire crackled in the grate, not a blaze, but enough to warm the room. She shivered, though, as if she was chilled.
“At first I thought it was the wind, or perhaps an animal close to the cottage, then I realized the noises were closer. Someone was in the house. If I’d been asleep, I wouldn’t have heard the sounds. When the stairs creaked, I knew the intruder was on his way up.”
She twisted her hands in front of her, then hugged her middle as if warding off the cold. But Austin knew she wasn’t shielding herself from the cold. It was fear.
She turned and he saw the lingering memory of the terror still in her eyes.
“I grabbed a poker from the fireplace and hid behind a tall armoire. A man walked into the room and made his way to where Jonathan slept.”
She was trembling now. From where he stood he could see her body shake. She gave a small cry and clasped both hands over her mouth.
Before he could evaluate his actions, he crossed the room and gathered her against him. “It’s all right. You’re safe now.”
She didn’t pull away like he thought she might, but remained close to him—as if she found comfort in his arms.
“I watched him, thinking he only wanted to see the babe, only wanted to know for sure that there was a child. Then, he lifted the quilted blanket that covered the babe and brought it down over Jonathan’s face.”
She trembled harder and Austin moved his hands along her arm, comforting her, holding her closer.
“I don’t remember striking him, but one minute he stood over Jonathan’s cradle, the next he lay crumpled on the floor.”
She lifted her head and sucked in a small gasp. Their nearness seemed to surprise her and she stepped out of his arms. “I grabbed what I could fit into a bag and we fled. The rest you know.”
Silence surrounded them. He was glad. Enough questions raced through his mind to which he didn’t have answers. Could Penderly have been behind the attempt to kill the child? If so, he’d made a terrible error in judgment. One that could cost a child his life.
She stepped back to the cradle as if she could physically keep him from taking the child, if that was his intent. The glaring determination in her gaze told him how desperate she was to protect the babe.
“Penderly doesn’t want his family’s name tarnished with Jonathan’s blood—with an actress’s blood. He doesn’t want anything to do with Jonathan. And if you are naïve enough to believe he does, my child will pay for it with his life.”
Jonathan stirred in the cradle and she rolled him to his stomach.
She lifted her gaze and looked at him with an intensity that told him she was ready to do battle as she patted the babe’s back in an attempt to soothe him back to sleep. “It would be best for you to leave. Report to Lord Penderly that he has nothing to fear. Tell him the actress he so despised is dead. There’s no need to tell him you discovered Jonathan.”
Austin started to tell her how impossible that was, but the babe chose that moment to announce he was awake and had no intention of going back to sleep.
Lady Fledgemont gave Austin an angry glare as if it was his fault the infant’s nap had been cut short, then wrapped a blanket around little Jonathan and picked him up.
“He’ll want to eat now,” she said, to explain the baby’s fussing.
Austin experienced a wave of unease. “I’ll leave.” He stepped toward the door. He had no intention of staying in the room with a mother who needed to feed her babe.
“That’s not necessary. I can’t… uh…I mean, I… I have milk already warmed for him in the kitchen.”
Bright pink circles dotted her cheeks. She was obviously deeply embarrassed. Maybe she wasn’t able to feed the boy. He’d heard of women who weren’t, especially in Society. Wet nurses were often hired to provide that service, but he wasn’t sure if Lady Fledgemont had the means to hire one. Or if that’s what she meant.
He suddenly wondered how much Viscount Fledgemont had provided for his widow. Wondered if she had enough food for herself and the babe.
He studied her, looking for any indication she went without. Austin suddenly experienced an unfamiliar desire to make sure she was cared for, but told himself that being concerned with a female who was alone in the world was only natural.
She nestled the babe close to her and walked across the room. He remembered seeing his sister, Liddy, hold little Rachel shortly after she was born. Lady Fledgemont had that same look, the look a mother had for her child. His heart ached from seeing such warmth on her face, but he ignored it.
He swiped his damp palms against his jacket, then opened the door and followed her when she walked down the stairs.
“Can I do anything to help?” he asked when they reached the kitchen.
She shook her head. “I can manage.”
She placed the babe in a cradle close to the hearth and gave him a knotted rag toy. Little Jonathan promptly stuffed the cloth in his mouth and chewed on it while Lady Fledgemont heated milk. When the liquid reached a desired temperature, she poured a generous quantity into a glass jar. Then she attached an object that looked remarkably like a cow’s teat to the top of the glass and lifted Jonathan into her arms. She grabbed a blanket and sat in a wooden rocker near the hearth.
The instant she placed the nipple near the baby’s mouth, he reached for it and suckled as if he hadn’t eaten in days.
Austi
n wanted to laugh at how eager the lad was to be fed. “He has a healthy appetite. I’ll say that for him.”
Lady Fledgemont smiled as she watched her son eat. “He grows more every week. He’s going to be a big lad, like his father.”
Her expression changed from peaceful contentment to a haunted loneliness. She obviously hadn’t recovered from her husband’s death. “Does Jonathan resemble his father?”
She nodded, then smiled. “As you can tell, he didn’t get his coloring or his features from his mother.”
Austin compared the baby’s dark blond hair and bright blue eyes to Lady Fledgemont’s auburn hair and wide-set brown eyes. The lady also had an oval-shaped face with high cheekbones, and a pert nose that tilted at the end, where the babe had a round, chubby face with cheekbones hidden within the fullness.
Austin had known Lady Fledgemont would be beautiful. He’d heard the actress had the look of an angel. He didn’t know why, but he thought that meant he’d find a woman with golden blond hair instead of the rich auburn coloring Lady Fledgemont had. Combined with her unique features, she had an intriguing look, an earthy look that stirred his blood.
“He’s a very handsome lad,” Austin said, pulling his thoughts away from where they wanted to go. From the adoring look in her eyes, she obviously loved her child too much to care which one of his parents he took after.
Jonathan took that moment to turn his head and release the teat from his mouth. He flapped his arms and legs excitedly, then looked up at his mother and blew a stream of white frothy bubbles. Lady Fledgemont’s eyes glistened with merriment and she laughed at her son’s antics.
The sound was rich and sincere. Before he could erect the wall he always kept around his emotions, the sound drew him to her like metal to a magnet.
He took a step back. Perhaps if he separated himself from her, the net she’d thrown over him wouldn’t seem so binding. Perhaps if he put a barricade around his emotions he wouldn’t feel so exposed.
“You’re not married, are you?” she asked.
The question took him off guard. Their conversation wasn’t going down the expected path, though he wasn’t sure at the moment what path that might be.
“I’m sorry,” she quickly added. “What I meant was that you don’t have children, do you?”
He shook his head. “No, to both your questions. I’m neither married, nor do I have children. Is that important?”
She laughed again, unleashing another shower of shimmering air to cascade around him.
“No, it’s not important, but if you were married with children, you’d realize that even the children most lacking in features are beautiful in their mother’s eyes.”
His gaze caught hers and he said the first words out of his mouth. “But in your case, it would be impossible to have a child who wasn’t beautiful.”
Her cheeks turned a brilliant pink and she lowered her gaze.
Austin mentally called himself every kind of fool imaginable. Why had he said that? He could have stayed focused on his mission, asked her any of the hundred questions the detective in him needed to ask. Instead, he told her she was beautiful.
What was wrong with him? He was behaving like the ‘old’ Austin. The Austin he’d been before the war. The Austin who flirted with beautiful women and sought their company. The Austin who enjoyed the fairer sex and being with them. The Austin who still had something to offer a woman. But that Austin was dead.
The Austin he was now had taken too many lives to count, both on the battlefield and off. The man he’d become had ruined the lives of countless families here in England, including the Earl of Penderly’s. The soul inside him was black as tar. And now he was paying compliments to Penderly’s daughter-in-law as if it didn’t matter that she was a widow—a widow who’d obviously loved her husband very much. A widow who’d been in mourning less than six months.
He mentally reprimanded his inexcusable behavior, then assumed the cold, impersonal detective he’d become since the war and turned to face her. “So, Lady Fledgemont, what is our next step? How do you see this dilemma resolved?”
The baby’s bottle was empty and Lady Fledgemont placed Jonathan to her shoulder and patted his back. “You know what I want. I’ve made myself clear from the start. I want to be left alone. I want the Earl of Penderly to believe I am dead. I don’t want him to know Jonathan exists. The question is, what do you intend to do?”
She rocked little Jonathan harder, which was the only indication of her nervousness, her unease. She was obviously a woman who’d always been in control, but in this she wasn’t. And she knew it.
“I won’t give Jonathan away. He’s my son. I’ll never give him up.”
“No one is asking you to give him up,” he said, needing to ease her mind.
“You are, if you’re intent on telling Penderly about him.”
“That won’t happen.”
“Then you will go away from here and forget you found us?” The expression on her face filled with hopefulness.
“No.”
Her expression died.
“I intend to visit the Earl of Penderly once more and ask some questions. I want him to convince me he doesn’t intend to harm you.”
“And the babe?”
“He won’t harm the babe either. I promise you that.”
Her expression darkened. She was evaluating how much she could trust him, both with her own life, and that of her son.
“I need your promise that you’ll wait here until I return from talking to Lord Penderly. We’ll decide then what steps to take.”
“You want me to meekly sit here like a lamb awaiting the slaughter?”
There was anger in her eyes. Fury in her expression. He needed to calm her. “No. You will not be sacrificed. Nor will your son.”
“Then what?”
“All I ask, Lady Fledgemont, is your promise to remain here while I speak to your father-in-law. If he is responsible for the attempt on Jonathan’s life, I’ll protect both you and your babe. I’ll take you where I know you’ll be safe.”
“And if you aren’t convinced he’s responsible?”
Austin hesitated. He considered avoiding the truth, but one look into her eyes told him that would be the wrong choice. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
She gave her babe a secure hug, then rose with him. She placed him in a cradle near the warmth of the hearth and gave him the knotted rag toy with which to play. When she turned to face him, he saw the resolve in her expression. He almost breathed a sigh of relief. She would trust him enough to give him the time he needed to discover whether or not the Earl of Penderly had lied to him.
“How long will you be gone?”
“No more than a few hours.”
“And when you return?”
“I will tell you what I discovered.”
She nodded. “I need a promise from you, then.”
“What promise?”
“That you’ll return alone. That you won’t bring Penderly here.”
“I give you my word. I won’t bring Penderly here until I’m certain you’ll be safe.”
She slowly turned then sat in the chair by the table. “Gregory always warned me to be cautious. He said, as Lady Fledgemont I needed to be more discerning. Perhaps he was right. Perhaps in this case he would encourage me to trust you.”
She shifted her gaze to her babe. He was cooing contentedly as if the world weren’t a very dangerous place in which to live. With a deep sigh, she lifted her chin. “As Lady Fledgemont, I give you my promise to wait for you. If you promise you will return alone.”
“I will.”
“Very well.”
“Thank you.” Austin turned to the door. “I’ll show myself out.”
He left the room, then let himself out of Lady Fledgemont’s neatly kept house. He’d meant what he’d promised. If he doubted one word of what Penderly told him, or if even one flicker of doubt crossed his mind while they visited, he’d race back here
and take Lady Fledgemont and her babe where no one would ever find them.
No one for whom he was responsible would ever lose their life again. He couldn’t live with the guilt if they did.
He lived with enough guilt the way it was.
Chapter 4
Austin handed his hat and cloak to the Penderly butler and waited in the entryway to be announced. The Penderly town house was as elegant as any he’d seen. More inviting than most. His impression of the home where Lady Fledgemont and Jonathan would live was positive. He waited to see if something dispelled the feeling. That would determine what he decided to do.
“Lord Penderly is eager to see you, sir,” the butler said when he returned. “Please, follow me.”
Austin followed the butler down a long hallway and entered the room after he’d been announced.
“Captain Landwell,” Penderly said, rising to greet him. “You couldn’t have come at a better time. I was just explaining to my family that I’d hired you to find Miss Flemming.”
Austin scanned his surroundings. He’d expected to meet Penderly in private. Instead, the room was crowded with strangers.
“Allow me to introduce you.” Penderly stepped to one of the two ladies seated on the settee. “Estelle, you remember Captain Landwell. Landwell, my wife, Lady Penderly.”
“Of course.”
Austin bowed. “My lady.”
“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Captain Landwell. You were the officer who came to see us after Jarrod died.”
“Yes, my lady. I was.”
“I remember how kind you were. And now you’ve come to help us again.”
Lady Penderly’s eyes grew damp and Austin lowered his gaze before his courage left him.
He hadn’t expected to see Lieutenant Dunstan’s mother again, hadn’t expected to revisit the loss and hurt for which he was responsible. “Your son was a very brave soldier, my lady. It was an honor to serve with him.”
“Thank you, Captain Landwell.”
