Vern beamed. “Good sort, Sir Edward, but I still mean to run the blackguard through.” He frowned at her, “What did he want with you?”
“He wanted me to know he knew it had been me at the Mermaid and not some male relative.”
“Drat the night I sent you there and may I forever rot in hell for putting you through this.” Vern was once again attacking his head.
“Stop that,” she said pulling his hand away and kissing his fingers. “Never mind all that now. This is not the time for recriminations and regrets. What is done is done. We must move forward and muddle through,” she admonished her brother in severe accents.
“Yes, yes, of course, you are quite right, younger and so much wiser sister,” he managed a smile. “Tell me all of it, don’t leave anything out.”
She had to leave a great deal out and felt the blush creep into her cheeks, “There isn’t much more. He wants something from you, and I don’t think he means to stop till he gets it, even though I could see that Sir Edward had put some fear into him.”
“Star, I can’t have you hurt in this. I may have to give him what he wants,” her brother said gloomily.
“Oh no you don’t! For if you do, he will never give up until you end up in a goal or worse.” She wagged a finger at him. “I don’t know what it is you are hiding from me, but you shan’t deal with Farley even one more time.”
“Yes, but Star…”
“What then—shall we buckle like cowards to a common thief? No, he is more horrible than a thief, for he has no soul. Farley is the worst of his kind. You and I shall manage. We won’t give in to this scoundrel and eventually he will move on to greener pastures,” she told him.
“Star? What about Georgie?”
“Whatever do you mean?” She eyed him. “I didn’t tell her anything about all this, though she nearly ran me through,” Star said and giggled.
“She accepted?”
“I told her it wasn’t my story to divulge.”
He grinned, “I mean to marry her, you know.”
“She won’t have you. There, I have said it plainly so that you must heed me. Georgie loves you like a brother. She won’t marry you.” She eyed him and saw from his thoughtful frown that he wasn’t at all hurt. “I take it your affection for Georgie is not the passionate sort?”
He laughed, “What do you know of passion?”
“I know you haven’t a passion for Georgie. It is the same for you both. You love her like a sister. She loves you like a brother. Marriage would be absurd.” She laughed and added, “Probably even a bit incestuous.”
“Star!” he returned in shocked accents.
She laughed and then sighed. “You knew that right? That you didn’t stand a chance with Georgie?”
“Aye, I suppose in my heart I knew…but, it would solve so many problems.”
“And create new ones. We shall figure out a way, Vern…we must,” Star said.
“I still think I should make a push to have Georgie.”
“Vern!” Star said in exasperation. “She wants someone else!”
“Does she, by God? Who? Who, Star?”
“I can’t tell you,” Star said and laughed at his expression. “I don’t know why it is I have to go around holding everyone’s secrets in my head. It is most uncomfortable. What I need…what we need, is some afternoon tea and cakes.”
“Deuced good idea and then you can tell me who Georgie wants instead of me.” He put his hand to his heart, “I shall never get over the pain of losing her.”
She laughed at him, “Vern, you can’t lose what you never had.”
Chapter Seventeen
FARLEY HAD ALWAYS heard there was a heart beating in Romney Marsh and that it was to be found in the east of Rhee Wall. Legend described this stretch of marsh as the fifth quarter of the globe. Its length of swampy flatland was unattractive to one at first glance. To those that troubled, as he did, to look again, found the inexplicable, the air of mystery and a place that held and kept one’s soul.
It was covered in dikes, which intersected the countryside and was often laced with low hanging mist-filled clouds. Now and then a hill rolled through a sprinkling of trees, some were misshapen and eerie to look at, but Farley loved looking at this stretch of land and it was where he had made his home.
His was a one room thatched cottage, gray from age and lack of care, but its lonely location served him well. Deep in thought, he sat by his small hearth, rubbing his hands in front of the fire. With a heavy sigh he sat back and touched his scarred nose. A knock sounded at his door and he called out, “Come in lads.”
His men were punctual. He liked that in them. He was in a foul mood. His plan to take on the young lord’s sister had not gone well. He had been surprised by that flash gent that had arrived and intercepted his plans. Their funds were low and something would have to be done to keep his crew together.
“Right then Farley, do we cover the highway tonight?” One of them asked as he sat at the round table in the middle of the room.
He hadn’t worked the highway with them in an age and Farley was leery about reentering that field. High tobys were getting snatched up by the law in this area but it would appear they would have to go out just one more time. “Aye,” he said slowly, not turning to look at them when he spoke. “That we do lads…but let me think on it a bit. We gots to do it right.”
“We could prig the first carriage that passes through on the Dymchurch Road, we could,” another man stuck in.
“Chucklehead!” the chubby man to his left said derisively. “The Dymchurch Road, is it? Wit every nook of it covered by the land excisemen looking for a smuggler on his way to deliver his goods to London!”
“Well, we ain’t smugglers. They wouldn’t bother with us,” the man answered him.
The chubby man took off his wool cap and smacked the man’s shoulder, “Whot now, are ye naught but a twiddle-poop?” Then to no one in particular, he said, “A snirp. I’m dealing with a snirp!”
Farley got up from his chair near the fire and put his fists on the table, “Aye, Oi think we best stay clear of the free traders’ routes.”
“The other roads ain’t traveled that well by the swells…” offered another man.
“Oi know. That’s why we gave up riding the highway in the first place. If it isn’t a free trader in our way, it’s the excisemen. Well Oi don’t mean for us to bump into either of them.”
The chubby man shook his head and said as he held out a mug he had fetched from a side table, “Lor’ bless ye, man. Drop a bit of firewater in that, will ye?”
Farley grinned, took up a bottle of gin and poured a generous amount into the man’s mug before sliding it across the table to the others. “Now, there is a well-traveled road that goes into Hastings. It might be nicely traveled this time of summer by some of the swells, what wit the flash coves giving their routs and small balls here and there.”
“Well, whot then and when?” asked another of his men.
“Right. Listen up, then, lads, listen up.” Farley’s grin was wide for he had it now planned out in his head just what they would do.
*
“Did Star seem unusually preoccupied to you?” Georgie asked Jules as they slowly rode their horses down the road. He had been attentive in a gentlemanly manner, but aloof ever since he had walked into Vern’s bedroom and appeared shocked to find her so close to Vern.
She knew how it had appeared and had been at pains, with offhanded remarks designed to display that she and Vern were like brother and sister. Had it worked? Apparently not, for he still seemed to hold himself apart.
He frowned and said without committed interest, “Quiet, perhaps. She seemed quiet, but then, Georgie, you know her so much better than I do.”
“Ah, so you say…”
“Well, don’t you? You seem to be very close, you and Star, as I see you are to Lord Berkley.”
“Vern? Yes, I hold him in great affection, like the brother I never had,” she said poin
tedly.
He eyed her for a long moment before he smiled, “Indeed. He seems to have a different notion.”
“Oh yes, but not because of any passion for me. He is in need of making a ‘good connection’ and bringing Berkley back.” She sighed, “You must see that?”
He seemed to give this some thought and nodded and with an obvious show of relief before asking, “What do you really think is going on? I agree with you, something is off with those two.”
Georgie was relieved for she was sure he now believed that she thought dearly of Vern but only as a friend. She sighed over his question and said, “Yes, a great deal is off, but when I asked her what in particular occurred earlier today, she would only sigh and say naught.”
“And you don’t believe that nothing occurred?”
“No, sir. I do not believe her at all. Something has happened…since last night, I think on her ride this morning. I am certain of it, but I can’t think what it might be. At first I thought it might have something to do with Sir Edward.” She bit her lip thinking she had said too much.
Jules’ brow went up. “What do you mean? Why would Sir Edward…I mean…?” He faltered then and she hurriedly waved this off.
“I am speaking nonsense. Pay me no mind.”
“Yes, but Georgie…,” he started.
“I am only worrying for nothing,” she cut in.
“So then what we have is the fact that you as her friend did not believe her when she told you nothing was wrong,” he mused out loud.
“Precisely so, sir. I did not believe her. Something is very wrong.”
“What do you think it is?” he asked frowning over the problem. “Her brother’s health?”
“No, he is on the mend. Oh Jules, you see, when I pressed her she told me she had bumped into Sir Edward during her morning ride. She was about to tell me something more when she suddenly bit her lip, turned away from me and would not meet my eye.” Georgie shook her head. “I must get to the bottom of this before she and Vern plunge deeper into…into whatever it is they have already muddied their feet in.”
“Muddied their feet? Whatever can you mean? Do you think Edward might have upset her somehow when she met him during her ride?” he pursued.
“No, I do not. In fact, when she spoke of Sir Edward, it was the only time I truly saw her smile. No, this is something else altogether, something horrible, but I cannot fathom what.” She looked around and saw that he should have turned off toward the left if he was headed for either Stamford or town and said, “Oh sir, you needn’t see me all the way to my house. Thank you for listening to me and coming this far out of your way.”
“I have not come out of my way, since my way was anywhere you chose to go,” he said gallantly and his eyes glinted brightly.
She couldn’t tear her gaze away from his eyes and for a moment, found it difficult to breathe. She said on a scarcely audible whisper, “You are too kind.”
“Why, for grasping at the pleasure of your company?”
“Thank you, but honestly, I can see myself home,” she countered. A part of her was irritated with him. He openly still seemed to be looking to court Star. How could he blatantly flirt with her if it was Star he wanted? She did not think he wanted Star in earnest, but even so, she would not be caught in the middle of this.
“But, I insist on doing that for you.” His smile was warm, his voice low and she thought intense. How could he? How could he switch from one woman onto another? Who did he really want?
Suddenly swept up in a moment of agitation so foreign to her that she felt at a loss for words, she said with a touch of annoyance, “Jules, I am quite accustomed to roaming at will between Madison and Berkley.” Bolstered by her own words, she eyed him challengingly. “If my mother does not object and she does not, how then, can you?”
“Indulge me,” he said cajolingly. “I should like to see you safely home.” His voice was soft, caressing, his eyes full with the sincerity of his words.
“You are all that is chivalrous…”
He cut her off, “I am only being selfish, my dear.”
“How so?”
“It affords me that much more time in your company.” He laughed at her expression and added, “Now don’t go pulling one of your cynical looks at me, my girl. I swear, I mean every word.”
The next words that spilled out of her mouth came without brain function. “As you are most sincere when you say the same thing to every maid in your company, I am sure.” As soon as the words were out and she heard them, she wanted to sink into the ground. Why had she said such a thing?
He was surprised. “Is that what you think of me? You have me confused with Miles, I believe and you wrong me, Georgie.”
“I wrong you?” Had he not been chasing her dearest friend Star? Had he not shown a preference for Star? The words had come because it was what she felt. Georgie never stomped her feet. She couldn’t now because she was on horseback, but she had the urge to stomp a foot at him. “How can I wrong you when I have heard you speak thusly to my dearest friend, Star?”
“Indeed, that does not mitigate my sincerity when I speak to you,” he countered unwisely. Evidently he had been trapped in the moment and had not been able to think of a defense.
Infuriated now, Georgie put up her chin, “I take leave to tell you that you are an outrageous flirt.”
“I am not, I swear to you…” he answered turning a bright shade of red.
She didn’t know what was wrong with her. She never was so emotional. Why was she now? She said, “I cannot believe that you are not aware that you have made Star, the object of your attentions for some weeks now.”
“Yes, but then…” he stopped himself and regarded her speculatively, unable to continue.
“Precisely, sir.” With which Georgie rode off toward the bridle path that would take her the remaining distance to Madison Stables. She wanted to cry and rant at herself. She had been unable to stem the flow of her words and tone. What was wrong with her? That was no way to win a man. But, she didn’t want to win a man. She wanted him to freely love her as she loved him. She didn’t want to play at games. She didn’t want to flirt and be coy and tease. She wanted him to feel for her, want her, love her above all others. She wanted him to know his mind and she wanted his mind and heart to see only her.
She loved Jules Stamford with all her being, and this total realization made her burst into tears.
*
The Berkley library was a cozy scene, Star thought as she looked around. Candles burned softly in their holders and the summer evening had brought a cool chill, so that she had closed the windows and lit the fire in the hearth. She watched her brother push the logs around in the grate while Miles told him he wasn’t stacking them correctly and laughed.
Miles had joined them for an early dinner. He had stayed on while the sun went down and had kept them entertained with anecdotes.
Star plopped onto the sofa while she waited for the men to finish their ‘work’ at the fireplace and take up their drinks and join her.
Miles came to sit beside her and sighed comfortably as he sipped his brandy and advised her happily, “Good stuff this. I’d wager it never saw the inside of the customs house.” He found this amusing and chuckled.
Star gave him a soft smile. She was really only half listening as her mind was elsewhere. Vern left the fireplace, downed his brandy and paced by the window and with his hands clasped behind his back and asked Miles, “How much do you think that old relic of a yacht would fetch me?”
Miles screwed up his mouth as he thought about this, “I don’t quite know…but do you really want to part with it?”
Vern shrugged, “I can remember my father standing at the helm…but sentimentality has to be discarded at times like these. Do you think it might fetch a handsome coin?”
“As a matter of fact, it is in fairly decent condition. Yes, yes, I think it might. Shall I take care of the matter for you? I’ll send my man to attend to it, Vern.”
>
“Would you, Miles? Best of good fellows…”
“Yes, we shall get the finances in hand, you and I, now that I am aware of the problem, but we have to do something about Farley. We cannot allow him to threaten Star. That, my friend is punishable by death, as far as I am concerned.” Miles announced strongly.
“Yes, I quite agree. Mean to find him and run the fellow through as soon as I get stronger,” Vern answered staunchly.
“Stop it, both of you! We must not go outside the law,” Star admonished.
“Challenge him to a duel…” Miles said. “That is what I shall do.”
“Also quite against the law,” Star stuck in.
“Indeed, besides one does not duel with the likes of Farley. He hasn’t a shred of honor in his blood. He would have his henchmen shoot you in the back. No, he must be dealt with as his lives… ruthlessly!”
“Agreed, let’s just put a bullet in his head when we find him,” Miles said.
“No, no, stop it! You shan’t do such a thing. I won’t have it,” Star said. “If anyone is to kill him, it should be me! I am the one he accosted and if he tries it again, I shall be ready for him.”
“There are some things, a man does not discuss with his sister,” Vern told her.
“Too late, you already have, and this sister knows too much to be left out at this juncture. Honestly,” Star said shaking her head.
“Let us play at ducks and drakes. Where is the board?” Miles said all at once and although Star got to her feet and fetched the board and pieces from the cupboard she glared at him and said, “Don’t think for one moment that I am fooled. I will have my eyes on both of you!”
Chapter Eighteen
IT WAS A well sprung coach of modern design. Its lines were sleek and its doors carried its owner’s crest painted in gold. It was led by a pair of matched bay geldings and Websly, the driver at the long reins knew his job well.
He called out to his employer through a small trap door at his back and said that he was sorry for the bumpy road and hoped sir was not too uncomfortable.
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