by Jane Godman
And what of Rosie? The miracle was that the girl he loved had survived the horror of what she had endured. To say the woman she had become was unscathed would be going too far, but her heart and spirit were intact. Try as you would, you could not damage them, Sheridan. She was too strong for you. Jack knew a quiet satisfaction, although the thought was at odds with the restless, furious energy seething through him.
“Then we must bring this matter to a speedy end.” His friend’s eyes were momentarily softened by sympathy before the Falcon became brisk. “I have not yet discovered Sheridan’s hiding place, but I can say with reasonable certainty that he is still in the vicinity.”
“How so?”
“He has been somewhat busy. I take it you have not yet heard of the attacks being wrought on the good townsfolk of Matlock?” Jack shook his head and the Falcon continued. “In the last week, six tradesmen have been subjected to violent beatings and their premises have been set alight.”
“Can you say for certain it was Sheridan who carried out the attacks?”
“I can because my men, who have been on the lookout for him, saw Sheridan entering the properties. Sadly, the law cannot be as certain. The traders themselves cannot identify their attacker because he was masked and did not speak. There is considerable speculation in the town, however, since those targeted were all owed considerable sums by Sheridan and have been outspoken in their condemnation of his refusal to pay his debts.”
“Rosie thinks his mind is unhinged.”
The Falcon nodded. “That too is becoming a matter for speculation.”
“So much for Lady Harpenden’s attempts to keep the matter quiet.” Jack regarded his friend with a slight smile. “I had hoped this could be over and done with faster. I imagine a spell in the country was not high on your list of priorities?”
“Never fear, my friend. I am settled at a small inn near Belper, where the landlady has a way with pork shoulder that is nothing short of miraculous.” The Falcon’s face became serious once more. “Have you considered getting Lady Sheridan away to a place of safety?”
“Of course. If necessary, I will send her, the child and young Harry to Lachlan. I know Fraser will take good care of them.”
The Falcon raised his brows. “Send? Not escort?”
Jack’s lips thinned. Briefly, he outlined the story Harry had told him earlier that day. “I have scores of my own to settle with Sheridan, but I’m adding this one to the list on behalf of young Harry.”
“I’ve enough of my men here to see them safe across the border and into the highlands should such a step be needed. But I will be at your side.” The Falcon held out his hand.
Jack clasped it gratefully. “There is no-one I would rather have in that position when I face Sheridan.”
The two men parted, and Jack made his way back to Delacourt Grange across the fields. Rosie’s voice was the first thing he heard as he entered the house. His heart lurched with the strength of his love for her. The need to hold her in his arms and soothe away her cares erased any other thoughts.
“Rosie, I must speak with you…” The words died on his lips as he entered the parlour. Lady Harpenden was seated with Rosie, her face a mask of disapproval as she observed the informality of his approach.
“Oh, Jack—I mean, my lord—the strangest thing has occurred. Lady Drummond did not arrive back at Sheridan Hall after she was here earlier today. Lady Harpenden came to see if I had any inkling of where she might have gone.”
Jack checked the clock. “It is nigh on three hours since she left. Mayhap she went shopping and has lost track of time?”
“No.” Rosie shook her head. “For I distinctly recall her telling me she had already been to the shops in Matlock before she came to see me.”
“Could she have called on another acquaintance in the area?” Jack addressed his question directly to Lady Harpenden.
“It is many years since my sister and I were resident in this locality. There is no-one she knows well enough to pay them an unannounced visit.”
“It does seem an odd circumstance that Lady Drummond should not have returned home, but we must bear in mind she was in a carriage driven by a coachman and drawn by four horses. They cannot simply have vanished into thin air.” Although Rosie strove for a comforting tone, the glance she cast in Jack’s direction was deeply troubled. “Can they?”
“One assumes not. Come to think of it, if your ladyship has no carriage, how did you make the journey here from Sheridan Hall?”
Lady Harpenden drew herself up straighter in her chair. “I walked, of course. I am not yet so stricken in years that I cannot manage to traverse a few fields.”
Jack looked out of the window across the open land at the route her ladyship must have taken. She would have been an easy target for anyone watching from the surrounding hillside. “I would not presume to doubt your ability, Lady Harpenden. I must, however, question the wisdom of such an action at this time.”
Her brows snapped together. “I will not pretend to misunderstand your meaning. You are suggesting what we are all thinking. That Clive is responsible for my sister’s disappearance. If that is the case, what must be done to find her?”
“Let us not be hasty. An accident may have befallen her carriage, and for some reason no word could be sent to raise help. I will take a couple of stable hands out with me to search the road between here and Sheridan Hall. We will follow the route Lady Drummond’s carriage should have taken. In the meantime, you must remain here at Delacourt Grange with Rosie, where Tom Drury can guard you both.”
“It is very good of you to concern yourself with my family’s affairs, my lord.” The words appeared to have been wrenched from her lips with great difficulty. From a woman of such enormous pride, it was almost grovelling.
Jack’s lips twitched slightly, but before he could reply, Rosie got to her feet and drew him to one side. She spoke softly so that Lady Harpenden could not hear. “Pray do all you can to find her, Jack. I do not wish to believe Clive capable of harming Lady Drummond, but I have the most horrible feeling about this.”
Since Jack shared her misgivings, he had little to offer her by way of comfort. “Am I right in thinking that there is one direct road between here and Sheridan Hall?”
“Yes. It is little more than a lane, wide enough for one carriage. There are no crossroads and no other route for a vehicle to take.” She raised her face to his, and he resisted the urge to draw her into his arms and kiss away the worry from her expression.
To hell with Lady Harpenden, whose hawk-bright eyes he could feel burning into his back. Dropping a light kiss onto Rosie’s temple, he drank in the fresh scent of her hair.
He found Tom down at the stables and swiftly apprised him of the situation. “I need the lads to come with me, but get yourself up to the house to guard Rosie and Lady Harpenden. This may be another ploy to get me away from the house so that Rosie is alone and vulnerable. And send one of the kitchen maids with a message to this address near Belper. I need to apprise the Falcon of what has transpired.”
Tom’s jaw dropped. “You mean the Falcon has been close by all this time?”
Jack nodded briefly. “That must remain our secret, Tom.” If there was anyone he could trust, he knew it was Tom.
After a brief flurry of activity, Jack set off along the road to Sheridan Hall, accompanied by Joseph, three stable hands and the footman who came in each day to help Mrs. Glover at mealtimes. Once Delacourt Grange was behind them, the woods on either side of the narrow road became eerily quiet. Jack instructed the group to split up in pairs as they searched the area. If the Falcon was correct and Sheridan was close by, no-one connected to Delacourt Grange would be safe. Jack himself paired up with Joseph to search the right-hand side of the lane. It wasn’t long before a shout went up, and they congregated back to examine the carriage tracks on the rutted surface.
&nb
sp; “’Tis clear to see what has happened, my lord.” One of the young lads squatted and pointed. “Looks like the carriage halted here quite suddenly and then left the road.” They followed the direction of his finger. A gap between the trees—wide enough to permit a carriage to fit through it—led to a steep downward slope.
“Tread carefully.” Jack drew his pistol. “We may be stepping into a trap.”
He paused at the edge of the hill, gesturing for his companions to remain behind him. The carriage lay drunkenly on its side at the bottom of the incline, half in and half out of a small stream. Scanning the scene swiftly, Jack could discern no life or movement close by. The telltale sign was that the horses were gone. If this was an accident, how had they escaped their restraints unscathed? Cautiously, he descended the slope, gesturing for the others to follow.
As they neared the stricken carriage, a muffled sound caught Jack’s attention. Joseph cocked his head to the left, indicating that the noise came from behind the vehicle. Using the body of the carriage as cover, Jack peered around it. A man, clad in the characteristic livery of a coachman, was tied to one of the trees at the edge of the stream. A gag was stuffed into his mouth, and his eyes widened in terror when he saw them.
Hurrying to his side, Jack knelt to release the man from his restraints. “What happened here?”
The coachman’s face was red and swollen. When the gag was removed, it could be seen that several teeth were missing and his mouth was bleeding. His nose looked to be broken, and he drew a grateful breath of air in through his mouth.
“Held us up in broad daylight, he did. Fired a shot clean over my head that halted the horses in their tracks.”
“Did you see who it was?”
The coachman shook his head. “Not at first. Wore a mask and a muffler pulled up over the lower part of his face, didn’t he? Her ladyship offered him her purse, but he just laughed. Said he wanted a damn sight more than that. I knew who he was then, I’d heard Sir Clive’s voice enough times, and anyway, he called her ‘aunt’. He made us both alight and forced me at gunpoint to lead the horses down this slope. It was too steep for the carriage and it toppled. He ordered me to let the horses loose. I couldn’t figure out what his game was, see? But her ladyship, she’d gone terrible pale. She says to him, ‘Don’t do this, we can talk about it.’ And he fetches her such a slap about the face with the back of his hand that she falls to the ground. Well, I wasn’t going to have that, was I? Gun or no gun. Her ladyship’s been good to me. So I tells him to leave off. That was when he turned on me. Struck me in the face with the gun and then tied me up here. Made me watch.”
Jack’s heart sank. “What happened to Lady Drummond?”
The man’s eyes filled with tears. “He strangled her with his bare hands. When she was dead, he threw her body down in the stream over there like it was a sack of rubbish. I thought he’d come back to finish me off, but he forgot I was here. Went from madness to calm in the blink of an eye, he did. Walked off up that slope whistling to himself as though nothing had happened.”
* * *
The unnatural composure with which Lady Harpenden received the news troubled Rosie.
“I must make arrangements for her funeral.” Apart from a trace of whiteness about her lips, her ladyship’s expression did not change.
“My lady, this is a murder.” Rosie laid her hand over one of Lady Harpenden’s and found it to be icy as the grave. “We must inform the magistrate before making any other plans.”
“Of course. Where is she now?”
“In one of the guest bedrooms.”
Lady Harpenden’s hand finally returned Rosie’s clasp. Her eyes clouded over. “May I see her?”
Rosie glanced at Jack, and he gave a nod, the gesture indicating that Lady Drummond’s injuries were not so horrific that her body could not be viewed by her sister. Supporting Lady Harpenden when she swayed slightly, Rosie escorted her up the stairs.
Mrs. Glover had carefully arranged the bedclothes so that they covered Lady Drummond’s brutalised neck, and her eyes were closed. She might almost have been supposed to be sleeping peacefully. A dozen memories of the slightly silly lady who had been so generous to her and had not deserved to die in such a cruel manner crowded in on Rosie, and she forced them away, determined to remain strong for Lady Harpenden.
Her ladyship sat on a chair beside the bed and studied her sister’s face. “She only ever showed him kindness. Not once did I hear her utter a cross word to Clive.” Her lip trembled. “Did he do this to her because he couldn’t get to me? I, who have shown my disgust of him on so many occasions?”
“My lady, I do not believe Clive to be in his right mind. He would not have done this terrible thing to anyone if he was.”
“If that is the case, then I must take even more blame.”
“You are too hard on yourself.” Rosie attempted to soothe her.
“No, my dear. I pray you do not waste your generosity on me. I have known of his wildness since he was a boy, but because all I cared about was the family name, I covered it up. There must be no gossip attached to the name of Sheridan, that was what mattered to me.” She turned back to study her sister’s body. “Look what my pride has brought me.”
“Did Clive inherit this illness from his mother?”
Lady Harpenden pressed her handkerchief to her lips. “Possibly, but my brother also had a dark side and a cruel streak. I told you once that he would beat Clive if he detected any resemblance to his mother in him when he was a boy. What I did not tell you was that I believe my brother murdered his wife.”
Rosie stifled a gasp. “I know there has always been speculation about her death, but I thought it was because she may have taken her own life.”
“That is what some people believed. And perhaps it was so. But they argued that day, and when they found her face down in that stream, she had bruises on her neck that could not be explained by drowning.”
“So she died in the same way as Lady Drummond?” Rosie could barely comprehend the awfulness of what she was hearing.
“Yes. As you see, Clive had very little chance in life. Son of a mother whose wildness bordered on insanity and a father capable of murder. Don’t waste your sympathy on me, my dear. For I was happy to sacrifice you to this man…all in the name of the Sheridan family honour.” A wry little smile twisted her lips. “Would you do me a great kindness and give me a little time alone with my sister?”
“Of course. I will come and fetch you when the tea tray is ready.”
When Rosie reached the bottom of the stairs, the house seemed oddly full of people, and she realised that it was because there were guards posted at regular intervals around the house. Going in search of Jack, she found him in the parlour with Tom, Harry and Xander. A giant of a man, so huge he resembled the strong man she had seen at the fairground Martha had taken her when she was a child, stood at the door. No longer caring who saw them, she walked straight into Jack’s arms and allowed him to hold her close for several minutes.
“What now?” she asked at last, raising her eyes to his face.
“If I could, I would send you, Harry and Xander to Scotland to stay with Fraser and Martha until Sheridan is behind bars, but I dare not risk it. What if he were to evade me and follow you on your journey? No, you must stay here with me where I can take care of you myself. With help, of course.”
“I was about to ask you that question. Where did these guards come from?”
“The Falcon has been watching over us these past few days. These are his men.”
A faint smile touched her lips, and she leaned back in his arms. “The Falcon? Why, Jack, I would be the envy of every lady in London if they knew of this.”
“I don’t need to remind you that they must never know, do I?”
“Of course not.” Drawing reluctantly out of his embrace, she turned to Xander. Jack lifted him an
d placed him so that she could hold him with her good arm. “I will take this young gentleman upstairs for his nap. After that I will check on Lady Harpenden again. She will need to stay here with us until Clive is found, Jack. I dread to think what he would do to her if he had her in his power.” She shuddered slightly.
Xander, picking up on the mood of the adults around him and unsettled and overexcited by the sudden arrival of so many new people, took longer to fall asleep than usual. When he was eventually slumbering and one of the Falcon’s guards had moved into position at the door of his room, Rosie made her way along the landing to the guest bedchamber. Knocking lightly on the door, she paused, listening for a response. There was none. Hesitating for a moment, she turned the door handle before tiptoeing inside.
“I came to see if your ladyship wished for some tea…”
Rosie found herself talking to a room that was empty except for Lady Drummond’s corpse. Lady Harpenden had gone. Given her ladyship’s agitated state of mind earlier, it was a circumstance that troubled Rosie. A quick search of the house elicited no sign of her. The hat and cloak Lady Harpenden had been wearing when she arrived and which Mrs. Glover had taken up to the room that was to be her ladyship’s for the duration of her stay were missing. There was no sign of Jack, and Rosie paused in the morning room, gazing out of the window at the garden. The afternoon shadows on the lawn were lengthening. Perhaps her concerns were foolish and Lady Harpenden had simply felt the need of a breath of fresh air? Her thoughts were interrupted by a tentative tap on the door.
“My lady?” It was the giant, the guard who had been standing at the parlour door earlier. “Lord St. Anton bid me escort you to the rose garden. Lady Harpenden is there, but she is somewhat distressed and has asked for you.”
“Of course. I will come at once.”
Not pausing to don her cloak, she followed the huge barrel of a man towards the rose garden. It was always her favourite part of the grounds, the place her parents had named her for. She could not blame Lady Harpenden for coming here to seek a little peace after such a turbulent day.
