by Louise Allen
‘He’ll still be at his own table. Yes, who is it?’
The footman looked decidedly flustered. ‘The Marquess of Avenmore, Sir Humphrey. And a lady, a clergyman, an army major and a young gentleman and they all say they want to speak to you. I told them you would not be available yet and they said they would wait.’
‘They want to speak to me, you mean,’ Gabriel interrupted. His brothers as well? And he had thought things could not get much worse.
‘No, my lord. They were very definite, it is Sir Humphrey they want to see.’
‘Put them in the study, fetch them refreshments and tell them I will be with them shortly.’ He waited until the man went out and turned to Gabriel. ‘Well? What is this delegation?’
‘A close friend, my wife and my brothers, I assume.’
‘With evidence?’
Gabriel shrugged. ‘I very much doubt it. As I have said all along, there were no witnesses to my father’s fall.’
‘Then if it is not evidence I do not need to wait for the coroner and I see no harm in you joining me. I haven’t had so much excitement since the last time Prinny’s entourage kicked up a riot in town.’
The party waiting for them in the magistrate’s study was certainly more tastefully dressed, and considerably more sober, than the new king’s cronies. Caroline, thank heavens, was pale but perfectly composed, the fine veil thrown back over her bonnet apparently her only concession to the fact that her husband was under house arrest and their name a byword over the nation’s breakfast tables. She was wearing the newest and most fashionable of her London walking dresses and smiled at him in a way that made him catch his breath.
At her side Cris, as elegant and cool as ever, stood to exchange bows with the magistrate. ‘Sir Humphrey? I am Avenmore. May I introduce Lady Edenbridge. Major Stone, the Reverend Mr Stone, Mr Louis Stone. I apologise for this early interruption to your morning, but we have evidence in the matter of the late Earl of Edenbridge’s death.’
‘Evidence? In that case I feel I should wait for the coroner.’ The magistrate looked none too happy.
‘There is none. There can be none,’ Gabriel said. Louis was white and he saw Caroline reach out and touch his hand for a moment.
‘Excuse me, Sir Humphrey.’ It was the nervous footman again.
‘Yes? What now?’
‘Mr Barton, the coroner from Lewes, sir.’
‘Already? Well, send him in, this cannot become much more irregular than it is already.’
Gabriel barely recognised the coroner, but then it had been ten years since the inquest and the man must have been in his fifties then. He stalked in like a dyspeptic heron, peered around and snapped, ‘I’ve come on the Edenbridge matter, Sir Humphrey. What is this? Trying the case already?’
‘Certainly not. Allow me to introduce you.’ The magistrate made the introductions and everyone sat down again, making the study feel uncomfortably small. ‘Apparently Lord Avenmore believes that some of those present have evidence to present.’
‘Do you indeed?’ Barton seemed unintimidated by the presence of a marquess, even Cris at his most arctic. Gabriel felt an unwilling twinge of admiration and an equally unpleasant lurch of apprehension. This old bird was going to show neither fear nor favour.
‘I wish to speak to my brothers in private.’
‘Collusion? I think not, my lord. If they wish to address me, they may do so.’
Louis stood up and Ben, magnificent in full scarlet regimentals, waved him back to his seat. ‘Let me. Lord Knighton has a grudge against my brother because of Gabriel’s elopement with his daughter. He has spread it about that his investigations have revealed a witness to my father’s death, but I know who did witness it and I can attest to the fact that none of those present that day have spoken to any investigator. In other words, he is inventing evidence.’
‘And who were those witnesses?’
Witnesses, plural? Gabriel looked at Louis again and saw that Caroline had put her hand on his forearm.
‘My eldest brother, the present Lord Edenbridge, you know about, sir. There were also myself and my other two brothers.’
‘You were not there,’ Gabriel interrupted. ‘And Louis was unconscious.’
‘Allow Major Stone to finish, if you please. Where were the servants? As I recall, we were told they were all below stairs or in various rooms not within sight of the hall and landing.’
‘Yes, sir. There was to be a dinner party that evening. The staff were either in the kitchens, or in the dining room or preparing the drawing room. My brother George and I were in the room where we studied because our tutor had left us an exercise in Latin translation before he went into Lewes. We heard a loud crash.’
‘Yes, I knocked over a valuable Chinese vase that stood at the head of the stairs,’ Gabriel stated. ‘You were nowhere in sight.’ He felt Caroline’s gaze on him as though she had prodded him with her finger, but he did not look in her direction. He wasn’t under oath, not yet.
‘That is not true,’ Louis said and all eyes turned to him. ‘I knocked it over and I was trying to hide the pieces, which was stupid of me. But I knew if I didn’t then Gabriel would take the blame like he always did and he would be the one who was whipped.’
‘Louis—’
‘No. We should have spoken up long ago, right from the beginning, but we were all too afraid. We let you pretend you were the clumsy one, or the one who had done something out of mischief. Father soon believed you were wicked—you didn’t have to try very hard to fake the evidence and protect us.’
‘Damn it, Louis! Will you be quiet?’
George, Ben and Sir Humphrey all began to speak at once.
‘No, Gabriel,’ Caroline said, her quiet voice stilling the noise like one chime of a bell. ‘No, Louis will not be quiet. He is going to tell the truth and so, finally, are you.’
At a stroke she was going to uncover all the wounds he had spent such pain and misery covering up, would shatter his brothers’ memories of their childhood, would make him break his vow to his mother. He knew why—she had a passion for truth, she had a fierce loyalty to him as her husband. But his loyalties were older than their marriage and he could not allow how he felt about her to shake them.
‘You are my wife and you will do as I tell you. Now, be silent.’ He had never spoken to Caroline like that before, had never thought he would. In his own voice he heard echoes of his father, of hers, and he saw her go white even as he felt the stab of nausea in his gut.
‘No,’ she said again. ‘We are all going to disobey you. Your wife, your brothers and your friend. We have made a conspiracy against your secrets. The truth matters and, besides, our child is not going to grow up believing she or he had a murderer for a father. Go on, Louis.’
It took perhaps two seconds for her words to hit home, then the rest of the room vanished from his consciousness. Our child? Caroline is expecting our child? But that is impossible.
He came back to himself to find everyone, his wife included, had their attention fixed on Louis, who must have simply carried on with his story. ‘...it was idiotic to try to hide the damage, but I was in a panic. Then I heard Father coming. He had heard the crash, of course, and he had his whip. I expect he thought it was Gabriel again. He rushed towards me, shouting.’
‘We’d heard the noise and we were just coming out of the corridor when we saw you running up the stairs, Gabriel,’ Ben said. He stood at attention as though he was making a report to his commanding officer.
‘Father slashed at Louis, who grabbed at the whip. Father jerked it back and Louis let go, so it flew back and it hit Father’s face. Louis crashed into the newel post and Father tripped over his body—he was going too fast and was off balance because of the blow to his face. He went down the stairs, hit the banisters on the curve—I think that was what broke
his neck—tumbled past you, Gabriel, and hit the floor. I saw you run back down to him, then all hell broke loose. George started retching and I dragged him away so he couldn’t see. By the time I came out again you were telling people the story you told at the inquest. I couldn’t contradict you, and besides, there was all the fuss over Louis.’
He turned to the Coroner. ‘If there had been any danger of Gabriel being blamed I would have spoken at the inquest, sir. But George and I were frightened for Louis. He was only a child and when he came round he couldn’t recall anything about it. Provided Gabriel was safe, we thought it was best to say nothing.’
‘And now you conveniently recall it all, young man?’ the Coroner said to Louis.
‘Now, yes. For years I just had nightmares, flashes of memory that I thought were a kind of waking dream. Then it all began to get worse about six months ago when I started working closely with Gabriel.’ He looked round at Ben and George. ‘When I read the newspaper accounts, I suspected it was real memories and went to talk to my brothers. I suppose you’ll want to arrest me now, Sir Humphrey.’
‘And me,’ Ben said, making to draw his sabre from his belt in formal surrender.
‘For what?’ Sir Humphrey enquired. ‘No perjury was involved. Neither of you was called to give evidence and you were both schoolboys. It is up to my colleague, of course, but I can see no legal reason to reopen the inquest. No new evidence has been brought forward that would make the verdict of Accidental Death unsafe in my opinion.’
‘Nor mine,’ Barton said. He looked at George. ‘Reverend Stone, can you confirm what has been said?’
‘Yes, sir. Every word.’
‘Then Sir Humphrey and I will issue a report stating that we have interviewed three new witnesses to the death of the late earl and that their evidence supports the original verdict of accidental death. The newspapers will get their teeth into that, I have no doubt. I suggest, my lord, that you take legal advice and issue your father-in-law with a strongly worded warning of what will happen if he does not withdraw his slanders. Major, Reverend, Mr Stone, I will take down your evidence with Sir Humphrey as witness. I see no reason to detain you, my lady, my lords. Good day.’
Gabriel found himself outside a firmly closed door. ‘I can’t leave my brothers.’
‘They are grown men.’ Cris gave him a decidedly unfriendly shove towards the front door. ‘I would suggest you cannot leave your wife.’
There was a considerable crowd in the street outside, far more than could be explained by the sight of Cris’s magnificent coach and team of matched bays. ‘Get in.’
‘Cris—’ Gabriel realised that he was confused, relieved and, quite simply, furious.
‘Damn you, accept some help from your family for once. The last time you were this aggravating I knocked you on your backside and I swear if you do not get in that carriage with Caroline in the next twenty seconds I’ll do it again.’
Gabriel offered his hand to Caroline and she got into the carriage. She had put down her veil and he could not see her face, but her chin was up, he could tell.
Cris slammed the door on them. ‘Now go home. I’m walking.’
‘Gabriel?’
‘How could you?’ he asked, hearing his own voice cold and hard. ‘How could you do that without asking me? All my life I have protected my brothers and you tossed them to the wolves.’
‘They told the truth, finally, and everything is all right.’ Caroline threw back the veil. ‘You are safe, they are safe, my father’s horrible scheme has been checkmated. Can’t you be happy about that?’
‘Not when you lie to me in front of a room full of people, try to manipulate sympathy by telling falsehoods. You cannot know that you are pregnant, it is barely a month since that first night.’
Chapter Twenty-Two
So, this is what you get for loving a rake. Accusations and ingratitude and anger. Caroline took a deep breath and saw they were drawing up at their own front door where there was another, smaller, crowd with Cris’s grooms holding them at bay. This was not the time to lose all control and scream at the man, tell him how much he hurt her, how much she cared for him.
‘I may not have to tell our child his father is a murderer,’ she said as she lowered her veil. ‘But I am going to have to explain to the poor little soul that he is an ungrateful idiot.’
The groom holding the door for her lost his composure for a moment, then got his face under control as Caroline swept out of the carriage and up the steps to the front door that, thankfully, opened as she reached it.
‘I am an idiot?’ Gabriel slammed the door behind him, shaking the silver tray on the hall table. ‘I was not the one smuggling hairpins and firearms and sovereigns into a magistrate’s house. Why not go the whole nine yards and bake a cake with a file in it?’
‘I didn’t think of that.’ She paused on the bottom step of the stairs and swung round. ‘Perhaps because I am a poor feeble woman with my brain turned to porridge by pregnancy. Or perhaps because I knew there were no bars, but that you might need to get out of the house and bribe a boatman to take you across to France. For some reason, which is escaping me now, I did not want you to hang.’
Caroline stalked upstairs, ignoring the throbbing in her toe, and found a little comfort in the fact that she could close the bedchamber door without slamming it. She turned the key and sat down at her dressing table. Men were the very devil, all of them. But she loved one, was married to one and she was carrying his child, whatever the stubborn creature believed.
* * *
She had expected Gabriel to come to the door and ask her to open it. She had half-expected him to kick it down, but when the tap came half an hour later it was Tamsyn.
‘May I come in?’ When Caroline opened the door Tamsyn caught her in a hug, then held her at arm’s length. ‘Cris says we are to pack and go back to London straight away. He says, and I quote, “Gabriel always was the one with the brains, if he could only be brought to realise it. Let him work this out, because it is beyond me.”’
‘Oh. If Cris is abandoning us...’
‘I think he is simply putting a safe distance between himself and the urge to hit Gabriel. Personally I think it would be an excellent idea to punch him, but men are strange.’ She cocked her head on one side. ‘This isn’t just about his father, is it?’
‘I told him I was expecting his baby.’
She could see Tamsyn doing some mental arithmetic. ‘Er...’
‘It is very, very early. But it is his. I am certain, but he thinks that I lied to the magistrate just to get sympathy.’
‘Oh, so you...before the wedding?’
‘Yes, not long before. The night my father found me, after we agreed to marry. I don’t understand why he is so upset, I thought he wanted children.’
‘Don’t be a cloth-head,’ Tamsyn said inelegantly. ‘You blurted it out in the middle of that meeting, in front of his brothers and the magistrate and the coroner? My dear, that might not be the best time and place to tell a man he is going to be a father.’
‘I was becoming angry with him,’ Caroline confessed miserably. ‘And frustrated that he would not tell the simple truth. He is so protective of his brothers, he seems to feel that he has total responsibility for them, whatever they have done.’
‘He is protective of you, too. Look what he did for you,’ Tamsyn pointed out.
She didn’t need reminding. ‘But his oldest loyalty is to them. He actually worked it all out, how if they hanged him I would be looked after and how Ben would get the title. He is angry with me because I acted without telling him, exposed Louis’s part in their father’s death.’
Tamsyn shivered. ‘So cold blooded.’
‘He is a gambler. And I think that being like that helps him cope. He has pushed all his emotions right down so they can’t hurt hi
m.’
‘Are you going to leave him? You can come back with us.’
‘Would you have left Cris?’
‘Yes. I did.’ Tamsyn looked bleak. ‘I thought it was the best thing for him. It was horrible. But he didn’t agree with me and came and got me, thank heavens.’
‘You were not married then?’ The other woman shook her head. ‘Well, I am. For better, for worse. I promised.’
‘When he calms down he’ll want to do the right thing because of the baby,’ Tamsyn suggested.
‘I don’t want him doing the right thing because that is his duty. I want him to trust me and to love me. And, yes, I know I am wishing for the moon.’
‘Good luck.’ Tamsyn got up and pressed a kiss on Caroline’s cheek. ‘I would offer to stay, but I think you two need to work this one out for yourselves.’
Caroline clung for a moment. ‘Thank you. You have been such a good friend. And Cris and Alex and Tess. Give them my love.’
A carriage pulled up outside, then away again. Cris and Tamsyn. The sound of voices in the street ebbed to its normal level and when Caroline tilted the dressing-table mirror to reflect the view outside she saw the crowd beginning to disperse across the Steine. They had heard the news about Gabriel’s innocence and were off to discuss the whole intriguing scandal over the tea cups, she assumed. The house was quiet, the servants were tiptoeing about while their master brooded behind closed doors.
She could go down, insist that he listen to her and then he would accept that she was telling the truth about the baby, that it wasn’t simply a ploy to attract sympathy from the Coroner and that would be that. She could forgive him being angry to have that sprung on him in public, he’d had a lot on his mind, to put it mildly.
‘But I love him,’ Caroline said into the silence.
And I want him to love me. I want a real marriage, a love match, a family. I want him to be happy, not just content with an arrangement.
