A Death in Norfolk

by Ashley Gardner

  "You will make it highly fashionable to take lesser actresses as paramours. I believe Mr. Godwin already is pursuing a lady of the chorus."

  Grenville glanced down the table at Rafe Godwin, and took another, and somewhat derisive, pinch of snuff.

  The conversation of the Mayfair gentlemen grew louder, as though they were determined not to care that the great Grenville ignored them to speak to a rube like me. Reaves was the only one who remained decorous, listening while he sipped his brandy.

  Grenville suggested a game of billiards to me, and I gladly followed him across the hall to the wide billiards room. The decor here was of naked gods and goddesses cavorting, enough to put a man off his game.

  I fetched balls while Grenville chose a cue. "Now that I've cornered you, Lacey, I must pick a bone. Matthias tells me that Bartholomew told him that you'd disappeared into the mists on your way over here and returned looking as though you'd swum the channel. After you'd wallowed in mud a bit."

  I rolled white and red balls onto the table, lifted my port and cheroot from where I'd set them on a side table, and enjoyed another mouthful of both. "Our footmen need to find other things to discuss."

  "Nothing interests them more than what you get up to. What about it?"

  "A complicated story," I said.

  "For God's sake, Lacey, put me out of my misery and tell me."

  I decided to lay off tormenting him. As Grenville took his first shot, I briefly related what had happened with Easton.

  Grenville stood up as the balls rolled gently across the table. "Good Lord. And you got him off safely?"

  "I hope so. Unless Denis has all fishermen on the Norfolk coast in his pay, I believe the brigadier will reach Amsterdam without too much mishap."

  "What about you, Lacey? What happens when Denis discovers his bird has flown?"

  "I will cross that bridge when I come to it. I know I owe Denis a debt, but I refuse to repay it by helping him with dark deeds."

  "But he did not ask you to kill Easton for him. He asked you only to deliver the note."

  I took another drink of port, emptying the glass. "To make me aware of what he intended for Easton and to ensure that I was part of it, no matter how remotely. Captain Lacey visits Brigadier Easton, Easton is agitated, and then Easton is dead. What will a magistrate make of that?"

  "And now Easton has disappeared. What will a magistrate make of that?"

  "Another bridge I will cross."

  Grenville retrieved a ball that had rolled to a stop. "You walk a knife's edge, Lacey."

  "As ever." I lifted my cheroot, waiting for him to shoot again. "Better entertainment than watching Lady Southwick stalking her prey."

  "As I believe that prey is me, your comment is less than amusing."

  I had a smile at his expense, then we bent to the game.

  *** *** ***

  Later that night, when Bartholomew had left me and I'd gone to bed, I heard my bedroom door open. I did not worry that Lady Southwick had come to pounce, because I knew the sound of Donata's movements and her scent.

  I had slept without my nightshirt in hopes she'd come, and when Lady Breckenridge slid her warm, bare body over mine, I forgot about Denis and Easton, the sneers of the gentlemen in the dining room, and the wreck of my father's house. For a brief and wonderful while, all was right with my world.

  *** *** ***

  Donata did not stay, and I woke early and alone. While I knew that most people in her circle were aware that Lady Breckenridge and I sometimes shared a bed, it would never do to be seen practicing our sins. Appearance is all, in my set, she'd say. A ridiculous thing, but there it is.

  Before she went, I asked her to accompany me to my father's house, and she agreed we would go there in the afternoon. Donata habitually stayed in bed until after one, so with Bartholomew's assistance, I rose, dressed, and breakfasted, then borrowed a horse and rode off on my own.

  I went back to Easton's house. I'd helped the man escape Denis's rather brutal form of justice, and I wanted to know why.

  When I reached the house, I found the butler outside, arguing with and gesticulating to a beefy man. The large man was familiar to me--one of the pugilists who worked for James Denis, and who usually stood guard in Denis's study, watching visitors with a cautious eye.

  The man saw me and gestured for me to follow him inside. I dismounted and handed the reins to the butler, who was quivering in terror.

  I walked inside the house and stopped in astonishment. At least half a dozen of Denis's men swarmed the hall and the downstairs rooms, pulling up carpets, tearing off paneling, and breaking holes in Brigadier Easton's walls.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Three

  "What the devil?" My voice rose above the noise of the demolition. Two of the men looked up, saw me, and went back to work. The others paid no attention.

  The pugilist who'd led me inside was large, a little taller than my six or so feet, and I put him at least eighteen stone. He'd once held me back when I'd made to lunge across Denis's desk, so I knew he was incredibly strong.

  "Sir," the man said, giving me his hard stare. "What did the brigadier take away with him?"

  Not the question I'd expected. "Take away with him?"

  "You helped Brigadier Easton get away to the Continent. What did he take with him when he went?"

  No anger, no outrage that I'd thwarted his master. A simple question in an even tone. "Very little," I said. "A change of shirt and a few necessities."

  "How large a bundle did it make?" the man asked. "These necessities?"

  I measured off about a foot by a foot with my hands. "That large."

  "You're sure he had nothing else?"

  "Quite sure. He got into a boat with barely enough room for the fisherman and his nets. The brigadier did not have time to pack a trunk nor the room to take it with him. You can be certain that by now, Mr. Denis knows exactly what boat Easton boarded and where he disembarked."

  The lackey shook his head. "Mr. Denis don't know he's gone, not yet."

  I stopped in surprise. "Why are you here, then, if he doesn't know?"

  The man looked uneasy. I'd seen him look so once before, during the affair at the Sudbury School, when he'd offered up information he'd kept to himself, not realizing it was important. Under Denis's stare, this big, mean-looking man had wilted.

  "We came last night, as instructed. I was to visit Brigadier Easton and bring back what he took from Mr. Denis. But when we got here, the brigadier had gone off, and there's no sign of the stuff. If you took it, sir, best give it back. Mr. Denis, he likes you, and he might go easier on you if you 'fess up right away."

  Took what? "I am afraid you have me at a loss, Mr. . . . I don't believe I've ever learned your name."

  "Cooper, sir. Martin Cooper. I know you didn't take the things for yourself, sir. You're not that kind. But you might have done to help the brigadier. It's misguided, sir. The man is a thieving bastard."

  Now, I was completely in a fog. "I assure you, Cooper, I have no idea to what things you refer. I sent Easton away, I admit. I had no wish to see the man receive what Denis sent you to do to him. I took him to a boat and got him away. That is all. I did not help Easton pack or take anything from this house. He never told me his business with Denis--there was not time."

  Cooper regarded me with skepticism. "That so, sir? You did not make him tell you? You're an inquiring sort of man, I've noticed. "

  "True, but this time, I did not have a chance." It had been more important to get Easton away, and quickly. "You look worried, Cooper. What do you think Denis will do when he discovers that I spirited Easton out of the way? You are not to blame for the actions of the impetuous Captain Lacey."

  He rubbed his forehead. "It's not so much Easton flying the coop, sir. It's the things. Mr. Denis will want them back, and I can't put my hands on them."

  "Now you have stirred my curiosity. What sorts of things?"

  "Paintings, sir. From the Netherlands, mostly.
A few from the Italian states and from Russia, even."

  I began to understand. "The brigadier kept these painting for Mr. Denis?"

  "Brought them back to England for him, with no one the wiser. The brigadier likes to travel."

  "Ah." So, Brigadier Easton had smuggled stolen artwork into the country for James Denis. The brigadier, well respected and with many connections, might not be questioned about the bits and pieces he brought back from the Continent.

  I recalled the picture I'd often seen in Denis's house, that of a young girl standing by a window in a pool of sunlight, the painting small, quiet, and serene. I wondered if Easton had obtained that for him as well.

  "And the brigadier decided it might be lucrative if he held on to one or two of these?" I asked.

  "More than one or two. A bucketful, more like. Claimed he had to leave the last load behind in Amsterdam, as they were too difficult to move, but Mr. Denis figured Easton had them here."

  Mr. Denis was rarely wrong. No wonder the brigadier had looked so terrified. Denis had a long reach--only a fool would try to steal from him.

  Not that I hadn't gone against Denis's orders myself in this instance. I'd been sent to frighten the brigadier so that he'd give up the paintings to Denis. Instead, I'd gotten him away, leaving Cooper unable to put his hands on either Easton or the artwork.

  "I am sorry," I said. I truly was. Denis would vent his wrath not only on me, but on Cooper. "I had no idea about the paintings, or I would have made Easton tell me about them before he went." Whether I would have passed such knowledge to Denis was another matter.

  "As you can see, I'm in an awkward patch," Cooper said.

  "I do understand. The least I can do is help you look."

  I did not need to ask him to describe the paintings Easton had stolen. I'd know them when I saw them. The artwork on Easton's walls were original watercolors of the house and grounds, likely done by Easton's wife, daughter, or a local fledgling artist. Any painting Denis acquired would be old, famous, and painted by a master.

  I went upstairs, past two men taking out the paneling on the staircase, and to Easton's study. The room looked much the same as when I'd left it last night, Cooper's men not having reached it with their sledgehammers.

  The room was long and narrow, with Easton's desk in the exact center of the carpet. The windows did not let in much light--though the rain of yesterday had abated, the sun was hidden by a thick bank of clouds.

  I found spills in a jar on the mantelpiece and lit candles about the room. The painting above the fireplace was a rather dull one of the house surrounded by the flat green of Norfolk. Again, if not painted by Easton's wife or daughter, probably done by a local lad wanting to sell his services.

  A good place to hide a painting was behind another painting. I took down the picture of the house, found a paperknife in the drawer, and cut the painting out of the frame.

  I found nothing behind it but wood to hold the canvas in place. I searched every inch of wood, frame, and canvas, but concluded there was nothing else there. I laid the picture aside and started on the next one.

  The room had five paintings, but each frame held only the picture that had originally graced it. The tops of all the frames were thick with dust, which told me they hadn't been disturbed in a long while and that Easton's maids were less than diligent. I doubted that a mote of dust would be allowed to linger in one of Lady Breckenridge's houses.

  I set the paintings aside and started looking behind furniture. The furniture was better dusted, but even so, I found nothing.

  After a thorough search of every visible place, I resorted to what Denis's men were doing. I started pulling up the carpets. Easton's study had three carpets--a large woolen one with an oriental design on it, on which the desk sat, and two smaller, much finer ones on either end of the long room. The smaller ones had come from the Near East, woven in a tent among hot desert sands.

  None of the rugs concealed paintings or loose floorboards under which paintings could be hidden.

  I finished in the study and returned to the hall. I took down a painting there, laid it facedown on a table, and carefully cut it out of the frame. One of the men tearing up the paneling dropped his tools and yanked down another painting--a shaky watercolor of the sea at Blakeney Point. Denis's man plunged a knife straight through the painting and ripped it from its frame.

  "Have some respect," I snapped.

  Cooper came up the stairs. "No time, Captain. Have you found anything?"

  I shook my head. "The study looks empty of fine artwork, but I did not rip out the paneling."

  Cooper snapped his fingers at the second man on the stairs and pointed to the study door. The second man shouldered his sledgehammer and trudged up the stairs and into the study. A few seconds later came a thud and the splintering of wood.

  "They could be anywhere," I said. "Rolled up and sewn under a chair or sofa, flattened between boards in the ceiling, inside a window seat, folded behind books--although I hope he did not fold any priceless masterpieces."

  "If the paintings are in this house, sir, we'll find them," Cooper said.

  I had no doubt he would. "They may not be in the house at all," I said. "Easton might not have risked bringing them here."

  "That is true." Cooper's eyes glinted. "I thought of that, sir. That's why I sent a couple of men to look over your house."

  I stared at him. "My house? What the devil for?"

  "It's reasonable, sir. The house is empty, no one to bother it. You haven't been there in a donkey's age--it's been shut up since your dad's death. No one goes there, now."

  Lady Breckenridge would be going there this afternoon. Not for several hours yet, but what if she grew impatient, or annoyed at Lady Southwick, and decided to make the journey early?

  I put down the paperknife and headed down the stairs without a word to Cooper.

  The man followed me. "I'll just go with you, sir."

  He would whether I liked it or not. I gave him a grim nod. "Fine, but hurry."

  An excited shout stopped me from charging out of the house. Cooper brushed past me on the way to the dining room, and found one of the pugilists pulling a rolled canvas from behind a few ripped-out boards of paneling.

  "Give that to me." Cooper snatched the canvas from the man's hands and unrolled the large thing across the dining room table. He went carefully, I was happy to see, understanding the consequences of damaging Denis's loot.

  All the men had stopped working and came crowding in to see. An incredible painting spread itself before us. Colors glowed against a background that brightened from sable on the left to a golden light on the right that surrounded two rather muscular angels. A group of round-cheeked women faced the angels with expressions of astonishment, their gowns vibrant red, lavender, and blue.

  I'd seen, in my travels, copies of paintings of the great Rubens, enough of them to realize that he'd painted this one himself.

  "Good God," I said. "This was thrust behind the paneling?"

  "Keep hunting," Cooper said to the other men. "We need the rest."

  I touched the paint that a Flemish genius had stroked on two hundred years before. "Amazing." This should be hanging in the drawing room of a king--and maybe once had been. "How did Brigadier Easton get hold of something like this? And why would Denis trust him with it?"

  "Couldn't say," Cooper said. "Are you staying or going? Sir."

  "Going," I said.

  It hurt to look upon that beautiful painting and leave it here with Denis's men. They'd roll it up and cart it off to him so that he could sell it to a rich banker who didn't mind buying stolen goods. War-wrecked Europe was an open market to James Denis and others like him, who stole from the weak and sold the booty to the very rich. Rubens was dead and gone, and all the people who'd owned this painting were probably dead and gone as well.

  Cooper still insisted on accompanying me. The other men must be quite trustworthy if they could be left in a house with one and possibly more pri
celess pieces of art.

  I rode the horse I'd borrowed from Lady Southwick's stables. Cooper didn't like horses and didn't ride. He walked along beside me and insisted I pace him. I did, because I wanted to keep an eye on him as much as he wanted to keep one on me.

  The rain had finished, and wind had sprung up to send away the mist and open the sky. As a lad, I'd loved the enormous skies arching over the farmland that rolled to miles of marshes and gray sea. This was the land of my childhood, where I'd played among the tall marsh grass and hidden in fishing boats so I could go out to sea with the men. The fishermen had taught me to fish, and I'd brought the spoils home to our cook, who was careful not to tell my father where she'd obtained them.

  I'd roamed fearlessly, brought home when I strayed too far by farmers, villagers, fishermen, or the publican at Parson's Point. I'd found many ways to elude the nannies, tutors, horse masters, or whatever teacher of the moment my father saw fit to employ. None stayed long, and he'd always try to cheat them out of their fee.

  It was in this land that I'd learned the lure of the fairer sex, the first in the form of a barmaid in Blakeney the summer I'd been fifteen. She'd been older than me--sixteen--and I'd thought her the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen.

  I'd reveled in the conquest until I returned to school at Michaelmas, to later learn that said young woman was quite loose with her favors. Ours would hardly be the love of legend. She'd married at eighteen and gone to Suffolk with her husband, and was there now for all I knew.

  Cooper said nothing on the road, a man with a habit of silence. I who never liked talking for the sake of it started to find him restful.

  We went through the gate to the weed-choked drive. Cooper glanced about askance as he climbed over bracken on the way to the house. A cart stood in front of it, the horse let loose to graze as he liked. I dismounted, removed my horse's saddle and bridle, and let it join the carthorse.

  I heard the sound of pounding before I entered the front door. No one was in the main hall, but the banging went on below us. I opened a door at the back of the house and descended to the kitchens and servants' quarters, where I found two men tearing out the walls.