by Rebecca King
Before either woman could reply, Rosamund slipped out of the French doors and began to run across the garden.
‘She hasn’t taken anything,’ Bessie murmured as she watched her go. ‘I hope she keeps running.’
Clarissa slumped into the chair Bessie had just vacated and dropped her head into her hands. Her head ached so badly that she suspected she was going to be sick, but she couldn’t go upstairs and lie down like she wanted to, not while there was so much going on and Bessie needed her.
‘We need to tell Frederick she has gone.’
‘We need to find Mrs Reynolds and the girls to find out what she has done with them,’ Clarissa snapped. ‘You go and have a word with Frederick if you can find him. I cannot make it all the way around the garden.’
‘Are you all right?’ Bessie asked, rushing across the room to her.
‘I am fine. You go and tell Frederick, or the Star Elite if they are still outside. Tell Zach. He should still be by the stables. They have to go after her before she gets too far,’ Clarissa murmured. She offered her aunt a wan smile of reassurance. ‘Go. I will go and find Mrs Reynolds. I can get to the kitchen.’
‘Stay where you are,’ Bessie ordered.
‘Go. Go and tell the Star Elite,’ Clarissa urged, flapping her hands at her aunt to shoo her out of the room.
Bessie didn’t need urging again. Whirling around, she raced for the French doors Rosamund had just used and disappeared across the garden, but in the opposite direction to their attacker. Clarissa lifted a shaking hand to the cut on the back of her head but didn’t probe too much. She didn’t need to search for it given how much it hurt. Despite her discomfort, she forced herself to stand up and on shaking legs stumbled through the house to the kitchen.
Minutes later, she found Mrs Reynolds, Sara, and Nora fast asleep on the floor of the scullery room, and a packet of sleeping draught beside their empty teacups.
Zach and Frederick were already on their way to the house with the rest of the men from the Star Elite when they saw Rosamund race out of the French doors.
‘Get after her,’ Zach snarled and watched Greg, Morgan, and Duncan race toward the woods.
Zach knew that something had gone horribly wrong and broke out into a run as panic took hold. His thoughts remained on Clarissa, and if she was safe. He got half-way across the garden when Bessie came racing out of the house to meet them.
‘Clarissa is hurt. Rosamund is a criminal. You have to catch her,’ Bessie gasped. She fell against Frederick who swept her into his arms and held her tightly while he made soothing noises and patted her back.
‘Keep her out here,’ Zach ordered before resuming his journey into the house.
In all the years he had been with the Star Elite, Zach had never felt the overwhelming sense of helplessness that slammed into him as he raced toward Clarissa’s home. Time seemed to move slower. It took an age to reach the French doors Rosamund had just used, and barge into the room. He cursed fluidly when he found that it was empty.
‘Someone’s been hurt all right,’ Reuben told him.
Zach paused beside the door leading to the hallway and watched Reuben swipe a finger through the small stain on the carpet.
‘It’s blood,’ Reuben confirmed, showing Zach his red-stained finger.
‘Damn it all to Hell,’ Zach snarled. ‘Clarissa!’ His stride was longer, swifter, as he stomped through the property bellowing her name.
Reuben raced up the stairs leaving Zach to search the lower floor.
Together, he and Zach searched the house only to find everywhere undisturbed.
‘The kitchen,’ Elias suggested. ‘She has to be in the kitchen. I couldn’t see Mrs Reynolds earlier.’
‘They are in here,’ Clarissa whispered suddenly from the doorway leading to the servant’s quarters at the back of the house.
When she had heard Zach call her name, she had stumbled toward the door but daren’t call out to him because her head hurt too much. Clarissa clutched the door jamb because the room was starting to go dark in the corners, and swirl around her so badly that she struggled to focus on anything. She heard rather than saw people hurry toward her.
When she looked up, Zach filled her vision. ‘Rosamund attacked us,’ Clarissa whispered.
‘I know,’ Zach murmured softly. He didn’t stop to think about what he was doing and hauled her into his arms. Once she was against him, he simply held her in the same tender way Frederick was holding Bessie outside.
The longer he stood holding Clarissa, the more Zach was able to label each emotion he felt. He didn’t stop to contemplate what they all meant when they were put together. Combined, they were such a large part of him that he didn’t question their validity because he knew the cause. She was right before him, in his arms. His future. He hated to even think of what he would have felt had something more serious happened to her. While the lump on the back of her head was large, he knew Clarissa would survive it. She was pale and shaken but given what had happened to her, that was to be expected. What Zach didn’t expect was the reluctance he felt when he had to release her, even when she began to wriggle in his arms so she could lean back to look up at him.
Before Clarissa could speak, Reuben appeared in the doorway to the scullery and said: ‘They are all alive but appear to be sleeping.’
‘They have had a sleeping draught,’ Clarissa murmured, studying the teacups on the table.
‘Don’t touch anything,’ Zach warned when she reached out to pick a cup up.
‘We can put them in the servants’ quarters. They are at the back of the scullery,’ Clarissa informed him.
While Reuben and Elias began to carry the staff to their rooms, Zach turned his attention back to Clarissa.
‘God, you gave me a fright,’ he murmured tenderly. ‘Are you sure you are all right?’
Despite having her leaning against him, Zach stared steadily into her eyes. Clarissa stared straight back at him with a directness that was reassuring and began to ease Zach’s fears.
‘I am fine.’ Clarissa replied. ‘Although I am not so sure about Aunt Bessie.’
‘Do you know what Rosamund has been doing?’
Clarissa didn’t appear to have heard him. She was busy staring at something outside. Zach followed her line of sight and saw Bessie and Frederick still in an intimate embrace, lost in deep conversation.
‘They have been together for a while, haven’t they? It was Bessie I saw leaving Frederick’s cottage the night you were stopped by the highwaymen.’ Zach studied Bessie’s clothing. ‘Is that why she dresses the way she does?’
Clarissa sucked in a deep breath. ‘Bessie started to dress like she does to stop her husband’s friends from visiting. They soon left when they realised that she was going to behave so scandalously and didn’t care what they thought. Now, I think it is more of a habit rather than anything else. I mean, hardly anybody ever visits here. I think most of the villagers have labelled her as eccentric and Bessie has encouraged them by dressing the way she has so she can be with Frederick. The villagers don’t come here either.’
‘Do you regret that?’ Zach pressed.
‘I have also enjoyed being able to come and go as I please without risk of censure from them. Although, I think I am going to have to find somewhere else to live soon.’ Clarissa smiled and shook her head but looked ruefully at her aunt and Frederick. ‘I have the distinct impression that I am going to be more of a spare wheel around here from now on.’
‘They kept their connection hidden from you, didn’t they?’ Zach watched the changing emotions on her beloved face and realised that he really could read what she was thinking. It was as amazing as it was intriguing.
‘They tried, but I live here. I have done my fair share of creeping about at dawn. I have seen her leaving his cottage on several occasions. We have just never sat down and discussed it.’
‘Why do you think he doesn’t do anything about his feelings for her? Frederick isn’t ill by the way. He ha
s been keeping a watchful eye on the house,’ Zach murmured with a smile.
Clarissa shook her head. ‘It doesn’t surprise me. He adores her and has done his best to hide it but obviously can’t anymore. I think that Frederick hasn’t done anything about his feelings for her because he has been employed here as a coachman. Can you imagine the scandal if Bessie suddenly marriage her coachman?’
‘But I thought she didn’t care?’
Clarissa smiled at him. ‘She doesn’t, but Frederick does. You must understand just how miserable Bessie was in her first marriage. I don’t doubt that might have had something to do with their decision not to make their relationship public, or more permanent. Whatever the reasons they haven’t married yet are theirs.’
‘Only a fool would find that kind of adoration offensive,’ Elias murmured with a rueful shake of his head.
‘Life’s too short to waste time cogitating over doubts and insecurities,’ Reuben added when he entered the room.
He glared meaningfully at Zach so openly that Clarissa turned to look at the man who appeared to have forgotten that he was still holding her. With an uncomfortable cough, she tried to ease away only for Zach to tighten his hold on her.
‘You are going nowhere,’ he assured her lovingly.
Zach didn’t get the chance to say anything else before the kitchen door burst open and a dishevelled Rosamund flew into the house followed by a very angry Al. Behind him were the rest of the Star Elite, Frederick, and Bessie.
‘Now it is time for some truth,’ Al warned once everyone had assembled in the kitchen. He ordered Elias to bolt the back door and put men on watch in each doorway before glaring at everyone. ‘Nobody is going anywhere until we have the absolute truth about what has been going on around here, or I shall put you all behind bars for obstructing a Star Elite investigation.’
With that promise made, everyone in the room fell silent and waited to see what truths were revealed.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Rosamund glared at everyone but was met with a heavy wall of silence that was condemning.
‘Sit down,’ Al snarled, shoving her into a chair before she could move.
As the only person in the room sitting down, she had to look up at everyone. Zach knew that it was to make her feel small and insignificant and less bold. Further, if Rosamund wanted to attack anybody she first had to get out of the chair. Just a few seconds would be all the men would need to be able to restrain her before she managed to hurt anyone.
‘How do you know the highwaymen?’ Al began.
While he wouldn’t usually keep a prisoner in someone’s home to interrogate them, on this occasion the lies the young woman had told had involved the homeowner. As far as he was concerned, Bessie deserved to hear the truth of Rosamund’s deceit first-hand before he carted her off to gaol.
‘I don’t,’ Rosamund protested, but her gaze slid tellingly to Bessie whom she had lied to the most.
‘You know at least one of them. Which one is it? Let me guess, Farmer Martin?’ Al mused.
Rosamund turned to glare at him but there was a blank look on her face that warned him it wasn’t the farmer.
‘I will find out,’ he told her in a voice that was laden with malice. ‘And when I do, I will have you put behind bars for lying to me. I am a member of the Star Elite. Your lies are hindering our investigation. If you don’t want to spend extra time behind bars, I suggest you tell me the truth right here and right now.’
‘You lied, Rosamund, about who you are and where you have come from. It is best if you confess your sins of the past so these gentlemen can decide whether to let you go to Scotland. Who knows, maybe they can help you?’ Clarissa suggested.
It was instinctive to lean against Zach’s quiet strength when he hugged her tighter and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. She looked up at him, and instantly felt the connection between them grow stronger than ever before. It was startling just how right it felt to be with him, despite so many people being in the room. Clarissa eyed them warily only to find that nobody was paying them the slightest bit of attention. The relief she felt made her snuggle closer to Zach. As she did so, Clarissa wondered if the pure joy she felt was what her Aunt Bessie felt when Frederick held her. If it was then Clarissa knew she was beginning to understand what had made her aunt do everything she had just to be with him. To some people, wearing gentlemen’s breeches was such a preposterous notion that they wouldn’t even contemplate it. Bessie had done it because she wanted to spend time with Frederick but without worrying about who was going to see them and scorn them for their love.
‘What did you do? Everyone has committed sins in their past. What they shouldn’t do is allow them to shape their future. Did you know the highwaymen?’ Bessie asked.
‘Talk now because none of us are going anywhere until you do,’ Al warned.
The tension in the room thickened even more. Nobody moved or spoke for a good ten minutes. Eventually, Rosamund became uncomfortable sitting in the same position. When she shifted, she looked up from the table top she had been staring at and realised that everyone was watching her. Her cheeks flooded with colour. She tried to glare at them but when it had little effect, she sighed heavily and cursed.
‘I – knew – one of the highwaymen,’ she admitted reluctantly. ‘In my previous life.’
‘Where were you from originally?’ Clarissa asked.
‘You said you came from Oxfordshire,’ Bessie added somewhat accusingly.
‘I came from Mivverford,’ Rosamund whispered.
Bessie scowled. ‘That’s twenty-five miles away and nowhere near Oxfordshire.’
‘What did you do there?’ Clarissa asked.
‘My parents died, I didn’t lie about that,’ Rosamund admitted in a voice that was staccato. Each word was dropped into the room as if forced through clenched teeth. Consequently, when she spoke, Rosamund sounded hesitant. ‘I worked at a tavern, as a bar maid. I didn’t do anything bad.’
‘To start with,’ Clarissa added when Rosamund’s gaze dropped tellingly to the table again.
She really hated the way that Rosamund looked at her from under her brows. It warned her that there was a darker side to Rosamund that had been kept carefully hidden until now. The spiteful look on Rosamund’s face also warned Clarissa that the ex-companion would try to get revenge for having her plans thwarted if she was allowed to walk free. It was enough to make Clarissa harden her heart toward the person she had felt she had known.
She’s pure evil.
‘Let me guess, you met the man in the tavern and became closer to him than you were supposed to,’ Bessie suggested.
Rosamund glared at her.
‘Was he married?’ Bessie asked, levelling a cold look on her ex-servant that warned Rosamund she wasn’t going to take pity on her.
Rosamund nodded.
‘So, you had an affair with a married man.’ Zach’s voice was neither condemning nor sympathetic. He was merely stating fact.
‘Yes, I knew he was married, and we had an affair. I am not the only one to succumb to the sins of the flesh, so don’t you dare criticise me for what I have done,’ Rosamund spat, glaring at Bessie. ‘You have been shacking up with your coachman for years. Don’t try to deny it. I have seen you creeping out of his cottage at dawn. You think that nobody is going to see you, but I did.’
‘I don’t intend to deny it. I confess that it was my secret, but I only wanted our relationship to remain a secret so that Frederick wasn’t scorned whenever he went into the village, or to the tavern for an ale. While I doubt many of the locals would dare openly scorn me, they wouldn’t hesitate to criticise him to his face.’
‘Do you really think I would give a damn?’ Frederick growled.
‘You felt guilty enough when we first got together,’ Bessie argued.
‘That was then,’ Frederick grunted.
Al grinned at them. ‘If you two could sort yourselves out later, it would be appreciated. Everyone knows about you
now, but nobody here is going to condemn you or criticise you for wanting to be together. Believe me when I tell you that I have seen people with higher social statuses than you, Bessie, and they have done far, far worse than having a romantic liaison with a long-standing family acquaintance.’
‘We aren’t concerned with anything anybody does in their personal lives as long as they haven’t committed any crimes,’ Zach warned. ‘This is your life and your house.’
‘It is evident to us that you, Rosamund, have committed crimes today, and in the past. So, you had a romantic liaison with a married man you met while working in a tavern. I assume that this married man is one of the highwaymen, and he lives in Mivverford.’
Rosamund nodded.
‘Can I have a name?’
‘Archibald Hammond,’ she whispered miserably but then jerked as if she had remembered something. When she spoke next her voice was more forceful. ‘You have no idea what he is like. He is – was – determined to stop me telling his wife and threatened me.’
‘You left,’ Bessie sighed.
‘I knew Archie was stealing from people. He works at the blacksmith’s in Mivverford and had a reputation for brawling in taverns. People were talking about how he seemed to have more money than most. They wondered where it came from seeing as he was just a blacksmith. One day, I stupidly asked him where he got his money from. He boasted that there were stupid people in the area who didn’t know it was him. I asked him what he meant by that. He told me that he was helping himself to things in people’s houses and used his forge to make new things out of everything he stole and then sold them to his customers. It meant that he could make things and sell them but at little cost to himself. Nobody could then ever find anything that was stolen because it was shaped into something else.’
‘What happened to make you leave?’
‘When we were first together, he used to buy me things. Archie wanted to flash his money about. I didn’t object. He bought me a bracelet, a locket, things like that. Then one day, one of the customers recognised a locket I was wearing that he had given me. He had stolen it from one of his customer’s houses. The customer thought I was the thief. Archie was there at the time and cornered me when the inn keeper sent me upstairs to wait for the magistrate. Archie turned nasty and threatened to silence me for good if I ever told anybody it was him. He expected me to go to gaol for him and stay silent about his guilt.’
