Glyn swore most foully, causing the minister to send him a shocked look. ‘You can’t prove it,’ he snarled. ‘There’s no one left at Raglan to bear witness to your nuptials, whether you actually had a ceremony or not.’
Rhys looked at her then. ‘Arabella?’
She blinked, still so shocked she was having trouble assimilating what was happening. ‘What? Oh. Yes.’ At last, she caught his meaning, and fumbled inside her skirt, ripping up the neat stitches that held their marriage lines in place. She pulled out the piece of paper and showed it to the minister. ‘Here’s the proof, signed by Lady Margaret, no less,’ she said, but she didn’t let go, in case he or Glyn would snatch it out of her grasp and destroy it.
After a quick look, the minister cleared his throat and sent Glyn a nervous glance. ‘Well, then, it would seem the lady is indeed married, so I—’
‘Not for much longer,’ Glyn growled and sent Rhys a menacing stare.
Arabella saw his hand move towards his belt, but before he had time to grip the knife, she lunged towards Glyn and snatched it away.
‘Give me that, you foolish woman!’ He tried to take his knife back, but Arabella jumped out of the way and, picking up her skirts, sprinted down the aisle. Glyn followed, with a howl of rage, but came to an abrupt halt as a group of men moved to stand next to Rhys.
‘Get behind me,’ Rhys hissed, and Arabella hurried to comply.
It wasn’t a moment too soon, as Glyn apparently threw caution to the wind and launched himself at Rhys. ‘You whoreson! I won’t let you take what’s mine again, do you hear?’ he yelled.
‘It was never yours in the first place,’ Rhys replied.
The two men tumbled out through the open church doors and onto the path outside. Everyone else followed, including Arabella who watched the ensuing fight with her heart beating so fast she thought she would faint. Glyn’s sudden attack must have taken Rhys by surprise, because he had dropped his sword and the two of them were fighting with nothing but their fists. Arabella was terrified on her husband’s behalf, especially since he seemed to have a head wound, as witness the bandage round his head. But she soon saw that he was still capable of holding his own.
The men he’d brought shouted encouragement and offered help.
‘No, stay back. I can handle this,’ Rhys grunted in between blows. But his companions looked ready to intervene if it should prove necessary, which reassured Arabella somewhat.
She should have guessed that Glyn wouldn’t fight fair, however, and after a while he pulled back slightly before drawing a small knife out from inside his boot. He went on the attack, brandishing it in a maniacal way, and Rhys couldn’t do more than jump out of his path.
‘Here, Rhys, catch!’ Arabella threw the knife she’d been holding towards him, hilt first, and to her relief he caught it. The surprise of suddenly seeing his opponent with a longer, sharper weapon made Glyn take a step backwards. He caught his heel on the verge of grass that surrounded the graves in the churchyard and stumbled, falling backwards and hitting his head on a tombstone. There was a loud crack, then he slumped to the ground, his eyes rolling up so that only the whites showed before they closed.
Everything went quiet.
‘Is he … dead?’ someone whispered.
One of the men who’d come with Rhys bent down to feel for a pulse. ‘Yes, he’s gone.’
A wail of despair sounded behind them and Arabella turned to see the horror-struck expressions of her uncle and aunt as they came out of the church and took in what had happened. Elizabeth looked distraught and threw herself onto her husband’s chest, but he passed her on to a serving-woman, never one to put up with female histrionics.
Arabella sank down onto the grass herself, her legs not able to hold her any longer. She heard Huw shout, ‘You’ll pay for this, Cadell!’
‘It weren’t his fault,’ someone else said. ‘We all witnessed it. An accident, pure and simple.’
‘And you’re the one who’ll pay,’ Rhys shot back. ‘Don’t think you’ll get away with stealing my wife’s estate for much longer. You may have friends in high places, but so do I and remember this, I’ll be waiting for an opportunity to take you down. You’ll never be safe from now on.’
Arabella looked up in time to see her uncle’s face turn white, then Rhys was there, pulling her up.
‘Come. It’s time to go.’
She was lifted onto a horse, this time more gently, and sat sideways in front of Rhys with his arms around her as they rode off. The men who’d come with him followed and she was grateful for their escort as she didn’t trust Huw not to come after them with his henchmen.
Rhys was silent for a long time, then he asked quietly, ‘How could you agree to marry that bastard a mere day after I was presumed dead? Have you so little faith in me?’
Her eyes shot up to his. ‘What?’ It hadn’t even occurred to her that he would assume her complicit. ‘I most certainly hadn’t agreed! In fact, I was just about to take my own life. I had planned to snatch Glyn’s knife and … well, I saw no point in living without you and death was definitely preferable to being Glyn’s wife.’
Rhys’s eyes widened in shock. ‘Arabella!’ He shuddered, as if he didn’t want to even think about such a thing. ‘So if I’d arrived just a few moments later, I would have been too late?’
‘Yes. I’m sorry, but they told me they had killed you. I had no reason not to believe them. I’ve witnessed first-hand what they’re capable of and I didn’t think they’d dare a church ceremony unless they were sure you were dead. I see now that I should have asked them to show me your body, but that didn’t even occur to me …’ She trailed off, horribly aware of how close they had come to disaster, one way or another.
His arms tightened around her. ‘No, I’m the one who is sorry. Please forgive me for doubting you. I shouldn’t have, but seeing you standing there so calmly next to Howell, it was just …’
She put her own arms round his middle and squeezed hard. ‘There’s nothing to forgive. Just know this, I will never love any man other than you and I will follow you into the very mouth of hell, as long as we’re together.’
‘Oh, sweetheart, I love you more than life too. From now on, nothing and no one will come between us, I swear.’
He gave her a fierce kiss, which she returned in full measure until she remembered something. ‘Wait, stop!’
‘What is it, my love?’
‘The jewels,’ she whispered so that the other men wouldn’t hear. ‘We have to go back for them. I promised Lady Margaret.’
She held her breath, hoping he wouldn’t be too angry, but to her surprise he just chuckled. ‘Very well, a promise is sacred. Let’s go. Merrick Court gardens is probably the last place they’d look for us right now.’
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Merrick Court, 20th August 2016
‘Stirring things again, Mrs Edmonton?’
Josh walked into the room and gave Rosie a hard stare, having obviously caught at least the tail end of what she’d been saying.
She raised her chin and glared back. ‘Just informing Therese of what I saw. She has a right to know, especially if she’s been taken in by your … charm.’
‘That makes a change then, you being concerned about Tess.’ Josh’s smile was mocking. ‘I thought you said she’d corrupted your son and you couldn’t wait to see the back of her?’
‘She has put some silly ideas into his head …’
‘Rosie.’ George’s warning growl made her sigh.
‘… but perhaps it will be good for Louis to try things his way at first, then when it doesn’t work out, he’ll see that he should’ve listened to us.’
‘Yeah, like that’s going to happen,’ Louis muttered, but didn’t otherwise rise to the bait.
‘Anyway, you’ll soon tire of working in the garden, Louis,’ his mother continued. ‘Surely you won’t want to stay the whole summer? Daddy and I came to ask you to accompany us and Emilia to the Riviera. We’ve take
n a villa for the rest of August and beginning of September. Won’t that be fun? The Fletchers are coming too, with their boys and that nice daughter of theirs, Olivia.’
‘I hate Olivia, she’s worse than Em,’ Louis said. ‘So thanks, but no thanks. Shay and I were thinking of going round Italy by train for a couple of weeks. She’s always wanted to go there, haven’t you?’ He threw Shayla a smile and she grinned back and took his hand, causing Rosie’s frown to deepen to epic proportions. ‘And anyway, I’m not leaving here until Josh says I have to. It’s his call.’
‘Well, that’ll be soon then.’ Rosie looked smug.
Tess had only been listening half-heartedly while she tried to figure out what to believe about Josh and his secrets, but now she’d had enough. Rosie was welcome to this place. Tess never wanted to see it again. ‘If anyone’s tried to manipulate Louis, it’s you! I’m glad he’ll be the ultimate owner of this place – at least he’s not a crushing snob,’ she snarled before rushing out of the room and into the garden. The last thing she saw was the shocked expression on Josh’s face, but she ignored it. If he couldn’t be honest with her, they had no future together.
‘Lady Merrick? We need your statement!’
Inspector Houghton’s voice followed her along the path, but she just waved a hand at him and shouted, ‘In a minute!’
She didn’t stop until she was in the knot garden and could sink down onto the old stone bench by the fountain. Her entire body was trembling. How had it all gone so wrong? Why hadn’t Josh told her of his plans? But he’d acted strange when they found the Merrick jewel and then he’d gone off to London, apparently to see Mr Harrison …
‘Tess! What’s going on? You surely don’t believe anything that über-bitch says? She was just stirring things … Tess?’
She was crying, tears trickling down her cheeks, but she swiped at them with her knuckles, more angry than sad at the moment. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were selling up after all? Or were you planning to leave without saying anything? If all you wanted was a summer fling, you should’ve said …’ She couldn’t go on; her throat was too choked.
‘Tess, look at me.’ He cupped her face with both hands, giving her no choice but to stare into his eyes. ‘Do you really believe that I could give this up now? The house, the history, but most of all, you?’ He shook his head. ‘I’m Joshua Owens Cadell, Earl of Merrick, and I’m staying right here. With you, if you’ll have me.’
She opened her mouth to say something, but he didn’t give her a chance.
‘Look, I know you hated being Lady Merrick the first time and this place has some pretty bad memories for you, but I was really hoping we could make better ones. You were the one who told me it meant something to own this place because it had been in the family for a thousand years. So I was kind of hoping to persuade you to become Lady Merrick again, except as my lady, which would be a totally different thing, I swear. Perhaps together we can make this a happy home with those six kids we were planning to have?’
‘F-four.’
He gave her a lopsided grin. ‘Okay then, four.’
She closed her eyes. His nearness was too distracting and she didn’t want to be won over by charm. She wanted cold, hard facts before she could make up her mind. ‘Why did you go and see Mr Harrison then? What are you selling?’
‘Property I own in New Zealand. I need the money from that to buy Home Farm. Remember, I told you about having a huge flock of sheep? We’ll need more land.’
‘Oh. Right.’ Tess felt silly now for jumping to conclusions, but he hadn’t told her his plans were definite. ‘So you want me to stay here with you? And … marry you?’
‘Exactly. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. If you’re dead set against this place, I’ll give it up, but ideally, I want us both to stay.’ He got down on one knee in front of her and pulled a little box out of his pocket. ‘I bought this in a local antique shop before I went to London. It called out to me and I was going to ask you when I got back, but … yeah, that didn’t quite work out. Anyway, I’m asking you now – please, will you be my wife?’ When he opened the box, a beautiful gold ring was revealed, studded with tiny sapphires and diamonds that were embedded in a design of leaves.
Tess’s eyes welled up again, but this time the tears were happy ones. ‘You really want to marry me? After your experiences with Isla I thought you’d been burned for life.’
He smiled. ‘So did I, but this time I’m asking of my own free will, not because I have to.’
She smiled back and held out her finger for him to slide the ring onto. ‘Then, yes, please, I’d like that very much. I love you too, Josh, and I was prepared to go and live with you on a sheep station in New Zealand, if that was what it took.’ She looked back at the house. ‘I’d be happy to continue as custodian of this place and hopefully provide it with some more heirs. You’re right, we’ll make our own memories. Good ones.’
‘Thank God for that!’ He swept her into a fierce hug, then kissed her with all the pent-up emotion of the past few hours.
Some time later, he leaned his chin on the top of her head and chuckled. ‘So do you fancy learning all about sheep?’
‘Sounds brilliant! I can’t wait.’
‘Now you’re just being sarcastic. Sheep aren’t so bad, really. And not stupid, just introverted.’
‘Introverted?’ Tess laughed. ‘And I was being serious. As long as I can spend every day with you, I don’t care if we run a pig farm or whatever. I’m going to enjoy every minute.’
‘That’s okay, then.’ Josh nodded towards the fountain. ‘Looks like they approve too.’
‘What? Who?’ Tess looked in that direction but couldn’t see anything.
‘Rhys and his lady. They’re smiling at us.’
‘She’s there too? Oh, I can’t see anyone, but I’m glad if they’re pleased. And thank God he warned you this morning!’ She suddenly remembered something. ‘Did you say your name is Joshua Owens Cadell?’
‘Of course. I’m directly descended from Rhys and Arabella, remember? I’ve just never used the surname Cadell as it was my father’s. I ditched it as soon as Mum and I left him and changed to hers. But now I know where it came from, I’ll be proud of it.’ He nodded towards the bench. ‘And I’m pretty sure that Rhys, the first man of that name to own Merrick Court, would want me to use it again. He got this place thanks to his wife, Arabella Dauncey, who seems to have inherited it from her mother, and his descendants have been here ever since. He was the one who set up the entail to make sure of that. Harrison gave me a family tree they’d drawn up when looking for me. And guess what?’
‘What?’
‘He and Arabella almost didn’t make it out of that siege, although that wasn’t the fault of the besiegers. They were okay in the end though. I’ve, uhm, had a few more mind visits from our friend over there … I’ll tell you all about it later.’
Tess smiled. ‘Well, that’s lovely. I hope they hang around and watch over us.’
Josh took her hand and pulled her up. ‘Yeah, I hope so too. Now, how about we go and face the dragon, er, I mean Rosie, and tell her our good news? And there’s a policeman waiting for you as well.’
‘If we must. I’d much rather go somewhere with just you.’
‘Don’t tempt me. At least not right now. Later, I’ll let you do whatever you want with me and that’s a promise, my lady.’
Tess couldn’t wait.
Epilogue
Merrick Court, 4th September 1660
‘Arabella, my dear, might I borrow you for a moment, please?’
Rhys took his wife’s hand and pulled her out of the room where four of their five children were running around playing a noisy game of chase, while the youngest was attempting to walk with some help from the nursemaid.
Arabella followed him, promising to return soon. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked.
‘For a walk.’ He sent her an enigmatic smile, but didn’t tell her where to.
<
br /> He led the way out into the gardens of Merrick Court and along the paths to the knot garden, where the fountain presided over the quietest corner. A stone bench was placed nearby and Rhys pulled her down next to him. Arabella glanced at the paving stone that still hid the necklace Lady Margaret had given her. They hadn’t needed to sell it so far and had decided to leave it where it was as insurance against future calamities.
‘We were lucky the king listened to our plea and gave the estate back to us, even if there is much to do here to set it all to rights.’ He shook his head. ‘Good thing your uncle was already dead or I’d have made him pay for his mismanagement.’ The gardens were overgrown and ill-kempt, but at least the surrounding fields had been looked after and the tenants had all seemed to welcome Arabella’s return with her husband and family.
‘I don’t think luck had much to do with it.’ Arabella smiled. ‘Rather, it was your friendship with Prince Rupert and your loyal service to the king while he was in exile. And I suspect Lady Margaret put in a good word for us too.’
They’d lived a peripatetic lifestyle for the last fourteen years, going wherever the exiled king went. They hadn’t had to starve, but times had been hard and it was a relief now not to have to rely on others for employment or handouts. At last they could provide for their children properly.
‘Well, it was kind of him to create me Earl of Merrick.’
‘Hmm, and so much cheaper than giving you a stipend of any kind,’ Arabella muttered sarcastically.
Rhys laughed. ‘Yes, there is that. But don’t forget the earring – just what I’d always wanted.’
‘Liar. You hate wearing it.’ She smiled and gave him a playful shove.
‘True. But we don’t need anything more from His Majesty, not when we have this magnificent place.’ He swept a hand to indicate all the surrounding lands which were fertile and bountiful. ‘I mean it. No gift could have been better and we’ve had a rich harvest, which is partly why I brought you out here.’
The Velvet Cloak of Moonlight Page 34
