Forgotten Destiny

by Forgotten Destiny (retail) (epub)

  No wonder he had agreed to me visiting the scene of the murder! When I had told him of Thomas’s arrest and made no mention of the pouch, he must have been puzzled and dismayed. He must have thought it had not yet been found – and he had hoped that I would discover it! Why, he had even bidden me to look around carefully for any clues, not knowing that all the while the pouch was burning a hole in my pocket!

  Surely, though, he must have known I would recognize the initials? Did he trust me to hand the pouch over to the authorities and incriminate the man I loved? But then, he was under the impression that that was all over now, and that I had been deterred by his warnings about Richard being a danger to me. Perhaps he had thought I would take the pouch as final proof that Richard was indeed a dangerous man – one who could bludgeon my husband to death in cold blood.

  Had Theo called once more upon his thugs – or was the truth even worse? He had been at the docks this morning. Perhaps he had gone to see Mr Paterson in his office to beg him once more to give him time to repay the loan, and when Mr Paterson had refused, he had battered him to death with his own trivet, dropped the pouch on the stairs to divert attention, and then come to me to offer his assistance. What was it he had said? I shall take good care of both you and Daniel from now on… You need never be alone or afraid again…

  I gasped as the full implication of it hit me. I will take good care of both you and Daniel from now on. You and Daniel. Daniel – the heir to Mr Paterson’s wealth. Daniel – a mere babe in arms. Theo had not made the promise out of the goodness of his heart, or even from concern for me. He meant to worm his way into our lives to such an extent that he would be responsible for Daniel’s inheritance. The wealth that had eluded him in spite of the marriage he had arranged between me and Mr Paterson was now within his grasp.

  Oh dear God, was it really possible that my own cousin could hide such a black heart beneath the charming manner he showed to the world? Could he really be so wicked? I could still scarcely believe it, and yet…

  As I stood there, thoughts churning, something very odd happened. With a blinding flash, a door in my memory opened. I was remembering, truly remembering, that last desperate journey with my mother. In reality, not in dreams, I felt the rock of the carriage, the discomfort it caused me in my delicate condition, the anxiety as to what was to become of us all. I recalled the abrupt halt on the lonely road and the face at the window – the face of the man who would fire the fatal shot that would send us careering towards disaster. For the first time, I saw it clearly, and knew why I had felt a frisson of surprise on seeing it. For it was not the face of some unknown highwayman at all. It was the face of my cousin Theo.

  * * *

  The blood drained from my face; my heart seemed to stop beating. Theo! It was not Richard I had been trying to escape from – it was Theo! When he had talked of a man obsessed, it was himself he had been describing! It was Theo who had been behind the burning of the cottage in the hope of driving me back into his arms, and when my mother and I had fled, he had followed us and held up the carriage with the intention of abducting me. But everything had gone awry. Shots were fired, the horses bolted, my mother was killed and I was badly injured. And worst of all, I was pregnant with Richard’s child. How shocked Theo must have been when he discovered it! He had turned against me then, and for a while, no doubt, had despised me with the same fervour as he had loved me. And then he had seen his chance to use me as a pawn in his ambition to become a Merchant Venturer, and at the same time take his revenge on Richard – by arranging for me to marry Mr Paterson.

  Now, for some reason, he had once more become obsessed with me. And, even more so, with the life of luxury I represented. He saw everything he desired within his grasp. And I had played into his hands more neatly than he could ever have hoped. Into my mind’s eye came the picture of Theo bidding me goodbye at my door, with little Daniel in his arms. I had handed my son into the care of a heartless schemer, a slave trader, a murderer.

  ‘Rowan?’ Lady Avonbridge’s voice, tinged with anxiety, impinged on the dreadful pictures my mind was conjuring up. ‘Are you well? Has all this been too much for you?’

  ‘I must go home at once!’ I said.

  ‘Wouldn’t you like to see Alice?’ she asked. ‘Richard left her with me. She is upstairs with her nurse…’

  Longing tugged at me briefly. But for the moment my greatest concern was Daniel. Alice was safe here, and happy. Daniel… Daniel was with the man who had betrayed me.

  ‘I must go at once!’ I repeated. ‘But, if Richard returns, please tell him I need him. Desperately. And with urgency.’

  Then, waiting for nothing more, I ran from the house.

  * * *

  When I came running out, Theo’s driver looked almost as startled as Lady Avonbridge had done.

  ‘Take me home, please!’ I instructed, breathless with haste and anxiety.

  ‘To Queen’s Square, madam?’ he enquired politely.

  ‘No – to Clifton, of course!’ I snapped. ‘And please make haste!’

  Never had the journey seemed so long. I knotted my hands in my skirts, picking at my fingers and trying to decide the best course of action.

  Daniel was my priority. First, I must get him away from Theo. Then I could go to a magistrate, hand the pouch over, and tell him my story. It would be enough, I hoped, to free Thomas, if indeed his pursuers had captured him. Beyond that, I did not know what I would do. I only prayed Richard would come home soon. But, for the moment, I could think of nothing but holding Daniel safe in my arms.

  Just why I was so afraid for him I did not know. However dangerous Theo might be – and I was suddenly utterly convinced that he was very dangerous indeed – he would certainly not harm Daniel. The boy and his inheritance were Theo’s passport to a life of luxury. Yet the very thought of my son in Theo’s care was enough to drive me to a frenzy of anxiety.

  The carriage drew up outside the house that I had come to call my home. I climbed down hastily, not waiting for Theo’s driver to help me, and ran inside.

  There was no sign of Theo or of Daniel. Not in the parlour; not in the drawing room. I ran up the stairs to the nursery. Perrett was there, folding a pile of clean sheets.

  ‘Where is Daniel?’ I demanded.

  ‘Why, Mr Theo took him out,’ she replied. ‘Took him out in the carriage.’

  Her eyes, I noticed, were red, and had I not been so demented with anxiety I would have been touched to think that the servants, at least, were upset by Mr Paterson’s death.

  ‘But I had the use of Mr Theo’s carriage!’ I cried.

  ‘He took Mr Paterson’s and drove himself. He put Daniel in the Moses basket on the seat beside him.’

  ‘Where was he going?’ I demanded.

  ‘To the docks. To Mr Paterson’s office, to look for you. He felt bad that he had allowed you to go alone, and quite right too!’ Perrett said. ‘Haven’t you seen him?’

  I did not wait to answer or explain myself. I ran from the nursery, down the stairs, and out of the house. Perrett called after me, thinking, no doubt, that I had been unhinged by the shock of Mr Paterson’s death, but I ignored her. Nothing was of the slightest importance but finding Theo – and Daniel.

  Theo’s carriage was still drawn up at the door, the coachman standing with the horse, rubbing his neck.

  ‘The docks!’ I instructed. ‘Please take me to my husband’s warehouse without delay!’

  I sank back in the seat, trembling from head to toe. My imagination was running wild, my thoughts racing. What would I do if I could not find Theo? Supposing he was not at the docks – what then? Panic closed my throat. I was never going to see my little son again! I tried to still my fevered imaginings, but without much success. Losing a child was too real for me. I knew exactly how it felt. And the terrible events of the day overlaid everything with the sense of living a nightmare.

  Down Park Street we went, too slowly – oh, far too slowly! The stench of the river rose to gree
t us and I pressed a handkerchief to my mouth and nose, for the smell, always nauseating, was making my quaking stomach heave.

  The docks were busy, as always. A ship was unloading, orders were shouted, barrels rolled along the cobbles, rigging was being inspected and repaired, sail makers pulled tattered canvas from lockers to spread on the quayside. Sailors lounging to yarn moved aside to let us pass, and at last – at last! – we were drawing up outside Mr Paterson’s warehouse.

  I jumped down, ran inside and up the stairs to the office, not even stopping to wonder if the body of my husband would still be there, slumped at his desk. My only concern was to find Theo – and Daniel. But the office, like the warehouse, was deserted. Mr Paterson’s body had been removed, and there was only a dark stain of congealed blood to show where it had lain. Of Theo and Daniel, there was no sign.

  Back down the stairs I ran, demented almost in the extremity of my anxiety. Back down the stairs and on to the quayside, looking around wildly. And then, a little further along, I saw Mr Paterson’s carriage pulled up outside Theo’s own warehouse. How could I not have seen it before? The bustle on the quay had hidden it from me, I supposed – or I had been too blinded by my panic to notice. Relief coursed through me in a hot flood tide. I ran along the quayside, oblivious to the stares and muttered comments of the sailors and dock workers, through the door and up the stairs. I was breathless, my heart pumping madly.

  I threw open the door to the office and sobbed with the release of tension.

  They were there, Theo bending over some paperwork on the desk, Daniel – still in his Moses basket – on the floor beside him. Theo looked up, surprise – and suspicion – written all over his handsome face.

  ‘Davina! Where have you been?’

  I did not answer. I ran to the basket and picked up Daniel, holding him tight.

  ‘Oh Daniel! Thank God – oh, thank God!’

  ‘Where have you been?’ Theo repeated. ‘You said you intended coming to the docks.’

  And with a recklessness born of my boundless joy and relief, I cried: ‘I know all about you, Theo! You’ve been deceiving me! I’ve remembered – it was you who held up the carriage and caused the accident – I saw your face at the window! And it was you who fired the cottage, too, wasn’t it? You tried to convince me it was Richard I should fear, and all the time it was you!’

  Theo’s face was startled – and thunderstruck. ‘Have you gone mad, Davina?’

  ‘Mad? No! For the first time I am seeing things as they really are. You have been using me to further your ambitions, and when that didn’t work, when you faced ruin because Mr Paterson was demanding the repayment of his loan, you had him killed! And tried to lay the blame for that too at Richard’s door!’

  Theo straightened, moving out from behind the desk. ‘You are mad! Why should you think such a thing?’

  ‘Because of this!’ Blazing with all my pent-up emotion, I pulled out Richard’s pouch and held it towards him in the palm of my hand. ‘Do you see the initials on it? R.W – Richard Wells. Thomas found it on the stairs when he discovered Mr Paterson’s body, left there, no doubt, in an effort to incriminate him. But this pouch was stolen from Richard when your ruffians attacked and beat him. Did they bring it to you as proof they had done the deed you asked of them – after they had stolen the money it contained, of course? Or were you there when he was beaten senseless? Did you take it from him yourself as a trophy of war?’

  Theo laughed suddenly. ‘Oh Davina, I have underestimated you! What a woman! Oh yes, I should have married you myself when I had the chance! But you were more valuable to me as a passport to riches – or so I mistakenly thought. Yes, you are right, of course. I was there to watch Wells beaten – and much pleasure it gave me too. To defile you, my beautiful little cousin, and then to dare to try to insinuate himself into your life again, and risk everything I have worked for… Oh, it gave me great pleasure, and every time I looked at that pouch, it reminded me of him lying there in the gutter. But the time came when it would be more use to me as evidence against him. It’s true, everything you say. Yes, it was me who struck the blow that killed that tight-fisted husband of yours, and I would have enjoyed it even if it had not been a means to gain control of all his wealth, through you and Daniel. He thought himself better than me. He thought he could sneer at me, humiliate me, and get away with it – well, I showed him different. He deserved to die – and I’m glad I was the one to strike the fatal blow. But nobody but you will ever know it. I shall not admit it outside these four walls, and the pouch will condemn Richard Wells.’

  ‘We’ll see about that!’ I cried. ‘No less a person than Lady Avonbridge will confirm it was stolen from him long ago. I intend going to the magistrate without delay and I shall tell him everything.’

  I turned for the door, but Theo was there before me, barring my way.

  ‘Oh no, Davina!’ His voice was low and dangerous suddenly, a tone I had never heard him use before. ‘Oh no, my love, you are not going anywhere!’

  Eighteen

  In that moment I realized just how rash I had been. The moment Daniel was safe in my arms, I should have turned and fled straight to the magistrate. Instead I had allowed my tongue to run away with me – and now I was in terrible danger.

  The noise of the quayside sounded very far away suddenly. I could expect no assistance from the outside world. Not from the seamen and dock labourers, who would imagine my cousin was comforting me in my grief, not from Theo’s coachman, who was paid to think nothing at all. I was quite alone with a man who was so obsessed with his ambition that he was prepared to stop at nothing to achieve it.

  ‘Theo!’ I said, striving to keep my voice level. ‘Please stand aside and let me pass. You are frightening me!’

  ‘Oh Davina!’ He reached out a hand and caught a lock of my hair which had, as usual, come loose from its pins. ‘I’m sorry. It was never my wish to frighten you, or harm you in any way. I only ever wished to love you. You must know that, if your memory is returning. You must know what we were to each other before you ran off with that damnable man. You hurt me dreadfully, you know, by choosing to go with him. And when I discovered you were to bear his child… Can you not imagine how I felt? The torment you put me through? For a while I could scarcely bear to look on you. But I forgave you. That is the measure of my love for you! I forgave you even that. Don’t you see, I wanted you so much!’

  ‘So why did you arrange for me to marry Mr Paterson?’ I asked. ‘If you cared for me so deeply, why did you not ask me to be your wife?’

  Theo sighed. ‘Oh, it was too good an opportunity to pass up – or so I thought. An entrée at last to the closed circle of the Merchant Venturers. Prosperity within my grasp… And John Paterson an old man. I knew that one day in the not too distant future you would be a widow, and then we would be together. I would have you, and I would be rich. I could have it all! And when Daniel was born – well, better yet! I knew that John’s fortune was safe, for Daniel would inherit, not some obscure male relative. And who better to take care of it for him than his mother’s husband? The successful and respected merchant, Theo Grimes! Oh, this last year has been very difficult for me, I grant you, seeing you wed to another man, but I have comforted myself that it would not be for long. And now that time is come – the time I have waited for so patiently.’ His face contorted with sudden anger. ‘But you are spoiling it all with your wild talk of running to the magistrate. I can’t let you do that, surely you can see that?’

  The panic was drying my throat, threatening to overwhelm me. Theo was mad. Truly mad. Though he had certainly concealed his obsessions cunningly these last years, even if he had not, I could never have guessed at the twisted reasonings of his warped mind. There was no rhyme nor reason to his actions, either prior to my accident or since, looked at from the mind of a normal, healthy human being. But to Theo there had been some kind of logic in it all. He craved wealth and position, and he craved me, and he had worked out one dreadful scheme aft
er another in his pursuit of the objects of his craving. No doubt when he had killed Mr Paterson this morning it had seemed to him that everything was at last falling into place. He would have his fortune, and he would have me. And perhaps in that lay my salvation. For he had just shown me what I must do and say to bring myself – and Daniel – to safety.

  ‘Oh, I was only joking, Theo!’ I said, trying to sound convincing. ‘Surely you didn’t really think I would betray you? You are my cousin, after all, and I am very fond of you. Even more so now, when I see how clever you have been! You, me, and Daniel – living in comfort on Daniel’s inheritance. Why, I can’t think of anything that would please me more!’

  His face softened, his fingers played again with my wayward curl, and a tiny spark of hope flickered within me.

  ‘Oh Davina, Davina, I so much wish I could believe you! But you made a fool of me once – how do I know you won’t do so again?’

  ‘I won’t!’ I cried passionately. ‘Oh please, Theo, let’s go home. And I shall never so much as think of Richard Wells again.’

  It was the wrong thing to say. As if the very mention of his rival’s name were a fuse to a gunpowder keg, Theo exploded.

  ‘You see? You cannot help but drag him into it! Oh, I should have had him finished off in the gutter that night! I don’t know what possessed me to let him live! And now… It’s him you want, I know it! You almost had me fooled – but I can’t trust you where he’s concerned, can I? He came between us before, and he’ll do it again.’