A Murderous Masquerade (17 page)

Apart for being only seventeen, Charlotte was so utterly unattainable, so far above him that he should be honoured that she would even deign to glance at his boots. He clamped his jaws together as he pushed away from the window frame. Nothing could come of his feelings; he could never show them, or act on them. He could never tell her what she did to him or how he would do anything just to hear her laughter cascading from her rosebud lips.

He tramped from the room and closed the door before striding along the hallway towards the servants staircase. He pushed through the narrow door and into the confined passage. His huge shoulders brushed the walls as he made his way down to the kitchens. He opened the wooden door at the bottom of the stairs but was startled by a sudden scream as cook threw her hands and a tray of freshly baked lardy cakes into the air.

“Lordy! Master Geoffrey! What on earth are you doing scaring an old biddy like me? I haven’t seen you use that staircase since you was a nipper.”

Geoffrey smiled as the woman pressed her hands across her ample breasts. He stooped to gather the cakes that had fallen to the floor. He put them back on the tray and placed them on the table before he picked one up, inspected it carefully and then popped it in his mouth. He savoured the delicious confection.

“I was about to steal your cakes, but I arrived a moment too soon.” He picked up another from the tray, earning him a gentle slap across his hand.

“Go on with you, you great lummox. I thought stealing my cakes was young Alexander’s favourite trick. Don’t tell me it was you all the time.” She wiped her hands on her apron and then began placing the left over cakes on a plate.

Geoffrey walked around the kitchen table.

“I will have to leave you guessing as I need to go and get washed and changed for dinner.” He eyed the joint of pork that turned above the fire. “I’ll let you save a chunk of the crackling especially for me.”

Cook shooed him out of the door with great flaps of her apron.

“I’ll crack something over that great skull of yours if you don’t let me get on. I understands that I’m making up a picnic for you lot tomorrow. Just another thing for an overworked old duck like me to do.” She sighed deeply as if the work would be a huge inconvenience.

Geoffrey laughed as he stepped out into the cobbled courtyard. Cook practically lived in Ormond’s kitchen through her own choice. Everyone knew that Alexander had given her a small suite of rooms for her own personal use but she rarely bothered, preferring to put a makeshift bed in the small box room just off the kitchen so that she could bake and make to her heart’s content.

He climbed the stairs to his quarters above the stables. He no longer shared with Jennings, the old stable-master. Alexander had converted part of the old barn into a cottage of his own when it became clear that the old man wouldn’t be able to use the stairs much longer.

Geoffrey walked into his bedroom and pulled his shirt from his shoulders. He poured water in a bowl and began to wash. The cold water felt good against his heated skin and he doused himself liberally to remove the dust and cobwebs that he had picked up during his minutes in the servants passageway.

As cook said, it had been years since he had used them. Alexander had welcomed him into the castle as an old friend and an equal when he had returned home from the battlefields, but Geoffrey loved his work with the horses and while he often ate dinner with his friends, he had insisted on keeping his sleeping quarters separate from the main house. Now he was very glad of that fact. He didn’t want to be in the castle with Charlotte’s distracting presence any longer than necessary. He grabbed a cloth to dry the water from his body and stared out of the small window that faced Ormond.

The great walls of the castle rose above him, thick and sturdy and hiding far more secrets than they ever gave away. Edward had found some way of removing himself from that room, and Geoffrey was determined to find it. He would redouble his efforts to discover where Edward Ellesworth had gone, set Giles Denvers free and then Geoffrey could carry on with the important work of raising the best horses in the land without the diversion of a pair of captivating blue eyes and ripples of laughter that would delight the gods.

Chapter Eleven

Alexander could barely look his best friend in the eye as he recounted his repeated visits to Lord Rookwood and Lord Latham. As a last resort, he had been tempted to offer both men a bribe in exchange for what they knew, but looking around the great houses that both of them lived in, it appeared that money was unlikely to be an effective incentive.

Giles smiled grimly as he listened to the non-news.

“I am not surprised. Nobles of their nature notoriously stick together. Though they know of my innocence, they are never going to do anything that would aid my defence. I am not one of them. Even my new-found nobility will not help me. Even if they haven’t had contact with Ellesworth recently , that doesn’t mean that they don’t know what he’s up to, however, getting them to admit that is an entirely different affair...Nothing more came of the leg that they found, I take it?”

If this had happened under different circumstances he and Giles would have been laughing fit to burst. As it was he tried to add some humour to their somewhat subdued meeting. It had been nearly three weeks since Edward Ellesworth’s disappearing act and they were no nearer hitting on the truth that would free Giles.

“No one has owned up to chopping their leg off and throwing it in the pig pen to act as Edward’s body, if that’s what you mean. I spoke to the doctor again about it though. I wanted to clarify the height possibilities and hair colour, but although he still had the limb, it was worse than useless. Looks like a mummified limb of a tree now. You couldn’t tell if it was from a man of twenty or eighty. The whole thing has shrivelled and turned black. I doubt that he’s even going to produce it as evidence. He had Gates sign his original description of what he had discovered and he’s going to stick with that document at the trial.”

Giles nodded and walked over to the window that looked out onto the square.

“So there will be no swaying his opinion that the leg belonged to Ellesworth. With my own admission of being near the farm at the time and Ellesworth’s friends sighting of me, it looks as though I am done for.” He ran his finger around the cravat that Craddock insisted on tying for him every morning. “I confess that I had never expected my life to end like this. Have they decided where to bury my murderous body? I can’t say I fancy the crossroads out of town, you know that’s where all the cattle piss on their way into the market and as inadequate as I am, I don’t believe that I am deserving of that.” His hollow tone spoke of the bitterness he felt.

Alexander shook his head.

“It won’t come to that. We will find him and you will be set free, but just to set your mind at rest, though I have reserved a sacred place at Ormond, Charlotte is insisting that she takes you to the family vault at Caithwell. All the Caithwells are interned there and you will be too if anything should go wrong...not that it will. I have every confidence...” he stopped speaking as Giles held up his hand.

“Please, Alex. Wishing a good outcome will not necessarily make it so. I have already resigned myself to my fate. I don’t know why I thought I could ever beat Lavenham or his son. I never wanted to join their ranks in the first place. All I wanted was to marry Anne, to make her happy and to have my children with her and, since Charlotte has returned to my life, to make sure that she is safe and does well too. You wouldn’t have thought that much to ask of a life, but someone clearly has some other purpose for me.”

Alexander could see a knot working at the side of his friend’s jaw. Although his tone was calm it was obvious that the tension was getting to him.

“Don’t give up. Anne, Charlotte, Geoffrey and I are not, and neither should you. The trial isn’t for another week. Anything could happen during that time. We could find Edward; Latham or Rookwood could come to their senses and stop lying; the rest of that blasted shrivelled body may even turn up and prove that the leg didn’t belong to Ellesworth...but even with all those possibilities, I think that you should let Anne come to visit you. The stress of not seeing you is affecting her greatly. I’ve barely seen her this last week, but Lily keeps me appraised. Anne keeps to her room and she’s barely eating. Sarah says that she’s up half the night pacing, and then she sleeps the rest of the day. This is as much torture for her as it is for you. You must let her see you.” Alexander wished he hadn’t spoken when he saw the misery in Giles’ eyes.

“No, I don’t want her here. I don’t want her to see me incarcerated in this hovel of a room. And I don’t want you to bring her to the trial either. Lock her in her room, do anything that you have to but don’t bring her into this vile place.”

Alexander cast his eyes about the meagre room. It wasn’t a cell but it was small and shabby and certainly no place for a lady, but Alexander had to impress on his friend that Anne wouldn’t care where she saw him.

“Do you think that she cares where she sees you? I know that she would rather visit you than not. She’s making herself ill over this, Giles. You have to relent. She’s pale and thin and half out of her mind with worry over you. Even Lily is becoming insistent that I bring her to you.” He implored even as Giles shook his head again.

“I forbid it, Alex. The trial is in a week. I want her to remember better times than this. I don’t want her last memory of me to be here. I want her to remember us being together in that secret room where I made her my wife even if I have no papers to show for it. I had a special licence all prepared. I just wasn’t able to use it.” He could scarcely breathe as the weight of emotion spread through him.

Alexander sat on the edge of the bed and held his head in his hands.

“There has to be something that we have overlooked. Some way that we can prove...”

Giles shook his head,

“You have done everything you can. I can only put my faith in those of a higher rank to see reason and set me free. If they cannot, then I will be leaving this life very shortly afterwards. All I can ask is that you look after Anne and Charlotte for me. Do all the things that I could not, and make them happy.”

Dusk was just settling as Alexander rode away from the gaol-house in bitter spirits. Midnight felt his despair and needed little leading. The horse took over his lacklustre master’s commands and lead them both back towards Ormond but the journey was far too short for Alexander. He slithered from the horse’s back a mile from home and walked beside his mount while he considered what else he could do.

Rustling in the forest that bordered the drive on one side, had him peering into the twilight. Something large was blundering through the undergrowth and he halted his walk as he pulled his rapier from his side. The rustling stopped and silence settled again. An owl hooted in the distance while Alexander stood quietly, waiting as Midnight snorted and snuffled at his shoulder. He reached up and petted the horse’s nose. Midnight whipped up his head as a pheasant squawked and half ran, half flew across the road in front of them. Alexander caught hold of his bridal and calmed the horse.

“Just a bird, old friend. Nothing for us to get into a sweat about.” He stroked the horse between his eyes, put his rapier away and carried on walking towards home.

He was startled out of his dark mood by cook running towards him out of the darkness, brandishing a frying pan at his head.

“I’ll ‘ave you! Stealin’ from my kitchen!” She bellowed at him as she ran with her aprons flapping around her.

Alexander held onto Midnight as the horse reared up in surprise.

“Good Lord! What on earth has happened? I swear that I haven’t stolen a morsel from your kitchen in years!”

Cook dropped the pan and it clattered over the cobbles, bringing Geoffrey running from the stables.

“Lordy! I nearly clobbered a Duke over ‘is napper! My apologies, Master Alex. I thought you were someone else.” She panted as she bent and picked up the pan from the ground.

Geoffrey narrowed his gaze.

“Who did you think he was? Has there been a problem? I’ve only just arrived back from exercising Pegasus.”

Cook shook her head as she gathered her thoughts.

“There was a beggar in my kitchen not ten minutes since. Filthy individual with ‘is matted hair all over ‘is eyes. Fair stunk he did too! He had his ‘and stuck right in my larder. I managed to bash ‘im with the pan, but although he was dazed, I didn’t bash ‘im hard enough. He ran for the door afore I could stop ‘im.”

Alexander immediately ran for the house shouting for his wife.

“Lily!” He vaulted the kitchen table and leapt up the steps towards the salon.

Geoffrey was right behind him.

“She can’t hear you, idiot! Anne! Charlotte!” He bellowed as he skidded across the freshly polished hall floor. His feet caught up with Alexander and took him down too. They both hit the salon door with a resounding thump. Five seconds later, Lily’s and Charlotte’s concerned faces peered down at them.

“Was happened?” Lily bent to help Alexander up but he brushed her hand away as he found his own feet.

“Cook discovered an intruder in her kitchen. I was only concerned that you had been attacked.” His breath came in huge, frightened gasps. “Where is Anne? Is she safe?” He demanded as he looked over the women and into the now empty room behind them.

Charlotte shook her head.

“She’s upstairs. She’s not been well again. Lily wanted to call for the doctor but Anne insists that it’s just the worry taking its toll on her.” She glanced at Geoffrey who immediately looked at Alexander.

“I’ll run up and check on her. You stay here with your wife and Lady Charlotte.” He took the stairs two at a time in his haste to reach check on Anne.

By the time Geoffrey had returned after ensuring that Anne was safe, Alexander had explained the details to Lily and Charlotte.

“I have to go and check back with cook. I heard some rustling in the forest as I came up the drive but assumed it as an animal. Now, I am not so sure, but beggars don’t normally come to our door. Around here the needy all know that cook leaves any donations at the gate. There is a special stone that she puts everything on. Whoever it was must have been desperate enough to actually come inside. I’m not comfortable with the thought that I left you here unattended. As much as I know that old Grady would do anything for all of us, he cannot protect you well enough any longer.” He turned to Geoffrey. “If I have to leave Ormond again, I will need you to stand guard for me here. The ladies are our highest priority from now on.” He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration as he thought of all the dire consequences of what might have happened if the beggar had turned out to be a thief or murderer.

Geoffrey’s eyes swept to Charlotte but quickly moved on to Lily as Charlotte glared right back at him. She knew that he was avoiding her and he knew that she knew it. Her voice was brittle as she spoke.

“I’ll go up to Anne. I’m not sure that she will come down again tonight. She was so ill earlier and slept for most of the afternoon.”

Alexander raised an eyebrow.

“Does she need a doctor? We should send for Leven. I wouldn’t want to be the one to tell Giles that his betrothed is ill and we hadn’t bothered to call for the doctor.”

Lily’s cheeks flushed as she pulled her husband to one side and signed very quickly to him.

Alexander glanced back at Geoffrey who had turned a pale shade of grey as he watched Lily sign out her words silently. Charlotte looked confused. Although she had learned a lot in the last few weeks, she was not nearly as able as the others.

“What are you hiding from me? Is Anne going to be alright? Please tell me that she is...If, if I lose my cousin, I will have no one. I have become close to Anne over the weeks, thinking that we would all be living together. I cannot bear to think of anything happening to her.” A single tear slipped down her cheek and she dashed it away with the back of her hand.

Alexander came to her side.

“I’m sorry, Charlotte. It was wrong of us to speak without words but the situation is delicate and you are still so young...Anne, well, Anne is not ill. She is enceinte.”

Charlotte’s huge blue eyes grew even bigger and she blinked several times before she rolled her eyes.

“Good heavens! I’ve been worried sick that she was ill. I have seen animals mating and birthing on several occasions. I do understand the nature of how it happens, you know! How long have you known and why didn’t you all tell me? My cousin is the father, I presume. She’ll be ruined if she doesn’t marry him. We all know how he feels about that kind of thing. No wonder he is beside himself being stuck in that goal. Why couldn’t they have waited?” The words spilled from her lips in quick succession.

Alexander stopped her and gave an embarrassed cough.

“Charlotte, please don’t judge them. When you fall in love you will know how difficult it is to resist temptation. It’s not as though they are in their first flush of youth. If this situation with Edward hadn’t arisen, no one would be any the wiser...Anne and Giles had intended to be married by the end of the week in the chapel here and anticipated their wedding vows by only a few days. Giles doesn’t know about the baby yet. Their...their liaison was a recent affair. Lily tells me that she and Anne only realised the situation earlier this week. Apparently Anne thought the lack of her courses was due to stress. It was only as she became so sick and tired earlier this week that Lily recognized the symptoms as being the same as her own.” He glanced at his own wife’s burgeoning belly and smiled at her indulgently as he recalled the weeks of sickness and sleep.