Capturing Sir Dunnicliffe (The Star Elite Series) (30 page)

When she moved toward the kitchen table, he grabbed her hand and tugged her outside, glad to be out in the sunshine.

Although Harriett’s cottage was fine, he didn’t want to live there, nor did he want Harriett to live there.

“I think we had better go back to the Manor.
” He nodded toward the door behind them. “I take it Rupert will recover?”

“Oh yes, he will be fine. It is just a bump.
What about Mrs Partridge?”

“The men will get her
body,” Hugo replied, tugging her toward the small path leading through the woods that edged the de Mattingley land.

Once in the sheltered of the trees, Hugo drew her to a halt and wrapped his arms around her.

Harriett eagerly returned his kiss, melting against him as he branded her with his heat.

A loud, long wolf-whistle broke them apart.

“Very funny!” Hugo shouted, shaking his head and giving her a rueful look.

Harriett jumped and glanced around them
but couldn’t see anything but trees and foliage.

“Don’t worry, it’s
only Archie,” he whispered to her, giving her a wink.

“
Find yourself something useful to do, like go and help Rupert and Jonathan!” he shouted.

“He’s good at disguises
, isn’t he?” she murmured, glancing around them at the trees and foliage, but unable to see him.

“Look up,” Hugo whispered in her ear. She glanced up into the thick canopy of branches and leaves. A few feet away
, high in the branches, she saw movement and gasped. Her eyes flew to Hugo who merely grinned and tugged her toward the Manor.

“It’s his signature. He likes to take his watch in trees. He has been climbing trees since a young boy, and likes to
sit up there, taking his watch in the branches and leaves. I must admit, it works. People study the area around them and don’t even think about looking up.”

Harriett giggled, impressed with the man’s abilities. “He must know who is arriving hours before they get there.”

Hugo quirked his lips and silently nodded. At the edge of the trees bordering the manicured lawns of the Manor, he swept her to him, pausing only briefly to place a tender kiss on her temple.

The surge of possessive pride he felt toward her surprised even him, but was s
o deep-rooted now that he knew it would remain with him for the rest of his life.

He adored her, for her capabilities, her cool, unflappable logic
, and her generosity and kindness toward others. The passion they shared left him feeling stunned. It was far stronger, far deeper than anything he had ever experienced before, but wasn’t going to question it or analyse it too much. It was, as far as he was concerned, simply Harriett.

Harriett had
never felt so protected, so cared for, and was still wondering at Hugo’s loving tenderness as they slowly walked up the stone steps toward the bank of French doors lining one side of the property.

The sun was out, the birds chirping merrily in the beautiful gardens, and she was wrapped in the tender embrace of the man she loved. Life didn’t get any better than this. The only small cloud of discontent was the knowledge that he wasn’t going to remain with her
. Now that the imminent threat to her life had been lifted, and the first link in the spy smuggling chain had been dealt with, his work with the Star Elite would take him away from her. They still had to deal with the rest of the network, and that could take years.

She frowned, realising he had yet to tell her what had happened in the carriage.

“What?” Hugo asked, sensing something was troubling her.

“You never told me what happened when you left me by the side of the road.”

“He did what?” Simon asked, frowning at them as they walked into the study.

“Oh hello
, Father,” Harriett’s instinctive greeting left Simon speechless. It had rolled off her tongue so innocently that he was positive she hadn’t been aware she had said the words he had waited years to hear. He exchanged a look at Hugo, and saw the man’s ready smile. Was Hugo behind this change in his daughter?

“He left you by the side of the road?”

“Oh yes,” Harriett replied, completely unperturbed. Turning back to Hugo, she raised her brows, clearly not prepared to be put off by Hugo’s reticence. “So?”

Hugo shook his head, unsurprised by her determination not to be put off.

Clearly Simon wasn’t prepared to let the matter drop either, and he moved to take a seat beside Harriett on the chaise.

Briefly he explained what had happened in the carriage, culminating in Jonathan managing to bring the horses under control and Hugo following Pierre out of the conveyance.

“Joshua and Marion were the spy smugglers?” Simon gasped, frowning at Harriett before turning to Hugo. “What about the old doctor?”

“We think he is dead, but can’t locate a body so cannot be definite, but it seems likely,” Hugo replied gravely. “Joshua and Marion are really called Pierre and Marguerite, and needed the doctor’s house so they could signal the ships up and down the coast, and take over Scraggan’s contacts. They needed to be in the area to do it.”

Silence settled over the group for a moment.

“There is more, I am afraid,” Hugo began gravely, searching for the right words. Although he knew Harriett wouldn’t be upset, he wasn’t sure about Simon. Not liking someone was one thing, not giving a damn they were dead was something entirely different.

His eyes locked on Simon’s for a moment. He took a deep breath.

“Romilla was lovers with Joshua.” Hugo watched Simon’s brows rise, but there was no shock or horror on the man’s face.

“I wondered who it was,” Simon muttered.

“You knew?” Hugo frowned.

“That she had a lover? Oh, yes. She crept in and out of here all hours of the night but whenever I challenged her about it, she kept informing me that I wasn’t her father and it was none of my business. It was one of the bones of contention between us, and one of the reasons I kept insisting she had to leave. She was a harlot.” Simon’s bold declaration caused Hugo to snort and nod in fervent understanding. Although it wasn’t nice to speak ill of the dead,
ugHu
Hugo couldn’t find anything in Simon’s statement to argue with.

“I am afraid she is also dead,” Hugo imparted softly, and a little regretfully. Although she was spiteful, and spoilt, nobody deserved to be killed in such a gruesome manner – even Romilla.

“How? When?” Simon frowned at Hugo, who explained the real identities of Pierre and Marguerite.

Hugo watched horror suffuse Simon’s face as he listened to Romilla’s association with French spy smugglers, and knew the man had had no idea what his stepdaughter had been involved in. It went some way toward mollifying Hugo’s suspicions about the older man; even though there w
ere a lot of questions that still remained unanswered.

“She was murdered on the other side of the woods, in the early hours of the morning, by Joshua – Pierre.” Hugo glanced at Harriett, searching for any sign of distress but could detect nothing other than consternation in her beautiful green eyes as she watched him.

Simon sighed. “I’ll send a word to her relatives. Where is she now?”

Hugo and Simon took several moments to discuss arranging for Romilla to be buried next to her mother.”

They were interrupted by the butler, who bowed politely and handed Simon a small piece of parchment.

On reading it, Simon sighed and shook his head.

“I am afraid you will have to bring me up to date with everything later. I have to go to the mines again.”

“Mines?” Hugo asked, glancing at Harriett.

“There are some safety issues at one of the tin mines at Bodmin. It’s a profitable mine, but it is very time consuming trying to run the mines, the house and the estates. I have just bought the farm that adjoins the Manor’s land because the farmer has decided to relocate and needs the money quickly, but I can’t run that too. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.”

“So that is who you were meeting in that tavern in St Issey?” H
ugo asked, thinking back to the watch’s reports. “Why meet so late at night?”

Simon wasn’t surprised Hugo and his men had been following him. Although he hadn’t seen any of them, or detected anyone following, he was strangely reassured that they had been so thorough and couldn’t feel anything but pride and admiration for the way they worked. 

“Because it was the only time I could make it. I had been meeting the foreman of one of the mine’s there, and stayed to meet the farmer.” Simon replied, seeing no reason not to tell Hugo everything.

“Is there anything I can do?” Harriett
asked, noticing the weary droop of her father’s shoulders, and the clear frustration he was unable to hide.

Simon studied the couple
in his study for a moment, and made a decision.

“I need some help to run the mines, which you can’t do,” he warned Harriett with a dour look. “But it would help tremendously if you could take over the running of this house. It is yours
, after all, because I would like to move into the dower house.”

Harriett frowned. The d
ower house, although smaller than the Manor, was still large, and had its own land, which bordered the de Mattingley property.

“I didn’t think anyone had
lived there for years.” Harriett couldn’t remember anyone having lived there. Although the outside had been tended by the gardeners, the house maintenance hadn’t been kept up.

“There hasn’t. It needs a lot of work doing t
o it, but I can afford it, if only I can get the time to arrange it.” He turned to his daughter. “Mrs Hodgkiss will help guide you, and I will too of course. It would be a wonderful relief if you could take over the running of the house. Now all I need to do is find someone who can help you, and help with the mines.” Although he was looking at his daughter when he spoke, his words were intended to put the thought in Hugo’s mind.

Hugo knew the man was making his position clear, and was well ahead of him.

“I think it is a wonderful idea, but only if you really do want to move into the dower house. While it is being renovated, you can hand the reins over to Harriett so she is not thrown in at the deep end, and move to the dower house knowing the Manor is in safe hands. You are close enough to visit whenever you want to, and Harriett can turn her cottage into treatment rooms where she can use her skills.”

Harriett’s gaze flew to Hugo as the import of his words sank in. It was something she had never considered before, and
it intrigued her.

“Treatment rooms?” s
he said sharply, studying him.

“You are now officially a member of the Star Elite, and I
have a sneaking suspicion that whenever the men need medical help, they will come to you rather than visit a doctor,” Hugo explained ruefully. He didn’t mind that, as long as they didn’t bring danger with them, and it would help tremendously if Harriett wasn’t living there when they visited. He didn’t add that he would leave a key hidden in Harriett’s garden for any of them to use so they could use the cottage as shelter while waiting for Harriett to attend to them. The memory of his arrival at her house was still sharp in his mind, and he was glad that she would be safely ensconced at the Manor from now on.

“You can turn your cottage into treatment rooms.
The bedroom can be used as a treatment area. The kitchen can be used as a waiting area where people could drink your herbal teas, and the small bedroom can be used as a storage area.”

“Do you think that the villagers will come to me a bit more?” Harriett thought it was a lot of trouble to go to
, and although the cost would be relatively minor, she really didn’t think she would be that busy.

“I think they will come to you in droves, especially now there
is no doctor in the village,” Simon added, liking Hugo’s thinking, and threw him a look of gratitude.

“It’s possible, I suppose,” Harriett replied, trying to think of the pitfalls, but seeing none. She would hate to see
her little cottage fall into rack and ruin and really couldn’t see anyone else living there. It was hers; the only home she had ever lived in. She couldn’t bear to part with it completely. Turning it into a healing centre would be perfect. “I think it is a wonderful idea.”

Hugo grinned, relieved that one hurdle
was out of the way.

“What about you
, Hugo? What do you plan to do now? I take it you have family who are waiting to hear from you?” Simon asked, seeing no other way to broach the subject.

Harriett realised that
, despite feeling close to Hugo, she still didn’t really know that much about him.

“I haven’t spoken to my family in over five and ten years. I don’t suppose they are interested in where I am.”

“I think you will find you are wrong,” Simon murmured, a knowing look on his face that made Hugo stare at him with a frown.

Simon
realised he had to come clean. “While running the tin mines, looking after the house, and trying to keep an eye on Harriett, I managed to get someone to look into your background. Although it was deuced difficult to locate Sir Dunnicliffe, seeing as that isn’t your only name.”