Elizabeth Thornton - [Special Branch 02] (29 page)

She struggled to rise at his entrance. “A fine thing when we’re attacked on our own property in broad daylight! Jason, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know, Grandmother. Where are the others?”

“They went into Brighton to do some shopping.”

Brandon said, “This is a strange business, Jason. If Judith and I hadn’t come along when we did, God knows how it would have ended.”

Jason had eyes only for Gwyn. “Are you all right?”

Brandon didn’t give her time to respond. “She was his target. There’s no doubt about that.”

The fear that had subsided came back in a rush. His grandmother spoke but he did not hear her. The thought that possessed his mind was that Haddo was no longer a safe haven for Gwyn and Mark.

Gwyn saw his grim expression and she said quickly, “I’m fine, Jason, really I am.”

He spoke to Judith. “Would you mind taking over
from Gwyn? Has the physician been sent for? Good. Gwyn, Brandon, come with me.”

He led the way across the hall and into the library. As soon as they entered, he shut the door and said, “Begin at the beginning, and tell me exactly what happened.”

A look passed between Gwyn and Brandon. She nodded and said, “I went riding, as usual, where we agreed, not on the downs, but along the beach.” Though the beach was not private, it was close to the house and could be easily patrolled.

“And,” said Jason, “you had one of the grooms accompany you? Russell?”

“Yes.”

“Go on.”

She shrugged. “Everything seemed normal. Just as always, I took the path to the cove—”

“The path that goes through the home wood?”

“Yes.” She moistened her lips. “It was only when I was cantering along the beach and I turned to look back that I saw Russell was no longer following me.” She was standing by a chair, and she curled her hands around the backrest as the memory came back to her. “But there was another rider on the beach, a man on a bay.”

When she paused, he asked quietly, “And you were frightened of him?”

“Not at first. After all, the beach isn’t private. I thought he might be one of your neighbors. I don’t know what I thought. All I knew was that something must have happened to Russell. I thought, perhaps, that his horse had gone lame. I was going to go back the way I’d come, but the longer I looked at that rider approaching me, the more uneasy I became. And I couldn’t go back to look for Russell without passing him.”

As she spoke, Jason walked to his desk and absently picked up a glass paperweight. He was visualizing the scene, and he had to struggle to keep his emotions in check. He wanted to roar that she should have known straightaway that something was wrong. But his logic told him that even if she had known, it wouldn’t have made a damn bit of difference. The trouble was, Haddo seemed so far removed from what had happened in London. They’d all become too complacent. When he saw that he was holding the paperweight in a death grip, he put it down and turned to face her. In as calm a voice as he could manage, he said, “So what happened next?”

She let out a breath. “I didn’t want to let the rider know I was alarmed, so I set my mount to a canter. I looked back once and saw that he was gaining on me. After that, I dug in my heels and we went flying over the sands. My one thought was to reach the path that climbs through the gap to the top of the cliff. And that’s when Brandon and Judith came trotting around the base of a cliff, so I made for them instead. Brandon can tell you the rest.”

Brandon said, “I didn’t realize the danger at first. I thought that the rider was Gerry and that he and Gwyn were having a race. It was Judith who grasped the situation. When she started forward, so did I.”

Gwyn gave a teary laugh. She said to Brandon, “I was never more glad to see anyone in my life.” Then to Jason, “You should have seen him, Jason. It was like a cavalry charge, with Brandon waving his pistol above his head, and Judith right behind him.”

Jason did not return her smile. He said to Brandon, “He was taking a chance, wasn’t he, with you and Judith on the beach, too? Or didn’t he know?”

“Ah, well, he wouldn’t.” Faint color tinted Brandon’s cheeks. “You see, I knew Judith meant to
ride out to Haddo today to see Gwyn, and I thought the least I could do was offer her my escort. So, I left for Brighton early this morning. It was sheer chance that we decided to come to Haddo by the coast.”

“I see.” There was a pause as Jason digested this. “Did you get off a shot?”

“No. I mean, for all I knew, he might have been perfectly harmless. He wasn’t armed, as far as I could tell. It was only later, when we found Russell, that we realized that Gwyn had a narrow escape.”

“So you charged. Then what happened?”

“The blighter wheeled his horse around and took off like lightning. I gave chase, but I couldn’t keep up with him. He can ride like the wind. I’ll give him that.”

Jason regarded them for a long moment. Finally, he said, “What did this man look like? Would you know him if you saw him again?”

Brandon shrugged. “He was about my age.” He looked at Gwyn. “I really didn’t get a good look at him.”

Gwyn said, “I think I may have seen him before.”

Jason straightened. “Where? When?”

She moistened her lips. “In Brighton. Yesterday. When we went shopping. He was standing under an awning across the road from the milliner’s shop where we were trying on bonnets. But he was gone when we left the shop.”

“You said nothing to me,” said Brandon.

“I didn’t think it was important.”

Jason was outraged. “You went shopping in Brighton?”

Another look passed between Brandon and Gwyn. Brandon cleared his throat. “I didn’t see any harm in it.”

Gwyn said quickly, “I persuaded Brandon to take us. He was with us every moment, so we were quite
safe. Jason, you must see I can’t spend my whole life cooped up like this. You might as well send me to prison.”

This wasn’t the time to read them the riot act. And whether he liked it or not, she had a point. They couldn’t go on living like this.

He said, “Gwyn, could it have been the man who attacked you in your own home? Harry?”

“I thought of that.” She shook her head. “But, no. This man was older, broader. Harry was, well, more noticeable. He had an air about him. This man was … I don’t know.” She looked at Brandon.

He shrugged. “I really didn’t get a good look at him.”

Jason breathed deeply. “Well, let’s see if Russell is up to answering a few questions.”

But the groom was no help at all. All he knew was that he was following Mrs. Barrie when his head exploded and he remembered nothing more till he awakened in old Mrs. Radley’s bedchamber.

Jason spent the next hour questioning all the grooms and groundsmen about a stranger who was hovering around the neighborhood, but no one knew anything. Later, secluded in his library, he went over everything that had been said and a picture began to form in his mind. The man on the bay horse had chosen his moment with care, the moment when Gwyn would be least protected. That meant he’d been watching her, biding his time before he struck. He must have known that Gwyn liked to go riding early in the morning. He’d known the route she would take, had known where to lie in wait. That Brandon and Judith had happened along was something he could not have foreseen.

It seemed inconceivable that someone could have been hanging around Haddo and no one the wiser. Someone must have seen something. He must have
stayed somewhere close by, or with someone. The trouble was, he didn’t have the resources to go looking for this man.

One man or two? That was the question he kept asking himself. First there was Harry, then the man under the awning. If it was only one man, then he must be a master of disguise. An actor, perhaps? Or a man who knew all the tricks of an actor to change his appearance.

He hadn’t used his pistol and that was wise, because one shot would have brought all the grooms and groundsmen in Haddo converging upon him. He would have wanted to make a silent kill and get away before anyone was the wiser.

A silent kill. This time, he would have used a knife. Or smashed her skull.

Just thinking about it made the hair on the back of his neck begin to rise. He got up and began to pace.

This didn’t have the feel of a domestic intrigue where the players were known to each other. This had the feel of a conspiracy.

And he didn’t know how to start unraveling the puzzle.

Maybe that wasn’t the way to go about it. Maybe they should draw these scoundrels into the open. But the only way to do that was to set Gwyn up as a target.

And that was absolutely out of the question.

Fucking bitch! Fucking bitch!

The words drummed inside Harry’s head as his horse pounded up the incline to the downs. Only he wasn’t Harry now, he was Mr. Saunders, a horse dealer who had come into the area to buy stock for his fictitious master’s fictitious stud in Hampshire. He was making for the hostelry in Hove, only a mile along the coast, where he’d put up for the night. This
was the long way round to reach his destination, but he wanted to make sure that he wasn’t being followed.

The blood in his veins seemed to pound in rhythm with his horses’ hooves. Last time, it had been a near miss and he’d felt exultant, the danger only adding to his excitement. This time it was different.
The bitch was lucky
. It didn’t matter how clever or how superior he was, luck played a part in it, and luck had been on her side.

When he entered his room at the Red Lion, he packed his few belongings, scanned the room to make sure he’d left nothing incriminating, then went down to pay his bill. He’d already told the landlord he’d be leaving this morning, so there would be no raising of eyebrows at his hasty departure. But he thought he’d be leaving in triumph.

He mustn’t lose his nerve. Luck was capricious, here today, gone tomorrow. And he had been lucky, too. He’d got away.

He was furious that she, a mere woman, had bested him. It was humiliating, but it wasn’t his fault. She’d had helpers.

God, he would make her pay. He would make them all pay. No one was going to laugh at him and get away with it.

She was sitting up in bed, her arms crossed under her breasts, when the door creaked open. Jason entered. He was dressed in a dark-blue dressing robe and held a candle in one hand.

He blew out the candle when he saw that there were several candles already lit. “I hope this means you were expecting me,” he said.

She resisted the smile calculated to melt the hardest
feminine heart and said severely, “I want to talk to you.”

Jason laughed, closed the door, and padded over to the bed. “Talking is not what I had in mind,” he said, and kissed her. “We’ll talk later.”

“We’ll talk now.”

He looked at her expression, sighed, and sat on the edge of the bed. “Well?”

“You’ve been silent all evening. You’ve hardly said a word to me, or to anyone. You’re planning something, aren’t you? What is it?”

He captured one of her hands, turned it over and kissed the palm. “Gerry and Trish are leaving tomorrow.” He looked up at her. “I want you and Mark to go with them.”

She understood at once. “How will that stop them? If they found me at Haddo, they’ll find me in Norfolk.”

“This time, we won’t become complacent. You’ll be better guarded.”

“You mean, I’ll be in a more secure prison? For how long? A month? A year?”

He was silent for a long time. Finally, he said, “We have no choice.”

“Oh, Jason.” She looked at him despairingly. “You know that’s not true. There is a way to end this if we’re bold enough. We have to flush them out.”

His features hardened, his voice was harsh. “If you mean what I think you mean, the answer is no.”

“There’s no other way and you know it. It’s me they want. We have to do something. Set a trap. I don’t know. Something.”

“Gwyn, they want to
kill
you.”

“I know,” she said softly. “But you’ll stop them.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s too risky. We’re not dealing with one person.”

“Jason.” She lifted her shoulders. “I can’t go with Trish and Gerry. I’m a danger to whoever I’m with. I never thought of it at the time, but Brandon could have been killed trying to protect me today. You, Mark—I’m a danger to all of you.”