A Murderous Masquerade (11 page)

Lavenham stared at his daughter as he listened to the quiet conversation.

“Dear God! You’ve been bedded by this trumped up commoner! You disgust me!” He turned towards Giles. “You have a hard choice. You can either admit to murdering my son or ruin my daughter. Which will it be I wonder? Are you going to save your own skin over my daughter’s reputation or are you going to be a man and face the hangman’s noose?”

Giles glared down at his future father in law.

“It’ll be neither. You are a fool if you think I would murder anyone.”

Lavenham sneered cruelly.

“But you were overheard last night threatening such action. My witness is most reliable. It was the magistrate himself!” He gave triumphant laugh.

Giles felt the blood running from his face. He knew that the circumstantial evidence was against him but he had to remain strong and fight the accusation.

Alexander shut the door of the room.

“I’ll ask Geoffrey to stand by this door so that nothing is disturbed. I will go to the magistrate myself. We will need to investigate the discovery of a body at the farm and to come on to here afterwards to examine any evidence he feels relevant. My Lord, I beg of you to keep quiet about this. I know that will be difficult until Edward makes his where-a-bouts known to us, but it’s beyond enough that my friend has been unfairly accused and that our guests will be gossiping about the affair over half the county by tomorrow morning.”

Lavenham looked from Alexander to Giles. His eyes dropped to his daughter who was still clasped tightly in her lover’s arms.

“Are you going to stand by this man when he has murdered your brother?”

Anne lifted her chin.

“You have done nothing but bully me for my entire life, but it will continue no longer. Giles is my betrothed. We intend to marry very soon. I do not understand what you or Edward have against Giles or what has made Edward stage this trick, but I do know that Giles has done nothing wrong. Edward’s behaviour was reprehensible last night. He treated Charlotte as if she was a common whore. He was too proud to be escorted from here quietly and is now scheming to bring down Giles once and for all. Father, Edward will turn up in a few days and you will look a fool if you don’t call off this ridiculous charade immediately.”

Alexander was about to agree, but Lavenham stepped forwards.

“Are you suggesting that Rookwood and Latham have gone mad? They have seen body parts and Edward’s coat. If you are not going to listen to the evidence then I wish you luck with your proposed marriage for it’s going to be a very short one!” The Earl slammed from the room.

Alexander took a deep breath before glancing at his friend.

“I have to go and see Gates. He’ll listen to us, never fear. He was understanding and looked into all of the facts when Lily’s father died. He’ll do so again.”

Giles shook his head.

“That’s what I am afraid of. I can’t tell the magistrate that I was in a secret room making love to Anne all night. Apart from the fact that it makes me sound like the most disreputable hound, as we are as yet unmarried, it would also be the talk of the neighbourhood. Gates was with Lavenham last night. I saw them talking together when I came in from the terrace. He could have overheard the conversation that we had outside. I don’t recall my exact words but I was so angry that I wasn’t holding back with them. I might have easily said that I would murder them all.”

Alexander grunted.

“If my memory serves, I think you said that you would ‘run them through’ though I could be wrong myself. I was more concerned that Charlotte didn’t suffer any further humiliation from their heinous behaviour than listening to you raving on about the little bastards.” He closed his eyes and groaned as he realized that he was talking about Anne’s own brother. “I’m sorry, Anne. I shouldn’t talk of your sibling in your presence. Please forgive me.”

Anne threaded her fingers through Giles’ and squeezed them tightly.

“There is nothing to forgive, after speaking to Charlotte last night, I find that I have no further loyalty to my brother. He was attempting to violate a young woman and, as much as I hate to admit it, from the way the three of them pounced so easily, he and his friends may have probably carried out such crimes before. I don’t believe that Edward is dead either. I think this is some wild plot to separate you and I. It won’t work.” She raised her eyes to her betrothed as Giles smiled down at her. “I love you and will never take my father’s side over this matter. I know Edward. He has clearly gone off to lick his wounds and at the same time hopes to implicate you in a non-existent crime.”

Giles drew her towards him and held her tenderly in his arms.

“Thank you for your loyalty, Anne. I don’t know Edward’s game, but he has disliked me from the day we met. I have no idea what I have done to offend him, except fall in love with you.”

Anne wiped a tear from her eye.

“He won’t part us. I’ve been without love for too long to forego this feeling. Father wanted me to marry one of his old friend’s once before and I felt that I had a lucky escape when I was able to marry Phillip. I would have been a good wife to him if he had shown any desire for me, but his heart lay in another direction and while he was always kind and thoughtful, he was more like a brother than anything else. I can’t lose you over this, Giles. I just can’t.”

There was a sharp tap on the door and Geoffrey stepped inside.

“You wanted me, Alex?”

Alexander beckoned Geoffrey further into the room and indicated the bloodied sheets.

“Did you hear a disturbance of any sort last night? Anything at all after Grady brought up Edward’s supper?”

Geoffrey stared aghast at the soiled sheets.

“What in God’s name is that all about? Did the little prick chop off his own finger when he was eating his dinner last night?”

Alexander would have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so serious, instead he shook his head.

“It’s a strong possibility. Edward has disappeared. Apparently Edward’s father, Rookwood and Latham believe Giles here has committed cold blooded murder and thrown Edward’s body to Jenkins’ pigs. We are about to go and view the remains and see if we can draw any conclusions as to what is really going on, but I would have like to have as much information as possible as to what happened here last night. Would you mind waiting here and seeing that this area is left untouched? Unfortunately too many people have witnessed this scene or I would be tempted to throw the apparently incriminating evidence into cook’s fire.”

Geoffrey’s eyes widened as he grinned at Giles in admiration.

“How very enterprising of you. I wish I had thought of doing that myself, beggin’ your pardon, Lady Anne, but after last night’s little debacle I’m afraid that I don’t much care for what happens to your brother.”

Another tear leaked from Anne’s eye. She dashed it away with the back of her gloved hand.

“I don’t know what happened to him. He used to be such a cheerful, caring little boy. It was only when father sent him to school that things began to change. He hated it there. Something must have influenced him to turn him from a carefree young lad into a complete toady. I should have done more to find out what was wrong.”

Giles delved in his pocket for a handkerchief for her.

“You must not blame yourself. He doesn’t have to be as he is. We all have to make choices in our lives.”

Anne gave a trembling smile.

“Yes, we do, and I choose you. Let us get this mess sorted out and then we can get on with our lives. I cannot wait to be married to you.”

Alexander grinned.

“Lily had a wonderful idea if you are both agreeable. You can use the chapel here at Ormond if you so desire.”

Giles’ heart warmed and his fears began to melt away.

“That sounds wonderful. We’ll find Edward and then get married. It shouldn’t take long to sort out where the fool has hidden himself.”

Geoffrey nodded.

“Go. I’ll keep an eye on this place. You two sort out what the pig farmer really found and let me know what’s going on.”

Chapter Seven

“There ain’t much left to see, Your Grace, me Luds, Sir.” The farmer puffed out his chest, proud at his sudden notoriety. “Bits of bone and some gristle plus the one bit of leg we managed to save before Belinda got ‘er snout on it. Me porkers are good feeders and they’ll eat just about anything. I’m not sure whether I should charge extra for the meat when it comes time for slaut’rin’ ‘em seeing as them there animals now ‘ave noble blood in ‘em.” He rocked back on his heels and pulled on his suspenders as he smiled fondly at the grunting beasts now snuffling in the next pen over.

Alexander almost rolled his eyes at the man. He peered over the side of the pen and immediately wished that he hadn’t. The foot of a man, minus his toes, what had clearly been a hairy shin and some other unnameable bits of chewed bone littered the muddy ground. Scraps of a ripped coat were strewn to all four corners and trodden into the muck.

Lavenham came forwards and Alexander tried to stop the man from looking at the grisly sight, but it was too late. He let out a cry of horror, staggered backwards and promptly vomited onto the ground, narrowly missing Latham’s fine, if somewhat muddy leather boots.

The magistrate stepped forwards and held a handkerchief over his nose as he stepped up to the wooden rail and leaned in over the side. He looked around at the horrific scene, blinked rapidly and then glanced back to Jenkins.

“What time did you say that you first noticed them foraging so enthusiastically?” His voice was muffled due to the cloth he held tightly over his nose and mouth.

“Don’ work by a clock, Sir. I goes by sun up and sun down. Dawn had just swept the ‘rizon when I noticed that the lit’luns didn’t all run up to me for their extra fodder same as they always do.” The magistrate turned to a black eyed Latham and Rookwood. “And you say that you saw this gentleman riding from here not long before then?” he pointed at Giles as he repeated a question that he had asked the men earlier.

Latham almost nodded but thought better of it when his nose began to bleed again. He placed a large white cloth over his face and pointed to Rookwood.

Rookwood did the nodding.

“We left Ormond at about three. The sun wasn’t quite up but I’d know Denver’s horse anywhere. Huge beast. No one else can ride the damned thing.”

Giles was about to object to the use of his name and the insult to his mount when Alexander broke in.

“Of course, you three wouldn’t have heard the news seeing that you were locked in your rooms. Giles Denvers is now Lord Caithwell. It might be best if you address him as such.”

Rookwood looked startled and his eyes sought his friend’s as the magistrate glanced from one man to the other. He pointed a finger at Latham’s face.

“How did you happen to break your nose at the masquerade ball and what had you done that warranted being locked in your room? I was there myself and noticed nothing untoward.”

Latham’s eyes widened but Alexander immediately broke in.

“As you know, Gates, it was my wife’s first attempt at a large social event. She put it on especially for the betrothal announcement of my friend here, Lord Caithwell to Lady Anne Chartris. I believe you were there for the toast.” He waited until the magistrate gave a quick nod. “We discovered the three friends roaring drunk and fighting on the terrace earlier in the evening. Rather than cause a scene that would ruin my wife’s first big social spectacle and spoil the event for our guests, my steward and I locked them in their rooms for the rest of the night. I asked Geoffrey to escort them from the premises at first light. Unfortunately young Edward appears to have made his own exit rather than be run off my land by my steward.”

Lavenham forced his way back to the front of the small crowd.

“He did no such thing. That man murdered him in his bed, carried him out of the window to evade discovery and brought him here before throwing the body to this man’s herd of swine.” He suddenly began to tremble all over and a tear threatened to leak from his watery eyes. “My only son!” He began to wail piteously.

Giles threw up his arms in frustration.

“Good God man! How on earth do you think I managed to carry a man the size of your son out of a bedroom window situated a good twenty feet from the ground while hanging onto some very old and brittle ivy without breaking my own blasted neck? I may be fit but I’m not Hercules.”

Gates frowned. His eyes swept over Giles’ broad shoulders and muscular physique before he took another look over the side of the pig pen.

“So how big was Lord Edward? I don’t recall seeing him at the ball but that leg doesn’t look as though it belonged to anyone of great size.”

Alexander spoke at the same time as Giles.

“He’s fat.”

The Earl, Latham and Rookwood all gasped in shock and immediately declared that Edward was of a medium stature, nothing out of the ordinary.

Gates blew out a deep breath.

“So...A medium sized fat man would describe him, then?”

Giles and Alexander both answered again.

“No, he is definitely fat.”

Alexander added a few words under his breath.

“At least as fat as Jenkins' prize porker!” Giles had to bite his tongue in an effort not to laugh.

Ellesworth spoke in a watery voice.

“My son was a healthy size for his age. He was only twenty and still had some growing to do. The rest was puppy fat. I find it insulting that these men can disparage a dead man so lightly.” He lifted himself to his tallest and sucked in his own ample stomach.

Giles raised an eyebrow.

“Your son is not dead. He’s hiding somewhere trying to scupper my chances. I find it insulting that he thinks he can try and get away with murder...his own blasted murder.”

Gates held up a hand.

“Now gents, let’s not be getting hasty. Nobody is talking about a murder yet.”

Latham spluttered into his bloody handkerchief.

“Not a blasted murder? What the hell do you call that in there then? Apart from a pig’s breakfast?” He pointed a shaky finger at the pale, toeless foot.

Gates pursed his lips at Giles.

“You do have to admit that it looks pretty incriminating. I’ve yet to see the evidence at Ormond but it’s already clear that there has been a foul deed done here. I suggest that Jenkins picks up all the available...er, parts along with what’s left of the coat.” He ignored Jenkins spluttered protests. “A feed sack will do. Gather it all up and make sure you don’t miss any. You might have to dig it over a bit. I’d like to find his head. I can’t imagine that even a prize pig could eat its way through a whole skull in just a few hours, but we’ll have to see. I’ll call back for it later and take it along to Doctor Leven. Even if it is all a bit chewed he might be able to tell if the parts we have all belong to the same man and if those same parts belong to a young, medium sized, well fed man. In the meantime I will return to Ormond with you to examine the bedroom.”

The whole party made their way back to Ormond. To Giles’ great relief Lily and Anne had already bid farewell to most of the guests. All of them knew of the suspicious circumstances of Edward Ellesworth’s disappearance and were now anxious to get back to town to spread the gossip of the masquerade ball among their friends.

Gates followed Alexander up to Edward’s room. Geoffrey still guarded the door, his arms crossed over his chest.

“No one has entered while I’ve been here.” He confirmed before he was asked. He stood back and let Alexander turn the key to the room.

Gates strode over to the bed and stared down at the sheets.

“Well, whatever happened, he didn’t bleed to death here. There’s not enough blood.” He walked over to the window and pushed it open. He pulled at the ivy, noting that several sections had already pulled away from the stonework walls of Ormond.

Lavenham moved beside the man.

“You heard what Caithwell said last night. He said that he was going to run Edward through. Surely the body parts and this blood give you good cause to arrest the man. He could abscond if you let him remain free. Lock him up while we continue investigations. If Edward turns up then no harm will have been done, Caithwell will go on with his life as normal. If my son remains missing then I think it safe to assume that this man did the foul deed of which he is accused. You will have already got your man and taken a murderer off the streets before he takes the life of anyone else.”

Gates glanced over at Giles.

“The man has a point. We can’t have potential murderers running around threatening people.”

Giles snorted.

“I haven’t murdered or threatened anyone. Just because I wasn’t in my bed last night doesn’t mean that I was committing a crime. I would like to know how many other people were not in their own beds either. Clearly Ellesworth wasn’t. By his own admission, he was wandering about the corridors looking for me.”

Gates frowned deeply.

“True enough, so where were you last night, if you were not in your room?”

Giles hesitated for only a moment but it was long enough for the Earl to pounce yet again.

“You see, he won’t respond. He’s the murderer!”

Giles had had enough.

“I’m not a murderer but I don’t see why I have to tell anyone where I was. My movements last night were private, though I admit that I did take Pegasus out for a ride just before dawn.”

Gates let Giles’ vague answer go for the moment as he wandered back towards the centre of the room.

“If this goes further, my Lord, we’re going to need a more precise answer than that, but we’ll leave it for now.” He picked up the shirt between his two fingers and poked the stained front. “This looks as though he has grabbed the front of his shirt. To stop the bleeding perhaps? It could have been a knife wound.” He plucked his bottom lip as he thought.

Alexander looked down at the broken plate sitting on the small set of drawers at the side of the bed.

“He managed to eat his supper before he left. Grady had brought the three of them some meats and bread.”

Gates lifted one half of the plate and held it close to his eyes.

“There’s blood on this. I think this sharp edge was the weapon. It didn’t cut deeply but maybe there was a fight afterwards and Ellesworth met his death elsewhere. I am going to mount a search of the area to see if we cannot find where he met his end.” He turned to Giles. “In the meantime I would like you to come with me to the prison. I’m afraid that there is enough evidence for me to question you further.”

Giles fumed as Alexander tried to step in but Gates was having none of it. Lavenham stood on the sidelines and smirked as Giles was led away from the bedroom. It was unfortunate that Anne, Lily and Charlotte had just begun to mount the staircase as the men were coming down.

Anne let out a small gasp as she saw the look on Giles face. Charlotte’s eyes opened wide as she gathered her skirts and fairly flew up the stairs.

“What are you doing?” She shouted at Gates as she clung to her cousin. “Why is he accompanying you? Giles has done nothing wrong. He was saving...”

Giles held up his hand and silenced the girl with a hard look.

“Charlotte, stop. Gates is only doing his job. The matter will be cleared up as soon as young Edward stops playing the fool and comes home. Going by the size of his stomach I wouldn’t think that could be much later than supper time. I will be back before you know it. Now go and sit with Anne and Lily and pass the day at ease.” He put his hand in his coat pocket and drew out the small red box. He held it up to Gates to show him that it was just a decorative fancy before handing it carefully to his ward. “Perhaps they can help you can find out the trick of how this works.” He added brightly even though his heart sank as he passed her the carved box. He had the overwhelming suspicion that with Lavenham’s power and position, he wouldn’t be coming back to Ormond any time soon and even though he had never been inside a cell before, he knew enough about gaols to leave any valuables well outside their doors.

Alexander took Charlotte’s arm.

“Do as your cousin says, my dear. I’m sure this will all be cleared up before nightfall but in the meantime I’ll send Geoffrey with a message for my solicitor, Carter, to come as soon as he can.”

Charlotte’s eyes shot to Geoffrey who stood at the back of the group. He stared back at her for a long moment before his heavy gaze dropped to the floor. Charlotte turned back to her cousin who was now holding Lady Anne in his arms. He spoke quiet, tender words to her as he wiped a tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb.

“Anne, this is nothing but a small misunderstanding. I swear to you that I never laid a finger on him. Your brother will come to his senses soon and be eating humble pie before dinnertime.”

Anne nodded and reached up to kiss Giles’ bristled jaw. He’d not had time to bathe or shave since coming in from his ride and was now looking decidedly unshaven, but Anne couldn’t have cared less.

“I know. I know that you could never hurt him or anyone. I’ll be here waiting for you with Charlotte and Lily.” She took a step back and gave a brave if watery smile before the group of men set off again for the front door.