A Murderous Masquerade (24 page)

It suddenly occurred to the Earl that if there was a huge diamond, Denvers was more likely to carry it upon him than leave it hanging around for any old thief who chanced upon Caithwell in the dark. He stared down at the body again before he leaned over and went to slide his hand into Denver’s coat pocket.

“Father? What are you doing here?”

The Earl leapt into the air like a scalded cat as Anne appeared at the door. After catching his breath, he turned to face his daughter. He dragged his shoulders back and attempted to look fearsome but the affect was somewhat subdued as his frame still shook from the fright he had received.

“I could ask you the same thing, daughter. You have no right to be here. You should be on your way to Lavenham to await me. I have big plans for you, my girl. Foxcombe will be there come the morning. He really would be good for you and he wouldn’t be too demanding.”

Anne shuddered at the very thought.

“Get out of my home. Leave now and don’t come back until you can prove ownership.”

Lavenham gave a superior smile.

“But I can do that already. I am the next heir after Denvers. His death has secured me the title and the estate.”

Anne drew in a deep breath. Her father was not going to intimidate her now, especially when she knew that Geoffrey and doctor Michaels stood just outside the door.

“Unfortunately for you, neither your new title or the estate can be declared yet. As Giles’ expectant wife, I have full ownership of the property and all its contents until my child is born. At that point, if the babe is a boy, your claim will be forfeit. Only if the child is a girl will you inherit. You have nearly eight months to wait before you can secure anything.”

Her father’s startled gasp gave her some satisfaction before he began to laugh.

“Don’t think that you can fool me. There has been no marriage and there is no child. Why, you were with that Chartris for over three years and there was no child. You are barren and clearly out of your mind.”

Anne narrowed her eyes.

“I am clearly far more sane than you.” She held out the marriage certificate for him to look over. “And as to the charge of being barren, perhaps you would like to speak to my doctor. He is within calling distance if you would like to clarify the situation.”

Lavenham began to feel faint. He was running out of options. He heard himself groan in despair. He had been relying on finding the fabled diamond to clear all of his and Edward’s debts. What with Edward now apparently deceased, he was doubly accountable. He groaned again and then stopped dead as he realized that the groans were not only coming from him.

He turned slowly as the moaning gained volume and stared at the coffin that sat behind him.

His mouth fell open as the late Lord Caithwell suddenly sat up and stared at him with glassy eyes. The body’s arm lifted and pointed an accusatory finger at him. Lavenham’s breath left him and he heard a strange ringing in his ears as the dead man opened his mouth and spoke in croaking tones.

“You! You are the one who killed me! I demand...” Whatever Giles’ possessed body demanded the Earl never discovered because a sudden shudder swept through the apparition and it spewed a load of very real, black vomit onto the Earls polished boots.

Lavenham screamed and ran, his terrified yells echoing down the hall before disappearing into the night as he burst through Caithwell’s front door.

Anne, Geoffrey and the doctor all stared open mouthed at Giles as if unsure that their eyes could believe what they were seeing. A few seconds later Charlotte burst into the room. She ignored the staring trio and launched herself at her cousin, who caught her in his arms and belched loudly before he kissed her on the top of her blonde curls.

It was one of his strangest ever dreams. The whole thing had been bizarre from the moment he had begun to see visions after drinking Charlotte’s two phials of potion. He recalled that a big, belching bullfrog and a slithering snake had featured largely in the dream. The pigs had come later. Jenkins’ whole herd had appeared with his prize porker leading them.

The pig’s wet nose had grunted something at the herd and then Giles was suddenly beneath the huge beast. He had attempted to fight the pig, but even though he felt as though he could have wrestled an elephant, the animal was too strong. While he had been rolling around with the pig, the snake had not been idle. It had been tightening its coils relentlessly around his neck as the huge pink pig, clamped its muddy trotters around his thighs. Its wet snout snorted somewhere above his head the crushing feeling in his chest made him realize that he was no match for the two animals together.

The snake tightened its grip one more time and he knew that it was over. His breath became harder to catch and despite a sudden relief, darkness came only a few seconds later.

It seemed that he had drifted off to sleep and had begun to dream of his beautiful Anne.

She had been naked beneath him and he had surged into her, taking her deeply while watching her exquisite features as ecstasy swept over her. His fingertips had skimmed every inch of her skin. She felt as soft as a hot house peach and her body was just as juicy. It was as though they lay together for hours. He’d taken her so many times that his body felt weak from the exertions and as if it was one with hers. He couldn’t decide where her heat became his.

He’d wanted more of her, wanted to taste every inch of her. One day wasn’t enough. His whole body craved her touch, her scent and he had been about to turn back towards her when the dream had suddenly changed and instead of his beautiful bride opening her arms and giving herself to him again, he was suddenly lying somewhere far too tight for comfort. His shoulders felt trapped and his back was killing him. He could hear voices coming from somewhere to his left and for an instant he thought he must be in heaven. An angel was speaking and it sounded just like his wife. He relaxed back and listened, only to discover that it was no angel but really his wife attempting to fend off her pathetic father.

He’d tried to move but it had seemed impossible. He heard Lavenham begin to groan and Giles groaned along with the man. Knowing that he could vocalize something somehow gave him some impetus and he suddenly found his shoulders free of the box. He sat up immediately and groaned even louder as his cramped back muscles protested at the sudden movement.

Lavenham was blocking the view of his wife. He wanted to brush the man out of the way and he tried to push the man to the side, but something lurched in his innards and the contents of his stomach suddenly could not be contained. A vile, mushroom smelling liquid spewed from his mouth, but he didn’t care. He was alive and looking at the woman he loved and she was staring right back at him.

He might have risen further from what suddenly registered as a coffin, if a whirlwind of blonde curls hadn’t thrown herself at him and knocked what little wind he had managed to drag inside his lungs, right back out again. It was all he could do to hold back another load of the black vomit.

Instead, he let his eyes wander over the woman he loved while he dropped a kiss onto the head of the woman who he suspected had probably saved his life.

Chapter Fifteen

The ride had taken the Earl of Lavenham several days and his horse had become lame five miles from home. He dismounted and cursed the animal at the same time as he cursed his son.

If the boy was dead then where was the body? He had set up such a hue and cry that it seemed that most of England knew that Lord Edward Ellesworth was missing. Someone would have seen him by now if he had been alive.

As he plodded on beside his horse, his mind drifted back to the sight of Caithwell’s dead body rising, blue lipped and deathly pale from the coffin. He shuddered at the mere thought of it. The spectre was a sight that he never wanted to behold again. Whatever happened with his daughter and her bastard child, he swore that he would never put a toe inside Caithwell’s walls ever again. The house was cursed.

He breathed a sigh of relief as the walls of Lavenham came into view. He didn’t know how he was going to pay his creditors without leaving himself sitting in an empty shell of a place, but at least he had four decent walls and a roof over his head. He frowned miserably. The Caithwell diamond would have come in very handy, still, he could wait. If his daughter was telling the truth there was always the possibility that the child would be a girl. He’d only have to fend off the wolves for a few more months.

He tramped up to the front door and was pleased when it opened almost immediately. His butler gave a short bow and took his travel worn coat and hat before he spoke.

“His Lordship arrived only half an hour ago. He is in his room bathing. Quite a shock, he gave us. We had heard the news and thought him dead. The housekeeper was waiting for instructions about the blacks.”

Lavenham almost staggered back at the news.

“My son! My son is here?”

The butler nodded stiffly.

“He looks somewhat different. You should go up to him.”

The Earl took the stairs as fast as his legs would carry him. He burst into Edward’s room and slithered to a stop as he saw an emaciated vagabond sitting hip deep in the bath.

“Who in God’s name are you? Get out of my house!” The Earl reminded himself to lay off his butler at the first opportunity.

The person in the bath raised a limp eyebrow.

“Father, it’s me, Edward. I’ve come home.”

Lavenham’s knees buckled as he heard his son’s familiar voice. He grabbed the bedpost and swallowed hard as he looked at the man in the bath again. He looked somewhat like his daughter. Dark chestnut hair, high cheekbones and vivid green eyes, but this was not his son. Edward was rounder, a lot rounder, rotund even with plump cheeks and a ruddy complexion.

“I don’t know you. You sound like my son, but you are not him.” Lavenham squinted as Edward blinked slowly up at him.

“I can assure you that I am, father. I can even prove it.” The naked man stood up from the water and turned to the side. There on his hip was a bright strawberry mark, the same one that he had been born with some twenty years previously.

The Earl sat down quickly on the bed and stared at the slim man who stood naked and dripping before him.

“Good God! What happened to you? You do know that we have been searching for you for more than a month. Dear heavens! A man had died because of you.” Lavenham rose again as his anger replaced his shock. “Have you any idea of the trouble you have caused? Have you no notion of how much embarrassment I will suffer when I attempt to explain your sudden reappearance only days after a man died, accused of your murder!” His voice rose by degrees and Edward grabbed a bath sheet. He wrapped it around him as he stepped from the water.

“I have no idea what has been going on. I’ve been trapped in that bloody great castle for weeks. I’ve barely eaten and only managed to survive because the thick stone walls created some condensation. I’ve literally licked the moisture from the walls.” He struggled into his robe and pulled the belt tightly around his middle. He was rather surprised to find that the left over cord fell nearly to the floor.

The Earl sat down again and gazed at his son.

“I think that you had best tell me the whole story from beginning to end. I cannot fathom how we can recover from this, but we must do something. I already have the spectre of Denvers out for my blood. I cannot cope with the thought of the law on my tails as well.”

Over the next few hours, Edward related his tale. Several times he sounded as though he would be unable to go on, but he continued until the end.

“I was so angry with Denvers; out of my mind with fury at his actions and at his engagement to Anne. I wasn’t thinking clearly when I devised my plan. I thought it would only mean a few days of him stewing in the local prison, not that he would eventually die. I set up the scene of my death with some rare beef supplied by the Duke, and then climbed out of the bedroom window. I took a horse from the yard and made it to town where I was going to wait for Latham and Rookwood.” He paused as he drank from a glass of water.

The Earl frowned deeply.

“What on earth were you thinking? I don’t understand. We could have seen off Denvers in another way. You didn’t have to be so damned dramatic.”

Edward wiped his mouth before he continued.

“You haven’t heard the rest of it. It gets considerably worse. Earlier in the afternoon that day Latham and Rookwood had shared one of the women at the inn. A third woman was unavailable due to a large funeral party arriving unexpectedly and the inn-keeper needing her to serve in the tap room, but she was going to be available that night and had agreed to meeting us all there.

While I waited for my friends’ arrival, I overheard more of the newly dead man. He had been interred that day over in the next village after drowning in the village pond. I left a note with instructions for my friends and hurried to the graveyard. It took but an hour to ride there, dig up the remains and slice off the lower part of the poor fellow’s leg. I take no pride in my actions now, but at the time I couldn’t seem to stop myself.

I reburied the body and raced back to the farm near Ormond. Jenkins had been boasting of his prize porkers in the inn and I simply couldn’t resist temptation. I tore off my coat, unwrapped the leg, and chucked it all in the pen with the swine. I was back at the castle less than twenty minutes later and left the horse where I found it before I climbed back up to my room. Now this is where the prank all began to go wrong. Earlier that same evening I had discovered that there was a strange draught coming from between the panels on one of the walls. Knowing the age of the castle, I assumed that there would be some secret tunnels. I recalled that Rookwood’s own home is riddled with the damn things and that we had often used to sneak along them and into the ladies rooms.

I assumed that the mechanisms for opening the secret door at Ormond would be similar and it was easy enough to open. I slipped inside and closed the door, but therein was my first mistake. Rookwood always kept his passageways lit. Ormond clearly does not. Neither do his secret doors have the same mechanism for opening the door from the inside. I felt along the passageway for another exit and was lost within the walls in minutes as I searched for another way out.” He wiped the back of his hand over his brow as he recalled the feeling of entrapment.

The Earl shook his head.

“You mean that you have been stuck there for all this time. But you must have had some nourishment.”

Edward nodded miserably.

“Two slices of rotting beef and a crust of mouldy bread. I made them last about a week. In the end I lost track of time. I found a slit of a window and stayed there where a little light showed in the corridor. I called out many times but the window was high and I was never heard. It was there that the water gathered each morning as the dew settled.” He took another long gulp of the water in the glass and smacked his lips together. “You will never believe how good that tastes.” He sat down beside his father. “I only discovered a way out when I heard footsteps and saw a shadowed figure one day. I followed him to the kitchen. It was all I could do not to run out of the door and grab the cakes that the cook had left on the table and escape out of the kitchen door, but I knew that if I wanted to remain undetected, I would have to bide my time. That moment came about a week ago. I thought the woman had gone out and I left my hiding place, but before leaving, I had to have some food and water. I was about to grab some freshly baked cakes and a jug of ale when the fearsome woman returned. I was never so afeared for my life. She came at me brandishing a huge copper pan, but fortunately fear lent wings to my feet and I dashed for the door.

The rest of the story is unremarkable. I knew that I had to get home and relieve you of your fears but I looked like a vagrant. My clothes were caked in dried mud from the initial adventure with the leg and the pigpen and my hair was thick with matted cobwebs. I’ve had to beg to be allowed into an inn to bathe and even then they treated me like a criminal, questioning my ability to pay and my credentials when I asked for loan of a horse. I am weary, hungry, and footsore but at least I’m now home.” He sighed deeply and lay back on the bed.

His father gazed down at his son. Fear gripped him as he thought about what lay ahead.

“You cannot remain here, Edward. I’ll ask John to help you with your trunks but you will have to leave soon.”

Edward peered up at the Earl.

“You have to be joking if you think that I am going anywhere now I have at last found my way home. It was not my fault that Denvers died. There was no intention of that happening on my part. I would have thought Latham and Rookwood would have come forward and revealed the jest. I cannot believe that they let a man die without speaking up. Says a lot for their loyalty though.”

Lavenham groaned in despair.

“Get up and get dressed. You cannot stay here, I tell you. You could be hanged yourself. Judges hate to be made fools of and so do influential men. I really thought that you had died and although I am more than relieved that you are alive, I cannot condone your actions even if they were originally made in jest. You had a whole week to make your presence known and yet even though you say that you were starving, you made the decision that your pride should come before your appetite and your good sense. You should think yourself lucky that I am prepared to help you at all. I will speak to Lord Wethersby. He may be able to help us. His ship is leaving for America in two days. I mean to see that you are on it.”

Edward sat up quickly.

“You jest, of course. You cannot mean to disinherit me.”

“No, not disinherit, but disown at least for the next couple of years. Even then it may be difficult for you to return to these shores. If I am able to arrange your passage, I will work towards clearing your name but it may be a long and difficult process. You should prepare to live in a foreign land for the foreseeable future.”

Edward stared at his father as realization of his crime dawned for the first time.

“But I never meant for it to go so far. If I had found my way out of the castle sooner I would have come forward.”

His father shook his head again.

“You had a weeks’ worth of opportunity. Plenty of time to set Denvers free, but your pride was too much to lose and so a man lost his life and now haunts those still living. Gather your belongings, Edward. You are bound for distant shores.”

Giles had lain in bed for three days before the sickness abated.

After the initial shock of his resurrection, general pandemonium had ensued. From Charlotte’s wild enthusiasm to his wife’s serene acceptance of the situation and the doctor’s general amazement, nothing seemed remotely normal.

Apart for the near continual vomiting, he had waking dreams of being strangled and it was only after Geoffrey related that he had failed to catch him that Giles remembered the snake that coiled around his neck. He continually woke from his slumber fighting for his life and he had forbidden Anne to sleep in the room with him for fear that he might mistake her in the night and try to fight her.

Anne only wanted to be with him. She didn’t care about his dreams or his nightmares. It was only when she walked into the bedroom on the second morning that she realized the severity of the situation. The curtains of the bed lay strewn across the floor. One of the bedposts had been broken from the frame and Giles lay sweating between the sheets, his arms and chest covered with bruises from his fight with his demons.

Doctor Michaels assured him that the dreams were just the side effects of the potion that Charlotte had prescribed. The combined concentrated powders of the fungi,
Amanita and its antidote, Atropine had worked to not only make Giles feel stupendously strong, but had also caused a cessation of sweating, salivation and the more personal  bodily functions.

The resultant hallucinations of the two strong poisons were now the main problem that he faced. That the Amanita had induced a coma that lasted for nearly twenty-four hours was something that even Charlotte, though she hoped for it, could not have predicted. Doctor Leven had assumed Giles to be dead. Only Charlotte had guessed what had happened, but when confronted with Doctor Michaels' adamant claim that her cousin was dead, even she had had some moments of doubt. When Geoffrey confirmed that he hadn’t caught Giles firmly, she had feared that all her efforts were for nothing.