A Murderous Masquerade (4 page)

Charlotte suddenly became thoughtful.

“You just said that we would be attending the masquerade. I hope that you didn’t mean me. I haven’t been presented and so cannot come out at a Duke’s ball, but there’s something even more pressing than that little obstacle. I don’t have a thing to wear. Father didn’t leave me enough money to feed the household let alone buy fancy gowns. I’ve grown out of most of my dresses and have had to alter John’s old shirts and breeches so that they will fit. A ball will be impossible unless you let me dress as a stable hand.”

Giles looked her up and down. Seventeen she may be, but she looked all woman to him. Her nipped in breeches and lawn shirt left nothing to the imagination. He drew in a deep breath.

“I’m certainly not leaving you here looking like that and neither am I going without you so you will have to resign yourself to dancing and the like. I don’t think that we will have time for anything to be made, but you’re not that much smaller than Anne or Lily. I know that they will have something that you can borrow. Being presented won’t be a problem either. Ormond doesn’t really hold with tradition like that, being so distant from London, Alexander will accept your presentation on behalf of the King.”

Charlotte looked up at her cousin with shining blue eyes.

“But you were not titled until father died. How come you are so well acquainted with a Duke? You talk as though you are good friends with him.”

Giles nodded and smiled fondly as he remembered all their escapades together.

“I am. We are the best of friends. We met on the battlefields in France and fought side by side through thick and thin. He saved my life once or twice and I returned the favour on several occasions. He is a good man to have at your side but he wasn’t titled back then either. Being the second son, he had no thought to becoming the Duke, but on our return to England he discovered that his father and brother had both drowned while rescuing shipwrecked seamen. The title and a new wife were thrust upon him within weeks of his arrival home, but all has worked out in his favour. Lily is profoundly deaf but she lip reads well enough and we have all been learning to sign with her. You will need to learn that as well. It isn’t as difficult as it sounds and the added communication skills are handy when we don’t want to bellow at each other across the dining table.”

Charlotte stared at him with incredulous blue eyes.

“How awful for him...The losing his father and brother like that. It must have been a terrible shock to him to have come home to that news, though it sounds as if he has found true love with his wife. I don’t know what to say, Giles. This has all come as a shock to me too. I’m only glad that you are the next nearest relative to take the title. I had fears that the solicitors would conjure up some ancient great uncle who would send me off to become a governess.” She looked appalled at the thought.

Giles laughed at her pinched expression.

“I could still do it if I took the fancy, but I think I would pity the children that you would have to look after. No, I’m afraid that you will be stuck with me until you are wed.”

Charlotte bounded to her feet again and shook her dainty fist up at him.

“Then you will be stuck with me forever because I do not intend to wed at all.”

Giles caught her hand in his much larger one and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

“Don’t worry, sweeting. Nothing is going to be forced on you. We will journey to Ormond and then see what is to be done with you, but for now I need to look at your father’s paperwork. Something must be done about this place but without funds or an income I cannot see what. I will need to see what tenants you have and how any income is spent. Do you know where your father kept his papers?”

Charlotte nodded.

“Everything is in the study. John took it over for a time but I don’t think he took much care over the running of the place. I couldn’t make head or tail of anything in the books after he died. There are no bills or credits or anything. I think he had been reduced to dealing only in the money he held in his pocket. Come, I will let you see if you can make more sense of it than I.”

She led him from the library along a gloomy corridor and into a small, dark room. The smell of old papers and stale tobacco was thick in the air. Giles went immediately to one of the windows and forced it open. The summer air swept in, bringing with it the scent of fresh dew. He moved to the next window and was about to push it open when he noticed the rot along the bottom sill. He pressed it with his thumbnail and watched it crumble to dust. He left the window alone for fear of the whole frame collapsing.

“I’ll make do with the one window for now.” He turned back to the paper strewn desk and began leafing through the sheets. Charlotte looked with him.

“Tell me what I am looking for and I will help you sort it all.”

Giles shrugged. “Impossible to say. Anything from your solicitors should be looked at first, I suppose. Any letters or payments from tenants should come next. If there are demands from creditors I will need to send word immediately.” He began peering at the different letters and papers.

They soon found a system where any receipts were put in one pile, correspondence in another. They sub-divided the letters. There were several demands for immediate settlement of gambling debts. Giles silently totalled the amounts. It wasn’t as large as he had feared. Another letter appeared to be from a group of tenants asking when their cottages would be repaired. Giles looked at the shaky hand and grimy paper and supposed that only one of the tenants could write well enough to make their wishes known.

He looked up at Charlotte.

“I’m going to have to take a tour of the estate. I need to see what’s to be done before I can offer any form of assistance, but first I want to go into town and see if there are any funds available. I can’t imagine that there are, but I must make sure.”

Charlotte agreed.

“I’ll stay here and prepare the rooms for your party. I think the windows are better on the first floor. Cook and I will give them all a good airing.”

Giles’ gaze wandered over the young woman. She was clearly holding her own, but having to make up guest rooms was not really something that the daughter of a Lord should be doing, but without staff and the money to pay them there was little else he could do.

“I feel awful that you are doing this, Charlotte. I hope to be able to set the place on its feet again, but if it proves impossible I may have to try and sell some of the land, not that I’ll get anything much for it in its current state.” He let out a frustrated breath as he glanced at the rotten window frames again. “I can only hope that there is enough money somewhere to enable us to repair the roofs and windows. If we can make the place weather proof that will be something worth doing. We can carry on with other works once the worst of the decay is under control. Now, I just have time to make a quick search here before going into town. Is there anywhere you can think of that your father or brother may have secreted any cash? Your father especially as he knew that John would attempt to clean him out at a moment’s notice.”

Charlotte frowned and her blonde curls danced as she shook her head.

“Not in here, unless there are secret drawers behind the panelling. Father used to keep some papers in a vault, but I have already checked there. Perhaps there was somewhere in his room. It seems more likely. The doctor never asked for payments from me or sent a bill and there’s nothing from him here in this pile of papers. I assumed that father paid him when he made his daily visit. That would mean a reserve of cash in his room, but I’ve looked and cannot find anything.”

Giles scanned the study. The wood panelling that covered every wall could have concealed any number of secret compartments but all of them were equally covered in dust with no tell tale finger marks.

“You had best lead the way. If nothing else there may be items that we can sell in order to release some funds.” He looked doubtfully at the leather desk chair. Stuffing was spilling from a hole in the arm and the back wobbled precariously as he stood up.

They walked up the wide wooden staircase and Charlotte pointed out one or two pictures that they might be able to sell, but there was very little else in the way of furnishings. All of the rugs were already worn through into bare threads and holes and the candelabras looked as though they had never been works of art in the first place.

Charlotte stopped at a heavy door and turned the iron handle. The door opened on a long creak and swung against the wall beside them. A heavily curtained bed stood against one wall of the room. There was a large fireplace on the wall opposite the foot end with two chairs and a small table set between. The mantelpiece was covered with what looked like tiny wooden figures. Giles immediately stepped up to them and took one from the shelf. It looked like a tiny, blackened mouse but it felt cold in his hand. There were several other animal figures placed along the shelf alongside it.

“Where did your father get these from? I think they are from the Orient.”

Charlotte smiled around his shoulder and picked up a small but fat pig. She stroked a finger along its back.

“I loved playing with these as a child. Father would only let me touch them if I could keep quiet for a whole hour. They were a special treat. John hated the things. He didn’t like the holes in them.” She pointed one out with a ragged fingernail. “But I liked to string them onto my sashes and pretend that they were my real pets. Apparently they had been a wedding gift from my mother. Her father had brought them home from his travels and she loved them so much that she wanted to keep them for herself. Her father insisted that they were meant for a man’s apparel so when her father passed on, mother gave them to father as gift. Are they worth anything?”

Giles bit down his original answer. They would have brought in a great deal of money but were obviously far too precious to Charlotte for him to force her to part with them.

“They are worth a little, but we will not think of selling something so personal. Let’s hope that there is some hard cash in here.” His eyes caught sight of a small but heavily carved red box further along the mantelpiece. He picked it up and turned it in his hands. Something rolled unevenly inside the box but he couldn’t see the opening for the lid. He held it up to Charlotte who shrugged.

“It’s Oriental too. He bought it on one of his trips. I have never been able to open it. Father used to think it fun to frustrate me with it. He told me that the antiquities merchant who sold it to him related a story of a prince’s ransom. He said that there is a diamond as big as a hazelnut inside and that I could have it for my dowry if I could open the box without damaging it. Apart from the fact that I am not going to get married and so won’t need a dowry, I can’t open the box anyway. I’ve tried for years.”

Giles turned it in his hands. The red carvings were intricate, detailed.

“I cannot even see the join but it has a secret mechanism somewhere. One of the men had something similar while I was in the war. It made for endless fun in the evenings as men bet on opening the thing, but I never saw how the trick worked. The box itself is quite valuable. It would be a shame to smash it only to discover that your father had put a real hazelnut or even a plum stone inside.”

Charlotte laughed at the thought of her father making one trick into two.

“Ha! He just might have done at one time. But not a plum stone, apricot maybe or even a hazelnut, but not a plum. My father hated plums.”

Giles looked at the box again.

“Do you mind if I take it for now? If I do manage to open it, I promise to tell you how I did it and show you what’s inside.”

She nodded.

“Of course, but I trust you, Giles. You don’t need to ask me.” She waved her hand around the room. “Years ago, father had a great collection of Oriental artefacts, but much of it has been sold. There were some fabulous swords and a whole collection of devilishly sharp knives. At one point he had a medicine cabinet made from the finest jade. It contained hundreds of tiny phials, but John sold it to the Doctor. All I have now are the books that went with it. I can’t understand them as they are written in Japanese and the translations don’t make much sense without the medicines that the box contained. It all belongs to you now anyway so you may do as you please with it all.” She gave a little sigh.

Giles shook his head.

“I can’t take your things, cousin. I can’t just come here and walk roughshod all over you. Maybe I’m just not used to this ‘Lordship’ thing yet, but suddenly owning your home and all its contents doesn’t fit well with me.” He paused as a clock chimed from somewhere inside the house and Giles pulled his watch from his pocket. “It’s past lunch time. I never heard cook ring the gong?”

Charlotte laughed.

“Why would she when we have barely enough to eat for our supper, let alone for titbits during the day. Since father died, we’ve existed on a slice of bread or a scone for breakfast and at night, a small piece of meat with a few potatoes from what is left of our stores.”

Giles breathed in slowly. The guilt of not knowing her dire circumstances ate at him.

“We will work this out together, cousin. I’ll buy provisions while I’m in town, at least enough for three meals a day while we are here and plenty for Mrs. Downham for while we are away. If there is any money I’ll try to locate a craftsman to repair the roof and windows, and I’ll also see if I can find some help to begin clearing the place too. I want you to go and eat whatever we were going to have for dinner now. I’ll bring something back for supper with me.”