Lord Cavendish Returns (14 page)

He tried
to reassure himself that they weren’t, but he also knew that he
wouldn’t be able to put the matter aside until he knew for certain.
He couldn’t exactly decide what to do with his future if he didn’t
know the truth about his past. If he knew, and decided to take the
wealth that had been set aside for him, it meant that he wouldn’t
have to return to the Star Elite, but what then? What would he do
with his time?

“
Why don’t we take this back to the vicarage where the light
is better? You can use father’s study to search for the entry you
want.”

He
nodded absently and helped her extinguish the candles, gather the
bottles and take them upstairs. Once in the ante room, he placed
the register carefully on the desk before he hurried back
downstairs to help Arrabella bring the last of the bottles
out.

“
All done?” He asked and watched her nod.

They
approached the desk to move it away from the door and froze at the
sight of the empty desk top where the register had stood only
moments earlier. He didn’t hear the noise of crashing glass when he
dropped the bottles, or the crunching noise the smashed bottles
made beneath his booted feet. He tore through the church with his
fists clenched in fury. At the main door, he turned the large hoop
of the latch only to find it firmly locked. He raced back down the
aisle, past a startled Arrabella, and lunged through the back room
to the rear door only to stare in consternation when he found that
door locked too.

“
What is it? What’s wrong? Harper, what is it?”

The
tinge of fear in her voice was enough to make him stop half-way
down the main aisle where he was checking under the pews. He
flicked a glance at her and marched back to the ante
room.

“
Do you see it?”

“
See what?”

He
sighed impatiently and pointed to the spot where he had put the
book that held such vital information. “The register. When I came
up stairs, I placed the register over here.” He tapped the desk top
with a finger. “Now it has gone.” He studied her blankly while his
mind raced. “Does anyone have another set of keys to this
place?”

“
Well, there is a spare set of keys. They are usually kept in
the drawer in my father’s office.” She began to get frightened and
glanced around the empty church warily.

“
Let’s go,” he snapped and took the bunch of keys she held out
to him with a sigh. He stood back to allow her to precede him out
of the room and marched with her toward the front door.

Arrabella glanced at him. This was a Harper she had never
seen before and would never have believed existed. His face was a
mask of merciless fury that made her want to run and hide. The
sudden change in him made her realise just how short their
acquaintance had been, and how little she actually did know him. As
handsome as he was; as wonderful as his kisses last night had been,
he was still a stranger. The thought made her want to
weep.

She cast
a quick glance around the empty church and, for the first time
since she had arrived in the village three years ago, she suddenly
felt vulnerable being there alone. With a shiver, she hurried after
him but, by the time she reached the doorway, he was already at the
far end of the churchyard. With a sigh she lifted her skirts and
quickened her pace to catch up. She briefly contemplated locking
the church door, but then realised that it was already supposed to
have been locked.

“
They aren’t here,” she whispered when they were inside her
father’s study. She rummaged through the top drawer of her father’s
desk before she pulled out the rest of the drawers in quick
succession, but there were no keys.

“
When did you last see them?” Harper bit out.

He was
starting to get the distinct impression that someone didn’t want
him to get hold of the register or, more importantly, find out
about his past. His thoughts immediately turned to the Cavendish
brothers, but suspecting them didn’t make sense because they were
the ones who had approached him to tell him about his birth right.
It just wasn’t logical to think that any one of them might be
responsible; even if they were the kind of men who would think
nothing of knocking someone over the head and kidnapping them.
Besides, the man he had followed last night had not been tall
enough to be a Cavendish.

No,
someone else wanted to keep that information a secret, only he had
no idea who. The man he had seen in the shadows last night had not
been familiar. His thoughts turned to his brothers. While Angus and
Robert were fine, he couldn’t ignore Joseph’s surliness, both
yesterday and today. Something was bothering his brother. Was he
trying to stop Harper getting his hands on the information for some
reason?

He
rubbed a hand down his face and turned to find Arrabella staring at
him with a mixture of fear and consternation on her
face.

“
I can’t understand it. There is always a spare set of keys in
this drawer in case of emergencies.”

“
Who is likely to know that they are there?”

“
I don’t know. Half of the village I think.” When Harper
sighed loudly she looked at him apologetically. “My father is a
busy man and isn’t always at home to open the church if people want
to use it. Unfortunately he is getting a little forgetful of late
and sometimes forgets to leave us the keys. The old vicar used to
keep a set of keys in the drawer for people to use, and it was just
something we allowed to continue,” she added defensively when
Harper shook his head in disbelief.

“
So if anyone needs to get into the church, they walk into the
vicarage and take the keys from the drawer.” He cursed silently and
wondered if this could get any worse. Hundreds of people knew where
the keys were kept. Brilliant.

“
They bring them back when they are finished,” she finished
lamely.

He saw
the tears that pooled in her eyes and suddenly felt like a total
cad for the way he had treated her. In an attempt to ease her
fears, he leaned his hips against the desk in a casual pose and
crossed his arms. “I want you to think carefully about when the
keys were last used. Who took them and what for? Who was
around?”

As she
studied him, Arrabella felt a small part of her heart break for the
dream that once was. She began to wonder if the tenderness he had
shown her had purely been a ruse to garner her help. After all, she
couldn’t lose sight of the fact that he had lied at their first
meeting and claimed that the information he wanted was for the War
Office. What other lies had he told her? He now looked at her with
all the warmth of a stranger, and it hurt her more than she cared
to admit to see the hardness in his eyes.

He
watched her face fall into a cool mask of politeness and mentally
cursed his ruthlessness with her. He had to remind himself that
although she had willingly gone along with their quest to find the
register, she wasn’t used to a world in the shadows, and had no
idea what he did for the Star Elite. Now that his initial anger had
eased a little, he realised that it wasn’t just the theft of the
register that had made him mad, it was the thought that someone had
snuck into Arrabella’s house while she hadn’t been there. Had the
shadowy figure he had seen last night been in the house when he had
brought Arrabella home? He shuddered at the thought.

“
Mrs Able?” she called as she left the office and made her way
to the back of the house.

“
Yes dear?”

“
Has anyone borrowed the spare set of keys for the church
lately?”

Mrs Able
looked blank for a moment. “Not as far as I am aware dear,
no.”

“
Have you seen any strangers in the area?”

Mrs Able
turned to Harper. “Apart from you, you mean?” she replied with a
slight frown. “No, I don’t believe I have, no.”

Harper
watched Arrabella’s face and realised that in the last ten minutes
he had done far more damage to his burgeoning relationship with her
than he had ever thought possible. He couldn’t quite decide if she
was now wary of him, or offended by his rudeness earlier but, if
the polite look of indifference on her face was anything to go by,
he had a lot of work to do to put matters right.

“
I am sorry, Arrabella,” he murmured quietly and waved her
back into the study. “It just bothers me that this house isn’t
locked when nobody is at home. Anyone could let themselves in and
pose a significant risk to your welfare. It isn’t right, or safe,
that you take such a casual attitude toward your personal safety.
It is even more pertinent that you now start to keep your doors
locked given that it appears you have a thief in your
midst.”

“
Oh, but people need to get in to be able to borrow the church
keys all the time, I cannot lock the vicarage doors, it just isn’t
right,” Arrabella argued. She wasn’t prepared to believe for one
second that anyone in the village was a thief.

“
When do the ladies come in to clean?” As he led her into the
morning room, he studied the church yard through the window. The
church was in plain view of the house, although the front door to
the church was on the other side of the building. However the back
door was merely a few feet from the path that led from the
vicarage. Anyone who had purloined the keys from the drawer in the
study could be at the church within seconds and not be
seen.

“
They come on Fridays,” Arrabella declared. Annoyance
straightened her spine. “I can assure you that the ladies would
never do such a thing as to steal the parish register, or the keys
for that matter.” She winced at the defensiveness in her tone but
made no apology for it because she knew that they
wouldn’t.

“
I am not suggesting that they would,” he sighed and struggled
to keep hold of his patience. “I think that for the time being,
especially given that you are a beautiful woman who is all alone in
the house, you should keep your doors locked, even when you are at
home. It is just a suggestion,” he added quickly when she opened
her mouth to object. “I just don’t want you in any danger while you
are here all by yourself. You cannot lose sight of the fact that
there is nobody in the vicinity to help you if there is a
problem.”

He was
aware that Mrs Able placed a tray of tea things on the small table
before the fire, but didn’t break eye contact with
Arrabella.

“
As soon as your father gets back, I think you need to find
somewhere a bit more secure to put the keys. Until then, I need you
to take another look at the study and see if anything else has gone
missing.” He hated to unnerve her. She had as much right to sleep
soundly in her bed as the next person, but he also didn’t want her
going about her life with her head in the clouds, and unwittingly
leave herself vulnerable to attack.

“
Do you think that they are related? The keys and the missing
register, I mean?”

“
I think it is highly likely, don’t you? Someone, somewhere,
doesn’t want me to get hold of that register.”

“
But who? Why? I mean, who knows that you want the
information?”

Harper
paused at that and studied her. “So far? Me, of course, you, Angus,
Robert and Joseph, and the Cavendish brothers.”

“
Well, I have been with you all the time and I was in the
crypt when the register went missing.”

“
I know it isn’t you, Arrabella,” he replied gently. “I hate
to think that it is any of my brothers, but I just don’t know.” He
knew that it would be foolhardy to simply dismiss anyone because he
wanted to, especially without having proof of their
innocence.

He could
sense her confusion and decided to boldly ignore etiquette once
more. As soon as he had closed the door to the hallway, he took a
seat on the chaise and waited until Arrabella had poured the tea.
While they drank, he told her about his possible connection to the
Cavendish brothers. He had no idea why, but he told her everything,
including the potential title and wealth that awaited him if he
chose to accept it. By the time he finished, he felt an enormous
weight lift off his shoulders and sat back to gauge her
reaction.

She
didn’t look shocked, merely thoughtful. “I cannot believe that it
would be any of your brothers. Why would they stop you? I mean,
surely it wouldn’t matter to them who gave birth to you because
they see you as family.” She frowned at that and studied him.
“Unless they want to keep you as one of the family, and think that
if you don’t have the information you cannot prove that you don’t
share the same parents. What about the man the Cavendish brothers
say is your father?”

“
He told them a story about how he met my mother, so I guess
he knows too.”

“
He has to be a suspect.”

Harper
stared at her. “Well, yes, I suppose that he has to be a suspect
too.” He had to admit it, her logic was flawless and, while he was
impressed by it, he was more relieved than anything by the fact
that she appeared to have forgiven him for his harshness
earlier.

“
What do you want to do about the register?”

“
I think that I am going to search the church again and take a
look around the churchyard. It may have been dropped if the thief
left the area in a rush.”