Odette Speex: Time Traitors Book 1 (28 page)

He nodded. “That was poorly done of me, Mister Graham. Accept my apologies.”

Ethan laughed painfully. “You are an extraordinary man, Gordon. Not many men in your position would ask forgiveness of a sodomite.”

“So you admit it?”

“I admit nothing. But I know how it looks.”

“How is it in truth then, Mister Graham?”

For the next hour, as Hershel periodically spooned water down his throat, Ethan spun a tale so incredible that only the most gullible of men would believe it.

After he had finished, Hershel sat back and said simply, “I see.”

Chapter 31

Margaret Prime was
a tiny woman of extraordinary intelligence. An ethereal blond, she stood less than five feet in her stockings and possessed a deceptively innocent gaze of sky blue. During her maidenhood she had enjoyed the attentions of many suitors, each more noble and wealthy than the other. So it was a shock to the entire fashionable world when she had wed her decidedly less noble and wealthy cousin. A decision she never for a second regretted. Nor felt the need to justify to the vapid multitude that constituted her set during her short stay on the marriage mart.

At this moment her blue gaze was fixed commandingly on her housekeeper.

“Mrs. Haverford, I expect discretion of the highest order. If it comes to my attention that information regarding Lady Caroline’s whereabouts has leaked from any member of my staff, they will be summarily dismissed without a character.”

“Yes, madam,” Mrs. Haverford answered readily, secure in the knowledge that no member of the household would commit the blasphemy of betraying their beloved mistress.

“And this robe…” She handed Mrs. Haverford a wadded up mass of heavy silver silk. “Please burn it. I can’t imagine Lady Caroline ever wanting to set eyes on it again. And have the coach covered with a tarp. I’m sure it won’t be noted among the others in the carriage house.”

“Of course, madam.” She bowed her head slightly and left the room with her silky, blood-stained burden.

Margaret turned back to the large four poster bed. She leaned over to gently stroke the hair of the woman lying so still beneath the heavy blankets. “We daren’t call the doctor. But I promise you, nurse is most skilled with poultices and remedies. Her ladyship is in good hands.”

“Margaret, Geoffrey,” Gabriel’s voice was gruff with suppressed feeling. “I can’t tell you… I can’t thank you…”

“Enough, man.” Geoffrey held up his hand, embarrassed by Gabriel’s display of gratitude. “You were right to bring her here. If anyone had seen you at the house, the inn would be the first place they’d look. It’s a good thing the housekeeper knew nothing of your visit. It’s most likely they never expected the…” He hesitated and cleared his throat. “…the scene to be discovered until she returned.”

Geoffrey stood next to his wife and grasped her hand firmly. “If what you say is about to happen, a purge of sorts—we must stand together.” He and Margaret exchanged a look of deep understand. Watching them, Odette felt her chest tighten with emotion.

Their hurried departure from Lady Caroline’s had necessitated a quick decision. Once they had reached the carriage, Gabriel told Tom to take them south of Grosvenor Square to Curzon Street in Mayfair.

“And, Tom,” he continued, “go by way of Hyde Park.”

“Sir?”

“If we are followed, I need to know. I’ll not bring danger directly to Geoffrey’s doorstep.”

“Right you are.” Tom gave him a little salute and scrambled up onto the coachman’s box.

Inside the carriage, Gabriel cradled the unconscious Caroline in his arms. Odette stared out the window. “Do you think it wise?” she asked in a hollow voice. “I would hate to bring any of this down on your friends. Perhaps Exeter Street is yet safe.”

He looked over at her and said gently, “After this, I believe Exeter to be in great peril.” Gabriel knew she felt it too. He also knew, for Caroline’s sake, she had tight rein on her terror—her fear for Cara, Fancy, and Wu. “When we have Caroline safe, I will dispatch Tom to your lodgings to bring them to us.”

“No! I will—”

“Odette! They might spot us. You, especially. You have no disguise. Tom can move about the city unnoticed. He is our best chance at getting them out unharmed.”

It had been over an hour now since Tom had left the house on Curzon in a hired coach. Odette had given him instructions on how to enter unseen over the garden wall behind the tavern. Young and strong, he would have no problem scaling it. She was less sure of his ability to avoid Wu’s booby traps. But he had been warned.

A light tap at the door brought four pairs of eyes around.

“Come in,” Margaret called out quietly.

The door opened to admit Mrs. Haverford, followed by a flushed and triumphant Tom.

“I got ’em—,” he began in a hushed, excited voice, until a quelling look from the housekeeper stilled his tongue.

An injured noblewoman, secretive stratagems, unexpected midnight visitors were all very well, but Mrs. Haverford would not be upstaged in her own domain by a
mere
coachman.

“Your guests have arrived, madam,” she said with perfect reserve. “They are situated in your private parlor and rooms are being prepared for them in the west wing.”

Odette felt a rush of relief so great her knees trembled. She ran to Tom and threw her arms around him. “Thank you! Thank you!”

Tom blushed to the roots of his hair and babbled, “Tweren’t nothin’. That Chinaman, Wu, never seen nothin’ like ’em. He’s a sharp ’un. It’s like he knew I was comin’. And the girl, all rigged out like a boy. Miss Cara, now. She balked ’bout going out over the roof, but she was game once she knew what was at stake… ,” his voice trailed off, and he blushed even deeper seeing himself the center of attention.

Odette wiped tears from her face. She laughed shakily and looked at Margaret and Geoffrey. “I know you don’t want to be thanked. But I do not think I can ever repay your astonishing kindness.”

Margaret walked over to Odette and took both her hands in her own. Odette looked down at her and was surprised by her diminutive size. She reminded Odette of Lady Montagu, not in appearance but in heart and character. As much as she hated the nobility, Odette could acknowledge the rare occasion on which it produced a true lady.

Margaret squeezed her hands and said simply, “Just stop it. Whatever is happening. Stop it.”

*

Cara pushed the hair back from her face with a trembling hand. “Will she recover?”

“Nurse believes so.”

They sat in a lovely room of cool colors and comfortable furniture. It was well past midnight, and the candlelight reflected back the sea green walls to bathe the occupants in a calm underwater ambiance.

“The bump on her head likely occurred when she fought off her attacker. Or so nurse believes,” Odette explained. “She has bruises up and down her arms, and she might have been drugged.”

Fancy sat on the carpet with her back against an armchair and her knees tucked up under her chin. She stared into the fire with eyes red from crying. Without looking up she asked for what seemed the hundredth time, “How could this happen? Why did no one help them?”

Her questions were met with silence. They had no answers.

Odette looked around the cozy room and could almost imagine them back in their own cottage mulling over the day’s events. They were alone, just she, Cara, Wu, and Fancy. Margaret and Geoffrey had retired. Tom had been given a bed in the servants’ quarters. And Gabriel was taking this first turn of the night to keep watch over Caroline. Weary, but too adrenalized to sleep, they sought comfort in each others’ company.

Odette looked at the troubled girl. The trauma of this night was writ large across her face. It was most clearly illustrated by the fact that she let Wu and Cara tell the story of their escape uninterrupted.

Wu had been alerted to their precarious situation when the guards deserted their posts. They were preparing to flee to Lady Caroline’s when Tom unceremoniously clamored in through the bedroom window.

“It was really quite humorous, I guess,” Cara added, not sounding very amused. “We were all standing there discussing our next move when this boy hung down from the roof and just stared at us through the window.”

His story produced a momentary shock of inaction, but then the three quickly followed him to the roof and down the garden wall. The hackney was waiting for them outside the tavern. Wu was certain they hadn’t been followed. All in all, they had accomplished a clean getaway.

Odette stood up and pulled Fancy to her feet. She hugged her tightly. Releasing her, she said, “It’s time for bed. Tomorrow we plan.”

Wu pushed away from the wall where he had been standing with arms crossed. “And do,” he added.

“Yes,” she agreed, “And do.”

They walked up the grand staircase. At the top, Odette turned toward the east wing.

“Where are you going?” Cara asked. “Our rooms are the other way.”

“I want to check on Caroline. You go ahead without me. I won’t be a moment.”

Odette walked along the darkened hallway. Candlelight from the wall sconces flickered comfortingly every few feet. She stopped in front of Caroline’s room and tapped lightly on the door. There was no answer so she opened it slowly and put her head in.

A silk screen was set up between the candelabra and the bed. It defused the light and threw a soft glow over the room. Gabriel had pulled a chair close to the head of the bedside. His forearms rested on the blankets, and he held Caroline’s limp hand in both of his. Odette felt tears gather in her eyes, and she turned to withdraw.

“She saved me, you know.” His voice was low and gruff. “She saved me and I let her down.”

He looked up as Odette silently closed the door and walked over to the foot of the bed.

“I met her almost seven years ago. I had just begun working for my uncle a few months before. Until then I had not often been to London.” He shook his head remembering his younger self.

“During the week, my uncle allowed me to stay in his apartments at the temple. I thought it was a great adventure. Simon was living in town as well and we met Geoffrey and Cyril by way of the coffeehouses and mutual friends. None of us were gamblers, so we stayed away from the gaming hells. But we did drink.” A ghost of a smile flickered across his face. “Not much. At least, not Simon, Geoffrey or I. Cyril’s known to overindulge from time to time.”

Gabriel gently laid Caroline’s hand back down on the bed cover and stood up. He walked past Odette to the window and looked out onto the dark street below.

“One evening we had been out drinking. Perhaps more than usual. We decided to attend a concert at Vauxhall. We had to sneak in. None of us had the money to pay the entrance. That’s when I first saw him.”

He swallowed convulsively and turned back to the room. He sat down on the wide window sill and held out his hand to Odette. She came and grasped it, sitting down next to him.

“Who did you see, Gabe?” she asked.

“Lord Winter,” he replied in a strangled voice. “My mother’s rapist
and
my father.”

Odette drew in a shaky breath but said nothing.

“My origins were no secret to me. My mother had told me the story years before. She knew I’d hear rumors. Even after decades as my fa… my step-father’s wife, people still gossiped. So she told me that as a young maid in the great house of Winter, she was pushed by the eldest son into a linen closet where he forced himself upon her.”

His hand tightened painfully, but Odette didn’t flinch.

“She reported this violation to the housekeeper, but was told to stay quiet or she would lose her place. He raped her two more times before she decided to make it stop.”

Gabriel shook his head in disbelief. “You see she wasn’t the only one. Mother discovered that another maid had been dismissed just months earlier. She left the house pregnant and destitute. Worse yet, years before, the daughter of the gardener hung herself in the greenhouse. She had been forced to give up her child.”

He looked at Odette, incredulity in his eyes. “She decided to kill him,” he told her bluntly. “My mother decided to kill him. She was only fifteen and desperate. She took a butcher’s knife from the kitchen and snuck into his rooms one night after he had come home falling down drunk. He lay sprawled on the bed, fully clothed and snoring. When she got close enough, she saw several pieces of paper scattered over the covers and on the floor.”

Gabriel laughed mirthlessly. “She stopped to read them! In the middle of an attempted murder, she was curious about some letters!

“It was a good thing, though, because they held the key to her freedom. In them were tally sheets, or more like records of card games from at least a dozen different clubs and gaming hells around London. These sheets had the names of some of the richest, most powerful men in England. The notations were cards a player held throughout an entire game. There were notes too, notes written in Lord Winter’s hand, with names, locations, and times.

“Mother didn’t know what she had found, but her instincts told her it was incriminating. So she gathered them up and left his room. He never stirred a muscle.”

Odette let out her pent-up breath. She had been terrified for the teenage Josephine, even though she knew all must have come out right.

“The next day he tore around the manor screaming and yelling about his stolen letters. No one even bothered to speak with mother. She was too insignificant.”

Gabriel let go of Odette and ran his hands through his hair. “She went to the gardener. He had been inconsolable over his daughter’s death. Bitter at the Winters and himself for letting it happen. Together they figured out Lord Winter’s enterprise. It seemed he’d set up a sort of spy ring with several of the clubs’ servants in his employ. They observed the play and passed him the cheat sheets while serving the tables or during a break. It wasn’t hard to do. These games are run on ‘Gentleman’s Honor.’ No one would even think to suspect another gentleman of cheating.

“They went to the old earl with one of the sheets and some of Lord Winter’s written instructions. By my mother’s account, it was a harrowing exchange. He raged at them, accusing them of making the whole thing up. He threatened to expose them as liars and thieves.” Gabriel breathed deeply and looked down at the floor. “By then mother knew she was pregnant. She told him to go ahead, that she had nothing to lose. The gardener said the same. With his daughter dead, he didn’t care what happened to him. He would expose the earl’s son for the dishonorable cad he was, even if it killed him.

“I think once the old man realized they weren’t going to back down, he finally agreed to negotiate. In short, he paid them for the remainder of the documents except one. My mother kept it, a sheet with the name of one of the most powerful peers in the realm. She told the old earl that it was for assurance. If she so much as heard a whisper that his son had touched another servant, she would send it to the man—detailing the scheme and its ringleader.