Silence of Scandal (22 page)

Alexander agreed.

“It would have been the first thing Grady told me if she had been. Do you know if she’s received any letters since I’ve been gone? Not that they would help or direct her much as apparently she does not read well.”

Geoffrey shook his head.

“None that I know of. No one has even been to Ormond at all except the usual casual staff. Sarah went into town with her maid but they only went to do the usual shopping and then visited a friend of Betty’s. That’s the only place that a letter could have been picked up but Sarah never mentioned it and I’m sure that she would have told Grady if anything untoward had happened.”

Giles breathed in deeply.

“She could be meeting someone by prearranged design tonight. That’s about the only other possibility if she really is after the jewels. Of course we may be barking up the wrong tree completely and she’s just an innocent caught up in something else.”

Alexander swirled the brandy in his glass.

“I hope to God that she is. I don’t want her to be involved in any of this.”

Giles looked at his friend and smiled benevolently.

“You have become attached to her already. Not surprising really. She is a beauty beyond all comparison. Once you get over her strange way of speaking she appears to be intelligent and kind. Will you try and keep her?”

Alexander placed his glass carefully on the table. He looked up at both of his friends for a moment and then nodded.

“Clearly I could call the marriage into question as there are name differences but I would actually rather not annul it. There is something about her that calls to me and I have no desire to see her gone from here. I only hope that this visit she’s making is innocent, unless it was me that scared her off.”

Giles laughed.

“Whatever did you say that would scare her off? I cannot imagine you being an ogre with anyone except the French. You saved her life after all. Why would she run away from you?”

Alexander raised an eyebrow as he thought of the words he had used when his bath was being prepared. He sighed and confessed.

“I told her to leave my room or I would not be responsible for my actions...rather unfortunately that was right after I had discovered who she was. I was referring to my imminent state of undress as Grady prepared my bath but I rather think she thought I was angry about the deception at being told she had died in the explosion. I was actually more scared of not being able to contain my desires. I was hard pressed not to drag her into the bath with me.”

Geoffrey sniggered into his drink.

“I don’t think she would have needed much dragging. She’s been looking at those books that your father used to leave out in the library. I remember seeing one when I was about ten. I think you must have been almost sixteen or seventeen. I was rather surprised at their contents but I can’t imagine that you were by then.”

Alexander laughed.

“Good God no! But I didn’t let onto my father that then. I think he was just trying to keep me inventive should I ever have the opportunity to be with a willing woman, however I’d rather Lily hadn’t been exposed to them. Some of the details are rather graphic.”

Geoffrey nodded.

“I think she had just been looking for something to do and picked a book at random. A lucky choice I would guess depending on your point of view. She didn’t know that I was in the library. It was really warm and your office was beyond stuffy but the north facing library was very cool. I’d tucked myself into the corner to write up the days books. She came in and I was about to speak but I was curious when she went straight to your father’s selection. She took one of the books and then sat by the window for nearly an hour. Of course she hadn’t seen or heard me scribbling away in my corner and by that time I was too embarrassed to draw any attention to myself as I knew that she would have been mortified if she had been discovered with such a book.” He raised an embarrassed eyebrow at Alexander. “At one point during her perusal she pressed her hand to her chest, closed her eyes and said your name in an awfully breathy fashion. I hardly knew where to put myself.”

Alexander’s eyes widened momentarily before he groaned in despair.

“My God! She must think my family were a bunch of depraved monsters. Those illustrations are not for the fairer sex.”

Giles grinned.

“Really? What shelf in the library? I should go and check myself just to make sure that what you say is true.”

Both Alexander and Geoffrey laughed with him but Alexander soon grew quiet again. He swirled the brandy in his glass and stared at the golden liquid for several moments before he spoke again.

“I have to talk to her when she comes home and I have to find those jewels. By tomorrow morning I hope we can clear up this mystery and make a proper search for the jewels...” A tap at the door interrupted him. Old Jennings hobbled in. He gave Alexander a quick bow.

“One of the lads said that you wanted to see me afore I retire for the night, Your Grace.”

Alexander nodded but looked past his shoulder curiously.

“Has my wife gone into the dining room?”

Jennings looked mightily uncomfortable for a few seconds before he spoke.

“She’s not here. I left her and her maid in town.” He hurried on as Alexander shot from his chair. “There was nothing I could do about it. She insisted that I leave them and come home. I wasn’t happy about it, Your Grace. She swore me to secrecy as to her exact where-a-bouts and I would be breaking my word if I told you.” He took a breath as Alexander’s expression darkened but then he gave a quick grin. “However I never promised her maid that I would keep my mouth shut and she gave the exact directions to twenty seven Dove Lane. It’s right near where Sarah went to see the maid’s best friend a couple of weeks back so I felt that I had no choice in the matter. It was obvious that she knew the area. I had to follow Her Grace’s instructions to take her there, but I didn’t just leave them. I moved the carriage around the corner into Bakers Grove and sneaked back on foot to make sure that she had entered the establishment safely. I was just in time to see the crafty wenches disappear into number thirty three.”

After his initial shock at being deserted Alexander offered the old man a glass of the brandy.

“I could take the carriage now and bring her back but I feel I should give her until the morning. She must be safe if she is with a friend of her maid’s and maybe she will be more disposed to talking to me if I give her some space. I’ll ride into town tomorrow at first light and hopefully persuade her to come back with me.”

Jennings grinned around his glass.

“I don’t think you’ll have too much of a problem with that. Wailing and fretting all the way into town she was. Nearly burned my ears with her singing your praises. I was embarrassed on your behalf! One thing about her being deaf, she doesn’t know how loud she is speaking. I couldn’t help but overhear her talking to that maid of hers. Betty didn’t think it was a good idea that they were leaving Ormond anyway. She seemed to think that there was more danger in town than there was here which would be true of course but then I have no idea why she should think there is any danger here now that diseased dog has gone. I wasn’t at all happy at dropping them off but it cannot be a long stay that they were considering. They didn’t appear to have much luggage between them. Just a small reticule.”

Alexander paced the room thoughtfully.

“Maybe she was thinking of coming back tonight then. Are you positive that she asked you to leave?”

Jennings nodded vigorously.

“I’m crippled not daft. I heard what she said alright and excepting a quick trip into the public house where the only talk was about the Banshee of Ormond,” he grinned momentarily, “I followed me orders and came back here.”

Alexander cringed at the thought of everyone knowing how cup shot he had been on his wedding day but he put on a brave face and nodded.

“Of course, you could do nothing else. I don’t know what her intentions are but I’m still going into town early. Geoff, please have Midnight saddled by dawn. I’m going to get an early night. As we’ll all be treasure hunting at first light I suggest that we all do the same.” He grinned at his own double meaning, said a quick goodnight and strode out of the room.

Elizabeth stood at the door of number thirty three Bakers Lane. It was the last place that she had stayed with her father and while it wasn’t his permanent home she knew that he had leased it for several months. It was unlikely that he had left the area if he still hoped to have the Ormond jewels. She felt sick at running away from Alexander but she didn’t know what else to do. She had to persuade her father to give up his futile quest for the heirlooms.

She knew he was going to be angry with her. He would expect her to hate her new husband as much as he did. His continual vicious spite over the years in maligning the Ormond name for their part in her injuries and her refusal to contradict him would lead him to believe that she hated the family too but she didn’t and she never had. She had cried for what felt like weeks when he told her that Phillip and Alexander were dead and she was truly frightened by the thought that she might be held accountable.

He probably assumed that Alexander would also be furious at being forced into marriage to a disabled burden. He wouldn’t expect her husband to be so kind and caring and she didn’t know how her father would react when she told him that she wouldn’t steal from the man she had loved nearly all her life. 

Once again she had been left with few choices but this time she was going to fight back. She was not a thief and she would rather scrub floors than steal from the man she loved even if that love wasn’t returned. She wiped a tear and looked at her hand as she felt metal scratch at her face. Her wedding ring that Alexander had slipped onto her finger a few weeks previously twinkled up at her. It was the only thing she owned of any value but it was also a symbol of her love and she would try to keep hold of it for as long as possible.

She pulled it from her finger and tried not to notice the softened circle of cool skin it left behind before she tucked it into the dip between her breasts moments before the door in front of her opened and she stepped into the darkened hallway.

Before she could even think her bag was snatched from her hand and she saw her father’s lips snarl at her.

“At last! It’s taken you long enough girl.” She didn’t have time to answer as she was pulled through to the small lounge where the man upended her bag and tipped the contents onto the dining table. He rummaged through her meagre belongings and let out a strangled cry before he grabbed her upper arms and began shaking her violently. “Where is it all? Where are the diamonds? What do you mean by coming here without the jewels?”

Elizabeth tried to pull away from him. The sleeve of her dress tore at the seam as she struggled in desperation. Her teeth chattered in fear as she spoke.

“I cannot do it, papa. The message you gave to Betty when she came into town was too much. I am not a thief. I beg of you to give up this idea to steal the jewels. No one even knows where they are. Alessander’s father hid the diamonds months ago. He was determined that no one would lay their hands on them unless it was the rightful heir.”

He stopped shaking her and for a moment she thought his wrath had receded but the next thing she knew she was halfway across the room, her cheek almost numb with pain from his backhanded slap. She gasped as she lay on the floor and lifted her hand to her face. Her skin felt hot beneath her fingertips.

He father leaned over her and spoke as she gazed fearfully into his deranged eyes.

“You shouldn’t have come here without them, girl. I want those jewels for what they did to us. Ormond is back in that bastard’s hands and I want him to pay. I want them all to pay.”

Elizabeth refused to let the tears in her eyes fall.

“But why, papa? It was an accident. You told me that Phillip and Alexander had died. Why did you lie to me?”

Her father laughed maniacally as he paced about the room.

“That boy was an accident of birth. Fools like him meddling in new fangled ideas cost my Annie her life and left me with a useless girl who will never earn me a penny. Experimenting never did anyone any good and then to discover that the boy was an aberration anyway. The scandal I could have caused but I was cleverer than that. I couldn’t let him become the Duke and see people bow and scrape to him. It was just luck that I employed the sister to help with you and I found out about his relationship with that idiot school teacher who used to be there all the time. Her brother wrote to her regularly and I opened one of the letters from him. It was a genuine mistake but I found my own goldmine staring me in the face. I had a direct link to him. His letters came every few months and he just couldn’t keep his mouth shut about his sick relationship. He tried to disguise the name but I remembered his own from when I worked at Ormond and soon figured things out. My little girl never liked the man or his cane and she told me about him nearly every day. I knew exactly who he was talking about in his revolting letters. The Duke’s son couldn’t trick me even when he went and married that trumped up tart. I’ve used all the information to my advantage for years but then the stupid school master chucked himself from the roof and his idiot lover drowned himself and his own father. My unending fountain of wealth had dried up. As I can’t get away with murder like he did with my wife and my little girl, I am doing the next best thing by getting my hands on the famed diamonds. With a bit of luck your husband will be so shocked he’ll shoot himself when he finds out that he has married a lowly commoner and lost his family jewels. That pile will crumble around his ears!” Hardacre’s bloodshot eyes stared down at Elizabeth.