The Heiress of Linn Hagh (33 page)

‘Firstly, I’ve come to tell you some news. Baxter Carnaby is now dead.’

Goddard gasped.

‘How so?’

Lavender explained but didn’t mention the part played by the faws in Baxter Carnaby’s death.

‘On top of this, I now have warrants for the arrest of both George and Isobel Carnaby in my pocket.’

‘Why, this is excellent news!’ Goddard looked relieved.

‘Quite so. I intend to return to Bellingham first thing in the morning to serve them. I also have a letter for Hexham Gaol from Magistrate Clennell. It instructs the gaoler to release Matthew Carnaby from imprisonment.’

‘Good. I knew the poor fellow was innocent.’

‘I’m sure you did,’ Lavender said wryly. ‘This brings me to my first request. I would like you to take this letter, ride to Hexham and organise the young man’s safe release and return to Bellingham.’

The doctor’s eyebrows rose in surprise. He looked amused.

‘So I’m to be your lackey now, am I, Lavender?’

‘I didn’t think you would mind,’ Lavender said slowly, ‘considering how willing you were to ride out there before and pay the gaolers to ensure that he was comfortable in a private cell.’

Goddard’s handsome face flushed, and his smile vanished. ‘What do you mean?’

Lavender ignored his question. ‘I also need to speak to Miss Carnaby. Please ask her to join us.’

‘What!’

The detective stared at Goddard coldly. For a moment, it looked like the doctor would refuse or begin to strenuously deny what Lavender was suggesting.

‘I don’t have time to waste in an argument,’ Lavender said. ‘I know she has been with you, either here or at your home in Bellingham, since she fled Linn Hagh.’

A range of conflicting emotions flashed across Goddard’s face.

Lavender moved past him to the foot of the staircase.

‘Miss Carnaby!’ he called out loudly. ‘The man that threatened you in Bellingham churchyard is now dead. I’ve warrants for the arrest of your brother and sister. It’s safe to come out of hiding now—I need to speak to you.’

‘I must protest, Lavender!’ Goddard had found his voice and moved beside him. ‘You cannot possibly imagine—’

‘I do imagine.’

‘It is alright, Robert. It’s time.’

The voice that floated down from the floor above was soft. A delicate white hand appeared on the upstairs banister, followed by an arm clothed in black. Then she appeared. Smaller than Lavender had imagined, and thinner. The oval face and the stubborn little chin, however, were those in the portrait handed to him by the Armstrongs just over a week ago. Her pale skin was as smooth as porcelain.

The missing heiress descended the stairs carefully. A borrowed gown hung loosely on her slight frame. Her white-blonde head bowed as she lifted the hem of the skirts.

A dress that belonged to Goddard’s dead mother no doubt,
Lavender thought. She wore no wedding band.

Behind her, Anna peered down at the detective from the landing; her own face was pale beneath her freckles.

He bowed low over Helen Carnaby’s hand when she reached the bottom step.

‘At last we meet, Miss Carnaby.’

‘The pleasure is mine, Detective,’ she replied nervously. ‘You’ve been most assiduous in unravelling the threads of this mystery. Thank you for pursuing the evidence against my wicked brother and sister.’ She lowered her long eyelashes. ‘What you must think of me for causing all this trouble I, I cannot imagine.’ Her embarrassment was genuine.

‘What
I
think of you is inconsequential,’ he said kindly. ‘I’ll be back in London within a fortnight. However, I know that you must have been terrified. You were right to fear for your life. Your brothers and sister are three of the most calculating villains I’ve ever had the misfortune to come across. But we now need to discuss your reappearance in Bellingham. It’s time for you to come out of hiding.’

Her ivory skin turned a shade paler at his words, but she didn’t protest. She turned to Goddard.

‘Shall we remove the dust sheets and light a fire in the parlour, Robert? It’s chilly out here in the hall.’

The doctor jumped like an anxious puppy at her request and led the way to the darkened room at the front of the house.

While Anna removed the dust cloths, partially opened the drapes and lit a fire in the grate, Lavender took off his gloves and eyed the young couple opposite. They sat in silence, glancing at each other for reassurance. Even the confident doctor looked embarrassed and awkward.

‘Did you know that the man who attacked you and stalked you through Hareshaw Woods was your half-brother, Baxter Carnaby?’

She raised her vivid blue eyes to his face.

‘No. Neither of my parents ever told me about my father’s first son. The first I heard about him was from Robert, yesterday. He told me about your conversation.’

‘Baxter Carnaby was mentioned in your father’s will.’

‘I was away at school when my father died. No one ever told me what was written in his will. I suppose that my mother must have known about this boy, but she loved my father dearly and took his secret to the grave with her. She wasn’t to know that my father’s eldest son was still alive and would return to Bellingham.’

Lavender nodded.

‘All I knew was that I was in dreadful danger. I felt sure that the man who stalked me had something to do with George—my brother dismissed my concerns too lightly. At one point, I thought they were trying to turn me insane like my father’s first wife.’

Lavender raised an eyebrow; this was a scenario he had not considered.

‘So you devised an elaborate escape from your room at Linn Hagh?’

‘Yes.’ She blushed. ‘I had to lock the door behind me, Detective. I really was concerned that someone would seek me out before the morning and discover my bed empty.’ She dropped her eyes.

‘I understand,’ Lavender said grimly. ‘I’m aware of the lengths your brother was prepared to go to to “persuade” you to marry Lawrence Ingram.’

She flushed again.

‘You do understand, Detective. I can see that. I believed that if I made my concerns public, then it would all be dismissed as the hysterical complaints of a mad woman. I also knew that Izzie tampered with my food.’ Her voice rose with anxiety. Robert Goddard placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. ‘George wouldn’t have hesitated to have me committed to an asylum like our father had done to his mother.’

‘In which case, he would have been able to claim your fortune,’ Lavender said.

‘Yes.’ She bowed her head. ‘One way or another, George was determined to get his hands on that money. The money is cursed. It cost poor Laurel her life.’

‘No, Miss Carnaby, your inheritance is not cursed. Your murderous siblings took the life of Laurel Faa Geddes, and they’ll pay for the crime—as Baxter Carnaby has already done.’

‘You’ve enough evidence?’

‘I have.’

‘Thank you, Detective. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.’

‘When you felt threatened, why didn’t you return to Whitby or seek help from John Armstrong?’

‘I did ask Uncle John for shelter, but he couldn’t accommodate me, and I knew that if I returned to Whitby, then George or that man’—she shuddered—‘would eventually find me. Then Isobel made it plain that George expected me to marry the disgusting Lawrence Ingram, and I knew I had to flee.’

‘Because you had already fallen in love with Doctor Goddard?’

She blushed and Goddard shuffled in his chair.

‘How did you know about us, Detective?’ Goddard asked. ‘I thought we had managed to keep our courtship a secret.’

Lavender smiled.

‘Sometimes folks fail to see what’s happening beneath their noses,’ he said. ‘It takes someone from the outside to spot the obvious, and you two haven’t been as discreet as you thought. Once we had heard from a witness that Miss Carnaby had been seen talking intimately with a gentleman on horseback, my constable and I knew that she had an admirer. It was quite simple to work out the identity of your admirer.’

‘How?’

Lavender turned to face Helen Carnaby. ‘The only man whose company you had regularly shared since your return to Bellingham was the doctor who attended your sick mother. I could tell by the reaction of the other women in church last Sunday that Doctor Goddard was a bachelor—and regarded as a popular catch.’

Helen Carnaby smiled and Anna giggled. The doctor just looked embarrassed. Lavender then turned to face him.

‘Besides which, when I visited you at your home, you always displayed real empathy and compassion for the plight of Bellingham’s missing heiress. You also breached patient privilege on several occasions during our discussions, and you were not objective about the Carnaby family, which I would have expected from a professional physician.’

Goddard shrugged. ‘I gave you whatever help I could with your enquiries. We had faith in you, Detective. Helen and I quickly realised that if anyone could help us bring George and Isobel Carnaby to justice, then it was you.’

Caught off guard by the unexpected compliment, Lavender paused for a moment.

‘I’ve no doubt that your relationship grew out of the compassion you shared at the bedside of the dying Esther Carnaby,’ he continued. His tone was gentle. ‘And it developed under the ignorant noses of your brother and sister and the servants, who obviously had no idea about what was happening in the sickroom at Linn Hagh.’

‘You’re right there,’ Anna interrupted as she returned with a silver tray of china teacups and saucers. ‘You coulda knocked me down wi’ a feather when I found out.’

‘I have to point out something, Lavender,’ Robert Goddard said. He reached over for Helen Carnaby’s hand. She glanced at him with affection. ‘You must understand that everything that has passed between Miss Carnaby and me has been entirely proper. She’s been chaperoned by my maidservant for the last six weeks, and more recently by Anna. My feelings for her are deep and genuine. We intend to marry as soon as I can get a special licence.’

‘Why aren’t you married already?’

They both sighed.

‘We planned to elope to Gretna Green the night I left Linn Hagh,’ Helen Carnaby explained. ‘We were going to marry and brazen it out with George. We knew he would turn nasty and threaten Robert with arrest, but we were prepared for that.’

‘Unfortunately, my own mother’s illness took an unexpected turn for the worse that day, and I wasn’t able to leave the area,’ Goddard said sadly. ‘My mother had a lingering death.’ He grimaced. ‘Helen has remained here with a maid, nursing
my
dying mother for most of the weeks since her disappearance.’

‘I only made the two trips back to Bellingham, Detective, to place the flowers on my parents’ graves.’

‘And one of those trips nearly cost you your life,’ Goddard commented.

‘Robert has been the perfect gentleman while I’ve lived in his mother’s house.’

‘I’m sure he has,’ Lavender observed wryly, ‘but it’s not me that you’ll need to convince. There are your uncle and cousin Katherine to consider, for a start. You appreciate that there will be a great scandal once you reappear? Initially, the local gossips will be distracted by the arrest of your brother and sister. Then everyone will suddenly want to know where
you’ve
been for the last six weeks. Once your marriage to Doctor Goddard is announced, the speculation will start.’

Goddard squeezed Helen Carnaby’s hand tighter.

‘We’re ready to face the consequences,’ he said.

‘We intend to leave the area anyway, Detective,’ she added. ‘I’m trying to persuade Robert that we should move to Whitby.’

‘And if Whitby isn’t far enough away from the malicious tongues, then we shall emigrate to the New World,’ the doctor announced firmly. ‘They’ve a great need of medical professionals in America.’

Lavender drained his teacup. ‘Well, don’t go too far away,’ he said. ‘You’ll be needed as witnesses next summer for the trial of your siblings at the assizes. However, after that your lives are your own. Whatever happens, I wish you both good luck in the future.’ He reached for his gloves.

‘In the meantime, I’ve writs to serve and a sham funeral to stop. I expect to see you back in Bellingham at your uncle’s tomorrow morning, Miss Carnaby. Doctor Goddard? You’ll please be so kind as to ride to Hexham Gaol and secure the release of her brother Matthew? That’s one young man who will be delighted to see his “Ela” again. I’m sure that
he
won’t ask any awkward questions. Anna—’

The little maid dropped a spoon off the tray onto the bare floorboards. It landed with a clatter. She looked up nervously at the detective.

He winked at her.

‘Take good care of your mistress.’

Chapter Thirty-Six

Monday, 29th November 1809

S
now fell softly onto the stone roof of St Cuthbert’s Church, when Lavender drew up in a carriage. With no wind, the tiny flakes danced theatrically in the still air. They muted the crumbling grey of the drunken headstones scattered amongst the weeds in the isolated graveyard and flecked the crimson uniforms of the shivering militia who waited patiently with Constable Woods at the gate.

‘Have you got the warrants?’ Woods asked as the detective climbed down from the carriage.

‘Yes.’ Lavender closed the door quickly behind him and checked that the blinds were properly drawn. ‘Did you have any luck over in Otterburn?’

Woods beckoned to a nervous man who hovered at the edge of the soldiers.

‘This here fellah is Charlie Peters. He’s landlord of The Redesdale Arms. He has already been with me to Linn Hagh and identified the dead man as Baxter Carnaby.’

‘You’ve done well,’ Lavender murmured.

Woods’ smile beamed across his broad face.

‘Oh, that’s not all. He also has a large amount of Baxter Carnaby’s possessions and documents. The cove had been livin’ there fer weeks, on and off, and had fallen behind with his rent, so Charlie here purloined them after Carnaby disappeared. I haven’t had the chance to go through it all, but I reckon there’ll be plenty more evidence to tie him in to his brother.’

‘Excellent work, Ned.’ Lavender said. ‘George Carnaby will be surprised to discover that we’ve made the connection to The Redesdale Arms. Where are the mourners?’