Daisy gasped, but Pierce interrupted.
“She hasn’t anything to do with this. She didn’t even know that her husband was going to take part in the race. You have what you want. I’ll come with you quietly if you leave her alone.”
“Pierce! No!” Daisy shrieked and threw herself at the man she loved. Unable to take her in his arms, Pierce kissed her on the forehead.
“Go home, Daisy. Go to your parents and stay there. Send word to Victor and ask him to call on my solicitors.”
Daisy buried her head in his chest as she wrapped her arms around him.
“Don’t let them do this. Please, Pierce. There must be something we can do to convince them of your innocence.”
Pierce glanced towards the door as curious voices came from along the corridor outside.
‘Well I never! A murderer you say! And in one of me best rooms. Gawd bless me soul! But who is he with? Told me it was his wife. And that she’s with child too.’
He looked back down at where Daisy sobbed against his chest.
“Dry your tears, my love. Please do as I say. Ride home as soon as you can. These men can do nothing without a trial. I will be all right.”
“But, but...” She didn’t say any more. Three curious faces peered in at the door. The maids and the lady of the house whispered behind their hands.
Pierce straightened his shoulders, lifted his chin, and spoke with authority.
“Please treat my wife with all courtesy. She has done nothing wrong.” He waited for the inn keeper’s wife to nod before he turned to the constables again. “I am ready, Mathews. Please lead on.”
Mathews threw a scornful glance back at Daisy and then swiftly turned. He nodded to his men.
“Take him away!”
Chapter Twenty
Trials and Tribulations
The bedroom was stuffy and dimly lit though it was broad daylight outside. Lady Elizabeth Caruthers sat by the bed holding her tearful friend’s hand.
“Dorothea, please. You will make yourself sick.”
Dorothea Trenchard wept into her already sodden handkerchief.
“You think I am not sick already. You have heard the news. My only child! They dragged him back to London and have thrown in some awful dungeon. You saw what happened at that farce they called a trial. He was good as hanged before he stepped onto the stand.”
Elizabeth gripped the woman’s hand tightly as she recalled the baying from the public gallery. As soon as Pierce and Daisy’s sudden marriage had been revealed, any hope of a fair trial had been lost. The truth was ignored and the whispers had spread. A love triangle leading to a murder, were the words on everyone’s lips.
“Do not despair, Dorothea. Lucas has arranged for the most powerful and clever lawyers to call for a retrial. Everyone is working to clear his name. All is not lost. I am sure that it will be only hours before Pierce is released.” Her words sounded convincing, far stronger than she felt.
Dorothea blinked at her friend.
“If only I could believe you, but I fear it is too late for anything to be done.”
Elizabeth tried a persuasive smile.
“Not at all! Why, Daisy herself has petitioned the King,” she said encouragingly.
But Dorothea’s expression became pinched.
“I do not wish to speak ill of your daughter, Elizabeth, but I hardly see how that helps. She more or less confirmed my son’s guilt by becoming his wife a mere month after her murdered husband’s death. I never heard of such a thing before. While she was still in full mourning, no less! It was unseemly in the extreme, and if I had been advised of the event before it happened, I would have raised my concerns.”
Elizabeth took in some steadying breaths.
“But it was the perfect opportunity and I thought it was for the best. You should have seen them the day before. It was as if all the years had slipped away and they were children once more. They love one another, Dorothea. They always have, but I feared that if Pierce delayed, if he didn’t take this golden opportunity, he might never propose. Daisy had lost him once before. I didn’t want her to lose him again.”
“But she is going to anyway now. We have but two days in which to find the true murderer and save my son’s life! I don’t think that likely if he hasn’t been caught before now. My son is going to die, though he is innocent of any crime. And your daughter! Well! She gets off freely and can start over again. Like she always did.” The distraught mother cried bitterly.
A tear of frustration ran down Elizabeth’s cheek as she thought of her wayward daughter. No one could deny that the situation was a mess.
“Daisy is risking everything to save the man she loves. You know that her reputation will never recover from this. To be seen riding through the streets of London in such dishevelled attire will go down in history as one of the most scandalous sights ever witnessed.” She tried to forget the previous week’s horrifying sight, but the shock of seeing one’s own daughter wearing ripped breeches and a barely concealed torn shirt, in Cavendish Square in broad daylight was not easily dismissed. There had been calls for Daisy to be prosecuted for public indecency. Not that Daisy had cared. All she could think about was saving the man she loved. And Elizabeth couldn’t blame her. What else was the woman to do. Stand back while her innocent husband’s neck stretched? Elizabeth hid a shudder at the ghastly thought.
Dorothea nodded.
“Even the baker’s boy mentioned it.” She hadn’t seen the incident herself but her maid had been a font of information and left no detail out.
Elizabeth placed a cooling hand on her own brow, but then more shocking thoughts came to mind. Mostly to do with her daughter’s public confession of how her and Pierce’s marriage came about. She groaned miserably as she recalled the sniggers from the public gallery.
“And the letter she wrote to the judge! She threw herself on his mercy only for him to read it aloud in court! It was meant to be a private explanation, but now everyone thinks that my daughter is not only a loose woman, but a lush.”
Dorothea was clearly as unimpressed by Daisy’s efforts as the judge.
“At least telling the world that you ended up being caught in bed together because you were so drunk isn’t risking her neck. But you know what people were saying about her at the Templeton ball. They were saying that my son is taking the blame while she is the one who has done her husband to death.”
Elizabeth stood quickly.
“Dorothea! You know that accusation to be ridiculous. Daisy wouldn’t hurt a soul.”
“And neither would my Pierce!” Her friend cried before dissolving into tears again.
“So who would?”
Both women jumped and turned to the door. An ashen faced Daisy walked slowly into the bedroom and closed the door behind her.
“We don’t know!” Both older women cried in the gloom.
Daisy walked across the room and opened the curtains a few inches. Sunshine filtered into the bedroom. She parted the curtains some more, opened the window a crack, and breathed in some fresh air before turning to her mother and mother in law again.
“I know it seems impossible, but think, the pair of you. Please! Who would kill Robert? And why? You two hear all the gossip. What is being said behind all the fluttering fans. Robert didn’t offend anyone, didn’t gamble, and rarely drank to excess. The solicitors cannot discover any other relation who would benefit from the title. There is no motive for murder. Except the rumour that Robert discovered Pierce and I were engaged in an affair. Which he didn’t because we weren’t.” She slumped into a chair as the two women gazed silently at her. “It is not easy to prove a negative. Though no one can positively say that they saw the pair of us together at any time in the last three years, the constables seem perfectly happy to accept wagging tongues as proof.”
Elizabeth stared at her daughter.
“Have you been to see him?”
Daisy closed her eyes as she massaged her temples.
“Lucas
forbade me.”
Dorothea sniffed in derision.
“I doubt that would stop you. What did you go disguised as?”
Daisy opened one eye and looked at her new mother in law.
“A servant. I took him some clean clothes and an apple pie. He was not pleased to see me, but he was very happy with the pie.”
“I am not surprised. My husband tells me that the food in the gaol is barely edible, and yet you continue to risk my son’s life with every one of your nefarious schemes. What if someone had caught you and thought you were trying to help him escape? They would be hanging him at dawn, not in two days’ time.” The distraught mother sobbed again.
Daisy stood quickly and wrung her hands.
“I needed to ask him some more questions. I am trying to save him, Dorothea! I love him! If he dies, I die too. Do you not know how I have longed for him all the years of my life. And now I have my chance at happiness, it is about to be snatched from my grasp because some stupid old biddies cannot resist gossiping behind their fans!”
Elizabeth looked as though she was about to say something, but she paused and frowned before holding her finger up to gain the other women’s attention.
“But they weren’t gossiping. Well, not recently. There was nothing to talk about. Nothing until the Templeton ball. There was far too much interest in Lady Amelia Fairbanks disappearance from town. A sick aunt indeed. As if we didn’t know what that meant.” She gave a derisory laugh.
Daisy blocked out the sound of the unfortunate woman’s name and turned to her mother.
“So if there was no longer any interest in Robert’s death, how come the gossip arose again? Gossip enough to send the constables to find us on our way home from Portland Hall.”
Elizabeth shrugged.
“I didn’t go to the ball, but one hears things. Apparently it was all about the place. The maids were talking openly about it in the withdrawing room. Lord Templeton’s new valet had been casting aspersions over your role in Robert’s death. Called you a witch as I recall.”
Daisy blinked, almost too shocked for words.
“A witch? But why? I rarely had anything to do with the man. And I wrote him an excellent reference.”
Elizabeth shrugged.
“There were few more details, but seeing that he was Robert’s old valet, everyone believed him. You know that there was a reward for information leading to the murderer’s discovery?”
Daisy nodded.
“I suggested the idea to Mr. Mathews myself,” she said miserably, deeply regretting voicing the idea now.
Elizabeth carried on.
“Well, I suspect that one of the servants couldn’t resist the lure of the money and told the constables everything they had heard. With Pierce then revealing himself to all and sundry when he left the ball to search for you, I don’t suppose that it was particularly difficult for the constables to send someone to follow him.”
Daisy let out a groan, but Dorothea cut her off.
“So why did they arrest my son and not your daughter?”
Silence greeted her question, until Daisy lifted her eyes and spoke.
“Pierce told them that I had nothing to do with the murder. He as good as admitted it himself so that they would leave me alone.”
Dorothea let out a shriek.
“My boy! My darling boy is sacrificing himself.” She dissolved into heart wrenching sobs.
Elizabeth found a dry handkerchief in the drawer beside the bed.
“Shh, my dear. It is not over yet. Come, help us to reason this out. What I really don’t understand is why anyone thought Pierce the culprit in the first place.”
Daisy agreed.
“Nobody mentioned Pierce’s name in connection with Robert’s until days after he died. The constables certainly never asked about him initially.”
Dorothea dried her eyes.
“But they did!” The woman argued. “As I understood it, the gossip came directly from your husband’s very own valet. He was the one who told the constables that you had sent Pierce a letter. That’s where the ‘love triangle’ suggestion came from. And I have no reason to disbelieve the source of that news, for Mr. Mathews told me the informant’s name himself.”
Daisy looked up curiously.
“Musgrave knew I sent Pierce a letter? And he told the officers about it when they came to question me about the cut girth? I wasn’t aware of that.”
Dorothea nodded quickly.
“As I said, Mr. Mathews told me that when they came to search here for Pierce in the first instance. I assured the man that he had it all wrong, that you and Pierce were just friends, but Mathews said Musgrave had it on good authority that you and my son were regular correspondents. And Mathews had no other suspects. He was like a dog with a bone when he heard that the race winner was intimately involved with you, and wouldn’t listen to a word I said. He seemed convinced by whatever Musgrave had told him. And then you married my son a mere month after your husband’s death, which gave a certain truth to the lie.”
Daisy thought back to the last time she had spoken to the valet. Hadn’t he accused her housekeeper of stealing brandy? Brandy that she subsequently discovered. And drank.
She tapped a finger against her lip.
“Musgrave can be convincing when necessary. I believed him when he accused Mrs. Graves of drinking, but then Pierce and I discovered two bottles of Robert’s best brandy in the woodsman’s cottage where Robert must have put it himself.” Her stomach lurched at the memory of drinking so much.
Elizabeth drew in a shocked breath.
“It seems that Musgrave is a habitual liar! And a dreadful gossip. You are fortunate that he no longer resides in your house or you would have no secrets.”
Daisy paced the room. Secrets? She thought about the deception that she and Robert had arranged. Lord! If the wretched valet had known about that! She hid a shudder. It didn’t bear thinking about.
“I feel annoyed with myself for giving him a reference now. If I had known he was the one to tell the officers about the letter I sent Pierce...” She was interrupted by a knock at the door.
Lady Dorothea’s maid entered looking somewhat flustered.
“The Dowager Duchess of Portland is here to see you, my Lady. She says it’s about a private matter and that it is most urgent. I told her that you are not well enough for visitors but she insisted that I bring you her message and has simply refused to leave until she speaks to you. I’ve put her in the drawing room and taken her tea.” The maid withdrew again quickly at her mistress’ scowl..
Dorothea frowned deeply.
“What can the woman want? Is it not enough that my son is about to be put to death on account of hers. Has she come to gloat over my distress?”
Daisy looked at her mother.
“Would Jane do that, do you think? I have never had the best relationship with the woman, and she has been insufferable of late. I find her too overbearing and opinionated, but would she be so unkind?”
Elizabeth shook her head.
“She is mostly all talk and hot air. Beneath her prickly exterior is a good heart. Knowing the hurt at her own son’s death, I doubt she would wish such pain on another.”
Daisy wasn’t quite so sure.
“Even if she thinks Pierce murdered her son?”
A new cascade of tears dripped from Dorothea’s eyes.
“But Pierce didn’t murder him. Surely she must know that my son would never have stooped so low as to cheat in a race. He is an honourable man and would never have done such a thing.” She spluttered as tears ran down her already wet cheeks.
Elizabeth tried to comfort the distressed mother but a sudden commotion outside the closed door stopped all further talk.
‘But I told you that her Ladyship is indisposed. You cannot just barge...’
‘This is an urgent matter that cannot wait! I am the Dowager Duchess of Portland. Let me past!’
‘My orders is no visitors. I don’t care
who you are. I’ll have you removed from the house!’
Daisy hurried to the door and opened it. Jane Benedict instantly pushed past the maid who guarded the door and, black skirts swirling, rushed into the room. A hoarse voice came from beneath the veil she wore.
“I had to come. But before I say anything else, let me tell you that I am sure that your son did not murder mine.”
“You are?” The three women chorused at once.
The Dowager removed the veil. Red rimmed eyes gave witness to the tears that traced her cheeks. The woman dashed them away impatiently and took several deep breaths.
“May I sit? I am afraid I rather rushed up your stairs.”
Dorothea motioned for her maid to leave them before indicating for the Dowager to take the fireside chair.
“Please explain why you are here. My son has less than two days to live. If you know anything that will save him, you must tell us now,” she implored.
Jane Benedict smoothed her skirts then twisted her fingers in her lap. Small beads of perspiration dotted the woman’s upper lip. Daisy looked at her curiously. Was the woman hot or nervous? The Dowager reached into her reticule and took out a handkerchief before speaking.
“What I am about to tell you will ruin me completely, but I would rather that than have the death of an innocent man on my conscience.” She dabbed her face with the square of fine linen. “It is a drawn out story and you will have to forgive me before I start, but I do not know who the real murderer is. All I know is that it cannot be your son.”
Daisy walked across the room and knelt before her mother in law.
“Please, Jane if it will save Pierce’s life. Just explain what you do know.”
The Dowager reached into her reticule again and took out a slip of paper. She handed it to Daisy.
“This arrived yesterday evening. With my son’s murderer already locked up, this note and its apparent confession, has led me to a disturbed and sleepless night.”
With trembling fingers, Daisy opened the sheet and read aloud.
Do not forget that I know your secret. If you want it to remain thus and your family name unblemished, bring five hundred pounds and give it to the man in the carriage sent to your door on Friday evening at nine. Make no attempt to tell anyone of our arrangement, and do not have the carriage followed. Remember what I did to your son. Something similar could happen to you or your loved ones.
A Fragile Chain of Daisies: Flowers of the Aristocracy (Untamed Regency Book 4) Page 27