by Vella, Wendy
Bran followed and now rested his big head in Daisy’s lap.
Harry lowered the cloth. “It’s like he knows something,” he said, looking at the dog.
“He does.” Maddie watched Daisy’s hand creep to Bran’s head again.
“Thank you for the cloth. The pain in my eyes is easing.”
“You have a gift, Harry, and yet it must also cause you a great deal of pain.” She touched his cheek. It felt natural and right. He was special to her; she could no longer deny that, even if nothing came of the feelings inside her.
“It is just something I have always lived with. I had not thought it special until I met this family.”
She lowered her hand as Essie, Eden, and James entered the room.
“I want to introduce you to some other people now, Daisy. They are family, and I promise you they are good people too,” Harry said.
She listened but kept her eyes lowered, saying nothing. Fleur took Daisy’s free hand in hers and held it close, and Maddie had never loved her child more than in that moment.
“This is Daisy,” Harry said. Maddie watched him place a hand over his eyes and point to the little girl.
James mouthed the word blind, and Harry nodded. The shock on the duke’s face soon turned to anger. Eden’s matched it, and Maddie wondered just how badly Daisy was being treated when they found her.
“Hello, Daisy, I am Essie.”
Her sister-in-law came forward and dropped to her knees before them. She then took one of Daisy’s hands and rested it on her face.
“Are you hurting anywhere, Daisy?”
“My eyes are sore,” the little girl whispered.
“Let me see?” Essie touched her chin raising it so she could see Daisy’s eyes. They looked red and swollen..
“Well now, I have something that will make the pain ease.” Essie chatted as she opened a jar and smeared the contents onto a soft piece of cloth. She then folded it, and held it to the girls eyes. “Where is it you are from, Daisy?”
“The Haleigh Orphanage.”
“And you were there for some time before you went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Blythe?” Harry asked.
“I knew only the orphanage.”
The words were spoken in a subdued, serious tone.
Essie wound a bandage around her head, holding the pad in place. Tending her gently, drawing out answers to questions that Harry and she asked the little girl. She did not know her age and had been in the hands of the Blythes for only a short time… thankfully.
Fleur handed Daisy a biscuit and explained that it was yummy, then broke some of her own off to feed Bran, which Maddie had often told her not to do.
Around them the adults watched solemn-faced, all aware of the suffering this child must have endured.
“Excuse me, your Grace,” Buttles said from the doorway. “A Mr. Brown and Mr. Spriggot have called at the Huntington residence. A note has arrived requesting your presence.”
“Thank you, Buttles,” James said. “It will be about Maddie’s arrest.”
“I will take Fleur and Daisy, and we shall read a book,” Essie said, lifting the little girl into her arms. Holding Fleur’s hand, she walked away to the bookshelves with Bran on her heels.
“I think she’ll be scared if we both leave,” Harry said.
“You’re right. You stay.” Maddie got to her feet.
“I was thinking you should stay.”
“Why?” Maddie looked at Harry, who was now on his feet too. “This is about my arrest.”
“And I want to know what is being done.” He frowned at her through eyes that were a lot clearer now.
“We will all go,” James said. “Come along.”
“Just a moment,” Harry and Maddie said at the same time, both heading to where the girls now sat in a chair with Essie.
“We will return soon.” Maddie kissed Fleur’s cheek and touched Daisy’s, not wanting to scare her. The little girl still had her head down and was clutching Fleur’s hand.
“I will get them some more food and stay with Essie. We can take them up to the children in the nursery,” Eden said.
“The noise may be too much for her,” Harry said.
“Then we shall make sure it is not,” Eden added. “Now go, both of you.”
Daisy did not look overly distressed, but how could they tell? The girl had clearly had a traumatic life thus far and knew how to hide that. As someone who’d suffered her fair share of traumas, Maddie understood about hiding.
…
Max and Rory were with two men when she arrived with Harry and James.
Mr. Brown was big, with blunt features and a bald head. He had sweet smile, however, when he bowed before her, which still shocked Maddie. No one had bowed to her before she came to London.
Mr. Spriggot was the opposite of the Runner, thin, pale and with hair that seemed to be long on one side that he had somehow managed to coax over his head to cover the bald areas.
“Mr. Spriggot has come to report his findings in regard to the investigation into your arrest, Maddie,” Max said, motioning her into a seat. “Proceed, please.”
“I’ll let Mr. Brown start,” Mr. Spriggot said. “I’m afraid the news is not what you would want to hear, and some of a grave nature.”
“Oh, dear.” Maddie sat.
“After we got no answers with our initial questioning, I thought I’d start leaning on the staff in the Watch House who arrested Mrs. Caron.”
“Leaning means putting pressure on, Maddie,” Harry said from his seat beside her.
“I know what it means, thank you, Harry.”
“I found something interesting,” Mr. Brown said. “Both Constable McDagger and Sergeant Gavell have left.”
“Been dismissed?” Harry asked.
“No, they simply didn’t return to work the day after Mrs. Caron was released.”
“Which tells us what?” Max asked.
“Well now, we can’t be sure, but the word from the two other constables I spoke with is that there was some kind of shoddy dealings going on with regards to Mrs. Caron’s arrest.”
“I asked Mr. Brown to demand to see the arrest records, and they have disappeared,” Mr. Spriggot added. “I have since asked my contacts why something like this would happen, and all said it was likely bribery.”
“Someone bribed Constable McDagger and Sergeant Gavell to arrest Maddie!” Harry roared.
“It appears that way, but of course there is no proof,” Mr. Brown said calmly, even in the face of Harry’s and her brothers’ obvious anger. “Mr. Spriggot and I also think that there is a possibility that whoever did this knows of Mrs. Caron’s connection to you, Duke, and Mr. Huntington.”
“Revenge of some kind?” James asked. “Yes, we thought of that avenue also.”
“But I’m afraid we have more to tell you, and it is of a grave nature indeed.” Mr. Spriggot spoke now.
“Go on,” Max said.
“A body was pulled from the Thames this morning, and it was that of Sergeant Gavell.”
“Dear Lord.” Maddie suddenly felt cold. To her mind, there was no one in London who held a grudge against her so strong that they’d do this. In France, however, that was possible. Surely her past had not followed her here?
Chapter 26
They forced a promise from him that he would attend Mr. Rolland’s circus of strange and unusual curiosities before he’d left. They’d got him in a weak moment, as he was still feeling on edge after what had happened. He’d then received many letters stating that Daisy and Fleur missed him and Maddie was gravely ill. That one had arrived yesterday. It gave his heart a jolt, even though he knew it was not truth.
He would have felt her if she’d been gravely ill, and those were the simple facts that he had no wish to examine too closely.
So here he was, walking along the street to where a line of carriages waited.
“Your mount, Mr. Sinclair.” A groom walked forward, leading a large bay as he reached Dev’s house.
“Pardon?”
“Lord Sinclair thought you may like to ride today and had a horse brought for you.”
He didn’t gnash his teeth, which was his first thought; after all, it wasn’t the groom’s fault that his cousin was high-handed.
“Thank you.” He took the reins and mounted. It felt good to be on a horse again, but he wasn’t telling his bossy elder cousin that. Nudging it forward, he approached the first carriage.
“Harry!”
Meredith was hanging out of a carriage window.
“Get back inside now, Merry.” He moved to where she was. “It’s not safe. You could fall.”
“I have the back of her dress,” her brother Mathew replied from inside.
“Are you coming with us to Mr. Rolland’s Circus of Strange and Ridiculous Curiosities, Harry?” The question came from Dev and Lilly’s other daughter, Hannah. She wasn’t hanging out the window; just her head appeared.
“I said I would, so here I am.”
“Wonderful! It will be so much more fun with you accompanying us.” She smiled up at him and batted her lashes.
“How many carriages are actually needed for you lot?”
“Many!” Merry shrieked. Seconds later, her brother had tugged her back inside.
“Meredith, what have I told you about talking to strangers?” Dev drawled, riding up beside Harry.
“Cousin.” Harry nodded. “Thank you for the horse.”
“You’re welcome.”
“How did you know I’d actually come?”
“You promised, therefore you would. And I’m glad you did, Harry.”
He grunted something neither of them understood.
“Your grandmother visited us yesterday. I did invite her to accompany us also, but she declined due to the fact she had a shopping trip planned.”
“Grandmère was here?” He’d wondered why she hadn’t been in her hotel when he called.
“She said she liked loud and boisterous people and that we needed to encourage you to be part of our families so she could spend more time with us. She then added that our children could be better behaved, but as we have a castle, she will overlook that issue.”
“Now that, I can imagine her saying. I’m sorry if she inconvenienced you, Dev.”
He laughed. “I like her, as do the others. Besides, I doubt there is anything she could say that would inconvenience us, considering who we are.”
“You have a point. How is Maddie? I think it extremely callous of you to go out and leave her on her deathbed. I thought the illness was ravaging her and she was not eating and growing weaker every day?”
Dev showed nothing more than his usual calm facade. “Indeed, quite a remarkable recovery really. She woke this morning healed completely. Essie said it was a miracle.”
“Have you no shame, lying like that?” Harry sounded testy.
“I would never lie about such a thing.” Dev placed a hand on his chest. “Is your father not the most honorable person you know, Hannah?”
The girl blew her father a kiss. “No one is more honorable, Daddy.”
“To teach your children to lie on your behalf at such a young age is beneath you, my lord,” Harry said.
Dev laughed.
“Your women are all in one of the carriages farther to the front,” Dev said, waving a hand in that direction.
“As I have no women, I’m not sure who you could possibly mean.”
“You’ll beg my pardon, cousin, I seem to have that wrong then.”
He didn’t react to the smug look on Dev’s face and absolutely refused to move to where he knew Maddie and the girls were.
“Merry, take your hands from around your brother’s neck,” Dev said, leaning in the carriage window. “You shouldn’t allow her to do that, Mathew.”
“You try and stop her” came the muttered reply.
Harry moved away while Dev wasn’t looking.
He greeted various family members and their progeny as he walked his horse along the line of carriages.
“Cousin! This is a surprise,” Cam said. On his lap was Beth.
“I said I would come. You lot are entirely too manipulative and have absolutely no shame.” Harry glared at the smirking man.
“Everything we do, we do out of love, Harry.”
He wanted to reach in the window and smack that pious look off his cousin’s face.
“Next carriage, by the way.”
“Pardon?”
“Maddie, Daisy, and Fleur are in the next carriage,” Cam added.
“Daisy is coming. Is that wise?”
“She is blind, not ill, Harry. I’m sure Mr. Rolland’s Circus of Strange and Ridiculous Curiosities will not present her with too many difficulties. Her eyes are no longer infected. Essie believes that this is what has caused the blindness. The infection was severe and left untreated, the eyes deteriorated.
Harry didn’t reply, simply nudged his horse to the next carriage and dismounted. Looking in the open doorway, he found Maddie dressed in lavender with a matching darker spencer. His heart did not thud harder inside his chest at seeing her.
Seeing him, a smile lit her face, and he could do nothing to stop responding in kind. Beside her sat Daisy on one side and Fleur the other.
“Harry!” Fleur launched herself at him. “Daisy, it is Harry!”
The little girl he’d rescued three days ago from the Blythes was almost unrecognizable. She wore a white dress that matched Fleur’s. Her bonnet was pink, as were her cheeks. Healthy, Harry thought. In three days, she looked healthier. The tightness too had gone from her face. Her eyes still look puffy, but the redness had gone.
“Hello, Fleur.” He accepted the hug she gave him. “Hello, Daisy.”
The girl turned her head at his voice, and a small smile tilted her lips.
“Daisy is happy now, Harry, and Bran is her constant companion. She holds his fur, and he leads her around the house.”
“Does he now? Well, that is good to hear.”
“I love Bran,” Daisy said, still with that little smile on her face.
“Are you coming with us today?” Fleur asked him.
“I am.”
“Uncle Rory and Uncle Max and Uncle Nicholas could not come with us.”
“They must be devastated.” He saw Maddie smile at his words.
“Come and sit now, Fleur. We are about to leave,” she said. “We will see you soon, Harry.”
“Of course.” He mounted, and then let the carriages roll out before falling in behind the last with Wolf, Dev, and James, who also rode.
“Have you any more details on Maddie’s case?”
“None. It’s extremely frustrating,” James said. “But like Max and Rory, we don’t believe it is a case of mistaken identity. They knew her name, and she has not been here long enough to have become acquainted with anyone for that to happen. Therefore the conclusion is someone is trying to get at us through her. We’re just not sure why or who.”
“Do you think it could be someone who has followed her from France?”
“Why do you ask that?” It was Dev who questioned him.
“You know I saw her in Calais and gave her passage to London?”
They nodded.
“But at the time, I had a feeling she was desperate and maybe running from something. It was merely a hunch, but given what has happened, perhaps it is more than that.”
“No one has even considered that,” James said.
“We just thought that she came because there was nothing left for her in France after Jacques’s death. Although Max did mention briefly that their mother had shown up on Maddie’s doorstep.”
“And that was a bad thing?” Harry knew it could not have been good, as Fleur had told him how much her grandmother scared her, but he wanted to hear what the others knew.
“She’s an utter bitch.” James looked grim. “Did any number of atrocious things to her children. Maddie was grieving, and she took advantage of that weakne
ss. As yet, we’re not sure what happened, but what I know about that woman suggests it would not have been a happy time.”
Harry thought about that as they rode through the streets. To think of Maddie vulnerable and at the mercy of such a woman made him want to roar. Could this woman in some way be involved in what had happened here? It seemed farfetched, but something that would be looked into.
She wasn’t going to suffer again.
Chapter 27
Mr. Rolland’s Circus of Strange and Ridiculous Curiosities stood before them in all its tattered glory. Flags flew, and a faded sign hung over the door of the small wooden building through which a few people were wandering.
“Hold the hand of an adult if you are a child that comes to below my armpit,” Dev said. Mathew snickered as Merry stood on her toes and still did not reach the correct height. “No touching, pushing, or shrieking.”
“This particular lecture has remained unchanged since we brought Samantha, Warwick, Dorrie, and Somer here many years ago as children,” Cam said to Harry. “He’s a pompous prat.”
“Someone has to take charge of you lot, surely.”
“Harsh but true. Now I must hand out the sweets, Harry, so don’t try and distract me.”
He watched Cam distribute the treats to the children while he continued to listen to Dev’s lecture about behavior and how it was important they did not act like a pack of heathens. He then bent to speak with Daisy. She was pressed to Maddie’s side and must be nervous, as this was all so new to her.
“Are you all right, Daisy?”
She nodded.
“Are you enjoying your time with Fleur, Maddie, and the others?”
She nodded again.
“Shall I carry you now, until we get inside?”
“Yes, please.”
Harry picked her up. People were everywhere, and Daisy had no idea where she was, so that had to be terrifying. One of her arms went around his neck.
“Thank you for saving me, Harry.”
The words were whispered into his ear. That small, raspy voice made his heart melt.
“I love Maddie and Fleur and the others. They are all so kind to me. Bran is my special friend.”