Righteous Rumours (The Hero Next Door Series Book 4)

by Rebecca King

  ‘But you still went to tell Wardle about Sminter’s death,’ Joshua prompted.

  ‘Yes, because Sminter and Wardle used to be friends. They worked together a lot, I suppose because of the nature of their business, although from what I hear from the locals Wardle never used to arrest people in this area.’

  ‘No, because most of the crimes committed in this area were probably committed by his friend, Lynchgate,’ Roger snorted. He nodded to the book in his hands. ‘Might I take this with me to read later?’

  ‘Of course. I am sure father will be more than pleased to be of assistance.’ Geranium tensed when she sensed the men’s hesitance. She knew what they were going to suggest before Roger even opened his mouth and was already shaking her head to reject his offer.

  ‘Well then, if you are sure you are going to be all right by yourself, we will take our leave of you,’ Roger announced. ‘Joshua will fix the lock. Just make sure you lock the rest of the house up tightly. In fact, I will go and check to make sure nobody is hiding in here. Please lock your shutters and keep the doors locked as well as bolted. We will keep watch over the back of the house so please, if you see someone lurking at the end of your garden, don’t be alarmed. It is just us. We will make sure that Lynchgate doesn’t come near you again but can do it safely from outside and without having to disturb you anymore. Meantime, if there is anything else you can remember about Sminter, Wardle, or Lynchgate, then please write it down.’ Roger grinned. ‘Preferably not in lemon juice, though.’

  Geranium waited while the men searched the house. She wasn’t at all sure how she felt about being left alone but was relieved when they had finished searching every nook and cranny and deemed the house secure. The men even went to the trouble of locking the shutters at the front of the house for her and asking when the staff returned which way they would return from. When they had all the pertinent information for their nightly watch, they took their leave of her, leaving a bemused Geranium to her thoughts.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The following Sunday, Geranium reluctantly donned her cloak and tugged on her gloves. Beside her, Kitty hovered uncertainly, clearly worried about something.

  ‘Miss, are you sure you should be going? Everyone will understand if you don’t go seeing as your parents are not here,’ she muttered, glancing fretfully at the front door.

  ‘Kitty, if you know something about why I should not go then please tell me,’ Geranium sighed. ‘Well?’ she asked when a heavy silence fell behind her. ‘I have warned you about listening to scurrilous gossip. I have done nothing wrong, nor do I have anything to hide. If people are talking, I don’t see why. Judge Sminter’s death has nothing to do with me.’

  ‘Well, I know that miss, but everyone is talking about those strangers who have turned up,’ Kitty said. ‘Don’t you think it is odd that they turn up and the judge dies, and that Mr Wardle, the magistrate, disappears?’

  ‘Maybe Mr Wardle killed the judge? I mean, they do work together. Who is to say that they haven’t fallen out?’ Geranium suggested, lifting her brows and looking askance at Kitty. Her maid looked shocked.

  ‘Mr Wardle wouldn’t do that,’ Kitty protested. ‘He was a magistrate.’

  ‘He is also a man, Kitty. A man who deals with criminals every day of his life. I can assure you that he is as fallible and human as everyone else. Until Mr Wardle can be found, nobody is going to know if he killed Judge Sminter or not. I mean, I know it looks odd about the strangers turning up on the same day that the local judge kills himself, but it looks even more unusual that the magistrate goes missing shortly after, don’t you think?’ Geranium asked pointedly.

  She swept out of the house leaving her maid staring thoughtfully at the floor while she contemplated that. Inwardly, Geranium was more than a little worried that Kitty had heard some scurrilous gossip and was secretly trying to warn her about it before she went to church.

  But I have done nothing wrong so see no reason why I should cower inside like a frightened animal. Besides, if I spend any more time cooped up in the house I am going to go out of my mind with boredom.

  Squaring her shoulders, Geranium determinedly hurried toward church, and quickly joined the masses of locals already making their way into the churchyard. Over their heads, church bells pealed a rhythmic tune, summoning the flock to the service. Geranium nodded to several people she passed. A deep sense of disquiet settled over her when one or two nodded in return, but others merely stared at her as if they had never seen her before or didn’t want to associate with her.

  By the time she reached the church door she felt eyes boring into her back and felt a worrying sense of being isolated. Mr Renton, a kindly neighbour seated across the aisle, nodded thoughtfully at her but he didn’t smile or take her hand for a familiar greeting like he usually would. Mr Muldover, another gentleman neighbour who had assured her parents that he would keep an eye on the house for them slid a look at her but quickly coughed and looked away again, clearly not interested in exchanging pleasantries. Geranium knew then that gossip was being spread about her and that was before she looked at the village’s most spitefully notorious gossips and avid Christian worshippers, Mr and Mrs Unwin. As she passed their pew, Mrs Unwin tipped her nose up and glared spitefully at her a little like a crow would stare at its prey with a beady eye. The sheer displeasure on Mrs Unwin’s face left Geranium in no doubt about who was responsible for the gossip. Unfortunately, there was nobody in the church she could ask about what was being said. Her good friend, Daisy, wasn’t in church today on account of her having gone away to visit relatives.

  So here I am, all alone facing spiteful gossips, a murderer, and the Star Elite. Great. Wonderful. Can this get any worse?

  It did indeed get worse. As she sat waiting for the service to begin, Geranium was aware of people whispering behind her. Once or twice, she heard her name being mentioned. She refused to look over her shoulder, and kept her gaze focused on the hymn book in her hand, but was physically shaking with dread by the time the first notes of the organ music filtered through the church marking the singing of the first hymn. Thankfully, the service distracted her, but there was no escaping the gossips she had to face as she left.

  ‘Well, I never. The sheer brazenness of it, I ask you,’ one woman hissed as Geranium left the church an hour or so later.

  Geranium boldly met the woman’s gaze and watched her turn away, whether through guilt at being overheard or dislike, Geranium didn’t care. Tipping her chin up defiantly, she eyed Mr and Mrs Unwin standing like sentries beside the church gate. She had no idea if they were waiting to accost her but knew that Mrs Unwin was the kind of spiteful woman who would have no qualms about telling her how she had strayed off the path of decency. Rather than waste her time trying to speak with anybody else, Geranium focused on leaving. Unsurprisingly, she got no further than the gate when Mrs Unwin unleashed her scorn.

  ‘I don’t know what you think you are doing bringing scandal to this village, but you should know better Miss Snetterton,’ Mrs Unwin began.

  ‘I beg your pardon?’ Geranium, who would normally do everything she could to avoid confrontation, squared her shoulders. After what she had been through over the last few days, she saw Mrs Unwin as nothing more than a spiteful irritant. She knew that Mrs Unwin’s voice had been deliberately pitched loud enough for the lingering congregation to hear. Geranium glared at them all. She didn’t care what anybody thought. They clearly had no respect for her if they readily believed spiteful lies about her, so there was no reason why she had to curb her words.

  ‘Your mother will have a conniption when she finds out how far you have strayed off the path of decency with your scandalous ways. Why, it’s positively heathen and not how you have been raised to behave.’

  ‘How would you know?’ Geranium challenged. ‘I don’t believe you and Mr Unwin have ever raised children. How are you in any position to criticise someone else’s child rearing?’

  ‘Your parents are decent, God fearing
people,’ Mrs Unwin screeched.

  ‘Yes, and so should you be. You should know better than to cast aspersions on someone’s good name purely to claim the path of righteousness as yours. I do believe that there is a deadly sin that one should never covet thy neighbour’s ass. I don’t see why my behaviour should concern you, or anybody else for that matter. I have done nothing wrong. In fact, I have spent the last several days inside my house, minding my own business and haven’t seen or spoken to another living soul except for Kitty and Rupert. If you find that scandalous then I suggest you consider your own haste to scorn others for what you think you know before you go about condemning other people.’

  Geranium turned to leave only to stop when Mrs Unwin raised her voice again.

  ‘I know you have been cavorting with those men; the strangers who turned up in the village the other day,’ Mrs Unwin sneered. ‘Why, they have been coming and going from your house at all hours of the day and night. Mr Renton saw one of them march out of your front door at eleven o’clock the other night. Why, it’s positively scandalous.’

  Behind her, murmurs of shock and dismay rippled through the crowd.

  ‘That’s enough, Mrs Unwin,’ the vicar intervened. ‘The churchyard is not the place for casting aspersions on anybody. I am sure that Geranium has a good reason for it, don’t you?’

  Geranium stared at the malice in Mrs Unwin’s eyes and knew that nothing she said would appease the spiteful old woman, nor that of her arrogant husband beside her. Further, the congregation were all waiting as if they had every right to an explanation.

  ‘I don’t see why I should have to explain my behaviour to anybody. What goes on in my home is nothing to do with any of you.’

  ‘It does include us when you sully the neighbourhood with your scandalous ways,’ Mrs Unwin sniped.

  ‘How dare you slander me because you have seen someone leave my house late at night without having the decency of finding out why he was there in the first place?’ Geranium snapped. Her voice rose with the force of her fury in such an uncharacteristic manner the entire churchyard fell silent. ‘Might I remind you that in Mark 7:20-23 it says; ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.’ Geranium stepped closer when Mrs Unwin gasped. ‘You know nothing about what has happened to me since my parents have been away. I suggest that before any of you use the house of God to slander any more innocent people you cease your righteous rumours and start to contemplate your own neighbourliness. I have done nothing wrong. For your information that gentleman you seem so keen to slander, is one of the Star Elite. You might have heard of them, Unwin. They are the men who are fighting criminals, one of which I found to be in my house when I returned from town the other day. But I don’t suppose you saw that thief break into my house and lie in wait for me, did you? You were probably too busy spreading your righteous rumours about me! Now, if you are foolish enough to try to slander the men of the Star Elite then you and your flock here can do so. However, I am not under any obligation to explain any of my so-called scandalous behaviour to anybody who behaves as hypocritically self-righteous as you!’ Geranium sucked in a breath and in a much calmer voice turned to the clergyman and said: ‘Good day, vicar. Lovely service.’

  With that, Geranium marched out of the churchyard and stalked down the street. She was so annoyed she was physically shaking and ignored the people who darted out of her way to clear her path. She didn’t slow down – until Ronan grabbed her by the elbow and hauled her to a stop at the end of her street.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ he demanded.

  Geranium stared at him through her tears. She hoped and prayed that Mrs Unwin was back at the churchyard still criticising her for being so bold as to speak so freely because if she saw Ronan talking to her, Geranium knew she would never hear the last of it.

  Sucking in a fortifying breath, Geranium studied the man before her; the man who had turned her entire life upside down. In only a few short days her entire world had changed. She had changed, and now, she wasn’t at all sure what to think, what to expect from life. What she wanted was for the peace and normality of her old life to resume but she knew that wouldn’t ever be possible in this village now. When her parents did return from their travels, they would be informed of everything that had happened by the gossips and would be mortified. Further, they would most probably never allow Geranium to remain at home by herself again.

  But I cannot live under my parent’s roof all my life. I need to have a life of my own, but somehow find one which doesn’t involve having to marry first.

  ‘People are talking. You are being watched,’ Geranium whispered.

  ‘Good,’ Ronan growled. ‘We want Lynchgate to know that we are here. Have you seen him?’

  Geranium shook her head. ‘I am afraid that in my haste I told the congregation who you are. They know you are Star Elite.’

  Ronan wondered if this was what had upset her so much and offered her a reassuring smile. ‘It is not a problem. We have been faced with worse situations. It just means that we are more likely to be watched, that’s all. People, those who wish to help, will try to do so if they see us loitering somewhere, but often then find themselves dragged into our investigations and that is the last thing we need.’

  ‘Like me,’ Geranium whispered. She knew she was the last thing Ronan needed on both a private and professional level. Her heart broke a little when he confirmed it.

  ‘Like you,’ he acknowledged softly.

  ‘I need to get home,’ Geranium said after a moment. She wanted to ask him how his investigation was going, and if they had found any secret messages. However, she also knew how offensive he found her questions to be and that he wouldn’t answer them. Consequently, as he studied her, clearly waiting for something, a lengthy and awkward silence fell between them. Reluctantly, Geranium stepped back and offered him a half-hearted smile before side-stepping around him.

  ‘Geranium?’

  Geranium sighed when she heard Mr Muldover call her name, but reluctantly turned to glare at her neighbour, who smiled awkwardly at Ronan and doffed his cap as he sidled past him to reach her.

  ‘Are you all right? Is your house secure?’

  ‘It is now,’ Ronan growled with a heavy scowl.

  Mr Muldover turned to look at him. ‘Are you one of them? Are you here because of Sminter?’

  ‘Do you think he killed himself?’ Ronan asked without preamble. He usually wouldn’t be so blunt, but on this occasion didn’t see any reason to restrain his questions given the man was being so bold as to talk without introducing himself.

  ‘No. No, I don’t,’ Mr Muldover muttered. ‘The man was an arrogant oaf but wasn’t the type to take his own life. He wouldn’t be that defeatist.’

  ‘That’s what we think, but you are not to say so to anybody else. Do you know Lynchgate?’ Ronan asked, stepping closer to the startled looking neighbour.

  Mr Muldover threw Geranium a worried look. ‘How did you get involved in all of this?’

  ‘I saw the Star Elite arrive but didn’t know who they were at the time,’ Geranium explained. ‘When I saw him watching Judge Sminter’s house, I went to warn the judge.’ Her breath hitched.

  ‘She found him,’ Ronan finished for her. ‘We found her when she screamed.’

  ‘Good Lord,’ Mr Muldover breathed.

  ‘Moreover, Geranium was the last one to see Mr Wardle before he disappeared. Lynchgate is our main suspect for both Sminter’s death and Wardle’s disappearance, so if you see him come to Mr Quinton’s house. That is our base, but otherwise don’t come near the place.’ Ronan lifted his jacket away from the side of his body to reveal his weapon. ‘We are all armed and working to find Lynchgate so please, keep an eye out for him, but don’t go alerting the neighbours to any of this. It is best that everyone carries on as normal.’

>   ‘There is gossip,’ Mr Muldover murmured, throwing a worried look at Geranium. ‘You know what the Unwins are like.’

  Geranium did indeed. To her surprise, Mr Muldover suddenly grinned.

  ‘I don’t think Mrs Unwin has ever been spoken to like that before. Several of the villagers walked straight past her without looking at her, including some of her friends. The vicar warned her about casting aspersions and returned to his church and was openly furious with her. The whole village is talking about it. It serves the damned woman right if she is cast out of the society she covets.’

  Ronan listened with interest and knew then that Geranium had met with a lot of scurrilous gossip from the locals. ‘Which one is the Unwins’ house?’

  ‘Are you going to see them?’ Mr Muldover asked.

  ‘No, but if I see someone break in, I might just give them a leg up,’ Ronan growled in disgust.

  Mr Muldover chuckled. ‘Well, it is a mighty relief to know that the Star Elite are here, I will tell you that much. Villagers in places like this are wary of strangers. It will help everyone to stop being suspicious if they know who you are.’

  ‘Is it a relief, though?’ Geranium asked. ‘I mean, the Star Elite might be here, but they don’t take up residence in villages like this without good reason. Their presence in a village like this means that danger lurks amongst us, don’t you think?’

  ‘Aye, but they haven’t lost a man yet, have they?’ Mr Muldover challenged. He waved at Ronan. ‘Like the man said, the best thing we can do is go about our business as we usually would and leave the investigating to them.’

  ‘I have been trying. Believe me when I tell you that if I had the choice again, I wouldn’t go to tell Judge Sminter that someone was watching his house. How was I supposed to know what trouble the man was in? That someone had killed him? I didn’t ask for any of this.’ When Geranium heard her voice rising, she sucked in a deep, fortifying breath and willed herself to calm down.