“No; I came from the top.”
“What?” he repeated. “But the cover was only partially displaced – how in all the world did two of you manage to fall in?”
“I don’t know,” Letty admitted. “I don’t remember much between going out of the Castle and waking up lying on the palliasse. I pulled out some of the drier straw to make a bed for your mother. I think she is quite badly hurt and she was very cold, which is why I have tried to wrap her up in it.”
Archie had by this time reached his mother and dropped on to his good knee beside her. Holding the lantern aloft, he could see how neatly she was tucked into a bed of straw, with her head on a pillow of the same. He could also see, which, in the pitch dark, Letty had not been able to, that her face, in spite of Letty’s attempts to wipe it, was streaked in mud and that there was a large bruise beginning to form on one cheekbone.
“I’m not sure how I came to be here,” she said. “I rather think someone threw me down, probably because I saw him hit Letitia. I was coming out of the Castle on my way to bed when I noticed her crossing the courtyard in front of me. The next moment a man appeared from somewhere and ran at her. I saw him raise his fist. She fell at once and he picked her up, carried her to the oubliette and dropped her over the edge. I shouted at him as soon as I saw what he was about, but he took no notice. I thought he had not heard – the wind was quite strong by then – but then he came for me. I remember that, and I remember struggling against him. He was not as tall as you, Archibald, but much broader and exceedingly strong so that I knew I had no hope of fending him off. After that there is a gap until Letitia came to my aid. I suppose I must have fallen on to the palliasse too – and then rolled off – because, if I had not, I think I would have died at once. When I came to my senses, I was lying face down in the mud. I couldn’t move by myself, not even to get my face out of the mud, and it was Letitia who turned me over and she who cleared the mud from my mouth. Otherwise, I think I would have choked or been asphyxiated. I didn’t know she was there until she started shouting for help. She has been nothing short of a ministering angel – made up this bed for me, got me on to it and has been sitting beside me listening to my ramblings. Can we get out, do you think?”
“Of course we can. I did not know you were missing, Mama. I thought you had gone to bed.”
Lord Archibald held his mother’s hand while Letty leaned against him and held his other, damaged one.
Meanwhile the Earl and Aspasia, together with several menservants, had made their way down the backstairs into the labyrinth of dungeons and wine cellars which lay beneath the Castle.
The Earl unerringly led them through the twisting passages, interspersed with large caverns, until they reached an iron door.
“This is the way Archibald and I used to come in as boys,” he said, extracting a huge key from his pocket. “Last time we were here, about twenty years ago, the lock had rusted so I am doubtful whether I will be able to open it.”
He fitted the key in place and tried to turn it but, as expected, nothing moved. One of the servants proffered a jar of oil which he applied liberally to both key and keyhole.
“I suppose if we cannot get the lock to work we will have to shoot it out,” he said, trying the key once more.
Failing, he banged upon the door and shouted through the rusted keyhole, “Letty!”
Receiving no answer, he ordered one of the servants to fetch an iron bar with which he began to belabour the door.
Inside the dungeon they were still talking about the man whom the Dowager had seen and speculating, not only upon his identity, but also upon his motive for throwing two women down an oubliette, when they heard the noise.
Lord Archibald, more familiar with the dungeon as well as having some idea of what the rest of the party was doing, realised what was going on and, picking up the lantern, played its light around the walls until he picked out the door.
“It’s Frederick!” he said, before shouting, “She’s here – alive – and Mama is here as well – also alive! We’re having quite a party, but you need not try to break the door. I came down by rope from the top and will send the ladies up the same way.”
The Earl enquired whether either was hurt and, on being informed that they were but not, Archie thought, seriously, Stonegate expressed relief, although it did not take him long to wonder how his brother proposed to attach either woman to the rope with one hand.
“You will have to go back up,” the Earl said, “and I will come down in your stead.”
“I cannot leave them alone again,” Archie protested.
“No,” Stonegate agreed, after looking interrogatively at Aspasia and seeing her shake her head. “Better not. Stay there and I’ll come down too. The party should be even more lively then.”
It was an appreciable time before anyone else arrived and it proved not to be the Earl but Captain Sharpthorne, who had pointed out that he was younger, fitter and had not recently been laid low by a mystery illness. An additional length of rope had had to be found and attached to the cannon before he could be lowered, armed with another lantern, into the mud. Since Lord Archibald was already strapped up and ready for lifting, Sharpthorne insisted he go first, assuring him that the ladies would be quite safe with him.
“When you get to the top, you can take off the ropes and send them down for me to attach to her ladyship and, when she’s safely arrived, you can send them down again for Miss Denton.”
Archie reluctantly agreed to this plan, kissed his mother and Letty, tugged three times on the rope and, leaving his lantern on the floor to provide additional illumination, allowed himself to be hauled up again.
When the ropes returned, it took Lord Sharpthorne some time to bind them around Lady Stonegate as she appeared not only to be exceedingly frail but also very badly hurt. Whenever he touched her she cried out in pain but, with Letty’s encouragement, she submitted to the indignity of being ‘trussed like a chicken’, as she put it, and was eventually pulled up to the surface.
“If I don’t survive the ordeal,” she said as the ascent began, “pray do not forget, Letitia, how enormously I appreciate everything you have done for me. You are a very angel, as I told Archibald, and I sincerely hope you will soon be my daughter-in-law – whichever of my sons you choose.”
“Thank you, my lady,” Letty said at once, kissing her and watching anxiously as the straw-bedecked bundle disappeared on its swaying way up the shaft.
“I don’t know whether she will survive long,” the Captain confided when he judged the old lady to be out of earshot. “She is badly hurt and much shocked. I’m surprised her heart hasn’t given out already.”
“She is made of stern stuff,” Letty said with a smile.
“Indeed! Which of her sons have you chosen?”
“Why, Archie of course, if he will have me!”
“I’m glad to hear it after witnessing the fond farewell between you. I hope – indeed I am certain – you will be very happy.”
“And my aunt will marry Lord Stonegate,” Letty told him.
“Is she not already married?”
“I think on reflection probably not,” Letty said, adding, as she remembered Colonel Mott-Ripley’s peculiar behaviour upon arrival, “Do you know I have a suspicion I know who threw me down here? I rather think he mistook me for her – he did so when he came in.”
She retailed this theory to Lord Stonegate and her aunt as soon as she reached the surface.
“Good God!” Aspasia exclaimed, horrified. “I suppose he wanted to obliterate the evidence, hoping no one would know he was a bigamist if his second – false - wife vanished.”
“He must be found at once,” the Earl said and sent the servants on another quest, this time to search for the Colonel.
Chapter 38
Dr Stone, roused from his bed to attend two women who had fallen from a height, put on his clothes with a sigh and made his way to the Castle.
Sent first to attend to the Dowager, he fou
nd her with a broken hip, leg and arm together with extensive bruising to the face. He was surprised she had survived the fall and did not think her likely to live for much longer, but he bound up her injuries as best he could and dosed her liberally with laudanum.
“She is unlikely to walk again, if she lives,” he told the brothers.
“She has a strong will,” the Earl said.
“Even the human will cannot defy death for ever,” the doctor said, “but she may rally.”
The Countess was already falling asleep under the influence of the laudanum when Lord Archibald went back into her room.
“Dearest Mama,” he said, taking her hand and kissing it. “You are to be applauded for surviving such a fall.”
“I would not have done if your Letitia had not been with me. Dearest Archibald, marry her at once and don’t allow Frederick to have her. She loves you and, in spite of her immaturity, is an admirable young woman. I shall die happy knowing that you have such an excellent wife.”
“You are not going to die for a long time,” he told her. “I insist upon your living at least until you are able to hold your first grandchild in your arms.”
“I will try, if you want me to,” she murmured with unusual gentleness. “Go to her now,” she added and fell asleep.
Letty, it turned out, had broken an arm and an ankle. She had two enormous bruises where she had been hit, one on the side of her neck and the other on her jaw. Dr Stone put a splint on her arm and suggested she support it in a sling until it had mended. He also bound up her ankle as tightly as possible.
“She must not attempt to walk until it is healed,” he said. “We do not want it to mend crooked.”
“No,” Aspasia agreed, thinking how sad it would be if, having only just learned to dance, Letty would be unable to do so again.
When Lord Archibald had managed to drag himself down the stairs from his mother’s chamber, across the courtyard and up the stairs to Letty’s room, Aspasia left them together.
The next morning, leaving Letty in bed, Aspasia went downstairs where she found Lord Stonegate eating breakfast in the small dining room with the soldiers.
Major Fielding, on being told the extent of Letty’s injuries, said, “Have you any idea who could have been behind her fall? I assume, having seen the way the oubliette was covered as well as the raised wall around it, that it would be almost impossible to fall in without human agency?”
She nodded and looked at the Earl, who said, “We have only discussed the identity of the scoundrel in general terms.”
“Someone who attended the ball or who slipped in when the drawbridge was down and hid in the grounds until his quarry appeared on her own?” the Major suggested. “But who in the world would want to hurt Miss Denton?”
“I am much afraid that the scoundrel mistook my niece for me,” Aspasia said gravely. “And I have a strong suspicion that I know who he is – although I suppose it is possible that I am jumping to conclusions without much evidence. The truth is that I cannot see why anyone might want to kill Letty – and I am fairly certain that death was what he had in mind; on the other hand, I do not have to look far to identify someone who very much wanted me dead.”
“Good God!”
“Indeed. You may remember that I told you my husband had been missing for some years. His lordship invited Colonel Mott-Ripley to the ball in the hope that he might be able to shed some light on Mr Ripley’s whereabouts. It turned out that he was not so much distantly related to the man I believed to be my husband, he was that man! When he was introduced to Letty he gave himself away by turning almost grey with shock; she looks very like I did at that age and of course bears the same name.”
“Good God!” the Major exclaimed again. “Do you tell me the man had two wives at the same time?”
“Yes, although of course, legally, he has only ever had one. He married me bigamously which, I understand, means that I was never truly married and have – never have had – the right to style myself Mrs Ripley. I own I am glad of that, now that I have some inkling of the truth, for the name Ripley has become quite odious to me.”
“By Jupiter!” the Major exclaimed, beginning to run out of suitable expletives. “I am so sorry to hear it – to hear that you have been so deceived, Mrs – Miss Denton. It must have been a grievous shock to discover, not only that the man still lived, but to unravel at the same time the whole horrifying story. You have my commiserations.”
“Thank you. I own it has been a shock. And then, on top of that discovery, to learn that my niece had been assaulted – knocked senseless before being thrown into the oubliette – has been the most lowering experience. I cannot, of course, be certain, but I am very much afraid that the man to whom I entrusted my heart and who promised to take care of me for the rest of my natural life attempted to kill me – and, confusing me and Letty, as he did when he first came into the Castle, very nearly did kill Lady Stonegate and my niece.”
“It is a terrible thing to discover,” the Major agreed, getting up and patting her arm awkwardly. “What will you do now?”
Aspasia, beginning to wilt beneath the Major’s kindly concern and not altogether certain of where she stood with the Earl, cast his lordship an imploring glance and took refuge in her glass of lemonade.
“We will apply to the authorities to have the marriage annulled,” Stonegate said, “upon which Miss Denton has agreed to become my wife.”
“Miss Denton?” Lord Sharpthorne and Major Fielding uttered the name almost simultaneously, plainly confused.
The Earl smiled. “The young woman to whom you were originally introduced is in fact Miss Letitia Denton,” he explained. “This lady is Miss Denton – and I very much hope she will soon be Lady Stonegate.”
Aspasia blushed and the soldiers, still somewhat embarrassed but clearly pleased that it looked as though most of the irregularities, of which they had only just learned, would soon be straightened out, hastened to offer their congratulations.
“I expect you are wondering about my betrothal to Miss Letitia Denton,” the Earl went on smoothly. “I understand she has decided to marry my brother when they are able to hobble down the aisle together. She will, of course, become Lady Archibald Meridew at that point.”
“By all that’s wonderful!” the Major exclaimed joyfully, clearly glad to be able to use a phrase expressing delight as opposed to horror. “Everything is turning out well after all. And I understand the Dowager Lady Stonegate is on the mend too?”
The Earl looked grave but said, “I hope she may be but, at her age, recovery is unlikely to be complete. However, she is conscious and eager to identify the would-be assassin if we can lay our hands upon him.”
“Yes, what is being done about that?” the Major asked. “As you know, Miss Denton, Sharpthorne and I are due back with our regiment in the next few days and had been intending to leave tomorrow – well now, I suppose, today. We decided, before you joined us, that we would remain for another day in the hope that, between us, we can lay the assailant by the heels.”
“I have informed the magistrate of the event and given him a hint as to our idea of the identity of the culprit,” Stonegate said. “He has assured me that he will send word at once to Bow Street to get the runners on to the matter.
“While you were upstairs with Letty,” he went on to Aspasia, “I rode over to Colonel Mott-Ripley’s residence where, not at all to my surprise, I was informed that he had been called away on urgent business. I requested an audience with Mrs Mott-Ripley who, you may be surprised to hear, consented to receive me.
“I do not know – and did not ask – how much she knows of her husband’s conduct, but she seemed agitated and unhappy. She claimed not to know where he had gone or when he intended to return. Indeed, my impression was that she did not expect him in the near future, if at all. As I was speaking to her, her son came in and, while attempting to soothe his mother, told me that he would look after her – and his sister – and that I was not to blame m
yself for his father’s peculiar manner last night. He explained that, his father seeming so exceedingly unwell almost as soon as he set foot in the Castle, they had returned home immediately.
“I asked if the Colonel had remained at home all evening and the boy, who cannot be more than twenty, blushed uncomfortably and said that, as far as he knew, he had taken to his bed and remained there.
“I pointed out that he did not seem to be there at present, at which Mrs Mott-Ripley admitted that her husband had disappeared as soon as they set foot in their own house. She had tried to offer him succour since he seemed so unwell and had suggested calling the doctor, but he had at once dismissed the suggestion and left the room, she assumed for his bed. However, she admitted that he had not appeared for breakfast this morning and, when she sent his valet to check upon him, was reported not to be in his room.
“I suspect he went out again as soon as he had delivered his family to their home, moved the cover off the top of the oubliette and lay in wait for Miss Denton. When a female he had already mistaken for his second wife appeared, he lost no time in attempting to dispose of her before she could report the bigamous marriage, which would undoubtedly finish his military career.”
“Would he have been able to move the cover by himself?” Aspasia asked. “It took four men to lift it off when we were searching for Letty.”
“He is a strong man – and he did not in fact remove it, merely pushed it to one side.”
“I suppose Lady Stonegate saw him,” the Major said.
“Yes; she says she saw him hit Letitia and shouted at him to desist. It was that which led him to attempt to kill her too. I don’t think he bothered to knock her out; she was frail enough for it to be only too easy just to pick her up and push her through the gap.”
The soldiers, horrified by this cavalier attitude towards an old lady, expressed a wish to visit her ladyship.
Letitia Or The Convalescent Heart Page 32