The Baron & the Clockmaker's Daughter

by Suzy Stewart Dubot

  Chapter 12

  Until the day that Irene disappeared…

  If it had happened a year before, a month before, things would have continued to be all right, but now there was someone who felt her loss. In fact, her disappearance had left a void for everyone. Whatever one thought about her, she did impose a presence that was hard to ignore. There was also the mysterious way in which she had upped and gone. She had left everything behind (including her maid) and no word of her reason for leaving.

  Jasper was frankly disconcerted. They had arrived at an ‘entente’ that he enjoyed. There was no sex involved, yet, unless passionate kisses and fondling counted. He was absolutely certain that something bad had happened, because he didn’t think she would have gone without giving the slightest indication of her intentions.

  He cornered Quentin as he was leaving the library. He backed him into it and got him to sit while he voiced his concerns, pacing back and forth. It hadn’t really been necessary, because Quentin was already uneasy about the circumstances. They agreed that they had to take some action.

  It started by calling all the staff into a meeting to ask if anyone had noticed anything out of the ordinary. They tried to establish the last person to have seen her and where they had been. The only thing out of the ordinary was a gypsy who had come to the kitchen asking if any knives needed sharpening or replacing. This had happened before with a different band of gypsies, but there was no particular time lapse between bands passing.

  Millie said that she’d always had trouble understanding their accent and words, but this time had been worse, although that didn’t mean they were more suspicious than usual. They’d been the day before Irene had disappeared.

  The maid, Rose, had seen Irene in the garden chasing after Wizz who had one of her slippers in his mouth. Everyone knew that the last thing to do was to chase him, because he ran all the faster. One only had to say in a loud voice ‘drop it, Wizz.’ and he would. Nothing else unusual had been seen to happen.

  So all they knew was that she had last been seen a full day ago. Her maid, Jane, said that Irene had given her instructions to not disturb her until she called, as she had the headache. Chasing after a young dog would give one the headache, they all agreed.

  The next step was for them to search her room for elements that might give a clue. Jasper and Quentin didn’t waste any time. Jane went with them to show where Irene kept her different belongings and then she was dismissed to wait outside the door. Quentin and Jasper began a systematic search.

  Jasper went through all the drawers of the different pieces of furniture without finding anything of any interest (except she had some lovely underclothes and garters — Italian, of course).

  Quentin searched in her wardrobe trunk that had been emptied. It was quite an impressive piece, apparently made of exotic wood with brass hinges, brass reinforcements on the sides and brass corners. Each end had brass handles that folded flat into the trunk to allow it to stand on its end. As it stood open, he examined all the beautifully tooled wooden drawers that were on the right-hand side. They were empty. He opened the different wooden compartments on the left-hand side. There he found padded places to hold toiletries in place so they wouldn’t move if the trunk was shifted roughly. Other compartments were for holding gloves, shawls, slippers and a selection of shoes. The trunk was to hold the basic necessities while travelling to avoid opening several different trunks or chests.

  He re-examined the drawers because it seemed to him that the bottom one was shallower than the others. As the drawer pulled out, he saw that it had an overhang making it look the same as the others from the front but in fact it allowed for a secret compartment in the trunk itself. Having completely removed the drawer he began to feel all around the vacant space it had left. He discovered that it was a sliding piece of wood that came forward to uncover an area with letters hidden in it.

  They probably had nothing to do with Irene’s disappearance, but everything they found had to be considered. Quentin showed Jasper before putting them aside and continuing to search. Her jewellery box revealed some exquisite gems, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, rings and pins. He was sure that they weren’t paste, which meant that she wasn’t short of money if she needed it. Having found one secret compartment, he verified carefully that there wasn’t one in the box. He found nothing.

  Jasper hadn’t found anything in particular. He’d even lifted the mattress to check on all sides. They were very thorough, running fingers around ledges, moving curtains, lifting rugs and turning vases upside down. After an hour of looking, nothing more surfaced.

  They began to look at the letters which were written on heavy, expensive paper. They were in Italian and signed ‘D’. Quentin was fluent in French but he could only guess at Italian. Jasper was a little more acquainted with the language having often spent time there in his youth. They sat. Quentin waited as Jasper tried to decipher the writing and the words. After some time, Jasper breathed out heavily.

  “This has to be connected,” Jasper stated firmly. “Perhaps we should ask Jane if she reads Italian? We can also question her about what I suspect,” he suggested.

  They asked her to enter and to have a seat. Jasper began, “We are really very worried for your mistress, Jane. Do you read Italian?”

  Jane looked a bit startled.

  “No, sir. I have enough trouble with English.”

  “We found some of your mistress’s correspondence which is written in Italian. From what I can understand, they come from someone whose initial is D. Do you know who that would be?” Jasper questioned.

  Jane looked down hastily, but not before they had both seen her face redden. She was fidgeting with her hands too, which gave the impression that she was nervous. Quentin took over.

  “It is obvious that you aware of something, Jane. I’d advise you to tell us all you know. It will go better for you. We can always get someone else to corroborate what is in these letters, but we will be losing time. We need you to tell us all you know, now.”

  He couldn’t see her softening at all, so he added, “The constable in St Albans will not be happy if he finds you have been withholding information.”

  “Not the constable, sir!” She replied so hastily that they knew that she was wary of the law and those who represented it.

  “There isn’t much to tell. My mistress made me swear that I wouldn’t talk about our time on the continent… She’s bound to dismiss me if I talk at all.”

  “This may be a matter of life or death, girl,” shouted Jasper.

  It was no show. He was seriously worried. He was also frustrated by the time that was being wasted.

  Jane began sobbing, so Jasper handed her his handkerchief.

  She managed to stammer out that ‘D’ was the initial for Count Damiano Cuda, Madam’s lover in Sorrento. Jasper looked at Quentin with a very pessimistic expression on his face. Then he turned to Jane and said she might go. She quickly got up to go to the door, and then remembered she was holding Jasper’s handkerchief, which she tried to give back to him. He only needed to give it the briefest of glances to know he didn’t fancy it in its soggy state, so gestured for her to keep it. She left without another word.

  Jasper began to explain what he had gleaned from the letters.

  The last letter, which he had read first, had been sent to Irene, care of her solicitors in London. She must have stopped there on her way to Marshalswick to collect all the letters, papers and miscellaneous information that had accumulated in her absence. She had probably wanted to give a new forwarding address too. Jasper began to tell Quentin the general contents of the last couple of letters he had perused. He could only surmise what must have happened.

  “It seems to me that Irene decided she didn’t want to remain with this Count Cuda for whatever reason. It doesn’t say why in the letters that I can see. However, the letters are threatening her saying that if she doesn’t return immediately, he will send someone to get her. No one leaves without hi
s permission. If she makes him angry, she will regret it bitterly… They were practically death threats.” Jasper finished in a tone that showed he was furious as well as being disturbed.

  “I do not believe that Irene would have left without her jewels. In point of fact, she disappeared in only the clothes she was wearing, so I suspect that she has been taken,” Quentin offered his opinion.

  “It may be that she came to us here as the ‘Count’ already knew where she had lived with Jeremy and the children. Perhaps she hoped he wouldn’t know or suspect that she was with me at Marshalswick House. That would explain quite a lot,” Quentin said.

  “So what do you think we should do now, Jasper? I’m convinced she’s been abducted.”

  Jasper was looking very abstractedly at the carpet as he thought. It didn’t show, but he was seething inside. He might not have had honourable intentions towards Irene when he’d first arrived in Marshalswick, but his feelings had somewhat shifted since then. He did not want to think of anyone else having her. Whatever happened, he was not going to let her be taken against her will. His dishonourable game with her was only that — a game. He would never have forced her to do something against her will. The challenge was to win her over, make her want him. There was no possible way that he was going to give her up, unless he was convinced that that was what she wanted.

  “We have to go to St Albans and inform the constable,” Quentin said.

  “I have a gut feeling that the gypsy who came, whether he was a real one or not, is involved. It is the only unusual occurrence this past week. I am going to get my men to go out and question all the tenants and neighbours in the area as someone else may have valuable information without knowing it.”

  Quentin was determined to try his best for the children’s sake.

  Jasper agreed with the actions Quentin had proposed. They got all the men together to give them instructions before sending them out in pairs. It was safer and if they got a lead, one of them could return with the information while the other followed at a distance. Quentin asked that they all return home by six in the evening so they could go over any information they had collected. The quicker they could move on any leads, the more chance they had of finding Irene before she disappeared in the greater world. He made sure that they all knew that it might be dangerous and no one was to take any chances as it would be better to join forces before taking action. They were also asked to be discrete in their enquiries. They disbanded to get their mounts.

  Before leaving for St Albans, Quentin told Faith the basic elements, and she naturally put her arms around him, with her head on his chest, asking him to be careful.

  Constable Stephenson was an alderman in St Albans. He usually dealt with problems of unruly behaviour, disputes arising between neighbours and various other minor disturbances. He hadn’t had to deal with something as important as an abduction — ever. Consequently, he was only too happy to listen to the suggestions put forward by two noblemen who appeared to know what they were doing.

  Jasper had related, on his honour, the contents of the letters they had found. Constable Stephenson had accepted the letters as proof of a probable misdoing and called two of his men to legally assist in the search and possible interrogations. It always carried a little more weight to have the legal seal of approval when investigating.

  Jasper would not consider for an instant that Irene had been killed or was dead. Having established in his mind that she was now a captive, it was obvious that she would have to be hidden. He supposed that it was the Count Damiano Cuda who had put his demands into action. He wanted her and had the means to follow through with his threats. The kidnappers would be obliged to travel off main routes and possibly even at night to avoid leaving a trace behind them. Gipsy caravans did not move quickly and were a memorable sight when passing through anywhere. Jasper felt confident that they would find her, if they moved quickly. It was Quentin who persuaded him that they needed to return home one last time to see what had been discovered and to prepare for days of search. They couldn’t go off without being prepared.

  Not everyone had returned by six o’clock, so they had gathered in the kitchen around the large table waiting for the last to come. Millie got a simple meal ready for them all and then went about preparing packs of bread and cheese and a water flask for them to take with them. A blanket was also distributed to each man. There would be ten people, including the two constable’s men, out scouting.

  When the last two men came in quite late, they were able to say that the gypsies had been seen heading east. They would no doubt skirt London. The unusual clue was that no one else in the vicinity had had gypsies asking about knives.

  Quentin got out a large map of southern England and everyone agreed that if it were Count Cuda responsible for the kidnapping, they had to catch the abductors before they left England. It would be a whole new kettle of fish if they managed to get across the Channel with Irene. English law would no longer hold sway, apart from all the other problems, including language, money and the enormity of Europe. They had to take the chance that the crossing would be made from the south east coast of England; probably Dover to Calais as it was the shortest. However, they had to spread out just in case an unorthodox crossing had been planned. It was to be assumed that Irene would probably only depart with a couple of capturers once they’d reached the coast. The gypsy band would only have been used as cover.

  They split into two groups of five. Jasper took control of one group and Quentin the other. Each group would fan out during the day to reassemble at night with any news. Both groups would send someone to meet up at different given towns to compare their findings before reporting back to his group. This was to avoid continuing a search that one of the groups may have already concluded. They were all, needless to say, armed for any eventuality…

  They rode out the next morning at six and the search began in deadly earnest. They went east.

  The month of October had been clement. The mornings were fresh but the days warmed as soon as the sun appeared. As the search party was mounted, it was able to cover more ground than that of the gypsies. They had traced the nomads to Romford, north east of London, but there they had lost them for some unknown reason. Enquiries made to the locals had not turned up any information about gypsies travelling east or south east. It was only by chance that one of the grooms had had the sense to add to the question ‘had they seen any gypsies going in any direction?’

  That had turned up trumps. It would seem that the band had back-tracked with the view to losing anyone on their tail. The band had been seen going west. They were now, no doubt, using a parallel route to the one Jasper’s group had been following. They had sacrificed some time for secrecy and might even be behind their two groups.

  The two groups came together just before arriving in Rochester. They crossed the old stone bridge spanning the Medway to enter the town, where they decided to spend the night in a coaching inn. The gypsy band would have to use the bridge to cross the Medway if they didn’t want to lose more time. They set up a relay of guards that would watch the bridge from afar, observe anything of significance, note the direction the band might take, and all this without alerting the travellers.

  The caravans crossed that night at about three in the morning. They let them continue without any interference, watching the direction they took. They now knew they were heading towards Chatham.

  At dawn, Jasper and Quentin began to organise a raid of military perfection to take place later when the caravans came to a stop. They did not know if Irene were in one of the caravans, but there were too many coincidences for her not to be. They waited expecting to see Irene emerge at some time with the need to answer nature’s call. They were rewarded when she climbed down from one of the caravans with an older woman. It was what they needed to see to launch their attack.

  Jasper seized Irene as she came out of the bushes while the others descended on the caravans. The travellers gave no resistance, whatsoever, and we
re quite offhand about the number of men that had suddenly appeared. It wouldn’t have surprised Quentin if they’d all been invited to breakfast. The nonchalance may have been due to the fact that they were out-numbered or that they could see the artillery. Or it may have been that they were fed up to their teeth with Irene.

  Whatever the reason, it made the whole campaign seem exaggerated, bordering on the ridiculous. Quentin did wonder if the Gypsies had been aware of them all the time…they were known to be observant.

  To Irene’s credit, she did thank them for coming to get her. She had reached a point of intolerance with the life the travellers led, which was pushing her patience to its limit. There was no way that she was going to eat hedgehog!

  It turned out that two of the men were Italian. They had paid the gypsies well, but had also threatened reprisals if anything went wrong. The two Italians were bound and taken in charge by the constable’s men. A wagon with horses was purchased for their transport, which Jasper was more than happy to pay for. They would be held for abduction, punishable with imprisonment or worse, to follow.

  Everyone was happy to be going home after five days of rough living. In Rochester, Jasper booked into an inn with Irene, who could hardly wait to have a bath and a decent meal. Quentin decided to stay the night too, as he wanted to know all the details concerning the Italian Count with the possible repercussions that might result from the venture.

  Irene had been on the road a week since her kidnapping. If telling all would prevent another episode in the same vein, she was only too happy to be rid of the whole story. Besides, they already had the bones of the story.

  She managed to be beautiful while looking like a nomad with her hair down and her skin coloured from outdoor living. So, sitting in her colourful gipsy clothes between the two men, she told her tale.

  Count Damiano Cuda was indeed an Italian nobleman. He had been in London four years ago for business reasons and had had the occasion of meeting her. Not only had he wooed her persistently and persuaded her to leave everything behind to follow him, he had taken her as his possession. Irene admitted that she had never loved her husband and had certainly not wanted to have children so young, if ever. After her second childbirth, she’d had enough.

  She had been impressed with the Count and the Italian way of living. He had also assured her that he did not want children and took it upon himself to prevent it happening. The only problem was that she’d discovered that he and his family belonged to the Camorra in Naples. He was party to organised crime. The isolation he had imposed, because of his obsession with her and for protection from other families of the Camorra, had soon worn her patience thin. It had taken her a year to escape.

  Jasper wondered what it was about Irene that made one want to possess her? Her beauty had certainly caught his attention, but everyone knows beauty is only superficial. She was like a spoiled child, in fact, but it was the challenge of taming her that must draw men. He shook his head, still unconvinced of the cause for her attraction, of which he was equally a victim.

  He had naturally taken a separate room from Irene in the inn. Quentin was only too happy to wash and fall into the bed in the chamber he’d reserved. They agreed to be up early the next day, tired of the whole episode. Quentin wanted to get back to Faith, whom he was missing terribly. He could understand Count Cuda’s obsessive desire for a woman, because he’d been bitten by the same animal.

  Jasper had only been in bed for about an hour and had drifted off to sleep when he suddenly came awake. There was someone in his room. He could hear their breathing. After the day’s raid, he didn’t want to take the chance of having his throat cut by one of their adversaries, so he slipped out of bed on the far side from the door. It was when he was flat on the floor that he could just make out a sniffling noise.

  “Irene?” he called.

  “Jasper, I don’t want to be in my bed all alone. Can I come in with you?” Irene hiccupped.

  “I don’t think that that is a good idea, Irene.”

  Jasper didn’t want to have to fight any more battles for a while, even if this one was with himself. Then Jasper could hear Irene crying, sobbing.

  “Bloody hell,” he said to himself and the room as he got up off the floor.

  Now that he was standing, the sound was more acute and he could have kicked himself as he went around the end of the bed to find her. He should know better. Surprisingly, he felt sympathy for her and not lust or desire as he’d feared. She had lived through an ordeal. He didn’t touch her in the dark as he was completely naked. They obviously hadn’t been travelling with dressing gowns or valets.

  “I’m sorry, Irene. I’d take you in my arms for a cuddle but I’m stripped to the skin. You can’t have much on you either…”

  “I’m in the Gipsy tunic they gave me, but I don’t care if you’re bare Jasper. We could sleep with a pillow between us, couldn’t we?”

  “I don’t think so,” he replied, although he was beginning to relent.

  “I don’t want to be on my own!”

  She stamped her bare foot on the wooden floor.

  “Maybe Quentin would let me sleep in his room?”

  Jasper lunged for her and held on to both her arms.

  “Good grief, you’re a proper infant,” he chided. He couldn’t see the smile on her face. It looked as though he didn’t always have the upper hand. She’d used the ploy many years ago with Quentin and it hadn’t worked. But then, he hadn’t loved her, or she him. She had to admit to herself that if it hadn’t worked with Jasper, she really would have cried. She did love him in her way. It was a first. She sighed into his bare chest, as she put her arms around him.

  “Oh, come on. But don’t push me too far if you know what’s good for you. I’m only a man and you’re a very beautiful, endearing woman,” Jasper said softly.

  They spent an innocent night in bed together. Jasper was weary and he really did not want to have sex with Irene under these circumstances. It would almost be an anti-climax and certainly not up to his usual high standards. He’d had the good sense to realise that he cared for Irene, something that hadn’t been part of his plan. So many elements entered into the equation now, that he wanted to be able to consider them all before ceding to physical desires or needs. He would think about it in the morning and the hours to come before taking an irrevocable step.

  They woke in the morning and kissed a very chaste but friendly kiss. They both smiled secretly to themselves thinking of things to come, both imagining that they had won the prize.