Once Before (The Hero Next Door Series Book 3)

by Rebecca King

  With that, Daniel quietly left the room but couldn’t shake the feeling that he had just done something wrong. He wanted to retrace his steps, apologise, and ask her what they could do to have a future together.

  But I know that it isn’t possible because she wants marriage and a family. I need the shadows and the Star Elite.

  The problem was while a gorgeous wife and family all sounded rather wonderful it was something that he had little experience of. He wasn’t at all sure that he could settle down, much less knew how to raise a family.

  ‘Daniel?’ Tabitha asked before he could close the door.

  Daniel paused and looked across the room at her. It was too dark to see clearly but he felt certain that he could see the silvery traces of tears on her cheeks.

  ‘Do you ever wonder what life had been like if father hadn’t thrown you out of his house that day?’

  Daniel contemplated that. It was a question nobody had ever asked him before. ‘In a strange kind of way your father did the very best thing that day. Yes, it was painful, but it forced everything to change. If he hadn’t done what he did I might never have left the workhouse because Master Carpenter wouldn’t have sent me away, to a place he knew I could be safe. It was his sister who gave me a chance.’

  ‘She sounds like a very nice woman,’ Tabitha murmured with a faint smile, trying her hardest not to be jealous.

  ‘She is, and now shares her boarding house with her brother.’ Daniel grinned.

  ‘You still keep in touch with them.’ It wasn’t really a question.

  ‘I go and see them whenever I can. I don’t think Harold has any contact with anybody in the workhouse anymore. If he does, he has never mentioned it to me.’

  ‘Do you think he would? I mean, you left that life behind. Might he not have wanted to mention it because of reminding you of your past?’ Tabitha suggested.

  ‘Maybe. I need to write to him about Lynchgate. He may be able to tell me which Governor might be willing to help us with our investigation,’ Daniel muttered more to himself than to Tabitha.

  As she studied him across the distance of the room, Tabitha felt a great crater open between them. It was only to be expected that he had people in his life she had no knowledge of and that he should speak warmly of those who had helped him. She, on the other hand, had been forgotten. She was someone he hadn’t bothered to try to find even though he now lived in the same county.

  On the day that father threw him out he didn’t just walk away from the house, he walked away from me as well.

  Thoughtfully, Tabitha turned to close the shutters and resolved right there and then to keep Daniel at a distance until the investigation was over. Then, he could return to his life and she would be free to return to hers. She would deal with her broken heart when he had gone and try to figure out what she was going to do with the rest of her life. What she couldn’t afford to do was allow herself to spend any more time hoping for something he was clearly unwilling to give her.

  Daniel watched her move about the room but found it impossible to read the implacable expression on her face. It was as if she had mentally closed a door on him and was many miles away. Seeing it stung, more than it should. He knew what had caused it. The hurt had been evident on her face and so raw that he began to suspect he had damaged his friendship with her forever. He wasn’t at all sure why that should bother him as much as it did.

  Daniel contemplated his relationship with Tabitha. She had always been a part of his past – the fondest of memories. To have her a part of his life, possibly his future as well, was a little disconcerting. He had to contemplate rearranging his entire life for her because she now belonged in his present, and he suspected was already creating a place for herself in his future. Not that he minded because he loved her. He just hoped that she didn’t expect more from him than he could give her because he loved being a part of the Star Elite just as much. Yes, it was nice to share a few kisses and indulge in a hug or two with a stunning woman like Tabitha. The passion was mutual and wouldn’t take much to flourish to life and consume them both, but what then? He couldn’t claim to protect her while ruining her at the same time. Tabitha deserved more than that.

  She deserves marriage and a family to raise, Daniel thought with a heavy sigh.

  ‘Penny for them,’ Roger whispered.

  Daniel jerked and cursed bitterly because he hadn’t heard Roger creep up on him. ‘How long have you been here?’

  ‘Long enough to know that if I had been a burglar with a knife you would have been dead with your throat cut by now,’ Roger chided.

  Daniel puffed out his cheeks and threw an apologetic look at his boss. He stepped out of the doorway and watched Tabitha leave the room, but she didn’t look at him. Instead, she smiled at Roger.

  ‘Your Aunt is in the kitchen preparing a plate of food for me,’ he informed her.

  ‘I will go down and see if she needs help,’ Tabitha replied.

  The men remained silent while they watched her go.

  ‘Do I detect an undercurrent of tension in the air?’ Roger mused.

  ‘There is someone lurking on the street watching the house.’ Daniel showed him where he had last seen Lynchgate’s thug.

  ‘We have to assume that we are dealing with a group of people,’ Roger announced.

  ‘Nothing in this investigation makes any sense,’ Daniel hissed running a frustrated hand through his hair.

  ‘How so?’

  Daniel explained what they had discovered so far.

  ‘We have to find out more about Muldoon. The only information we have on him, about his past, friends and the like, has come from a solicitor who has no real knowledge of the man’s private life. The solicitor didn’t know him prior to Muldoon’s drawing up of the will. There is nothing to say that anything Muldoon told the solicitor was the truth.’

  ‘Why would he lie, though?’ Daniel asked propping one brawny shoulder against the wall beside the window.

  ‘I don’t know. What I do know is that the facts don’t make sense. Muldoon’s is – was – a good, viable business. You have seen the ledgers. It made a lot of money. So why was Muldoon occupying a room in a lodging house? Someone as wealthy as he was could easily afford to live in a house of his own, couldn’t he? I mean, how could he entertain a business contact in lodgings? He couldn’t. Something strikes me as odd about the man’s life, Daniel, and I don’t like it one bit. Muldoon appears to have set up this factory by himself without any help from anybody, and has made himself a very wealthy man, but he has absolutely no relations at all in the entire world. How? Where did he come from? Who were his family? How much money did he have when he started the business? Was Muldoon’s established from scratch or inherited from a family member who died? We need to find out.’

  Daniel was a little stunned. Now that Roger had mentioned it, even he could see that Reynold, the owner of the largest cotton mill in Leicestershire, had been living in lodgings near to his factory that were cheap and didn’t represent who he was.

  ‘It might be that Reynold had a house in the country somewhere, he just didn’t tell his landlady about it. I mean, why would he? Maybe he lived close to the factory on weekdays so he was nearby if there was a problem, or he needed to work late into the evening. Maybe he has a house in the country that he uses at weekends but forgot to tell the solicitor about it.’

  ‘Tabitha needs to go through the papers the solicitor gave her a little more carefully,’ Daniel growled.

  ‘I cannot stop thinking about those keys. It doesn’t make sense that they were put into the safe for her to find but there is no explanation as to what they open. Moreover, there are no blackmail notes, explanations as to why he paid Harrington’s two hundred pounds, or clues about why someone would give him a deadline to decide about something.’

  ‘Those keys do look like door keys,’ Daniel murmured. ‘But to what? Where?’

  ‘They are not the keys to the doors at Muldoon’s lodgings. The landlady alread
y has those back,’ Roger said. ‘They don’t fit the factory locks either.’

  ‘You are right. We need to find out a little more about Muldoon, especially his private life,’ Daniel remarked.

  ‘What about the bank? We need to find out what Muldoon’s personal financial situation was like in the days prior to his death. We need to know if there have been any large withdrawals, or if the money gradually started to diminish. If so when it started to disappear. We have the factory’s records. Now I want to see the man’s personal accounts.’

  ‘We can get the men onto that in the morning,’ Daniel agreed. ‘Maybe the bank manager can tell us if Muldoon owned any other property. If he did, he might have had a loan against it, or sold it to make ends meet.’

  ‘Maybe,’ Roger conceded. ‘Check it out as well.’

  ‘Me?’

  Roger nodded. ‘You and Tabitha can go and speak with the bank manager because Tabitha now owns everything of Muldoon’s, and that includes the contents of the man’s bank accounts.’

  Daniel tipped his head. ‘Now that I come to think about it, the solicitor didn’t mention any private bank account of Muldoon’s. He handed over the deeds to the factory and read her the will which said that Muldoon bequeathed the factory and everything in it to her. The solicitor also told her that all of Muldoon’s personal effects were now hers too and that the landlady had already sent everything to the factory.’

  ‘But he didn’t mention his private bank accounts?’

  Daniel shook his head. ‘Without going through the papers the solicitor gave Tabitha again, I don’t know if she signed any bank papers.’

  ‘But that would be done by the bank, surely?’ Roger challenged.

  ‘One would expect her to be required to go to the bank to accept Muldoon’s private fortune,’ Daniel mused.

  ‘What in the Hell is going on?’ Roger burst out.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Daniel conceded. ‘But we will damned well find out.’

  Tabitha, who had been listening carefully to what the men were discussing, thoughtfully retreated to her bed chamber later that night. She called a soft ‘goodnight’ to Daniel as she passed him in the hallway but didn’t stop to talk to him not least because she had a lot to think about. While she was happy to leave the investigation to the Star Elite, it annoyed her that they were discussing what they were going to do and expected to leave her out of their investigation – until they needed her to talk to someone about her inheritance. Then they expected her to simply go along meekly and stand back while they did all the talking.

  Well, I am not some addle brained chit who is going to be trotted out to do as I am told whenever they need something only to be shoved aside when they have got it.

  Disgusted that Daniel thought she was so useless and was so willing to use her in that way, Tabitha quickly undressed and climbed into bed, heaving a sigh of relief that the day was finally over. It was difficult to know what to make of the last two days. In a short space of time her entire life had been turned on its head. Nothing made sense anymore. She had no idea what to expect of each new day that loomed ahead of her and it was unsettling. What Tabitha did know was that it didn’t allow her to carry out her normal routine, so nothing was familiar anymore.

  ‘Well, at first light I am going to be at the bank for when it opens,’ she announced firmly.

  Shoving all thoughts of Daniel aside, Tabitha fetched the package the solicitor had given her and with movements that were swift and jerky, removed a handful of papers. She read each piece of paper through twice until, an hour later, she was still as perplexed as the men from the Star Elite but came to the same conclusion.

  ‘A visit to the bank it is then.’

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The following morning, Tabitha watched Daniel descend the stairs and head into the kitchen. Once he had disappeared, she hurried down the stairs and entered the sitting room. Easing open the French doors was easy, especially given any sound she made was smothered by the noise Daniel made while stoking the fire. Tabitha slipped outside with ease and raced across the garden. Thankfully, nobody stopped her, and she was quickly able to walk the few miles to town without hindrance. The journey took far longer than she could remember it usually taking but she enjoyed being out in the morning sunshine, and free of all of her problems – for a while at least.

  When she reached the town, it was only just starting to wake up, but it was still busy. Market traders were setting up their stalls. Shop owners were sweeping off the front steps ready for the first visitors. Maids and labourers were hurrying to work. Only Tabitha lingered. Now that she was there, she struggled to know what to do with the time she had to wait before the bank opened. Staring at it from across the street, she decided to find a nice quiet spot to sit and watch everyone. The town was more populated than she had hoped but watching others go about their business turned out to be a rather pleasant way to pass the time.

  It wasn’t too long before she noticed the door to the bank open. A dapperly dressed gent marched purposefully into the building, tipping his hat at a passing trader as he went. Tabitha knew that was Mr Rumpton, the manager. Hurrying after him, Tabitha arrived in the bank moments later, a little breathless and full of anticipation, and a little worried.

  ‘Good morning, Miss Lynchgate. How are you on this fine day?’ Mr Rumpton called when he saw her.

  Tabitha smiled at him. ‘I am very well, Mr Rumpton.’

  ‘How may I help you?’ he asked, clutching the edges of his waistcoat and rocking backward and forward on his heels as if bursting with energy and holding on to his waistcoat was the only way he could contain it.

  ‘I have come for some information,’ Tabitha began. Her mind was racing but she did her best to appear as calm as possible.

  ‘Ah, is this about Mr Muldoon?’ Strangely, Mr Rumpton lowered his voice and stepped forward. His manner became most secretive.

  ‘Why yes,’ Tabitha replied, a little nonplussed by his strange behaviour.

  Mr Rumpton nodded. ‘Come with me.’

  He led her into a large office behind the teller’s desks. Tabitha glanced apprehensively at the main doors. She expected Daniel, or one of the men from the Star Elite to come bounding through it and demand that everybody stop what they were doing at once.

  But then I always did have an active imagination, Tabitha thought with a heavy sigh.

  She followed Mr Muldoon into the office and sat in the chair he waved her into. ‘You were expecting me.’ Tabitha tried not to sound accusing.

  ‘Mr Muldoon told me that I should wait for you to visit, yes,’ Mr Rumpton said.

  ‘You do know that he has left me his factory then.’

  Mr Rumpton gave her a straightforward look. ‘I think you should know, my dear, that the entire town is talking about it. It is most unusual for a man to bequeath a factory like that to a lady such as yourself. Ah, no offense intended of course.’

  ‘Non taken,’ Tabitha assured him with a smile. ‘I confess I was most stunned myself.’

  ‘Indeed, I don’t suppose you are able to take matters into your own hands as it were and open it back up again, eh?’ Mr Rumpton asked.

  ‘Well, that cannot happen now on account of the strange circumstances surrounding Mr Muldoon’s demise.’

  Mr Rumpton scowled. ‘Oh? But I thought he had killed himself.’

  ‘Indeed.’ Tabitha leaned forward. ‘This is to go no further, Mr Rumpton. I assume that I am able to take you into my confidence?’

  ‘My dear, many in this county trust us with their family fortunes. One of the things this fine business prides itself on is respecting our customer’s privacy.’

  ‘Then you should know that Mr Muldoon’s death is being investigated by the Star Elite,’ Tabitha murmured, pausing when Mr Rumpton gasped. ‘Consequently, I need to know why I was left Mr Muldoon’s business. I have – had – no knowledge of the man prior to his death yet I have inherited his business and his personal affects.’ Her gaze met Mr R
umpton’s. ‘All of it.’

  Mr Rumpton nodded. ‘Including Mr Muldoon’s fortune, I gather.’

  It was difficult to tell what he thought about that because his impassive gaze remained on the desk.

  ‘Did he have a private fortune?’

  Mr Rumpton looked sharply at her. ‘Did the solicitor not tell you to come here to sign the necessary papers?’

  Tabitha shook her head. She was shaking with nerves not least because she had no idea what he was going to tell her. She almost didn’t want to know. Her life would certainly be easier if she kept it as it was because it was complicated enough already.

  But the life I had can no longer be mine anymore because I own a factory now, even if I don’t know what to do with it.

  ‘My dear, Mr Muldoon was a very wealthy man,’ Mr Rumpton announced gently. ‘Wait a moment, please.’

  He hurried over to a connecting door. Opening it, he stuck his head into the adjoining room and spoke to an officious looking clerk who was writing figures in a large ledger. Minutes later, Mr Rumpton returned with a large sheaf of papers. Studying them for a moment, he found the document he needed before peering over the top of his spectacles at her.

  ‘Right, I have here the documents I need you to sign that basically transfers all of his fortune into your account. Further, I have a package that Mr Muldoon asked me to keep in the bank’s safe and give to you when you arrived to sign the papers.’ Mr Rumpton ceremoniously handed the package over. ‘Now, I need you to sign this here, along this line, and I can transfer Mr Muldoon’s money over to you.’