Once Before (The Hero Next Door Series Book 3)

by Rebecca King

  ‘Unless Garnet was showing signs of having sudden wealth, it is highly unlikely that he has been working alone. It is more likely that someone has paid him to get the skeins out of the factory and Garnet has either received shares in the sales of the stolen goods, or a flat fee for getting them,’ Daniel murmured. ‘We need to find out if Lynchgate is the one who employed him.’

  ‘I do know that Garnet collects a pile of the skeins. The thugs turn up in the middle of the night. Garnet, who is already in the factory, helps the thugs load the stolen skeins into a cart. The thugs take the skeins away. Garnet then locks the factory up and goes home,’ Reynold informed them. ‘And no before you ask, I haven’t been able to follow the thugs. I am supposed to be dead, remember? Because of the contents of the notes, and the attacks on me, I won’t let Charlie or any of the other workers follow them either.’

  ‘So we don’t know where they are going,’ Daniel mused.

  ‘As soon as this is over, I can contact people in the business to ask if any of them purchased skeins off Lynchgate. I know roughly what has been stolen. I doubt anyone who has bought them is aware they are stolen goods.’

  ‘We are going to have to set up some sort of trap,’ Daniel muttered more to himself than to Reynold. ‘It has to be put into place for when you re-appear. People are going to gossip about the fact that you are still alive. Lynchgate will hear about it and will be even more determined to get you out of his way. He has tried to get Tabitha to let him into the factory legitimately but has tried to bully her into it when she refused. I don’t doubt that whoever he is selling the skeins to will keep buying them off him while Lynchgate can keep providing them. Unfortunately for the workers, Lynchgate is an utter bastard. They aren’t likely to get a fair deal even if he could get the employees to get the factory working again. Now that I have boarded up the factory and blocked everyone from entering it, Lynchgate is going to be incensed that his funding source has been cut off and his plans to take over the business have been thwarted.’

  ‘He is going to be livid to learn that you are alive,’ Tabitha murmured, with a smile. She looked at Daniel. ‘Do you think it is wise for Reynold to reappear just yet, though? Isn’t it better to wait in the factory for the thugs to steal the stock so the Star Elite can catch them red-handed?’

  ‘Yes, but first we need to find out what Lynchgate intends to do. If he has been selling the stolen cotton, Lynchgate now has a customer. He knows that if he can get his boots under the table, he can get the business operational again. He has the option to go to the customers he lied to about Muldoon and persuade them that the factory is more respectable now that he is at the helm. It won’t matter to Lynchgate that he doesn’t legitimately own the business.’

  ‘Lynchgate is the kind of man who will make more profit by not paying the employees a proper wage.’ Tabitha looked worriedly at Reynold. ‘Lynchgate treats poor people with utter contempt.’

  ‘That may be why Garnet had to die. Not only does Lynchgate see Garnet as expendable, his life worthless, but he knew too much. Additionally, Garnet can be replaced with a factory foreman who has no idea what crimes Lynchgate committed before he took over the factory,’ Daniel mused.

  ‘It does explain why Lynchgate had Judge Sminter give the two burglars such light sentences. Lynchgate needed them free to help him rob the factory,’ Tabitha murmured.

  Daniel nodded. ‘That can be the only reason. It is a heck of a risky thing for Judge Sminter to do, though.’

  ‘Now what?’ Reynold asked into the thoughtful silence that followed.

  ‘Now, we need to sit down and plan your return to society. We must do it while Lynchgate is still in the area and possibly planning to steal what is left of the stock if he can get inside. Moreover, we need to get your factory back up and running while we are still in the area,’ Daniel said thoughtfully.

  ‘First, we have to get the paperwork returned to you,’ Tabitha added. ‘Oh, by the way, in the paperwork there was a payment to Harrington’s for two hundred pounds but it didn’t say what the money was for. I thought Harrington’s was a customer not a supplier.’

  ‘Very good,’ Reynold mused. ‘Harrington’s is run by my cousin. I transferred that money over to him, through the business, to see if Garnet would raise an issue with it being a payment not a receipt. He didn’t say anything about a suspicious payment leaving the accounts. In fact, he appeared to accept it as perfectly normal, and he put the entry into the ledger in the normal way without raising it with me.’

  ‘Which proved that he was used to suspicious transactions, or falsified records,’ Daniel countered.

  Reynold nodded. ‘Walter Harrington will give me the money back when this is all over.’

  ‘Has he been approached by Lynchgate?’

  ‘No because I had already told Harrington about my opinion of the bastard and warned him about letting him through the door,’ Reynold replied. ‘Harrington did ask that the usual delivery be suspended, though, if only to protect his workers.’

  ‘That’s understandable,’ Tabitha mused.

  ‘For now, I would prefer the factory to remain in Tabitha’s name until we can catch Lynchgate or the person behind the thefts if there is someone else we don’t know about involved in it.’

  ‘Why did you sell Lynchgate ten shares?’ Tabitha asked before Reynold could settle down to plan what they were going to do.

  ‘To stop Lynchgate going into hiding while he tried to damage the factory. I had hoped that by giving him a vested interest in it he wouldn’t be inclined to want to damage the business,’ Reynold mused. ‘Further, he wouldn’t want to disappear and leave his thugs to do the dirty work for him.’

  ‘Kill you,’ Daniel finished succinctly.

  ‘Indeed.’

  ‘Once he had the ten shares, though, Lynchgate made it clear that he wanted more.’

  ‘Shares.’

  ‘Shares. Control. A say in what happened every day,’ Reynold added. ‘He wanted to be involved in the factory.’

  ‘But he has never run a factory in his life. I doubt he would have the faintest idea of what to do,’ Tabitha snorted quite inelegantly.

  ‘It isn’t that he intended to run it,’ Daniel countered. ‘He intended to ruin it completely, to make it worthless, so he could get Reynold to sell the rest of it to him at lower than the market rate, get the foreman to make it work again, and then sell it at a far higher price.’

  Reynold was nodding even before Daniel had finished talking. ‘It sounds a more feasible idea. The factory is worth a fortune. Why, the name alone is enough to increase its asking price at least double the amount one would expect to pay for something like that.’

  ‘We have no proof, though,’ Tabitha whispered. ‘How do we go about finding it?’

  Daniel slid her a smile and caught her hand in his. Pressing a loving kiss to the back of it, he stared deeply into her eyes. ‘We do what the Star Elite usually do in such situations and lay a trap.’

  ‘How? When? Doing what?’

  ‘That is something we have yet to decide. When David Lynchgate makes his first and only mistake, the Star Elite will be there to put him behind bars where he belongs. Lynchgate might not know it yet but he is going to provide us with the evidence of his guilt,’ Daniel assured her.

  It was then that Reynold coughed uncomfortably. Tabitha gasped when she realised just how intimate they looked. She tried to yank her hand out of Daniel’s, but he wouldn’t release her.

  ‘About the house,’ Reynold began awkwardly.

  ‘Yes, I know, I don’t own this either,’ Tabitha sighed a little despondently.

  ‘Well, it is up for sale. I have it on good authority that you have recently come into a fortune and, well, quite like the house,’ Reynold said.

  Tabitha’s brows shot up. ‘Oh, but I couldn’t possibly afford a house like this.’

  ‘How much?’ Daniel asked without preamble.

  Reynold grinned at him and named a sum that was far lower tha
n Tabitha had expected. ‘The problem is that while the house is rather wonderful it is out in the middle of nowhere. Most people who live in properties like this prefer at least a village within walking distance. There is nothing around here for a good ten miles or more.’

  ‘It’s wonderful,’ Tabitha enthused.

  Daniel rolled his eyes. ‘I think I would go quietly out of my mind with worry if I knew you were out here all alone while I was off investigating.’

  ‘Ah, but that is where a housekeeper comes in. It wasn’t included in the false deeds I drew up but the houses and cottages you passed on the main street all belong to this estate. They are workers houses, built to accommodate housekeepers, gardeners and the like. There is space in the servants’ attic for footmen and maids which you are going to need if you do choose to buy it.’

  Reynold yawned and stretched before launching wearily out of his seat. ‘Now, while I am very glad that you have both managed to find me, I must go and get something to eat. I don’t know about you two, but I am famished.’

  With that, he rather casually ambled off in the direction of the kitchen leaving Tabitha and Daniel to stare at each other.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Later that evening, Tabitha was wandering around the library studying the books and trying to decide what she wanted to do about the house when Reynold came to join her.

  ‘I need to apologise for the falsification of your inheritance,’ he began.

  Tabitha sighed. ‘You were wrong to involve me. While you might have believed that you had good reason to do what you did, you knew that I have had nothing to do with my father for a long time. That should have warned you that your plans weren’t fair on me. You have made me believe that I could own something like this. That I had a fortune to go with it. It is not fair to play with someone’s life like that. It is cruel, and really makes you no better than Lynchgate for scheming.’

  ‘I don’t see how,’ Reynold protested. ‘I have done nothing to physically harm you.’

  ‘Really?’ Tabitha snapped. ‘You put me right into the heart of your factory, the one place where you knew it wasn’t safe for anybody to be. Not even your workers have been safe there, yet you expected me to inherit the place and not be touched. Did it not occur to you that Lynchgate would not hesitate to rid the factory of a woman like me? If he sees a wealthy, strong and capable man like you as someone he could bully aside, he would have no qualms about doing the same, or worse, to me.’

  ‘But you are his daughter. He is naturally going to be less inclined to hurt you,’ Reynold argued.

  ‘So why did he snatch me out of my mother’s care as a child without giving a damn about my feelings? Once he put me into the house he owns he forgot about me; brushed me aside like I was nothing. I was a prize, an accessory, a bargaining chip he used to try to force my mother to return home to him so he could put on a front with his friends and pretend we were a happy family. When mother didn’t do as he wanted, he lost interest in me. I left the night he attacked Daniel because I saw just how vile he was. If it wasn’t for Aunt Mildred and Uncle Ralph, I would have ended up living on the streets. That is how much consideration Lynchgate has for me; how important I am to him. He has only shown up in my life now because he has learnt that I own the factory he wants. He had no qualms about ordering his thugs to try to throw me out of the window.’

  ‘He did what?’ Reynold scowled at her.

  Tabitha explained what had happened the night she had been in the factory. ‘If it wasn’t for Daniel, I would be dead by now. You were wrong to just assume that Lynchgate wouldn’t hurt me. Any parent who so firmly turns his back on his daughter isn’t really a parent and doesn’t give a damn about his child. Lynchgate would cut my throat just as easily as he would cut yours, especially if it meant he could fill his purse.’

  ‘I misread the situation, and for that I am deeply sorry. I confess that I didn’t spend very long thinking about it. I just assumed that if David Lynchgate killed Tabitha Lynchgate and ended up with her recently inherited fortune it would look highly suspicious to everyone,’ Reynold murmured. ‘I don’t think Lynchgate is that stupid.’

  ‘Lynchgate is a thief, of that I have no doubt,’ Tabitha whispered, her voice shaking with the force of her tears. ‘He hurt Daniel because he didn’t want to be associated with someone who was poor. It didn’t make him look good to have his daughter friends with someone who was impoverished.’

  ‘You are close to him; Daniel.’

  Tabitha nodded. ‘We were childhood friends. But he grew up and decided he didn’t need me in his life anymore. I am pleased for him, I truly am.’

  Her tears chose that moment to burst free of the dam she had carefully built over the last several days. Huge great sobs of misery escaped her. When she would have turned to leave, Reynold grabbed her and tugged her gently into his arms instead. He held her while she wept against him and stared into space while he contemplated what to do.

  The worry, confusion, doubt, fear, uncertainty, longing, hope, and lost love that Tabitha had felt for practically all her life collided into a confusing jumble of misery that swept Tabitha into its darkened depths.

  ‘Daniel only came back because of his work with the Star Elite. It had nothing to do with me,’ she whispered. ‘He had forgotten about me.’

  ‘Yet you didn’t forget about him, did you, Tabitha?’ Reynold murmured, aware of a dark shadow that had appeared in the hallway just outside the door. He didn’t look at Daniel because he didn’t want the man to know that he had seen him. Instead, Reynold focused on the stunning young woman in his arms. He wondered what might have happened between them had they met in normal circumstances.

  Now that I come to think about it, I am shocked that I have lived so close to her for so long and not noticed such a beautiful woman.

  Reynold waited until the worst of her tears had subsided and she stood miserably before him. ‘He has had a life to turn around. While you had relatives to turn to, he hasn’t had that benefit and has had to work twice as hard as most people to get anything in life. Daniel has learnt to fight for survival far earlier than most. It started in the workhouse; I don’t doubt. That is something neither you nor I can ever hope to understand. We haven’t lived like him, segregated from society because of circumstances beyond our control. He has had to battle through it alone. Unfortunately, it means that he is less likely to settle down. You, however, are someone who should marry. I don’t think I am wrong suggesting that you haven’t married because you have been waiting for him to come back to you, am I?’

  Tabitha hesitated. She couldn’t understand why she was confiding in Reynold in this way. It might have been something to do with the fact that he had talked so openly about his problems. It might have been because they were both facing the same enemy: Lynchgate. It might have been many other reasons but whatever it was, Tabitha had to confide in him. It might have been that Reynold was someone who would give her impartial advice. In this, she needed to talk to someone other than her Aunt Mildred. Mildred would have been gentle and sympathetic and made all the right soothing noises but wouldn’t have come up with any suggestions. Reynold was, if nothing else, a wise man. He had taken steps to take control of his life when the worst of enemies had tried to take over. If anyone could help her decide what to do it would be Reynold.

  ‘You have thrown my life into chaos,’ she whispered with a tearful huff that went nowhere near chasing the shadows from her eyes.

  ‘But you are still here, and alive and well, and stronger for it aren’t you?’ Reynold murmured. ‘You are not dead, have not given up, and don’t expect anything from life. You need to deal with the hurt and confusion everything has caused you. That cannot be done while everything is being thrown into chaos the way it is right now. You will recover in time, when everything has settled down and you have had the time and distance to mull everything over somewhere safe. For now, it is best not to make any decisions about anything. We have a lot of work to do to get rid
of Lynchgate from all our lives. I don’t doubt Daniel and his men will get him eventually. The Star Elite have a fine reputation for chasing and capturing criminals who consider themselves to be the toughest in the land. However, the Star Elite haven’t earnt their reputation for being the best there is without putting the time and effort into their endeavours.’

  ‘Which means that few of them are ever likely to marry and settle down,’ Tabitha whispered.

  ‘Exactly,’ Reynold sighed. ‘If Daniel didn’t care about you enough to want to come looking for someone like you, even to see how you are doing now, then it might be time to put him in the past where he belongs. It is mere circumstance that has brought him into your life, not his choice. If there are any positives to come from this situation, at least what has happened has given you the ability to realise that you are wasting your life on a man who quite clearly doesn’t care about you. Daniel’s interests lie with his work with the Star Elite. It isn’t that I am criticising him in any way. It is just the kind of man he is now, partly because of who he was, and because of that he isn’t likely to change. I think that might be the reason why he never came back for you.’

  ‘I didn’t expect him to come back for me,’ Tabitha whispered. ‘I knew that when he left the workhouse and never even left a message for me with Master Carpenter. It is why I came to Aunt Mildred’s house.’

  ‘You have tried to forget him but can’t,’ Reynold mused.

  ‘It isn’t that I have spent every day thinking about him. I have gotten on with my life, I truly have.’

  ‘But you haven’t met anybody like him again,’ Reynold added.

  ‘I don’t know why,’ Tabitha whispered.

  ‘Oh, I think you do, my dear. You just don’t want to admit it because you know it is going to open a wealth of hurt you are not going to be able to deal with once he rides out of your life again. And he will, because that is what the Star Elite are synonymous with doing – moving on, roaming around, chasing criminals. They rarely stay in one place. It is what makes them so effective.’ Reynold sighed and offered her a smile that was tinged with sadness. He shook his head and pursed his lips. ‘If only circumstances had been different.’