‘You assume that Charlie and Miranda have formed an attachment, yet you have hardly seen them together.’
The countess tapped the side of her nose. ‘You don’t get to reach my age without learning a thing or two about human nature. Or without the assumption being made that because you’re old it must also follow that you’re deaf and blind. People say things all the time and seem to forget that I’m there to overhear them.’
‘I do not. I am well aware that your faculties are as sharp as a tack. Anyway, I hope you are right about Charlie. I am fairly sure that Miranda’s feelings are engaged, or easily could be, given the slightest encouragement. But Charlie wouldn’t be so crass as to press his suit while Miranda has so many other problems to grapple with. Perhaps when Miss Daley returns to Ashton Lodge, matters will resolve themselves and then we shall see what Charlie does, if anything.’ She paused to allow the countess to catch her breath. ‘I would rather see love, not the expectations of others, guide his behaviour.’
‘Ah, quite the romantic, ain’t you, miss.’
‘Guilty as charged, my lady, and there is nothing you can say to convince me that you are not similarly predisposed, despite your supposedly outrageous exploits during the course of your marriage. You were deeply and passionately in love when you married the then earl. There’s no point in denying it. It shows in your expression every time you mention his name.’
‘If that’s true, then I had the good sense to retain his love by not clinging. No man likes a woman who makes herself too readily available. It’s necessary to retain a modicum of mystery about oneself. You’d do well to remember that.’ The countess glanced up as Luke and Charlie, with Romulus running alongside, left the stables at a brisk trot. ‘Where are they off to in such a tearing hurry, I wonder.’
Luke saw them and raised a hand, but didn’t linger to pass the time of day. He remained fully occupied attempting to control the obviously fresh Onyx, who never tired of trying to unseat him. Flora was aware, because Luke had sent a message to that effect earlier in the day, that they had run to earth the people responsible for damaging the wall that had allowed Luke’s cattle to escape. It had been a deliberately malicious act. He and Charlie, along with Luke’s steward and a couple of his men, were about to confront them.
When he returned he vowed that the three of them would discuss Miranda’s situation and see if they could come up with a way to trap Christina into confessing her crime. Frustratingly, Flora suspected that they would fail, thinking it highly unlikely that the woman could be persuaded to condemn herself with her own words.
‘Estate business I would imagine,’ Flora replied, nodding to Parkin and two of his men who had just joined the departing party.
Flora took luncheon with the countess and then left her dozing in Sandwell’s care. She had been unable to shake off an uneasy premonition that grew stronger as the day progressed. As she walked back to her room, she felt an unmistakable rush of air against the side of her face that indicated Remus’s presence.
‘Is it Miranda?’ she asked aloud. ‘Does she need me?’
The resulting rush of wind lifted the curtains and caused the fire to gut, which was enough for her, and Flora didn’t hesitate to act upon her instincts. She scampered to the stables and asked for the cob to be harnessed to the gig. If Luke had been at home she would have gone to him and somehow persuaded him or Charlie to accompany her to Ashton Lodge. She could be inventive when the need arose and would have thought of a compelling reason to make them go with her without mentioning her premonition to Luke. She knew he wouldn’t believe her. When she was proved right, he would come up with an alternative explanation other than her second sight. His closed-mindedness on the subject of her gift disappointed but did not surprise her.
Discussing the matter with him and Charlie was impossible since they were not there and had taken Romulus, who could otherwise have made himself useful, with them. She had no idea where Luke’s other brothers were and didn’t have time to hunt them down. She would go herself and help Miranda. The premonition that she was in dire need of help, a premonition exacerbated by Remus’s first presence since their engaging conversation at the reservoir, was too strong to ignore. She tapped her foot impatiently while the gig was readied and clambered onto the seat as soon as it was brought out. The cob, she knew, only moved at one plodding pace and she needed to travel a lot faster than that.
‘What do I do?’ she asked aloud as she steered the conveyance down the long driveway.
Of course, Remus didn’t answer her. She could wish for a more talkative spirit guide. She searched her memory regarding their one and only conversation, such as it had been. Concentrate hard on what she wanted, had been Remus’s advice. All well and good, but how did she concentrate upon making her disobliging nag move faster? She closed her eyes, focused her thoughts and then opened them again, gazing directly at the cob’s head. At first nothing happened but then, to her intense astonishment, the horse broke into a fast trot, and then a steady canter.
‘Well I never!’
She hadn’t known the beast was capable of moving so fast, and was now obliged to keep the flimsy conveyance, which was not designed to travel over rough ground at speed, on its wheels. It was exhilarating because part of her sensed that Remus would intervene if an accident seemed likely. There was little point in being blessed with a spirit guide if he didn’t keep her safe from the situations in which he seemed determined to involve her.
She hadn’t bothered with a hat, and her hair quickly became hopelessly windswept and tangled. Feeling a little breathless, she reined the now sweating cob back into a trot and then a walk as she neared Ashton Lodge. What should she do? Her senses told her not to reveal her presence by driving straight up to Miranda’s front door. If she was in danger, Flora’s best chance of rescuing her would be the element of surprise.
She steered the gig into a clearing only partially visible from the road and the cob immediately dropped his head to crop the grass. He was too lazy to wander far, Flora knew. Besides, she couldn’t worry about that now. Her more immediate concern was getting past Miranda’s servants unobserved so that she could help her friend. She’d been foolish to leave Beranger Court without arming herself in some way. All she had with her was her stocking purse and there was nothing more harmful inside it than the smelling salts that she carried in case the countess had a dizzy spell, a handkerchief and a few personal odds and ends. She knelt down and picked up several heavy stones, which she placed inside the purse. If all else failed, she could use it like a hammer.
Flora approached the back of Ashton Lodge as quickly and stealthily as she could manage. She felt bolder yet more anxious when she didn’t encounter a single person. Miranda had told her that she didn’t employ many servants, but even so she ought to have seen someone by now. Perhaps they had an hour off in the afternoons, but surely one of them would have been left on duty.
She let herself in through the kitchen door, ready with excuses when the cook demanded to know her business. The room was deserted; preparations for a meal left abandoned on the scrubbed pine table. Her fear increased as she crept into the main hall and heard voices coming from what had to be the drawing room. Miranda’s voice and that of a man. The door was partially open and Flora’s first thought was to barge through it. But a rush of wind against the side of her face gave her pause.
‘You want me to wait?’
She said the words inside her head, wondering if Remus would hear them. A further rush of wind implied that he had. Listen, a disembodied voice that she recognised as Remus’s insisted.
Comforted by his presence and by now convinced that she was alone in the house but for Miranda and Matthew in the drawing room, Flora didn’t try to conceal herself. Instead, she positioned herself immediately outside the door and did as Remus had instructed.
She listened.
‘You are admitting to me that you killed my beloved father, and now you expect me to marry you!’ Miranda cried, in
credulity underscoring her words. ‘You are delusional.’
‘And you, my dear, need to consider your own position. I can make you very happy, if only you will allow me the opportunity. We will rub along well enough together and you will be perfectly safe.’
‘I would rather die!’
Oh, Miranda!
‘Beware what you wish for.’ Matthew’s voice had reached a dangerously low level. Flora could sense the malevolence of an angry and arrogant man flowing through the thick wooden door.
‘My solicitor is well aware that you committed murder. If anything happens to me, Christina will never inherit. And nor will you. I have made perfectly sure of that.’
‘My, my, we have been busy.’ He sounded like a cat tormenting a mouse. ‘But you are quite wrong.’
‘What, you haven’t planned this all along? You and your brother, who is so puffed up with conceit that he thinks he can right the wrongs of two previous generations? Has it not occurred to you that your family are merely incompetent and have no one to blame for past events other than themselves?’
‘I did not murder anyone.’ Matthew’s tone had turned bored, laconic. ‘That is not my style.’
‘You leave that to your brother and his new wife.’
‘If you like, but you will never prove it. For my part, my skill lies in the art of seduction. If you will not agree to marry me and allow me to take care of you, then I shall just have to leave you with no choice.’
Miranda screamed, which was Flora’s cue to act. She burst through the door, but Matthew was trying so hard to pin a wildly struggling Miranda down that he didn’t hear her. Miranda must have sensed her presence. She glanced to one side, her eyes widened by a combination of fear and relief. Flora knew she had seconds to act before Matthew saw her too, and didn’t hesitate. She swung her stocking purse over her shoulder and brought it down on the back of Matthew’s head with as much force as she could muster.
He glanced up at her with a look of genuine surprise, then crumpled to the floor like a folding pack of cards, blood pouring from his head.
Chapter Eighteen
Miranda fell into Flora’s arms, shaking and weeping. ‘Thank God!’ she said, over and over again.
‘Hush, you’re safe now.’ She soothed the girl’s back. ‘Did he—’
‘No, but he would have done if you’d arrived any later.’ She swallowed fresh tears as Flora gently guided her to the nearest chair, sensing that her legs were about to give out on her. ‘I was stupid. I antagonised him. Hurt his pride. But I was so angry, so fed up with being manipulated. He…he, gave all my servants the afternoon off and Christina went to London. I didn’t…is he all right? Did you kill him?’
The two ladies watched the pool of blood spreading beneath Cooper’s head, staining the boarded floor. Flora knelt beside him and felt for a pulse.
‘He’s alive,’ she said without much interest. ‘Head wounds always bleed profusely. I suppose we had better get some help for him. I certainly don’t intend to touch him myself. Why did Christina leave you unchaperoned?’
Flora felt ready to burst with anger when Miranda explained the deception. ‘She deliberately contrived to leave you here alone with him, well aware of what would happen?’ She shook her head. ‘It defies belief.’
‘He told me that if I didn’t marry him then I would finish up the same way as my father,’ Miranda said, still trembling.
Flora picked up a shawl that had been left draped across the back of a chair and wrapped it around her shoulders.
‘Come along, we can’t stay here. He could regain his senses at any moment and I would prefer not to have to hit him again. We’ll go back to Beranger Court and ask the earl to deal with him.’
Flora turned her back on Cooper’s prostrate form and fussed over Miranda, wanting to satisfy herself that she was strong enough to walk the short distance to where she had left the gig. She sensed a sudden movement, accompanied by a wild rush of wind passing her ear, but reacted too slowly. Flora cried out when a strong hand grabbed her ankle and she tumbled to the floor. Miranda screamed as Matthew reared up, blood streaming down his face, murder in his eyes. His hand grasping Flora’s ankle felt like a steel shackle that she was unable to shake off, hard though she tried.
‘You interfering wench!’ he cried, glowering. Yet there was a look in his eyes that told Flora he found the sight of her legs, exposed when she fell to the ground and her skirts billowed up, distracting. ‘How delightful… No!’ He held up a hand to ward Miranda off. Flora could see that she’d picked up a hefty candlestick to complete what Flora had started with her stocking purse. ‘Stay where you are. I am not finished with you yet. If you try to leave this room, or help her in any way, it will be the worse for you. For you both. I will throttle this interfering wench first, then deal with you.’
Flora treated him to a scathing look, determined not to show weakness through fear. She noticed that his eyes looked clouded. She hoped that was a result of his injury rather than rage. ‘Oh, do let go of me,’ she said impatiently, sounding braver than she felt. Matthew loosened his hold on her ankle but didn’t release it. Flora sat up and kicked hard at his shin with the heel of her free foot, which had the desired effect. He released her, howling with pain and then slapped the side of her face with considerable force.
‘How very brave of you, hitting a defenceless woman. You must be very proud.’ She rubbed her face. ‘Now, Miranda and I are leaving and there is nothing you can do to prevent us. I realise that you are not the most intelligent of men, but even you must realise that you cannot kill us both and expect to get away with it. I would suggest that whilst we are gone, you use the opportunity to make yourself scarce because you can be sure that the next people who come looking for you will be the police.’
‘Why? I am the victim here.’ He spread his hands in a mockery of innocence. ‘Miranda and I were enjoying an intimate interlude when you burst in and attacked me for no reason.’
‘We were not!’ Miranda cried.
‘Then why did you give all your servants the afternoon off so that they could attend the visiting fair? You were aware that Christina would not be here, and that you and I would be alone. Heaven knows, you’ve been throwing yourself at me for long enough, so I thought…’ He gave an almost convincing shrug. It would have been more effective if rapidly drying blood wasn’t covering half of his face, giving him the appearance of the walking wounded on a battlefield. Except that this snivelling coward would never volunteer to serve his King and country. ‘Well, I thought, why not give the little tramp what she’s been asking for all along?’
‘I did not give the servants…’ Miranda scowled. ‘Christina told them they were my orders?’
‘It doesn’t matter, Miranda. You are free of him at last. No one will take his word for what happened here over yours. I am here to bear witness to the fact that he attacked you, and then me.’
‘If, as you say, I have nothing to lose then I might as well have some fun.’ A calculating light fuelled Matthew's ravaged expression. ‘You intrigue me.’ He fixed his gaze on Flora. ‘I will spare Miranda if you’re nice to me.’
Flora laughed in his face. ‘You’re deluded.’
But she also knew that even debilitated, he was strong enough to detain them both for long enough to…well, this was ridiculous! It was time to go on the offensive.
‘Why did you kill Miranda’s father?’ she asked.
‘Shut up!’ Enraged, Matthew struck Flora’s face again, so hard that she fell to the floor and struck her head against the boards.
*
Luke and Charlie, with Romulus still keeping pace with them, rode away from the police station in Swindon, having arranged for the renegades who had been vandalising his estate to be taken in charge.
‘Rom recognised their ringleader,’ Luke said, still seething. ‘I should have let him rip his throat out. He’s obviously the one who hurt and abandoned the poor dog when he refused to worry my livestock. I cannot abid
e cruelty to animals.’
‘Parkin insists that he dismissed the man because he caught him stealing from the estate office. I rather suspect that we’re not the only estate in the district to has suffered losses. This gang has spread itself wide.’
‘But we are the only ones to have caught him and his cronies, which is why they stupidly lingered and tried to get their revenge.’
‘One has to love the limited intelligence of thieves,’ Charlie said cheerfully.
They trotted along the lane that would take them directly past Ashton Lodge. Luke sensed Charlie’s desire to call upon Miranda but didn’t make the suggestion, convincing himself that if she was in danger she’d find a way to send word. She was a sensible girl and Luke was sure that the Coopers would try coercion before they resorted to more direct means of persuasion. Rom darted off to one side of the road in pursuit of rabbits once again. But this time he set up a loud bark. Curious, Luke and Charlie rode back to see what had caught his attention.
‘Hello, what’s this?’ Luke reined Onyx in as he came to a clearing and saw his gig, with the placid cob placed at Flora’s disposal harnessed to it. The cob had wandered away from the lane in its search for lusher grass. ‘If Flora had decided to visit Miranda, why leave the gig here?’ Luke tried not to panic. ‘It doesn’t look as though the conveyance overturned and that she was thrown from it. It would be damaged if that had happened.’
The brothers shared a look. No words were exchanged but they turned their horses back in the direction of Ashton Lodge and approached the premises at a flat out canter, Rom loping along beside them with his tongue lolling from his mouth.
‘Where the hell is everyone?’ Charlie asked, seeing Evita’s head appear over the door of a stall and a couple of carriage horses turned out in a paddock close by. But there were no humans in evidence.
Shrugging, the brothers dismounted and stabled their horses. They then strode towards the house and entered it through the kitchen door. There was no one there either.
A Sense of Purpose Page 22