For a moment, Richard felt a wave of fury flash through him at the thought of his childhood exposure, and then reason calmed his mind. His father’s yells of rage or the beatings he gave his sons would never have gone unheard with servants around, and the village was too close for tongues to stay quiet. He knew the earl had never been liked—in fact, was detested—and had wondered before his return whether that hatred would be passed down to him once the villagers knew he was back. He was relieved that quite the opposite had happened, and he had been welcomed with open arms.
Would he have left so precipitously if he had known of their sympathy? Just as well he hadn’t, for what kind of a life would he have had if he’d stayed? As it was, he had travelled, made his fortune, and best of all, had a wife to be proud of. He buried the thought that, thankfully, he had never seen his father again.
“You’ve been back, recently, into the hills, and you must have been followed by one of the men who came here. As you left your horses grazing then disappeared, they wanted to know where you went. Matt didn’t want to say, but somehow they knew he knew, so they kept beating him then threatened to harm the bairns if he didn’t own up.”
“You did the right thing by telling them, Matthew. I don’t blame you at all. If anything, it makes it easy to know where they are.”
“Well, they’ve loaded up with our provisions so they can hole up for a month inside that cave. Emptied every cupboard of stores we have. As well as the eggs, they stripped the pantry and killed half a dozen of the hens for good measure,” Matthew explained despite his swollen mouth. “Even took one of our horses to carry some of the load.”
“Don’t worry about restocking, Matthew. I’ll put that right, never fear,” Richard said.
“It’s not that I was worried about, it was how we could pass on the warning where they were. They said they would know if we went into town and told anyone, and we would die.”
“You won’t need to go into town now, so relax. From now on, we shall see to things. Try and recover from that beating, Matthew, and take it easy. We’ll get a neighbour or two to see to the farm and the livestock. I’ll send the doctor to check you over. Mrs Ketley, stay in the house and look after the family. I will make sure you have plenty of provisions to make up for your loss. Let Aaron know what you want. It is better he keeps in touch with you than me, just in case anyone else is watching.”
“Thank you milord, we are most grateful.” She curtsied deeply to Richard. “I have to add you are nothing like your father was. It warms my heart to know you as our earl.”
Richard almost blushed as he and Aaron made their farewells. His conscience stirred as he remembered he had almost decided never to return home. What a terrible loss that decision would have been. Was fate still taking a hand in his future?
* * * *
They trod silently and inconspicuously as they walked back to their horses. Whilst they did not think any of the three were around now, they did not want to take a chance. However, the night was quiet with hardly a breeze to stir the trees, and they reached their steeds without alarm, mounted, and rode some distance before they stopped short of Clun to talk.
“What is your intention now, milord? Clee Grot is not an easy place to storm from the front. They could hole up for a long time, and I doubt you have the patience for a long siege.”
“Why have you come to that conclusion, Aaron? Think me a hothead?”
“Not so. I think you have a regard for the men who you will need to help you winkle them out. You strike me as one who plans carefully. One I will gladly follow.”
“First thing that struck me, listening to Matthew talk about the horse they stole, was how were they were going to look after their beasts if they are holed up in the cave. The animals won’t last long if they are tethered and have only the rough grazing around them. Once the weather changes, they won’t even have that. Tasker has never had to deal with looking after his cattle. He has always had a groom to see to the feed and water. He’ll have to send someone out to deal with them, so that someone can easily be picked up. Then, if the horses disappear, if he wants to leave he must go on foot, and we should be able to deal with that. Short of starving them out, which I am loath to do as it will take longer than I have time for, is there any way into the cave from the other side?”
He waited for Aaron’s reply while thinking that he must not disappoint Lucie and prevent her from getting to the Harvest Festival.
“Yes, there used to be a way in. That hillside is honeycombed with passages, but it could well be blocked by a roof fall. That’s why we were forbidden the area years ago. One of my classmates nearly lost his life after being caught in a fall. T'was the talk of the town as one of his rescuers was hurt as well. All we children were threatened within an inch of our lives if we played up there again.”
“Yet you let me go there?”
“One of our dads went up to the cave and piled up stones at the back to hide the exit. You would not have been strong enough to move them. The roof in the cave was safe enough, and he could see you only used the front half and weren’t there long enough to come to harm. As long ago as that, you were safeguarded.” Aaron gave a disarming chuckle at the look of shock on Richard’s face. “It’s not remarkable, really. You have always been one of our own.”
“I never knew.” Richard shook his head in amazement. “Indeed, I was in two minds whether to return to England again. Fate has a mind of her own, and circumstances contrived my homecoming, though to be truthful, I never meant to bring trouble with me. Matthew’s injuries are the direct result of a man who thinks he has been cheated of his dues, which is why he has followed me here. It is almost certain he has killed in America. Authorities there are still hunting for him. I strongly suspect he murdered my wife’s grandmother, thinking he would have my wife as his bride and obtain her estate. He even sent a prowler into my house, we thought to kidnap her. Luckily, he didn’t succeed. Having been barred from that target, he is now after me. I wager there are other killings to lie at his door. Unfortunately, I have no way to prove it. Thank God Matthew wasn’t one of them.”
“I doubt I’ve heard tell of a nastier villain and one we need to swiftly rid ourselves of.”
Aaron stilled his restless horse as he listened to Richard’s explanation. “I am a peaceful man, in tune with nature as a rule. I hunt for food but never for sport. Killing animals for the sake of sport is against everything I believe in. The exception is, I won’t hold back with a rabid animal, or one that needs to be put down because of circumstances. Whilst capture and arrest seems to be a fair and just way, one I think you as magistrate for this district would advocate, I’d get rid of the three of them in one fell swoop. The caverns are unstable in parts—easy to engineer a collapse, and a rock fall is deadly. Even if not killed directly, injured and walled up in debris means certain death…these men do not raise my sympathy. I can obtain the dynamite. I just need your permission.”
“Whoa!” Richard’s breath left him in a loud huff. “You are advocating no trial and execution based on suspicion which goes beyond the principles that have governed my life. I have sought to bring these miscreants to justice. Whilst my innermost feelings have sympathy with what you propose, I cannot justify the intent. Face to face with a man, I will fight, each of us having an equal chance, but to kill in the way you suggest is no chance at all.”
“What chance did Tasker give her ladyship’s grandmother?”
With a wry face, Richard could only answer, “None. She died in great pain. You are a great advocate of ‘an eye for an eye.’ But I still can’t sanction it.”
“That’s your answer, but I will think over our talk and see if there is another way we can achieve our ends. My reasons are for my village. Villains in such close proximity can only cause distress. I have a wife, children, and a widespread family to think of. After what happened to Matthew, I must employ any means to prevent it happening to one of my kin.”
Richard was silent for a long m
oment as he digested Aaron’s words. He could readily see the man spoke the truth. Tasker was rabid. Indeed, he might have been that way all his life with no one strong enough to take him down and quell the violence of his actions. Except it went against the grain he upheld to collapse a mountain on three men without a trial.
“Whatever we do should stay within the law,” he answered. “The fact that we may be justified in taking any means to do away with these villains puts us at risk of being equally culpable. I think the horses are the key. Sooner or later, one of them will come out to see to them. I hope sooner. We need to put two men on guard near the horses and one on the back entrance. Let them think we don’t know where they are, that it is all clear to use the front entrance. When their man does not return, they will guess Matthew has told us where they are and we are waiting for them to emerge. I guess they will know they can’t stay in the cave forever. They’ll need water. There used to be a small spring at the back of the cave, but when I last visited, it had dried up. So I believe they will try to make their way through the passage that goes further into the hill. Neither will know the danger of rock falls. If one occurs, likely happen-chance, then that is their fate and not occasioned by us. However, they are not stupid. Certainly, Tasker isn’t, and they are all strong men, so shifting boulders out of the way will not present too great a difficulty. We need to arrange a few suitable men, well-armed, to take turns in watching. They need to be armed to protect themselves but only shoot if they run into danger. The law does provide for self-defence.”
Aaron grinned, his teeth showing up against the darkness of his beard. “Aye, you are right, milord. Much as I’m eager to give fate a helping hand, I’d not like to stand in the dock for killing a man. I’ll get the men you want.”
“We will meet again tomorrow, Aaron, and confirm the plan. For now, I think we should take the rest of the night to hopefully sleep, though I confess it will be difficult. I have to return to my wife’s estate in the next two weeks, and I’d like to see an ending before that. The sooner we have these men in jail, the better for us all.”
“Give me a couple of hours, and I’ll get the men I think will help. I’ll send a lad to bring you to our meeting place. There is no sense in letting the village know more than they should, just in case those rogues have acquired friends, though I doubt it. Most people here won’t want you harmed. Does that suit?”
“Yes, I’ll be waiting at the inn.” With a final wave, Richard turned his horse and trotted on to the village, heading for bed and well satisfied with the evening’s work. He felt confident he would be rid of Tasker in due course.
Chapter Fifteen
Richard tapped the dozing valet gently on the shoulder where he was resting on the bed in the second room and whispered, “I’m back, stay where you are and sleep.”
Edgar nodded. Richard moved away and, going to the decanter, poured a measure of brandy and went silently to the other bedroom. Inside the room, he stood listening quietly to the soft breathing of his wife as she slept. With adrenalin still running high after his midnight foray, and while tempted to wake her to relieve the tension, he decided instead to sit, drink his brandy, and plan his next moves against Tasker.
Underestimating him would be fatal and possibly put Lucie at risk. He was up against a man, who, according to those he believed knew the truth, had survived the murder of his young wife, the murder of a prostitute, a bank robbery, and lastly, the murder of his beloved godmother. If anyone should be brought to trial, he should, even though in his heart he agreed with Aaron and wanted to kill the beast.
He was thankful he had spoken to Matthew. Had he not, he would have visited the cavern, unaware it was inhabited by a man who wanted him dead. Against three of them, who knew what could have happened despite the fact he was a strong fighter. Yet, although Aaron thought the boot was on the other foot and they had the rogues pinned, he tried to put himself in Tasker’s place and plan an escape.
The obvious way would be trying to find a passage out through the back of the cave. He had always known that the draft which eddied through the rocks implied that, as air got in somewhere, so there should be an exit out. Aaron had been right when he said a young lad could never have shifted the barrier, but with three strong men—or even two, if their plan worked to capture whoever came to deal with the horses—it could easily be managed.
Therefore, the back way in was the one to guard. Not simple. There were ditches and hollows in plenty on that side, but then Richard knew he would have the men to keep watch. Satisfied he had covered as much ground as he could at this moment, he drained the last of his glass and stood to get undressed. Sliding into bed, he edged close to Lucie and slid a hand round her waist.
She stirred. “Hmm, you are cold. Is it late? You’ve been a long time.”
“Not so long, and it is not late. I’ve come for a warm up, and I’m sure you will oblige. You know I can’t stay too long away from your arms, my love. We’ll dispense with your gown so I can really warm myself in the fire of your skin.”
“And I in your fiery arms, dear lord. You ignite so quickly you take my breath away.”
As he covered her lips in a passionate kiss and prepared her to accept him, he thought once again of telling her he loved her. What an admission that would be.
Mutually ravenous, equally greedy, the kiss ignited a conflagration that spread flames beneath their skins that incited, razed, and burned. Heat surged in a wave of molten hunger, of fiery neediness. Their hands were everywhere over each other, flooded with passion and violent, surging desires seeking immediate gratification. As the cool caress of the night air was banished by the touch of skin to skin, sensations sharp and powerful rocked them into a new level of awareness, of utterly consuming awareness culminating in incandescence as they broke through the clouds and glory and completion found them and shattered them, filled them, and remade them to float free in blissful ecstasy.
Aeons later, or so it felt, Richard regained enough energy to lift and roll off Lucie and slump beside her. She stretched and curled against him. “My God, Lucie that was incredible, I swear.” Then, suddenly, he realised Edgar was in the next room and bent his head to whisper in her ear. “Edgar is in the next room, I think we’d better go to sleep now.”
“Oh? Well I hope he takes note. He is getting very fond of Mary, and her of him.”
He chuckled quietly. “And, my little minx, I believe you encourage them.”
* * * *
Richard went to the house early the next morning to see the stone masons and pay them off before they left. The whole of the exterior of the house had been restored and weather-proofed and the inner structure replastered and painted. At last, the place had lost its shabby and uncared for appearance and was looking splendid. The men had worked hard, and Richard was quite satisfied to grant them full payment.
Yet, as he went round the house noting the refurbishments, he wondered if he could get used to living in his old home. As each day passed, his mind went back over old memories. The more he saw of his surroundings—the village, the hills, the land comprising his estate—the more he remembered his family and the way they had lived. He scarcely recalled his mother. She had been poorly long before she died. He had looked up to Henry, his elder brother, at first, but ultimately realised he’d never bothered to help save him from the strange anger that overtook his father so often that resulted in the beatings that sent him scurrying off to his hideout in the hills. Perhaps Henry felt if he interfered, he would suffer the same ill treatment. As it was, he didn’t have an easy time of it, as he was kept busy learning how to run an estate.
James, the middle one, managed to efface himself whenever trouble loomed, and Richard had a hard time recalling much about him except for the fact he seemed a whiny individual. In fact, he realised the family that he thought he'd had were nothing but unrelated people he’d just happened to grow up with. What a legacy. Could he dispel the ghosts of those people and create a different heritage with Lucie?
A family they could love and cherish. Would the house let them do this?
The lad who turned up mid-morning resembled Aaron, and he guessed the boy was his son. Mounting Jamal, he took the boy up behind him then asked for directions and was led to a house on the outskirts of the village to meet Aaron and his men. There were only four of them, besides Aaron, waiting for him. The hunter introduced them then explained they were between jobs and the only men free at the moment to do the watching that would be required up at Clee Grot to make sure the three characters stayed in the cave.
“If any of them come out it will be to see to their mounts,” said Aaron. “I gather your plan is to seize whoever it is and bring them back to the village.”
“Yes, that is the easiest way to reduce the opposition. Take them out one by one. It will lessen the chance of an all-out fight, and hopefully, they will be arrested and taken away.”
“Good job the weather’s with us at the moment, milord,” said one of the men. “Waiting around them hills can be perishing if the wind gets up.”
“Yes, I realise that, and it is good of you to lend a hand. You’ll be compensated, of course. Unfortunately, I can’t join you immediately. I have to return to Berkshire with my lady wife. She is needed back in her old home. I plan to leave her and return here as soon as possible. It is likely that it will take days before the leader of this gang decides to come out. I should be back to deal with him then. I’ll be off early tomorrow, Aaron. Do the best you can meanwhile, but don’t put yourself in danger. Remember, you are dealing with a devilish murderer. That goes for the rest of you. I don’t want any of you hurt for my cause.”
A Perilous Marriage Page 19