An Unexpected Title (Suspicious Circumstance Book 1)

by Jackie Williams

  To think of Madeleine lost and trapped in such a maze had been the worst moment of his life. How would he find her? Yes, he could go into the passageways, but they might wander without meeting for days, weeks. He might find her, a mere skeleton of rattling bones curled in a long forgotten corner. And then maybe real ghosts would haunt his halls.

  More infuriating was the fact that he couldn’t ask for help in searching for her. As much as he wanted her found, he couldn’t risk anyone else becoming entombed within the walls. The most he could do was send his staff from room to room, knocking on walls and calling her name in the scant hope that she could hear them and answer. At least then, if nothing else, he could tear down the walls with his bare hands and find her, free her, bring her back into the light, and into his arms.

  And that was the moment he knew he had lost his heart again. He didn’t know when it had happened. Didn’t know why. They had barely spoken, but they had already argued. They had both eaten, but not yet together. They had confessed their vulnerabilities to one another, but had not yet proved their worth.

  But his heart pounded frantically at the mere thought of her. His blood tore through his veins. His body could not deny his attraction for hers. And yet his fear for her life and his own without her in it, bubbled in his chest like a river rising in a storm, overwhelming his lust and his passion and leaving him utterly desolate and in despair.

  Until Phillips’ ear-splitting shriek had wakened him from his personal hell.

  Ash returned to her room.

  “Are you all right?” Madeleine asked quietly. His glower as he had followed the doctor hadn’t boded well, but there had not been the angry shouts that she had expected.

  Ash closed his eyes briefly before unfolding his arms and walking around the end of the bed. She wriggled over a few inches and patted the counterpane, indicating for him to sit. He dropped like a stone, as if his knees had been near collapse. Which he now knew they had.

  He frowned at her from beneath a heavy brow.

  “You ask me if I am all right when you are the one who has gone through hell.” He choked back the lump that had formed in his throat.

  Madeleine found the strength to smile.

  “Just as well Phillips swings a book like a girl. Wouldn’t have come so close to me if I hadn’t so many cobwebs glued to my eyelashes. I could barely make out his form. I had no idea a spider made webs so sticky, nor so strong, or so thick. Or so blinding! I swear that if I had the luxury of a candle while in there, I still wouldn’t have been able to see a thing.” She paused and reached out a tentative hand as she carried on. “How is Phillips, by the way?”

  Ash took her hand in his, relieved to feel her warm fingers curling around his.

  “Last I saw, he was in the kitchens being looked after by cook, Mary, and Gertrude. Michael and Jimmy too, I suspect. I don’t think they could sleep after all the excitement.” The two boys had been more than enthusiastic calling for Madeleine as they ran about the house.

  Madeleine smiled as she blinked up at him.

  “They are good lads. We’ll let them sleep late in the morning to catch up.” She swallowed before continuing. “And Mrs. Grenfell and Mr. Flack?”

  She hid her tremble well but Ash noticed a glimmer of fear in her eyes. And who could blame her after being beaten and tied up. He pulled her closer.

  “Mathews has taken them both to the town jail.”

  In the hour she had been bathing, Ash had made several discoveries. One of the first being that while everyone else had been searching the house for his wife, Mrs. Grenfell had sneaked off to her room to pack her bags. Already suspicious of the woman and her unusual remedies, Ash had remembered something else incriminating and immediately secured the woman in her room until Mathews could be called. Her venomous shouts had rung through Claiborne’s walls. And in her fury she became determined not to be accused of murder on her own. She gave up her accomplice within seconds. Flack was discovered a few minutes later, hauling the family strongbox over Claiborne’s threshold.

  The tension left Madeleine’s shoulders.

  “I heard her vitriol. I never would have imagined such a harpy hid behind her smile. I have an apology to make. Not just to Mr. Phillips, but also to you.”

  Ash let out a long breath, one he felt he had been holding half the night.

  “No, not to me. But yes, we all owe one to Phillips. Poor man must have thought he was losing his mind. All of us were fooled. Who would have suspected her, though I should have known right from the start. It only came to me earlier this evening.”

  She tilted her head curiously.

  “What came to you?”

  Ash shook his head.

  “The shock of the morning your father died must have made me deaf as to what the woman said. She told me right there on Claiborne’s steps that your father had been killed with his paperknife, but when I walked into the study, your father’s hand was still wrapped about the silver handle. You couldn’t see what type of knife had been used. Finch had to pry open your father’s fingers to reveal and remove it. How could she have known the murder weapon was a paperknife unless she was the one who plunged the damned thing into his chest?” He spoke bitterly still kicking himself mentally for not thinking of it days ago.

  Tears filled Madeleine’s eyes.

  “But why kill him? What did he do to warrant such an end?”

  Ash shrugged.

  “Some sayings are true. There is nothing so dangerous as a woman scorned.”

  Madeleine thought back to the way the housekeeper had lifted her hand so lovingly to the portrait of the earl only that afternoon.

  “I didn’t know she held my father in such high regard. I didn’t believe you when you told me what Phillips had seen happen between them.” Her cheeks flushed as she recalled the slap to Ash’s cheek.

  It seemed that Ash recalled it too as he lifted his free hand and let his fingertips run over the side of his face. He dropped it back to his side as he shook his head.

  “No, you were right. There was nothing between them. Yes, Phillips had spoken the truth about what he had seen. Though I doubt that your father initiated the kiss beneath the mistletoe. She probably made the first move and kissed him. I suspect he was too polite or too surprised to refuse.”

  Madeleine shuddered.

  “I don’t ever want to hear that woman’s name again, though I am glad she has confessed all. It has come as a shock to discover that she and Flack had conjured this plan so long ago.”

  Ash squeezed her hand.

  “They had both been employed here for years. I suspect it took them a while to think of it. And there was the fact that Flack thought he had the right. He is your uncle, your father’s half brother. I should have realized when he told me about his childhood tonight, but I had other things on my mind. He and your father were practically brought up together until your father went to school and then university. If Flack had been born the right side of the blanket he would be the earl today.”

  A light glimmered in her eyes.

  “And that was how he knew of the secret passageways. Either he discovered them with my father when they were boys, or my father told his brother about them. Flack must have shared his knowledge of them with the maid he fell for.”

  “Mrs. Grenfell.” Ash hissed the woman’s name.

  The tears ran down Madeleine’s cheeks.

  “That she could first give my mother tonics to stop her conceiving was bad enough. To use the passageways to secretly gain entrance to my mother’s room and systematically poison her drinking water afterwards is beyond barbaric.”

  Ash nodded.

  “She didn’t want it to look like murder and was willing to bide her time. She knew that a sudden death would look strange. Good things come to those who wait... But she must have had the surprise of her life when you were born. Your mother must have forgotten to take her morning tea for a few days. Lacing it with herbs and plants to stop conception had been so effective
until then. At least you were a girl and couldn’t affect the family line. One dreads to think what concoction she might have given the baby if it had been born a boy.” The horror of the woman’s evil nature was not lost on either of them. They remained quiet for a few moments, each contemplating what a boy baby might have suffered.

  Madeleine broke the silence.

  “And Flack? What was he waiting for?”

  Ash drew some papers from his pocket. He had found them in Flack’s dresser drawer.

  “It is a long and sad story. I suspect that in his efforts to woo the woman he had fallen in love with, he revealed the nature of his birth. To impress her no doubt. To assure of his position in the household. I don’t believe that he had ever thought about who would inherit Claiborne after your father. The earl was young and newly married. Clearly a son would be born. But Flack didn’t know where Mrs. Grenfell’s feelings really lay, had no notion of her jealousy or of the potions she gave your mother to stop her conceiving. Years passed and there was no son, no heir. And then the seed of doubt was laid in his mind by Mrs. Grenfell. When his brother died, someone completely unknown could walk through the doors and oust him from the home that should rightfully be his.”

  Madeleine nodded.

  “He must have been so angry.”

  Ash agreed.

  “Yes, and anger is easy to manipulate. While Mrs. Grenfell had her own ideas for a comfortable future, she knew Flack would do anything for her and thought up a cunning plan. If your mother died, she would have the freedom to seduce the earl. She was so sure of herself that she assumed she could persuade your father into marrying her. She told Flack of her plan. At first he was shocked but she explained that they could both have everything they wanted if she bore the earl a son. She only had to keep giving your father his ‘tonics’. He would die from what looked like a natural death soon after she gave birth. As Dowager and mother of the heir, she would be able to remain at Claiborne for as long as she liked. And she could remarry whoever she wished. She made a bargain with Flack that she would marry him as soon as the son was born and the earl dead.”

  Madeleine gripped the sheets in anger.

  “The very thought of that evil witch lying with my father makes me sick to my stomach.”

  “Indeed. But as I told you. Love is a strange thing. It creeps up on you and draws you in. I suspect that for all her plans of wealth and a glorious future, Mrs. Grenfell actually fell in love with your father. She continually refused Flack’s advances and threw herself at the earl. But with love comes another equally intense emotion. Jealousy. While in the beginning Flack thought her plan a reasonable one, later the mere idea of the woman he loved lying with another man ate at him. It twisted through his every thought. He had to do something to gain the property in his own right. He wanted his claim on the title to have validity. And there was also his pride. He wanted any heir to be his own. He had written to solicitors stating he was the next in line to the title.”

  Madeleine gasped.

  “Does he have a genuine claim?”

  Ash shook his head.

  “Not that I could find. Your grandfather is not mentioned on his birth certificate, and I can find no trace of any letter to verify his claim. Even if it is true, he has no documentation to uphold it. His mother was never married to his father. There is no proof. It won’t hold up in court.”

  Confusion creased her brow.

  “So how did he intend to inherit?”

  Ash had taken some time to consider this very problem, but it wouldn’t have been so difficult.

  “It seems that almost as soon as your mother died Flack discovered his half brother also had health troubles. He only had to wait. You would be married off to someone eventually and removed from Claiborne. As far as Flack knew, the family line would die with the Fifth Earl. With no one else to inherit the title, Flack assumed he could simply take over. Who was there to stop him? He wouldn’t even need to tell anyone that your father had died. He could simply pretend that the man had gone on a tour of the continent... For his health, to collect butterfly specimens, to find a new wife... It didn’t matter what reason he made up, and more importantly, no one would have cared. There are plenty of places to lose a body around here. No one would believe any of Phillips’ ranting if he questioned where his master had gone. As far as everyone knew the man was a drunk. If your father conveniently disappeared, Flack could have made himself the master of the house. Who would oust him? No one. With you married off, your father’s trusted butler, the one who had lived at Claiborne for much of his life, could simply maintain that the earl was travelling the world. The situation might have carried on for years without being called into question. And it wasn’t as if you would hear conflicting news from anyone else. Your father lived like a hermit and had cut nearly all ties with friends and neighbours after your mother died. Going away for the foreseeable future was entirely possible. No one would have noticed a thing.”

  Madeleine remembered her conversation with the housekeeper the previous afternoon.

  “But their plans went wrong because of you...”

  Ash nodded.

  “Yes. They hadn’t known that your father had been in regular contact with me since before your mother died. Hadn’t suspected that I existed until a few months ago but Mrs. Grenfell saw a letter on your father’s desk. And then she discovered I was the heir. If you and I married, their plans would come to nothing. They had to be prepared. Mrs. Grenfell thought about the passageways behind your parents’ suites for the first time since your mother had died. She sneaked into your father’s bedroom via them, either to seduce him or to poison him, but she hadn’t considered how filthy the passageway would become in the intervening years. She was discovered as she stepped from the hidden panel in your father’s bedroom by Phillips who was on his nightly mission to take and hide your father’s empty brandy bottle. The cobwebs covering her convinced the poor man that he had seen a ghost.”

  Madeleine would have laughed had the situation not been so malicious.

  “And she escaped back through the panel before my father wakened from his drunken stupor and before Phillips came round from his faint.”

  “Yes, the sight of her petrified him. But his discovery also scared her. She couldn’t afford for anyone to notice the passageways leading to your mother’s bedroom. Investigations might have ensued and the poisoning discovered. She didn’t go back into them until desperation made Flack hit you over the head last night.” Ash fisted his hands. He had wanted to throttle the fellow when he had realized what the fiend had done.

  Madeleine touched her temple.

  “I didn’t know it was him. The sunlight was at his back casting his face in shadow. All I knew was that it couldn’t have been you. I doubt you could turn easily in that tight space, let alone wield a club.”

  Ash lifted the corner of his mouth.

  “A candlestick from the mantelpiece, actually. Rather a fine silver one. It is lucky you are so hard headed, though I am not so sure that the silversmith will say the same when I send it to have the dent taken out.”

  Her shoulders dipped as if carrying a weight.

  “I cannot believe they hated me so much. Am I so dreadful?”

  Ash let out a laugh.

  “Terrible. The worst person in the world. For them. But it was not your fault. When my visit was announced, and the reasons for it, the pair of them went into a blind panic. Mrs. Grenfell made one last effort after discovering I was calling. She had to stop us becoming married and conceiving a child before she had her final chance with your father. I believe she took his supper to him in his study that night and tried to convince him of her love. He turned her down again yet again, rejected her, humiliated her. He might have even dismissed her. That was the moment when she realized that she had nothing more to lose. If I arrived to stake my claim on Claiborne and then married you, she and Flack might end up with nothing. She picked up the nearest thing she could find and plunged it through your father
’s heart. It was only after she had done the deed that she noticed Mr. Leyman on the terrace outside your father’s study window.”

  Madeleine let out a shuddering breath.

  “So she ran to Flack, knowing that his love for her would ensure he helped to conceal her crime.”

  “Flack confessed to killing him. It was mere chance that the butler slipped and turned his ankle earlier that evening, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as he made out. He had only thought that going to his bed might be the perfect opportunity for Mrs. Grenfell to see him privately in his room. But instead of coming to his bed for a lover’s tryst, she ran to him after killing the earl. And Flack didn’t hesitate.”

  Madeleine looked incredulous.

  “And he decided to kill Thomas right then? Why? He might not have seen anything. My father might not have even been dead.”

  “I don’t think Flack was quite so coldblooded. He followed Mrs. Grenfell back through the passageways and checked on your father first. After all, the earl was his own brother. But after ascertaining that the man was indeed dead, Flack couldn’t take any chances. He was in love with her, Madeleine.” Ash breathed slowly as he tried to explain. “It is a ghastly sensation. Churns your guts and messes with your mind. You think weird things, would do deeds you never thought you could. Flack’s only thought was to save Mrs. Grenfell from the gallows. He ran to intercept Leyman. Persuaded him to talk. Perhaps told him that they needed to do this carefully or the housekeeper would never face justice. She would claim that the master had attacked her, that her actions were in self-defence. Maybe Flack told Leyman that he would turn her in as, being the butler, he was more likely to be believed. He might have even threatened to set Leyman up for the crime. After all, several people had heard the argument earlier in the evening and had seen the stable master stomping out of the house.”