‘What do you mean?’ Sebastian enquired.
‘Had I come to you with my report earlier…’ He handed over a sealed document.
Sebastian broke the seal and scanned the contents. ‘Why in God’s sweet name did you not bring me this yesterday?’ he demanded, handing the document to Matt, who stood beside him.
Bragge looked down at his toes. ‘I thought it could wait another day. I didn’t want to disturb you,’ he mumbled.
Sebastian shook his head. Possession of the facts disclosed by Bragge’s report could have changed the whole course of the previous night’s events, but the damage had been done and still needed to be undone.
‘You know what it says?’
Bragge nodded. ‘My informant advises me that, while the late Lord’s mother did indeed have a cousin by the name of Lynch, he can find no record of there being any children of that name. The lady concerned died in her early twenties, unmarried and childless.’
‘So they are imposters?’
‘It would appear so, my lord.’
Matt glanced at Sebastian. ‘So who are they?’
‘And more importantly, what did they have over Anthony that he took them into his home?’ Sebastian wondered aloud.
Bragge shook his head. ‘My informant says only that Frederick Lynch appeared in society circles not long before his late lordship took up with him.’ He paused. ‘What do you intend to do, my lord?’
‘You are my man of business, Bragge, you tell me. Regardless of what I may or may not know about Frederick Lynch and his sister, the fact remains that, before a number of distinguished witnesses, I was caught in the act of dishonouring Miss Lynch.’
Matt leaned on the desk. ‘Damn it, Bas. This proves they were lying about their relationship to your cousin. They are villains, the pair of them. You can’t go through with it.’
Bragge looked uncomfortable. ‘Money, my lord?’
‘Money is really what this is all about, Bragge, but it does not salvage my now irretrievably damaged reputation. Matt, this is not just about me, it is about you and Connie and Lady Somerton. You will all be tarred with the same brush as me, unless I can clear my name properly.’
‘How are you going to do that?’ Matt asked.
Sebastian shook his head. He checked the clock on the mantelpiece. ‘They will be here shortly so, for the time being, I will have to play along with Freddy Lynch’s scheme. Matt, leave this to me and Bragge. I just need to write a note to Harry.’
Matt opened his mouth to protest but one look at his brother’s steely eyes and he left the room.
***
Obedient to his summons, Freddy, with Fanny on his arm, entered the library on the stroke of midday. The girl leaned against her brother, her face pale and drawn, the picture of outraged innocence. Sebastian, standing by the fireplace, spared her no sympathy. He thought only of the vicious slash that now marred his face, marking him as a boor and degrader of women.
He looked from one to the other. If any of his soldiers had seen him, they would have been in no doubt that trouble would follow. Fanny gave her brother a nervous glance. Freddy, in his turn, raised his chin in a pugnacious fashion but even he could not meet Sebastian’s cold eyes.
As Freddy reached for a chair, Sebastian spoke, employing a tone of voice he had not had cause to use since his Army days.
‘I didn’t say you could sit.’
Freddy stepped back from the chair as if it had burned him.
‘You sent for us, Somerton?’ He produced a handkerchief from his sleeve and patted his upper lip where a few tell-tale beads of sweat had gathered despite the chill of the room.
‘Yes, I sent for you. To tell you I have no intention of playing out your little game.’
He glanced at Fanny whose chin visibly wobbled.
‘I am not the fool you played me for, Lynch. You think you may have trapped me into marriage with your sister, but that is as far as it will go. If it’s money you want, name your sum and be done with it.’
The siblings stared at him as if they had never seen him before in their lives.
‘Sebastian…Lord Somerton…’ Freddy began in a jovial tone, as if all that Sebastian had said was some enormous joke they would laugh over later. The words died on his lips as he looked into Sebastian’s face.
‘But, Sebastian…’ wailed Fanny, her protests, like her brother’s, dying in the light of his lordship’s cold eyes.
‘Name your sum, retract your statement that I assaulted you, pack your bags and leave.’ Sebastian said. ‘Bragge here has recorded an agreement for your signature.’
‘And if we don’t agree?’ Freddy’s chin came up.
Sebastian shrugged. ‘You may both pack your bags and leave anyway. I can live with a ruined reputation. I doubt your sister can.’
Fanny began to sob. Beyond proffering her his handkerchief, her brother made no move to comfort her but glared rebelliously at Sebastian.
‘But I want to marry you. I would do anything to make you happy. I will give you an heir…’ Fanny sniffled through Freddy’s handkerchief.
‘You mean, not only marry you but share your bed? The answer is no, Miss Lynch. Nothing will induce me to partake in any charade of a marriage.’
At that, Fanny dissolved into a flood of tears. This time her brother put a solicitous arm around her shoulders.
‘No need to be so heartless, Somerton,’ he said.
‘Do you really expect me to spare Fanny’s tender feelings, Lynch? Whatever your plan was, she is as complicit as you are.’
‘But I love you,’ Fanny wailed.
‘Spare me!’ Sebastian spat. ‘Right now, I have nothing more to say to either of you.’
The muscle in Freddy’s cheek twitched. ‘On the contrary, Somerton, we still have a great deal to say to each other.’ He cast a meaningful glance at Bragge and added, ‘In private.’
Bragge looked uncertainly at Sebastian who indicated he should leave.
‘And you, Fan.’ Freddy smiled at his sister. ‘Wait for me in the blue parlour. I won’t be long.’
Neither man moved until the door had firmly closed behind Bragge and Fanny.
‘Well?’ Sebastian demanded.
This time, Freddy sat unbidden. Crossing his legs, he flicked his ruffled cuffs and smiled in a manner that made Sebastian cringe.
‘That was a fine speech, cousin, quite worthy of dear Anthony,’ Freddy said.
‘I am not your cousin,’ Sebastian said between gritted teeth.
‘No indeed, you are shortly to become my brother,’ Freddie observed. ‘Well, Somerton, I think it is time you heard what I had to say.’
‘There is nothing I want to hear from you.’ Sebastian turned his back on Freddy and stared out of the window with his arms crossed.
‘Regardless of your wishes, I am certain society will be agog to hear that, as well as monstering my precious sister in your short time at Brantstone, you have also compromised the virtuous widow, Isabel.’
His stomach lurched. ‘What new concoction of yours is this nonsense?’
Behind him, Freddy laughed. More a high-pitched giggle worthy of Fanny. ‘Ah now, this I don’t have to invent. I have the evidence of my own eyes. You and your precious Isabel forgot that a house has eyes and I just happened to be looking from my window and saw you rolling in the hay with the lovely Lady Somerton like a pair of randy farm hands. I can produce two witnesses to the fact. My man and his sister were both with me at the time.’
A cold chill ran down Sebastian’s spine. Did Freddy mean those few snatched moments by the lake? Nothing had happened, but to the casual observer…
The jolt hit Sebastian as hard as a physical blow beneath the ribs. He felt the air leave his lungs and had to reach for the desk behind him to steady himself as the enormity of what Freddy had said hit him. Even without the glimmer of truth around it, once Freddy’s evil tongue had spread the nauseous whispers, Isabel would be ruined. No respectable family would entrust their daughters to her school and
no man would risk her reputation to save her from a long and lonely widowhood. Sebastian, his own reputation tarnished beyond redemption, would be powerless to save her.
‘What do you want?’ he said between clenched teeth.
‘I want what your late cousin allowed me as the price of my silence.’
Sebastian turned to face him. ‘Would that be the one hundred pounds a month that Anthony was paying to someone?’
Freddy smirked. ‘You know about that? I think, in the circumstances, that should be increased to two hundred pounds a month and, of course, I would expect you to do honour by my sister as your wife.’
‘There is no money. Anthony left this estate destitute.’
‘Then you will just have to find it, Somerton. Anthony did. Dear cousin Anthony, so generous to a fault.’
Sebastian resisted the urge to grab the man by the orderly folds of his neck cloth and throttle him to death. He steadied his breath and considered Freddy for a moment, trying to read the implacable face.
‘What did you have over Anthony?’
Freddy’s eyes widened. ‘Now that would be telling, Cousin Sebastian. Let’s just say he was enamoured of a friend of mine and made the mistake of writing him letters, which, unfortunately for Anthony, came into my possession.’
‘How?’
Freddy met Sebastian’s gaze with equanimity. ‘Sadly, my poor friend succumbed to consumption, but he left the letters as an insurance policy, you may say. You never know when such things will be useful.’
‘But Anthony’s dead. They can’t hurt him.’
‘No, but they could certainly hurt poor Isabel. Betrayed by one man and impugned by another. Time to reconsider, dear cousin Sebastian?’
‘You are no more Anthony’s cousin than you are mine,’ Sebastian snarled. ‘I don’t know who you are but I know one thing for certain: you and your sister are imposters. Not only have you inveigled your way into this house, but you have been systematically pilfering valuables from Brantstone since your arrival.’
Freddy raised an eyebrow. ‘And can you prove that?’
Sebastian had no tangible evidence, just Connie’s encounter with Fanny. He had ordered both Freddy and Fanny’s rooms searched but had found nothing.
‘Your dear sister was caught red handed by my sister,’ he said.
‘A misunderstanding, nothing more. And you think that would be sufficient for a court of law? You are naive in the extreme, Sebastian Alder.’ The name was said with venom, emphasising Sebastian’s lowly birth.
‘An innocent girl died with her name besmirched by your thieving, Lynch.’
Freddy raised an eyebrow. ‘My, you have been busy, Somerton. What a distrustful person you are. If you mean Amy Thompson, it was not the thieving that besmirched her name.’
‘Were you the father of her child?’
A look of genuine astonishment crossed Freddy’s face. ‘Me? Hardly.’
‘Then who…?’
Freddy rose to his feet and smiled enigmatically. ‘I really have no idea. Now, I must go and comfort my poor sister with the reassurance that you will be married by special licence within the week. I will see you at dinner.’
‘You will see me in hell,’ muttered Sebastian.
As the door closed behind Freddy, he slammed his fist into the desk, rejoicing in the pain.
The door opened and Matt came back into the room, accompanied by Harry Dempster. ‘How did it go?’
Sebastian shook his hand, trying to restore the feeling to his tingling fingers.
‘Badly,’ he said.
‘You didn’t hit him, did you?’ Matt enquired.
Sebastian shook his head. ‘Sorely tempted as I might have been, it didn’t go that far.’ He looked at his brother. ‘I need to talk to Harry, Matt. Can you excuse us?’
Matt left the room and Harry sat himself in the chair recently vacated by Freddy.
‘Bad business,’ Harry said after Sebastian had finished recounting his interview with Freddy. ‘Do you think he did Somerton in?’
‘Why would he? Somerton was paying him regularly. He had a comfortable place to live. Anthony’s death ended all of that.’
‘Perhaps Somerton had offered him more? In the event of his death.’
Sebastian considered that notion for a long moment. ‘Surely not. No doubt Anthony would have been in mortal fear of exposure.’ Sebastian raised a hand to his throat. ‘It’s a hanging offence, Dempster. More likely Anthony had decided to withdraw his favour.’
‘Again, why? If Lynch was blackmailing him, he must have known that odious little swine would have no hesitation in calling his bluff. Just as he called yours.’ Harry ran his hand across his chin. ‘What are we going to do, Alder?’
‘We? This is my problem, not yours.’
Harry gave a rueful smile. ‘Never could resist a challenge!’
Sebastian allowed himself a smile in response. ‘Your selfless support is appreciated, old friend. The key to this is the saddle.’
‘What saddle?’ Harry asked.
‘I’ve got Anthony’s saddle. It clearly shows the girth strap was tampered with.’
Harry’s eyes widened. ‘You mean…?’
‘Not quite cut through but sufficient to break if any force was put on it. I’ve an idea to draw the killer out but we’re running a risk.’
Harry grinned. ‘The riskier the better.’
***
To Sebastian’s chagrin, Freddy took his accustomed place at supper as if nothing untoward had occurred. He shook out his napkin and smiled beatifically at the three Alders and Harry Dempster who had joined them for the meal.
Connie glowered at him from across the table. ‘Where’s Fanny?’ she asked.
‘Poor Fan is quite exhausted so I accompanied her back to the dower house. I must say, Lady Somerton has made it most agreeable. Quite homely.’
Sebastian looked down the table at the man, wondering if Freddy now had designs on the dower house.
‘Lady Kendall called this morning, Sebastian. I received her as you were otherwise engaged,’ Connie said.
‘Thank you, Connie,’ Sebastian replied.
‘I like Lady Kendall,’ Connie continued, and he smiled at her gratefully. Her chatter brought some normality to the situation. ‘She is very keen to present me in London.’
Freddy set his soupspoon back in the bowl.
‘Oh, but you will have your own new sister-in-law to perform that function!’
‘I would rather have Lady Kendall,’ Connie flashed back.
Freddy did not push the point.
‘Matt, remind me in the morning to talk to Thompson,’ Sebastian said over his soup.
Matt looked up. ‘What about?’
‘I was down in the stables this afternoon and thought I’d do a bit of an inspection of the chaff room.’
‘Why?’ Matt asked unhelpfully and Sebastian regretted not taking his brother into his confidence.
‘I thought some of the oats were mouldy,’ he said.
‘My dear Somerton,’ Freddy put in, ‘the standard of the oats is hardly your concern.’
Sebastian shot the man a hard glance. ‘It is when mouldy oats can give a horse colic.’ He turned back to Matt. ‘I am damned if I didn’t find a saddle hidden in one of the chaff bins.’
‘A saddle? How extraordinary,’ Connie said. ‘Did you look at it?’
‘Of course I did. I wonder if we don’t have a thief in our midst. It was rather a nice saddle engraved with the Somerton coat of arms. I hadn’t seen it before.’
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Freddy’s knife hovered over his meat before he forked the slice of beef and asked in a casual tone, ‘What did you do with it?’
‘Thompson wasn’t around so I put it back where I found it. If one of the stable hands is stealing, I thought it best not to arouse suspicion. I’ll take it up with him tomorrow morning.’
Freddy folded his napkin and straightened in his chair. ‘Absolutely the right
decision. Leave it ‘til the morning. I thought a game of cards tonight, gentlemen?’
Sebastian shot him a sour look. ‘I’ve had enough of playing games with you, Lynch. I didn’t get much sleep last night so I shall retire.’
Matt yawned. ‘I’ll play a couple of hands with you, but I won’t be far off bed myself.’
Sebastian and Connie rose from the table, leaving Freddy and Matt with the remains of the bottle of wine.
Connie took his arm as they climbed the stairs. ‘I’ve hardly seen you all day, Bas. Are you all right?’
He smiled down at her. ‘I really am tired,’ he admitted.
At the top of the stairs she threw her arms around him. ‘I hate Freddy and I despise Fanny. I abhor what they have done to you.’
He kissed the top of her head. ‘Don’t lose sleep over me, Con. I am sure something will work out in the end. Now go to bed and I’ll see you in the morning.’
He waited until her bedchamber door closed and allowed himself a small smile. He had an hour to make the necessary arrangements.
Chapter 24
Harry let out a breath. ‘I don’t think he’s coming,’ he whispered, shifting his weight. They had been secreted in the chaff room for a couple of hours and were both stiff and cold.
‘Shh,’ Sebastian responded, stiffening as, over the familiar sound of the horses moving restlessly in their stalls, he heard booted feet on the cobbled floor of the stable.
Harry nodded and raised his pistol.
They had left the door to the feed room ajar and it squeaked on its hinges as an unseen hand pushed it back. In the dark, Sebastian glanced at Harry and laid a hand on his sleeve. He cursed to himself. He had been expecting only Freddy but three figures entered the room. Freddy’s man, Jenkins, a large, silent man whom Bennet uncharitably referred to as ‘the dumb ox’, set a lantern down on the table, illuminating the room and the faces of the other two men, Freddy and Matt.
Seeing his brother, it was all Sebastian could do not to let out an audible groan. What in God’s name was Matt doing with them? His orders to Matt had been only to engage Freddy in cards and a few drinks. He had been quite explicit that Matt was not to get any further involved.
Insubordinate brothers, he thought, grinding his teeth.
Lord Somerton’s Heir Page 23