The Black Madonna (Roundheads & Cavaliers Book 1)

by Stella Riley

  ‘When has she ever?’ he grinned. ‘But what are you worried about? That he’ll seduce her?’

  ‘I don’t know. Perhaps. Aside from his reputation, how can you trust anyone who trims their coat as he’s just done?’

  ‘Quite. But he’s hardly the first, is he?’

  ‘Probably not,’ said Kate, frowning. ‘But Mr Winter has neither loyalty nor morals. And if he sets his sights on Amy, she’ll fall into his lap like a ripe plum.’

  ‘Is he going to see her again?’

  ‘Next Tuesday. She’s invited him to dine at noon – and Geoffrey won’t be there.’

  ‘So you’ll sit bodkin between them.’ Toby laughed. ‘God! I wish I could see it!’

  ‘You can,’ she replied without thinking. And then, ‘Of course! She can’t send you away – so we’ll turn her little tryst into a family party.’ She smiled winsomely at him. ‘You will come, won’t you?’

  He made her wait for a moment and then laughed.

  ‘Why not? It will be worth it just to see the look on Amy’s face.’

  * * *

  Toby was not disappointed. He and Kate made their entrance just minutes before Cyrus Winter was announced – leaving Amy with no alternative but to pin a brittle smile on her face and make the best of it. Toby avoided Kate’s eye and, in between the quail’s eggs and the custard tarts, came to the interesting conclusion that, if the butter-smooth Mr Winter had his eye on anyone, it certainly wasn’t Amy.

  This intrigued him so much that they had discussed the King’s recent foray into Leicestershire along with Fairfax’s chances of taking Oxford before something even more peculiar struck him. Toby lapsed into silence and pondered the matter. The answer would come to him. He knew it would.

  He left the house in Cyrus Winter’s wake in order to miss the storm that was plainly brewing in Amy’s eyes and it was therefore several days before he saw Kate again. But when Giacomo summoned him from the work-room one afternoon with word that his sister was awaiting him in the parlour, he strolled in on her with a cheerful, ‘You’re still alive, then. I rather thought Amy might have taken a meat-cleaver to you.’

  ‘Well, it’s no thanks to you that she didn’t, is it?’ retorted Kate. ‘I never saw anyone disappear so fast in my life.’

  ‘Can you blame me? I said I’d attend the feast – not stay for the battle royal that was bound to follow it.’ He perched on the arm of a chair. ‘I suppose she was a bit put out?’

  ‘That’s one way of putting it. She threw a dish of nuts at my head,’ she replied. And then, ‘What did you make of Mr Winter?’

  Toby shrugged.

  ‘He’s just your everyday silver-tongued gallant with a liking for the power his money gives him. On the other hand, he’s not stupid. For one thing, it’s not Amy he fancies – it’s you.’

  ‘Yes. I’ve started to wonder about that myself – and could more or less stop worrying if Amy wasn’t so determined to throw herself at him.’

  ‘So why not let her? A rebuff would do her no harm at all.’ Toby slid into the chair, leaving one leg dangling idly over its arm. Then, yawning, he said, ‘To be honest, the only thing I find the least bit interesting about your Mr Winter is how he comes to be wearing Sir’s emerald.’

  For a brief, unpleasant moment the parlour seemed to dissolve around Kate, leaving her blind and dumb. Then, through the roaring in her ears, she managed to say, ‘What? What was that?’

  ‘That enormous square-cut emerald on his left hand. You must have noticed it.’

  ‘No. I mean, I saw it – yes. But --’

  ‘Well, it’s Sir’s – or at least, it was. He used to wear it all the time.’ Toby looked at her. ‘What’s the matter? You’ve gone as white as a sheet.’

  The air seared her lungs and her skin hurt. Finally she said unevenly, ‘Are you sure? Are you sure it’s the same ring?’

  ‘Of course I am! What do you think I’ve been studying for the last four years? And no one could mistake that stone. I doubt there’s another like it.’ He paused again, then said, ‘There’s no need to look so sick. Sir probably sold it to him.’

  Except that he didn’t, thought Kate; but had the sense not to say it aloud. He didn’t … and I don’t know what to do.

  It was necessary to think fast but the difficulty was in knowing where to start. If Toby was right, Luciano’s anonymous enemy was none other than Cyrus Winter – though why this should be so was something she could not begin to guess. But what was instantly obvious was that he had re-entered her life knowing of her links with Luciano and perhaps even of their marriage. He must have recognised Selim that day at the Exchange and known that Toby was apprenticed to Luciano. Altogether, thought Kate grimly, he knew too damned much. So the questions to be answered were whether she dared try using the one weak weapon in her armoury – and whether or not to share her discovery with Toby and Selim and Giacomo. She had a fair idea of what Luciano’s answer would have been … but then, Luciano wasn’t there.

  Drawing a long, steadying breath, she said, ‘Toby – get Selim and Giacomo up here. There’s something we need to talk about.’

  His brows rose but, sensing the urgency in her, he did as she asked. Five minutes later, they were all assembled and, without preamble, Kate said, ‘Selim, Giacomo – I’ve called you in so that we may protect ourselves and, hopefully, also Luciano from a man who has been at some pains to destroy us all. But for Toby’s sake, I need to start at the beginning – mainly because, having just handed me the key, he can’t be kept in the dark any longer and remain safe.’

  Giacomo shook his head doubtfully.

  ‘The signor will not like it.’

  ‘The signor doesn’t know what I know,’ she returned crisply. ‘Listen.’

  Swiftly and without elaboration, she went through it all – detailing the facts as far as she knew them and revealing for the first time the previous autumn’s events at Thorne Ash.

  ‘God’s teeth!’ said Toby angrily. ‘Why didn’t I hear of this before?’

  ‘Because you didn’t need to know it before.’

  ‘It has been like this here also,’ remarked Selim. And he told of the fire, the rats, Luciano’s struggle to stay out of prison and, finally, the kicking he’d received in the tavern. Then, looking full into Kate’s over-bright eyes, he said simply, ‘Much is now clear to me. I did not know he had married you – and was only angry that he had left me behind. You will understand this.’

  ‘Yes. And, like you, I wish he hadn’t done it.’

  ‘No. It is very proper. Also, the man Winter is here in London. We know this.’

  ‘But he doesn’t do things himself,’ cried Kate. ‘And we don’t know he hasn’t sent someone after Luciano.’

  Silence fell. Then Toby said abruptly, ‘Why is Winter turning his attention to Thorne Ash all of a sudden? He can’t surely be putting in all this effort just because you and Sir are married?’

  ‘He’s not.’ Kate swallowed hard. ‘Like you, Father also recognised the ring – and followed it to Cropredy. I think … I think Cyrus Winter killed him.’

  Without a word, Toby erupted from his chair and strode over to the window. For a long time no one spoke; but at length, Kate said flatly, ‘Put it aside, Toby. You must put it aside for the present, as I have done. The question that must be faced now is, knowing what we know, what are we going to do?’

  ‘That is easy.’ It was Selim who spoke. ‘I will kill him.’

  ‘And I,’ snapped Toby, breathing hard, ‘will help.’

  Kate looked at Giacomo.

  ‘What do you think?’

  ‘Me?’ The little man shook his head sadly. ‘I also think killing would be best. But we cannot do it. This man’s life, it does not belong to us. And Luciano will never forgive us if we end it before he can ask the questions he must ask.’

  Toby spun round on a brief, derisive laugh but, before he could speak, Kate said quietly, ‘I agree – and fortunately there’s another way. We now hold one o
f the cards, so let’s see what we can do with it. Cyrus Winter doesn’t know the ring gives him away or he wouldn’t be wearing it. Therefore, he also doesn’t know that we know who he is.’

  ‘What are you saying?’ asked Toby.

  ‘I’m saying that we – or more particularly I – should try luring him into a false sense of security and holding him here in London until Luciano gets back. Then we shall hopefully see an end to the business.’

  Selim shook his head.

  ‘I do not like this plan.’

  ‘I don’t like it much myself,’ responded Kate tartly. ‘But have you a better idea? And now we know where the danger lies, it shouldn’t be too difficult – provided we’re careful. Your job is to watch both me and Cyrus Winter whilst also making sure no one drives a knife into your own back; Giacomo and Toby have the task of going on exactly as normal. And I … I, God help me, have got to let Mr Winter think I don’t dislike him quite as much as I’d have him believe.’ She paused and achieved a small, sardonic smile. ‘In the last twenty years, friend Cyrus has dug himself an amazingly deep pit. Don’t any of you want to see if we can push him into it?’

  * * *

  Make no mistake about it – this man is dangerous, Luciano had said. And in the days that followed, Kate made sure she never forgot it for an instant. The game was to continue being cool to the point of rudeness whilst simultaneously allowing the odd, swiftly repressed glimpse of some reluctant pleasure in his company – a process both arduous and infuriatingly slow. At the end of two weeks, Kate had run through every trick she could think of and, aside from the fact that Cyrus Winter’s visits to Amy’s house had increased in frequency, still had no idea at all whether or not she was succeeding. Then came the inevitable day when he caught her alone … and with a fast-beating heart she allowed the maid to admit him, in order to see what, if anything, would come of it.

  He came in, imperturbably elegant as ever and she said coolly, ‘I’m afraid your luck is out. My sister is a trifle indisposed today and will not leave her room.’

  ‘Then my luck, dear Kate, is most assuredly in.’ He tossed his hat on to a table and advanced, smiling. ‘It’s not your sister that I come here to see.’

  ‘Oh?’ Feigning disinterest, Kate bent her head once more over her tambour-frame. ‘You’ll be saying next that you come to see me.’

  He dropped lazily into the seat at her side.

  ‘Is that so hard to believe?’

  ‘Not hard – impossible. You know perfectly well that I don’t like you very much. And I’ve always fancied that it was mutual.’

  ‘Then you were mistaken. I could like you very well indeed, my dear.’ Without giving her time to read his intention, he twitched the embroidery from her hands and tilted her chin up towards him. ‘And – correct me if I’m wrong – I think you are beginning to find yourself attracted to me. As yet reluctantly, perhaps … but attracted nonetheless. Isn’t that so?’

  ‘No.’ Twisting herself nimbly from his grasp, Kate fled to the other side of the hearth. ‘No, it isn’t. And only an overweening conceit like yours could imagine that it was.’

  He stayed where he was and she thanked God for it.

  Laughing a little, he said, ‘What’s the matter? I thought you favoured the direct approach. And you can’t go on fooling yourself forever.’

  ‘What makes you think I’m fooling myself at all?’

  ‘Experience, dear heart.’ The silver-grey eyes were full of amused indulgence. ‘Your powers of concealment are not all you’d like to think them. And even in those far-off days at Whitehall, it was obvious that life wasn’t offering you the things you wanted. I suspect that is still true. But there is a difference. At Whitehall, you were too inexperienced to know the right opportunity when you saw it. Now you are aware that your life is slipping away down a channel of mediocrity and would give anything to stop it. You don’t want to waste your youth in domestic tedium and increasingly irksome chastity. You want to live. Am I not right?’

  Kate took her time about answering. Quite apart from marvelling at his effrontery, she was beginning to realise that the game had unforeseen pitfalls. Say the wrong thing now and she could either end up quietly murdered or suffer a fate worse than death in Cyrus Winter’s bed. Fortunately, if he was only interested in her as a pawn, there was something else she might try. Something that – if she could make him believe it – might stop him wanting to inflict actual harm on Toby or Amy or anyone at Thorne Ash.

  Allowing her gaze to drop and speaking as though the words were being torn from her, she said, ‘Perhaps. Oh – yes. I suppose part of what you say is true. But there are other things. Things you know nothing of. And I can’t speak of them.’

  There was a pause; and then, on a note of gentle invitation, he said, ‘Are you sure? Think well, Kate. Think how much I understand you and how rarely one is offered a second chance.’ He waited and then, when she merely stood tugging restlessly at her handkerchief, said softly, ‘You are referring to some other involvement. Isn’t that so?’

  ‘Yes.’ She made it no more than an unwilling whisper. ‘Yes … there is someone. Someone I thought I c-cared for. But it was a terrible mistake.’

  ‘A mistake? My dear, we all make those. There’s no need to look so tragic.’

  ‘But there is!’ she replied with sudden violent desperation. The half-shredded handkerchief floated to the floor and she looked at him out of anguished eyes. ‘There is. Can’t you understand? I married him!’

  She let her hands creep to her mouth and remained quite still, scarcely daring to breathe while she searched his face without appearing to do so.

  His brows rose a little and she thought she detected a hint of satisfaction in his eyes. Then he drawled, ‘Married? But how can this be when your sister makes continual fun of your single state?’

  ‘She doesn’t know. No one does. I – we – it was done in secret. So you mustn’t speak of it or ask me his name. I can’t tell you. I’m too ashamed. I was so stupid!’

  ‘Dear me! Is it as bad as that?’

  ‘Worse. He trapped me beautifully - and he’ll never let me go.’

  This time the silence stretched out on invisible threads. Then he said smoothly, ‘All this is very confusing. But if you are tied to a man you don’t want, you can do the same as every other woman in your situation. Take a lover.’

  ‘You?’ asked Kate, as if both mesmerised and terrified.

  ‘Why not? You could do worse.’ Rising, he crossed unhurriedly to her side and Kate had to force herself to remain passive as he took her expertly in his arms and kissed her. Then, looking tauntingly down into her eyes, he said, ‘But you’re not ready, are you? So perhaps it’s just as well I’ve to leave London for a while. It will give you time to make your choice.’

  ‘Leave London?’ she echoed faintly. She wished he would let her go. The sudden rush of relief his words had brought was the only thing stopping her from being sick. ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘That, dear Kate, is my business.’ His hands slid lingeringly from her body and he turned to pick up his hat. ‘But I’ll return in a week or so… by which time you’d better have decided what you want.’ He smiled at her. ‘Goodbye, sweetheart. Try not to miss me too much.’

  Kate stood absolutely still until she was sure he had left the house and then fled incontinently to the privy. Everyone had their limitations, after all; and she had just discovered her own.

  * * *

  She relayed the gist of the meeting to Toby, Selim and Giacomo and fell back into a palsy of waiting. The King took Leicester and May became June. Of Luciano there was no sign at all and the week of Cyrus Winter’s absence turned into a fortnight. Kate began to panic. Then, in the middle of the month, London went wild with joy at news of a great victory over the King at a place called Naseby; Selim was arrested on a charge of assault; and Mr Winter reappeared wearing the uniform of a major in the New Model Army.

  As soon as Kate saw him, the terrible susp
icion that had afflicted her ever since Selim had been taken crystallised into certainty. But it was vital not to show it, so she swept across the room past Amy, saying urgently, ‘Thank God you’ve come back! Now perhaps we can get something done.’

  He accepted her hands and surveyed her with half-startled mockery.

  ‘My dear – what a welcome. I am quite overcome. But what exactly is it you’re expecting of me?’

  ‘It’s my servant. He’s in the Gatehouse for common assault – though I can’t understand how since he was here in the kitchen on the night in question. However. My brother-in-law has done his best but all to no avail and --’

  ‘And I, for one, am not at all sorry,’ cut in Amy waspishly. ‘I never liked the fellow and can’t understand why you didn’t leave him with that horrid Italian.’

  ‘Italian?’ queried Major Winter. And waited.

  ‘L-Luciano del Santi,’ admitted Kate reluctantly. ‘But what Amy doesn’t know is that Selim left after a – a disagreement and offered his services to me. Naturally, I took him on. Finding good servants these days is a nightmare.’

  Amy snorted.

  ‘The only thing that one’s good for is getting maids with child.’

  ‘Oh – do be quiet!’ snapped Kate. And then, to Cyrus Winter, ‘Please – won’t you see what you can do? I’m sure people listen to you … and I’d be so grateful.’

  ‘Would you now?’ His smile was slow and tinged with satisfaction. ‘Then how can I refuse?’

  * * *

  Having made sure, via Toby, that Selim knew what story he was supposed to comply with, Kate settled uncomfortably back on her knife-edge to await developments. In the week that followed, Major Winter called three times but never with any progress to report and Kate was able to ensure that she never received him alone. Then, on June 21st, he arrived on the doorstep just as she and Amy were setting out on a shopping expedition and immediately offered his escort. Kate’s heart sank. Unless she was very careful indeed, it would be all too easy for him to speak to her privately – and that was the very last thing she wanted. There was, however, very little hope of Amy seconding any attempt to send him away and, by the time he’d explained that the prisoners taken at Naseby were even now being marching into London, none at all.