Eloisa's Adventure

by King, Rebecca

  Renwick threw him a dirty look. “It would have worked as well if you hadn’t turned up with your mistress.”

  “I am not his mistress,” Eloisa objected.

  “Mistress; whore; what’s the difference?”

  Eloisa’s mouth fell open.

  “The difference is that Eloisa is here under my guardianship,” Simeon countered.

  He carefully ignored Renwick’s disparaging snort, and balked at the insulting sneer he hurled at Eloisa.

  “I wouldn’t push too hard if I were you because I could have you arrested for murder,” Simeon challenged. He waved toward the neatly stacked furniture behind them. “We could also add theft, as well as breaking and entering. Not only that, but you also lied to the army about your death somehow.”

  “You have all the cards,” Renwick growled. “You have always been the family’s golden boy. Even growing up, my father always used to be ‘Simeon said this’, and ‘Simeon did that’. There was never anything good said about me.”

  “That’s because you never did anything good,” Simeon retorted. “You were always climbing trees, racing curricles, or trying to compromise the ladies.”

  An unholy grin lit Renwick’s face, but all it succeeded in doing was making him look even more macabre that he usually did. Eloisa shuddered but sat still and silent while Simeon probed for the truth.

  “I think I need to have the details of what you have been up to before I decide what to do,” he said as he studied Renwick’s scars.

  “You decide? Do you really think that I am going to allow you to decide anything for me?”

  “You are bringing the Calversham family name into disrepute,” Simeon chided quietly.

  “I am not a Calversham. Renwick Calversham died in battle, remember?”

  Simeon shook his head. “How did you manage that one?”

  Renwick swallowed. “You have no idea what fighting in the war was like.”

  “I fought myself,” Simeon challenged. “I know.”

  Renwick glared hatefully at his cousin. “You know nothing. Look at me,” he whispered. “Look at me!” he bellowed when Simeon stared at the floor.

  Simeon looked up and studied the man’s scars. Eloisa watched in astonishment when he stood and tugged his shirt out of his breeches. He yanked it over his head to reveal jagged scarring around his midriff, just as severe and just as uneven as Renwick’s face.

  Eloisa blinked back tears at the sight of the wounds on both men. It was horrifying to think of what they had been forced to endure during their time at war, but couldn’t find the words to say anything.

  “I have been to war and got injured as well so don’t tell me that I have no idea. There was a time when nobody thought I would survive either,” Simeon declared darkly. “I didn’t swap identities like you did though. Why did you do it Renwick? Just what the hell happened?”

  “They were going to court-marshal me,” Renwick declared quietly. “I will tell you because if you contact the army, they will tell you anyway. I was caught trying to escape.”

  “Desertion,” Simeon sighed. It drew the harshest of punishments. He closed his eyes and suspected he knew what was coming.

  “We had been fighting for months. One day, we went into battle and I barely escaped with my life. We retreated when it grew too dark to see but were told that we were going to go back and fight the next day. Everyone knew that it was suicide. There were only a handful of us left, out of three hundred men. It was a journey toward death that I just wasn’t prepared to take, so I tried to leave. I got caught by the sergeant. He was going to send me back to base to face a court-marshal. If we hadn’t been about to go back into battle, I am sure that I would have been. However, given that there were only a few of us remaining I was made to stay with them and fight. The sergeant told me that if I was still alive at the end of the day, I would go back to the commanding officer and explain my actions. We left to fight just before dawn -”

  He lapsed into silence and stared blankly down at his lap. From the dullness of his voice, and the blankness on his face, it was clear that he was battling with his memories of that awful day when his life had been scarred forever.

  “Did you run away again?” Eloisa asked quietly when Renwick didn’t seem inclined to speak again.

  Renwick looked at her with such soulless eyes that she felt the sting of tears.

  “No, I didn’t. I fought. I was forced to but got struck down.” The proud tilt of his head told her that was how he had received his scar. “I played dead. I stayed on the battlefields while the soldiers moved through us all and checked to see if we were dead. I think if this wound hadn’t been so deep, they would have run me through like they did some of the others. As it was, because I held my breath and lay still, they stepped over me and ran the soldier next to me through instead. Once the soldiers had gone, the locals moved across the fields clearing bodies. They realised I was still alive and helped me get to a place of safety. Unfortunately, I ended up back at camp. My sergeant survived too. I saw him but he didn’t recognise me because my head was wrapped in bandages. I eventually got stitched back up -” he smiled snidely at them, “- but it was a rudimentary job at best. I got transferred to a field hospital and was lying in a bed next to a soldier who had been shot in the face. His entire head was smashed to bits, and he was barely hanging onto life. He died just after midnight on the second night I was there.”

  Eloisa closed her eyes as a wave of horror swept through her. She jumped when she felt Simeon’s hand settle over hers but she was grateful that he had reached out to her. Her fingers clenched around the reassuring comfort of his while they waited for Renwick to finish recounting his story.

  “I knew that my Sergeant would have made notes that I was still to be court-marshalled. I would have proved my father right in his assessment of me if I was shot for desertion.” Renwick spoke in a voice that was so quiet, so subdued, that both Eloisa and Simeon strained to hear him.

  Simeon cursed. “You swapped identities with the soldier in the bed next to you.”

  “I stole some bandages. They were make-shift ones because the hospital was short of supplies, so it was easy to do. In the end, I wrapped my head up and took his place, and put his body on my bed.” He looked up at them blankly. “Renwick Calversham died that day.”

  “Your new identity was born,” Simeon growled. “What are you called now then? I mean, if we call you Renwick, people will ask questions.”

  “Martin Huffleton,” Renwick said quietly. “I was discharged on medical grounds about a month after I got back to England.”

  “So you have lived in England all that time, and your father never knew,” Simeon whispered. “He received a letter from the army informing him of your death and notified everyone that you had been killed in battle.”

  “I knew that because I had effectively died, my father would make alternative provisions in his will for the castle to go to you.” He smiled snidely at Simeon. “I want my inheritance back. If I can’t have it legally I will damned well take it illegally.”

  “You intended to steal anything you could carry,” Simeon growled. “You are dead though and are not entitled to it. You can hardly expect me to just hand it over to you now. You have lived your entire life surrounded in lies and deceit. Your very presence here today is based upon an extraordinary sequence of lies you have woven around yourself. What about this Martin Huffleton’s family? They don’t even know that he has died. He could have a wife and children around somewhere, waiting for him to come home. How could you do that to them, just to save your own worthless skin? How do you know that you would have been shot? We were at war. They needed every soldier they could get. How do you know that your Sergeant didn’t die in another battle later on and the court-marshal was forgotten about?”

  Now that his initial shock had worn off, Simeon’s temper burned. The very thought of Renwick’s callous disregard for the soldier who had already suffered enough disturbed him. How could anyone do that t
o another human being? It was something that Simeon just couldn’t bring himself to understand.

  “I want what’s rightfully mine, Simeon. George Calversham was my father, not yours. By rights, this place, and everything in it, should be mine.”

  “But you are dead!” Simeon all but bellowed. “You lied to save yourself being shot for desertion. You don’t exist anymore, Renwick!”

  “It’s my house,” Renwick shouted back.

  Simeon scowled at his cousin, his eyes full of the fury he struggled to contain. “You don’t exist anymore, Renwick; in the British Army, or the Calversham family. You were buried several years ago. As far as I am concerned, you can bloody well forget about getting your hands on anything to do with the Calversham family. I shall, however, have no hesitation in turning you over to the army.” He leaned forward in his seat and stared at his cousin. “I have the portraits of your father. The family resemblance is quite striking even with your injury.” He flicked a glance at Eloisa. “So striking in fact that even with your beard Eloisa knew that you were George’s son, and she has never seen you before in her life. If it is evident to her, it will be obvious to others too. You won’t get away with this, Renwick.”

  “You can go to hell,” Renwick snarled. “Do you really think that I will let you walk away with everything that should rightly be mine? Do you really think that I am going to let the golden boy pocket my money?”

  “Is that what you had planned? You intended to help yourself to the house contents while my back was turned, pawn what you didn’t want, make yourself a tidy profit.” It wasn’t a question.

  “You don’t want this castle,” Eloisa countered. “You just want the money the contents can give you.”

  “Shut up. This is family business,” Renwick countered.

  “She is right though, isn’t she Renwick? After all, you have deceived the army, and stand to be shot by firing squad if your true identity is discovered. Anyone in the area will know who you are; they watched you grow up after all.” Simeon shook his head in disbelief. “You don’t want this castle at all. You never have. It has just been a source of income for you. Somewhere you come to with your greedy little hand out so you can continue your dissolute lifestyle. Your friend calling by here did so to signal to you that he had arrived in the area and was ready to help you take the goods away from here. That’s why he offered me that ridiculous sum for this place.” He wished now that he had kicked the visitor on the shins harder.

  Eloisa felt physically sick at the depths of depravity to which Renwick had sunk. While on the one hand she could understand anyone being horrified at the thought of being marched to their death, stealing someone else’s name, at the expense of their family, was sickening.

  Renwick seemed to realise just how hopeless his situation was because he suddenly turned pleading eyes on Simeon.

  “If you call the army, the whole story will hit the broadsheets and the Calversham name will be brought into disrepute.” He flicked a dismissive glance at Eloisa. “Do you think that anyone is going to want to be aligned to a Calversham, even the godly Simeon, if you have a deserter in your midst?” He shrugged unconcernedly, and his voice turned cold and calculating. “After all, I will tell them that you have known all along and been harbouring me here. I can tell them all sorts of things, and it is just your word against mine. I will make sure that I bring you down with me, Simeon.”

  Eloisa glared balefully at him. “God, you will stop at nothing, will you?” she whispered in horror. “How could you do that to your own family?”

  “I said shut up!” Renwick snarled. “This is family business, and nothing to do with you.”

  When Eloisa tried to stand, Simeon tightened his hold on her fingers, silently warning her to remain where she was.

  “Leave Eloisa alone,” he sighed darkly. “She is nothing to do with you.”

  “She is your doxy.”

  “I am no such thing,” she protested, her eyes wide with indignation.

  “Eloisa is not a doxy. She was thrown from a carriage and walked here rather than die out in the storm.” Simeon looked his cousin straight in the eye. “She is nothing but a mere spectator who has been drawn here by circumstances that put her life at risk. She didn’t ask to be scared witless by an unknown spectre standing over her bed, or nearly killed by falling gargoyles. You have dragged her into this by your actions, Renwick, so leave her the hell alone.”

  Eloisa’s head swivelled back to Renwick. She leaned back in her chair when she found him staring thoughtfully at her, and swallowed nervously. It left her feeling somewhat bereft when Simeon released his hold on her hand. She had no choice but to clasp her hands in her lap to quell their shaking and wait to see what was decided. She knew that she should leave. After all, Renwick was partly right in that this was family business, but Simeon had made it clear that he wanted her to remain where she was. Should she leave anyway?

  Given that Simeon had finally managed to get Renwick talking, she didn’t want to do, or say, anything that would disturb them.

  “I have to report you to the army. My conscience won’t allow me to ignore what you have done. The soldier whose identity you stole may have family somewhere who are still waiting to hear news of him. It is only right and proper that his demise should be reported, and that unfortunately means that your treachery will be revealed. The consequences are yours and yours alone. Whatever disrepute the Calversham name is brought into because of your endeavours will have to be endured, but at least our consciences will be clear. The gossips will move on to new fodder eventually, and you will be relegated to the annals of history as one of the family’s descendants who nearly brought the family to ruination.”

  When Renwick opened his mouth to speak, Simeon threw him a warning look. “There is no alternative given that you have broken into the castle and tried to steal from me. I would have been prepared to ignore all of that if you hadn’t tried to kill us with those gargoyles.”

  He threw a considering glance at Eloisa before he turned back to his cousin. “I want to live my life knowing that you are no longer a threat to me, or my family. Given your penchant for turning up unannounced and expecting people to give you money to pave your way in life, I am going to put a stop to your endeavours here and now, Renwick. I am not your father. I am going to live my life free of you and your sordid little schemes.”

  He stood and stared dispassionately at the man who used to be his cousin. “I hereby cast you out of the family, and will report you to the authorities. Given that I have an innocent member of the public with me, who has come to the castle to seek sanctuary, I am going to keep you bound until you can be arrested. Until then, I think that we have nothing else to say.”

  “You will not just hand me over to them,” Renwick declared pompously.

  He glared at Eloisa with such hatred that she suddenly wanted to run away. She had to remind herself that he was tied to the chair and couldn’t hurt her. However, the urge to flee was so strong that she suddenly wished that she had left at the very beginning of this conversation, and not stayed to listen to their conversation.

  “I will do as I damned well please,” Simeon countered flatly. “You are certainly in no position to challenge me, now are you?”

  He turned toward Eloisa somewhat officiously and held his hand out. “Please, my dear, it is time we went to find something to eat.”

  “You can’t just leave me here like this,” Renwick protested as he watched them make their way toward the door.

  “I can, and I will,” Simeon challenged. “Come on Eloisa, it looks like this rain has started to die down now. It won’t be long before we can get you home.”

  The words ‘where you belong’ hovered in the air between them but remained unspoken. Eloisa glanced at Simeon as he led her out of the room but, for the first time since the moment she first met him, his face was closed to her. She couldn’t tell if he was angry, sad or stunned. She wasn’t quite sure what to say to him either.

&nbs
p; “Where did you leave the basket?” she asked quietly when they reached the study. It was a relief to get to the other side of the house, and Renwick’s repeated shouts for Simeon had been reduced to a dull roar. Her head was starting to ache from the tumultuous events the day had presented to her, but she knew that it was far from over yet.

  “It’s going to thunder again,” she whispered when a flash of lightning lashed across the sky.

  Simeon turned to look at the weather with total disinterest. He didn’t really care what the weather was doing. He was too busy trying to think of a way to get Eloisa as far away from Renwick as possible while his cousin was restrained.

  “I will go and find the food. You stay here. I will be back in a moment,” he murmured quietly before he let himself out.

  He closed the door on the sight of her standing looking lost and forlorn in front of the fireplace. The urge to go back inside and hold her was so strong that he kept his hand on the latch for several moments. He hated the fact that she had just witnessed the family’s catastrophic fall from grace, but there was nothing he could do about it now. The soft sympathy on her beautiful features was something that galled him as well as touched him. Even after having had her life thrown into turmoil, she still had empathy for someone else’s plight. Her kindness and generosity nearly unmanned him.

  He realised then that Eloisa had come to mean more to him than any woman he had ever met in his entire life. Her beauty; her compassion; her feisty logic, all of it was combined to create a delicate creature who appeared to be fiercely proud and extraordinary compassionate all at the same time.

  “Damn it,” he snarled when the cold reality of the latest news began to sink in.

  Given Renwick’s revelations, the Calversham family were heading for troubled times. Renwick was right in that the family name would be cast into ill-repute because of what he had done. Not only that, but there would be the scandal of George’s murder to contend with as well.