by Lynda Hurst
Grasping that Benjamin knew as much about the Revelstoke legacy as far as he had eavesdropped, Faith knew he had no clue as to where the doll was now. She could tell him it was here in her family’s home, and he wouldn’t know the difference.
Pointing the pistol at her forehead, Benjamin demanded, “Where is your doll now, Faith?”
Still stalling, Faith said, “If you let Devlin and Margaret go, I’ll tell you. You must promise not to harm them, and I’ll do as you ask.”
Devlin yelled, “Faith, I’m not about to leave you alone with a madman, even if he is my cousin! I won’t allow it!”
Benjamin swung the pistol to aim it at Devlin. “Be quiet! You are in no position to make demands!” To Faith, he said, “Enough with the stalling and tell me what I need to know. Those two are my kin, after all, and I never intended for them to come to harm.”
Devlin spat, “Really, cousin? If that were true, you wouldn’t have struck Margaret, and yet here she is, sporting the lump you yourself caused her!”
“I said, I did what I had to! She was screeching at finding you unconscious, and I couldn’t risk the entire household calling the authorities!” Pointing the gun at Faith’s chest, right above her heart, Benjamin gritted out, “Now, back away slowly, cousin, so Faith and I can finish this business.”
Margaret, who was close to hysterics at this ugly scene, cried, “Benjie, don’t do this! I know I wanted Faith out of the way, but not like this! I know you said you would have her taken care of, but you didn’t mean to do this, did you? We are your kin, we would not have allowed you to starve! We would have helped you!”
With a look of annoyance, Benjamin said, “I am a man with some pride after all. There’s little sympathy for one as impoverished as I am among the ton and no one of my station should have to endure that kind of humiliation. With the rest of the Revelstoke legacy in my hands, I’d be free from that stigma and will soon be able to hold my head high amongst my peers.”
Devlin scoffed, “Good God, man! And threatening my fiancée is the way to go about this lofty dream? What guarantee do you even have that this treasure does exist?”
“Well, that’s why we’re here, Dev. I know the treasure is not a myth. I had seen it myself, six years ago.”
Faith shot out, “How is that possible? Then you would have known my mother hid it and meant for me to find it.”
“Yes, I knew your mother had that richly-made crucifix in her possession as I had come across it while searching her room for a spare banknote or two. Instead of snatching it that same moment, I decided to come back at a later time to steal it, only she had hidden it away before I could get to it.”
“When did this happen?” Margaret asked in a small voice.
“The ‘when’ doesn’t matter. It was just a matter of time before I could get my hands on that crucifix and subsequently on to the next clue for the next piece of the treasure. Unfortunately, the countess and the duke had left for Prestonridge and Revelstoke Place, respectively, so I followed them here to Donnesbury.” Listening to his account, Faith dreaded what Benjamin would reveal next. The last time her mother had been to Revelstoke Place was the last time Faith had seen her mother, brief though her visit was.
Benjamin said, “By the look on your face, you seem to already know what I’m about to say, Faith. All right, I’ll tell you, but only because you deserve to know. I believe the countess hid the crucifix somewhere on Revelstoke land, and I confronted her while catching her alone at the pond just yonder. She refused to tell me where she hid it, and I was quite angry at her for stealing my chance at respectability that I struck her, hard across her temple. What I hadn’t anticipated was that the Countess fell with her head striking an outcropping of jagged rock, and she bled profusely from a large wound to the back of her skull. She was dead when I checked.”
Faith couldn’t believe what Benjamin was telling her. All this time she searched for clues about her mother’s whereabouts, her mother had been dead the entire time! Tears rushed down her cheeks for the loss of her mother and for the hopelessness of the situation she was currently in. She knew she was dealing with a madman, bent on feeding his greed and elevated dreams.
Devlin and Margaret heard every word; they had just been given confirmation that their father had not run away with the countess as they had originally thought for so long. Benjamin’s following words further established their fears. “I take it that the duke had planned an afternoon assignation at the same pond, as he had come upon me there and found me in the process of getting rid of the Countess’ body. I had already dug a large enough hole, and he caught me about to heave the body into it.” Faith was outright crying now, mortified that her mother was mistreated so by this monster.
Benjamin continued, his eyes crazed and wild as he recounted his past deeds with fanatical relish, “The duke was incensed, of course, but I had the shovel with me, and I struck him down, too. I couldn’t have him telling tales to the authorities when there was still that treasure to be found.”
Margaret released an anguished wail, long and sonorous, as it was one that spoke of anger, loss, and grief. She shouted, her eyes wild and spilling tears, “You monster! How dare you! All along I thought he had left us and you killed him!” Devlin wrapped his arms around his grieving sister as she sobbed out her heartbreak. Devlin, too, had tears in his eyes, grieving for his father whom he missed terribly over the past six years.
“How did you do it, Benjie?” Devlin asked, deadpan. “Not the murder, but how did you convince my father’s solicitor to pass the title down to me, when there wasn’t any evidence to show my father was missing, dead or alive?”
“It was quite simple, really. A letter forged with your father’s signature. He had signed enough letters of credit for me, so I was already familiar with it. As I was already well-known with his solicitor, it wasn’t a hardship to slip him a letter with your father’s seal that claimed you as the new duke. Wasn’t that nice of me? To see to it that you and Margaret wouldn’t suffer overmuch from his absence.”
“An absence that you caused, you murdering bounder!” Devlin shouted as his anger vibrated through him, and Faith half-feared he would lunge at Benjamin despite the gun he had trained on him. Benjamin reacted to Devlin’s explosion by locking his arm, holding the gun with a firmer grip, and adjusting the aim of the barrel’s end straight at Devlin’s heaving form.
“It’s been six years, Benjamin. With Father dead--” Margaret paused to swallow past the truth of her words. Bravely continuing, she said, “How were you able to survive without the income he had provided for you?”
“Another work of forgery on my part. This time, it ensured I had a regular monthly stipend sent to me without having to visit the solicitor every time I ran out of funds. It was just enough to get by, but I wanted more. I needed more for the upkeep of my moldering estate my father left me.” Devlin clearly didn’t like the reasons Benjamin gave for murdering and stealing; his body was poised to spring into action any second and Faith feared Devlin would try something rash.
Desperate, Faith stepped in the gun’s line of fire, endeavoring to divert Benjamin’s attention away from Devlin and onto her. She spread her arms out to shield both siblings and spouted, “If you harm me, then you will never get your hands on that treasure! Leave them be, and I will willingly give you what we find. But you have to listen to me carefully: the crucifix isn’t here.”
His attention now fully on Faith, he smoothly replied, “Well, that’s unexpected. I assumed your childhood doll would have been left behind here when Devlin had you hastily removed from these premises.”
“No,” Faith confirmed. “It was one of the few possessions I had taken with me when we left here years ago. My doll is currently in my room at home. Home, being Atwell Cottage, that is.”
Benjamin twitched the pistol in the direction of the coach, beckoning Faith to climb in. “Lead the way home, then, my dear,” he ordered. As Faith clambered into the vehicle, Benjamin turned to De
vlin and Margaret and instructed, “Stay where you are. If either of you follow us, you can be sure that Faith suffers for your disobedience.”
Devlin growled, “You mean she’s safe only as long as we obey and as long as she’s useful to you. Once you find the treasure, what then?”
Benjamin was about to board the coach, but he turned to address Devlin instead. Noncommittally, he said, “We shall see.” Devlin’s heart dropped at the sinister, cold tone in his cousin’s voice, and fear for Faith had frozen him in place.
Neither Devlin nor Benjamin foresaw the show of resistance from an unexpected quarter. Devlin felt, rather than saw, his sister dash past him only to leap onto the unsuspecting Benjamin. Her burning anger fueled her with strength uncommon to a woman her size, but she managed to wrestle her cousin to the ground.
Devlin looked on helplessly as his sister attempted to wrench the gun from Benjamin’s grip, loosened due to shock caused by Margaret’s sudden charge. “Let go,” she strained, her hands having the firmer hold over Benjamin’s lax one. Devlin threw himself into the scuffle and used Benjamin’s occupied state to his advantage by throwing a fist straight to Benjamin’s nose.
The satisfying crunch of cartilage beneath his fist produced the desired result of Benjamin releasing the gun from his grip, giving Margaret charge of the cold steel weapon. Margaret greatly surprised Devlin at the speed she used to get herself to her feet and shocked him more when she expertly cocked the pistol and aimed straight down at their fallen cousin. Benjamin shook at sight of the gun now turned on him.
Margaret said in a low voice, thick with her tears, “You deserve to be shot for the pain you’ve caused us all. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t do so now.” Benjamin had cowered at her words, closed his eyes, and whimpered, expecting the bullet to hit him at any moment.
Devlin and Faith both cried in unison, “No, don’t!”
Shouting from some distance away accompanied by the sound of clattering carriage wheels and the pounding of horse hooves sounded, “Stop! We have the authorities with us!”
Faith glanced up and was heartened to see a carriage carrying Faust, Mary, and Jackson, followed by men on horseback. Drawing closer, she recognized the familiar faces of the Bow Street Runners she had hired what seemed a lifetime ago escorted by the local constable. Jackson pointed out Benjamin to the men with them, and Benjamin was summarily met with wrist shackles, courtesy of the constable.
Devlin stepped in then to explain the story as he knew it to the constable and the Bow Street Runners while Margaret listened to hear the details. Faith observed Margaret as whatever the girl was hearing must have shocked her acutely as her expression quickly morphed from cold fury to deep hurt and vulnerability.
Alighting from their carriage, Mary rushed at Faith, enveloping her in a crushing hug. “I’m so glad you’re safe,” Mary cried. “Hugo and Faust were beside themselves when they discovered you were gone. The library clearly had shown signs of a struggle and we came to the conclusion that the three of you had been kidnapped. Benjamin was just careless enough to leave the empty bottle of laudanum in the kitchen which was what he doubtless used to get the both of you out of the house.”
“But how did you know to find us here?” Faith asked.
“Benjamin’s behavior in the drawing room struck me as odd. Jackson remarked on it, too. Faust was the one who decided we come here to look for you, as we theorized it might have had something to do with that blasted family treasure of yours.”
“That was a fortunate guess,” Devlin said, stepping into the conversation. Bowing his head first to Mary, then to Jackson, he said, “Thank you for choosing right. If you hadn’t, I believe Benjamin would have done away with the three of us just to get to that treasure.”
Over Devlin’s shoulder, Faith watched as Benjamin was led away by the constable. “What will happen to Benjamin?” Faith asked.
Devlin sighed. “As a peer of the realm, he will get off much easier than he deserves. For grand theft and murder, the courts will most likely send him to Botany Bay. Personally, I think hanging is too good for him, so I’m satisfied with him being sent off to a penal colony.”
Margaret had been silent until Devlin mentioned Benjamin, and slowly turned to Faith to say, “I know I haven’t been at all nice to you, but now that I know that Benjamin was responsible for the loss of both our parents, something has changed. And I want to thank you for trying to protect my brother and me from harm. Your shielding us was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Faith accepted Margaret’s thanks with a tiny voice, “You’re welcome.” Margaret only nodded, and stepped away to say something to her brother in semi-privacy. The animosity in Margaret’s eyes when they had spoken was gone, and Faith thought it miraculous enough that the girl had taken the step to acknowledge her in thanks. Glancing briefly at Jackson, Faith was surprised to see him looking at Margaret’s back with something akin to awe. He must have witnessed the skirmish that resulted in Margaret having the upper hand, and despite her disheveled appearance from rolling on the ground, Jackson had an appreciative gleam in his eye directed at the unsuspecting girl.
Devlin had broken away from his conversation with his sister then to claim Faith for a word in private. As the only other male present, Jackson excused the couple with a rejoinder, “Five minutes. Any longer and I come after the two of you.”
Leading Faith by the hand off to the side of the manor and once out of sight of the others, Devlin set her apart from him so he could say, “What were you thinking, putting yourself in front of a loaded pistol! With his temper, Benjie could have and would have shot you!”
Faith retorted back, just as loudly, “But he didn’t, did he? It was my distraction that saved your hide from getting shot yourself!”
“But risking your neck to save mine? It can’t be borne, Faith. I can’t have my countess-to-be putting herself in danger. My nerves can’t take it,” Devlin said, sobering. Drawing her closer, he said, “Don’t ever do that again. My heart wouldn’t be the same if something ever happened to you.”
“That goes for you, too. If you had gotten hurt, I would never be able to live with myself. That blasted Revelstoke legacy was responsible for all this grief, and I should have left it alone if it meant that you remained safe and unharmed.”
“But greed was the motivating factor in all of this. You have nothing to blame yourself for. This is all Benjie’s doing, and he proved he was too weak to resist greed’s pull.” Pulling her into his chest, he enfolded her in his arms, cupping the back of her head in one hand, and Faith returned the embrace, squeezing him tightly.
After a few moments, Devlin quietly said with his voice muffled in her hair, “There is still much to do, considering Benjie will soon be deported. The Avery estate and the people who depend upon it will need looking after. I will have to report to the House of Lords about his ruination by his own hand. You will have to inform your siblings about the truth of your mother’s disappearance, and—”
Faith shushed him abruptly. “Devlin, there will be time for all that. For right now, I just need you to hold me.”
Devlin gripped her tighter to him until she squawked at the too-tight hold. “On another note, you will not be allowed too much time to plan a wedding, since I will not wait another day to marry you. I can procure us a special license to get it done right away.”
Jackson’s voice echoed, “All right, you two better be decent before I turn the corner. Otherwise, I will be demanding a wedding!”
Faith and Devlin pulled apart, their burst of laughter resonating at Jackson’s proclamation. Devlin called out, “I’m afraid you’re too late to demand such a thing, Jackson! I asked her to marry me last night, and she said yes!” Faith smiled at Mary’s ear-splitting shriek rending the country air at their news, whether from excitement or shock or a mixture of both, Faith was sure Mary would later tell her which emotion spurred the shriek.
Devlin took her by the hand, guiding them to join the rest of
the group who were eagerly awaiting sight of them after that bit of news. “Come, they’ll be eager to congratulate us,” Devlin prodded. Faith eagerly followed, ready for Mary’s exuberant hug she was sure to receive once they caught sight of them turning the corner.
Epilogue
Three months later
“Hurry up, Devlin! I’ll be an old woman before you resurface from under there!”
“Keep up that nagging, and I won’t just to spite you!”
Faith couldn’t keep from bouncing in anticipation, awaiting Devlin from his place underneath the floorboards of Revelstoke Place’s old chapel. They had discovered the meaning behind the next clue to another piece of the Revelstoke legacy, which led them straight to the oldest part of the house that must have been part of its original construction when it was a monastery.
Shortly after their wedding, Faith had remembered her doll and the crucifix hidden inside, and she nearly dragged Devlin back to Atwell Cottage to retrieve both items. Sure enough, what seemed like the doll’s sturdy internal framework was actually the crucifix her mother had crudely sewn up inside the doll’s soft body. Faith supposed, “As a child, my doll was always soft and pliable for all the rough play I put it through. Mother must have inserted this during her last visit here before Benjamin could demand it from her.” Devlin had only nodded at her theory as there no longer was anyone about who could oppose her idea.