by Jo Goodman
Brandon smiled. “It’s been too long since we’ve done anything together. I miss spending time with you—alone.”
“I know. I miss it, too.”
“I spoke with Reverend Whittaker again. He wants to meet with Aurora.”
“Has she agreed?”
“Yes, but I think it is because she hopes to convince him a divorce is not necessary.”
“I’m certain that’s what she intends.” Shannon reached forward and patted Anthem’s mane. “Sometimes I think I can’t blame her, that she is right to try to keep you. But I also think, that if Parker hadn’t turned her out, she wouldn’t have cared what you did. She’s like a—what do they call it?—a dog in a manger. She doesn’t want you, not really, but neither can she allow anyone else to have you.”
One of Brandon’s eyebrows kicked up in surprise. “I didn’t think you understood that.”
“Well,” she said firmly, “I do. I feel sorry for her, Brandon. I even understand her feelings on occasion. But that never meant I approved of the things she’s done.” She sighed. “Somehow we always come back to her, don’t we? In spite of our intentions.”
“It’s difficult to avoid discussing the sole obstacle to our happiness.”
“Let’s try anyway.”
He nodded and nudged his mount closer to Shannon. “I saw you kissing Cody this afternoon.”
“What?”
“I saw you. From the window in the dining room,” he explained. The whisper of a smile around his mouth belied the seriousness of his tone. “Just before he gave over the rifle.”
“Oh. I remember now. It didn’t mean anything,” she finished quickly.
“Don’t tell Cody that. I’m sure it would break his heart.”
She looked at him consideringly. “You’re teasing,” she accused.
“I am. I trust you. Still, if you recall, I didn’t waste any time joining the two of you.”
“If that’s what brought you outside, then I’m glad I kissed him. It was a brother-sister kiss any—” She stopped abruptly, interrupted by the urgent ringing of the folly’s meal bell. “It can’t be Martha calling us for dinner, surely.”
Brandon was already turning his mount around. Without asking Shannon’s permission, he simply pulled her onto the saddle in front of him and gave his stallion a sharp kick.
“Brandon!” Shannon understood why she was riding with him now. She knew that she could not have kept her seat on Anthem once Brandon gave his mount his head. But she did not understand what prompted this breakneck speed.
“It’s an emergency call,” he said tightly. “Something’s wrong.”
Shannon didn’t ask any more questions. It would have been nearly impossible given the jolting, breathless ride back to the folly. The tail of her jet hair flew in the wind, and her fingers found purchase on Brandon’s dark blue jacket. It seemed as if the entire household had gathered on the verandah, and Martha did not stop her energetic ringing until Brandon came abreast of the porch. Cody extended his hand to Shannon and helped her dismount onto the flagstones. Brandon remained in the saddle.
“What’s happened?” Brandon asked tersely.
“It’s Rory,” Cody answered. “I think she’s had an accident. Pilgrim came back to the stable without her.”
“How long ago?”
“Not long. I had Martha ring the bell as soon as the grooms alerted me.”
“All right. We’ll begin a search. You take the north fields; I’ll travel the riverbank.” He pointed to the grooms. “Henry. Sam. You take to the woods. Aaron and Jacob, the road.” When everyone hesitated, Brandon looked at his brother curiously. “Is there something else wrong? Something I don’t know?”
“It’s Pilgrim’s girth strap,” said Cody. “You can see it for yourself in the stable. It’s a miracle he came back saddled at all.”
“It snapped?”
“It had some help, Bran. It was deliberately weakened to the point of fraying.” He released a deep breath. “Someone cut that strap.”
“Who saddled Pilgrim?” Brandon demanded of the grooms.
“Miz Rory did it herself,” offered Aaron. “Complained I was too slow and too clumsy to satisfy her. She was in a hurry when she set out. It’s no surprise she never noticed the strap. I can tell you there was nothing wrong with it yesterday. Oiled all the tack myself. Weren’t no cuts in it then. This thing’s been done since last night.”
“Dear God,” Shannon said softly. “Someone tried…She could be hurt, even—” Shannon did not complete her thought, not wanting to put into words what the others were clearly thinking. She raised her ashen face to Brandon. “Please. Please find her.”
He leaned over and touched her cheek with the tip of his fingers. “I will. She’ll be all right. Aurora knows how to take a fall from a horse. She’s probably walking toward the folly now.”
Shannon saw that he wanted to believe it. She tried to smile and show that she believed it also, but the attempt fell short. The fear that clawed at her vitals reached her eyes and she turned away, hoping Brandon had not seen it. She gratefully accepted Martha’s supportive arm as Brandon, Cody, and the grooms set off in different directions to begin the search.
“I knew that she’d cause grief,” Martha muttered as she poured Shannon a drink in the library. “Ain’t no wonder she come to grief herself. Here, you just knock this back. It’ll put some color in your cheeks.”
Shannon accepted the tumbler because it gave her something to steady her hands on. Instead of drinking the Scotch, she simply stared at it, resisting Martha’s attempts to raise the glass to her lips by pushing on the bottom of it. “I really don’t want it,” she said, moving out of Martha’s reach. “I wish you wouldn’t talk about Aurora coming to grief. We don’t know what’s happened yet.”
Martha shrugged. “Can’t help the way I feel. That chile’s nothin’ but a misery. Been a thorn in Master Bran’s side since he laid eyes on her.”
“Martha! You’re not saying that Brandon—”
“No! Raised that boy myself! I ain’t saying nothin’. Ain’t my place to point a finger.” She left the library, talking to herself under her breath. “Still, I wouldn’t blame him if he did take a knife to that strap. A pure misery, that’s what she is. Always bringing trouble.”
When she was alone Shannon set her drink aside and moved to the window, trying to shake Martha’s words from her mind. She could not dwell on the possibility that Aurora was anything but safe. The alternative was not to be borne.
She had no idea how long she stayed at the window, staring out at the deserted road, the empty expanse of fields, and praying for Aurora’s return. It was the gunshot that jerked her from self-imposed numbness. Shannon ran into the hallway and met Martha hurrying down the corridor toward her.
Martha skidded to a halt on the polished floor. “They found her!” she said, taking Shannon by the hand and pulling her toward the verandah. “That shot means someone found Miz Rory!”
“Where’s Clara?” Shannon asked. “I don’t want her alarmed.”
Martha shook her head, torn between satisfaction for Shannon’s well-placed concern and impatience to find out what was happening. “Addie put her down for a nap before this started. She don’t know nothin’.”
Relieved, Shannon matched Martha’s quick stride and joined the rest of the interested, excited household staff on the porch. Her presence put an end to the hushed speculation that was passing for conversation among the servants. To Shannon’s way of thinking, it was a quiet eternity before Emily, standing in front of the crowd at the edge of the flagstones, began shouting that she saw the riders coming.
“She’s ridin’ with Master Bran!” she cried out. “I seen her! Look! There in the woods!”
Shannon leaned forward, craning her neck to see over Oplas’s kerchiefed head. “Let me past,” she said as Brandon, Henry, and Sam cleared the trees. She jumped off the flagstones and began running toward the riders just as Cody, coming from the direc
tion of the fields, joined them.
Breathless by the time she reached them, Shannon had to gulp air before she could find her voice. She stared at her sister, pale and obviously shaken, but appearing to have not suffered any great injury for all that she was clinging to Brandon. “Are you all right, Aurora? I was worried.” She extended her arm toward the house. “Everyone was worried.”
“A show of concern that comes rather too late, don’t you think?” asked Aurora. She brushed back a strand of black hair that rested against her cheek, revealing a smudge of dirt. Lifting her chin, she studied Shannon contemptuously, her violet eyes scornful. “It was your doing that caused my fall.”
“Aurora!” Brandon said sharply. “We don’t know who cut the strap.”
“I know.” Her voice rose. “I know.” She pointed a shaking finger at Shannon. “She’s the one with the most to gain. She wants me dead.”
Shannon gasped at the accusation. “No! It’s not true! I would never—”
“Don’t defend yourself, Shannon,” Cody told her, placing his horse between Shannon and Aurora. “When Aurora has come to her senses, she’ll realize you couldn’t have done it.” He motioned to his brother. “Please get Rory out of here, Bran.”
“That’s right. Take her side. It wouldn’t surprise me if you encouraged her.”
“Enough!” Following Cody’s advice, Brandon kicked his horse’s flanks.
“I’m sending for the authorities,” Aurora called back over Brandon’s shoulder. “She tried to kill me! I’ll prove it!”
“Don’t listen to her,” Cody said grimly once Aurora’s voice had ceased to carry. He ordered Henry and Sam to find the other grooms. When they left, he dismounted and began walking beside Shannon, leading his horse. “She doesn’t know who did what, Shannon. And neither do we. I wish Brandon hadn’t told her about the cut girth and then she wouldn’t be the wiser. Heaven knows, if she hadn’t been in such a hurry to ride out, she would have seen the thing for herself, and the fall could have been averted.”
“But not the intent,” said Shannon quietly. “The fact remains that someone deliberately tried to cause her harm.”
Cody had no response. He put his arm around Shannon, feeling despair in every line of her body, and continued toward the house in a silent anguish of his own.
Brandon was waiting for them in the drawing room, standing at the mantel but gazing out the window on the opposite wall. He visibly shook himself out of his reverie as Shannon approached him. “Aurora’s gone to her chamber,” he said, answering the question she had not voiced.
“Was she hurt at all?”
“She claims she will be bruised, and she was limping when Henry came upon her.”
“He found her, then?” asked Cody.
“Yes. A little dirty, more than a trifle angry. It was her pride that suffered at that point.”
Cody shook his head. “Why did you tell her about the strap?”
“I didn’t. Henry did. It was inevitable that she would find out anyway. Once she examined her tack, she would have seen it. Aurora has enough sense to know the difference between natural fraying and knife etchings.”
“I didn’t do it, Brandon,” said Shannon.
Brandon’s shock was a palpable thing. “I never thought you did. I don’t give any credence to Aurora’s ravings.”
“But the authorities might. She will bring some official from town to investigate.”
Cody snorted derisively. “And he’ll find that he has no end of suspects. Brandon and myself among them.” He sat in a wing chair, folding his hands behind his head, and stared at the ceiling, a half smile on his lips. “After all, we threatened to do murder often enough.”
“I don’t understand how you can take this so calmly,” Shannon said.
“Because I know I didn’t do it.”
“Let us hope the constable believes in your innocence,” Brandon said dryly. “And my own, for that matter. Aurora is likely to accuse everyone at the folly save Clara.”
“The main thing is that we turn suspicion away from Shannon,” Cody said decisively. “Aurora only pointed to her because she knows Shannon’s history. It made her a convenient target.”
Shannon took the chair beside Cody, sitting rigidly on its edge. “What am I to do? Who will believe me?”
Brandon and Cody spoke at once. “I will.”
Brandon moved from the mantel and made himself comfortable on the arm of Shannon’s chair. “There is no piece of evidence that can link anyone with that nasty business unless someone witnessed the girth being cut. No one has come forward yet, and I doubt if anyone will. In addition to the three of us, all of the grooms will be suspect.”
“But why? What reason could they have for doing this?”
“Perhaps the best reason of all. Aurora treated her horse better than she treated the servants.”
“I don’t believe any of them would do this to her.”
“As it happens, neither do I. I only mention it to point out that there are many people here with a possible motive as well as access to the stable. I was there this morning before Aurora rode out.”
“So was I,” Cody added. “And Martha came out to see me about some trifle and remained talking to Henry after I left. Emily goes there often to seek out Aaron.”
Shannon leaned against Brandon and felt his fingers whisper across the tendrils of hair at her nape. “I was there last evening with Clara.”
“Can anyone besides Clara account for the time you spent there?” asked Brandon.
Shannon shook her head. “Even Clara can’t account for it. I sent her back to the house to get some dried apples for Rainbow. I spoke with Jacob for a little while, but he took one of the horses out to the paddock, and I didn’t see anyone else. I was alone until Clara returned.” Shannon’s eyes closed as soon as she felt the press of tears. “I’m frightened, Brandon. Not just for myself, but for you and Cody as well. And Aurora, too. What if someone tries to hurt her again? She may not be so fortunate the next time. It was selfish of me to think how I should protect myself. It’s my sister who requires protection.”
Cody nearly groaned aloud. It was his brother’s sharp look that told him such a reaction would not be wise. “The best thing Rory could do,” he said as politely as he was able, “is to take herself away from the folly. She is the one who was screaming a murder attempt, but everyone here knows what a fine seat she has. If the purpose was to kill her, why try it while she was riding? Isn’t it just as likely that someone was merely trying to frighten her?”
“We cannot dismiss that a fall may have killed her,” said Brandon.
“But it didn’t. Admit that I could be right, Bran.”
“I admit it. But whoever cut that strap doesn’t really understand Aurora. She’ll be more determined than ever to remain.”
Cody slumped in his chair, the wind taken from his sails. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Obviously. Shannon’s right. We have to protect Rory, and in doing so, we’ll protect ourselves.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“That she not ride alone, or leave the folly for town without an escort. It’s necessary we discover who did this to her, but I’ll turn the tables on Aurora and ride for the constable myself, talk to him before she can poison his mind with her wild suspicions.”
“Will it be enough, do you think?” asked Shannon.
“It will have to be.”
* * *
Brandon purposely sought out Sir James Harrity to investigate Aurora’s accident. The man’s manner was impersonal, even gruff, but Brandon knew him to be meticulous and thorough. Sir James had been appointed by the Crown to represent England’s best interests in the colonies and, as such, was often at odds with the fiercely independent planters such as Brandon. Brandon’s choice of his lordship was calculated to show the official he had nothing to hide in this matter.
Sir James, a short, clever, punctilious man, whose powdered wig was often slightly ask
ew, spent three days at the folly as Brandon’s guest. He examined the strap, agreed that it had been weakened so it would eventually snap, and began to single out those at the folly with motive and access to the stable.
The questioning was a grueling torture for Shannon as she had to answer for Aurora’s accusations. Alone with his lordship in the library, where nearly all the interviews took place, Shannon spared herself nothing in the telling and found, in the end, that Sir James’s grave eyes were more sympathetic than accusatory.
“That’s because you were so brave,” Brandon told her when she made her observation. They were walking along the riverbank, serenely aware of each other but conscious of not touching. Harrity’s departure not four hours earlier had finally given them the opportunity to be alone.
“Brave?” she questioned as the cool evening air brushed her face. “Like Martha and Emily, I was frightened near to fainting.”
“And I’m certain he sensed that also, which is why he respected your courage to tell the truth. I warned you he was a perceptive man, for all that he looks rather porcine.”
Shannon giggled, recalling Harrity’s odd nose, which put her in mind of a piglet’s snout. “He does, doesn’t he? Oh, Brandon, it feels good to laugh. There were times these past days when I thought I had lost the ability. When I saw even Cody looking all sour-faced and moody, I was certain it was so. It surprised me when he offered to escort Sir James back to Williamsburg.”
Brandon had to smile. “Annie Jones.”
“Oh.” She smiled, too, sharing the memory that Annie’s name evoked.
“Oh, indeed. As far as Sir James is concerned, I don’t think his lordship appreciated Cody’s interference in his work, and told him so. Several times, in fact.” Shannon stumbled over a loose stone and Brandon automatically reached for her and slipped his arm around her waist. When she didn’t say anything, he kept it there. “But after speaking with everyone,” he continued, part of his mind on the fragrance of Shannon’s hair, “he came to the same conclusion as my rascal brother. He doesn’t believe the cut strap was anything but an attempt to frighten Aurora. A dangerous tactic, certainly, and one which we cannot put aside, but still he doesn’t think anyone wanted her dead.”