“I want find the baby and no one will tell me where he is. Laura will know. I am sure of it. She was present at his birth.”
“How do you know that? Who told you that?”
“No one.” Leopold’s manly composure was cracking. “I put the pieces together based on the facts at hand. Loosey and I are close. I could tell there was something wrong and when I learned the truth, I wrote Walter Stirling. As he was the baby’s father, he had a right to know. Mr. Stirling wrote back expressing his willingness to marry Louise and claim paternity. Soon after, he was sent away.”
“He gladly accepted a post in the Royal Horse Artillery where he was given the official title of Royal Groom and paid a handsome annuity. He was not sent away!”
“He—he wrote that he was paid off, Mother! Given money to leave my sister and abandon his responsibility. Stirling told me Sir Charles Locock made the arrangements to remove the baby from Windsor.”
“Stirling wrote to you to discuss our private family business?” Victoria asked icily. “You have kept up a secret correspondence with that man. You have shared confidences.”
Leopold paled. “As to the great secret, I did not know that I could not mention it to the boy’s father. Of course I will not speak of it to anybody else.”
“You will cease your correspondence with Mr. Stirling at once! His indiscretion has been dreadful to me. And his thought to wound! Oh, he has done this quite deliberately. To think this wretched man has mingled his blood with mine. Your request to visit Laura Mayhew is denied, Leopold. Now leave me. I feel a headache coming on.”
One fire put out, only to be presented with another. Leopold would pursue this as long as he was able. Laura Mayhew was dead so there was no chance there for the boy. Stirling though … Stirling would not scruple to use the boy to get to Louise. She thought the title would have been enough to satisfy his avaricious heart. Clearly the man needed to be taught a lesson.
§
LONDON WAS overwhelming to a girl newly released from an asylum. The clamour, the smells, the crowded streets and market stalls swamped her senses. Laura caught Tanner’s sleeve and clung to it.
“What is it?” He looked down at her unwashed face.
“I don’t remember the city being so overwhelming. I am afraid of losing you in the crowd.”
“You won’t.” Tanner created a path like the parting of the Red Sea. Those coming toward him moved out of his way. “I suppose you’ve never walked the streets of London before. My guess is you’ve only ever seen its citizens from a carriage window. My rooms are in the next building on the third floor. I shall introduce you as my servant. My mute servant.”
They arrived at Caine’s Baker Street apartment and the landlady greeted the boy with a raised eyebrow. “My, my, you are a filthy scalawag. Half-starved too, by the look of you. What are you called?
“Laurence,” Tanner said quickly. “He doesn’t speak. His hearing is all right though.”
“Well then, Laurence. No gunfire, no muddy boots and we shall get along fine. Mr. Caine, shall I bring up your usual repast or will you be eating food this once?”
He lifted his eyes to the heavens. “I’ll take a bottle of whiskey and whatever you have on hand in the kitchen for the boy, if you please, Mrs. Sharpton.”
“If you please from Mr. Caine!” The lady’s eyes widened, mockingly. “I believe Hell just froze over. The gentleman recalled his manners.”
Tanner led the way up the stairs to the third floor and opened the door. Two rooms suited to a bachelor. The decor looked like he was planning to move out at any moment. Cases of clothing and books were half-unpacked and spilled over the floor. The grate was cold. He flung his cloak to a chair.
Laura hitched up the stable boy’s trousers and resisted touching her hair for the fourth time. Checking was unnecessary. She could be confident it had not grown back on the journey from Berkshire. “I should like to arrange an interview with Lieutenant Stirling as soon as possible.”
“How do you propose to do that as a dead woman? Leave Stirling to me.” He kicked off his boots and stretched out on the narrow bed that was shoved against the wall under the only window. He closed his eyes and she thought he meant to sleep.
“Tell me everything about Princess Louise and this baby you claim is hers.”
Laura perched uncomfortably on a trunk against the wall and pressed her hands between her legs. She had to urinate. How is that to be managed in trousers, she wondered. She was glad she was not a man and had to wear pants as a regular thing. Drab, itchy and impractical—with a skirt one only had to lift—
“Did you hear what I said?”
She blinked. “Yes, of course. I have already told you everything. What more do you need to know?”
“Specific details I can use to confront Lieutenant Stirling. I do not want him to wiggle out of taking responsibility if your story is true.”
“I was a great friend of Princess Louise from the time of her father’s death when Louise was thirteen. I say this is to demonstrate that I would not invent such a hurtful story and cause my friend pain. In March of 1866, just before Louise’s eighteenth birthday, Lieutenant Walter Stirling was hired to tutor Louise’s brother, Leopold, who was thirteen. Walter Stirling was twenty-six, handsome, aristocratic and he gave my beautiful, rebellious friend the attention she was craving. Leopold is a haemophiliac who thrived under Walter’s tutelage. The three of them—Louise, Leopold and Stirling became inseparable. It was clear to me that Louise was falling in love.”
“Was it clear to Stirling as well?”
“You want to know if he took advantage. He did not. Louise spoke of him in the boldest possible terms—incessantly. How could he resist the flattering attention of a princess?”
“Go on.”
“I was Louise’s confidante and her best friend. I heard every detail of their blossoming love affair in shivering detail. Then in April, Louise confided to me that her virginity had been surrendered to Stirling after he’d confessed his love for her.”
“You were a poor friend.”
“Have you ever tried to talk one of the Queen’s children out of doing something foolish? I did my best but my friend is headstrong and proud. The family has a streak of madness in its veins and I could see it at work in Louise. She was wild with love for Stirling and became careless.”
“Come closer to talk to me. Mrs. Sharpton will hear you shouting across the room like that and wonder how my boy turned into a girl. Don’t be frightened. I haven’t made up my mind to kill you yet.”
“You do not frighten me, Caine.” Laura sat cross-legged on the end of the bed to resume her story in a lowered voice. “Gossip reached Victoria’s ear about the two and she acted swiftly. In July 1866, four months after he was hired, Walter Stirling was abruptly relieved of his duties. I was sent home without explanation.”
“One was not required. You ought to have gone to the Queen as soon as Stirling showed interest.”
“When you are a seventeen-year-old girl in the confidence of an imperial princess, I should love to hear your advice. Until then, your opinions are not helpful. I assumed the affair was over and that was the end of it. Then I received Louise’s letter, the one I told you about, and I knew something was very wrong.”
“You are referring to that remarkable clairvoyance of yours. It could not be that the princess was merely heartsick over the loss of her hero?”
“I hoped that’s all it was, but when I arrived Louise confessed she had missed her monthly three months in a row. I stayed through the summer, praying I was wrong, but in her sixth month there could be no doubt. My friend was pregnant. We came up with a plan. Louise would contact Walter. They would marry in secret and then leave for Germany to stay with her sister until after the baby was born.”
“Let me guess. You wrote Stirling and he denied paternity.”
“You have a very cynical perception of your sex. Stirling never received the letter. Victoria intercepted the correspondence. When
she learned the truth, the Queen arranged to have Louise examined by Sir Charles Locock, her own gynaecologist. The baby would be birthed in private with Locock attending. Louise would never see the child or Stirling again.”
Tanner sat up. His face was tense. “Be careful Laura. You are dangerously close to accusing Sir Locock of committing infanticide.”
“I am not! In any event, he wasn’t there when Henry was born. Louise went into labour early and she did not want Locock summoned. There was only me and I did not know what to do. It was truly a terrifying night between running for hot water and clean towels and trying to keep Louise from screaming. But then suddenly, there he was! Louise gave a final push and I was holding a baby. We were both shattered. I doubt my friend will have the courage to go through that a second time. I cut Henry’s cord with my scissor, washed him up and handed him to Louise.”
Laura lifted up on her knees and stared pensively out of the window. The fog had rolled in. The light outside was a dusky brown.
“Two days later, they discovered our secret. Sir Charles dosed Louise with chloroform to perform his internal examination and I was sent from the room. A nurse was given charge of the infant. When I returned, Louise was unconscious and Henry was gone.”
“What of Stirling?”
“Victoria made him Royal Groom, placing him out of our reach. She could buy Stirling’s silence but I was another matter. When the baby disappeared from Windsor Castle, I asked uncomfortable questions of the Queen’s staff. They all feigned ignorance. I was young and this was my first experience with adult hypocrisy. I became hysterical. Doctors were summoned, I was declared to be in a state of nervous collapse and my father was summoned to take me away to Gateshead Asylum.”
The awkward silence that fell between them was broken by Mrs. Sharpton’s knock. The landlady entered carrying a tray of whiskey and food.
“Rolls, cheese, a bite of pork for the lad and a bottle of spirits for Master Caine. I shall be locking the front door. Do not forget to take your key if you plan to go out again. Leave the tray in the hall and I’ll fetch it in the morning. Good evening, gentlemen.”
Tanner poured Laura a glass and handed it to her. He leaned his elbow on the window sill and met her eyes steadily. “I am going to suggest something that you are not going to like. Nothing that you’ve just told me really happened. It was all in your mind. You had a breakdown, just as the doctors described. Perhaps you were jealous of your friend’s romance and you concocted a pregnancy.”
Laura stiffened. “You are the Queen’s man. Victoria is lucky to have such a loyal friend. I’m trying to imagine what it feels like to be taken at one’s word. I am not a fantasist but I have no way of proving it. Even the baby’s father will deny the affair to protect his position.”
“I’ll track down Stirling in the morning. If there was an affair, he will confess it.”
She gazed at him coldly. Tanner had been working to gain her trust from the beginning so he could silence her. The wedding, his lovemaking, his voice and eyes caressing her—he was only doing what he was paid to do. “I expect you’ll handle Stirling with kid gloves,” she said. “And there will be no confession. You needn’t bother, Mr. Caine. I cannot fight you. I give up.”
Chapter Six
THE INFANT’S cry echoed down the stone halls eerily. Laura retraced her steps, one at a time, her boots making no sound on the flagstone as she turned back towards the source of the cries. Blood pounded in her ears, her heart raced. The baby was in the house.
“Henry, I am coming! I am coming!”
The screams grew louder in intensity and pitch until they were sounding in her head. She scratched her way along a stone wall until she came to an alcove. The wails gave way to weak muffled sobs. She stepped carefully into the dark and reached her arms out, waving in the black space.
“I am here, Henry. Don’t cry dearest. You are safe now.”
The infant wails subsided but the sound had changed. The child was not being comforted. Laura waved her arms about frantically, searching for him. He was weak and giving up on survival.
“Henry!” she screamed.
Laura felt a sharp push from behind. She was knocked off her feet and fell headfirst in the dark. She whirled blindly to the opening, to go back the way she came.
A man appeared in silhouette, a massive man, his bulk nearly blocking the entrance. He reached down, lifted a brick and mortared it into the opening. Another brick and then another, stacking one on top of the other at a rapid pace. The slap of the cement followed by a brick, piling up, until she saw to her horror that he was creating a wall.
Her limbs were held fast by a great weight. She could not move fast enough to escape. The feeble light in the room beyond behind hid his features. Laura screamed and rushed at the wall before the light was gone forever.
The man lifted his head and she could only see the left side of his face.
Revealed in the half-light was the cruel disfigurement of Tanner Caine.
§
TANNER WRESTED her flailing arms down and crushed her against his chest. “Laura, wake up! Wake up! You are having a nightmare.”
Her eyes fluttered opened. Tanner’s marred face appeared in her field of view.
“No! No!” She raised her hands to defend herself.
“Laura, calm down, you are safe—it was only a bad dream. There, there, why are you crying?”
“The dream … it was not the baby behind the wall. It was me. I saw the face of the man sealing me up—the man was you, Tanner.”
Tanner pushed away from her and hunched against the window, back lit by the green glow of gaslight in the fog. His chest and legs were bare. He wore light linen briefs.
“It was only a dream,” he growled. “It means nothing.”
Laura dropped her gaze. Her cropped hair felt cool and strange. She had washed her face before bed and removed the stable boy’s clothing. Her nightgown was a shirt of Tanner’s that she had found in the bottom of a trunk. Her legs were bare and her breasts moved under soft worn material. A shirt he had worn many times, it was marked with his scent.
Could the man who had begun to command her thoughts, her body, and her soul also be her murderer? Was she too infatuated with Caine to see the truth?
“A dream,” she managed to say. Her throat was tight. “Yes. I am sorry I woke you.”
“Laura.”
His voice strained toward her and she looked up. Tanner’s eyes glowed in the half light with a rare beauty. “I am not the man in your dream. I do not have it in me to hurt you. I tried and it ripped me to pieces. My face is marred, my word is not. You have my word.”
He bowed his head and pressed his fingers to his eyes. His black hair hung in a tangled screen over his face. Laura crept near and knelt on the bed between his strong thighs. She brushed his hair off his perfect face.
“You think I am a liar, a traitor, a hysteric spinning tales. With so little to please you now, you have even more reason to regret marrying me,” she said.
Tanner lifted his head and gazed into her eyes. Reflected in his black depths was all that he felt for her and all that she felt for him.
Laura held herself very still, as did Tanner. Between them hung the unspoken.
“I regret nothing, Laura Mayhew. But I like you too well to own you as my wife.”
Her stomach congealed and rolled. “What—what are you saying?”
“The dream was an omen. I am not good for you, Laura. The sooner we part, the safer you will be.”
“I love you.” She said the words all in one breath. “I have from the first. I don’t blame you if you doubt my feelings, I don’t understand them myself. I only know I suffer a terrible ache in my body—here—,” she jabbed her fist in the soft hollow between her ribcage, “when I think I’ll never see you again.”
“No … oh Laura … you must not....”
The words were spoken low and rushed. She was not sure she had heard him. And then Tanner drove his fingers int
o her cropped hair, caught her to him and kissed her fiercely.
“I cannot love you,” he groaned in a harsh whisper.
The rage she had felt in him in the hedge maze at Gateshead simmered beneath his skin.
“I know something is haunting you. Please tell me.” She felt submerged in the ocean, her lungs and eyes burning from salt. Laura held her breath waiting for him to speak.
“I have a past,” he said quietly. “An ugly past. I can still hear their voices ... like whispers in the fog. They were like you once. They loved me and I allowed it.”
Fear clutched her throat. “Where are they now?”
“Dead. They are all dead.” He drew away. “I will not allow myself to love you. I will not test my father’s curse a fourth time.”
Goose flesh lifted on her skin like a spirit walking over her grave. A warning from beyond.
The shadow. It would not release Tanner Caine.
§
HIS MIND strained restlessly to the girl asleep in his narrow bed. Tanner struggled against it, drowning his compulsion in whiskey and bitter memories.
He had not been honest with Laura. Loving her was no longer a choice. He loved her to a degree that troubled him. Tanner tried to return to the dry, dusty cold he used to feel toward all humanity and found he was caught in a maze that brought him back to Laura. And in her was everything he needed to be complete.
Conscious of what she meant to him, the desire to be with her took root and fought for life.
In the early dark hours of the morning, Tanner rose from his chair and lay down beside her. Laura sighed and rolled against him and he drew her into his arms. He wanted stand firm against the demon that tempted him to test the curse. But she was beautiful, she was his wife and there was no objection.
Tanner cradled Laura against his chest. He would suffer all the more if he made love to her and then left her. The supernatural forces that denied him happiness would have to accept his future misery as a fair exchange for this night.
Mark of Caine Trilogy: Book Two: Whispers in the Shadows (Victorian Villains) Page 5