The Velvet Cloak of Moonlight

by Christina Courtenay

  Josh didn’t really want a hot drink, but he didn’t want to leave yet either so he took a mug from a nearby mug tree. He almost dropped it when Tess let out a loud curse and banged something down on the table. He spun around to see what was the matter. She was staring at a letter, which had ‘By Hand’ typed on the envelope.

  ‘For fuck’s sake!’ she huffed. ‘What is his problem?’

  ‘Who?’ Louis was staring at her in surprise, but took the letter from her after a polite, ‘May I?’ She nodded, crossing her arms and frowning. ‘Marcus Steele?’ Louis read the signature first. ‘Is that the guy you said, er … wanted you to pay him a certain sum?’

  Tess nodded. ‘It’s okay, Josh knows about it.’

  ‘Him again?’ Josh frowned, remembering the look in the guy’s eyes at the auction house as he played his little power game, bidding against Josh. That had obviously just been a start.

  ‘Yep. He just won’t give up. Honestly, what am I going to do? There’s no way I can raise that kind of money. And I really don’t want to give him anything. It wasn’t me that gambled at his stupid casino.’

  Louis was still reading. ‘He says he hopes you’re ready to do business with him, but he’s willing to give you a bit more time to “liquidise some assets” – what?’

  ‘He means, sell something. He thinks I own a bunch of diamond jewellery. Hah! As if.’

  Louis continued to quote from the letter. ‘Then he’s coming to see you.’ He looked up, his expression troubled. ‘It doesn’t say what he’s going to do when he gets here if you don’t have the money.’

  ‘No, but I can guess. He hinted that … well, he was looking at me like … er, you know.’ Tess blushed.

  Josh guessed what she meant. Steele had wanted her. Well, what man wouldn’t? Her voice was still taut with frustration, but Josh heard the wobble in it too. She was getting scared which was understandable. That man was clearly devious. Who knew how far he’d go? And the thought of Steele having Tess was one that sent shafts of fury through Josh. No way.

  ‘Not if we can help it,’ he said firmly. He took the letter from Louis and read it for himself. ‘He’s still asking for half a mill. Did you tell your lawyer?’

  ‘Yes, and he promised to “communicate” with Mr Steele to tell him he’d get the proceeds of the sale of the house contents, but nothing more.’ Tess stood up and shoved her chair in, hard. ‘I’d better go and ring the lawyer. There has to be a way of sorting this.’

  Josh put the letter on the table. It very carefully didn’t say anything specific about what would happen to Tess should she fail to pay, but the implication was definitely there. The utter bastard. Josh clenched his fists.

  Tess was blinking away tears – whether of anger or fear, he didn’t know. Without thinking, he went over and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. ‘Hey, it’ll be okay. We’re here for you. He can’t do anything to you with other people around and you can’t pay him with money you don’t have. He’s probably made it all up.’

  She was shaking, her hands splayed against his chest. When she buried her head in his shoulder, she seemed small and fragile and the thought that someone would want to hurt her in any way – whether physical or not – made white-hot rage surge through him again. The way Sir Rhys had felt when holding Arabella. Was this what the spirit had meant? That Tess was in danger from Steele? It could be.

  ‘It’ll be fine,’ he repeated, rubbing her back. He breathed in the scent of her shampoo and stroked the long, straight hair rippling down almost to her waist. She was so precious and he was afraid he was getting in over his head here. But how could he fail to protect her?

  After a while, she disentangled herself slowly and mumbled something about calling the lawyer. Josh saw that she was blushing again, as if she’d only just remembered who she’d been cuddling up to. But he didn’t say anything, just watched her leave the room.

  He turned to the boy, who had watched the embrace without commenting either. Josh could tell the kid adored Tess, and no wonder if she was taking his side in the battle for his future. But he guessed there was more to it than that. The two seemed to have a rare bond and he was sure Louis would do anything for her.

  ‘Will you help me keep an eye on Tess, please?’ he asked. ‘I don’t like the sound of this.’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘If there’s anything or anyone you don’t like the look of, call me or come find me, okay?’

  ‘Will do.’

  ‘Thanks. See you in the garden later, then.’

  He’d have to watch Tess carefully from now on and keep her safe.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Raglan Castle, 19th June 1646

  Arabella picked her way across the debris that littered the Fountain Court until she reached the chapel. There, pretending to be enjoying the morning sun as if it was just a normal day, stood Rhys on the short flight of steps leading to the door. The whining noise of a cannonball flying through the air, then the resulting crash when part of an outside wall took the hit, didn’t seem to affect him. She envied his sangfroid. As she reached the top, he stepped close to her and pressed something into her hand under cover of her skirts.

  ‘For your protection,’ he murmured. ‘Make yourself an inside pocket to hide it in and if he ever …’ He left the sentence unfinished but Arabella heard the unspoken words. Stab Glyn with it if he tried anything again. She certainly would.

  Touching the small dagger with great care, she could feel that it had a very sharp blade and a smooth handle of either bone or wood. It was light but deadly. ‘Yes, thank you,’ she replied as quietly as she could, grateful for his support.

  If truth be told, she was still quaking at the thought of what had so nearly occurred the night before. If it hadn’t been for the intervention of Rhys … She owed him more than she could say. The bruises would fade, but not the memory of Glyn’s hands, hard and insistent, inflicting pain and enjoying it. His hateful words, the weight of him on top of her … She shivered and tried to put it out of her mind.

  Rhys followed her into the chapel and they stood at the back of the crowded space. It wasn’t surprising that everyone felt the need to ask God for help and deliverance from the besiegers, to pray for their very lives. It was impossible not to be afraid with the constant bombardment all day, every day. Consequently, in an area that shouldn’t hold more than a maximum of fifty people, there were probably at least half as many again. Definitely too many, and the air was thick and hard to breathe. Smoky clouds of incense wafted up towards the vaulted roof. It was surrounded by corbels in the shape of human heads and Arabella had the nonsensical notion that they may be choking. The smell of guttering candles added to the fug and she had to stifle a coughing fit. With a light touch on her elbow, Rhys guided her towards the back wall. He leaned on it and with a couple of soft nudges encouraged her to use him as a support in turn. She allowed herself this luxury as no one would notice in such a throng.

  He was like a solid buffer between her and any threats and she felt safe, comforted and also strangely exhilarated. The sleeve of her shift was thin and she could feel the warmth of his chest through the material of his shirt where his leather jerkin had fallen open in the middle. His nearness wasn’t threatening in the way Glyn’s had been, but somehow right. She wished they could stand like this forever.

  But he had duties, as did she, and after the service he melted away after giving her fingers a squeeze and whispering, ‘Look after yourself.’

  ‘And you. Be careful out there,’ she breathed back. A swift nod to acknowledge her words, then he was gone.

  Merrick Court, 20th June 2016

  ‘So did you say you’d found Uncle Giles’s papers?’

  ‘What?’ Tess was once again in the library, sitting in the chair behind the desk. She was supposed to be making sure she hadn’t missed any important documents and putting the ones that needed to be kept in labelled envelopes for Josh. Instead, she’d been looking at the beautiful earring, whic
h she’d brought down to show Louis. And somehow, staring into the aquamarine depths of the jewel, she’d been drawn into another vision.

  Damn.

  ‘The papers?’ Louis repeated as he sauntered in, munching on an apple.

  Tess tried to marshal her thoughts and drag them away from a chapel full of smelly incense. And a knife? She was sure there had been a knife, which seemed an odd thing to bring into a holy place. She focused on Louis. ‘Yes, they were in a locked metal box, like you said, which he’d put in that Chinese cupboard for some reason.’

  ‘Seems weird.’ Louis glanced at the painting behind which the safe was located. Tess had closed it and put it back as it was before the burglary. ‘When he showed them to me he said they had to be protected for future generations of the family. He was going to pass them on to his son and barely let me touch them.’

  ‘Well, perhaps he’d been looking at them and then he drank too much and forgot about putting them away?’ Tess shrugged. Giles had done a lot of drinking during the last few months of his life, mainly because he didn’t have that son. She was tired of thinking about that though. ‘I guess we’ll never know, but it’s lucky he did so the burglar didn’t find them at least.’

  ‘Could I have another look at them, please? I didn’t get much of a chance last time.’

  ‘Sure, I’ll go and get them now.’

  When Tess came back down from her room, she also showed him the earring. ‘Look, I found this as well when I was tidying up Giles’s desk. It was hidden inside an old Bible.’

  Louis whistled. ‘Nice! He didn’t show me that. I thought you said there weren’t any family jewels, that he’d sold them?’

  ‘Yes, all except for this apparently. And I think I know why he couldn’t bear to part with it. Look at the carving.’ Tess held it up so Louis could look at the blue stone properly.

  ‘A lion and … is that a letter C?’

  ‘Yep. And it’s not just any lion, he’s wearing a crown. So my guess is this belonged to King Charles.’

  ‘As in the one who had his head chopped off?’ Louis stared at her in surprise.

  ‘Or his son – I don’t know which. Either way, if it was a gift from a king I don’t think Giles could possibly sell it. It would have meant a lot to him, to the family.’ She shook her head. ‘I wish he’d shown me.’

  ‘I guess he would have done once you had kids. Isn’t it the kind of thing you bring out at christenings and stuff?’ Louis took the box she handed to him. ‘Did you find anything good in here?’

  Tess told him about the document creating some ancestor of his Earl of Merrick and the letter from the Marchioness of Worcester. ‘I haven’t had time to read the rest properly. You have a go if you like.’

  She’d had the box for ages now and could have looked at it up in her room, but she’d been reluctant to touch anything old because of the strange things that kept happening to her. She wasn’t sure she could cope with any more, but then it seemed as though she couldn’t avoid it anyway, what with water and the earring repeatedly drawing her mind back in time.

  Louis settled down with the box while Tess got on with her own tasks. Eventually he looked up. ‘I can’t read most of these. They’re either faded or in some illegible handwriting. Jeez, did it have to be so complicated?’

  Tess laughed. ‘It looks beautiful though, don’t you think?’

  ‘I guess. So was that all you found in that Chinese cupboard?’

  ‘Yes, unless you can locate any hidden drawers. I couldn’t.’

  That was a challenge Louis couldn’t resist and to Tess’s surprise he did find one eventually, behind another drawer right at the back.

  ‘Oh, brilliant! Anything in there?’

  Louis groped around and came out with a miniature painting. After blowing the dust off it, he laughed. ‘It’s a picture of you in a funny dress.’

  ‘What? Let me see.’ Tess tried not to show that his words had scared her, but her hands shook ever so slightly. ‘No, it’s not,’ she said firmly, ‘although I admit there is some similarity.’ The woman in the picture had the same colour hair as Tess, but in a topknot and with little ringlets framing her face and a longer curl caressing her shoulder. She was wearing a lovely blue dress with big puffed sleeves and a low neckline. The outfit matched the lady’s eyes, which were the colour of cornflowers.

  ‘She’s pretty,’ Louis commented. ‘Apart from that horrible hairstyle. I wonder what year it was painted?’

  There were no clues on the back and the miniature wasn’t signed. ‘Let’s google female fashions,’ Tess suggested. ‘Then maybe we can see approximately how old it is.’

  They did and the woman’s clothing seemed to match those worn by ladies at Charles II’s court. ‘That fits with that document about the first earl, right?’ Louis said. ‘Maybe this is his countess?’

  ‘But who were they? It’s so frustrating – I can’t read his name on that paper.’

  ‘We’ll have to do some research. Or maybe look at other paintings in the house. Did Uncle Giles ever tell you about those?’

  He had, but Tess had long since stopped noticing them. They were just part of the decor. She remembered being shown around when she’d first visited Merrick Court and Giles giving her some lecture or other about the ancestors that stared down at them from every wall. But she couldn’t recall much about it and definitely not him saying anything about a first earl. ‘Let’s go and look,’ she suggested. ‘Maybe this woman features in a larger painting?’

  ‘Yeah, or maybe someone will be wearing that earring?’

  But although Tess and Louis checked every room in the house, they didn’t find any portraits that looked like the woman in the miniature. Nor did they come across anyone wearing the royal earring.

  ‘That’s really strange.’ Louis frowned. ‘You’d have thought if you owned something like that you’d be proud to show it off.’

  ‘Not if it wasn’t the fashion for men to wear earrings any longer. And hang on – after Charles the Second died, his brother took over but was deposed and replaced by William and Mary. So it probably wasn’t a good idea to show off a gift from a Stuart king if you wanted to be in favour with the new royal couple.’

  ‘Yeah, I guess. There should still be a painting of the first earl though. I mean, come on!’ Louis waved his arms around. ‘He’s, like, the most important guy this family’s ever had if he got us the earldom.’

  Tess sighed. ‘There aren’t any portraits here older than early seventeen-hundreds, but you’re right. If I’d just been made an earl, I would definitely have wanted my picture on the wall. So where is he?’

  ‘What about in the attic? Em and I used to play hide and seek up there when we were little.’

  Tess shuddered. ‘You and the hundreds of spiders?’

  ‘Don’t be a wuss.’ Louis laughed. ‘Come on, let’s have a quick look.’

  ‘Oh, all right then.’

  Tess had only been to the attic once before and hadn’t been keen to go back, but she followed Louis now and let him lead the way. At least then she wouldn’t get spider webs in her face.

  They rooted around for a while, half-heartedly peering into all the nooks and crannies. The light up there wasn’t great – just a few dormer windows interspersed with bare bulbs that barely lit up the corners – but they could at least see the outline of the old junk. Mostly it was broken furniture and trunks or boxes full of clothes and other items. On the way back to the door Louis stopped abruptly. ‘Look! I can see some old frames.’

  Tess almost collided with him. ‘What? Where?’

  ‘Over here.’ Leaning against the wall near the door were several paintings of different sizes, their backs facing out. When Louis turned the first one round, Tess drew in such a hasty breath she almost choked on it.

  ‘Jesus!’

  She was staring into the face of the man she’d seen at Raglan, the now familiar features of Sir Rhys.

  ‘What’s the matter? You’ve gone all pal
e.’ Louis took Tess’s arm. ‘You want to sit down or something?’

  ‘No, no, I’m fine. It was just … so much dust up here.’ It was a feeble excuse and Tess’s pretend cough probably didn’t fool Louis, but she really didn’t know how to tell him she’d met the man in the painting in her dreams. He’d think she was losing it. ‘Uhm, does it say who that is?’

  ‘I can’t see up here. We’d better take it downstairs. I’ll just quickly check the other paintings first. Oh, bloody hell, here she is!’

  ‘Huh?’ Tess looked up to see another face she recognised, but thankfully it was only the woman from the miniature and not someone she’d met. ‘Oh, good. Bring her as well. Anything else?’

  ‘No, just boring landscapes with holes in them.’

  The two paintings were quite heavy and they ended up having to go down twice, working together to carry them. But once they had them leaning against a wall on an upper landing, where daylight shone in through the windows, they were able to study them more closely.

  Louis peered at the woman’s portrait. ‘No date or anything, but she’s even prettier in this one and she’s wearing the same kind of dress.’

  ‘Mmm.’ Tess was busy studying the other painting which interested her far more. ‘This one’s ripped at the top and the writing is gone, but it looks like the paintings were done by the same artist so they must be connected. Could he be the first earl and she his countess? Look, he’s wearing the earring.’

  ‘Oh, yeah.’ Louis bent forward to study the portrait closer.

  Looking at him – at Rhys – made something like an electric current shimmer down Tess’s spine and if she closed her eyes she could still hear his voice, beautiful Welsh accent and all, asking her to be careful and not fall into the lake.

  It was impossible, insane.

  And how had he ended up at Merrick Court?

  ‘We’ll have to do some family tree stuff, find out their names. You know, like in that TV programme? Tess? Tess.’ Louis lightly bumped her shoulder with his fist.