Hezekiah grinned evilly as he rounded the house where he had brutally murdered Dinah Tredinnick. He could amuse himself with plenty of entertaining memories of the time he’d spent around Mount’s Bay. The next moment he was brought up short in surprise at the gathering of familiar faces standing outside the Tredinnick woman’s house.
Oliver Pengarron was escorting Kerensa away from the main body. ‘Hezekiah!’ he exclaimed when he saw him. ‘What’s happened to you? Have you been robbed?’
Kerensa’s concern was lost under a shrill scream and anguished cries from Kerris. She stabbed an agitated finger at Hezekiah. ‘That’s him! That’s the man who murdered my mistress! I remember now, I smelled his perfume, it’s him!’
‘Stop him, Father!’ Kane called out frantically behind Hezekiah. He had gathered Olivia up and was half carrying her wrapped in his cloak, part of which was covered in blood from the cut on her hand. ‘He tried to kill Olivia.’
‘What?’ Oliver could hardly believe his ears. He felt as though he was moving in slow motion as he pushed Kerensa behind him out of harm’s way. This ridiculous-looking, ageing little fop, a gentleman he had always found an enigma but numbered among his friends, had tried to kill his daughter? Had murdered Dinah Tredinnick, and the silversmith’s daughter, most likely making him the foul murderer of Mount’s Bay for over twenty years?
Oliver reached for his sword, unaware of Kerris’s hysteria, of others trying to comfort her, of Kerensa calling his name, pleading with him to be careful. Hezekiah stood before him, staring icily at him out of his snake’s eyes. ‘Why did I never guess it was you?’ Oliver said incredulously.
‘Because you’re a fool, Pengarron. Interested only in your land, your estate and your family. I hate you. I’ve always hated you more than any other man on this infernal earth.’
Oliver paced forward and put the tip of his sword at Hezekiah’s throat. ‘Why? I thought we were friends.’
‘Friends! Aah! You and your fine dark looks, your great height, having every woman admire and dance attendance on you whenever you enter a room. And you had the one thing I always wanted and could never have. Something I could not steal, something I could not seduce away from you.’
‘And what was that?’ Oliver asked icily, his heart pounding with shock and fury.
Hezekiah’s eyes rolled until they rested on Kerensa. ‘Her. Kerensa.’
Kerensa gasped and clutched her throat as if he was strangling her. Olivia moaned in Kane’s arms. Clem released Catherine’s arm and skirting round Hezekiah and Oliver went to Kerensa and put his hands firmly on her shoulders. Kerensa knew she should make Clem remove them but she was afraid she would faint. Hezekiah saw it and jeered.
‘See. Look behind you, Pengarron. The handsome young farmer has his arms about your dear wife and still thinks he has a hold over her. He’s a fool and you’re a bigger one! Trenchard was never a real threat to you, or that bastard Peter Blake even though he tried to rape her. But I was! For many years I thought of ways to get her away from you and, like you, because she trusted my honour, she did not realise it. If I could not have the woman I desired so much, then I’d have the daughter. Your daughter, Pengarron. I was going to take her and make her suffer more than any of the useless scum I’ve killed in the past.’
‘I should put this sword straight through your throat now!’ Oliver snarled, his dark eyes blazing, his heart heavy with the pain and shame of being tricked for so long.
‘Oliver, don’t,’ Kerensa gasped.
‘You should have come to me, Kerensa,’ Hezekiah said to her, taunting her. ‘I would never have hurt you and I wouldn’t have gone after your daughter.’
‘Shut up!’ Oliver warned. ‘I don’t want to hear one more word out of your filthy, disgusting mouth. I should have known it was you. I would have been able to put a stop to these killings, stopped the suffering.’
Peter Blake had handed Kerris back into the carriage to be comforted by Kenver and Rosina. He tried to get Jessica and Catherine into it too but they held each other’s hands, refusing to budge. He came up beside Clem and Kerensa and said coolly, ‘Kill him, Pengarron. If you don’t then I will, for what he did to Dinah Tredinnick.’
Hezekiah laughed horribly. ‘He can’t, Blake. He’s a fool and a coward!’
‘Don’t, Father!’ Kane shouted. ‘Let him be brought to trial and hang for his crimes. He won’t be able to dress like a gentleman and be so fussy in gaol. Let him go there and rot until he swings on the gallows.’
Oliver’s hand wavered. He shifted his stance but kept his eyes on the evil little man and his sword taut at his throat.
‘What do you say, Trenchard?’ Hezekiah sniggered. ‘We might as well have your opinion on what to do with me. As well as the comfort you’re giving his wife, I’m sure Sir Oliver would value your opinion.’
‘I say kill him,’ Clem said without hesitation. ‘The last girl he killed was a respectable Methodist.’
‘Kill him!’ Blake shouted, unsheathing his own sword. ‘What are you waiting for, Pengarron? A confession to cleanse his soul? He has no soul!’
‘You could be right about that, Blake,’ Hezekiah said, with a high laugh. He suddenly spat in Oliver’s face. Oliver blinked and grimaced. ‘What are you going to do, Pengarron? I can’t get away. I’ve got your sword at my throat, Blake’s at my side and the prostitute’s spawn is at my back. And I dare say your pouting daughter would like to plunge a weapon of some kind into my body. Who’s it going to be, Pengarron? For I’ve no intention of giving myself over meekly to the law.’
‘Why, you… you aren’t human,’ Oliver rasped.
‘Maybe I’m not but I won’t give you the satisfaction of seeing me die like some animal!’ Hezekiah cried.
He made one sharp movement forward; Oliver’s sword ran through his throat and out the back of his neck. He died with a horrible choking noise. Oliver let go of the sword and jumped back, and Hezekiah’s body fell like a stone to the ground. Kerensa screamed. Oliver pushed Clem away from her and took her into his arms. Shaken through and through, he could say nothing, he could only stare at the body of the man he had thought of as his friend.
Jessica and Catherine were whimpering in fright and horror and allowed Blake to bundle them back into the coach where they clutched each other. Jessica whispered, ‘He is dead, Kerris,’ and the other woman cried with relief and shock in Kenver and Rosina’s arms.
Kane carried Olivia to the coach and put her in beside Jessica, saying grimly, ‘Look after her, Jessie.’
Catherine stared blankly at the coach’s interior, the sight of Clem holding Kerensa filtering through and replacing the memory of the horror she had witnessed.
A crowd was gathering. Oliver took off his cloak to cover the hideous body and ordered a bystander to run and fetch the constables.
‘Are you all right, Kerensa?’ Clem asked her gently.
‘Get away from us!’ Oliver shouted ferociously. ‘Or I’ll put my sword through you too!’
Kerensa nodded to Clem then buried her face in Oliver’s chest as he came back to comfort her possessively. Clem shot Oliver a look of hatred then stalked off to stand beside the coach.
Blake was next at the Pengarrons’ side. ‘Will Lady Pengarron be all right?’ he asked in concern even though he was fearful of the baronet’s temper. ‘She seems very distressed. Shall I open Miss Tredinnick’s house for her to rest in?’
‘I don’t want to go in there,’ Kerensa cried in horror. ‘Not after…’
‘I’ll get my son to take her ladyship home while I explain to the authorities what has happened here,’ Oliver said grimly. ‘Will you be good enough to take my daughter home to the Manor, Blake?’
‘Of course, Sir Oliver. I shall leave without delay. My own wife must be equally distressed.’
‘And Blake,’ Oliver said, still feeling wrath at Clem Trenchard’s insolence, ‘make sure the Trenchard girl does not remain on my property after you leave.’
When Hezeki
ah Solomon’s body had been removed from the street and Oliver had explained to the authorities how he had met his death, he moved off to Hezekiah’s home address, just a few houses down across the street. Shadows were falling to herald the evening and it was cold and inhospitable inside Hezekiah’s house. Oliver lit lanterns and lots of candles to dispel the chill that crept over him. Outside he could hear people shouting and celebrating and he knew they were revelling in the unmasking and death of the murderer who had made them live in such fear for so long.
In the sitting room he found Hezekiah’s things all packed up. With icy finality he knew he had meant to rape and kill Olivia before fleeing the country. Oliver didn’t really know why he was here. It was a gruesome place to be, a gruesome thing to do to root about in the dead man’s things. But he had to try to find out something about the mysterious sea captain. There had been too many long years when he had kept his secrets to himself.
In a chest were his clothes. His toilet boxes were full of perfumes and cosmetics. There was nothing of interest until Oliver opened a box and came across a collection of diaries and two theological books, the ones Timothy had lent him and which were now badly slashed.
Oliver put the books carefully aside and sat down to read the diaries. He soon recoiled at their contents. Every murder, rape, and act of torture was clearly documented. It was only now that Oliver learned what had happened many years ago to a missing miner called Colly Pearce, who had been Rosina Blake’s bullying, drunken brother. Pearce’s throat had been cut and he had been thrown off the cliffs near Painted Bessie’s kiddley. He was shocked and horrified to learn of the rape of Miss Ameline Beswetherick, Sir Martin’s granddaughter, under his very roof, when she had stayed at Pengarron Manor. No wonder Ameline had married and moved out of the county and had refused to come back to attend her grandfather’s and brother’s funerals. And as well as insulting Kane by calling him ‘prostitute’s spawn’, in reference to the woman who was thought to have been his real mother, Hezekiah had also butchered his father, the disgusting sailor from whom Kerensa had bought Kane as an infant. Oliver had had no idea that the sailor had turned up in Marazion again, but the delicate flowing handwriting recorded that Hezekiah had murdered the sailor as a service to Kerensa. Oliver had seen that body and he shuddered violently at the memory, glad that Kerensa knew nothing about it.
He read about the way Hezekiah had tried to woo Dinah Tredinnick, with the intention of eventually killing her. Dinah had spurned his every advance, and so he had blackmailed her by saying he would inform Peter Blake that she had been unfaithful to him if she did not admit him to her house. She had tragically met her gruesome death anyway.
It cut Oliver to the bone to read the accounts of the times Hezekiah had plotted Kerensa’s seduction, his most hopeful attempt when Oliver was out of the country. But Kerensa’s pregnancy with Kelynen had put paid to that. Hezekiah had had a horror of women in that condition and had always refused to come to the Manor when Kerensa had been with child. Worst of all was to read of the plot to trap, rape and kill Olivia and to know that he had nearly succeeded just a few hours ago. Hezekiah wrote with gusto how he had duped the Reverend Timothy Lanyon into lending him two religious books and writing a note so he could forge his handwriting. How Olivia, ‘the infinitely silly creature’, would no doubt agree to a secret liaison with the ‘ridiculous young puppy who believed in a heaven’. What Hezekiah believed was ‘heaven’, Oliver couldn’t bear to read.
He lit a fire in the grate and burned the diaries along with the remains of Timothy’s books. It would be better that no one ever saw them; he alone would carry the burden of their contents. Now he must go home. His family needed him. Kerensa was with child and must be in shock, and Olivia would need him. When the opportunity was right, he would ask Kane how he felt about the insult Hezekiah Solomon had hurled at him. He shook his dark head. How was it he had never known Hezekiah was the Mount’s Bay murderer? How many lives and how much suffering could he have prevented over the years? But Hezekiah had been a secretive man and Oliver had allowed him what he’d thought was the dignity to keep his life private. It was a great pity he hadn’t been more curious and perceptive.
Oliver glared at the fire with its curling paper ashes. He wanted to raze this revolting perfumed house to the ground! And it wasn’t the only reason hate and fury were bubbling over inside him. While Hezekiah Solomon had kept his secret life to himself, there were other individuals who chose not to keep their feelings to themselves, even when they had a fiancée present. He hoped Catherine Lanyon would see sense and finish her association with Clem Trenchard.
Chapter 22
For all those involved in Captain Hezekiah Solomon’s death, the next day was spent in trying to come to terms with what had happened.
At Trevenner, the Blakes were making an effort to put the incident, and the whole Dinah Tredinnick affair, behind them. Rosina resolved never to mention it again and Blake that he would never stop making it up to her. He did not go about his business today but planned to take Rosina for a ride over the moors on Lancavel Downs, to let their beauty and starkness purge their souls of any last morbid feelings.
Catherine was in a state of despondency. She had allowed Clem to escort her to the Parsonage door when they’d got back to Perranbarvah. She had been in a restrained mood then, her face long, her deportment stiff. Clem had left her in Nancy Wills’s care, saying they had endured a harrowing experience and her mistress would need to talk to the Reverend at length for comfort. Clem did not know his bride-to-be was harbouring hurt feelings against him for the way he had gone to comfort Kerensa in Penzance and taken the liberty of putting his hands on her, even in Sir Oliver’s presence. Catherine’s fears that he still loved the other lady so deeply he would run to her at the drop of a glove had been confirmed in a way that had humiliated her.
She had refused to speak much that night when Timothy had come home. After a restless night, in which she had hardly slept, she had finally told him all the terrible details of the evil sea captain’s death. Timothy was horrified. He stayed with Catherine to comfort and pray with her, but said that he would have to leave her soon to go to the Manor. He was about to leave when Jack arrived with a summons for him to attend at the Manor at once.
Clem had been angered at Sir Oliver’s fury with him, outraged that he had been spoken to like a mongrel dog. After he told Philip and David and Ricketty Jim what had happened at Penzance, he had gone off all night with his dogs, and today he was keeping out of everyone’s way.
Jessica was horrified at the suffering Olivia had been subjected to and was able to give her friend her first thoughts, now that Kerris could be left totally in Kenver’s care. She wanted to go over to the Manor and offer Olivia comfort, but yesterday, as they had pulled up at the doors, Peter Blake had made it clear she was not welcome there and Olivia had been in no fit state to notice or reason why. Now, like her father, Jessica mooched about the farm keeping herself to herself and hoping that Kane would ride over to see her.
Kerris, though somewhat distressed at regaining her full memory, was utterly relieved her mistress’s murderer had been apprehended and was now dead. She had nothing to fear from the past and a happy, settled future to look forward to. She hadn’t been able to bear going into Dinah Tredinnick’s house and after the terrible event on the street outside, it hadn’t been necessary. Peter Blake had said he would arrange for her few personal possessions to be sent over to her on the farm. She spent all her time with Kenver who was having a difficult time coming to terms with yesterday’s events himself. He had found his first excursion away from the farm exciting and enlightening but had been frustrated to be confined to the carriage while the womenfolk witnessed the distressing scene outside. And now after spending his entire life in other people’s care, he had a new future to look forward to and the responsibility of taking a wife. He was both fearful and exhilarated at the prospect.
Olivia, who was the most distraught, had refused to come out
of her room since she’d got home. She just wanted to be in her own chamber with her own familiar things around her. She allowed Kerensa, who had refused to lie abed, reassuring Oliver that the shock had not harmed her or their unborn child, to sit with her. Olivia could hardly bear to speak of what had happened to her but occasionally managed to answer a question so her mother could fit together all the details of why she had been in Penzance and what she was doing in the house Hezekiah Solomon had rented for his murderous purposes.
‘What I don’t understand, Mama,’ Olivia said miserably, shuddering in horror and clutching Kerensa’s hands for comfort, ‘is why he said I’d been asking for it for years. Was it because I’d been so cool towards him and he was seeking revenge or was it because somehow he thought I was giving him encouragement?’
‘I think it was because he’d always wanted me,’ Kerensa replied, retying the bandage on Olivia’s cut hand so her daughter would not see her recoil at the thought. ‘If only we’d realised how he felt, we would have stopped receiving him years ago.’
‘It wouldn’t have stopped him. He would have come after you or me somehow. He was obsessed with us.’ Olivia went quiet, picturing how she’d had to undress. ‘I… I feel so ashamed. I had to pretend to go along with him to give me time to think of a way to escape…’
Kerensa gently smoothed Olivia’s hair away from her brow. The gleaming red length was tangled because her daughter had not bothered to brush it since yesterday, although she had torn off all her clothing and ordered it to be burnt. Kerensa fetched a brush and began removing the tangles, knowing that if Olivia looked better she would feel better too.
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