by Lucy Monroe
"Come here, please."
The woman came forward, her mobcap slightly askew. The house truly had been at sixes and sevens preparing for her move to Raven Hall. Calantha was grateful that her cook had insisted on staying until she departed with Jared for her new home. She did not know how she would have substantiated her claim otherwise. The vicar’s wife could verify that Calantha only sent red candy to her home, but not that she had not made another color.
The cook looked nervous and Calantha sought to put her at her ease. "Do not be concerned. I need to ask you a few questions and then you may get back to your preparations for the afternoon meal."
Cook slid Thomas, who had followed her into the parlor, a sidelong glance. The elderly butler’s face remained impassive.
"It is imperative that you tell the truth. Do you understand?" Calantha asked.
The other woman nodded. "Yes, your gr—milady."
"Please tell my husband how long it takes to make rose candy."
The cook smiled, obviously relieved at the simplicity of the question. "Well, we’ve been known to make it in one long day, milady, but usually it takes two."
"What color of petals do I prefer for my candy?"
"Red, milady. You complained that the lighter colors turned brown and they did," she said with an emphatic shake of her head.
"When was the last time I made candy with a different color of petal?" Calantha asked, realizing that the cook’s last answer could imply she had done so recently.
"Why the first year we come to live here, milady. We used them pretty yellow roses, but they turned an awful brown."
"Have I made any rose petal candy lately?"
"About a week ago, milady. Don’t you remember? You brung in them pretty red roses all blooming big like and said you wanted to make a batch for the vicar’s kiddies. You had me save a few for the tea tray when Miss Hannah comes visiting."
Calantha nodded. "I remember. Thank you, Cook."
She turned to her husband. "Are you satisfied, or would you like to question her further?"
Jared looked furious and she couldn’t imagine why. "No. I’m satisfied," he ground out between clenched teeth.
She then faced Ashton, Drake and his wife. "Would any of you like to ask Cook anything before she returns the kitchen?"
She was not at all surprised when Ashton nodded.
"Do you know of anyone else locally that makes that type of candy?" he asked.
Calantha had not considered that, but it was a good question.
Cook started to shake her head and stopped. "If you mean by local, a few miles up the road, then there’s a lady what makes candy from her roses, but it isn’t half so nice as milady’s and she doesn’t share it around the village like. She saves it for her titled guests. Won’t catch her giving it to the vicar’s children."
"Who is it?" Ashton asked.
"Squire Jensen’s wife."
"When you say that she lives north, how far north do you mean?" Drake asked.
"She’s about halfway from here to Clairborne Park, sir."
Calantha waited, but no one asked any further questions. She was going to dismiss the cook, when Thomas spoke.
"Milady, I hope you don’t mind me speaking out of turn."
"No, Thomas. It is quite all right."
"You asked me to talk to the other servants and see if any of them saw his grace when he came to call on Saturday."
"Yes."
"Cook said she saw the duke’s horse in the trees behind the house when she went out to gather in some herbs she had drying in the sun in the back garden."
Calantha turned to the servant woman. "Are you quite sure it was his grace’s horse?"
"Yes, milady. It was that nasty spotted horse what bit Timmy, the stablelad before he came to work here."
"Why didn’t you tell Thomas at the time?" Jared asked, his voice barely below a roar.
"I didn’t know I was supposed to," Cook blurted out, her face red from embarrassment.
Calantha gave Jared a quelling glare and then turned back to her cook. "It’s quite all right. You are not responsible for the comings and goings of visitors."
"Are you satisfied?" she asked the other occupants of the room, once again.
This time each one nodded, except Jared. He looked ready to throttle someone.
She turned her back to him and spoke to Ashton. "I cannot prove that I did not hire the man who tried to kidnap Hannah. My servants do not bother me at night and I am in the habit of preparing myself for bed because I often stay up late with my studies. Therefore, my maid cannot tell you if I was in the house the night he was hired."
To her surprise, Ashton’s face flushed a dull red. "Irisa told me not to believe it. She said you would no more hire someone to take Hannah than you would dance naked on our tower roof. I just had to be sure," he said by way of apology.
"Of course. You have no reason to trust me, Lord Ashton."
"On the contrary, my husband is every bit as aware of your good works in the district as I am. You have always been very kind to the village children and go out of your way to treat their ills. He should have taken that into consideration when that nasty kidnapper accused you of hiring him."
It struck Calantha that at no time had Irisa shown even the slightest doubt in her innocence. If only Jared had been as stalwart in his belief in her. "If your husband is now convinced of my innocence, I am content."
"We all are," Jared announced.
Calantha looked at Drake and Thea, waiting for them to answer her unspoken question.
"We are," Thea said, "and I’m terribly sorry for the way I behaved yesterday. My only excuse is that my protective instincts as a mother had been aroused and it took me a while to remember what a gentle creature you are and how much you love your daughter. I let the smokescreen of evidence cloud my thinking."
Calantha did not know what to say. She had not expected an apology. "There was no reason for you to believe in my innocence. The evidence looked very convincing. Please don’t trouble yourself about it further."
Thea jumped up from her seat beside Drake and rushed across the room to hug Calantha. Calantha awkwardly patted her back, not knowing how to respond. She had hoped to convince them all that they needed to be even more vigilant about Hannah, she had not hoped to convince them of her complete innocence.
***
"I want a hug too, Mama."
Cali stiffened at the sound of Hannah’s voice and whirled around, breaking away from Thea’s sisterly hug. The look of joyous relief on her face crashed into Jared like a hammer. How could he have withheld Hannah from her? He had been blinded by circumstances the day before and forgotten the strong bond already forged between mother and adopted daughter. Cali could no more hurt Hannah than set fire to her conservatory filled with plants.
Her heart was too tender to deliberately hurt anyone else, particularly a child she loved. He grimaced at the thought of that tender heart under the domination of a man like Clairborne. Jared hadn’t done such a good job of protecting it himself, but things would be different from now on. He would not forget the passionate little heart that beat beneath the marble façade.
Going down on her knees, Cali held her arms out and Hannah went rushing into them.
She hugged her mama’s neck and announced, loudly enough for the rest of the room to hear, "I missed you."
"I missed you too, sweeting. So much." Cali’s voice cracked and she buried her face against the black silk of Hannah’s hair.
"I wanted to see you yesterday when Puppy died, but Papa said you had to pack to come live wif us."
Cali’s head lifted and for a moment her gaze met Jared’s. The accusation he read there smote him.
Bloody hell. What else was he supposed to do?
"You’re with me now, my darling, and we shall spend the rest of the day together. Would you like that?"
Hannah nodded. "I wants to play in the garden. Nursey wouldn’t let us."
Cali gen
tly touched Hannah’s face, her hand visibly trembling. "I had truly hoped you would help me take care of the baby plants in the conservatory today. They will be so lonely when we are gone with only Old Benjamin, the groundskeeper to care for them."
"I like to water them."
"I know." Cali stood up, lifting the sturdy little girl in her arms and moved over to the table on the far side of the room. "I left our puzzle out so we could finish it before we left for Raven Hall. Shall we work on it, now?"
Cali had brought the wooden puzzle down from her attic last week in order to entertain Hannah on a day full of summer rain showers.
"May I help?" Irisa asked.
"Yes, but I gets to do the edges," Hannah announced.
"I need to get back to David and Deanna," Thea said. "Perhaps I can bring them over later to play in the conservatory as well? David’s quite jealous of Hannah’s accounts of helping you pot your plants. He loves to dig in the dirt."
Cali turned and nodded, her expression slightly puzzled, as it had been when Thea apologized and hugged her. She obviously didn’t realize that the terrible suspicion of the last two days was over.
"Why don’t I go fetch them now?" Drake asked.
Thea turned a shrewd gaze on her husband. "Why? I thought they could take their naps first."
"They can nap here, but I’ll feel more comfortable if you are all together while we are gone."
"Where are you going?" Irisa asked, while helping Hannah place a puzzle piece.
Cali tensed beside her but did not look up from the wooden puzzle.
"There are several leads that need investigating," Jared replied for his brother-in-law, being deliberately evasive.
He didn’t want Cali upset with the news that they were going to question the duke, among others.
Before the women could ask any more probing questions, he led Drake and Ashton outside to make plans.
"We need to call on Squire Jensen’s wife." Ashton said without preamble once they were away from the house.
"Someone will have to talk to the tavern-keeper at the Blue Goose, as well," Drake added.
"I’m going to call on that bastard, Clairborne," Jared stated.
"He looks like the most likely culprit." Ashton’s voice sounded musing.
"We don’t have any other prospects right now." Jared wished they did. Not because he cared what the idiot, Clairborne, might try, but because he didn’t want to upset Cali.
"Let’s talk to Mrs. Jensen first and the tavern-keep. It’s too far to ride to Clairborne Park and return before nightfall as it is today."
Curse it, Drake was right. The Jensen’s place would be far enough to travel today and return by night. "I don’t want the women alone tonight. This business is too mixed-up and potentially dangerous."
"Exactly," Drake said before going forward and readying his carriage. The stableboy rushed up to help.
"Do you think they’ll be all right if all of us leave?" Ashton asked.
Jared didn’t know. "If one of us stays, that’s less ground covered. On the other hand, leaving them with only servants to protect them could be a bloody idiotic move."
"If you two leave now, you’ll have almost an hour’s start on waiting for me. I’ll go to Ashton Manor, get my children and come back to stay with the women and children until you return."
"Your wife is going to be offended when she realizes why you didn’t go with us," Ashton predicted, his mouth slanted in a teasing smile.
"Your wife is already pissed as hell at you," Jared reminded his brother by marriage.
Ashton’s face lost its humor. "I know."
"Calantha didn’t seem too warm toward you, either," Drake said.
Jared frowned. She had been a bloody iceberg all morning. "I don’t think she understands."
"She’s probably got it all twisted with her feminine logic. You should have heard the things Irisa thought while we were engaged. Women do not think like men." Ashton’s pronouncement was met with silent agreement.
Cali sure as hell didn’t think like him and he didn’t know how to fix the problems caused by that.
He wanted her to smile at him again, but even in the deepest moments of their lovemaking last night, he’d felt like she held part of herself away from him.
He wanted his wife back, damn it.
He’d had one day of bliss and then everything fell apart around them.
Once he found the blackguard trying to harm his family and dealt with him, he was going to take Cali to Raven Hall and keep her there until they had everything worked out between them.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The tavern looked empty when Jared walked inside after leaving his horse with a slatternly postboy in the yard.
The faded wooden sign outside proclaimed rooms for rent. Jared doubted many travelers made use of the accommodations so much as a certain type of female intent on doing business on her back. The inn’s location a mile from the village proper provided just the kind of privacy wayward husbands and other jackanapes that would visit such a place wanted.
Jared scanned the dim room, looking for some sign of life. Other than an old man nursing a mug of ale in the corner, there wasn’t any. Very little light made it in through the soot-smeared windows high in the tavern’s walls to its interior. Which undoubtedly was best for the patrons that frequented the rough establishment. Jared doubted the tables had seen a washing cloth in a sennight and it would take either a man desperate for a drink or one totally unconcerned with grime, to imbibe using one of the wooden mugs stacked haphazardly by the keg of ale.
Cali, with her unbending attitude toward cleanliness, would have a fit of vapors if Jared brought her into such a place. Not that he would ever make such a mistake. His sweet little wife belonged in a conservatory full of flowers, not this hellhole. He still felt guilty for taking her to the gaol to meet Willem, that bastard would-be kidnapper.
Jared had no problem imagining the puling coward frequenting a place such as this. But he could not picture the Duchess of Clairborne coming inside for a word with him, or any other lady of his acquaintance.
"’Ere now, what can I get you gov’ner?" The small but rotund man had come in through a curtained doorway behind the long bar counter, wiping his hands on a cloth that might have been white at one time, but was now an uncertain shade of gray.
"I want information."
Unlike Ashton, Jared preferred the blunt approach to getting what he wanted and had no doubt it would work with the proprietor and patrons of this seedy little tavern. That’s why he’d sent his brother-in-law to question the squire’s wife. Jared did not have the patience to soothe ruffled feathers in getting the information they wanted out of Mrs. Jensen.
The barkeep stopped in the act of drying his hands. "’Ere now, what might you be wanting to know?"
"A scoundrel by the name of Willem is known to drink his leisure here."
"Maybe ‘e does and maybe ‘e doesn’t—"
Jared didn’t let the man finish, but had him by the front of his collarless shirt and dangling in the air in a heartbeat. "There’s no maybe if you want to keep what teeth you have left in your head."
The barkeep made a sound like a frightened pig and clutched at Jared’s wrists, his balding head glistening with instant moisture. "What...do you...want to...know about ‘im?" The words came out between gasps.
Jared lowered the other man slowly until his feet once again touched the floor. "A lady came into meet Willem a little over a sennight ago. She was wearing widow’s weeds and a veil."
The tavern-keep nodded his head so fast, Jared was surprised he didn’t knock himself out. "Aye, ‘e said ‘e met ‘er, but knowin’ Willem, I wasn’t inclined to believe ‘im."
"What do you mean? Didn’t you see her?"
"Nay. Some boy comes in and asks for Willem. Next thing I know, ‘e’s gone out to the yard. ‘e didn’t come back for a bit and I weren’t sure if ‘e ‘adn’t gone ‘ome like."
"What did the boy loo
k like?"
The other man rubbed the stubble on his chin musingly. "Like most boys, I guess. ‘e didn’t wear no fancy livery like ‘e would working for a toff. To tell you the truth, I didn’t believe Willem because of it."
"What did Willem say?" Frustration at the realization that the tavern-keeper would probably be able to tell him very little welled up in Jared.
"’e said ‘e’d met an angel, ‘e did. Said she was fancy as could be and wanted to ‘ire ‘im for a bit o’ work."
Bloody hell. It was nothing more than what the scoundrel had already told Jared and the others. "Did he describe this angel to you?"
"’e said ‘e couldn’t tell me ‘er name. It was a secret like, but ‘e said she was an angel. To tell you the truth, that one would think a woman who didn’t smell like pig swill and belch as loud as he did was an angel. ‘is eyesight t’aint so good anyway. I didn’t believ ‘im when ‘e said she was a real toff. No I didn’t. Be just like Willem to make it up."
"Did anyone else see her?" Jared asked, with little hope for a positive response. At least now he understood how the man could have been so mistaken about Cali.
He wasn’t surprised when the barkeep shook his head. "She stayed in the yard in her carriage, she did."
"Did you see the carriage?"
"No. ‘ow was I supposed to see the carriage in the yard when I was busy serving my customers in ‘ere, I’d like to know."
Jared frowned and the man backed up a hasty step. "Did anyone else see it?"
"Maybe a customer or two. Me postboy should ‘ave seen it. ‘e’s lazy as they come, but ‘e would ‘ave come forward to take care of it."
Like the boy had come forward to care for Jared’s horse? Jared had had to yell for him twice before the lad had come out of the stable, rubbing his eyes like he’d been napping. "Call him inside so we can ask."
The postboy was called. He hadn’t seen the woman, but he had seen the carriage. It was black, without markings, like a hired post chaise. Her servant boy was rude. He’d offended the postboy when he’d refused to come in the stable for a cup of ale and chat while waiting for the lady to conclude her business with Willem. Jared didn’t find out anything more, even though he stayed to speak to the regulars that had been there that night. No one had seen the lady and few had believed Willem’s story of her beauty and fancy manners.