A Murderous Masquerade (13 page)

“I should never have left your side. Giles asked me to wait with you until he had found Anne. I neglected my duty and now he is facing charges that would never have occurred if I had ignored your thirst.”

Alexander shook his head.

“You were tending to Charlotte’s comfort, Geoff. Do not cast blame on yourself or anyone else for this debacle except Edward and his cronies. Latham and Rookwood must know what has happened to their friend. It’s ridiculous to think differently. We will have to question them both, not that I expect them to give us anything useful. The pair of them seem to be rather thick witted.”

Lily looked very upset.

“I wish we ha’ never invited them into our home, bu’ we were not to know tha’ they would do something like this. Please forgive us Anne and Charlo’e. You know that we will do anything to help our friend.” She wiped a tear from her eye as Charlotte walked up to her.

“Do not upset yourself. I don’t blame you at all and I am sure that Giles and Anne don’t either.”

Anne also rushed to Lily’s side and helped her back towards the chaise.

“No one is to blame but my self centred brother and overindulgent father. He should have taken a much stronger hand with Edward when he was young, but he has let him run roughshod over everyone for years. He is an obnoxious little oaf and he’s going to get the tongue lashing of his life when I find him. In the meantime we must all look for clues as to where he’s gone.”

Geoffrey raised an eyebrow.

“I know he spent the afternoon whoring with Rookwood and Latham at the Bear and Dragon. Mary sometimes serves in the taproom. She has a perfume all her own. It’s very distinctive and Edward stank of it when he arrived back here just before the ball. The other two were with him so I can only suppose that they were taking advantage of the other girls at the inn.”

Alexander closed his eyes for a moment. He was tired and grubby and hungry. The lingering smell of the pigsty clung to his clothes and the stench of foul play stuck in his throat, but he couldn’t leave his best friend languishing in the gaol without doing something to relieve his discomfort.

“I’m going into town as soon as I’ve had some tea. Craddock can pack some fresh clothes and toiletries for Giles and I will see that he has some comforts. I’ll ask cook to provide daily meals too. Geoffrey, would you please help me with a decent mattress and some blankets. Anne, would you go to the library and choose a few of my books for him to read. Giles is an active man; sitting around in a gaol cell is not going to be easy for him. If you can think of anything else that I can take to keep his mind off his situation, pack that as well. While I’m in town Geoffrey will send word to Latham and Rookwood asking for an interview with each of them. They will hardly be able to refuse as I have their behaviour with Charlotte to dangle before their fathers if they decide to decline the invitation.”

Grady came in with the tea at that moment. Alexander gave out his instructions for cook and the castle was all bustle for the next hour before Geoffrey and Alexander along with an insistent Craddock and Callum, took the laden carriage into town.

Giles counted the bricks on the cell floor again. There were between nine hundred and ninety seven and one thousand and eleven. He had made it a different answer four times now and he couldn’t see where he had gone wrong.

He sighed and stood up again narrowly avoiding the all too low ceiling. He took a turn about the cell which wasted approximately another five seconds before he stood staring at the narrow bench that was to be his bed for the night.

During his lifetime so far, he’d slept in a lot worse places than the gaol in Oakley, but that fact didn’t make him feel much better at that precise moment. He desperately wanted to go back several hours and be lying in the arms of his wife.

His wife!
He wished with all of his heart that the words were true. He’d loved her for what felt like an eternity, but had only known that she loved him in return for a few days. Of course, he had suspected that she did. His visits to Evenleigh had been greeted with more than a little delight. Her emerald eyes had glittered up at him and her skin flushed with pleasure every time he bowed over her hand and kissed her glove, but there was nothing like hearing the words fall from your lover’s lips.

He patted his coat pocket, hearing the reassuring rustle of the special license. He’d not told her about it and for a desperate moment wondered if it would ever be used. He sat on the wooden platform and contemplated the floor again as he thought of the beautiful woman who had given herself to him only the afternoon before.

Oh God! How on earth was Anne coping? Did she really believe him innocent?
It wasn’t as if he had hidden his dislike of her family. Fortunately he’d not had to meet them often.

Thoughts of her family reminded him of his own. There was Charlotte to worry about now too. The poor girl had seen enough tragedy in her life and he certainly hadn’t meant to add to her despair. He knew that she was in safe hands at Ormond, but that wasn’t a perfect solution.

The girl was delightful but headstrong and already more independently minded than he could imagine a woman being at her tender age. It wouldn’t surprise him if she took off back to her home yet he couldn’t bear the thought of her going back to that crumbling ruin. Maybe he could move her into White Briars. Alice, his maid was there along with Mrs. Mingle. He wondered how Mrs. Downham would fit in to the household dynamic but then shoved all such thoughts from his mind. No need to worry, he was perfectly innocent after all. He’d be out of here soon enough and be able to sort everything out in due time.

Time! He wished he hadn’t thought of it. He glanced up at the small, barred square of a window. The light was beginning to fade. The thought of spending a single night in this place wasn’t at all appealing. His eyes scanned the floor and he saw evidence of vermin. Apart from the foul smell already leeching from the very stone walls, there were piles of rat droppings and the buzzing of lazy flies hovering around the covered bucket in the corner.

He tried to tamp his emotions down, but a wave of fury suddenly hit him. Ellesworth had rigged this whole thing with the sole purpose of bringing him down, and the dashed idiotic idea had worked. How anyone could believe that lower leg was from the pompous prick was beyond belief.

Where in God’s name had Ellesworth found it?
A vile thought came to Giles’ mind as the only ready supplies of fresh human remains were pretty few and far between.

It had to have come from either the doctor, if he had done any recent amputations; which was always a possibility what with the risk of farming accidents in the vicinity; or it had come from the local graveyard. The thought of body-snatchers in the area was appalling but again, not impossible. Men had been known to do far worse than rob a grave or two if needs rose.

A door scraped at the end of the passage beyond the walls of his cell, but he resisted the urge to look through the tiny window to see what was happening. He swung his legs up onto the wooden bunk and shoved his hands behind his head before closing his eyes.

He could hear several sets of footsteps coming closer to his door. Some of the other prisoners set up a call and banged on their doors as the people obviously passed them. The sounds stopped outside his own door and he heard the key turn in the lock.

“Don’t disturb me from my perfect dream unless you mean to release me,” he said quietly as the door opened and the footsteps came inside.

He opened his eyes as he heard his friend’s voice.

“Sorry, old chum, I’m afraid you’re going to have to stay here, but I have secured you better lodgings and we have some necessities that you may appreciate.” Alexander came over to the platform and took hold of Giles’ hand in a supposed effort to raise him.

Giles’ felt the slip of paper in his palm immediately. He opened his eyes and raised a brow.

“Why, Alexander! How kind of you to visit. I was beginning to think that you had forgotten me.”

Alexander laughed and spoke loudly.

“Idiot! You were only put in here three hours ago.” His voice dipped to a mere whisper immediately afterwards. “It’s a message from Charlotte. You had probably best burn it afterwards. I think it is her plans for your escape.”

Giles chuckled under his breath as he nodded but then grunted miserably as he took up the conversation again.

“Feels like a bloody lifetime. You can’t imagine how boring it is, staring at bricks all the time.”

Alexander nodded as he cast his eyes around the gloomy room.

“I feel your pain, but never fear, Gates has agreed to put you up in the guard house for the duration of your stay. Geoffrey is over there now with Callum and your man Craddock, who insisted on coming with us. Your valet is checking every nook and cranny for goodness knows what before he will allow you to stay there...not that you have much choice, mind you. It’s either there or here and I guarantee that there is better than here.” He curled his lip and sniffed towards the bucket in the corner.

Giles had to agree and promptly stood up. He surreptitiously slid the note Alexander had given him into his pocket before he stood back.

“Lead on. I was about to go mad over the number of bricks in the floor. At least the ones in the guard house may give me something more interesting to work on.”

Alexander laughed as they walked out through the door and the guards closed in behind them.

“Never fear. The ladies have packed you a veritable library of books along with plenty of paper and pencils. They even put in some cards and other games. You should begin to teach the guardsmen how to read or play. Charge them a few pennies a time and you’ll come out having earned a fortune and enough to put Caithwell to rights.”

Giles’s brows shot to the top of his forehead.

“You mean that I am going to be holed up here for years! Good God! The thought is horrendous. You may as well hand me your pistol so that I can finish it all now.” He said his words with a lightness of tone, but for the merest second he wasn’t sure that he didn’t mean it. The thought of being incarcerated in that tiny cell for an indefinite length of time, horrified him. It wasn’t that he was claustrophobic yet the thought of his freedom being denied him due to another man’s lies was beyond thinking about.

Giles took advantage of the clear evening air as they walked across the small courtyard towards the guard house. Gates stood on the steps puffing out his chest as he frowned down at them.

“You understand that I am doing this through my own goodwill to His Grace. If you make any trouble for me or the guards I won’t hesitate to put you straight back in with the common population.”

Giles almost rolled his eyes. It wasn’t as if he wanted to go back to that repulsive cell. It wasn’t as if he wanted to be there at all and if Gates would listen to reason instead of the Earl of Lavenham, he might have half a chance of getting out of the whole place sooner rather than later.

Alexander preceded him up the steps and the guards closed the doors with a solid clang behind them.

“Sounds horribly final, doesn’t it?” he said to his friend’s back as they walked down a corridor towards an open door.

Alexander glanced over his shoulder and huffed out a breath. He kept his voice low as he spoke to Giles.

“I’m sure it won’t be for long, but just in case the young upstart keeps one step ahead of us, as soon as you are settled in here we need to discuss a plan of action. I need your thoughts on a few things, including...” his voice dropped even lower. “Including your ideas on why Gates is backing Lavenham. It doesn’t make sense. I am the Duke of the area. Lavenham is practically no one in this region. How does he have so much sway over what happens here?”

They came to Giles’ temporary accommodations. They were cramped yet adequate and at least there was a real, if very narrow single bed and a closet. A table with writing equipment sat below the small but unbarred window and there was a lumpy looking chair before the fireplace. Giles went to the window to look out and groaned when he saw the town square below him.

“Good God! I’ll get a bird’s eye view of them building my own scaffold if we don’t get this sorted out soon.” He loosened his cravat which had suddenly become suffocatingly tight.

There was a sudden tutting sound from behind the screen in the corner and his valet, Craddock appeared. He bustled up to Giles and straightened his white linen cravat again.

“Never let your appearance down even in the face of adversity, My Lord. Keeps their manners in the right place.” He looked significantly at the closed door. “That idiot Gates won’t allow me to stay here so I am taking a room at the Bear and Dragon. Young Callum is there as we speak making sure that it’s up to standard for us. I’ll be over every morning to assist with your toilette and with your clothes.” He held up his hand as Giles appeared about to protest. “No, I insist. You have been an excellent master over the last two years, it is my pleasure to serve you in your hour of need. Callum is going to work in the stables while we are staying there, to help defray any costs. His Grace has offered to pay for any shortfall.” He gave a quick bow to both men before he knocked on the guard room door to be released.

Giles turned to Alexander after his valet had left the room.

“You don’t need to do this, Alex. I really want Callum and Craddock to go home to Mrs. Mingle.”