A Murderous Masquerade (18 page)

Charlotte looked mortified.

“I wasn’t judging. I have become very fond of my cousin and his intended. It would have just made everything so less worrying. What are we going to do if Giles isn’t set free? Anne will become the gossip of the whole neighbourhood. Her horrible father might insist that she weds someone of his choice. Can you imagine her marrying one of his old cronies?”

Alexander shook his head.

“We can’t let it come to that. We have to set Giles free, come what may. She can’t be ruined. She is my sister in law.”

Geoffrey’s voice broke as he spoke.

“I’ll marry her if it comes down to it. I know that she will object and say that she will be fine on her own, but even if I have nothing to offer her but my name, I would rather do that than see her suffer. At least she will know that she is safe with me and from me.”

Alexander placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“Your selflessness is honourable Geoff, but you are not in love with Anne any more than she is with you. She won’t let you make that sacrifice when she knows that your heart...” He stopped and stared down at the floor before speaking again. “No, we’ll sort something out, I am sure.”

Charlotte felt her chest expand from the knot that had suddenly wound around it at Geoffrey’s words.

“I will go up and see her now. She might want the company as she has insisted on being alone for most of the day. Now I know why, I can put her mind to rest.” She moved to the stairs as Alexander guided Lily back to the salon. Charlotte stopped as she took a step up and turned back to Geoffrey. “Would you really marry her if she would have you?” Her voice felt as though it was being strangled from her.

Geoffrey looked down at the young woman. His eyes swept over her once before he squared his shoulders.

“If it would save her from ruin, yes. Not that it would. Some would see it as far more scandalous that she married so far beneath her, but rather that than leave her in the hands of some aging boor who only wants her to warm his bed at night. At least she would know that she is safe from me.”

Charlotte wrinkled her forehead in thought.

“But you are a well respected gentleman and friend of Alexander. No one here treats you as below them in station.”

Geoffrey raised an eyebrow.

“I am the son of the old Duke’s steward. Although I played with Alexander and Lily when we were children I cannot presume on the friendship. Alexander tries to brush over it and has always treated me as one of the family, but I know my status here. I am really nothing more than a well paid servant. I have little money of my own and the only roof over my head is above the stables. I may wear fine boots but I lack the noble feet to put in them. If Anne would marry me, she would be doing me more of a service than I her. I only offer so that the child would have a name and not be called a bastard.”

Charlotte’s chest tightened again at his words. She gave an angry frown.

“No child of my cousin is going to be called a bastard! The very thought is too much to bear. We will have to think of a plan to free him if the trial goes the wrong way.”

Geoffrey puffed out a breath.

“Well, you had best get your thinking cap on fast. We have only one week and what with the way that Lavenham is rounding up his cronies to back him up on Giles’ words at the ball. Marry that with the fact that Ellesworth’s two best friends are sticking to the story of seeing Giles near the pig sty and the doctor not able to make a positive or negative identification, I can’t see any way that Giles’ is going to come out of this unscathed.”

Charlotte shook her head, her curls jumping about her shoulders.

“He’s not going to be hung. He’s not! And you won’t marry Anne either! I’ll not hear of it! Giles will marry her, exactly as he first intended!” She stamped her foot determinedly and ran up the stairs leaving Geoffrey, staring open mouthed in surprise at the frill of white petticoats and a very trim ankle.

Charlotte walked very slowly along the corridor. After running from the hall she had pressed herself against the wall and stood very still while her senses came back to normal.

Embarrassed at her outburst she groaned in mortification. What on earth had she been thinking of to say such things? It was all Geoffrey’s fault. He had shocked and hurt her with his declaration that he would marry Anne if it would save her and the coming child from outright abuse. Shocked because she had never heard of a man do anything so selfless, and hurt because, because...She nearly stamped her foot again. She was hurt because the thought of him doing anything like that just did.

She shook the pain from her heart and stood outside Anne’s door for a long moment before knocking. She wasn’t entirely sure how to approach the subject of the baby with Anne. It was a little delicate, to say the least and she pressed her hand against her thumping heart.

Gathering her courage, she knocked lightly on the bedroom door and let herself in a few seconds later. Anne lay on the bed wearing a loose fitting day dress. She looked pale and wan. Giving Charlotte a weak smile as she patted the bed, she invited Giles’ cousin to come and sit beside her.

“Come and sit with me, Charlotte. I have something that I must tell you. I will understand if you no longer wish to have anything...”

Charlotte pressed her hand over Anne’s.

“I know about the baby. You have nothing to fear from me. I only want Giles to be freed so that you can marry as soon as possible.” Her mind went back to the thought of Geoffrey’s offer of marriage and the hurt knotted her stomach again.

A tear slipped from Anne’s lashes. She blinked slowly and dabbed at her cheek with a lace handkerchief.

“We should have waited, but I have wanted him for so long. I am not a wanton woman, Charlotte. There was a reason for my actions and his. I have to tell you something that must remain a secret.” She waited until Charlotte nodded before speaking again. “You know that I was married to Alexander’s brother for three years? He was a very dear man and I loved him very much, but our love was nothing like that which I feel for Giles. During my marriage Phillip was very kind to me, very loving, though not in a husbandly way. He was more like a very dear, elder brother. For reasons that are not mine to explain, our marriage was never consummated. Giles was my first lover. We met only three weeks after Phillip died but I fell in love with him the moment I saw him.” She laughed and gripped Charlotte’s hand. “He had ridden to Ormond with Alexander and they hadn’t had time to change. He stood before me, with the dust and grime of several days travel covering him from head to foot and he never took his eyes from mine as he gave me a bow. I never saw such intensity of desire, but it wasn’t a look filled only with lust. Tenderness, honesty and loyalty shone from his very being and I simply fell in love on the spot.”

Charlotte gave a great sigh.

“Oh, Anne! That is just so romantic. Giles told me the very same story. He said that he took one look at you and just knew that he must have you for his own.”

Anne choked out happy tears.

“He told you that? How lovely that he can confide in you. I know that in only the few days he has come to know you, he has grown very fond of you. He wouldn’t want you to think badly of him. He didn’t try to seduce me. It was I who tempted him. I knew that I would have to wait until my wedding night before he made any real attempt to make me lie with him, but I was beyond all endurance of the proprieties. He had asked me to marry him and I had accepted. Given that I am an independent woman, I felt that I was justified in my actions. I don’t regret them for one moment.” She lifted her chin as if daring Charlotte to argue.

Charlotte relaxed on the bed and leaned over to give Anne a kiss on the cheek.

“I am so glad that you had that special time together. Now we only need to work out how we are going to save him and stop Geoffrey being an idiot.” She lay back and pressed her fingers to her temples as it in deep thought.

Anne looked at her curiously.

“Yes, I agree, though I can’t imagine why you would call Geoffrey an idiot. He’s far from that. He’s a fine young man and he knows so much about the horses. Alexander wouldn’t be without him, swears blind that he wouldn’t have Ormond now if Geoff hadn’t been so loyal in the hard times that the family suffered. He was here when Phillip died. I don’t know what I would have done without him to lean on. He took over everything and helped the Duchess and myself through that difficult time.”

Charlotte felt the knot in her middle tighten again. She turned to gaze at Anne.

“So you would marry him if he asked you?”

Anne gasped and choked on her own breath.

“Marry Geoff? He doesn’t love me, and as much as I admire and like him, I don’t have any greater feelings for him. He would never ask me anyway. He has his sights set elsewhere. Whatever would give you such an idea?”

Charlotte wriggled uncomfortably, wishing that she had kept her mouth shut. She folded her hands over her chest and pouted into her chin.

“He just offered to marry you! Downstairs just now, he offered immediately when I foolishly said that you would be ruined if Giles couldn’t be saved to do it himself. I didn’t mean it like it sounded. I just meant that we needed to work harder to gain Giles’ freedom, but Geoffrey instantly said that he would marry you to keep your babe from being called a bastard.” She wished that she didn’t sound so sulky but she couldn’t help it. She realized that Geoffrey’s offer had cut her to the bone.

Anne was momentarily stunned into silence. More tears trickled down her cheeks.

“What a lovely man!” She brushed the droplets from her cheeks. “There, I told you how wonderful he is. Was I not right?”

Charlotte felt like crying herself.

“So you will accept him if...if this all goes wrong?” Her words nearly choked her until Anne suddenly laughed.

“No, no, I could never marry him however wonderful he is. Remember what I told you about Phillip and myself. I obviously didn’t explain enough. Loving someone, like you would a brother, or perhaps, how you love Giles, well, it isn’t enough. I know that I am a passionate woman. I love riding horses and going for wild gallops. I love Giles in the same way. Geoffrey is passionate too, but we don’t have that kind of passion for one another. If you don’t find that spark with your husband or wife then it makes for a pretty miserable, unfulfilled marriage. I have made my own bed and I will learn to lie in it. Alexander and Lily have vowed to stand by me and due to their generosity in returning Evenleigh to me, I have my own home. Geoffrey is working hard on our new income from the stables and I am sure that the breeding scheme will work. I won’t have to rely on charity.”

The relief that swept through Charlotte left her almost faint. She relaxed back again and suddenly realized that the discomfort in her side wasn’t only from how worried she had felt. She wriggled around, stuck her hand into her pocket and lifted out the cinnabar box. She threw it into the air and caught it again. Having stared at it and dug her nails into every nook and cranny nearly every day, she couldn’t even be bothered to look at the intricate carvings now. She had decided that the puzzle was impossible.

Anne watched her and frowned.

“Not attempting to open it any longer?” She asked as she watched the box travel up into the air again.

Charlotte shrugged.

“It’s not that I wouldn’t try again, but I feel as though I have looked at it a thousand times since Giles was put in goal. I feel as though I am letting him down by not discovering the secret. If the box contains the diamond that my father suggested I would sell it and use the money to help free my cousin.”

Anne patted Charlotte’s hand.

“Your generosity will serve you well, but Giles could never think badly of you for being unable to open something like this. If it was easy, there would be no challenge. The box would become dull instead of interesting. Do you think that you have discovered the beginning of the story it tells?”

Charlotte shrugged again.

“It must be here where the man first appears to hear the bird.” She pointed to where they had once looked before. “But the story goes off in different directions. If you trace it one way you end up right back at the beginning. The other way just stops at this odd symbol on the bird cage door. I’ve pressed it and tapped it and tried to swivel it but nothing happens.” She handed the box to Anne.

Anne squinted at the strange shape, two double-ended, inverted scrolls pointed at one another in an almost arrow like configuration. She turned the box and then turned her head. She smiled as she handed the box back to Charlotte.

“Try squeezing the two shapes together.”

Charlotte looked at her sceptically before she shrugged for a third time and squeezed the tiny motifs with her nails.

She gasped in surprise as they immediately slid into one another. The resulting shape looked similar to a four leafed clover but however fascinating the movement, the box remained closed.

“Nothing happened!” She exclaimed and then narrowed her eyes. The motif now looked something like a very tiny handle on the birdcage. If the story on the box was real and she could open the door the bird would be set free. She pulled the motif.

The cinnabar moved a fraction of an inch and a tiny click reverberated throughout the box. The lid sprang open and she nearly dropped it in surprise as Anne gasped in wonder at the light winking from the space within.