A Murderous Masquerade (23 page)

The sound of his own boots tramping on the cobbled square rang loud in his ears. Louder than they should. He wanted to press his hands to his ears but they were tied behind his back. He pulled on the rope that bound them and thought that he felt it give just a fraction. He pulled in a deep breath, expanding his chest to its fullest and pulled harder.

Nothing happened.

There were several steps in front of him and he hesitated for a moment as he stood at the bottom, looking upwards. A noose swung from the beam above the platform at the top of the steps. He narrowed his eyes in confusion as someone prodded him in the back. He glanced over his shoulder. Nate, his guard for the last four weeks, gave an apologetic grimace and lifted his chin towards the scaffold.

Giles looked back at the rope loop.

“For me?” he queried of Nate. No harm in checking, just to make sure.

Nate’s cheeks flushed, but he gave a quick nod of his head.

“Sorry, me Lud, I wish it could be different. If it makes you feel any better, we’ll do it quick. Davies ties a good knot; you won’t feel a thing.” He bounced up on his toes and then back onto his heels as he encouraged Giles up the steps with another quick prod.

Davies came forwards and positioned the rope over Giles’ head.

Giles gave an involuntary shudder.
This couldn’t be happening, could it?
Surely he had just married Anne. She was to have his child. A great lump rose to his throat as the rope slithered around his neck, tightening uncomfortably as the man he assumed was Davies secured the noose. He glanced upwards and felt his stomach lurch as a thick snake wound around his neck hissed into his ears.
What in God’s name was going on?

He caught sight of Gates snorting and snuffling something ineffectual and irrelevant to the small herd of oversized swine that had gathered in the square and he wondered if they would feed his body to them after it was all over. He cast his gaze back to the magistrate who now sported a wet pig’s snout that twitched up and down as he spoke. The pigs below him nodded as if agreeing with something Gates had said.

Giles snorted back at them all, wondering how on earth he had arrived in such a ridiculous dream before he closed his eyes and let himself become swept away with thoughts of his wonderful wife.

The woman he loved; the most beautiful, caring woman in the whole world. The woman who was his wife! Anne!

Her name was on his tongue and her beautiful naked body in his mind as the trapdoor gave way below his feet and he fell into the blackness of oblivion.

Holy God!
He’d only just arrived in time. He ducked into the small space beneath the scaffold and nodded at the doctor as he pushed past him.

“What in the devil’s name are you doing?” Doctor Leven frowned at Geoffrey.

Geoffrey grunted non-commitally and looked up at the underside of the trapdoor.
Jesus, this was going to be difficult.
He’d had no time to look at the length of the rope Giles would be swinging from and no idea if he was going to be able to catch the man. At well over six feet tall and brawny with it the new Lord Caithwell was going to weigh a ton as a dead weight.

He didn’t have time to wonder over the madness of Charlotte’s idea when there was a sudden creak. The wooden door fell away above him, swinging low and nearly cracking him on the head. Giles came through at the same time and Geoffrey threw himself at the man’s legs, balancing precariously as he caught him.

Giles jerked to a near stop in his arms but slithered downwards due to his weight and the relentless forces of nature.

Geoffrey clamped his arms harder around the man’s thighs as Giles began to jerk around.

“Cut him down!” Geoffrey hissed at the doctor as loudly as he dared.

Doctor Leven looked appalled.

“You wish me to go against the law? You ask too much, Sir!”

Geoffrey’s gaze darted to the doorway. The Doctor’s tone had been much louder than his own muted hiss, but the small crowd that had gathered was cheering and covered the sound of his voice. Geoffrey wanted to scream. Giles was dropping lower, gulping and gasping for air as the hangman’s noose strangled him slowly rather than breaking his neck as it should have done.

“For the love of God! The man is as innocent as a babe! His wife is with child and his young cousin relies on him. I swear on my own mother’s life that he’s not done a thing wrong. Let him down!” His desperate plea looked as though it was going to fall on deaf ears, but then after several more second’s pause the doctor moved forwards and grabbed hold of the knife lying beside the ricks of hay. He took one more look into Geoffrey’s pleading gaze and severed the rope.

Both Giles and Geoffrey fell in a tangled heap into the hay ricks. Geoffrey rolled Giles onto his back and scrambled off the man. His fingers worked at the noose, pulling and loosening the rope as quickly as possible, but Giles’ lips had already turned a strange shade of purple.

“Jesus, don’t tell me he’s dead! He can’t be!” Geoffrey pressed his ear near to Giles’ mouth. He could feel no breath and hear no sound.

The doctor was suddenly leaning over his shoulder. Geoffrey glanced up as the man raised his eyebrows.

“Stand aside. Let me feel for a pulse.” Geoffrey skittered back on his heels and stared at Giles’ motionless body as the doctor placed two fingers at the base of Giles’ neck. He gently pulled back Giles’ jacket and loosened his cravat and shirt before leaning forward and placing his ear to Giles’ chest. He held up his hand just as Geoffrey was about to speak and lifted his head. The look on his face told Geoffrey everything that he didn’t want to know. He fisted his hand at his sides and blinked back the tears of anger and disappointment that threatened to spring into his eyes.

“Dear God! How am I ever going to tell Anne and Charlotte that I failed? How am I ever going to look at his child and tell him that I wasn’t strong enough to save his father from such a barbaric end?” Bitterness spread through him, eating at his soul. Charlotte had relied on him, placed her faith in him and he’d repaid her trust by failing so spectacularly that he didn’t think he would ever be able to look her in the eye or at himself in a mirror ever again.

Doctor Leven stared down at Giles and puffed out a slow breath.

“I’m sorry. I can tell that you knew this man to be innocent of any crime. I should have listened to you sooner.” He staggered upwards and almost fell into Gates as he blundered in through the door and around the backed up cart.

“All done, doctor?” he asked, rather too jovially for Geoffrey’s liking.

Doctor Leven stared down his nose at Gates.

“Yes, I’m all done here. You’ll be happy to know that the prisoner is well and truly out of his misery. Where are the papers for me to sign?” He turned Gates back in the direction he had come and followed the man outside.

Geoffrey gulped in air that felt thicker than mud inside his lungs. He took one look back at Giles, and fell to his knees beside the body.

“Forgive me,” he whispered as he knelt for several minutes before staggering back to his feet and went to bring the cart towards the door. Silently he unlatched the back of the cart. He opened the lid of a sumptuously lined coffin and lifted Giles’ limp body inside with as much care as he could muster. He stared at the man’s plaster like face and said a short but heartfelt prayer over the body before he closed the heavy lid lay and covered the oak box with a thick blanket. He made sure that the whole thing was secure before he brushed the hay from his breeches and climbed back up into the driver’s seat. A few moments later he was on the road to Caithwell where, instead of the joyous reunion that Charlotte was expecting, Giles’ body would be made ready for burial.

Chapter Fourteen

The journey to Caithwell was long and uneventful. Anne’s maid remained silent and Anne was thankful for the quiet that enveloped both her and Charlotte. Her mind still couldn’t accept the enormity of what had happened.
Giles could not be dead.
She thought she would have felt some connection break, something pull away from her, but that hadn’t happened. She suspected that her baby was keeping her level headed when all she wanted to do was scream.

Charlotte had given her some hope that this wasn’t a plan based on greed and pride, but Alexander’s book told a different story. Her own family were involved in Giles’ murder for the sake of a few pounds. Their greed and pride knew no bounds. She could see no other reason why both her father and brother were against their match. They needed Giles to die a bachelor, unwed and with no legitimate offspring to clutter their horizons.

She kept the marriage certificate securely in her reticule. If her father did have the gall to knock at her door, she wanted the right paperwork with her to back up her claim. She only hoped that Callum, Craddock and Geoffrey would be up to the task of keeping her and Charlotte safe.

Glancing out of the carriage window, she could see the sprawling mansion as they made their way along the drive. Charlotte stared out over the house and a slow smile came to her lips. The roof looked as though most of the tiles had been replaced and there was a man working in the overgrown garden. It appeared that Mrs. Downham had things well under control. The man kept doffing his cap and nodding vigorously as Charlotte’s cook punctuated her words with prods of her bony finger to his chest.

Charlotte let out a sigh.

“It feels good to be home. I know that this is a sad day for all of us, but I am still relieved to be here on familiar ground. It looks as though some of the work that Giles ordered has been carried out already. At least there now look to be more tiles on the roof than in the garden.”

Anne nodded in agreement, though she had never been to the place before. It looked to be a graceful if unloved building. The evening light took most of the rough edges off though it was obvious that the house needed some love and attention.

“The works needed appear to be extensive.” She nodded towards the crumbling wing.

“We stopped using that end of the house a while back. I think Giles wants to bring it back into order eventually...I mean, that he wanted to...Oh Anne! I am sorry.” She broke off as tears filled the emerald green eyes of the woman at her side.

Anne shook her head and wiped her eyes.

“I have to stop this. I have to be strong. I cannot appear weak in front of my father.” She spoke with gritty determination and Charlotte reached over to squeeze her hand.

“You won’t be alone in this, Anne. I will be with you if he calls. He won’t take what is rightfully yours.”

Anne squeezed the young woman’s hand.

“This is your home, Charlotte. I am here only because I married your cousin. If our child is a boy Caithwell and the title will be his, but he will never turn you from your own home. Even though Giles has left you White Briars, you are to consider this yours as well. I would love for you to be my companion for the foreseeable future.”

Charlotte smiled at the offer.

“Do you promise that I can ride everyday and you won’t tell me off for wearing breeches?”

Anne gave her first real laugh in what felt like weeks. Her cheeks ached with the sensation.

“I’ll let you fashion me some. I cannot bear a riding habit. So constricting!”

Charlotte grinned back at her.

“Yes, so I hear. Giles told me how he discovered your ‘natural’ seat on a horse. He was clearly very impressed.” Though it hurt to speak of him, she couldn’t help smiling at the memory of his tale.

Anne blushed furiously.

“We were out riding, Giles was being most proper as usual, but then he insisted on assisting me from my horse. The cheeky man put his hands everywhere he could without our friends noticing. I swear that I was on fire for a whole week afterwards.” She gulped at the thought that nothing so arousing would ever happen to her again. The thought of another man’s hands in contact with her body made her want to shudder uncontrollably.

Callum drew the horses to a halt in front of the house and Craddock stepped down to help the ladies from the carriage.

There was a commotion at the door as Geoffrey suddenly appeared. His face was ashen and his expression grim.

“Charlotte, Anne, I...I, Oh God! I failed. I couldn’t do it and doctor Leven refused to help me in time,” he gasped out immediately. He couldn’t lift his eyes to meet theirs. His hands were shaking at his sides with the emotions that he tried to contain. He hated himself, hated the failure, and knew that he would hate the censure in the women’s expression, but he was knocked out of his self-criticism by Charlotte’s quick questions.

“Where have you taken him? You did as I asked? Did you check that he had taken the medicine? I don’t want him to suffer any ill effects.”

Geoffrey suddenly felt a little out of his depth. He couldn’t imagine how there could be any worse ill effects than being dead.

Anne frowned at Charlotte.

“What do you mean, child? What medicine was he supposed to take and how was it meant to help him? I can only thank you if you eased his suffering, but you should not have asked Geoffrey to participate in anything.”

Charlotte snorted and stood right in front of Geoffrey.

“So where is Doctor Michaels? Has he not arrived yet?”

Anne took Charlotte’s arm as distress registered in Geoffrey’s eyes.

“The doctor cannot make any difference now, Charlotte. We have to accept the fact that Giles is gone.”

Charlotte wrenched her arm away from Anne as she registered the despair on Geoffrey’s face at last.

“Where is doctor Michaels? I need to speak to him, I need...” She stopped as her family doctor stepped out onto the drive. His expression was grim and Charlotte let out a cry as she ran forwards.

The doctor stepped in front of the door to bar her entrance.

“I am sorry, my dear, but you knew that it was a gamble. I had no idea if it would work or even if the bottles were indeed the right ones. You must try not to distress yourself, he is at peace now.” His voice was gentle and soothing but Charlotte was past calming. She felt her heart thudding in her chest as she sidestepped the man and made for the front door.

“You are lying. He is going to be fine. The medicine will work.”

Anne stood by Geoffrey and looked up at him in confusion.

“What does she mean? What medicine is she talking about?”

The doctor took her arm and led her into the house. Geoffrey followed a few paces behind. He wanted to run from the place, but he had promised to remain with Anne until her claim on the property could be formally lodged. He listened intently to the doctor’s words as they followed Charlotte into the parlour.

“Charlotte sent me word earlier on in the week. She explained that she needed her father’s old medicine cabinet. I had no idea what she wanted with it until I read that she wanted a sleeping draught and initially I was reluctant. Young ladies shouldn’t use such things, but she wrote again, urging me to return the cabinet and then to meet her here today. From what I gather, she must have assumed that the draught would send him to sleep so that he couldn’t be hung. Unfortunately it hasn’t worked like that.” He glanced over his shoulder at Geoffrey who had told the doctor the story on his arrival.

“I didn’t catch him well enough. The drop, his weight...He slithered through my arms and I believe he was strangled.”

Anne began to waver. He legs suddenly buckled beneath her and she sank into the doctor’s arms. Mrs. Downham appeared from a side room and quickly led the way upstairs. Anne’s maid bustled about and settled her mistress into the bed while doctor Michaels felt for a pulse.

When Anne came around again Geoffrey left the room and made his way back down the stairs. He noted the threadbare carpet and the smell of damp that pervaded the air. The house was clearly in need of a lot of attention but that was hardly his concern at that moment.

His feet felt like lead as he walked back towards the parlour. He could hear gentle sobs well before he reached the room but nothing prepared him for the sight that met his eyes.

Charlotte was prostrate on the floor beside the mourning table on which her cousin lay inside his coffin. The open lid revealed Giles’ peaceful features and made him look as though he was in the deepest slumber. If one didn’t know that he had passed into the next world hours previously, one would have expected him to blink and open his eyes. As it was, the draft from the open window ruffled his hair, lending an awful sense of reality to the situation.

Geoffrey squatted down beside Charlotte.

“Please forgive me, I beg you...”

Charlotte made no sound other than to sob more earnestly.

Greatly daring, Geoffrey brushed a rough knuckle against her pale, damp cheek as he spoke quietly.

“Charlotte...I tried, but he was a big man. I would have done anything I could. He was a dead weight and just slipped through my grasp. I pleaded with Leven for help and he did eventually, but it was already too late.”

The sobbing had stopped, only to be replaced with a terrifying silence. The next thing he knew, a pair of ice-cold orbs drilled into his soul. Charlotte’s obvious sorrow was horrible to see but the accusatory glare that pierced his heart was more than he could bear. Not needing her to tell him that he had failed them all, he stood up quickly and strode from the room.

He left the house and made his way around to the stable block. He had to remain on the premises but he did not need to be inside; any visitors could be seen from a distance. Callum was already dealing with the horses and Geoffrey came up beside the young man to help.

“It’s been a bad business. We are all awful upset.” Callum’s shoulders dipped up and down deeply and Geoffrey sighed as he pulled the boy into a rough embrace.

“We will all need to help the ladies get over the shock. They will be relying on you especially. You cannot let them down, Callum. Giles would expect you to see to them. He liked and trusted you to look after them.”

Callum nodded and gave a handful of oats to Lightning who had appeared at his shoulder. The horse nudged him for more of the treat but Callum ignored him. He pointed towards the stable door.

In the half-light, a man on a horse could be seen approaching the house.

“He didn’t bloody well wait long! Thieving, lying, jumped up piece of...” his last words were drowned out by the sound of hooves on the cobbles as the Earl of Lavenham stepped down at the door and proceeded to march right on in to the house.

Geoffrey followed him at a discreet distance. He wanted to know exactly what the man was up to before he interrupted him. His only concern was that Charlotte was alone downstairs however he recalled how she had dealt with Ellesworth, Latham and Rookwood and decided that young Charlotte was perfectly capable of fending off one old man. He stepped quietly behind the Earl as he made his way into the parlour.

The Earl of Lavenham stared about the room. He knew that the Duke of Ormond’s groom had brought the body straight from the gallows and he was hopping mad about it. He had had to remain in Oakley after the hanging. Saying goodbye to all of his friends had taken a lot longer than he had expected. They all seemed to believe that he would be standing them a lavish lunch at the very least. It had been what felt like hours before he could come in search of the diamond.

He had already searched Caithwell briefly. The harridan of a housekeeper had not believed his story that he was actually a relative and he’d had to recite part of his family tree before she would even grant him entrance. She had followed him so closely about the place, almost bumping into his rear several times when he said that he was searching for a particular item that the new Lord needed.

When she had asked what this item might be so that she might be able to help him in his searches he had immediately aroused suspicions by suggesting that Charlotte had sent him to gather her valuables as she was in dire need of money for immediate expenditures. Mrs Downham had assured him in her most haughty manner that Lord Caithwell already had her interests at heart and had already set up an allowance that would more than cover her needs. She had been about to shoo him from the house when he had stated that he was going to be the next title holder so she had better get used to him taking what he liked or she would be out of a job.

She had lowered her eyes and given the pretence of acquiescence but had also asked for a few days to settle her own mind over the affair and to write to Lord Caithwell asking his permission to let the Earl inside.

Rather than cause an argument, Lavenham had agreed. A few more days wouldn’t matter and then he could search in earnest without the nosey old bag watching his every move.

Now the house seemed deserted although he knew that the body of the previous Lord was lying in front of him. He moved forwards quietly and peered inside the coffin. Caithwell looked far too peaceful and still too handsome for his liking. The man could have at least had the grace to look ugly in death, but it seemed that even that wasn’t to be granted to him. Giles Denvers looked as handsome and dashing as ever in his well fitting suit and perfectly tied cravat about his neck.