Captive Surrender (26 page)

“
But why
choose Levant to work for them?”

“
He is greedy
and stupid,” Stephen replied, only half-joking. Although the man
was greedy and tried to pretend to be stupid, there was a ruthless
edge to him that made him the perfect candidate to be a front for
the French operation. Stephen couldn’t help but wonder whether
Levant would go the same way as Simpson once his job had been done,
and the French had established a clear route in and out of the
country. Somehow, he couldn’t see the man retiring to Dinnington to
wait out his old age.

“
He has no
idea what he has gotten himself involved in,” Harry sighed. He
glanced sideways at the empty grate in the fireplace, and wondered.
With a frown, he peered up into the chimney before he glanced back
at the others. “Do you have a candle?”

“
We do, but
you cannot light it in here. It will be visible from outside. The
patrols, such as they are, are dozy, but even they cannot fail to
see a light in an unlit, and supposedly uninhabited,
house.”

“
Are there
guards on patrol then?” Marcus asked. His brows shot skyward. He
had thought that the house had been abandoned, and that opinion had
been reinforced by the fact that he had seen neither hide nor hare
of anyone other than his colleagues, in either the house or the
grounds.

“
To be honest
with you, they are paid peanuts, so I don’t think that they too
bothered about carrying out their job to the letter. If the boss
isn’t around, why bother?”

“
I need a
light,” Harry sighed. There was nothing in the study he could use
though, so he hurried out into the hallway and searched each room
until he found a candle.

Half an hour later, with
the candle finally lit, Harry hurried back to the chimney. Rather
than light the fire, he pushed his head and shoulders into the
chimney breast and stood up to study the brickwork around him. He
was covered in soot within seconds, but that was of little
consequence. A thrill of anticipation swept through him when he
spotted what he wanted to see.

There, half way along the
back of the mantle, were several loose bricks.

“
Here, hold
this up like that,” he ordered and handed the candle to an unnamed
hand that appeared beneath him. Within minutes, he had removed the
bricks along with several pieces of paper which were secreted deep
within the small compartment he found. Once he had carefully put
the bricks back, he climbed back out and stood on the hearth to
give himself a shake. Clouds of soot billowed everywhere and he
grinned when Stephen sneezed.

“
How did you
think to look there?” Marcus demanded with a disgusted snort. He
had spent hours poring through old, dusty furniture for
nothing.

“
Genius, my
dear man, pure genius.”

“
Come on, let
us get out of here.”

Nobody objected to
Stephen’s suggestion and, once the candle had been extinguished,
they made their way out of the house. They completed a circuit of
the house, unchallenged, before they returned Cragdale Manor. Once
they were certain that nobody lurked in the bushes, the men quietly
let themselves in through the back window and stood just inside the
room while their eyes adjusted to the darkness.

To Stephen, the place
even felt like home now. The scent of meat and vegetables they had
all eaten for dinner still hung in the air, along with the scent of
burnt wood. However, it was the warmth and general feel of the
place that was in stark contrast to the cold and inhospitable
Dinnington. He left Harry to hide the papers and quietly made his
way to bed.

The following morning the
house was abuzz with excitement. The ladies were dressed in their
finest and rushed around gathering bonnets, gloves, shawls, and the
items they had made to sell at market. Rufus had established a
weekly trip in his borrowed carriage, and ensured the each journey
into town was filled with fun and laughter. The ladies loved
it.

Prudence chose to remain
at Cragdale again, ostensibly to look after mother. It felt
slightly wanton to plot and plan the day so that she could be
alone, in bed, with the man she had only known a few weeks, but she
couldn’t bring herself to think too closely about it. It was a good
thing they lived so far away from the village because her behaviour
was scandalous to say the very least, but she couldn’t bring
herself to care very much. In a world where she had shouldered more
than her share of the burden of the family, it was wonderful to
enjoy some time alone with someone as loving and attentive as
Stephen.

However, it seemed that
today her plans were set to be thwarted by none other than Stephen
himself. As soon as the ladies had disappeared from view, he turned
to Prudence with a look of regret in his eye.

“
I need to
meet with Harry and Marcus about something that happened last
night.” He held her hand reassuringly and gave her fingers a
squeeze when she opened her mouth to speak. “It is nothing to worry
about. We made progress, that’s all, and found some paperwork that
we need to take a look through before Levant returns.”

Somewhat deflated,
Prudence nodded and followed him back into the house once the
carriage containing the ladies disappeared out of the end of the
driveway. She tried not to let her disappointment show and gave him
an overly bright smile as she walked into the house. He was only
doing the job he had been sent to Cragdale to do, and was working
to protect the family, so she could hardly object to his need to
discuss matters with his colleagues.

“
I will bring
some tea things through in a moment,” was all she said before she
disappeared into the kitchen.

Stephen closed the door
to the library behind him and took a seat beside Marcus. Together
with Harry, they began to inspect the large sheaf of papers which,
in the daylight, were considerably thicker than they had originally
thought.

“
Good Lord,
these are all deeds to properties.”

Harry sighed, and
shuffled through several of the papers. He handed some to Stephen
and the rest to Marcus while keeping approximately a third for
himself. The papers were all in sections, and all for different
properties. Stephen recognised the addresses on the deeds of
ownership he held, and knew that they had found the paper-trail
they needed to confirm the property purchases.

“
Are they all
in Ludwig Levant’s name?”

“
Them are in
Taylor’s name,” Stephen growled. He flicked through each page in
turn, his scowl growing darker with each page he looked
at.

“
Do you think
that Taylor is the financier?” Harry dropped his handful of papers
back onto the table in disgust.

“
He must be,”
Stephen growled.

“
Why use
Levant as a front?” Harry asked.

“
To preserve
his identity. If anyone is to face trial for the crimes they
commit, like Mr Simpson’s murder, it will be Levant, not Charles
Taylor who ends up in front of the judge,” Marcus
sighed.

“
If he lives
that long,” Harry replied dourly.

“
Charles is
evidently more than a man of business. He is the brains behind the
entire operation. He goes everywhere that Levant goes and clearly
holds the purse strings.”

“
Do you have
any information on Charles Taylor at all?” Marcus asked
hopefully.

Stephen shook his head.
“When I first met up with Levant, there was just him and that thug,
Will, and two other men from London. Taylor appeared just before
the house just outside of Wayton was purchased. Humphrey joined the
staff as a local who knew Dinnington once we got here.”

“
Where does
he hail from?” Harry asked as he folded up his sheaf of papers and
dropped them onto the table.

“
I have no
idea. I think it is from the Wednesbury area, but cannot be sure.
He hasn’t been around long and my focus of attention has been on
the house purchases and, of course, Dinnington and
Cragdale.”

“
I think that
I need to go and see what I can find out from our man Humphrey
about where Taylor joined them, and what he knows about his silent
boss,” Mark muttered and glanced at his colleagues. “I take it that
you two will be alright without me?”

“
Oh, I am
sure that we can manage for a day or two,” Harry replied wryly. “I
am going to take a look at the beach, and the surrounding area, and
see what I can find out in the way of gossip at the village pub. I
will see you later,” he gave Stephen with a wink before he followed
Marcus out of the door.

Stephen smiled and folded
the parchment into one large package. He knew that there was a
small secret compartment at the back of the shelves, and he
carefully placed the valuable paperwork there before he clicked the
shelves back into place. Now that the documents had been studied
and secured, he was free to do what he had wanted to do for the
next several hours.

Prudence was busy
preparing the tea tray and jumped when Stephen slid his arms around
her from behind.

“
Come on,” he
whispered, and placed a tender kiss at the base of her neck. He had
just seen Marcus and Harry disappear out of the end of the driveway
so, for now, they were all alone.

She turned to study him,
and wondered what he was up to when, rather than draw her into his
arms for a kiss, he handed her one of her thickest shawls and
nodded toward the door.

“
I thought it
would be nice to make use of this wonderful weather and go for a
walk.”

She almost groaned at the
thought of yet another walk along the blustery cliff-tops, but
tried hard to mask her disappointment as she dutifully donned her
shawl and headed out of the door after him.

“
We shouldn’t
be too long because of mother,” she warned and cast a worried
glance at the upstairs windows for emphasis. In reality, she would
much rather be up there, tucked away in bed with him. As it was, it
seemed that fresh air and another form of exercise were the order
of the day instead.

“
Come on,
lazy bones. Fresh air is good for you.” He could understand her
reluctance. He would much rather be upstairs in bed too, where they
could enjoy the freedom of the house for once but, as it was, he
had one considerably more important task to perform.

He eyed the grounds
around the house ruefully, and realised that despite the house’s
remote location, there weren’t all that many places they could go.
Most of the walks went through the Dinnington estate, or Marchwell,
unless they went in completely the wrong direction and headed off
toward Brumpton Marches, which was the last place he wanted to
go.

“
Come on.
Lets go and explore the beach.”

“
But we have
been there times,” Prudence gasped and sighed when he ignored her
and dragged her toward the narrow path that led down to the sandy
shore.

Once they were there, the
small cove proved to be a haven against the stiff sea breezes. It
was nice not to be buffeted by the icy winds but she was cold,
regardless of the thickness of her shawl. He, however, seemed to be
perfectly warm, even in his shirt sleeves. She sighed and closed
her eyes as the sun made a valiant attempt to break through the
heavy clouds. The thin sliver of warmth on her face felt wonderful
and eased her earlier discontent. She couldn’t help but smile at
the mischievous glint in his eye and, not for the first time,
wondered what he was up to.

“
Tell me,
Prudence, would you say that we get on alright?”

Prudence’s eyes popped
open and she studied him. She frowned at the cliffs at the far end
of the beach for several moments.

“
I think so,
yes, why?” she replied hesitantly.

“
Have you
given any more thought to allowing me to send for a doctor to take
a look at your mother?” He held a hand up when she took a breath.
“I have been giving the matter some thought. Your mother isn’t well
enough to travel, but we can send for a doctor from Bodmin to come
and take a look at her. The doctor in Marchwell doesn’t even need
to know that she has been seen. It will afford the family some
privacy and it also means that your mother could get some
medication to help her if there is any available. She was quite
distressed again last night, and doesn’t seemed to have improved
any this morning.” He knew because he had escorted Eloisa into the
room to help Agatha with her breakfast.

The woman had wailed and
whined, ranted and raved before she had launched herself at her
daughter with the feral eyes of someone who had long since lost
their grip on reality. Even his hardened heart ached for the
situation the young family faced, while the man in him refused to
simply sit back and allow the ladies to be lunged at, threatened
and menaced by their own mother. He knew that Agatha couldn’t help
it, but he had no intention of allowing the woman to hurt anyone
who was trying to help her. She needed medication, if only to curb
her wild inclination to actually hurt people.

“
Doctors and
medication are really expensive, Stephen, and we simply cannot
afford it.” She held her hand up when he took a breath to argue. “I
don’t want to have an altercation on this. Although it is wonderful
to have the pantries full for the time being; Robbie hasn’t eaten
so much meat since he was a little one; it just isn’t right that we
spend so much money on a doctor, even without taking into
consideration the cost of the medication he may wish to give her.
For the time being, we have no choice but to continue as we are and
hope that she will get better.”