Redemption (16 page)

“You
will not leave me here to rot in this hell-hole,” Julian snarled.
He thumped his fist heavily onto the top of the table only to wince
when his manacles bit painfully into his wrists.

“I shall
do as I please,” Lizzie countered as she stepped into the equally
murky corridor. “Ready?” she asked Patty who nodded
enthusiastically.

“Lizzie!” Julian called when the door was closed behind
them.

She
followed the guard with her shoulders squared and her back ram-rod
straight.

“Lizzie!” Julian’s muffled shout echoed hauntingly around the
corridor, but the threats that followed were weakened by the
desperation in his tone.

“Thank
you,” she said politely as the guard opened the outer door and
stood back to allow her out of the building. He nodded and smiled
at her, clearly bemused by what he had just witnessed.

“See you
soon,” he said quietly.

She
threw him a rueful look. “Not likely.”

The
sound of her booted feet marching across the pavement was
accompanied by the heavy thump of the door to the prison closing
behind her, and the muffled shouts of her brother coming from the
visitor’s cells deep within the gloomy walls.

“I hope
you don’t mind if I make a suggestion,” Patty murmured once they
were in a carriage heading toward the solicitors.

“Of
course I don’t,” Lizzie assured her. Right now she wasn’t sure what
to think about anything. Any light her aunt could shed on what she
should do next would be most welcome because her mind couldn’t
settle on anything other than she had money, and a lot of
it.

The one
tangible thought that hovered in the forefront of her mind was that
over the past few weeks she had stressed, struggled, worried, and
fretted about her present circumstance and the future, and it had
all been completely unnecessary. She couldn’t bring herself to
quite believe that having considerable wealth was at all possible,
and suspected that she needed to hear it confirmed by the solicitor
before she could truly begin to accept it wasn’t another one of
Julian’s lies.

“I think
we go to see the solicitor but then you need to get them to inform
the bank of your stake in Pendlebury House. You need to get your
share in the house protected legally. While I am thankful that
Julian has had the decency to tell you at last, I cannot help but
wonder what else he has not told you. If your solicitor is involved
in this from the outset, he can deal with any legal matters that
arise on your behalf. You shouldn’t have the stress and worry of
dealing with this yourself.”

Lizzie
looked at Patty when she leaned forward, her eyes full of unholy
mischief. “You also need to go to the house and search his papers
while he isn’t there.”

“Patty,”
Lizzie gasped, shocked at her aunt’s deviousness.

Patty
merely grinned at her. “This is Julian we are talking about here.
You would be foolish if you didn’t. Heaven only knows what other
tricks he has up his sleeve. You don’t want any of his lies
creeping up on you in the future. It’s best to get it out of the
way now while he is confined in that horrible place.”

Lizzie
had to concede that she had a point and nodded thoughtfully. “I
know I should but I am not entirely sure I want to know any
more.”

“You
cannot just hide your head in the sand and hope for the best. It is
only a matter of time before Julian is released. I would search his
papers while the opportunity is there and you can do so
uninterrupted. Then you can see for yourself what state his
finances are in. Can I ask you one thing?”

“Of
course, you can ask me anything, you know that,” Lizzie murmured
gently.

“What on
earth do you want Bristledown for? That house is huge and a mess
from what I hear.”

Lizzie
hesitated for only a fraction of a second. “Well, the house in
Derbyshire needs a lot of work before anyone can live in it again.
We cannot live there while it is being repaired. Bristledown is not
too far away. We can use it as a base while we arrange for the
necessary repairs to your house. We can also look at the damage and
the repairs needed to Bristledown to get it running as an estate
again. I have the money to repair your house now, but am not sure
about Bristledown until I see it.”

“I don’t
want to go back to Derbyshire,” Patty declared firmly.

Lizzie
studied her. If she was honest she didn’t either now. “It is a
little too remote for someone to live in alone. There can be little
doubt that life there is considerably harsher than it would be in,
say, a more populated place.” She gasped and leaned forward. “I
hope you don’t feel that I am criticising in any way.”

“I am
not blind to the faults of the place my dear,” Patty assured her.
“I can’t disagree with you. I never wanted to live there in the
first place,” Patty sighed.

“Oh?”

“It was
my husband’s house; handed to him when his father passed away. I
tried to persuade him to move closer to civilisation before we
married. At the time he promised to think about it. I seriously
thought he would but, once we were married we moved in and he then
refused to consider moving. He wouldn’t even discuss it so I was
stuck there. Unfortunately, as time went on he became ill with a
wasting disease and passed away, leaving me to live there by
myself. He left me the house but its location made it more of a
burden than a bonus.”

“You
were stranded out in the middle of nowhere all by yourself.” Lizzie
shook her head sadly.

“I
couldn’t sell it. Who would want to live out there? At one point my
husband’s family used to farm the lands but as time progressed, he
sold more and more land to the local gentry until we were left with
nothing more than a mediocre smallholding. By that time his health
declined.”

“Have
you not tried to sell it at all?”

“Not
really. I have had offers but if I don’t have that house to live
in, I have nowhere else to go. It is my home and the only place I
know.”

“That’s
how I feel about Bristledown,” Lizzie said nodding
sagely.

“Why
didn’t you go to Bristledown when Julian threw you out?” Patty
asked, and hurried on before Lizzie could misunderstand the
question. “It isn’t that you weren’t welcome. In fact, I loved the
fact that you turned up.” She leaned forward conspiratorially. “It
was wonderful to have some company you know. It is just that if you
knew Bristledown was empty and Julian hated it so much, why didn’t
you go there instead?”

“Because
I knew that if Julian found out where I was, he would take great
delight in throwing me out of there too. It belongs to him. He
would have no qualms about kicking me out of there too. Besides, I
haven’t been back there since I was little. I don’t know whether
even small parts of it are still habitable.”

“Then I
think you should go and take a look once Julian has signed the
place over to you. Don’t worry about my house though.”

“What do
you want to do about that? Surely you don’t intend to go back
there?”

Patty
sighed and looked sad for a moment. “It is a shame to see its
demise but I shall not be sorry to live somewhere closer to
society. I have to confess that I have missed meeting
people.”

“But
with no money you cannot move anywhere else. You need to sell the
house,” Lizzie prompted her. She sighed and settled back in her
seat thoughtfully.

“I have
some money set aside for a rainy day. It will be enough for
now.”

“Why
don’t you come to Bristledown with me?”

Patty
leaned back in her seat and sniffed tearfully. “I should like that,
my dear.”

“Good,
that’s settled then,” she declared with a satisfied nod.

She felt
as though she had achieved something of note today and settled back
against the squabs, pleased to have at least one of her current
problems sorted out.

Several
minutes later, her heart lurched and she stared in disbelief as she
studied the pedestrians on the pavement. Had that been Ben? She
leaned forward and tried to see behind them only to find her view
blocked by a passing carriage. Before she could decide what to do,
they arrived at the solicitors. Without bothering to see if her
aunt was following, Lizzie clambered down, desperately scouring the
streets while hoping to catch sight of him.

Had it
been him? Should she go back and check? If it wasn’t, should she go
and see him while she was in London? If he had been concerned
enough about her to call upon the magistrate, she had a moral
obligation to inform him that she was alright, didn’t she? But
should she call around in person or send him a note?

She knew
that morally she was obliged to contact him, but the thought of
having to write to him was something she just couldn’t even begin
to think about right now.

That
left only one option. She had to go and see him.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Are you
sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Patty asked around a
yawn.

After
visiting the solicitor’s office, they had returned to the hotel and
taken a leisurely lunch while they had discussed the consequences
of Lizzie’s new fortune. Patty was clearly struggling to cope with
the faster pace of her new life and declared herself in need of a
nap. Lizzie, on the other hand, had decided that her aunt was right
and she needed to uncover as much of the truth as she could while
Julian was still languishing in jail. With that in mind she needed
to search Julian’s study at Pendlebury House.

“I can
come with you if you would like me to,” Patty persisted when Lizzie
didn’t immediately answer. “I can take a nap when we get
back.”

“No,
it’s all right. You go and get some rest. I need to do this by
myself.” She didn’t know why but something deep inside warned her
that she needed to be alone when she revisited the past.

To her
consternation, by the time she reached Pendlebury House she had
changed her mind and wished Patty was with her. It wasn’t until now
that she realised just how much she had become accustomed to having
her aunt’s erstwhile support, and how much she relied upon her
relative’s sage advice. It was too late to go back and fetch Patty
now though. Dusk was rapidly approaching and Lizzie was keen to get
the visit over before it became too dark to see
anything.

She
lifted her skirts and climbed the steps toward the front door. It
felt as though she was a completely different person to the young,
somewhat impressionable young woman who had left this house several
weeks ago. So much had changed in her life that she now felt
considerably older and wiser than she ever had before. If only she
could consider that to be a good thing she could start to make some
decisions on her future. As it was, first things first. She had to
see what state the inside of Pendlebury House was in before she
could make a decision whether to call upon Ben.

Quickly
closing out all thought of him when her stomach began to flutter
nervously, she sighed and used her key to let herself in.
Unfortunately, the front door appeared to have been bolted from the
inside. She sighed and stepped back to look at the front façade,
but could see no sign of life within the massive
building.

Her head
was starting to ache, and her mood matched the dark, overcast
weather she now stood in. With an impatient sigh she lifted her
fist and hammered on the door, and continued to thump, even when
the side of her hand began to go numb. Thankfully, the butler was
still in residence – just – and eventually deigned to
answer.

“Yes?”
The man demanded as he yanked the door open with a scowl but made
no attempt to let her in.

Lizzie
pushed past him anyway, and glared accusingly at his rolled up
shirt sleeves and the broadsheet tucked under his arm.

“Remember me?” she asked sarcastically.

She knew
from the look in his eye that he did, but he didn’t reply. Instead
he lifted his brows with cool disinterest and studied her somewhat
disparagingly, and made no attempt to close the door behind her.
When a cold draught billowed up her back, Lizzie turned and slammed
the door closed. The resounding thud sounded loud even to her own
ears but she made no apology for it. She had never liked Malcolm.
His tall stature and narrow beady eyes always reminded her of a bad
tempered ferret. He always looked like he could bite without
provocation and it angered her more than unnerved her.

No wonder he was in Julian’s employ
,
she thought with a sniff. However, this was her house too now and
it was down to her to assert her authority given that Julian was no
longer in complete control of the building, or whatever staff
remained.

“I have
been to see my brother this morning and he has informed me of his
current – incapacity,” she declared coldly. She looked the man up
and down and let her gaze linger meaningfully on the broadsheet.
“Busy, are you?”

“The
master never mentioned that you were coming back,” the butler
declared coldly. It was clear from the look on his face that he
didn’t believe a word she was saying.