The Charmer (32 page)

He handed Silver's reins to a
groom and asked after the master. The lad directed him to the milk house past
the barn in the nearby field. Orlando thanked him and glanced up at the main house.
Margaret Cowdrey's stern face peered down at him from a first floor window. He
tipped his hat, but she gave no response in return.

It was some distance to the milk
house and took him several minutes of clomping through mud to reach it. Inside,
he spotted Cowdrey standing over one of the milkmaids, giving her instruction.
She looked to be no more than thirteen and uncertain of her task.

He scowled when he saw Orlando. "What
do you want?"

"I want to talk to you about
the list of London merchants you gave Susanna. Among other things."

Cowdrey flinched. For a moment
Orlando thought he'd have to say his piece in front of the milkmaids, but then
Cowdrey led him outside. It had stopped raining, but the gray clouds hung low
and expectant. He wanted to get home to Stoneleigh before they dropped their
load.

"Speak," Cowdrey said.

"I've lived in London almost
my entire life," Orlando said. "I worked for my brother, a merchant
who imports goods from the Continent and other foreign parts."

"So?"

"Most of the things my
brother imports are spices and foodstuffs that aren't available here in
England, and most of his customers are grocers in London. I don't recognize a
single shopkeeper on the list you gave Susanna."

Cowdrey removed his hat and wiped
his forehead with the back of his hand. "There must be a lot of merchants
in London. You cannot know them all."

"Actually, my brother's business
interests are extensive. When I worked for him, I talked to almost every London
merchant at one point or other, and those I didn't speak to, I knew by
name."

Another flinch from Cowdrey. The
man grew twitchy. "So you're not a gardener. I'm sure Susanna would like
to know."

"She already does."

"She ought to throw you
out."

"She did."

Cowdrey pressed his lips
together. "Then you are wasting my time." He began to walk off but
Orlando grabbed his arm, spun him around. "Release me, Holt. You're a liar
and a cur. If Susanna wants nothing to do with you then neither do I."

"You didn't let me finish.
Susanna threw me out, but then she allowed me back into the house. That's when
she showed me the list of names you gave her and I told her they're false. She
knows you're lying, Cowdrey. She also knows why."

Cowdrey jerked his arm out of
Orlando's grip. If the man ran, so be it. Orlando would simply have to chase
him. The exercise might warm him up.

"What lies have you been
telling her?" Cowdrey snapped.

"I haven't lied. Not about
this."

"Ha! You admit you are a liar,
and yet she believes you now?" He poked Orlando in the shoulder. It was
annoying. "What would she say if she knew you,"
poke
,
"were the one who lied about the shopkeepers?"
Poke
.

Orlando grabbed the finger.
Twisted. Cowdrey winced but didn't cry out despite the pain he must be feeling.
Orlando let go. "Keep your fingers to yourself unless you want them
snapped off. I promised Susanna I wouldn't kill you. I don't like breaking
promises, but I could make an exception in your case."

Sweat dampened Cowdrey's brow. He
shook out his hand then put it behind his back. "What do you want?"

"Two things. First, I want
you to stop pestering Susanna with offers of marriage."

"Bah! Be gone! Get off my
land. You cannot come here and order me about. You're an arse. Susanna has been
fooled by your manner and your pretty looks—"

"Leave my looks out of this.
I'm rather sensitive about them, if you must know."

"I'll set her straight.
She'll listen to me because I've known her all her life and she knows I wish
her no harm."

"No harm? You deceived her
in order to ruin her."

"I gave her those false
names out of kindness."

"Kindness? You think it kind
to force her into poverty?"

"You think it kind to let
her believe she can fix Stoneleigh on her own? The task is enormous even for
someone who knows what they're doing. She has no money, no skill at building,
no one to do the labor."

"Hence the need to sell the
products made from her orange trees so she can employ someone."

"You think that will bring
in enough?" He snorted. "And you call yourself a merchant."

"My brother is the merchant,
not me. I care little for money."

"Then you are as foolish as
Susanna. Selling her marmalades and other orange stuffs will get her a few
pounds, no more. Stoneleigh will fall into ruin soon, and she will starve if
she continues with her stubborn refusal to remarry. I am her savior.
Me
."
Spittle bubbled at the corners of his mouth. He spoke fast, his words falling
over each other in his haste. "There is no one richer in this parish. None
among her acquaintance have more land than me. None. Letting her think she can
live off the meager income from a few jars of marmalade is worse than the small
lie I told because it gives her false hope."

"It is still hope. And I
said I care little for money, not that I don't know the value of it. The sale
of this crop will help her buy more trees and protect the ones she has."

"She will be happier if she
forgets it all. Happier with
me
. She won't need to work herself to the
bone or worry about money. I'll take care of her. The sooner she comes to
realize her plan is hopeless, the better off she will be." Cowdrey's chest
rose and fell with his labored breathing. He'd shown more passion, more
character in his speech than he'd shown in every conversation Orlando had
witnessed. Yet the man was still a prick.

Orlando's heart raced, his anger
welled inside him until he couldn't contain it any longer. "I don't know
if she can do it on her own," he said, "but God's blood I want her to
succeed, now more than ever. And if you loved her as you claim, you'd want her
to succeed too. With you or without."

Love. Bloody hell, not again.

Orlando pressed his thumb and
forefinger into his eyes. He was tired and there were too many thoughts racing
through his head. It was impossible to make sense of them all.

"I am merely protecting her,"
Cowdrey said.

Orlando stared at him. The man honestly
believed what he was saying. "Then where were you when someone tried to
kill her?"

Cowdrey's head jerked up as if
Orlando had hit him. "What do you mean?"

"There have been incidents.
The latest one occurred yesterday on the drive home from church. Someone threw
a knife at her." It was one thing to break his vow and tell Susanna about
his work for Hughe, it was entirely another to tell this man. If Cowdrey was
innocent, he didn't need to know, and if he was guilty, he'd probably already
guessed that Orlando was the assassin he'd hired.

"A knife?" Cowdrey's
face turned white. He staggered backward. If it was an act, it was a good one.
"Who...?" He stared slack-jawed at Orlando. "Who would do such a
thing to her? She's never hurt anyone."

Orlando crossed his arms. Waited.

Cowdrey's eyes widened. "You
think I did it? You filthy swine! Is that what you told her?" He clasped
Orlando's cloak and tried to drag him closer. He was strong, but not strong
enough. "Now she thinks it's me! I wouldn't harm a hair on her head.
Susanna is a...a thing to treasure. Like a...a precious jewel. A pearl!"
His fingers twisted in Orlando's cloak and he shook him. "I would not harm
her. I only ever wanted to protect her from the world's ills, as any gentleman would
after setting eyes upon her. A woman as beautiful as Susanna is rare
and..."

"Precious? A pearl?"

Cowdrey punched Orlando in the
shoulder but did not let go of his cloak. "Do not mock me."

"Are you finished?"
Orlando asked, curling his fists at his sides.

"Go back to Stoneleigh and
tell her it's not me." Cowdrey's eyes had a wildness in them and his voice
rose to a high pitch. "Understand? Make sure she knows I am not the one trying
to harm her."

"There now, that's the
problem I have with you. Or one of them."

"What?"

"If you loved her, your
first thought shouldn't be to make your innocence known to her, it should be to
find out who is trying to kill her before he does it again."

Cowdrey's face screwed up,
distorting his features. "What do you know of love? You're no better than
a vagabond."

"Vagabonds can have feelings
too."

"You dare to jest at a time
like this." Cowdrey snarled and shoved at Orlando's chest.

Orlando stepped one foot back for
balance. "Unhand me."

Another shove, but Orlando was braced
for it and didn't move. Cowdrey bared his crooked teeth. Orlando sighed. He was
going to have to remove him the hard way. Since Cowdrey was too close to get a
punch in, Orlando slammed the hardest part of his forehead down on the bridge
of the other man's nose.

Cowdrey let go with a squeal of
pain and covered his smashed face. Blood dripped through his fingers.

"You're fortunate,"
Orlando said.

Cowdrey merely glared at him.

"You're fortunate because I
don't think you're the one trying to kill Susanna. If I did, you'd be bleeding
from more places than your nose."

"You're a madman!"
Cowdrey shouted. "I know you want her for yourself, but you can't have
her. She's mine!" He lunged but Orlando stepped aside and Cowdrey stumbled
forward, almost falling into the mud.

"She's no one's,"
Orlando said. "The sooner you realize that, the happier you'll be."

"Get out! Get off my land,
you pizzle!"

The milkmaids had come to the
door of the milk house, their aprons pressed to their mouths, their eyes wide
with horror. None came to Cowdrey's aid. Orlando tipped his hat at them then
turned and walked away across the field back to the house. He listened for
footsteps approaching but none came. Cowdrey remained behind.

He collected Silver from the
groom who was none the wiser to his master's agony and looked up at the window
where he'd seen Margaret earlier. She was gone. He walked Silver a little way
then mounted and glanced back at the house once more. Cowdrey Farm was a bleak
place. Susanna would hate living in the austere, blocky house with no garden to
speak of except for the bedraggled little patch of marigolds.

Marigolds. The same flowers that
were on Phillip's grave.

Bloody hell! Susanna hadn't put
them there, it was Margaret. Had she been in love with Phillip? Is that why she
hated Susanna so much? Surely not enough to kill her almost a year after his
death.

Orlando steered Silver back to
the stables. "Tell me," he said to the groom, "did your master
and mistress ride to church yesterday or drive?"

The boy shrugged. "She drove
the cart, 'e rode."

Damn. Orlando had seen someone
leave the woods on a horse after the attack, not a cart.

"She rode 'ome," the
lad added.

Orlando's heart stopped. "On
her own?"

"Aye. The master come 'ome
in the cart and she rode Gilly. She's a good 'orsewoman. Rode out just now on
Gilly, in fact."

"Which way did she go?"

"To the village."

Stoneleigh was on the way to
Sutton Grange. Orlando spurred Silver on, but the mare was old and slow and
Margaret Cowdrey had a good lead. He hoped to God Susanna didn't let her in the
house.

CHAPTER 17

Susanna saw Margaret arrive from
her father's bedchamber window. She rode with purpose, bent low over the
horse's neck, her skirts rippling around her legs. Susanna didn't rise to greet
her, nor did she tell her father they had a visitor. Orlando had instructed her
not to let anyone in the house while he was absent and had given the same
instructions to the servants. Margaret would leave when no one answered.

A few minutes later, Bessie
peeked around the door. "Mistress Cowdrey's here to see you."

"How pleasant," her
father said from his bed where he was propped against pillows. Susanna had
thought he was asleep.

She gave him a smile then picked
up her embroidery basket and followed Bessie out to the landing. "Mr. Holt
said no visitors. Not until he returns."

"Aye, but it's Mistress
Cowdrey. Surely he meant only men."

A shiver chilled Susanna's spine.
She put her basket down but picked up the small knife she used for snipping
threads. She tucked it up her sleeve. "Just in case," she said to a
wide-eyed Bessie.

"Oh, m'lady, you don't
think..." Bessie gave a small yelp then covered her mouth with her hand. "I'll
tell her to go."

"No, it's all right. I'll
talk to her." If she was the one trying to kill Susanna, then asking her
to leave might only serve to enrage her and put the servants at risk.

She reached the bottom of the
stairs and entered the great hall just as Margaret emerged from the parlor adjoining
it. She had her arms folded and her cloak draped over them, hiding her hands.
Susanna kept her distance. Bessie remained at her back. "You may go,"
Susanna said to her maid.

Bessie didn’t move.

"Margaret," Susanna said,
smoothly. "This is a surprise. What brings you to Stoneleigh?"

Margaret's eyes were unblinking,
yellow-green orbs. "My brother."

"Is everything all right?
He's not unwell, is he?"

"Don't play the simpleton
with me," she hissed.