Carla Kelly (32 page)

“
You’ve hit upon it, my lord,” exclaimed Platter. “And do you
know, when that mattress hits the pavement, the strangest little
ashman from belowstairs comes up and begins singing such a
tune!”

Rotherford
slumped forward, his face drained of all color.

“
The
landlord tried to shut him up, but no, no, the ashman was still
talking when I left the place. I wonder what he was saying. Do you
think it might have had something to do with the
bloodstains?”

“
No
one believes a drunk,” said Rotherford, recovering
himself.

Platter nodded.
“That’s what I say, my lord Rotherford, that’s what I say. It would
never hold up in a court of law. But do you know, sir, I heard the
very same story from Sir Horace Billings of Suffolk. Now, do you
think a court of law would believe him?”

Rotherford leapt
from his chair and Omega jumped. Matthew stood in front of her,
shielding her from Rotherford, who pounded his fist on the desk
under Platter’s nose. Platter did not move.

“
That’s impossible!” Rotherford shouted. “Billings is
dead!”

The Runner looked
at him for a long minute. “Now, how would you know that? Are you
friends?”

Rotherford sat
down, poised to leap to his feet again. “He is dead, I tell
you!”

Platter sighed
and crossed himself. “You’re so right, my lord. Thank you for
pointing that out. I have a bad habit of livening up my
tales.”

Rotherford smiled
and looked around him. Platter pulled open his coat and rummaged
among the papers inside, humming to himself. “Ah, here we are. I
have a little document, stamped and sealed right and tight, that
might be of interest to you, Lord Rotherford, particularly if you
were a friend of the late departed.”

“
He
was merely a slight acquaintance. Matthew knew him
well.”

Matthew nodded.
“He was a friend of mine from Oxford. And he is dead?”

“
Alas,
dead these five years,” said Platter sorrowfully. “Died of the
damp, he did, my lord. Such a drafty place is Suffolk.” Platter
rested his elbows on the desk. “But something was weighing heavily
on his mind, my lords and lady. Some deep, dark memory.” Platter
crossed himself again. “Told his younger brother he would sleep
better if it didn’t weight so heavy.”

Rotherford sucked
in his breath. Matthew took a seat beside Omega and clasped her
hand so tightly that she almost cried out. She squeezed his hand in
turn and leaned closer to him.

Platter lowered
his voice. “Sir Horace dictated a sorry tale to his brother, a tale
of rape and murder, of an evening’s jest gone awry, a wedding eve
turned sour.” Platter turned to face Lord Rotherford, who sat with
his eyes closed. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, my lord, but
Sir Horace said some dreadful things about you. It seems you were
not precisely the perfect host.”

Rotherford rose
to his feet slowly and went to the window. He pounded on the frame
in sudden violence, and then was silent. The silence stretched into
long seconds and then minutes. His voice was soft when he finally
spoke.

“
Matthew, what will you have me do? I’m too old for a voyage to
the Antipodes in the hold of a prison ship, and I don’t fancy a
noose around my neck.”

“
Release Jamie to me, Edwin. Sign a statement resigning your
guardianship. And then you never, never show your face around my
home again. Not ever.”

Rotherford did
not turn around. “You will discover, Matthew, that there are funds,
large funds, missing from Jamie’s trust.”

Matthew
considered this. “I think Jamie’s trust can stand the nonsense, as
long as this ends it.”

Rotherford turned
around. “Very well, I agree.”

“
Then
let me encourage you to leave Byford as soon as you can
pack.”

Rotherford went
to the door, looked back as if he would speak, and then thought
better of it. He bowed to them all, his eyes still expressionless,
and left the room. They waited, silent, until the front door
closed.

Matthew let out a
sigh. Platter rose to his feet and reached across the desk. “Give
me your hand, my lord—we’ve done the thing.” The men clasped hands
across the desk. Matthew smiled for the first time.

Platter tucked
Billings’ statement inside his coat again. “Me for London, then, my
lord. Do you know, Maeve is in such a dither. It seems that someone
left a box of dishes outside our door. Happens Maeve’s name was on
it, but she can’t imagine who would give her such a legacy.” He
grinned and took another bite of his cigar. “Particularly since our
only company recently was a down-at-the-heels farming laddie
without a sixpence to scratch with!”

“
Fancy,” murmured Matthew. “Some farmers save their money for
rainy days, I suspect.”

“
Happens they do,” said Platter.

“
Before you go,” said Matthew, “could you fetch Hugh Owen back
here?”

“
Before God,” said Omega, “where was Hugh all this
time?”

“
He
was my stalwart on the dueling field, offering all manner of
advice. Why, I think he was vaguely disappointed when the constable
and our Runner materialized out of the gloom. Well, at any rate, he
is in the custody of the doctor, who is repairing the damage done
by Rotherford last night.”

Platter tipped
his hat and whistled his way down the hall. Omega shook her head in
amazement. Matthew gathered her in his arms and pushed the door
shut with his foot.

“
We
have one more matter to discuss, my dear,” he said. “One that you
will find painful, but which I cannot avoid, as much as I would
wish.”

He released her,
sat her in a chair, and went to his desk, where he took out the
special license again. As she watched open mouthed, he tore it into
small pieces and threw them into the fireplace.

“
I
will not bind you to a man who wouldn’t be much of a husband, my
dear.”

“
Matthew, I don’t care about that,” she whispered, afraid to
trust her voice.

He sat down on
the desk. “You would eventually, my dear. You’re too young to be
leg-shackled to someone who would be an excellent conversationalist
but remarkably ineffective in that other kind of companionship.
Now, hush, and listen to me! There’s likely someone in Durham who
will love you in ways that I can’t.”

When she said
nothing, he sighed. “Now, excuse me, Omega. I stink as badly as
that ashman. I haven’t gone so long without a bath since I took a
dare at Harrow. When I am done, I am going to take my carriage to
your brother’s and retrieve those wandering children.”

He bowed to her
and left the room.

She sat there
until she heard his footsteps overhead and his door closing. With
eyes as blank as Rotherford’s, she walked slowly downstairs to the
housekeeper’s room, lay down on the bed, and curled herself into a
ball. She ignored Tildy’s questions, closing her eyes. She thought
she heard Matthew in the servant’s hall, speaking to the others.
When he finished and went upstairs, no one bothered her again. She
wrapped her arms around herself and slept.

When Platter
returned with Hugh, she roused herself and helped the soldier to
his room. She tucked him in bed, reminding him in her best
educationist’s voice to lie still so he would not tear his
stitches. She bustled about the room, closing the draperies and
feeding a small fire on the hearth. The room was cool with autumn.
She sniffed the air; fall was here. It was almost time to begin the
term at St. Elizabeth’s, her first term in a new school.

“
Omega,” said Hugh suddenly, “I haven’t told you, have
I?”

“
What?”

“
When
Jamie and I were in Claybrook, Lord Nickle asked me to manage his
horse-breeding farm in Ireland.”

“
Oh,
Hugh!” she exclaimed, and her pleasure was genuine. “And will you
do it?”

“
Of
course. Only think of the opportunity ...” His voice trailed off as
the doctor’s famous sleeping powders prepared to claim another
victim in Matthew Bering’s house. Hugh struggled to the surface one
last time before sleep overtook him. “We brought your trunk and
your valise from the mail coach, Omega. In your room
...”

She let herself
out the door and into the room upstairs. There they were, her
shabby trunk, the leather valise that had been Alpha’s at Oxford,
and her bundle of books. She looked in the valise and sighed with
relief. Her money was all there. She untied the cord about the
books and sat down, turning the pages of her old
friends.

The term would
begin in a week. She found a sheet of paper and a pencil and began
to outline her first course. The business occupied her thoughts and
she almost did not hear Matthew leave in his carriage. The pencil
tightened in her hand and her glance wandered to the window for a
moment, but then she bent her head over her books again, putting
him out of her thoughts.

Omega’s eyes did
not close that night, no matter how hard she tried to sleep. She
tossed and turned until the bed was a tangle of sheets and
blankets. Toward morning she gave it up and retreated to her chair
again, hugging her pillow until her head nodded forward and she
slept.

She woke in
midmorning, startled by the pounding of feet on the stairs. She sat
up, putting the pillow behind the chair as the door opened and
Angela and Jamie dashed in. With a happy cry she held out her arms
for both of them and they hugged her in turn.

“
Oh,
Angela, you are such a hand,” she exclaimed, smoothing back the
child’s curls from around her face. “Thank you for getting Jamie to
safety.”

Angela allowed
herself to be held for a moment on Omega’s lap. “Oh, Miss Chartley,
I got lost once. It was Jamie who found the right road.”

“
Jamie! You are a complete hand
,
too!”

He dropped his
eyes modestly for a moment, and then remembered his news. “Omega,
this is famous! Uncle Matthew says I can stay and stay and never
leave this place. We have been making such plans.”

“
I am
sure you have,” said Omega quietly. She looked at Angela, who was
suddenly silent. “And, my dear, has Hugh told you his good
news?”

She nodded, but
there was no light in her eyes, no indication that her friend’s
good fortune was anything she wanted. Her eyes filled with tears
and she clung to Omega. “Miss Chartley, I don’t want to leave
Byford! It feels like I thought home would, if ever I had one. What
am I to do?” Omega ached for her little friend.
I don’t want to
leave Byford
,
either
, she thought as she hugged Angela
closer. She bowed her head over Angela and closed her
eyes.

“
Angela.”

Hugh stood in the
doorway. He was dressed in Matthew’s good clothes again, his arm
arranged in a sling. How long he had stood there listening, Omega
had no idea, but his face was serious.

He came into the
room and knelt beside Angela. “
Muñequita
, do you want to
stay here? Don’t ... don’t think you’ll hurt my feelings by
whatever you say. Just tell me the truth.”

Angela rested
against Omega. “Hugh, I want to stay here with Jamie and
Omega.”

Omega winced.
Perhaps Matthew could explain it to Angela when she put her own
bags in the stage again and left for Durham. She knew she could
not.

“
It’s
a home, Hugh,” Angela said, attempting to explain something for
which she had no words. “Are you really angry with me?”

Hugh held out his
arm to her. She came to him and leaned against his knee. “Angry?
Why should I be? I’ve already talked to Lord Byford about this. And
do you know what he says?”

Angela shook her
head.

“
He
says he would be happy as a grig if you stay here. Only he promised
me that both you and Jamie will spend your summers in Ireland ...
if everyone is agreeable.”

Angela burst into
noisy sobs. Hugh smiled over her head to Omega. “Now, that’s the
Angela I know.” He kissed her on the forehead. “We’ve traveled some
long roads on foot,
amiga.
We’ll get together every summer
and refight any battle you say.”

“
Omega, have you become such a lady of leisure that you sit in
your bedgown until noon?”

Omega looked up
in surprise. “Alpha!” she shrieked, and hurried to her brother, who
whirled her around and kissed her heartily.

He held her off
at arm’s length. “Such a tale Matthew has told me! And I thought I
could trust you on the roadways of England.”

“
Obviously you cannot, my dear,” said Omega. “I’ve had a world
of adventure, even though I missed my whole itinerary and fell in
with some of the most
eccentric
people. Alpha, this will
keep me warm for many a winter.”

“
Good.
I am here to drag you back onto the straight-and-narrow path and
take you directly to Amphney St. Peter, where Lydia awaits with
broths and hot packs and good advice, which you can select from at
your leisure.”