Harriett (37 page)

Harriett
knew then that he had done it more than once before and she
realised just how much of a burden she was on him.

“
I am sorry for the inconvenience. It must disrupt your day
something horrible to have to come over here and protect me like
this,” she sighed and tried to keep the despondency out of her
voice. She didn’t know what was wrong with her this evening. She
was hardly ever as down in the dumps as she was at that moment. She
quickly blanked out the small voice that warned her that two
deaths, the theft of her most treasured possession, the upheaval to
her personal life from her growing affection for the man beside her
and, what she now considered were Babette’s secret assignations,
were more than enough for any sane person to contend with in the
space of two short weeks.

“
I must admit to having more than a personal interest in what
is happening in Tipton Hollow at the moment.”

“
Oh?” Harriett felt a flutter of nerves and couldn’t help but
ask him. “Did you know Hugo or Minerva then?”

“
No, I was referring to having had my attention ensnared in a
way that I cannot break free from.”

“
Oh?”

Mark
drew her to a halt and there, beneath the gentle glow of the gas
lamp, lowered his head. The soft, sweeping caress of his lips
against hers made her sigh. The cool draught of air slithered up
her back and made her shiver. She instinctively edged closer to his
warmth and was immediately encased in his warm embrace. Her senses
reeled. There was little she could do but clutch at the lapels of
his jacket as he drew her ever closer. She could feel the warm
press of his palm on the small of her back even through the bones
in her corset. All she could do was accept his kisses and melt
against him.

He
swallowed her sigh and groaned at the feel of her softness against
him. A small voice reminded him that they were in the middle of the
village under the glare of a gas lamp, and could be seen by anyone
who happened to wander by, but he couldn’t bring himself to ease
away from her. His body responded to her nearness and he continued
to plunder her lips while his mind raced to find somewhere they
could go where they would not be disturbed. While he dallied with
thoughts any upstanding gentleman should never have about a
respectable woman, he sipped and savoured, devoured and plundered
until she slid her hands up to the back of his neck.

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

It
took several moments before the clip clop of hooves registered on
his senses. He broke away with a curse and buried his face in the
warmth of her neck to savour the scent of honeysuckle that teased
his nostrils. She was a feminine bundle of curiosity that he knew
would be the undoing of him, but he couldn’t bring himself to care
one bit. He wanted her with a fierceness that he knew would never
be entirely satisfied. In that moment, he knew that if he spent the
next hundred years with her it would never be enough.

Harriett
gasped and looked up at him. She wasn’t sure what to say; what to
do. Someone was approaching but she couldn’t seem to find the
strength to break free of his hold, or the gentle fire in his eyes.
She knew that he wanted to push for more, but was grateful that he
wasn’t going to for now.

He eased
Harriett deeper into the shadows, but made no attempt to loosen his
hold and put some decorous distance between them. Instead, he
continued to push her back until she rested against the brick wall
of the greengrocers. Together they waited. He caught Harriett’s
gasp and shushed her as a huge black horse pulled a large,
nondescript, equally black carriage straight past them. He held her
tighter when Harriett, shifted uncomfortably against
him.

“
Stand still for a minute.”

They
were hidden deep in the shadows, on the right side of the street
light and were close enough to the Coal Merchants to see the
entrance to the yard the carriage disappeared into.

“
Who is it?” Harriett whispered.

“
Watch.” Mark felt the shiver that swept through her and knew
that it didn’t have anything to do with the coolness of the night
air. “Don’t worry, darling, you are perfectly safe.”

Harriett
glanced at him. From the steady, almost expectant way he studied
the doors to the coal merchant’s he knew who was going to
emerge.

“
You know who it is.” It wasn’t a question and Mark didn’t
bother to answer it, merely tipped her chin toward the doors.
Together they watched the doors close and the small, thin, darkly
garbed figure appear. He, or she, was dressed from head to foot in
black and fumbled with the lock on the door for several moments
before they turned and scurried off in the opposite direction.
Within seconds they were swallowed by the night.

“
Who lives in that direction?” Mark asked in a soft whisper.
“Don’t worry, they won’t harm you.”

Harriett
almost scoffed at that and wondered if she had to remind him of her
near miss with that same carriage not so very long ago. Her
thoughts snapped back toward him. He was waiting for her to answer.
Her mind scanned the village and she thought carefully.

“
The hardware store is opposite and there are just a few
houses.”

“
Who lives on the outskirts of town, Harriet?” Mark nodded in
the direction the figure had scurried off to. “Who lives that way
and is a small, bird-like person?”

“
Miss Smethwick.” Harriett stared at him. Her thoughts
immediately turned toward Miss Haversham’s remarks in the tea shop
that Miss Smethwick seemed different; younger somehow.

“
It isn’t Miss Smethwick, is it? It is someone living in her
house, pretending to be her.” Harriett stared at him, and knew from
the steady look he gave her that she was right. “Who is it
then?”

“
I don’t know, but now that I have Madame Humphries and Miss
Hepplethwaite out of the way, Miss Smethwick is next on the list.
Tomorrow, I am going to pay the woman another visit, and I am
afraid that she is going to have some very difficult questions to
answer.”

Harriett
nodded and was more than a little shaken. “Do you think it was that
woman who attended the psychic circles and pretended to be Miss
Smethwick?”

“
I think it is entirely plausible, don’t you? Remember what
Miss Haversham said?” The calm acceptance in his voice told her
that he knew with certainty that the woman was not the original
Miss Smethwick. “I have seen her since and I think Miss Haversham’s
suspicions are entirely correct.”

“
What happened to the original Miss Smethwick though? I mean,
she can’t simply -” Harriett closed her mouth on a snap and stared
at Mark as her stomach turned over.

“
Now, don’t worry. To be honest with you Harriett, I simply
don’t know, but I can promise you that we are going to get to the
bottom of this. I will find out what happened to Miss Smethwick.
Until then, I don’t want you to go anywhere near that woman. Don’t
let her into the house, and don’t enter into any conversation with
her that relates to the last few days.”

Harriett
was more than a little bit shaken. It was all she could do to nod.
She still struggled with the feelings that coursed through her from
his kisses. Now the latest revelation had thrown her world into
turmoil even more. She could just about live with Miss Smethwick
being replaced by a younger person, but why did they want to kill
her?

“
Come on, let’s get you home.” Mark drew her away from the
wall and kept his arm around her as they walked down the
street.

At the
corner of Berrisford Road, Harriett caught sight of a familiar
figure scurrying away from them. She opened her mouth to call out
to Babette, but then closed it again with a snap when her aunt
turned into a path and disappeared into a house half-way down the
street.

Mark
studied the now closed front door of the solicitor’s house and
looked down at the woman on his arm.

“
I think Babette is involved in something of a personal
nature.” He nodded toward the house.

“
That is the solicitor’s house,” Harriett sighed.

“
Does she have problems?”

Harriett
shook her head. “Not as far as I am aware.”

Mark
struggled to find the words to break the news to her. Harriett was
no fool, but would she believe that her aunt might be having an
affair with the bachelor?

“
He isn’t married is he?”

“
No, he isn’t,” he replied and studied the sadness on her
face. Her voice had hardened and matched the glint in her eye. “You
don’t seem surprised about it.”

Harriett
sighed and glanced at him. She knew that she would never get a
greater opportunity to broach the subject with him. Given
everything he had done, and was doing, for her, she couldn’t refuse
to take him into her confidence now. She briefly explained what she
had witnessed in the early hours on the night of Minerva
Bobbington’s death.

Mark
remained quiet until she had finished, then nodded
sympathetically.

“
Do you know what annoys me the most about it?” Harriett asked
as she removed her cloak and hung it on the row of pegs just inside
the hallway. She led him down the passage to the empty sitting
room. “She couldn’t wait to visit him. Not even on the night of
Minerva’s death. It is disrespectful, if you ask me.”

“
There are no boundaries when it comes to love. If she
genuinely cares about him, there is nothing that she won’t risk,
and nothing that she wouldn’t do, for the opportunity to spend some
time with him.”

The
absolute conviction in Mark’s voice drew her attention and she
looked at him steadily. “You sound as if you are talking from
experience.”

“
That’s because I am, Harriett.” Mark sighed and leaned his
hips against the table. She hadn’t offered him a seat and he hadn’t
taken one because he wanted to stand. He wanted to be able to press
the issue further until she understood.

With the
closure of the séance, he felt as though a new door had opened and
he now had to make the most of the opportunities that were
presented to him before he drew the investigation to a close and
had no reason to continue to call at her house. “I am only advising
you, Harriett, but I would suggest that you don’t judge her until
you find out why she is making those visits. If they are lovers,
then that is matter between them and it isn’t for you to form an
opinion on the matter. However, you must remember that in villages
like this, gossip rules. It isn’t always fair or right, but it
happens. All it is going to take is one person to witness her
visits, and the gossips will run wild with stories. I think that
the best thing you can do is sit her down and talk to her about it.
Don’t lose sight of the fact that your Uncle Charles is involved in
this too. She has to take into account his reaction if she was ever
seen visiting a bachelor late in the evening, or in the middle of
the night. All it is going to take is one person and the family is
going to face scandal.” It wasn’t a statement and he wasn’t issuing
any threats but he knew that she understood his warning from the
look in her eye.

“
I know, Mark,” Harriett sighed. “I work in a tea shop. Almost
all of the patrons come there to share news and gossip. I try to
stay out of it. I don’t want to get involved in spending my days
sharing the latest news about some unsuspecting and unfortunate
soul. I am aware that many scandals are discussed in detail over
tea and cake. It’s shameful really, but there you have
it.”

“
It’s important that you try to stop Babette from becoming
their next scandal.”

“
I know,” Harriett glanced at him and offered him a rueful
smile. “Thank you for your discretion. You knew she was visiting
him, didn’t you?”

Mark
smiled wryly and sauntered over to her. She didn’t make any protest
when he drew her into his arms and relaxed against him in a way
that was so natural that neither of them could stop it.

“
Unfortunately, yes I did. The other night, when I was
outside, I saw her scurry down the road. It wasn’t her journey that
caught my attention; it was the furtive way she glanced around her
as she scurried along. She didn’t want to be seen. I am confident
though that this is personal and she has nothing to do with the
thefts, murders or anything else.”

“
Babette isn’t like that,” Harriett sighed and leaned back to
look up at him.

He took
advantage of her calm acceptance to their closeness and dropped a
lingering kiss on her lips. “I won’t say anything to anyone. This
is a family matter and it remains with us.”

Contentment swept through her at the way he had casually
included himself in the family.

“
Thank you. I will speak to Babette about it as soon as I get
the chance. These days, it is difficult with so much going
on.”

“
She doesn’t usually work at the tea shop does
she?”

She
shook her head. “She used to, but then began to fight a lot with
Charles. It put the customers off their tea, so she decided to
remain at home instead. I don’t know what she does here all day but
now, given what we know, I don’t think she is at home much. She is
certainly not close to Uncle Charles any more. They hardly spend
any time together and don’t even share the same bedroom.” She knew
that she had already told him far too many family secrets, but if
there was anyone she knew she could rely on to be honest with her
in Tipton Hollow, it was Mark.