Lies and Misdemeanours (18 page)

Hetty opened her mouth to speak only for her stomach to rumble – loudly.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

“Come on, let’s eat,” Charlie urged.

He quickly poured them both a drink, and served up huge slices of pie, and large helpings of meat, cheese and bread, while Wally added ham and apples.

Hetty ate hungrily and barely even glanced at Charlie when he took a seat beside her. In the end, she wasn’t sure whether she was tired, or just too hungry, but she didn’t eat as much as she thought she would. So sat back and sipped at her drink while she waited for Charlie to finish.

“What happened?” Wally asked, almost too quietly.

Hetty shared a look with Charlie. While he finished his meal, she slowly recounted what had happened, minus the rather intimate moments.

“When was the last time you saw any of the jailers?”

“Just after sunrise,” Charlie replied as he wiped his mouth, and sat back to drink his wine. “We think they are going in the opposite direction. I don’t think anyone followed us.”

“Where are the others?” Hetty asked cautiously.

“They have gone into town to look for Sir Hugo. They were going to call by the mill house to make sure that everything was alright; then see if they could find you,” Joshua added.

“Well, you are here now,” Wally sighed. “Now we can wait for Sir Hugo, and then put all of this to bed.”

Hetty mentally winced at his analogy, and tried desperately to stop her cheeks from flooding with guilty colour. She wasn’t sure she succeeded though because she felt, rather than saw, Charlie look at her closely for a moment before he shifted in his seat.

“Why don’t you two go and get cleaned up while we wait for the others to come back. Then we can all discuss what we are going to do next,” Joshua suggested.

It was something of a relief to Hetty to be able to push her chair away and leave the room, but had to wait for Simon to show her the way.

“Marcus went to the mill yesterday, and brought us all a change of clothing, and your personal belongings Charlie. I have put yours in here, Hetty,” Simon explained as he led the way up a huge flight of stairs and drew to a stop outside one of the bedrooms.

“Where are my things?” Charlie asked quietly.

Simon looked at him for several moments before he reluctantly nodded to a door further down the hallway.

“It’s down there.”

“I am staying with my wife,” Charlie said calmly but firmly. A calm watchfulness settled over Charlie that increased the tension in the hallway.

Hetty stared at him nonplussed for a moment. A wild thrill of delight swept through her at the thought that he wanted her to share his bed with him, at the same time that she was slightly nervous that her brothers might disagree.

Simon opened his mouth to argue but, before he could speak, Charlie nudged Hetty toward his room.

“She is my wife. She stays with me.” His eyes challenged Simon to deny it.

Simon studied his friend for a moment, before he nodded. “Fair enough.”

To her amazement, Simon disappeared into the room, and reappeared moments later with a small bag of her belongings.

“Here you go,” he said, and handed her the bag before he headed toward the top of the stairs.

“Thank you,” she murmured, but was fairly certain that he hadn’t heard her because he had already disappeared in the direction of the kitchens.

“Come on, let’s go and see what we have,” Charlie urged when she didn’t seem inclined to move.

He opened the door, and stood back to allow her in first.

The large square room was lavishly furnished in blue and white, adorned with nothing more than a bureau, a massive, intricately carved fireplace, and a small side-table. The low beams on the ceiling added to the somewhat intimate atmosphere within the room, embellished by the large four-poster bed which sat in resplendent glory in the centre of the room.

“It’s wonderful,” Hetty whispered as she studied the plush seats that bracketed the fireplace, and the huge landscape oil paintings that adorned each of the walls.

“It is, isn’t it?” Charlie agreed somewhat wearily as he wandered around the room, inspecting things. “There is no bath I am afraid, but there is plenty of water on the wash-stand.”

She studied the dresser with a very expensive porcelain jug and bowl on it, and sighed. She was tired, achy, and wanted to lie down just to rest her head for a while, but the pristine bed covers on the huge four-poster bed were clean and fresh. She didn’t want to cover them with the dust off her clothing. She glanced down at herself and sighed.

When she looked up, Charlie was watching her. Her stomach flipped nervously as the intimacy of the moment dawned on her. She remained frozen in place as she watched him saunter toward her. Ready for his kisses, she watched as he wandered straight past, and picked up the retiring screen in the corner of the room. Before she could say anything, he positioned it in front of the dresser.

“I will find something clean to wear while you get cleaned up. I will be back in a while with some more water,” he murmured.

He paused long enough to kiss her gently on the cheek before he quietly let himself out.

There was no lock on the door but, with the retiring screen in place, she didn’t really need one. Determined to make use of the time she had alone, she hurried over to the window.

Once the shutters were closed, she removed her soiled and dirty clothes and saw to her ablutions. Although the water was cold, the floral scented soap and the refreshing water soothed her. She wished she could take a long soak in a bath, but didn’t want to go downstairs to ask the men for anything so frivolous. They had enough to deal with without pandering her to her whims, and she really didn’t want to spend the next hour ferrying buckets of water upstairs herself.

Instead, she made do with what she had, washed the dust off, and enjoyed a few, now precious, moments to herself.

She was busy squeezing blessedly cool water over her neck when her peace was suddenly shattered.

“How is everything? Do you like it?” His voice was so near, and so unexpected, that she let out a squeak as she whirled to face him.

Her cheeks flooded with colour as she stared at him. She hadn’t heard him enter. Her eyes locked with his for several moments before his gaze broke away, and she felt the slow slide of his eyes sweep over her.

It was then that she realised she had nothing on. Before she could lunge for something to cover herself with, he stepped forward.

“God, Hetty, you are stunning,” he murmured hoarsely.

Her sight of her pink-tinged flesh lured him closer. He could see goose bumps on her smooth skin, and watched the obvious signs of chill on her gently rounded frame. His body leapt to life and he knew that neither of them would be going anywhere for the time being.

Words failed him at the beauty that was his wife. Before she could lambast him for interrupting her moment of privacy, he stepped forward and swept her high into his arms.

“What are you doing?” she gulped, but clung to him anyway.

“I just realised that we have yet to sleep in a proper bed,” he replied in a manner that was casual, but completely at odds with the intent look in his eye.

“Are we going to sleep?” she whispered as he slowly lowered her onto the crisp, cool sheets.

“Not yet,” he replied, and captured her lips in a kiss that rendered her unable to think of anything except him for quite some time.

An hour later, her body still hummed from his tender ministrations. It felt wonderfully scandalous to lie in his arms in bed while it was still daylight, with people seated in the kitchen downstairs. But, given what they had both recently been through, she felt certain that the men were allowing them time to themselves. For that, she could only be very grateful.

The sound of hooves on the driveway drew both of their attention. Charlie sighed and kissed her before he rolled out of bed. Gloriously naked, he was a sight to make any female heart swoon. She snuggled beneath the covers and watched him. All muscled and sinew, he stood almost God-like, bathed in sunshine.

“It’s Sir Hugo,” Charlie declared with a grin. He spun around and smiled even more at her. “It’s Sir Hugo.”

“Thank heavens for that,” Hetty declared as she shoved her way out of bed and began to gather her clothing.

Charlie frowned at her, as he dragged his breeches on. “What are you doing?”

“I am coming too.”

“I can introduce you later,” Charlie reasoned. “You need to rest.”

Hetty sighed. “I am not going to be left out of any discussions you have, Charlie,” she warned firmly. “I don’t intend to become involved in any actual work. I just need to know, for my own piece of mind, what’s happening.”

She didn’t add that she would go quietly out of her mind if she had to wave him off with a smile on her face, and then sit and wait for him to come back without knowing what he was doing.

Although he was aware that he had a lot to learn about his wife, he knew her well enough already to be aware that when she had that stubborn tilt to her chin, she would stand firm against any argument he might put forward. The flash of defiance in her eyes confirmed his suspicion but, rather than be perturbed, he felt rather proud of her for her resilience.

She tried not to squirm when he stared at her as though he had never seen her before. She expected him to object. She expected him to argue. She expected him to agree with her and leave.

What she didn’t expect was for him to kiss her tenderly on the lips and smile at her.

“I don’t intend to cut you out of anything, darling. I will wait for you,” he murmured.

To her consternation, he sat in the chair beside the bed, propped his boots up on the covers, and leaned back in the chair to wait for her to finish dressing.

“Is it Sir Hugo?” Hetty gasped when they finally arrived in the hallway downstairs, and could hear the low murmur of voices in the study.

He smiled at her, and nodded. “The others are with him.”

Hetty slumped with relief, and leaned into the hug he gave her.

“We can get to work now,” he assured her quietly. “You have been so strong throughout everything that has happened so far. I don’t mind you being a part of the discussions, just so you know what is going on, but I absolutely refuse to allow you to become involved in any way. You have to stay here. Do you understand?”

“Can I remind you that I was one of the people who got you off those gallows?” she replied with a scowl.

She tried to push out of his arms, but he refused to let her go.

“I am very grateful that you did. Now, though, I want you safe,” Charlie said. “So you stay here. Rest and eat, but that is the only involvement you will have from this moment onward. I insist upon it.”

Hetty scowled at him but, before she could say anything, he dropped a very thorough kiss on her lips.

“Come and meet Sir Hugo,” Charlie murmured gently.

When he finally released her, he ushered her to the kitchen. She recognised Barnaby, Marcus, Joshua and Brendan from the meeting they had in the kitchen back at the mill house the night before the hangings.

Now, they had been joined by Luke, Joseph and, of course, Sir Hugo.

“Hetty, this is Sir Hugo.”

Before Hetty could speak, Sir Hugo stepped forward.

“Hetty. It’s a pleasure to meet you at last,” he drawled softly. He took her hand in his and held it as he looked into her eyes. “I cannot express my thanks enough for everything you, and your family, have done for us. Not only by saving this reprobate’s life, but also by alerting me to the difficulties he faced. I know that you put yourself in considerable danger. You are to be highly commended.”

Hetty’s cheeks flushed, and she looked at him.

Hugo flashed Charlie a wry look. “I am just glad that we found out what had happened to him, and Simon, before Meldrew got to carry out the sentence.”

“Quite. I am glad that you managed to get into the jail to see him so that he could ask you to help.”

“We were glad to do it, sir,” Wally assured him.

“Please, call me Hugo. All of you. We don’t use formalities. I am only Sir Hugo when I am at work in the pomp and circumstance in London,” Hugo assured them.

“Let’s go and sit in the study. We will bring you up-to-date on what has happened so far. Then we can decide what to do next,” Charlie suggested before he ushered Hetty to the door.

Once everyone was seated, brandy was handed out, and silence settled over the group. Hetty wrinkled her nose up at the sweetness of her sherry, and surreptitiously placed it on the table beside her elbow before she turned her attention to the room at large.

Sir Hugo placed a case of papers on the table beside him but, other than open it, he made no attempt to remove any. Hetty knew from the look of the seals that they were official, and suspected that they were needed to bring Meldrew to trial.

“Right. I think I have a fair understanding, from Hetty’s letter, about what has been going on around these parts,” Sir Hugo sighed.

He looked at Hetty, Wally, and Simon. “Tell me what you know about Meldrew.”

Wally looked at his brother before he began to describe Meldrew’s reign of terror around the county, and the innocent people he had targeted, including Charlie and Simon.

“Has he targeted just businessmen, or has he demanded money from the wealthy too?”

Hetty frowned. “I don’t know many people who are wealthy in the county. They certainly wouldn’t go the taverns and discuss it, if they were subjected to Meldrew’s bullying, so I don’t know. I haven’t heard any rumours.”

Wally and Simon shook their heads.

Charlie explained about his friend Arthur’s letter, and handed it to Hugo to read.

“Do you mind if I keep this for the time being?” Hugo asked as he looked over the top of the paper at Charlie. “We need to gather evidence.”

Hetty shared a look with Charlie.

“We know,” they said in unison, and smiled at each other.

“Keep it for as long as you need to,” Charlie replied.

“Here is what we need to do,” Hugo said as he clasped his hands and placed them on the desk before him. “I have to gather evidence; statements and the like, to be able to bring Meldrew to justice. Statements from you, Charlie and Simon, about what really did happen on the night of Blagmire’s death are fine. We need more though. We need to find out if Meldrew has killed anyone with his bare hands, or has ordered his men to carry out someone’s murder.”

“You mean, other than through the gallows?” Hetty asked with a frown.

Hugo nodded.

Charlie leaned forward in his seat. “Do you think the verger is involved with Meldrew in any way?”

“We need to find out if he has connections with Meldrew, or is guilty of nothing more than paying the man out of church funds. If he has taken church funds to pay Meldrew’s protection money, he can be arrested for theft. For now, we need to take a look at the bookwork at the rectory, and find out if the verger has taken any.”

“We think that someone in the tavern may have warned Meldrew that I was investigating the vicar’s death.”

“It won’t be the verger. He doesn’t drink,” Wally assured him.

“I have been drinking in the tavern for years, and I have never seen him anywhere near the place,” Simon added. “It can’t be him.”

Charlie’s lips quirked wryly. “Someone else in the tavern must have overheard me telling you that I am looking into the vicar’s death, and reported it to Meldrew.”

Silence settled over Wally and Simon as they considered the possible culprits. “There were all sorts of people in the tavern. Any one of them could be working for Meldrew. I certainly haven’t noticed anything odd about anyone’s behaviour of late,” Wally sighed.

“They would hardly tell any of the villagers though, now would they?” Simon added. “Everyone hates Meldrew, and his men. Anyone who aligns themselves with him would be a social pariah.”

“We have to consider that someone in the village has been informing Meldrew. At the moment, it is more important that we find out if Meldrew killed Blagmire, or the Vicar, or ordered his men to kill them. If we can get proof of either, we have enough to arrest him,” Hugo declared firmly.

“Someone needs to go to the tavern to ask Mrs Blagmire if her husband paid Meldrew anything, or received any threats prior to his death,” Charlie murmured. “We need a statement from her to say as much.”

“Yes. We also need to know what happened to Blagmire on the night of his murder. I mean, did he tell his wife that he was going to see someone, or was he dragged from the house screaming and kicking?” Hugo added.

“Meldrew is the man in authority. If Blagmire was dragged away by Meldrew’s men, Mrs Blagmire has nobody to report the crime to,” Barnaby growled.

“I know. So, as far as Meldrew is concerned, he can do what he wants and there is nobody in authority who is able to challenge him,” Hugo replied calmly.

Joshua stood, and began to pull his jacket on. “I will go and take a look at the coaching inn, and see if I can get Mrs Blagmire to talk to me.”

“Get her to sign a statement. Even if she puts a cross next to her name, you need to get her to confirm, in writing, what happened that night. I need facts, Joshua,” Hugo said firmly.

“Aye, leave it to me.”

“You go with him, Marcus,” Hugo ordered before he turned his attention to Hetty.

“Do you know the layout of the rectory?”

Hetty thought about that. “I only ever went there once, when father passed away. I went to visit the vicar to discuss the final arrangements for the funeral. I can vaguely recall where things are.”

“You know where the office is though?” Charlie asked.

Hetty nodded.

Hugo immediately pushed away from the desk and, while Hetty sat down, put some parchment and a quill beside her.

“Draw a plan of what you can remember,” he asked quietly. He looked at Charlie. “I take it that there is no new vicar as yet then?”

“The verger has taken over the vicar’s duties. I don’t know what’s happening about a replacement,” Wally replied frankly. “We are not exactly church-goers.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Hugo dismissed. If he was honest, he wasn’t a church-goer either.

“We will go to the rectory tonight,” Hugo said amid many growls of acknowledgement from his men.

“Tonight, Charlie, you and I, along with Barnaby and Lucas, will go to the rectory to see what we can find. Everyone else stays here. Day and night guard, men. Usual rota. Make sure you get plenty of rest.”

Hetty looked at Hugo. She had no idea what he had just said, but the cool authority in his voice assured her that this was a man in control of the situation. Although his eyes were not cold and hard, there was something in them that warned her that he wasn’t a man to be crossed. She shivered at the ruthlessness on his face, and edged a little closer to Charlie who, in that moment, felt like the most approachable man in the room.

“It’s alright, darling. This is what we do.” He seemed to sense her unease, and hastened to reassure her.

He had read the worried look she gave Hugo, and understood that anyone who was not used to dealing with the Star Elite could find the way they worked a little unnerving.

Most people would protest at going out in the middle of the night to break into a dead man’s house, at a place of worship as well. However, Charlie and his colleagues were used to doing whatever the job required them to do.

“I will just be glad when all of this is over,” she whispered.

“I know,” he murmured gently. “You are safe now. The men on guard won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I am sorry. I know this is your job, but Meldrew nearly hung you. He had the rope mere inches from your neck. If you go out tonight, even with your colleagues at your back, and Meldrew’s men catch you, nothing and nobody is going to stop him succeeding in killing you a second time round. You can’t take the risk. Why can’t the others just go by themselves?”

As she spoke her voice had grown louder until, by the time she lapsed into silence, she had drawn the attention of everyone within the room.

Charlie struggled to find a way to make her understand.

“I cannot just sit here and wait for Meldrew to call. I am with men who have fought on battlefields. We know what we are doing. This is what we do. Meldrew’s men aside, we are working with authority. Meldrew wouldn’t dare hang me with Sir Hugo here. He won’t allow anything to happen to any of us.”

“I won’t, I promise,” Hugo assured her as he approached them. “I need Charlie with me because he will recognise his friend’s writing on the church’s paperwork. We need to take a look at the contents of the study to see what the verger has gotten himself involved in. Charlie needs to be the one to challenge Meldrew, if the man does appear, because he was the one Meldrew tried to hang. I hope it doesn’t come to that until we have the evidence need but if it does, it does.” He shrugged unconcernedly. “We will deal with it. It just makes life easier for us once Meldrew is behind bars if we have evidence already gathered that will convict him.”

“We don’t fail, Hetty,” Charlie added confidently. “We never have before.”

“Quite,” Hugo added with a nod.

“Before,” he said quietly. “I was by myself. I had no idea just how desperate Meldrew was, and what danger I was in. It won’t happen again.”

His voice hardened at the last, and it was enough to make her study him closely. She shivered at what she saw in the depths of his eyes. In that moment, he looked so much like Hugo that Hetty knew he wouldn’t stop until Meldrew was behind bars – or dead.

“We leave in an hour,” Hugo said quietly, and nodded to his men.

“Just stay here where it is safe. I can work better if I know that you are not in any danger.” Charlie tipped her chin up, and smiled reassuringly at her, but it didn’t erase the danger in his eyes. “We can then start to get on with
our
future.”

She was unsure what to say, so nodded hesitantly. She wasn’t sure exactly what she could say at a time like this, and so lapsed into thoughtful silence.

It was just past midnight when Charlie peered into the back room of the rectory. A dark scowl settled over his face as he watched the verger move confidently around the room. It was evident that the short, dour man had made himself quite at home in the vicar’s old residence.

Had he been so blatant as to move in?

Charlie crept through the bushes with the stealth of a cougar, and appeared at the side of Hugo so silently that his boss jumped. In all of his years with the Star Elite, Hugo had never met any man who could move around so quietly, and had a new respect for his colleague’s capabilities. So much so that he looked at his friend, and shook his head chidingly.

“Do you have to do that?” he mouthed almost silently.