Lord Cavendish Returns (6 page)

“
Hello?” He paused just inside the door.

“
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, it is you,” a huge bear of a man
swore as he stalked out of the shadows and strode toward him. “Come
here boy.”

Harper
didn’t get the chance to do anything other than grin as he was
swept into a huge hug.

“
It’s been too long, Harper. Far too long, boy, and that’s a
fact.”

Harper
nodded in full agreement, and made no mention of the fact that as
the youngest of the brothers Robert was in no position to call
Harper ‘boy’.

“
The last we heard of you, you were in the army,” Robert
announced as he studied Harper carefully for a moment. “You look in
fine fettle to me, boy, so what gives? Have you left yet? What are
you doing now?” While he was throwing questions at a bemused
Harper, Robert steered him toward a small room at the rear of the
workshop. The scent of hot metal and leather hung in the air, and
Harper studied the neat and tidy workshop ruefully for a moment
while he tried to gather his emotions. Sensing Robert was waiting
for an answer; he sighed and turned back to his youngest
brother.

“
I have left the army now but work for the War Office in
London.”

“
Good Lord above,” Robert grinned. “We have a nabob in the
family.”

Harper
swore crudely at him but was rewarded with Robert’s unrepentant
grin.

“
So what miracle has been wrought to bring you back here,
brother mine? It is good to see you back
at last
, but why now?”

Harper
studied his boots for a moment. All trace of humour suddenly
vanished and was replaced with an edgy wariness that brought with
it the memory of his confrontation with the Cavendish brothers. Now
that he had seen one of his brothers again, the differences in
their appearance were damning. Harper was tall but powerfully
built, very much like the Cavendish brothers. Robert was shorter
and stockier, and had mousy brown hair. He ran a hand down his face
and studied Robert, who had begun to frown at Harper’s
hesitation.

After a
few moments of careful consideration he carefully put aside the
real reason for his visit to talk about later, and smiled rakishly
at his brother instead. “I decided that it was time I came back to
see how you were all getting on. Are there any changes I should
know about?”

“
What, are you married? Is that it?” Robert
demanded.

“
God, no, I am not that old and decrepit yet.” Harper made a
show of glancing around the dingy workshop. “I take it that there
is not a Mrs Robert Lawton around here anywhere?”

“
God, no, I am not that old and decrepit yet,” Robert mimicked
with a grin.

“
Angus and Joseph?”

Robert
shook his head slowly but his grin was dimmed by a slight tinge of
worry that had begun to cloud his eyes. Harper knew that look and,
unless Robert had changed drastically while he had been away, was
aware that he was going nowhere until he told his brother
everything.

“
You had better tell me, boy, or I will have no choice but to
beat it out of you,” Robert announced calmly to which Harper
snorted.

“
Does the tavern still take residents?”

Sensing
Harper would tell him in his own good time; Robert accepted his
brother’s change of subject and scowled at him. “No brother of mine
is going to stop at the inn while I have a room ready and
available. Come on, I will show you. I take it that you have not
been to see Angus and Joseph yet?”

“
Not yet. I take it that they are still in the same
places?”

“
Aye, that they are.”

Harper
followed Robert out of the workshop and across the square to a
small terraced house. It wasn’t overly large but suited his
purposes and had a spare room that overlooked the back of the house
and Hambley Woods. To the left of them, the church bells began to
ring.

Harper
lifted his brows at his brother. “Wedding?”

“
Funeral.”

The
house suited Robert, but had very little in the way of fripperies
and the little ornaments women usually liked to decorate the place
with. Harper rolled his eyes and removed the damaged saddle from
the kitchen chair before took a seat at the table which was
cluttered with a variety of ironwork.

“
Go on then, you had better tell me before I get back to
work.” Robert sat in the chair opposite with a glint of challenge
in his eye.

“
What do you know about my birth?” Harper watched a blank look
fall over his brother’s face.

“
It was at home, like ours,” his brother replied in confusion.
“Why?”

Harper
could see no easy way to tell him and briefly contemplated the
wisdom of doing so at all. Right now he didn’t know whether to just
go to the church, check the parish records and then visit his
brothers for a few days before he headed back to London. If he got
confirmation that their mothers were one and the same person, then
he could send word to the Cavendish brothers that they were barking
up the wrong tree and head off to his next mission confident that
they wouldn’t knock him on the head again. If he did uncover lies
and deceit, then he would have to sit down with all of his brothers
and tell them.

Still,
casting all logic aside, it didn’t seem right to accept the kind
hospitality of his brother and lie to him, but he didn’t see the
point of raising the issue if it turned out to be stuff and
nonsense.

“
It’s nothing important, just something I need to check the
parish records about, that’s all. It is to do with my
work.”

Robert
nodded but studied Harper far longer than was usual. It was as
though he seemed to sense that Harper had just lied and was
deciding whether to push for the truth, or wait until Harper was
ready to confide in him.

“
Well, I have got to get back to work,” Robert sighed after
several moments of silence.

Harper
hated the strangely awkward sense of disappointment that hung in
the air and followed his brother to the door. “Is Reverend McCarthy
still at the church?”

“
McCarthy? No, he died several years back and his wife left to
go and stay with some relatives. Reverend Farthing is there now. He
lives with his wife and daughter at the vicarage. Reverend Farthing
covers both this parish and Moldton parish now, and spends most of
his time travelling backward and forward between the villages. His
wife is a bit infirm. Lovely woman, but spends most of her time at
home and doesn’t get about very easily. If you need anything, you
had best speak to Arrabella.”

“
Arrabella,” Harper sighed and lifted a hand to his brother,
who hurried across the square to a waiting customer.

He stood
on the doorstep and absorbed the silence that settled around him
while he decided what to do. The thought of spending the afternoon
by himself in the empty house behind him was not very appealing and
so, with a sigh, he closed the front door and headed in the
direction of the house he had grown up in.

As he
strolled through the village, he felt as though he was walking
through his memories. The faces were different, but the houses, the
pub, the blacksmiths, the haberdashery, the bakery and even the
ducks in the village pond were all the same as they had been. He
absorbed the sights, the sounds, and even the smells as he made his
way home, and was feeling quite nostalgic by the time he reached
the single gate at the end of the front garden of The Manor; the
house he had grown up in.

For
several long moments he stood at the gate outside his old home and
watched the ‘Doctor Lawton’ sign swing gently in the slight breeze.
The house was the same, although it had been freshly painted and
had a new fence around it. As he stood and absorbed his memories,
he felt as though an entire lifetime had passed since he had waved
goodbye to his childhood. He had been an eager and somewhat
arrogant youth who wanted to see the world and experience
adventure. If he had known then what he knew now, he would have
been considerably better off if he had remained in the village and
found himself a somewhat mundane profession to keep himself
occupied with.

He shook
his head and made his way toward the rear of the house. The huge
oak tree, where he had once swung from a piece of old broken rope,
still stood in ancient splendour at the bottom of the garden. The
small bench that was now placed beneath the tree was a new addition
but, apart from that, there had been very few changes to the place.
He couldn’t quite make his mind up if that was a good thing, or
not.

“
Can I help you?” A feminine voice asked from behind
him.

Harper
turned and studied the middle aged woman for several moments and
tried to recall if she was also new to the village or a figure from
his dim and distant past, but simply had no recollection of her at
all.

“
I am here to see Doctor Lawton,” Harper replied vaguely. His
attention was drawn to the shadows within room behind her. The door
to the kitchen stood open and drew him steadily toward yet more
memories.

“
I am afraid that Doctor - here, wait, you cannot go in
there,” the woman gasped but he ignored her and left her to hurry
after him.

He
stopped just inside the kitchen door and immediately wondered if he
had just stepped back in time. Everything, literally everything,
was the same as when he had left. The walls had been freshly
painted but, unless he was mistaken, the kitchen table was the one
he used to sit at as a young boy. One blunt finger traced the rough
groove he had carved one day in his boredom and he smiled as
memories swamped him of the scolding he had received from mama for
damaging the furniture. He turned to the woman when her loud
protest over his intrusion broke into his reverie.

“
I am Harper Lawton, Doctor Lawton’s brother,” he announced
calmly and it was enough to shut the woman up. “When will Doctor
Lawton be back?”

“
He has always been here.” Angus’s drawl made Harper spin
around in surprise. “Good Lord, it is you.”

“
That’s exactly what Robert said, give or take a few choice
words,” Harper replied with a grin when he emerged from the huge
hug Angus gave him. They sat at the kitchen table in the same seats
they used to sit in as young boys, and grinned at each other over
the table just as they had when they had been ten years
old.

“
This is Mrs Sanders, my housekeeper.”

“
Has anything changed around this place?”

“
No, I am afraid not. I am glad that you are here, Harper,
because there is something you need to know,” Angus sighed when
they had been furnished with tea and the most sumptuous fruit cake
Harper had ever tasted.

“
Go on.”

“
Joseph wrote to you a year or so back, but we never got word
that you received our message.”

Harper
shook his head. “I move around a lot because of the kind of work I
do.” He waited long enough for Mrs Sanders to head outside to peg
the washing out. Once the woman was out of ear-shot, he leaned
forward and gave Angus a brief outline of the dangerous work he
undertook for the War Office and the Star Elite.

“
That explains it then, but I have to tell you that we were
starting to wonder just what we would have to do to get you to at
least talk to us.”

“
I am sorry. You know that when I left here I joined the army
and was sent abroad. When I did come back to English shores, I was
given the choice that I could either to be sent back to the
battlefields or could work with the War Office.” His lips twisted
wryly. “I elected for the War Office. Unfortunately, my work
requires me to adopt disguises and work undercover. I have to keep
moving around and be very careful about what I do. Just a simple
letter home could mean fatal consequences for you and Robert and
Joseph. I couldn’t risk it.”

Angus
nodded his understanding. “The thing is, Harper, when father passed
away he revealed a few things to us that have a significant impact
on all of us.”

Harper
froze and lifted his steady gaze to his brother. He knew now that
if it was proven that his mother was Lady Cavendish, or whatever
the hell her name was, he was not related to the man seated
opposite, and that saddened him greatly. “Go on.”

“
Father said that this house wasn’t his.”

“
Not his?” Harper knew what was coming. The fruit cake he had
consumed suddenly felt like a piece of led in his stomach and he
carefully placed the remains back on the plate at his
elbow.

“
He was an ex-soldier, as you know, and struggled to make a
living because of his injuries. He couldn’t afford to purchase this
place. Apparently, someone else owns the house. Father and mother
just lived here.”

“
Who owns it then?”

“
Well, now? You do.”

“
What?”

“
I said that you do.” Angus rubbed a weary hand down his face
and studied the changes the years away had brought upon Harper. The
enthusiastic adolescent he had grown up with had been replaced with
a weary soldier who had become a rather forbidding man. In his
youth, Harper had been a chatterbox; in his maturity, he had
clearly learnt to choose his words wisely.