The Duke's Dilemma (4 page)

‘You can, your grace, but she’ll not be able to
come, she doesn’t ride, and the carriage can’t come through closed gates.’

‘They’re no longer barred, we scaled the gates
and undid them.’

For the first time Ralph saw the man’s mouth
bend; he was obviously impressed by the fact the massive cast-iron gates had
been opened by just the two of them.

‘That’s great news, your grace. James is
downstairs, you can send him. Miss Bird will be here with all the trappings in
no time at all. There’s a quack in the town as well - should James fetch him?’

‘Yes. Miss Frobisher obviously has a
concussion, but the fact she regained consciousness, even briefly, is a good
sign.’

For some reason he was reluctant to leave the
bedchamber; he wanted to stay and watch the girl, see the gentle rise and fall
of her chest, be certain she was breathing. He strode back downstairs to find
Robin on his way up with an armful of logs and a broad smile.

‘The range is going, sir. The kettle’s on the
hob and young James has found the makings for tea and a decent bottle of
brandy.’

‘Make sure Clark has sufficient fuel to keep
the room warm and light a fire in her
parlour
as well
then come back to the kitchen.’

He found a young man of medium build, a shock
of russet
coloured
hair and no boots. The stranger
was busy warming bricks to take up. Ralph was relieved he hadn’t had to go
outside to find James. He had a bad feeling about this; every instinct told him
there was danger – from what he wasn’t certain but he was damn sure he was
going to find out.

‘You must be James. I want you to get back to
town and fetch Miss Bird; also get someone from the inn to find the doctor and
have him attend here.’

The young man nodded. ‘Yes sir, I mean, your
grace.’

So used to commanding men Ralph hardly noticed
the speed with which the servant moved to replace his boots. It was what he
expected. It was a brave man indeed who dared to ignore his orders.

Chapter Four

‘My dear girl, your sickness
will
pass and the headache lessen.
Dr
Radcliff assured me that although you have a concussion,
it’s not a serious one. You’ll be up and about in a day or so.’

Hester flopped back on the pillows, closing her
eyes to allow the waves of nausea to subside; no sooner had she swallowed
something than she cast up her accounts. And it was all the fault of that
monster, that arrogant aristocrat, because for some reason he had taken it upon
himself to treat her as a common criminal.

‘Now, have a little sip of boiled water, my
dear, it will take the nasty taste away.’

She turned her head, childishly refusing the
drink. Birdie sighed - she was a sore trial to her. At this moment she felt too
wretched to apologize. She heard the sound of someone attending the fire, but
didn’t bother to turn her head to discover who it was.

Presumably the mysterious vanishing act
accomplished by the staff here had been reversed and with the touch of his aristocratic
hand Waverley had restored things to normal. No doubt the place was teeming
with eager servants, Aunt Agatha returned to her apartments and everything as
it should be.

She dozed, letting her thoughts wander. If she
kept her head still, especially after the bouts of sickness, the headache was
not as bad and her thoughts not as jumbled. She listened to the muted
conversation on the far side of the room; what she overheard forced her to pay
attention .

‘Robin, are you sure about that?’ Birdie was asking,
her voice a alarmed. ‘Miss Culley left Neddingfield without taking her things
with her?’

His reply was quiet. ‘Absolutely certain, Miss
Bird. His grace and I have gone through her apartments carefully. The trunks
are still in the attic so if she’s taken any clothes, then it was in a carpet
bag. Also she hasn’t taken her spyglass or carriage clock. His grace says his
aunt never travels without
them
.’

Miss Culley was the duke’s aunt? How could that
be? As far as she knew Aunt Agatha only had two relatives living, herself and
Ralph Sinclair. Where had this Lord Colebrook sprung from?

The import of the information she had heard
before this revelation home finally registered. Her aunt never travelled
without her spyglass and clock and always took two or three trunks. She would
never have gone away in such a manner. Something awful had happened and she was
lying half dead, unable to investigate. It was all the fault of the man whose
valet was tending to her fire.

From somewhere she found the strength to push
herself upright on the pillows. She waited until her head stopped pounding
before attempting to open her eyes. Birdie had her back to her, was standing to
one side of the fire whilst a man, in a serviceable brown jacket, did what was
necessary in the grate.

‘Excuse
me, Robin, or whatever your name is, I wish to speak to you.’ Her voice emerged
somewhat louder than she’d expected.

The man crouching at the fireplace was so
startled by her peremptory command he tumbled backwards sending the ashes from
his bucket and shovel
spiralling
into the air. The
resulting coughing and choking would have been amusing if it hadn’t added to
her own discomfort. Eventually the air cleared and the final particles of grey
swept away. Birdie came over smiling fondly at Hester.

‘I’m delighted you’re feeling better, my
dear.
 
Poor Robin’s most upset he covered
us both in ash. He says he’ll come back later to speak to you but has duties
elsewhere at the moment.’

‘Botheration. Well maybe you can find the
information I need. I heard him say Aunt Agatha is also this Waverley’s aunt.
As far as I know the only relative she has apart from myself is Ralph Sinclair
and he is no more an aristocrat and I am.’ She watched her companion’s eyes
twinkle. ‘What is it Birdie? What are you not telling me?’

‘They are one and the same, my dear. I
discovered that soon after I arrived yesterday. Your cousin, albeit a very
distant one, inherited a fortune and a dukedom from an even more distant uncle.
It seems even your Aunt Agatha didn’t know about this relative, the connection
was so thin as to be almost non-existent. However, there was a direct link
through the male line down to the gentleman in question.’

‘I don’t understand anything anymore, Birdie.
Two days ago we were planning the opening of our townhouse; I was eagerly
anticipating attending the opera, theatre and visiting the museums. Now here I
am cruelly injured by an ennobled relative and my aunt mysteriously disappeared
along with all her staff.’

Birdie patted her hand. ‘Never mind, my dear.
You were bemoaning the lack of excitement in your life only the other week.’

Hester could hear her friend chuckling as she
walked back across the bedroom to pull the window closed now the air was clear.

*

Ralph was sitting at the scrubbed kitchen table
a steaming mug of coffee clasped between his hands. He glanced up perplexed to
observe Robin was covered in ash and rather pink about the cheeks.

‘Good God! Can’t you manage a simple task like
clearing a grate without disaster, Robin?’

‘I beg your pardon, your grace, Miss Frobisher
startled me and I dropped the bucket. Her companion and the room are in a worse
state than I.’

Ralph was on his feet immediately. ‘She’s
awake? Is she well enough for me to speak to me? I have yet to make my
grovelling
apologies and explain how I came to treat her so
roughly.’

‘No, your grace. I believe she heard Miss Bird
and I talking about your aunt and the news of her having left the premises
without her normal baggage that caused Miss Frobisher to call out.’

‘Dammit! The poor girl has had enough to cope
with this past twenty-four hours, I don’t

 
want her worrying unnecessarily about that.’
He settled back in his chair and resumed

his
morose staring. The more he discovered the less he understood. He wasn’t
comfortable faced with an unanswerable dilemma.

His first concern must be the well-being of the
two ladies unexpectedly in his charge. He had sent Clark into town to find some
temporary staff to run the place. With the poor state of employment in rural
areas such as these there might be several families with members eager to come,
even if their employment was not to be permanent.

‘Robin, has Clark returned? I’m hoping he’ll
have arranged for the servants we require.’

There was no need for Robin to answer as he
heard Tom came in the rear porch banging his boots noisily and pausing long
enough to hang up his riding coat before entering.

‘Good news, your grace. I went to the inn and
asked if word be sent out to anyone seeking employment in the area. I managed
to engage a dozen women within twenty minutes and half-a- dozen men to work
outside; they are on their way as I speak.’

‘I hope there’ll be someone who can cook
amongst them. Robin has exhausted his repertoire of recipes and hungry as I was
this morning, even I could not manage to swallow his attempt at bread.’

‘Yes, there’s an older lady and her daughter
who come highly recommended.’ Tom walked over to the range and poured himself a
mug of coffee before joining him at the table.

‘That was the good news, sir. However there’s
been a tragedy. A local lady died yesterday.’ Ralph raised a quizzical eyebrow.
‘I know it seems hardly our business but from what I hear the lady was
returning home in a state of fear because of what she had heard about
Neddingfield. The talk is of spirits and ghosts; that the disappearance and the
accidents have been caused by supernatural means. The poor lady frightened
herself to death; her heart gave up under the strain.’

 
‘Sad,
but hardly my concern. Gossips always exaggerate, you know that. Before long we
will have mass hysteria all round and some interfering busybody will call out
the militia.’ He swallowed the last mouthful of coffee and straightened. ‘I’ve
sent young James out to
reconnoitre
the area and see
if he can find sign of men being in the vicinity over the past few days. I’m
going to have a closer look round the barns and outbuildings. Robin, you and
Clark come with me.’

He shrugged on his coat not waiting to see if
they were following, he knew they were. The outbuildings contained the usual
paraphernalia one would expect in such an establishment. The carriage house was
full; neither the chaise nor the antiquated coach missing. Good God! His wits
were wandering.

‘Robin, where are the carriage horses? In fact,
where any of the horses? The chickens, ducks, and farmyard cats are here, but
no dogs or horses. What does that suggest to you?’ Impatiently he stared at his
ex-sergeant-major hoping he would also recognize the clues. ‘Dammit, man,
think. How many times did we see villages left in just this way? The people
vanished into thin air, horses and dogs gone too?’

Enlightenment dawned. ‘I have it. It’s as
though the place has been evacuated; they must have left on horseback,
presumably in the middle of the night as nobody local heard or saw anything.
That must be why your aunt took so little baggage, only what she could carry.’

‘But why did they take the dogs along? It
doesn’t make sense.’

He looked round the empty yard. There was
something here that didn’t quite fit this scenario. What was common on the
Peninsular when the French were rapidly approaching a Spanish village didn’t
explain why Neddingfield should have been abandoned in the same way. Neither
did it explain why Aunt Agatha had sent an urgent note to himself and Miss
Frobisher to visit and then not waited for them to arrive.

He kicked angrily at a chicken pecking his feet
and it squawked, bustling off, its outrage obvious in every cluck. He was on
his way back to the house when there was the sound of a horse galloping towards
them. No one arrived pell-mell unless the news was urgent.

The horse thundered into the yard and its
rider, James, dragged it to a halt. He vaulted from the saddle and dropping the
reins casually in front of the horse he ran across the yard.

‘I’ve found something, your grace. And it’s not
good, I can tell you. There are signs that at least a dozen, possibly more, men
were camping at the far side of the park, but there’s something strange about
it. Gave me the shivers. It’s empty now but I reckon it was occupied not long
ago.’

Ralph turned angrily to Tom. ‘Why did you hear
none of this in town, Clark? Surely such a large band of strangers must have
been noticed by someone and the two things linked to what’s going on here?’

The man flushed, whether from annoyance or
embarrassment Ralph neither knew nor cared. ‘I beg your pardon, your grace, I
only arrived here myself yesterday. I’ve been somewhat busy since then what
with my mistress being attacked and everything.’

Ralph’s cheeks reddened and he raised a
placating hand. ‘I apologize. I’ve no right to roar at you. It’s my own
stupidity that’s led to this. First I take my cousin for an intruder and then
fail to do the most basic of information gathering.’ He shrugged before turning
to speak to Robin. ‘The fact that men were camped…’ He swung back to James.
‘Are you certain it wasn’t a Romany encampment? Did you see evidence of women
or children?’

‘No, your grace. That was the first thing I
thought myself. It looked a very professional setup, everything set out neat
like and proper rails to tether their mounts. But there was no sign there’d
been any wagons at the place.’ James shook his head, his mouth twisting.
‘There’s something odd about it; you’ll understand what I mean when you see for
yourself, your grace.’

‘Can find your way back there? I think in spite
of my reservations it’s time to call out the militia. God’s teeth! How I wish I
had my chosen men with me now. We could flush out the buggers easily enough
then.’

He saddled Thunder, the only mount up to his
weight. He cursed the fact he hadn’t had the foresight to bring his stallion
with him. He stopped beside his coach to retrieve his pistols from the side
pocket, checked they were primed and loaded, then tucked them into the deep
pockets of his riding coat.

‘Lead the way, James. We shall follow.’

Ralph was relieved Miss Frobisher’s man had
visited Neddingfield before and knew his way around the park and ancient woods.
But even so he doubted they would have found their way back to the camp if
James hadn’t left a trial wide enough for a blind man to follow.

As they cantered across the greensward Ralph
was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the horse he was riding. That it was
well bred was obvious from its conformation, but the animal was also well
schooled and obedient to the bit; in fact, the gelding was far too good for a
girl.

Twenty minutes’ hard riding brought them to the
coastal side of the park, an area rarely

frequented
by gamekeepers or poachers. He guessed the paths had been made by smugglers
after they’d landed their goods. Since the end of hostilities with France this
illegal trade in contraband had increased and in spite of the government
appointing more militia and customs officers to protect their shores the
nefarious trade flourished.