The Unexpected Marriage of Gabriel Stone (Lords of Disgrace) (20 page)

* * *

They drove back to Brighton in a state of wary truce. Something had gone very wrong in that house, Caroline knew that for a certainty, and she felt as certain that Gabriel had built high walls around the memories. But the poison was seeping out like the miasma from a vault. She shivered convulsively, appalled at the ghoulish image that conjured up. She was becoming emotional lately and every little feeling seemed heightened.

‘Are you cold?’

‘No. Just a goose walking over my grave.’
Stop thinking about graves.

‘I have upset you. I am sorry for my temper and my secrets. I want whatever compromise is best for the both of us, whatever will work for us.’

‘Compromise is a word that does not come often to your lips, I think.’ She ventured a teasing note and, glancing up, was rewarded with a smile.

‘Not often enough, I am sure.’

Reassured by the smile, Caroline tucked her gloved hand under Gabriel’s elbow and was not repulsed.
We must look the perfect just-married couple,
she thought as they reached the Parade and passed the grassy length of Marine Square, its new houses sparkling white in the sunshine. ‘There is Lady Carmichael. She was so pleasant when I spoke to her in Donaldson’s the other day.’ Caroline waved. ‘Oh! Gabriel, she
cut
me.’

‘You are imagining things. She must not have seen who we were.’

‘But she did, I saw her recognise me and then she just went blank. Gabriel, slow down, there is Mrs Wilberforce, walking with her daughters.’ As the curricle drew level she smiled and waved. ‘Good afternoon, Mrs Wilberforce.’

The matron who had beamed at her only that morning gathered her three girls closer as though to shield them from contagion and hurried on.

‘Stop!’ Caroline made a grab for the reins and when Gabriel brought the pair to a halt she half-scrambled, half-jumped down, gasping in pain as she jarred her sore toe. ‘Mrs Wilberforce, wait, please.’

The older woman turned. ‘Lady Edenbridge, I will thank you not to accost me, or my daughters, again.’

‘Why not?’ Caroline demanded, keeping her voice moderate with an effort. Even so, heads were turning. ‘You acknowledged me this morning.’

‘I was prepared to make every allowance for you, given your blameless record since your come-out and the fact that, despite your shocking elopement, you married immediately and with such distinguished sponsors. But I am not prepared to give countenance to the wife of a murderer. A
patricide.
’ She turned on her heel. ‘Come, girls.’

‘No, you will not turn your back on me after making such an accusation.’ Caroline caught at her sleeve, jerking her to a stop. ‘Where did you hear such lies?’

‘Why, today’s
Morning Post
and a letter from London from my good friend the Duchess of Brancaster. Now, unhand me, Lady Edenbridge.’

She marched away and Caroline turned, aghast. People were slowing, someone pointed and just in front of where Gabriel was backing the team, a couple crossed the road to the other side, heads averted.

‘What the devil?’ he demanded as the curricle drew level with her.

‘She said...she says the newspapers say...that you are a
murderer
.’

Chapter Twenty

‘G
et in.’ Gabriel held out a hand to help her. ‘Smile. Don’t cry.’

‘I am not crying,’ Caroline said between gritted teeth. ‘I am furious. How dare she? How dare the
Morning Post?
It is libel, you must sue them. Who are you supposed to have murdered, for goodness sake?’

‘My father, I assume,’ Gabriel said as he drew rein outside their rented house. ‘Can you manage to get down? Go straight inside and wait while I return this to the mews.’

That was enough to knock the anger clean out of her. Caroline limped up the steps, back straight, chin up, and the door swung open before she could knock. James, the footman, closed it, virtually on her heels.

‘My lady, the newspapers—is his lordship coming back soon?’

‘Yes.’ Ebbing fury left her sick and weak and it took a conscious effort to speak calmly. ‘Take the decanters to the drawing room. Is there any post?’

‘Yes, my lady.’ He hurried after her with half a dozen letters on a silver salver and three folded newspapers.

Most of the letters were for Gabriel, but she recognised Tess’s neat black handwriting and broke the seal without sitting down.

My dearest Caroline,

I hope this reaches you before the news is abroad in Brighton, but I doubt it. Your father has descended on London telling all who will listen that he had the man who ‘abducted’ his daughter investigated and has found a witness who swears that Gabriel murdered his own father twelve years ago.

Cris tells me that he knows about the accident and that it cannot have been anything else, and of course we, and all your friends, are countering the rumours wherever we hear them.

Cris is writing and will do nothing more until he hears from Gabriel whether he wants him to secure the services of the best lawyers or whether he is coming back to London himself. He says to tell you, ‘Courage!’ and to do your best to stop Gabriel committing murder in reality.

Tamsyn and I stand ready to come to you, if that would help, or to do whatever you ask.

Your loving friend,

Tess

‘It was my father,’ she said the moment Gabriel walked into the room. ‘He is telling everyone that he has a witness who says you murdered your father.’ She thrust the letters into his hands. ‘Cris has written and I think that one is from Alex.’ When he took them she went and poured brandy into two glasses and brought one to him. Then she sat and waited, fighting the churning panic. This was her father’s revenge, she had brought this down on the man she loved.

Gabriel put the letters down unopened and ignored the brandy. ‘Are you not going to ask me if I did it?’ His eyes were dark and steady as he watched her face, but lines bracketed his mouth and his voice was harsh.

‘Of course you did not.’ But a tiny worm of doubt stirred. Something dreadful had happened at Edenvale, something that had made the place hateful to Gabriel and his father had whipped him unmercifully. Surely not...

‘It was brought in at the inquest as an accident. There were no witnesses. He fell down the stairs, smashed in his head on the marble, broke his neck, but no one could account for why,’ Gabriel said. He had his composure again and his voice was devoid of emotion. ‘Your father’s investigator has turned up the old case.’

‘Was he drunk?’ she managed.

‘At four in the afternoon? No. Stone-cold sober. None of the servants would admit to being in the hall or near the head of the stairs. By the sound of it there must have been someone after all and your father’s money has loosened their tongue.’

She wanted to ask whether he meant that someone’s tongue had been loosened to tell lies, or the truth, but she could not bring herself to show such disloyalty. ‘But there was no one you know about?’

‘Louis,’ Gabriel said as though the name was being dragged out of him. ‘But he had fallen at the top of the stairs and knocked himself out. He could remember nothing, not then, not to this day. You saw those carved newel posts. It was a bad blow and it made his sight worse.’

‘There must have been some conclusions drawn, surely?’

‘Oh, yes. The jurors found that my father had tripped over the riding whip he was carrying, that Louis had seen him begin to fall, rushed forward to help, tripped himself and hit his head. When the butler came on the scene I was at the foot of the stairs standing in a pool of blood, the broken whip in my hands. The coroner was prepared to accept that I had heard the fall, rushed to the scene from the study on the ground floor and automatically picked up the whip in my shock.’

‘Then there is nothing to it but wicked fantasies created by my father. A good lawyer will sort this out, force him to retract under threat of legal action. The original coroner’s report can be republished. I will never forgive him for this, never.’

‘The slight problem is, my dear, that it did not happen as the coroner stated. I was not downstairs when my father fell, I was on the stairs. And there was a slash on his cheek from the whip that was never accounted for.’ Finally Gabriel picked up the glass. He drained it in one swallow and sat down. ‘The coroner concluded that somehow the whip had hit him as he fell.’ Caroline pushed her own untouched brandy glass towards him, but he shook his head. ‘It would only take one servant who did in fact see me going down those stairs with the whip in my hand and I will discover whether the old tale about silken nooses for peers is true.’

The whip, Gabriel’s back. How many vicious thrashings did it take before a young man snapped, hit back? Killed his tormentor? No.
But Gabriel had not denied it.

‘Stop trying to make light of this,’ Caroline said, amazed that her voice was steady. ‘There is more to it than you told me, certainly more than you told the coroner’s court. If they found it was an accident, then that was what it was and you cannot have been responsible.’

‘You believe that? I saw your expression when you heard what I said about the whip and his face. You were thinking about the scars on my back, weren’t you?’

‘Yes.’ She would not lie to him. ‘I do not understand it all and I do not know what you are hiding, although I think you are protecting Louis in some way, but I do not believe you could kill in cold blood, nor hot blood either. Not and intend it. And unless my father withdraws this accusation and publically apologises, then I will stand up in court and swear that he is mentally incompetent.’

‘You will
not
get involved.’ Gabriel slapped one hand down on the table, making her jump, then stood up and began to pace, as though movement helped him think. ‘Murder is not treason, therefore the title and the estate are safe for Ben, whatever they find. I can make provision for you. The problem is the damage this will do to your reputation, but the lapse of time from the death is in our favour there. Everyone will assume you were taken in by me, that you are simply a victim in all this.’ He sounded perfectly calm, as though working through a problem that his steward had brought to him.

‘I will surrender myself to whoever is the chief magistrate here, not wait to be dragged out of the house. That will create a better impression and may allow me a little more freedom to manage my affairs. It will certainly make less of a scene here and may divert any sensation-seekers from the house and from you.’

‘Gabriel, stop it.’ Caroline found she was on her feet, too. ‘You are frightening me. You must fight this, prove your innocence.’

‘I cannot. I am very sorry, Caroline, but I cannot. I was a fool to believe that I actually had a chance of real happiness with you.’ He caught her by the shoulders and kissed her, taking her mouth with a savage desperation that stole her breath and filled her with fear. ‘Now, stay here. Order the servants not to answer the door to anyone. Write to Cris, tell him to come and fetch you, send you to Grant in Northumberland. You’ll be away from the public eye there.’ He released her as suddenly as he had seized her, leaving her to stagger back into a chair, her hand to her mouth. His smile as he turned back from the door was gentle. ‘Goodbye, my love.’

‘No. Gabriel, I must tell you, I am—
No!
’ But he was gone.
A chance of real happiness with you. He called me my love.

Caroline jumped to her feet and yanked the bell pull. When James entered, so quickly that he must have been lurking outside, she snapped, ‘Answer the door to no one but the Marquess of Avenmore or Lord Weybourn. Be ready to take letters to the receiving office in a minute and send Corbridge to me.’

The valet came in as she was addressing the first letter to Cris. ‘Corbridge, I must write to his lordship’s brothers, most particularly Mr Louis. Have you their directions?’

‘Yes, my lady.’

‘Were you with my husband when his father died?’ she asked as she scribbled the next note.

‘I was a footman at Edenvale, my lady.’ There was something in his tone that made her glance up sharply. The valet tightened his lips as if on some outburst, then said in his normal, quiet voice, ‘It was an accident, my lady. I have seen the newspapers, but nothing will make me believe otherwise.’

‘Could anyone have witnessed the fall who has not come forward before now?’ She wrote Louis’s name on the next letter and reached for a fresh sheet of paper.

‘I cannot think so. Let me address those, my lady.’ He gathered up the letters as she finished them. ‘They will catch the post to London and be with the marquess, and Major Stone, tomorrow morning. Mr Louis may receive his in the evening, I believe.’

‘Thank you, Corbridge. Then come back, please.’

He was away perhaps two minutes, long enough for Caroline to take a small mouthful of brandy and to wipe all trace of tears from her eyes. She had suspicions, she also had, if not a plan, at least the outlines of a strategy and she would not give way to despair. Besides, there had been that smile, those words.
He loves me, even if he does not quite believe it, even if there is some other loyalty that is stopping him from telling me the truth.

‘Corbridge, your master has gone to seek out the chief magistrate of the town and intends to surrender himself to him for the investigation of these accusations.’ Perhaps it was only shock that allowed her to sound so calm and collected, but if it was, then she would use whatever advantage it gave her. ‘I want you to find him. I have no idea what that will involve, but I need to know where my husband is and what he needs.’

* * *

Waiting was the worst thing. Or perhaps uncertainty, she could not decide which. Caroline moved into the back parlour when people began to walk slowly past the house, staring, and waited there as James answered the door time and again with the same message. ‘My lady is not at home. My lord is not at home.’

She hated the wallpaper in that room. She hated the pattern of the carpet. She absolutely loathed all the novels she picked up and tossed aside in the two hours it took for Corbridge to return.

‘I have seen his lordship. The magistrate, Sir Humphrey Potter, feels it is best if he remains at his house for the moment because of the interest the matter is arousing, my lady. As his guest, Sir Humphrey asked me to assure you.’ Corbridge brushed at a smear of green on his sleeve. ‘Forgive my appearance, my lady, but it was necessary for me to climb over several garden walls and to enter through the back garden. James has already evicted one man who climbed in through the coal hole and was attempting to bribe the kitchen maid for information.’

‘Will the magistrate allow you to stay with his lordship, Corbridge? No? Then I trust he will accept it if we pack a valise for him. Come.’

While Corbridge laid out a change of linen and Gabriel’s shaving gear, Caroline fetched her new travelling case and took one of the razors to its lining. Under the leather she slid thirty guinea coins, all she could find in the safe, and six hairpins, tied in a handkerchief. Corbridge set out a pair of evening shoes and she wrapped the little pistol from the safe in the stockings and tucked that into the toe of one of the shoes. It would all come right, she had to make herself believe it, but just in case...

‘Please tell his lordship that this is my newest valise and to be particularly careful of it. He can be so careless.’

‘As you say, my lady.’ Corbridge took the bag and Caroline was left with nothing to do but wait and try to find some comfort in the fact that Gabriel was not languishing in Brighton’s lock-up.

* * *

Cris and Tamsyn reached Brighton at ten the next night, bringing with them a second coach containing four burly men. ‘Some of my grooms,’ Cris said as he straightened up from kissing her cheek. ‘I guessed you might need the barricades manned.’

‘People are such vultures,’ Tamsyn said as she hugged Caroline. ‘Tess and Alex send their love and they are staying in London to do anything needed at that end. Where is Gabriel?’

Caroline told them everything while they ate supper. ‘Do you know what happened?’ she asked Cris. ‘Gabriel is hiding something, but I cannot believe he would kill his own father.’

‘You have seen his back, of course,’ Cris said. ‘A court might well feel that evidence of such harsh treatment shows motive enough, especially as he was holding a whip when the body was discovered. But I do not know the truth. What he told me is what he told you. Like you I do not believe he did it and also that he is withholding something.’

‘I have sent for Louis,’ Caroline said and took a sip of the port she and Tamsyn were sharing with Cris.

‘Yes? Then you share my instincts about this. But I have always understood he remembered nothing of the accident.’

‘I cannot think of anyone other than his brothers whom Gabriel would shield at the hazard of his own life,’ Caroline said. ‘But we cannot expect to see Louis until late tomorrow at the earliest.’ The doorbell rang. ‘Oh, for goodness sake! Who is that at this hour? People have no decency.’

‘Major Stone, Mr George Stone, Mr Louis Stone, my lady.’ James opened the door wide and Gabriel’s three brothers walked in, heavy-eyed and travel-worn.

‘Where is Gabriel?’ Ben demanded the moment they were inside.