“Lady Charity wishes to learn more about all the tenants. I was thinking you could tell her about your life here.”
“Oh, you don’t need to convince an ol’ battleax like me!” she laughed. As Miss Braithwaite launched into the tale of her life, a beautiful one set in almost seven decades prior—that left Charitywith a warm smile indeed, she couldn’t help a thought niggling in the back of her mind.
There are more secrets here, not just to do with a fire. Seth has been a hermit, isolated, yet loved and adored by his tenants. And lost something, or rather, someone. What is it I do not yet know?
“Where is she, Bates?” Seth saw at once his butler’s nervous mannerisms. It was hardly unusual for him, but more out of control today. He could not stand still and as he stood beside the desk in Seth’s study, he wrung his hands together and jerked his head repeatedly toward the window, as if looking out onto the drive. “Where is my betrothed?”
There was something both heartwarming and exciting about calling Charity that now. To his odd relief, none of his staff had seemed to care about the impropriety of having his betrothed living with him before he was married. So far, none of them had even heard the whispers of a lady going missing from Lord Holmwood’s house by the same name either. At least Seth presumed as much.
He began to worry that maybe Bates had heard and had put two and two together, realizing who Charity truly was.
“I worry for her.”
“Why?” Seth moved to his feet. In front of him had been the papers relating to the fire. Like most days, he had been sifting through the reports on the great fire of Aldenbury and the supposition as to how it had started. Each time, Seth came back to the same conclusion.
Lord Holmwood had been seen at the fringes of the Aldenbury club earlier that evening, a fact he conspicuously lied about later. It must have been him. Who else had the motivation? No one! Who else basked in that night and stood to gain the most, other than that vile serpent?
Except, as the thousands of times before, Seth could still not pinpoint the precise cause of the fire, nor that coveted final piece of evidence to put Lord Holmwood away for good.
“Bates?” Seth said restlessly as the butler once more jerked his head to the window.
“She has gone to see the tenants to give them gifts and introduce herself. She went quite alone, only with Isobel, the maid.”
“No other?” Seth felt panic rip through him. It was not that he didn’t trust Charity or Isobel, it was simply that Charity’s blindness made her more susceptible to the stir that was most certainly brewing throughout the entire ton after the so-called abduction of a lady of high society.
Bates said no more but raised a finger and pointed through the thick window glass.
At the end of the drive, Charity and Isobel had appeared. In the strong wind of the day, they were both buffeted, the ribbons of their bonnets going wild. Shelby and Rufus scampered ahead of the two of them, barking and chasing each other, playing as they neared the house.
Seth watched, open-mouthed. One thing he admired greatly was Charity’s capability. She would not let her blindness stop her and pushed ahead, living her life freely, but then something happened that made him second guess this thought.
Isobel nearly lost her bonnet and as she turned away to catch it in the wind, Charity turned around and slipped. She had no idea that beside her was a vast urn from the ornate knot garden. She tripped and fell over it, not just tumbling to the ground but knocking the whole pot with her.
“Charity!” Seth called, even though it would be impossible for her to hear him from the house.
“Oh!” Bates threw his hands over his face, his panic coming to clear fruition now, as Seth shot out of the room.
He aimed for the nearest servant’s door and sprinted down the driveway. It did not matter he wasn’t wearing a tailcoat, let alone a frock coat, which would have been wise in this wind. All he could think about was reaching Charity. He sprinted hard, but by the time he reached her, she was sitting up and laughing the matter off with Isobel who had helped her up again.
“What in God’s name is going on?” Seth raged as he reached their side.
“Ooh, that was loud.” Charity pretended to wince. “You know my hearing is excellent, it is my sight that has a problem.”
Seth took her hands and pulled her to her feet, then held them out wide as he checked her over for injury.
“Are you hurt?”
“No, I am quite fine. Seth, not every time I tumble over am I going to hurt myself. It is sort of a habit to fall over, considering my condition.”
“But…” Seth knew he was about to sound mad and overprotective, but he couldn’t help it. “You went out alone on the lands? What if you had fallen there? There are ditches, and wells so deep that sheep have fallen to their deaths before. It is not a safe place to walk alone.”
“I was not alone.” Charity lost all traces of her smile. “I was with Isobel.”
Isobel clearly knew it would be best if she was left out of it. She hurried away, calling after Rufus and Shelby in her effort to get them to come into the house, though it was the last thing they wanted to do. They were currently chasing one another’s tails around in the middle of the lawn.
“Charity, Isobel could not have stopped you from falling in a well or a ditch, could she?”
Charity folded her arms, the look of irritation in her face so plain, but he could not stop himself.
