“Where?” he asked.
“Right down there, my lord,” Norton said, pointing. “Landed on a ledge. From ’ere it looks like the fall broke ’is neck.”
Lakehurst nodded, but something made him doubt it was that simple. “Norton, go back to the castle and ask Mr. Liddle to please join us.”
“I’ll do that,” Ellinbourne said before Norton could leave. “I want to take Ann back to the house. You can stay here to help Lakehurst with whatever he needs,” he said as Cassie reached the group.
She walked up to look over the cliff edge. Lakehurst pulled her away. “You should go with Ellinbourne. It’s no sight for a lady.”
“That may be,” Cassie said, “however, I am his employer and as such I need to see all that is going on,” she said, pulling out of Lakehurst’s restraint.
Carlyle lay on a ledge a third of the way down the crevice, his head bent at an odd angle.
Lakehurst frowned. “Norton, get a rope from the stable and have Henry harness a horse to the farm cart. We’ll need it once we bring Carlyle up.”
Norton pulled on his forelock and trotted toward the stable as Lakehurst studied the terrain to determine the best way to get down the cliff to reach Carlyle. With a rope, he could descend the cliff to the right of him where the ledge appeared wider. He’d have to carry him over his shoulder. He squinted his eyes. Maybe he could tie him to himself as he climbed back up.
“What are you thinking?” Cassie asked.
“How to get him out of there. With a rope, I can get down there.”
“Why you? Shouldn’t that be something Norton, Henry, or Mr. Liddle should do?” she asked.
“It would take more than one of them to get him up, but that ledge is too small to have two men down there. I can put him over my shoulder, tie him in place if need be, and climb back up.”
“But—” she started to protest.
He placed his large hands on her shoulders. “Cassie, I’d like to use my size for more than filling out a coat,” he said with a rueful sad smile.
She closed her eyes for a moment and nodded. “But it’s dangerous!” she blurted out when she opened her eyes again.
He wanted to kiss her for her concern. Instead, he dropped his arms from her shoulders and stepped away.
“I’ll be careful. I have a lot of new plans for the future that I promise I will not jeopardize,” he said, looking at her intently, at the incessant wind pulling her dark hair out of its neat confines and blowing her skirts close about here. She looked vulnerable yet strong as she stood resolute against the wind, her eyes wide, her gaze intent on him.
She bit her lip and nodded.
He nodded in return and smiled. Something precious had just passed between them. He couldn’t name it, yet it made him feel complete.
Mr. Liddle approached them as Norton drove the farm cart out of the stable with Henry beside him.
* * *
“Your man said someone fell?”Mr. Liddle said when he approached them.
“Dead, so it appears. Whether he accidentally fell remains to be determined,” Lakehurst said.
Cassie looked from one man to the other. “It’s Carlyle,” she said. “He’s been on the estate since the Marquess was a child. He was deaf due to mumps as a young man.”
“So he was extremely familiar with the property and its cliffs,” Mr. Liddle clarified.
“Very much so,” she said. “But if someone came up behind him and pushed him, he would not have heard them.”
“Is that what you think happened?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. He looked around them, studying the area.
“I don’t know what to think,” she said honestly. “Just that he should not be dead,” she said, looking back over the cliff at his body sprawled below.
“I am going to climb down to bring up the body,” Lakehurst told him.
