“Wine, Shapman?”
“I’ll try some, but I don’t often have it. Is this a good one?”
Edward took a sip. “A middling sort, I should say. I have much better stuff in my own cellar.”
Gingerly, Shapman tasted the wine, his face assuming a surprised expression when he found it palatable. “You want to talk to me without Miss Tess weeping all over me, I dare say.”
“Something like that. I want someone who will be honest with me… straightforward, because frankly Tess is as unpredictable as a squirrel. There is no knowing which way she will jump, and I have to know what is going on if I am to help her.”
“Areyou going to help her?”
“That depends,” Edward said. “Answer me this, Shapman — why do you want to marry her?”
“Oh, I don’t,” he said, sounding surprised. “Heavens, no! She’s way above me. I’d never presume. I know she has this funny idea that we’ll wed, but it’s never going to happen, is it?”
That was unexpected! “So why did you go to her father last year and ask permission to address her?”
He shifted in his chair and pulled a face. “It wasn’t quite like that. She wanted to know how much her dowry was, that was the purpose of it. She said if I went to her father and said I was thinking of marrying her, but if she had a large dowry it would be impossible… well, she imagined he’d say something like,‘You’ll not get your hands on my daughter’s twenty thousand’or whatever it was. Then she would know what was hers. But he just said I’d never see a penny piece of her money, he’d makesure of it, and he has, hasn’t he? This will of his has stitched her up good and proper.”
“But she still thinks she will marry you. There is something about getting hold of her fortune.”
“She thinks that if she gets her money in her own hands, she’ll marry me. But I keep telling her it will never do. Her uncle is an earl, for heaven’s sake. She’s grown up in Corland Castle. How could she lower herself to marry a man like me?”
“But if she finds this mythical fortune, what then? She would be rich enough to keep both of you in comfort. You need never work again, or you could do only the jobs that interested you. Would you marry her then?”
He sighed. “Look, she’s a lovely lady and she’s been very good to me and helped me get the business started, and I confess that when she comes to me with kisses and sweet words… well, I don’t fight her off as perhaps I should. It’s never gone beyond that, but I defy any man to refuse a kiss from a girl like Miss Tess. She’s as sweet as pie, and if she were a farmer’s daughter… but she ain’t, and that’s the long and the short of it. I have my life all planned out, and she’s no part of it.”
“So… is there, in fact, a farmer’s daughter?”
He went bright red. “She’s a farrier’s daughter, actually, and she works as a poultry maid on Gowland’s farm. That’s about ten or so miles west of Birchall. Will Gowland’s her uncle. I’ve been courting her for about three years and we should have been wed by now, but when Miss Tess came along and seemed inclined to be friendly, we agreed not to do anything to discourage her. Make use of her, like, and she helped me get business when I was struggling a bit, so I’m grateful for that. But we never supposed she’d start talking about marriage. I keep thinking she’ll forget about me, but she’s not going to, is she?”
“Not unless you tell her about the poultry maid.”
“There never seemed to be a good moment for that. Besides, Miss Tess has a way of beguiling a man so he just wants to do whatever she wants. It’s how I ended up going to her father, and how I came to be in here, and if she gets her money and starts on at me to wed her… well, I’m not sure I’ll be able to fight her off, and that’s a fact. She just never takes no for an answer. I want her to find her fortune, if that’s what it’ll take to make her happy, and I don’t want to fall out with her, but I’d like my life back the way it was. So if you can persuade her to leave me alone, that would be a kindness, my lord.”
“I’m not sure I can persuade her to do anything, but I shall do what I can. But what about you? You said you have a plan to get out of here. I trust it does not involve tunnelling out or bribing the gaolers, because I am not sure either of those ideas will fly.”
Shapman laughed. “Nothing like that. I was over at Gowland’s farm visiting Ruby the night of the murder. I go there about once a month, walking over the night before, have supper, sleep in a room with Gowland’s four sons, leave again at six to walk home. There are about a dozen people who’ll swear I was there. All I have to do is get word to them, and they’ll go to the magistrate.”
“But not until Tess has found her fortune.”
“Exactly!”
Edward laughed, for finally his way forward was clear. “Then we must make sure that her fortune is found as soon as possible.”
When Edward returned to the hotel, leaving the wine bottle with Shapman as prisoner currency, he found Tess pacing backwards and forwards in the parlour. At least she was fully dressed this time.
“You went out!” she said accusingly. “You took wine — I saw you from my window. Where have you been?”
“Back to the gaol to talk to Shapman again. There was much left unsaid earlier.”
“Was there? What else is there to say?”
“I wanted to know more about your fortune,” he said, having no intention of telling her the real reason for his visit. “Istillwant to know more about this mysterious fortune of yours that you think is lurking in some nondescript house in Pickering, for I will tell you openly, Tess, I do not believe any fortune exists that is not already known about.”
“Well, that is where you are wrong, Mr Oh-So-Clever. Itdoesexist, I have seen it and I know precisely where in the house it is.”
“How can you possibly know that? No one has been into the house.”
