When Deakin arrived, Edward said, “I want you to go to every inn in this place, which should not take long, and tell the head ostler in each that Lord Tarvin will be extremely grateful to him if he does not hire out a post chaise or horses to Miss Nicholson. I will see that he is not the loser by it.”
“Yes, my lord,” Deakin said, with the glimmer of a smile on his dour countenance. “Shall I obtain some manacles, also, my lord? Or strong rope to tie her up?”
Edward could not help laughing at the image this conjured. “I would not dare! It will be enough if she cannot escape from Pickering.”
“I wouldn’t put it past her to cadge a lift out of town on a farmer’s wagon,” the valet said.
“Nor would I, but she will not get far that way. If she truly wants to go, she will doubtless find a way, for she is an enterprising lady, but we will not make it easy for her.”
When Deakin had gone, Captain Edgerton placed another bottle on the table and a clean glass. “It seems as if brandy might be in order at this point.”
“Ah, good man,” Edward said, pouring himself a large measure, and then, on reflection, doubling it.
“Do ye truly want to marry that termagant?” Sandy said.
“For my sins, I do.”
The Scotsman spread his hands. “Butwhy?”
There was a ripple of laughter around the room.
Captain Edgerton said, “I confess, I wonder the same thing. She would be a troublesome wife indeed, I should think.”
“Oh, yes,” Edward said easily, for he had long since come to terms with his own feelings on the matter. “She is the most prickly, irritating, contrary, infuriating, unpredictable and downright abominable girl I have ever met. She is also the most fascinating. I must have met her at Corland when she was still a child and forgotten her entirely, but now… now she is very much unforgettable. The instant I met her grown self, I realised she was unlike any woman I had ever known before, and within a week that I wanted to marry her. It is a forlorn hope, I regret to say.”
“Yer better off without the lassie, if you ask me,” Sandy said.
“But she is indeed fascinating, do you not think?” Neate said. “Have you ever before met a gently born woman who would prefer to marry a woodworker than a baron? And when denied the woodworker, she says she will marry the simple-minded fellow who only loves his horses?”
“I think she does not want to marry at all,” Mrs Edgerton said. “The woodworker and the simple man are both people over whom she has great control. The woodworker will have thenatural respect of his class for the aristocracy, so she will be able to dominate him easily — at least at first. And the simple fellow who is only interested in horses — she would have the mastery of him, too. But you, Lord Tarvin — that is another matter. A marriage of equals, a marriage of affection, arealmarriage — that she cannot stomach.”
“You say‘at first’,”Edward said. “You think, then, that would change?”
“All men expect to be master in their own house,” she said. “So long as there is mutual respect, and husband and wife keep to their own spheres and do not try to interfere with each other too much, all is well, but I do not think Miss Nicholson would be very good at keeping to her own sphere, do you? She would be constantly telling her husband what to do, and a woodworker, however much he loves her, will eventually push back against such interference. And then she would discover all the disadvantages of her situation.”
“It would be the same with Ulric Frith,” Edward said. “He appears biddable now since he has his horses and no disruptions in his life, but if Tess marries him… I do not know how he would react. This is precisely why I feel Tess would be better off marrying me — or anyone else of her own class, if she prefers.”
Captain Edgerton refilled his wine glass, and sipped thoughtfully. “Miss Nicholson’s marriage notwithstanding,” he said slowly, “ it seems to me that we are in an awkward position. Lord Tarvin can claim that he broke into the house on Miss Nicholson’s authority, and… well, he is a peer of the realm, no one is going to transport him for it. As for us, we observed a man climbing a tree and entering a house, so we were merely acting as concerned citizens in preventing a theft. I do not like to admit to breaking into a house, but we could argue our way out of that. But what do we do now? Let us assume for simplicity that these gold bars are, in fact, Miss Nicholson’s property. We have beencut loose by Lord Rennington, so we have no right to pursue any enquiries regarding the late Mr Nicholson. But equally, we have been given no authority to act for Miss Nicholson’s trustees, either, and her marriage is absolutely none of our concern. Yet those gold bars sit in the safe still, and I hold the key. The question is, what should I do with it? I cannot simply put it back, nor can I give it to the widow who lives in the house. Whether I give the key to Miss Nicholson’s trustees or to Lord Tarvin or to Miss Nicholson herself, then I am in effect making a decision on how Miss Nicholson may marry, which I have no wish to do. How do I solve this conundrum?”
For a while they argued back and forth, reaching no consensus. Edward worked his way steadily through his glass of brandy, and then refilled it, saying nothing.
After a while, he said, “There is a way to remove Tom Shapman from the board.”
“Hang him?” Sandy said.
Edward chuckled, but shook his head. “He is not going to hang. He has an alibi.”
His words caused outrage. Captain Edgerton seemed like a mild-mannered man, but now he grew so apoplectic with rage that Edward truly believed that if Shapman were in the room at that moment, he would be in serious danger of being throttled.
It was Neate who calmed down enough to ask the obvious question. “How do you know that, my lord?”
“He told me so when I talked to him in York Gaol. On the night of the murder, he was ten miles away at a place called Gowland’s Farm. He walked there the day before, stayed overnight, walked back the next morning. Any number of people will vouch for him.”
Edgerton’s eyes narrowed. “How convenient! Relations, perhaps?”
“Not yet. He is courting the poultry maid so—”
There was another outbreak of outrage.
