His third morning back in town he left his chambers to go claim his horse in the stable in the nearby mews. As he approached the stable a tall, young, blond man blocked his path. He looked the fellow over.
“I know you,” he said, searching his mind. “You are one of the grooms at Whiteford House.”
“Was one, for a few days.”
“Have you taken employment here?”
He shook his head. “I’m to give you a message from my mum. She said to meet her in Portman Square today at three o’clock. She wants to talk to you.”
“Who is your mother?”
“She is Miss Hepplewhite’s housekeeper.”
He meant Beth. This was Beth’s son. “I will be there.”
The young man slipped down the mews and seemed to disappear. Chase went into the stable to get his horse. This fellow had been another one of Minerva’s sets of eyes in Whiteford House during the house party. He wondered how many there had been.
* * *
He found Beth strolling along the park’s perimeter. He recognized the big cap with its deep brim even before he saw how her stout form fit his memories. He swung off his horse and approached her.
She looked around. “I guess we can talk here. Not too many others about right now.”
They walked a few minutes in silence.
“I’m of two minds about this,” she finally said. “Minerva came home in a state I have not seen in years. She blames herself. I blame you.”
“I accept the blame.”
“Do you now? Won’t do much good, will it?” She walked on, her steps heavy plods on the path. “That husband of hers ruined her. She didn’t tell you that, did she?”
“She told me some of it.”
“He was a brute. He got cruel when he drank and he drank a lot. I only stayed in his service because of my boy. Not many houses will let you have a young boy with you.”
He reached out and touched Beth’s arm so she stopped walking. He looked down at her. “A brute, you said. He hit her?”
“Hit her? Hebeat her. He brought this innocent girl home as his wife and for two months or so it was normal, but then—” She lifted a corner of her apron and dried her eyes.
Innocent, and all but orphaned. No family to turn to. Finley went looking for a victim. That is why he chose her.
“She blamed herself. She tried to please him. She became quiet and fearful, shrinking away like a dog that’s been kicked. Nothing would stop him though. I would go to her and find her all bruised, weeping. Then one day she stopped crying, like that part of her had died. She told me she believed he liked to see her crying and pleading. That he enjoyed it, and she would not give him that satisfaction. He only got worse after that, but she didn’t seem to care.”
His mind recoiled at what she described. His jaw clenched so hard he couldn’t speak. If Finley were not already dead, he’d—
“She grew up fast,” Beth said. “It changed her, not all to the good. Then the miracle happened.”
“Miracle?”
“One night when we were in London—he rarely brought her up here, and even then never let her go out. We were up here and he got drunk and took after her. I feared he would kill her. The next day, after he’d left the house, a boy come to it, asking for the woman of the house. She was in no condition to be seen, but she went to the threshold and this boy hands her a box, then left. It contained money. Gold coins. We neither of us could imagine who sent it. We waited for someone to arrive and say there’d been a mistake, but no one ever did. If that weren’t a miracle I don’t know what one is.”
“And so she left?”
“As did I and my boy, as soon as we returned to Dorset. We lived in one chamber together at first, while she found a way to get a separation. She bought a pistol and learned how to use it and took it everywhere, even to bed, in case he tried to come and get her and force her back. Fortunately he died soon after he was made to agree to her living apart, so she was safe then.
“I thought you should hear some of this,” Beth said. “She told me some of what happened with you. She doesn’t trust men much anymore. Especially ones that can hurt her. She is better off left alone by such as you.”
Beth’s expression turned belligerent when she warned him off. He could hardly blame her. He could hurt Minerva with this inquiry. He had broken into her house to see if he could, hadn’t he?
