Chapter Twelve
The next morning Harriett came downstairs to an uproar. Servants hung around the great hall, their jaws slack with shock as the constable bundled O’Hara out of the house.
Harriett joined her parents in the breakfast parlor. Her mother’s disjointed explanation faded away when Gerard appeared.
“Fancy it being O’Hara.” With remarkable calm, her father tucked into a kipper.
Her mother gasped. “And under our roof, all this time. We might have been murdered in our beds. You never can be sure of staff, and an Irishman to boot. I’m surprised Harrison took him on without suitable references. Do you know,” she said, her cup halfway to her mouth, “I’m still not sure why he killed Harrison, are you, Gerard?”
“He’s refused to say. But I believe robbery was the motive,” Gerard said, his eyes on Harriett. “Perhaps Harrison caught him pilfering, and O’Hara grew angry after he was fired. We’ll never know for sure.”
“And how did you discover it was O’Hara?” Her father asked.
“I’ve been carrying out surveillance for the constable. Wandering the grounds at night.”
“How very noble of you, Gerard,” her mother said. “I would have been overjoyed to know you were out there while we slept.”
Harriett met Gerard’s amused gaze. She pressed her lips together to stop herself from breaking into laughter.
After breakfast, she walked with him through the gardens.
“I have to go to London tomorrow.”
“Oh, well, perhaps we won’t see each other again,” she said as a pain clenched her heart.
“You will, Harry.”
They strolled, barely speaking, until they found themselves not far from the spot where Kyle and his lover had met. They hurried on, as if putting distance between them and that tainted memory. “What was O’Hara searching for? Was it the message you were to pass on?” she asked, as he helped her over the stile.
“No, not that.”
Ahead, the river wound away into the distance, through a band of poplars.
Gerard pulled off his coat and lay it down on the grass. “Shall we sit?”
She joined him amongst the daisies and cowslips. An inquisitive cow lumbered over to the fence to stare at them, as Harriett tucked her feet up under her dress.
He leaned back on his elbows and spread his long legs out over the grass. “Harrison had a list of British spies operating in the area. O’Hara would have been instructed to get hold of it.”
“Why would he stoop so low as to spy for the French?”
Gerard shrugged. “He had no loyalty to King George or the Regency. I found a uniform in his bedchamber. It was green with a yellow collar and cuffs. That was the uniform of theLegion Irlandaise.”
“Who are they? I’ve not heard of them.”
“The legion was put together by Napoleon. It was made up of disgruntled Irishmen who had a hatred for Britain. A motley group, they fought in a number of Napoleon’s campaigns. I imagine some of them became spies for France. Including O’Hara.” He widened his blue eyes. “Harry, how did you know that he would come to the library? There was nothing on the desk of importance.” Harriett’s cheeks grew hot. “I didn’t. It was purely a guess.”
“Then why did you bring me there?”
“I…I planned to seduce you.”
Gerard’s eyes widened. He gave a slow grin, his eyes on her mouth. “Seduce me?” He leaned over and cupped her chin in his big hand, searching her eyes. “A well brought up lady like you?” His lips briefly touched hers. “Have I corrupted you, Harry?”
Harriett bit her lip. “Your interest lay with Leonora. And I wanted to have a memory of you I could cherish.”
“I’m to marry Leonora, am I?” The look in his eyes made her tremble. He purposefully untied her bonnet strings and threw her straw hat onto the grass without a care to its preservation. “What made you think that?” His eyes looked a deeper blue than the sky as they searched hers.
Harriett swallowed. “You paid her a lot of attention.”
