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“You are still a single man, calling on a single woman, however well guarded and chaperoned. If known, that very gossip will assume a tawdry liaison.”

“This is why we are talking. She is a widow, a Baroness, and is on her own. There will always be talk. It is the reason I have ridden out to her estate.”

“Let me put you on the spot. Do you hope for a betrothal?”

“Yes. It is why I asked her to be my guest at the wedding. Given her situation, it will be complicated, but this is a marker in the sand. I am allowing her the opportunity to move whatever we have forward towards a courtship. Or to take a step back. I know that I have to be patient. She has independence, the freedom that few women enjoy. And that is before dealing with whatever complicated arrangement the Baron left in his will.”

The Earl nodded in agreement with that.

“Are you going to tell your brother?”

“Not at present. He has an unconstrained tongue, and if he says the wrong thing it will be worse than a punch this time.”

He refused to be drawn on what he meant. But Richard had not forgotten the words of his older brother.

Although he did look forward to observing the look on Darcy’s face when finally told the news.

Chapter 30

Thomas Jones had stood sentry many times in his youth when a private. As he was promoted, with each promotion came more responsibility. Many a night he would silently approach the sentry positions to ensure that the sentries were awake and alert. At times the men were more afraid of him than they were of the enemy. He was now one-armed, no longer in the Army, but then so were the rest of his men. They were all alert and armed with rifles rather than muskets. And not just one rifle, every man had a second loaded rifle beside them. With only one arm there had been adjustments, but just because they were no longer in the Army, and instead worked for Lady Napier, did not mean they were without pride and discipline. Jones and the other five guards were at strategic points round Napier Hall. The estate’s two gamekeepers had spotted the two thieves more than a mile from the Hall, when they first crept onto Napier land. One returned to alert the guards, the other shadowed the two men. At half a mile from the Hall they had melted away into the night, well out of the firing line. They would return when the shooting was over.

“Any sign yet?”

Jones’ words were nothing more than a murmur on the wind.

“Twenty paces to the left of the gate, there is a man in the hedge carefully checking out the Hall.”

Jones watched the stretch of hedge and it was more than two minutes later that he saw a slight movement.

“Well spotted.”

“I reckon he has poached in the past.”

It was likely.

There were two obvious routes to sneak up on Napier Hall. The only two stretches where the grounds had hedges behind which to hide. The rest of the approaches, the gardens and the fields were too open, it was almost certain that the two men, if they were up to no good, would approach from one of those two directions. And sneaking about in the middle of the night? That was as good as a written confession that they were up to mischief.

“I see the second one.”

They watched for several more minutes.

“One is better than the other, waiting for clouds to cover the moon.”

Over the next 20 minutes the two men approached to within 100 yards of the Hall. There were three guards protecting each of the two obvious routes. All three of them were standing still, just as they had when serving King and Country. The best shot of the whole squad was one of the two with Jones, his rifle aimed at the second of the men, the one trailing behind. Jones murmured at him.

“At this distance how accurate are you?”

“If I aim at the shoulder or the top of his arm, I will get him there eight times out of ten, the ninth will miss and the tenth will kill him.”

“Take the shot.”

John Taunton, his name a giveaway that he had been raised in an orphanage and nicknamed by the men ‘Cider’, did not hesitate. His rifle was propped up and he aimed and fired. The bullet hit the outside of the man’s shoulder and spun him around.

“Fire.”

Jones bellowed, his deep voice heard all over the estate. He did not think there were any other men approaching but if there were, the guards would take the shot. The command to fire was still echoing in the air but the second man was already dead. Matthews was the third man with them and had taken the shot as soon as Jones shouted the order. He had no qualms about killing the man. The wounded man was grabbing his shoulder and crying out as Jones approached him carefully. The pistol in his belt was still there and Jones pulled it free and threw it behind him.

“Mathews, check on the other one. It looks like you plugged him. If he is dead, head down the drive and bring the two gamekeepers back to the Hall.”