A Fine Caprice - A Regency Romance (12 page)

‘
You didn’t waste any time claiming our uncle’s bed,’ he had snapped, having found it occupied (and therefor unable to be claimed by him).

Cass had shrugged. ‘It was the mos
t tolerable one
in the house a
lthough I had to change the sheets.
Dear Uncle Abel
wasn’t too fastidious
about the
finer aspects of
housekeeping, apparently.
And I had not realized you were joining me, Hadley. Naturally, if I had known you were gracing me with your presence I would ha
ve consulted with you on the matter
.
’

Ravener had scowled
, although
this
was
inarguable
as he had
clearly
arrived
after
his cousin
. ‘Well I call it bad form
, sleeping in a dead man’s bed before he is even cold
.’

‘After two weeks,
I rather think Uncle Abel
will
be very cold indeed.’

Ravener had ground his teeth together. ‘You know what I mean!’

‘I’m afraid I don’t. Would you care to explain
?
Even allowing for your very natural… ah… grief
,
I find your attitude curious. Would sleeping in Uncle’s bed grant you some kind of spiritual union with him? I had not thought you so moribund.
’

‘
Don’t be ridiculous!
I
merely
mean
t that, as Uncle Abel
’s favorite, he would have wanted me to have his bedchamber.’

‘A delicious sentiment.
Personally I find the room
quite disagreeable, but then, that’s just me I suppose. What do you like about it the most? The view? The ambiance? I know you’re sensitive. Perhaps,’ Cass suggested softly, ‘it’s the fond memories. Tell you what; next time you c
ome for a visit
I’ll
find somewhere else to bunk down
.’

This was not at all what his cousin had in mind
but as Hadley
could hardly say
why
he
wanted his uncle’s room
so desperately, he was
forced to produce something to explain his annoyance.
Sensibly, he had opted for the most believable. ‘
Unnecessary as, after this I daresay I shall never set foot in the wretched place again. As you’ve already pointed out
… it is the most comfortable
mattress in the house
. You know I have a delicate back.’

‘I didn’t, actually. But you
do
have my sympathy.’
At his cousin’s arch look, he shook his head.
‘My sympathy.
Not
my bed.’

Now, before regaining the
bed
in question
, Cass turned the key in the lock. He was not convinced that
it would keep anybody out who might wish to get in
for Abbey Cross was
well known for its
secret passageways,
a relic fro
m its smuggling history where nocturnal business kept
people busy during the wee small hours
. B
ut he saw no point in making it easy for anybody who might wish to ensure he never enjoyed his inheritance.
He was
n
o
t
absolutely
convinced that anybody want
ed him dead but then, a
potential
victim probably never was so taking some basic steps to ensure his continued good health seemed a sensible idea
.
Especially when a sizeable chunk of stone had fallen from the casements the afternoon before when he had been walking below
in the gardens
. It had missed him by a good five feet but it was awfully hard to hit a moving target with a heavy object.
Ravener? He had been considering the possibility that his cousin had developed a murderous streak
. It s
eemed a bold move
but it very much depended on just how desperate Hadley was
and what it was that was making him so desperate
. He was not the type to indulge in overt violence but he would fight tooth and nail for his own survival, just like any rat
and if that meant resorting to murder then
perhaps he might step up to the mark
.

Not that
Cass was
particularly worried. He had always been a light sleeper
, especially if he needed to be
.
He just needed to remember to stay away from rooftops.

Climbing back into the bed he had so recently abandoned, he frowned up at the pane
lled wooden ceiling and pondered, once again, on
the arrival of Jem Morris
. Could it be anything more than chance that had brought the boy here?
Surely a youth with a face like that couldn’t be involved in whate
ver was going on at Abbey Cross?
Apart from his quite obvious surprise at finding himself where he was,
the lad didn’t look old enough to have been recruited by the
French or anybody else
and, despite the fact that Fenshaw had mentioned he had agents in the area, Cass was prepared to wager Jem Morris wasn’t one of them
.
He grinned at the thought.
If they were recruiting out of
the nursery
, perhaps.
Why, his face
had been as smooth as a
ny
females,
which meant that he wasn’t even shaving yet
, not even close to it
.
Master Morris couldn’t be
any older than fifteen
, surely
.
Just the same,
Cass re
solved to question him
more closely in the mo
rning and discover a little more
of his history
. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe the boy’s story. It was more that the longer he spent at Abbey Cross, the uneasier he became.

There is something
here, creeping among the bloody
shadows. If I had a grain of sense I’d ditch the whole business and head back to London and sanity.
Even Charlotte
’s social lunacy is preferable to this…

But Cass knew that he would do no such thing. Whatever was happening at Abbey Cross
, it was his responsibility to sort it out,
if only because he had inherited the damned place. If what Fenshaw said was true and his wretched uncle
was involved in some deuced shady business then it was
up to Cass to
discover what it was and
put an end to it. He would
not tolerate a close associate of a Merridew
selling information to the French. If that
really were
what Ravener was up to
he would learn
the error
of his ways very quickly
.
And if that
meant that Hadley
might swing for it… well, that was the price one paid for spying for a foreign government, his lordship reflected grimly
although he would do his best to ensure another outcome
.
His brother John was showing an interest in politics and had a career in mind while Perry, the youngest
of the Merridew
sibling
s
was still at Oxford.

Cass would not allow some unsavoury scandal to touch his family. The knowledge came as something of a revelation for he knew that he would do anything in his power to prevent it. Age and responsibility, it seemed, were catching up with him. Who would have thought it?

It was a great pity that his
own valet
had become ill for he was a useful man. Under normal circumstances i
t wouldn’t have mattered that Gregson was laid up
for Cass had not been planning on travel
ling
in the immediate future
and even if he were
, he could usual
ly manage for himself for a few days down at Tattersalls or Newmarket. But of course this wasn’t a few days
, he wasn’t enjoying a social outing among his friends and he was a little concerned about the company he was keeping
.
He might be stuck at Abbey Cross for weeks. Gregson had insisted that he would follow on as soon as he was well enough but Cass had vetoed the idea, knowing full well that his man would travel before he should, which would probably end up with the damned influenza
carrying the
silly fool
off. The absence of so trusted a servant had proved more difficult t
han Cass liked to admit
, although it
had nothing to do with dealing with his
morning
toilette himself. Gregson was e
x-i
nfantry and entirely dependable
and had always proved to be
a handy man to have around.
More than that; he had an excellent head on his shoulders. The two men had rattled along together for years and were more friends than master and servant.

He missed Gregson, no doubt about it. He missed having a
n extra pair of eyes…

Perhaps the arrival of young Master Morris might be an unlooked for blessing?

For a moment, Cass was gripped with unease
, for he did not want to put
young Jem Morris in danger.
It might
be safer for the lad
to continue on
to Steadman Hall in the morning.
But there was no escaping the fact that Cass needed more hands than he had. If nothing else, Jem could scout around a little and see if he could find anything in the grounds.
Better still, Cass would
set him to searching through the jumble for anything that mi
ght be relevant, if he could just explain
what relevant looked like but
, as he himself was in the dark
this seemed a singularly futile task. What he did
want to find were some of those
passageways. Not the more obvious ones that the entire
family knew about, but the one that was
rumou
red to lead down to the caves and
the beach that lay half a mile away.

‘I’ll have the boy hunt for those,’ he murmured, allowing himself to finally relax. ‘He can start tomorrow.’

An extra pair of eyes
was too invaluable to ignore
.
No… h
e’d talk to the lad in the morning
about staying on
.

Chapter Five

Caprice
woke early and lay for a few moments, trying to work out where she was. She had spent most of her one and twenty years waking up in the same bed and
had
found it strange to
discover herself in a different
place each morning since setting out from Tannith Meadow
.
She stretched beneath the covers and wondered if Aunt Leticia and the unlovely Mr. Hester had departed yet. If not, her poor mother would
surely
be going quite mad by now!

Caprice
sighed, feeling a sharp pang of guilt
for leaving her
parents to face such disagreeable guests alone. Not that her presences would help matters. There was that small matter of an engagement to a man she could not tolerate. If Mama and Papa had sent her aunt on her
way
as they should have then
Caprice
would still be home but as things stood, they had really left her no choice
but to flee
.

Turning her head, she looked towards the window
s
, wh
ich were
more or less covered by a pair
of drooping curtains. Light could be seen through the chinks and she wondered what time it actually was. She should
get up. Apparently she had been
– temporarily – employed by Lord Merrid
ew and servants began their day early. Remembering the scene the night before, s
he wondered
if she was mad to stay on
. Perhaps she should simply slip out of the hou
se, saddle up
Ulysses and leave the eccentric
Abbey Cross behind her.
In
daylight she would undoubtedly
be at St
eadman Hall before luncheon and
immersed in a hot bath shortly after.
It was an enticing prospect but her curiosit
y had been piqued by the odd
assembly the night before. She could not imagine what had brought three such unlikely people to such a
house as this.
Besides, Lord Merridew was… an i
nteresting man. Not that she was the sort to be
impressed by good looks or a comm
anding presence. But really,
he
was the first man she had ever met who made her intensely conscious of the fact that he
was
a man. She recalled the effortless way he had hauled her off the ground and gave a little shiver of excited apprehension, wondering how she would find him this morning.

‘However I find him
,
I certainl
y hope he explains what
is going on here,
’ she muttered, throwing the blankets aside.
He had mentioned needing another pair of eyes, which meant he was looking for something. Or did it? Really, it had been such an odd thing to say that it was pointless to speculate.
Best to wait and find out. And s
urely it couldn’t hurt to linger for a little while?
Where was the harm?
After all, there was no real hurry for her to reach Angelique, not when her friend was unaware that she was coming
to visit
.
Caprice
was a free agent who could more or less please herself as to her movements.
For the moment, anyway.
Having justified what must surely be one of her more rash decisions to her satisfaction, she prepared to face the day.

S
he shivered in the chilly air
and reached for her boots quickly
. Perhaps she could show her worth and make a fire downstai
rs. She was quite good at
fire
s although she suspected that the chimneys would be uncooperative
.
She had not seen a great deal of the house the night before, what with it being dar
k and everything, but i
t
had
all seemed in a very sorry state of repair.

Standing up, she went to fetch her coat, shaking it out before she slipped her arms in t
he sleeves. Glancing down, s
he grimaced at
her creased and grubby clothing although more and more
she was looking
pleasingly
authentic in her role as stableboy. There was no jug and bowl to wash her face
in the room
, so
she
removed the cha
ir from beneath the door handle and opened
it
,
stepping into the narrow hallway quietly.
For a moment,
Caprice
stood still and listened
, remembering her fancies the night before
but there was nothing to be heard. Even the wind and rain had stopped, leaving an almost uncomfortable silence in their wake.