A Murderous Masquerade (22 page)

Giles couldn’t help laughing. This was the most bizarre conversation he could have ever imagined having on the morning of his own execution. He looked at Nate again and laughed even louder as the man’s nose appeared to elongate and dip over his mouth and into the porridge. Giles shook his head and gawped as Nate’s eyes bulged suddenly. Giles leaned towards him.

“Are you alright. You’re not choking are you?”

Nate glanced over at him.

“Nah, I’m fine. Just enjoying a breakfast. Could ‘ave done with ‘unny or preserves, but food is food. You sure you don’t want a mouthful, you know, just to keep your strength up while we’re waiting.”

Giles shook his head.

“No, you enjoy it while it’s still warm. You have a hard day’s work in front of you, unlike me, though if I tell you the truth, I feel as strong as an ox.” He puffed out his chest. He really did feel strength surging through him. He strode around the room several times before he noticed that Nate had put the spoon down and was staring at him strangely. Giles stopped dead and stared back at Nate. The man’s skin on his face looked as though it was melting. Giles staggered back against the wall, but now when he looked Nate appeared perfectly normal. It must have been a trick of the light.

The guard watched him suspiciously.

“What’s wrong with ye? You’ve gone as pale as a ghost.” Nate stood up from the bench and peered up at Giles.

Giles’s eyes opened wide in horror as Nate’s face bulged below his jaw-line, the skin blowing out as though the man had turned into a huge bullfrog. Nate let out a great croak and continued croaking at him until the door of the cell suddenly opened again and Gates marched in followed by two other guards. Giles spun towards Gates, relieved to see that he looked perfectly normal. Nate came up to his side and Giles did a double take. The man looked perfectly normal again too.
What the devil was going on?

He ran a hand over his now perspiring face but didn’t speak. His tongue suddenly felt as though it was too large for his mouth. Another belch came out and this time Gates staggered back.

“Bloody hell! You smell as though your guts are rotting already!” He wafted his handkerchief in front of his face.

Giles stared down at the little man who appeared to be shrinking even further with every second that passed. My goodness! Charlotte’s potion had made him grow...had turned him into a giant. His shoulders were widening, becoming huge. If they didn’t take him out of the cell soon he wouldn’t fit through the door. A great guffaw spilled forth at the thought.

Gates stared up at him and Giles waggled his finger under the shrinking man’s nose.

“You’re too small to hang me. You’ve made the scaffold the wrong size. I am a giant amongst men!” He hunched over as his shoulders threatened to hit the walls and sniggered into his coat sleeve as if the whole affair was a great joke.

Nate shrugged his shoulders as Gates looked on in surprise.

“He’s been a bit odd right since I came in. We should get it over and done with before the poor sod turns completely mad. Some of ‘em don’t like the confined space. Seen it lots of times when I was at sea. Some of the crew ‘ad to be out on the deck whatever the weather. The walls pressed in on them, they said.”

Gates nodded at Nate, an obvious font of wisdom.

“It’s nearly seven anyway. Probably best to get him strung up before the crowd arrives for the main event.” He referred to the other poor souls whose lives were to end that day. He cast his eyes over the now chuckling Giles who appeared to be fascinated by the light coming in at the window. Gates scratched under his wig as Giles raised his hands and twisted them in the beam of light. “Looks as though that could be a good idea.” He paused again. Giles had stopped all movements of his hands and was now talking to the brickwork. Gates gave himself a shake. “Make sure he’s tied up good and tight. He’s gone off his rocker alright. Don’t want him trying to make any sort of escape...You know that the Duke’s man has arrived to take the body? He’s waiting below as we speak. The doctor has arrived too. Make sure that he signs the death warrant before he leaves.” He gave Giles a last look up and down and then left the room to take his place by the scaffold.

Anne closed her eyes as the sun broke over the landscape. She placed her hands over her stomach and wept uncontrollably. For Giles to be wrongly accused was more than enough but for him to lose his life over her own father’s and brother’s greed and stupidity over their own finances was just too much for her to take in. She wondered if her father would be gloating at the scaffold as she stood there weeping over the only man she had ever loved.

The only thought that kept her upright was that her baby might be a boy and therefore the rightful heir to the Caithwell estate. Anne was relieved when Alexander informed her that he wasn’t leaving anything to chance. He had already given the marriage certificate to his solicitor for safe keeping. Carter had made an entry into his files proclaiming sight of the certificate. It was as much as they could do to safeguard Caithwell.

Charlotte came up beside her and held her gently. Giles’ cousin cried tears of her own, but Anne was relived to discover that the young woman wasn’t resentful of her own relationship with Giles’ murderers.

Murderers!
That’s what her father and brother had become. Fury began to work its way through her body. She narrowed her eyes. She would see that justice was done. She had to. There was no way that she could let the pair of them get away with this travesty.

Charlotte broke her desperate thoughts by kissing her on the cheek. The woman smiled gently at her through her tears.

“Don’t lose hope Anne. He has one last chance, if he dared to take it.”

Anne turned to her curiously.

“What do you mean? It is already too late. The clock just chimed seven. He is lost to me forever.” Her words came out in a choked keen, such was the pain that seared her heart.

Charlotte gave a tender, if watery smile.

“I want him to be taken to Caithwell. The family vault is there. Will you come with me?”

Anne’s eyebrows dipped slightly. She had assumed that Giles’ body would be buried either at White Briars or in the tiny cemetery at Ormond.

“Why there? He had barely taken up residence.”

Charlotte gave Anne a gentle squeeze.

“Trust me, please. The family vault at Caithwell is the only place that he will rest peacefully and, well I already asked Geoffrey. He has agreed to take him there directly after the...the, well, just after.”

Alexander suddenly strode into the room. He glanced between the two women before speaking directly to Anne. It was clear that he had heard at least part of their conversation.

“Yes, do as Charlotte suggests. Go to Caithwell. As the expectant wife of the rightful Lord, your residence is of paramount importance. Until the babe is born you have the right to remain in your husband’s home. Only if the child is a girl can you be forced from the estate by the next rightful heir. I have checked the situation with Carter and he assures me that Caithwell is yours until that date. I suggest that you leave here immediately. I don’t suspect it will be long before your father and brother attempt to stake their claim. It would be advantageous for you to already be in residence. Callum and Craddock will accompany you both and Geoffrey will remain there with you until your claim can be certified with the necessary people. I would come too but I cannot possibly leave Lily and she is unable to make the journey herself, what with possibly having only days to go before our child is born.”

Anne’s eyes had widened. She dashed the tears away from her eyes with the back of her hand, gathered her nightdress around her and made for the door.

“You are right. I hadn’t even considered it. We must make haste before anyone else thinks that they have a claim before us. Charlotte, Sarah will help you pack your trunks. We are going home.”

Geoffrey drove the horses towards Oakley. He could only hope that Charlotte knew what she was about because he could see some serious flaws in her plan. Her instructions had been clear enough, but he wasn’t sure if he could do as she asked. He didn’t know why he had agreed. It must have been something to do with the way she had come to ask him the favour.

His mouth had fallen open at the sight of her as she ran across the cobbled stable yard just a few hours previously and he had quickly forced himself to turn his back. Dressed in a pair of men’s breeches and a loose fitting lawn shirt, she had stunned him into submission with her deliciously outlined curves and luscious glimpse of her cleavage as she professed to want to exercise Lightning.

Pretending to muck out the already spotless stables had seemed like a good plan until she climbed up on one of the rails between the stalls and sat astride the wooden partition as she outlined her idea of escape for Giles. It wasn’t until he had been nodding enthusiastically that he realized he was trapped and could not now deny her.

He’d been partly furious because it was a completely mad plan that could see him gaoled himself, and partly because even though she was only seventeen, his traitorous body just wouldn’t listen to his head. She was too young. Way too young, even though he knew that some maidens married at sixteen. And she was the daughter of a Lord. He said it over and over in his head as he tossed the fresh hay about the stall, just to convince himself that she was so far out of his reach as to be similar to wanting gold to appear out of the air.

However, she had insisted that her plan would work if he could hold up his end of the bargain and the truth of it was that he just couldn’t deny her sparkling blue eyes as they pleaded with him to save her cousin. He’d sent her off with a gruff agreement and a sharp word about her apparel. He may not be her guardian but he would be damned if he was going to let her go out in public dressed like that. The thought of another man even laying his eyes upon her shapely form sent him into a raging lather.

He whipped up the horses. There was a definite lightening of the sky and he needed to be in place well before the execution. That was if he was allowed in the area when the hanging happened at all. He hoped that his position as Alexander’s friend would sway any opposition that he might encounter.

He had a strange relationship with the nobility of the town. He was one of Alexander, Duke of Ormond’s closest friends, but he was also Alexander’s steward, stable man and general all round helper. Where Alexander and Lily as well as Giles and Anne treated him as one of the family and the Ormond staff deferred to his fortunate position, the general populace of Oakley certainly did not.

They didn’t overtly ignore him and they were never outwardly rude, but there was always a slight distance. If he walked into the Bear and Dragon, a sudden silence came over the bar. Men stopped talking to their neighbours and looked down at their ale and the women leaned forwards a few more inches as though he might have more coin to spend than the usual type of customer.

As he passed into the square, he raised his hand to Davies, a man his father had known and liked even though he held the role of executioner in the town. Davies returned the salute and stepped down from the scaffold to meet him.

“Gates said you was coming for the body. Poor sod has had it unlucky. That bloody Earl Lavender? Whatever he’s called, he’s been extremely friendly with a lot of people recently. Strange for someone who comes from so far away? Been a lot of gentry here-a-bouts these last couple of weeks. Odd how they was all called to give evidence at the trial.” He scratched his bald head. “Your Duke’s chum has been had over if you ask me.”

Geoffrey glanced up at the platform that stood high above him and shuddered. At least Alexander had been granted that small boon. Giles would drop through the platform into a small room below and not suffer the indignity of the actual hanging being in public, though the initial drop would be.

Geoffrey rubbed his forehead and blew out a frustrated breath. He couldn’t understand how things had come to this. He wanted to shout from the rooftops that Giles was innocent, but he knew that it wouldn’t change a thing.

“I don’t know anything about who gave evidence at the trial. All I know is that this is all wrong, but there’s nothing I can do about it. The Duke gave me instructions to bring the body away from here as soon as the doctor pronounces life extinct. I was going to get the carriage backed up to the door, if you don’t mind. I don’t want to be hanging around after it’s done. Alexander was quite adamant that Caithwell shouldn’t be the subject of any undignified behaviour.”

Davies nodded in agreement.

“Yes, the poor sod don’t deserve any rough treatment, not that any of the folks here would do that anyway. He was well liked here-a-bouts. Most folks feel right sorry for him and Lady Anne. She’s a good sort and always has been. Everyone thought they made a handsome couple and after the announcement at the ball, well, it seems like a crying shame, what with it being her family an’ all. I ‘spect she don’t know who to believe...” He signalled with his thumb over his shoulder. “The doctor is already in there. He wants to get it over and done with too. The sooner it’s all over, the better if you asks me.” He swivelled quickly as the gaol doors banged open and a slightly unsteady Giles was prodded towards the steps of the scaffold.