Chasing Eliza (29 page)

She
wondered if the even the War Office was big enough to bring the man
down.

“
It may be enough to mean you don’t have to go after Scraggan
yourself.” Eliza whispered, hoping he would announce he was staying
despite knowing it was a futile wish.

There
was a glint of determination in his eyes that she had never seen
before. Her warrior; and she did now consider him hers; was
preparing for battle and she didn’t think anything could prevent
him from going.

Edward
stared at her for several moments, a look of regret on his face.
“You know I can’t simply stay here and do nothing. Peter is
determined to go and shouldn’t in all conscience, go on his own.
His a bit of an enigma at the moment, nobody knows what he is going
to do. It is almost as though he is too quiet. It could make him
reckless.”

Eliza’s
heart sank. Sebastian and Dominic couldn’t go. Isobel was due to
deliver any day and although Amelia wasn’t as far along, the worry
of having Sebastian heading off to fight murderous smugglers was
the last thing she needed. That inevitably left Edward as the only
able bodied man available to accompany Peter.

“
There is a possibility that you may not find Scraggan as
easily as you think you can, or that you can bring him to justice
at all.” She raised a hand when she sensed his objection. She
didn’t want to offend him but had to be honest. “I don’t mean to
insult you, but my father wasn’t a reckless man but when he left
for the War Office he had heavily armed outriders for protection.
Despite that, Scraggan and his men caught and murdered them.
Scraggan has found both Jemima and me where Peter couldn’t, and has
followed all of us up and down this country like a dog after a
bone. There is nowhere we have been, where he or his men haven’t
turned up eventually.” Her eyes met and held his solemnly. “If
there is one thing I have learnt from all of this, it is that life
is temporary. One moment everything can seem to be going well, and
then it can all be torn apart so very easily; there are no
guarantees about anything and unfortunately that has to include
bringing Scraggan to justice.”

“
There are no guarantees in anything in life Eliza. Even
successful people like Scraggan can have things topple far easier
than they expected.”

Eliza
knew they could keep going around and around in circles in a futile
attempt to reach a conclusion.

“
We have to make the most of what we have, while we have it.”
His soft declaration was accompanied by his searching look as
silence settled about them for several moments.

Everything within her froze and waited for his next words. A
declaration, one small sign of affection. Anything. She was left
feeling strangely deflated as the moment passed.

“
I think I have a definite way to get your sister’s name
cleared.” He glanced cautiously at her for several moments before
rising to stand before the fireplace, one booted foot resting on
the fender in a casual pose.

Instinctively she knew he was anything but relaxed. She could
feel the tension practically humming through him as she waited for
his next words. They weren’t what she expected.

“
Both you and Jemima have been carrying state secrets. By
keeping them with you for as long as you have, both of you have
inevitably kept them out of Scraggan’s possession. There is enough
information now to bring down his smuggling operation and close the
door on the French spies he is bringing into the country. Without
even knowing it, you have been protecting the security of the
entire country for several months. I think the War Office owe both
you and Jemima a considerable amount, not least a pardon for
Jemima. Dominic has already started bringing Sir Dunnicliffe up to
date with the latest events.”

“
Sir Dunnicliffe?”

“
The man from the War Office.” Edward replied flatly, feeling
a wave of annoyance for the official representative. “He arrived a
few minutes ago.”

“
What took him so long to get here?” Eliza asked with a
frown.

“
He got held up somewhere apparently, something about state
business.” He smiled ruefully at her. “I think it is probably
better that we don’t know.”

Eliza
nodded not understanding but realising it was a mute point now. “A
pardon for Jemima would be wonderful, but it is far too late. It
can never replace her.”

“
I know.” Edward murmured, returning to sit beside her. “But
she can at least rest in peace with her name cleared.”

“
I think I should like you to stay while I read Jemima’s
letter, if you wouldn’t mind?”

“
Read on.” Edward replied, settling back against the chaise to
wait.

Chapter
Twelve

“
Are you
alright?” He asked several moments later as she sat staring blankly
at the fire, the unopened letter still held in her hand.

Eliza
snapped out of her daze and studied the familiar scrawl on the
parchment. It was full of bravery, encouragement and love,
encouraging Eliza to go into the future with the expectation of
happiness. She shouldn’t look back with regrets or think of Jemima
or Papa with any regret or bitterness in her heart. To do so would
mean she was no better than Scraggan. Typical for Jemima, even in
death she was trying to tell Eliza what to do.

Eliza
shook her head ruefully and glanced at Edward.

“
She was set up by Scraggan.”

“
That doesn’t surprise me. Has she told you what
happened?”

She
glanced down at the letter for several moments. “Rogan sent her a
message saying that they had kidnapped me. They gave her a meeting
place to be at if she wanted to see me alive again. Apparently she
sent me a note, asking me to meet her but I didn’t arrive.” She
hiccupped. “I didn’t get the note Edward.”

“
So Eliza went to the meeting place thinking she could barter
what she had for you.”

Eliza
nodded slowly. “When she arrived there were five other men there,
but no Rogan. A carriage had already been stopped and the occupants
killed. Someone appeared behind her and gave her a small bag of
coins. She took it off them without thinking; she says she couldn’t
really see what it was and the man disappeared into the trees
before she could say anything. Then everything was thrown into
confusion as they were suddenly arrested. She was arrested for
killing the man she was standing over, and stealing the pouch of
coins she held.” She turned luminous amber eyes to Edward, not
attempting to hide her anger.

“
They set her up.”

“
Although there is little we can do to bring her back, with
the letter giving us her version of events. The information she has
left us gives us more than enough to clear her name.”

“
We can try.” Eliza murmured softly, refusing to allow her
emotions to be raised in hope.

“
The sooner we can bring Scraggan to justice, the quicker
peace will settle on all of us.” He murmured softly, picking up her
hand and holding it carefully in lieu of drawing her into his
arms.

She was
still staring down at the letter in her hand, a thoughtful frown on
her face. Briefly he wondered what else the letter contained but
accepted that it was private to her and she would tell him in her
own time, if she considered he needed to know.

“
Here.” She murmured, handing him the parchment.

“
Are you sure?” He replied, taking it from her
cautiously.

He was
about to unfold the paper when a loud, high-pitched scream broke
the silence.

“
What the hell?” Grabbing her wrist in his, he clutched the
parchment in his hand and ran from the room, dragging her close
behind.

At the
far end of the long corridor he saw Dominic and Sebastian running
towards them and together they all ran towards the back of the
house and the origin of the screams.

“
Do you know who it is?” Dominic snapped, slamming the door to
the servants area open with a bang.

“
It sounds like it is coming from the kitchens.” Eliza gasped,
trying to ease her arm out of Edward’s relentless grip.

The
screams continued, only broken by the person attempting to take a
breath.

“
Sir, quickly!” A shocked maid gasped from the doorway before
she disappeared back into the kitchens.

Within
moments they were all standing at the end of the long servant’s
corridor that spanned the length of the house. A middle aged woman
with wild eyes stood at the far end, staring into one of the rooms;
her hands clutching her wild mass of hair.

“
What is it woman?” Dominic snapped, striding towards her, a
frown of concern on his face. He knew instinctively which room the
woman was looking at and wondered why nobody had told her there was
a body in the room.

“
For God’s sakes will you shut up?” Dominic growled; his voice
practically a shout when the woman continued to wail.

It was
enough to snap the woman out of her horrified trance and she turned
glazed eyes on the master before crossing herself and pushing past
him. She began to scream as she ran down the corridor.

Edward
barely had the time to pull Eliza out of the way before the
horrified woman brushed past them and continued to run straight out
of the house. Eliza glanced out of the window and watched her run
across the gardens as though the hounds of hell were on her heels,
crossing herself as she went.

Dominic
shouted for Manvers, giving him orders to catch the woman before
she got to the village and ensure she was alright.

“
What is it? What did she see?” Eliza asked, as startled as
everyone at the maid’s strange behaviour.

Dominic
studied the room carefully. The window remained locked and bolted
to the outside world. The solitary table – the one item of
furniture in the room – still contained one unmoving body. There
was nobody else in the room and nothing untoward that could startle
the maid to run for her very life in such a way.

Surmising that she had clearly not been told there was a dead
body in the house and was horrified at the sight that had met her,
Dominic made a mental note to speak to Manvers once Eliza was out
of the way before closing the door to the makeshift
morgue.

He made
eye contact with Edward who immediately tried to steer Eliza back
towards the main body of the house only to find that Eliza was
having none of it. She had seen the studied look pass between the
men and knew in her gut that it was the same room she had seen
Jemima in. Staring at Dominic defiantly, she made to move past him
to see for herself only to find his hands on her shoulders,
stopping her progress towards the room at the end of the
corridor.

“
She saw Jemima, didn’t she?” Eliza asked quietly, pulling
away from him and brushing aside his hands.

“
Eliza, please don’t.” Edward moved past Dominic and caught
hold of her elbow but nothing was going to stop Eliza from seeing
for herself. She didn’t know what drove her to see her sister.
Hours later she would wonder what had possessed her to be so
determined, but at that moment wild horses couldn’t have stopped
her.

She
paused in front of the door and slowly turned the knob, watching as
the heavy wood swung inwards silently.

Everything within her froze as she studied the empty body of
her sister lying on the solitary table. Even from the corridor,
Eliza could tell the room was absolutely freezing. Jemima had been
covered over with a blanket, preventing Eliza from seeing her face.
Although she wanted to see Jemima just one last time, she simply
couldn’t bring herself to walk into the room. Her feet felt as
though they were frozen to the floor.

She was
vaguely aware of Edward appearing at her side, breaking her line of
vision briefly as he closed the door. She made no further protest
as he gently guided her out of the corridor and into the main part
of the house. Dutifully she accepted the glass of brandy he pressed
into her hand and didn’t object when he picked her hand up in his
large, warm ones and began to rub her chilled fingers.

It was
several moments before she could form any words and turned towards
Edward, unshed tears shimmering in her eyes.

“
I should like to be alone for a while, if you don’t mind.”
She gently eased her hands out of his.

“
I don’t think this is the time for you to be alone darling.”
Edward protested, feeling ridiculously useless to help her in her
grief.

During
their first few days together he had done everything possible to
help her remain out of Scraggan’s clutches. He was used to wielding
a sword or a gun, not sitting around patting hands and giving her a
shoulder to cry on.

“
I’m alright. I will just never get used to seeing her dead.”
Eliza murmured, knowing the statement was silly but couldn’t find
the words to fully express how she felt.

“
I know. It is an ordeal you should be spared as much as
possible.” Edward replied, understanding her confusion
completely.

Carefully he eased his arm around her shoulders and pulled
her gently to his side, relieved when she didn’t protest but
silently slumped against him, willing to absorb his strength for
now.