Light to Valhalla (40 page)

Mott
’s eyes widened
in alarm
.

“
My cousin, Sidney Harris, and I
were able to retrieve her
unharmed and with my coffers intact,” he quickly assured
.
“Unfortunately I have reason to believe
a very important man may have
hired the fiends
.
General Witherspoon.
”

Mott’s brow shot up
.
“Do you have any proof?”

“
None,
and I’d ask that you keep my suspicions between us.
”

“Of course.”

“
However, if we
locate and arrest Steven Johnston
, one of the men who took my wife, he can tell us exactly who hired him.”

Mott spread his palms
.
“I’ll do what I can, Lord
Coverstone
.
If Johnston is taken into custody I’ll send for you straight away
.
I’ll keep an ear to the ground as well
.
Matters such as these have a way of circulating through the criminal community
.
A few of my contacts may recall someone looking to hire for a job a few weeks ago.”

“My thanks.
”
Alex rose, exchanged a few more pleasantries and took his leave
, setting off to the tailor.

After the events of last night Alex took great care
in avoiding eye contact with anyone as he maneuvered the streets of downtown London
.
Granted it was entirely plausible that no one recognized him dressed in the plain brown jacket and tan trousers he’d scrounged out of a trunk that morning
.
He looked
far more like a working class businessman than a marquis and that suited his purpose just fine
.

At long last he arrived at his final destination, looked up the mountain of granite steps and sighed
.

Home
.

He passed his barouche off to a waiting stable boy and
strode up the freshly swept steps of
Coverstone
House
wanting nothing more than to go to the cabinet in his father’s study and locate t
he secret compartment hiding that smooth
aged whiskey
.
The stack of papers littering his desk glowed in his mind’s eye
.
By Christ being a Marquis cam
e with an inane amount of paper
work
.
He should probably
grant Mr. Simmons an audience
.
The poor man had called
three… times…

Alex hesitated on the last step
.
Is that shouting? 
His hand fell to the doorknob
.
Definitely shouting
.
Internally he groaned
.
What
calamity
had
the fates seen fit to drop at his feet this afternoon
.
Steeling himself
for
what was sure to be
disaster
,
he
shoved through the front door
, and instantly wished he’d never bothered coming home
.

Utter chaos
stabbed him
in the face
.
A crush of servants
clogged the entryway, some whispering, most staring at the commotion in the middle of the hall
.

“This is absolute ludicrous,” his mother’s shriek reverberated off the walls
.
“Get that urchin out of my sight.”

“Now, see ‘ere, milady
? 
I’m only
followin
’ Lord
Mancroft’s
instructions
.
If
ye
’ve
got a problem with all this
take it up with ‘
im
.”

Lord
Mancroft
? 
What business cou
ld the grisly earl have at
Coverstone
House
? 
Alex
waded through the
throng of servants to feast his gaze upon two strangers in working class clothes, Hastings, his mother, and Charley clustered in the
middle of the entrance hall
.
By all accounts the confrontation appeared
cataclysmic.

“Quiet everyone,” he roared above the continued shouts
.
“Explain what this is about immediately.”

Every eye fell to him, and t
he room sucked in a collective breath
.
Dead
silence
fell over the hall
.
Somewhere in the crowd a coin or perhaps a button clinked onto the marble floor
, but no one moved to retrieve it
.

Charley turned to him,
eyes filled with such accusation and
bitterness
Alex took an abrupt step back
.
Holy Christ, I’m in trouble.

“Charley, what
’s
going on
?”

Pure ice poured from her gaze as s
he reached behind her, coaxing a half pint child no older than three from behind the curtain of her
sage
skirts
.

“Your son.”

Thirteen

Alex recoiled
with the force of a
slingshot
band
.
“Err—
sh
… No.
”
He
thrust
out an
arm as though
the act could propel her words back down her throat and out of existence
.
“Impossible.
”

“Is it?
”
Charley cocked her head to the side
in the calculating manner of one holding all the cards
.
“
Jack here is two
.
Does that ring a
ny
bell
s
?
”

Alex
swallowed,
hard
,
dread sinking like mercury deeper and deeper in his middle
.
“Should it?”

“Perhaps the name of his mother
will jog your memory.
”
She paused with
excruciating
effect
,
her
face frighteningly placid
.
“Bernadette
.
Barcelona.”

The blood drained from his body
,
leaving him cold and tingling to
the tips of his
finger
s
.
He looked from Charley’s unyielding face to the child standing before her
.
“T-two you said?
”
Corn silk
blonde
hair glared up at him
, a total contrast to Alex’
s dark locks
, but he’d been a toe head as a boy, and..
.
No.

No
.
No
.
No
.

It just couldn’
t be
.
Alex
was painfully careful, and
Bernad
e
tte
would have told him if they’d had a son
.
Wouldn’t she? 
He stumbled forward, desperate for proof that his denials were not in vain
.
Jack
turned his chubby face
up and Alex froze midstride
.

Oh, dear God…
his eyes
.

Alex crashed
to his knees before the child,
searching the frightened little
face
.
There was no mist
aking the intensely hued blue—bright as the ocean and deep as the midnight sky
.
By the saints
,
Al
ex found himself staring into the
mirror
image
of
…
himself.

“What the hell is going on?” he rasped, unable to tear his gaze from the boy
.

“These men
brought Jack by while y
ou were out,” Charley supplied
.
“
He is the ward—
excuse
me, the
former
ward of Lord
Mancroft
.
”
She waved a letter
.
“It seems the boy’s mother, Mrs. Barcelona, made a deathbed confession and Jack never should have been
in the earl’s custody in the first place.
”

“D-deathbed?”

“Yes
.
This letter
explains it all
.
Would you like to read it?”

Heart sinking, Alex snatched the missive
from her hand
.
U
nfolding the
paper he
turned his face to the words.

My Dearest Edward—

Mancroft’s
given name was Edward?  How ordinary
.
Alex shook his head and turned his c
oncentration back to the elegant script
.

Forgive me
the deception I’ve
subjected y
ou to these last years
.
I fear th
e son I lovingly placed in your care is not yours
at all
, but
the child of
Ale
xander
Rawlings
.
I accept your anger
and any repercussions
as a result of my actions, but
I
could not
in good faith
go to my grave without your knowing the truth.

             
Yours in friendship,

             
             
Bernadette

             
Alex read the words again, this time more slowly,
before crumpling the paper in his hand
.
“This letter isn’t real.”

             
“Oh?
”
Charley quirked a
cool,
skeptical brow
,
while his mother remained uncharacteristically silent.

             
“No
.
This is not her hand
writing
.
The note is a forgery I’m sure of it.”

             
Not even a
flicker of hope lit
the hard glint of
Charley’s eyes
.
“I
f her health was ailing so
s
everely I
’m sure
she could have dictated the letter
.
That would explain why you don’t
r
ecognize the script.
”

             
Alex ground his teeth
against the logic
.
“
If she meant to set the truth to rights
why didn’t I get a bloody letter?”

             
“Perhaps
this
is your letter.
”
Charley gestured broadly to the lace covered table nestled against the wall
.
A silver platter sporting a similarly folded and still sealed missive glared back at him
.
“It was delivered shortly after you left this morning.
”

             
How bloody convenient
.
Wordlessly Alex stomped to the tray and tore open the letter
.
“Son of a bitch.
”
He threw the note
against the wall
.
Why now? 
After all this time why
had she told him
this on top of everything else?
He turned on the men in working clothes
.
“Mrs. Barcelona has passed on?”

             
T
he men
shifted uncomfortably and concentrated heavily on their
mud caked
boots
.
“
Er
, I believe so, milord,” the taller man
mumbled
.
“Our orders were to bring th
e lad here to you
.”

“
Tell Lord
Mancroft
I will be paying him a visit shortly.
”
Alex nodded to the door
.
“You are dismissed.”

“Thank you
, milord.
”
The men shuffled a bow and scurried out the front door.

Alex raked a dangerous gaze across the sea of servants pressed into the hall
.
“
All
of you are dismissed.”

No one moved.

“Anyone valuing their job will vacate this room in the next thirty seconds or you will find yourself seeking new employ without a reference.”

Chaos
erupted, servants scattering to their respective corners of the house, but undoubtedly remaining within earshot
.
Nothing but miserable gossip mongers, the lot of them
.
Alex detested gossips.

“Mrs. Roark,
” Charley called the housekeeper back
.
“P
lease take Master Jack to the kitchen and
make sure he
gets something to eat
.
Then
see to it the nursery is prepared and
settle him in
there.”

“You can’t mean to keep him here?
”
Alex and Regina exploded in unison
.

Charley speared Alex
with
an icy glare
.
“It seems he has nowhere else to go
.
If this child is yours, and I see no reason to believe otherwise, you
will
take responsibility for him.
”
She knelt before Jack and smiled warmly before giving him a hug
.
“
There, there, darling
.
You have nothing to fear here, we’ll take good care of you.”

The boy regarded her with the wide, skittish eyes of a deer.

“
Do you like chocolate cake?”

The little boy nodded hesitantly, clinging to her fingers with a chubby hand
.

“
Well then, g
o with this nice lady here and I’m sure Cook will find a piece of chocolate cake for you
.
Later I’ll come see you in your new room.
”
She dropped a kiss on his downy hair and stood
.
“Carry on, Mrs. Roark.”

“Certainly
, milady.
”
Following Charley’s example
,
the housekeeper
bobbed a quick curtsy, and
smiled warmly at the child
before taking
his hand and leading him away.

Alex’s chest
clinched
.
The way Charley gazed so
patiently
up
on Jack… he’d hoped to see her
smile that way at
their
child
, a
piece of joy they’d made and could share together
.
Fear that such
may never be licked his belly.

“Alex, what is the meaning of this?” Regina hissed
, stalking forward
, breaking through the depths of his thoughts
.
She stabbed
a finger in his chest
.
“Once word of this gets out, and mark my words we’ll have callers here within the hour, you’ll be ruined
.
Ruined.
”
Shrewd
, oddly haunted
eyes raked the length of him
.
“You’re just like your father.
”

From across the hall Charley visibly swayed on her feet
.
Instinctively he moved to intercept her, slipping his arms around her before
she teetered to the ground
.
“Easy, love
.
”

Rigid in his arms, she shook her head and jerked away, gripping the banister for support
.
“I’m perfectly fine.”

Pale and drawn
,
with garish blue circles
under
her eyes she looked anything but fine
.
He reached for her
, wanting nothing more than to take her in his arms and wash the plaguing uncertainty from her eyes
.
“Charley—”

She snatched away as one confronted by a vile serpent
.
“
Keep your hands off me.
”
She stumbled back a few steps
.
“
I
just
need to lie down
.
”
She pressed
a palm to her forehead
, and fled up the stairs.

“Charley,
” he called, striding after her
.

Regina skirted the
banister
, blocking his path
.
“
Not so fast.”