More Than a Mistress (17 page)

‘Mmmm,’ she said.

‘Mmmm, mmmm,’ he murmured softly. He didn’t sound upset. Then what was he doing?

Light pierced the blindfold. She turned her head in its direction.

‘Dear God,’ a well-educated voice said in horrified tones. ‘Do you know who you’ve got there?’

Merry strained to hear something familiar in the voice, but the echoing chamber distorted it. Oh, well, she would see who it was soon enough, when they set her free. And then he’d get a piece of her mind and some besides.

‘Naught we could do, your lordship.’ Jane. ‘They came looking for me. They know who we are.’

A lord? What lord?

Some whispered mutters. Merry held her breath, waiting for Charlie’s signal.

‘That’s no good,’ Jane said, sounding furious. ‘He’s seen us. You have to do away with them. Today. Now.’

‘You people are idiots. Kill Tonbridge and the world will be looking for you. Let them go as soon as I am clear,’ the new man said in a harsh whisper. ‘I’ll deal with her later.’

Merry shivered. If only she could recognise his voice, but the echoes and the whispering made it impossible. He had recogised Charlie at a glance, though.

The muttered voices drew further away. Footsteps drowning out their words. They were leaving.

And Charlie, beside her, was moving. He took hold of her wrist and began sawing at the ropes.

No, someone was coming back. A light hurried step. Had Jane returned to set them free?

‘Mmmm,’ Merry said. Charlie must have heard, too, because he stopped cutting at her ropes.

Liquid splashing on the floor. The smell of brandy hit the back of her throat.

‘Mmmmm,’ she said.

He kicked her foot. She lay still.

‘Bloody coward,’ Jane said. ‘He’d see us all hang. But not me. ‘Tis bad enough she caused the death of my brother.’ The voice receded. Then the sound of a striking flint, followed by a woof of rushing air. And heat.

‘Hey,’ Merry yelled through her gag.

‘That’ll teach you,’ Jane yelled and then she was gone, running after the others.

And Charlie’s hands were on her ropes, cutting frantically, then pulling at her blindfold.

Merry blinked at the dazzle of flames. Jane had set a fire. It licked up the side of a barrel. They were surrounded by barrels on racks. The flames ran like rivers along the liquid Jane had poured. Fumes filled Merry’s head and made her feel dizzy.

‘Come on,’ Charlie said, working on the ropes at her feet. ‘We have to get out of here.’ He freed his own ankles and pulled her up.

Pain. Hands, feet, legs—all prickled with the rush of blood. She rubbed at her wrists.

Charlie grabbed her hand and they headed for the doorway. Flames curled up around the doorposts.

They broke into a run.

With a crack and a rumble, the rack nearest the door collapsed. Barrels rolled off it to the floor. One, maybe more than one, split open. Flames roared up to the ceiling.

Heat. Merry put her arm up, to protect her face. ‘We are trapped.’ There was no way out.

‘This way,’ Charlie shouted.

He ran to the racks on the other side of the cellar. He put his shoulder to it.

She ran to help. ‘What are you doing?’ She pushed at the wooden structure and felt it move.

‘I think there’s another way out,’ he said, heaving with a grin that looked demonic in the blaze of flames. With the place lit up like Guy Fawkes’s night, he looked positively happy. She wanted to strangle him.

‘Come on, Merry, together. Heave.’

She pushed with all her might. It shifted a little. She was sure it moved. The flames were spreading to their side of the cellar.

‘Again,’ he panted.

She put her shoulder beside his and grasped the wood frame.

‘Heave,’ he said.

The rack rolled, picked up speed, slid away from the wall.

A gaping black hole. A tunnel. A draught of sweet fresh air fanned the flames behind them. Shadows danced on the wooden ceiling.

‘Come on. Before those explode.’ Charlie grabbed her hand.

Explode
made her legs work really well.

They ran for their lives, only stopping to catch their breath when they could no longer feel the heat of the fire, or hear its horrid roar.

She put her hands on her knees and bent over, gasping for air. ‘She meant to burn us alive.’ The horror of it made her want to throw up.

Charlie put an arm around her shoulders. ‘It’s all right. You are safe. I remembered this when we were singing; my brain started working instead of panicking. Robert and I found a smuggler’s tunnel in the riverbank years ago. It led to a barn. This barn.’

‘Thank God you remembered.’

Her mind froze, refusing to think about what would have happened if he had not.

He took her hand. ‘The tunnel comes out below the mill. Smugglers row the contraband upstream and bring it this way to the inn. If you don’t mind, I’d rather like to get out of here.’

Merry glanced back down the tunnel at the distant glow of flames. ‘The innkeeper is going to be very upset about losing his wares.’

‘If I find out he is part of this, he’ll lose more than contraband brandy. And if he isn’t, Father will be furious. He’s one of his best customers.’

Merry giggled. Then started to laugh. She couldn’t stop. It just sounded so ridiculously funny.

Still laughing, she let Charlie drag her along by one hand, using the other to guide himself along the wall. Walking this time, thank goodness. If she tried to run, she’d fall down.

The exit appeared as a small circle of grey and grew swiftly. A few moments later they were standing in snow in the gathering dusk. Never had Merry been so happy to see snow. Luckily the tunnel did not end in the river, but in the bank a few feet above water level.

She heaved a sigh of relief as they climbed up beside the mill.

‘Nothing,’ he said, striking his fist in his hand. ‘All that for nothing.’ There were soot streaks on his face. His face was grim, his eyes dark. ‘No Jane and now this other man. This lord.’

She winced. ‘I suppose you didn’t recognise his voice.’

Thin-lipped, he shook his head. ‘No. We go back to Durn.’

‘Shouldn’t we find the constable? Tell him what happened? Start a hue and cry for Jane?’

‘You forget the man who set all this in train.’

‘We don’t know who he is. Catch Jane and we can catch him, too.’

‘In the meantime, he is still at large and you are in danger. You heard him. He planned to deal with you some other way, and when Jane learns you did not die in the fire, she will come after you again. I can’t take that risk.’

Across the field, a pillar of smoke was beginning to rise. ‘Everyone will be too busy with the fire to look for our criminals for a while,’ he said. ‘And I will not be sure you are safe until we are inside Durn’s walls.’

‘But—’

‘I mean it, Merry. I’ll put you over my shoulder and carry you all the way home if you won’t come willingly.’

Exhausted, she let him lead her along.

‘Bully,’ she muttered, but never in her life had she felt so protected as she was leaning on Charlie’s steady arm.

They met the carriage returning for them just beyond the mill. To his coachman’s obvious shock, Charlie refused to help the people trying to put out the fire and insisted on speeding back to Durn. His servants would think him heartless. Hopefully, he would be able to set their minds at rest at a later date. Given the amount of brandy burning there was no saving the barn, but no lives would be lost, since he and Merry had got out.

He’d almost got them both killed by charging after Merry. Always impetuous. His commanding officer had said so and his father had said so. It seemed he had learned nothing by his experience in the army.

The thought of Merry burning in the fire sent cold chills down his spine every time his mind wandered back to the scene in the bowels of the earth. Hell could not have looked worse.

The carriage halted outside the front door of Durn.

Charlie looked at the glower on his coachman’s face. ‘Take some men, return to the village and see if you can help,’ he said. ‘But say nothing about picking up Miss Draycott and me on the road, if you please. Also remind those at the gate of my orders. No one other than members of the household are to be admitted tonight without my express permission.’

The man gave him a look that said he thought Charlie touched in the head, tugged his forelock and set his team in motion.

Charlie guided Merry up the steps. She’d sat with her eyes tight shut all the way home. He’d been glad of her silence. There had been too much going on in his head for sensible conversation.

Logan opened the door. For once his expression showed shock. ‘Has there been an accident?’

‘Oh, no,’ Merry said, before Charlie could speak. ‘It was all quite deliberate. If you’ll excuse me, I would like to see Mrs Falkner.’

‘Perhaps you will scare her, appearing covered in soot.’

Merry narrowed her eyes. ‘Perhaps she will be shocked if I appear at all.’

She headed for the stairs.

Charlie caught her halfway up the staircase. ‘All this time you have defended her. What makes you suspect her now?’

She looked on the edge of breaking. Tears stood in her blue eyes. The tears of betrayal, and fear and pain. He wanted to hold her close and comfort her. When he tried to put his arms around her, she pushed him away.

‘She brought Jane into my home. She insisted she stay when I said I didn’t like her. And she is so damned secretive. She is the person who will benefit by my death.’ Her voice broke. She covered her face with her hand. ‘I can’t really believe it but I just don’t know any more.’

So this was why she’d been so quiet in the carriage, brooding about her friend. Damn it, he should have asked her what was wrong. She’d been so brave up to now, so courageous—he couldn’t bear to see her so utterly lost.

‘If you confront her and she denies it, how will you know if she is telling you the truth?’

She swallowed, blinking back the moisture before it spilled. He wanted to hold her close but feared too much sympathy and her spirit would break entirely. ‘Would it help you to know I am starting to doubt her involvement?’

‘You are?’

‘I believe our man in the cellar is behind it all. And Jane was acting out of revenge. You heard her speak of her brother.’ He frowned. ‘Have there been any accidents at your mill? Lives lost?’

She gazed up at him. ‘None. I swear it. Grandfather ran the safest mill in Yorkshire and I have kept to that standard. There have been a few accidents, but nothing fatal. And all victims well compensated, I swear.’

‘And I believe you.’ He kissed the tip of her nose. ‘You are covered in soot and dirt. You are cold, you are tired and these things are playing on your mind. Questioning Mrs Falkner can wait.’

‘It can’t. I have to hear it from her lips. Will you come with me?’

He sighed. He’d learned that if Merry Draycott made a decision, he might as well go along with it, because she was stubborn and determined and rarely took no for an answer. ‘If that is your wish.’ They walked up the stairs together. ‘First, though, we wash and change. Quite honestly I can’t stand the smell. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to drink brandy again.’

She managed a small chuckle.

When Beth met them at the door to the nursery, Merry was feeling a little less shaken.

‘How is Mrs Falkner?’ Merry asked. All her old fears about fevers and sickness that she’d had since her parents’ deaths pressed down on her. She pushed them away. She needed to look into Caro’s eyes when she asked her questions.

‘Better, miss. Sitting up, giving orders.’ Beth grinned.

With Charlie behind her, Merry crept into the dimly lit room. The flush of fever lay on Caro’s cheeks and her eyes were unnaturally bright.

‘What are you doing here?’ she croaked.

‘Nice welcome,’ Merry said, surging forwards, forcing the dry panic in her throat down with a quick swallow. ‘How are you?’

‘Better.’ Caro smiled. ‘Poor Tommy has been worried, but Beth has been a wonderful nurse.’ She glanced at the girl with a fond smile. Beth bobbed and left. ‘I will be up and about in a day or so.’

‘Thank goodness.’

‘You look pale,’ Caro said. ‘You should not be here. We do not want you taking ill, too.’ She gestured to Charlie, who had remained in the doorway.

‘We need to talk to you. Whoever attacked us at Draycott House has followed us here to Durn,’ Merry said.

Caro’s blue eyes widened; she paled beneath her flush. ‘What happened? Are you hurt?’

Merry took her hand, felt the dampness and the heat. ‘I am fine, Caro. But I must ask you some questions, if you would agree?’

A shuttered expression passed over Caro’s face. It always did whenever anyone questioned her. Merry clenched her hands, trying to believe her friend had nothing to do with what was happening.

‘We wanted to ask you about Jane, Mrs Falkner.’ Charlie’s deep voice was gentle. ‘How did she come to be in your company?’

Caro swallowed.

‘Would you like water?’ Merry asked.

Caro nodded and sipped from the glass Merry held to her lips.

She pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders. ‘She arrived at the house in Skepton two days before the fire. She said she had heard it was a refuge and begged admittance.’

‘You had never met her before?’ Charlie pressed, stepping closer to the bed.

Merry watched Caro’s face, looking for anything—guilt, fear.

Caro looked Merry straight in the eyes. ‘Never. Nor had the other girls.’ She pressed the back of her hand to her forehead. ‘Are you saying Jane has something to do with this? Wretched woman. I wish I had never set eyes on her.’

‘We were captured by Jane and some men, one of whom spoke like a gentleman,’ Merry said.

Caro gasped and looked horrified. ‘Captured? What do you mean captured?’

A wave of relief washed over Merry. She knew people. She’d studied them. Caro was genuinely shocked and concerned. Merry turned her gaze to Charlie. His expression was unreadable, his eyes shadowed.

Caro stared at him. ‘You think I—?’ Her voice broke. Her eyes swam with tears. ‘I had something to do with this?’