Realm 03 - A Touch of Cashemere (27 page)

“Miss!” a maid rushed forward from the house’s rear. “Miss Aldridge!”

Cashé met her immediately. “What is it, Lucy?”

“They found him, Miss.” The girl anxiously wrung her hands.

Cashé pressed, “Lord Lexford?”

“Yes, Miss.” The servant tried to catch her breath. “I be in the back garden, and Old Davy said that Kennett and Mulvanney found His Lordship, but the viscount is hurt bad. The grooms be sendin’ for a wagon to bring him in.”

“And my sister?” Cashé focused the question.

“Nobody knows, Miss.”

Cashé winced. Where was Satiné? Attempting to portray calm amidst the chaos, she said, “Thank you, Lucy. I want you to go upstairs and prepare His Lordship’s room. The viscount will require our care.”

“Yes, Miss.” The maid rushed to meet Cashé’s orders.

“Mr. Whitcomb, send someone for a physician and notify Mrs. Lacey.”

“Immediately, Miss.” Finally having something to do energized the household.

As everyone did her bidding, Cashé paused in quiet contemplation. “Where are you, Satiné?”

Within a half hour, using an old door as a litter, the two groomsmen carried Lexford’s lifeless body into the house. Cashé examined his bloody countenance as several footmen lended their support with the makeshift pallet.

She followed them to the viscount’s quarters, praying his wounds were not fatal. Cashé swallowed hard. There was no one to assist her in this matter. She desperately wished for her uncle’s return–wished for Lexford’s recovery–wished for Satiné’s appearance–wished for Marcus’s comforting embrace. “What can you tell me?” Cashé caught the elderly groomsman by the arm as the household staff moved Lexford from the wooden litter to the bed.

“Found His Lordship by the outcrop overlookin’ the falls.” Although she knew little of the area, Cashé nodded her encouragement. “Found Miss Satiné’s horse still tethered to a tree. There be blood on the smooth rock and on a large tree branch near by. We be findin’ the gentleman’s hat and ye sister’s bonnet and glove on the ground. Mulvanney climbed down the rock face to be assuring everyone that Miss Satiné did not go over the edge, but he sees nothing.”

Cashé glanced quickly at Lexford’s limp form. “Then where is my sister? Lord Lexford would fight to protect her.”

The groom followed her eyes. “His Lordship has a nasty bump on his head. Looks like someone be hittin’ him with the branch. Plenty of blood there by the rocks. Appears as if he tried to follow whoever attacked him. There be two sets of boot tracks and a set of marks made by a coach on the small road leadin’ to the peak. Same boot marks where the carriage be on the road, but no marks for a woman.”

Cashé softened her tone. Her uncle’s staff had performed admirably. “What do you suggest we do next?”

“First, we should be sendin’ for a magistrate, Miss Aldridge,” the head groom offered. “Then, seems to me that if’n your sister be gone that we should be contacting the baron.”

Cashé bit her bottom lip in anxiousness. She had never handled anything such as this before; yet, the loyalty of her uncle’s servants had given her the required confidence. “Thank you for your good advice,” she told the man and saw his countenance looked relieved. “Would you send a rider for the magistrate, Mr. Stewart?” The man nodded his agreement. “Meanwhile, I will write a note to Uncle Charles, plus, I will send to Lord Worthing at Linton Park. His Lordship was Viscount Lexford’s commanding officer, and Lady Worthing is my cousin. I am certain Lord Worthing can be here within hours where my uncle may take days.”

“That be sensible, Miss.” The man gave her a nod of encouragement.

“Then you do what you must to assist the magistrate, Mr. Stewart. We shall permit Mrs. Lacey to tend Viscount Lexford until the physician arrives.”

“I be getting’ a fresh horse and rider, Miss. Soon as them letters be ready, me man will ride to London.” He gave Cashé a quick bow and left the bedchamber.

“The physician just rode into the circle, Miss,” Lucy informed Cashé and the housekeeper.

“Perfect.” Cashé’s natural ability to organize rushed forward. “I shall await the doctor’s analysis in my uncle’s study. I must send a note to the baron to plead for his immediate return.”

“I will bring Doctor Potter to you when he finishes, Miss.”

Thirty minutes later, Potter tapped on the door. “Miss Aldridge?”

Cashé rose to greet him. “Thank you for responding so quickly, Sir.”

“I have often served Ashton.” He accepted the chair to which Cashé gestured. “It is my understanding, Miss, that your sister is unaccounted for.”

Cashé did not answer. She knew the servants would gossip. “We are doing all we can to assure Satiné’s safety.”

“If you require my assistance, I will make myself available until the baron’s return.” The doctor acted as if he thought her incapable of handling a crisis, and that fact riled Cashé’s stubbornness.

Therefore, she purposely ignored his words. “How is Viscount Lexford?”

The physician relayed his disapproval with a scowling countenance, but he said, “Lord Lexford has a serious head injury. I have cleaned the wound and stitched the area. Of course, my greatest concern is the swelling. If His Lordship’s head is swollen on the outside, it is likely swollen on the inside of his skull, as well. The brain takes its own time in healing, but there is promise. Lord Lexford must have recovered enough to mount his horse because he was found some distance from where his hat was left behind.”

Cashé listened carefully to what the surgeon said professionally and what he omitted. The viscount might not recover. If so, it would be her fault. She had manipulated today’s rendezvous. Lord Lexford must have been quite distracted if someone had caught him unawares. She wondered if Satiné had enticed the viscount’s attentions, allowing His Lordship’s assailant to do his worst.

“Then we shall give the viscount the best care possible. You have given Mrs. Lacey instructions, Sir?”

The surgeon again bit back his displeasure. “I have.” He looked about him, as if he did not know what to do next. “I will call a bit later to see to Lord Lexford’s progress.”

“Thank you, Sir.” Cashé rose to return to her letters. “I will trust your expertise with His Lordship.”

With the surgeon’s exit, Cashé spent a few more minutes explaining to James Kerrington what had occurred and why she desperately needed his guidance. She knew about Jamot and the earl and the possibility that someone had likely taken Satiné. If people looked back on her actions over the last few hours, they might consider her detached, but Cashé felt it all–the responsibility for Satiné being alone with Lord Lexford–the guilt at having secretly searched her uncle’s private papers–and the incompetence she had felt at being the one in charge. Yet, she would weather whatever God placed before her. It would be what both Uncle Charles and Lord Yardley would expect of her.

“Miss Aldridge.”

Cashé looked up to see Mr. Stewart. “Yes.”

“The magistrate wishes a word, Miss.”

“Send him in, Mr. Stewart.”

The elderly gentleman came solicitously to a halt beside the desk. She had met Malcolm Lloyd at her uncle’s recent gathering. Surprisingly, his demeanor offered her comfort. He did not judge her as being too young to assume responsibility. “Miss Aldridge, my heart goes out to you. This mystery will resolve itself; I will not rest until your sister is returned safely to the manor.”

“Thank you, Mr. Lloyd. Tell me what we may do at Chesterfield Manor to aid in your search.” Cashé caught the man’s arm and led him to a wing chair. She sat across from him. “My uncle would spare no expense to bring Satiné home, and I feel confident to pledge as such in his name.”

“Of course, Ashton would want you to act in his stead,” the magistrate assured her.

Cashé wanted him to understand that she would willingly accept assistance in this matter. “I have drafted a letter to my cousin James Kerrington, Viscount Worthing. His estate is in Derbyshire, and Lord Worthing and Viscount Lexford served together in the East. He will be here in hours to serve in my stead, but until then I insist on being kept informed. I am not the type to spend my hours crying into a gentleman’s handkerchief.”

Mr. Lloyd smiled knowingly. “Ashton indicated as much. Your uncle is quite proud of the woman you have become.”

Pleased that her Uncle Charles had spoken positively of her, Cashé blushed. “Have you examined where our staff found Lord Lexford’s body?” She redirected the conversation.

“Mr. Stewart’s men did an excellent joy of keeping the scene clear of outsiders who might destroy the clues. Many of the baron’s men have been on search parties for runaways,” he disclosed. “Everything was as Mr. Stewart relayed. We followed the coach’s tracks to the main road, but we have no way to discern them from there. There are marks where your sister and His Lordship had dismounted and a few leading to the outcropping. It is a popular site, overlooking the falls, but the hard rain earlier in the week washed the area clean. Theirs were the only ones coming from the west, but there are difference boot marks along the tree line to the east. The carriage marks are a quarter mile or so away from the site.”

“You were very thorough,” Cashé remarked.

“Been doing this for some time, Miss.” The magistrate leaned forward to press his point. “Your sister is my chief concern. Is there anything else I should know about this situation?”

Cashé considered telling the man of Jamot and the emerald, but what the Realm did was not exactly a secret, yet, not readily shared with others. “Nothing of which I am aware, Sir,” she lied. “Is it possible, Mr. Lloyd, that Satiné ran away when Lord Lexford was attacked? Is it possible she has taken refugee somewhere on the estate or in the area? Perhaps, Satiné is injured, as well. Perhaps the carriage tracks have nothing to do with my twin’s disappearance.” She remembered how Jamot’s kidnapping of Velvet had ruined her eldest sister’s reputation. Cashé wished to protect Satiné’s name.

“All of what you have asked is possible, Miss Aldridge.” The man’s voice held a bit of skepticism, but she had planted the seed of doubt. Mr. Lloyd rose to make his exit. “We have a few more hours of daylight to aid our search. Mr. Stewart has recruited every available hand and tenant. We will make a thorough sweep of the area between the manor and the falls.”

Cashé stood also. “Mr. Stewart has a rider prepared to take the letters to Lord Worthing and my uncle. They will be on their ways to their recipients in the next quarter hour,” she declared. “Therefore, there is nothing for me to do but to await your success.”

Thirty minutes later, Cashé slipped into Lexford’s room. “Any change, Mrs. Lacey?” she asked as she pulled a chair close to the bed.

“It is too soon, Miss–not until tomorrow at the earliest.” She changed a cool compress on Lexford’s head.

Cashé nodded automatically. “I will sit with His Lordship for awhile. There is nothing I can do downstairs besides stare out the window and wait.”

Mrs. Lacey lightly touched Cashé’s shoulder. “It is a great burden, but you have performed well.”

“I should not have left them.” She reached for Lexford’s fingers, bringing the back of his hand to her cheek.

Mrs. Lacey changed out the water in the bowl. “You are not to blame yourself, Miss Aldridge.”

Yet, Cashé knew better; she should be wherever Satiné was being held.

After sitting with His Lordship for several hours, for the last three, she had watched the hands creeping about the clock’s face. Cashé had estimated how long it would take an experienced rider to reach Linton Park and how long it would take Worthing to respond, so when she heard the sound of horse’s hooves in the drive, she breathed relief that he had come. Racing from Lexford’s room, she was in Worthing’s comforting embrace within seconds. She had not allowed herself to cry since the first moment she had heard of Lexford’s injury, but now she cried openly in the arms of a man she barely knew.

“Come,” he whispered close to her ear, as he led Cashé into an open doorway. Kerrington motioned to a maid to bring tea, and then he seated Cashé on a settee. “I am here,” he murmured as he caught her in his arms again. “I will let nothing happen to you.”

Cashé cried her tears of regret and her tears of worry, soaking Worthing’s shirt and cravat before sitting herself away from him. “I am sorry, Your Lordship,” she mumbled while patting her eyes dry.

Kerrington smiled with gentleness. “Eleanor placed an extra handkerchief in my pocket before I left Linton Park. She said you would need it.”

“Thank you for coming so quickly,” she rasped through a stifled sob.

He looked up to see the waiting maid, balancing the tea service. “Let us have some tea,” he encouraged. “I told the countess recently that when I was in Persia that I missed English tea more than anything else from my daily life.”

Despite the emotions coursing through her, Cashé nodded, the evenness of his voice bringing her peace. “I will serve, Lucy,” she managed to say.

The maid quickly exited, and Kerrington waited for Cashé to resume her composure before he said, “Now, my Dear, you must tell me everything before I see Lexford.”

Cashé related all the specifics of the attack, Lexford’s injury, and Satiné’s disappearance. “Could Jamot have taken my twin the way he did Velvet?” she asked.

“I have never known the Baloch to repeat his revenge nor would he take Miss Satiné without making a demand for return of the emerald. Jamot planned an elaborate abduction of Eleanor in Hyde Park, but Sir Louis staged his own farce, disrupting Jamot’s plans. We are certain Jamot killed Sir Louis to keep the man quiet. Then the dual kidnappings of Sonali and Her Grace occurred. Although the Baloch staged an abduction of Velvet, I do not believe he would practice another kidnapping so soon. The last one produced negative effects. It does not make sense for him. Jamot considers himself a strategist.”

“But he broke into the earl’s home recently,” Cashé insisted.

Kerrington’s eyebrow rose in question. “I suppose Lexford shared the incident?”

Cashé blushed. “The viscount explained as such when he arrived recently.”

He placed his cup and saucer on a side table. “Cashémere, I am going to ask something, and I need the absolute truth.” He paused for her gaze to return to his. “Explain to me how if Lexford came to Chesterfield to woo you, that he rode off with your sister, especially after you reportedly had trouble with your saddle. If you were his interest, no matter how much you insisted, the viscount would not desert you for Satiné.” He paused before adding, “And also explain the obvious differences in your and Wellston’s relationship before he departed for Northumberland from what Ella reported upon your first arrival at Linton Park.”