Silence of Scandal (6 page)

Geoffrey looked up doubtfully at his former friend as Giles rose to his feet from the wooden tack bench. Alexander shook his head.

“I couldn’t make any sense of her tale. Father obviously held most of it back to protect her. Whatever started all the problems is unclear at present but I think Phillip became desperate and made several gross errors of judgement. There is a possibility that I may find out more from Lady Anne.” He looked up as a horse clattered into the yard outside the stables. Geoffrey quickly went to the door.

“Lady Anne, His Grace has returned.” Alexander heard his friend announce his arrival to his sister in law and for one moment he wished that he’d had chance to freshen himself before meeting her for the first time. Giles quickly ran his hands through his hair and then brushed the dust from his coat as he obviously thought the same but there was no time for presentation now; the smart tap of hastening riding boots entered the stable.

Lady Anne’s ringlets of chestnut hair bobbed beneath her riding hat. She curtseyed low and then held out her hand to Alexander. He bowed over it quickly and noted that her steady, green eyed gaze flicked from his face over to Giles and then back again.

“Your Grace, we have been eager for your return,” her husky voice complimented her gentle expression.

“Madam, please accept my condolences at your loss. Though I had not seen Phillip for many years, we were close and he wrote and told me of you often.” It wasn’t a complete lie. Phillip had mentioned her in his letters. He paused as her emerald eyes assessed him before he turned towards Giles. “May I present my friend Lieutenant Giles Denvers.”

Giles bowed low over Anne’s hand.

“I only wish this meeting was under happier circumstances, my Lady. Although I had not met your husband I feel that I knew him through his brother. Alexander has told me many good things about him.”

Anne nodded her acceptance of his wishes and returned her attention to her brother in law.

“Your father’s and brother’s joint passing has been hard to bear. For you to miss them by weeks is dreadful. Please know that they spoke of you often and fondly. Your mother feels the loss acutely, as I do of course.” She lifted a silk square to the corner of her eye. She glanced back out of the stable towards the Dower house. “I am sorry I was not here for your arrival but the horses needed exercising and we are a little short of staff. You have seen your mother already?”

Alexander nodded.

“Briefly. She was somewhat surprised at my sudden arrival and I’m afraid I may have upset her. I intend to make a longer visit on the morrow and I would wish to speak to you also, Lady Anne. Would you be available for tea at three tomorrow. We have much to discuss but I confess that I have a great desire to see Ormond before dark falls. If you would excuse us, I’m sure Geoffrey would escort you in.”

Anne smiled up at him.

“No need, I am quite happy to see myself indoors. You should probably take Geoffrey to Ormond with you. He may be able to answer some of your questions. I will see you tomorrow afternoon, Your Grace.” She dipped into another graceful curtsey again but Alexander caught hold of her hand and pulled her up from it.

“Please, Lady Anne, I would prefer that there be no formality between us. We are family after all. Please call me Alexander.” He hoped that she didn’t find him too forward.

She gave a radiant smile that lifted the heaviness of her deep mourning.

“Of course Alexander and you must call me Anne, but now I must go to see your mother. She will be lacking in company and excited to tell me of your return. I must not disappoint her.” She gave Alexander a quick nod and then glanced over to Giles again, her eyes lingering momentarily as she gave him a quick dip of her head. She turned with a rustle of her black silk skirts and walked swiftly from the stable.

Giles stared after the bewitching beauty as she walked with graceful steps across the yard.

“My God! Are you sure that Phillip didn’t want to marry her? I cannot fathom some men. She’s a positive delight to behold.” He shook his head in wonder as her slim figure disappeared into the house.

Alexander shrugged dismissively.

“She’s a beauty alright but then my brother was never really interested in beauty. Brains would have been far more attractive to him, though I confess that she didn’t come over as some ninny. It’s a pity that I hadn’t really talked to Phillip in so many years. I never really saw him much after he was carted off to that damned school. A few times in the holidays when he could escape his duties but not much more than that.” There was some shuffling behind him and Geoffrey cleared his throat.

“Yes, I recall the occasion that caused his departure even though I was only five or six at the time. Everyone around here recalls it actually. It’s not as though you forget a blast that big and then there was that child of course. Your mother still takes flowers up to her memorial you know. Every single week.” he paused and coughed slightly then moved on quickly. “Lady Anne’s definitely no ninny, that’s a given and her nature is as beautiful as she is herself. Phillip was good to her even though he was a slightly disinterested husband. I don’t think you will hear any complaints from her.”

Alexander nodded then paused in the doorway before he looked back at his two friends.

“Giles and I will walk to Ormond. Finish settling our horses and Lady Anne’s and then come to join us. I want to hear everything you know, Geoff. Including whatever may have been rumoured. I have mere weeks to save our good name, Ormond and all those who still work here. Time is of the essence and no stone can be left unturned. Join us as soon as you can. Giles and I will see how the land lies as we walk.”

The two men strode out of the stables and across the gravelled forecourt before turning onto the drive and heading for Ormond castle.

Chapter Three

Dashed Hopes

The walk to the castle had not been a happy one. As they lengthened their stride to arrive before darkness, the sight of a second dead sheep caused Alexander’s temper to rise beyond all control and by the time he turned the door knob only to find the huge door locked against him he was sure that steam erupted from both ears.

His eyebrows became a solid dark line across his forehead as he banged on the front door of his own home. He paced up and down the forecourt as he waited to gain entrance but it took a third hard rap from Giles before someone eventually came to the door.

Grady, his father’s old butler cracked open the door and peered out with a watery eye. There was a shocked gasp and then the door opened fully.

“Master Alexander! Well I never did! We weren’t told to expect anyone and what with that rabid dog on the prowl I don’t like to leave the door open. Young Geoffrey has been out all hours trying to track the dreaded thing but it seems to have gone to ground somewhere in the woods. My apologies and my condolences, Your Grace,” he added, still all of a fluster. “I will call Beth to come light a fire in the study while we prepare your room. I assume you will take your father’s suite.”

Alexander replied in the affirmative as he walked into the chilly hall and swallowed his anger and shock at the starkness of it all. Gone were the tapestries and fabulously coloured Chinese rugs. The ancient armour appeared to have marched from its pedestals and there were spaces on the walls where priceless paintings had once hung. He turned to a clearly nervous Grady.

“Do you even have enough supplies for a dinner for myself and my friend?” He was relieved when the man nodded quickly.

“Cook sends enough for the three of us with plenty to spare every day. I think she sent a haunch of pork today and Sarah has already prepared vegetables. I can serve you in the dining room in an hour if it pleases, Your Grace.” Grady bowed as Alexander nodded.

“Please tell me that my father’s brandy supply hasn’t run short. I feel that I will need vast reserves of it before the night is out.” His boots echoed around the hall as he and Giles strode through the library and into the study. Alexander flung himself into the chair as Giles picked up the tinder box from the mantle and began making a fire.

“It’s freezing in here, Alex. I can’t wait for some maid to come and light this. The place is like a mausoleum.”

Alexander buried his head in his hands.

“It looks as though half the carpets and most of the furniture has been sold along with anything that could be removed easily. The hallway used to be full of the armour of my ancestors. Phillip and I tried dressing up in it once and staging a battle. We clanked around the hall madly until Phillip rapped my head with a battle axe and dented my helmet. My head became stuck and cook had to use goose grease on my ears before it would shift. My buttocks still smart at the memory of the thrashing we both received but how were we to know that the armour was three hundred years old. It looked spanking new to us and it seemed a rotten waste not to use it.” Laughter filled his tone even as tears filled his eyes as he almost choked at the memory of his mad and exciting adventures with his brother.

Giles looked up from the smoking fire briefly.

“Perhaps it has not been sold but placed in storage. I expect Geoffrey will be able to shed more light on what has been happening, though from the look of neglect in the parkland I think that something terrible has gone on for a long time. I know that you don’t want gossip spreading but servants tend to know everything and the situation is too desperate for awkward feelings. I would ask them what they have heard as soon as we have some insights from Geoffrey.” Giles blew the smoking tinder into flames.

There was a knock at the door. A young maid walked in and bobbed a curtsey before she brought a bottle of brandy and two glasses to the desk.

“Begging your pardon, Your Grace but Geoffrey from down at the Dower House has arrived. Shall I send him in?”

Alexander nodded.

“Please, and furnish us with an extra glass. Lay another setting at the dinner table as well. I doubt I will finish speaking to Geoffrey anytime soon. Prepare him a room too. I think we will be at this half the night.”

She bobbed another curtsey as she glanced at Giles who was now stoking the fire with logs of wood and rubbing his hands as he warmed himself.

Geoffrey came in as the maid left.

“That’s Bethany, cook’s niece. She’s a good little worker. The Duchess has tried to keep as many on as possible but with no income and savings dwindling…” he shuffled his feet nervously on the bare floorboards.

Alexander poured two generous glasses of brandy and then waited while Bethany brought a third glass and filled it before he spoke again.

“Right, I want to hear everything you know from the beginning. Don’t spare me a thing. I have to discover all before I can see what to do, though at this stage I am beginning to wonder if there is anything I can do.”

Geoffrey sat in the chair opposite Alexander as Giles leaned against the mantle.

“I can only tell you what I remember for the first part of the story. I was young at the time and probably didn’t understand all of it but it must be something important because I recall the day vividly. My father was steward as you know but he never revealed much at home and certainly not anything to me. He said that all matters of the estate were between him and your father and he never discussed them but I was about the house all the time and heard things mentioned. I knew that there were already stresses on the estate income. One evening, not long after Phillip had been sent to school, I overheard an argument between my father and yours. I feared that my father would find himself jobless when he told yours that he was a fool for persisting with payments to someone.” Alexander looked as though he was about to ask who when Geoffrey waved him down. “No names were ever mentioned or if they were I don’t recall them. They eventually came to some sort of agreement over this money but I had the feeling it was Smith the farmer. I recall something about a funeral and your father feeling obliged to pay as no charges had been brought.”

Alexander’s frown became deeper.

“You mean that you think father paid Smith to keep his mouth shut about Lily? But it was an accident. None of us knew that the girl had slipped into the barn. Surely my father didn’t think Phillip did it on purpose?”

Geoffrey shrugged.

“Who knows, I am only telling you the feeling I had about the argument at the time. If you remember, Smith left with Lily’s body the day she died. He’d said that he was burying her with her mother but he never returned. I thought it terrible at the time that there would be no funeral for her at Ormond. I thought she would go to hell.”

Alexander drew a breath. He hadn’t known what happened to Lily at the time. He hadn’t woken until later in the week and by then all the arrangements had been made.

Geoffrey took a quick sip of his brandy and carried on.

“The farm was let again when your father realized that Smith wasn’t coming back. I think he had enquiries made but there was no sign of Smith and the land needed tending. You probably won’t remember many of the subsequent farmers as you were at school most of the time by then too. Several other tenants moved in over the years but none of them stuck it. One wife left after saying that there was a ghost in the farm house. Apparently she could hear someone singing out of tune at night.”

Alexander swallowed audibly as he remembered Lily’s awful, out of tune ditties but he waited for Geoffrey to continue his tale before he made any comment. Geoffrey swirled his brandy and stared into the fire before speaking again.

“By the time Phillip returned from school the whole farm was abandoned. He tried to get it going again but you know what your brother was like. Farming really wasn’t his thing and he spent a long time going to visit friends he had made at school. After you left for France things really began to fall apart. We had a frightful spring of wild storms. Ruined what few crops we had for that season. We had nothing spare for the horses or cattle. Feeding them from the land was a nightmare. The fields were bare earth. Those people lucky enough to have decent crops needed all of it for their own livestock and those that had more than enough could charge what they liked. Prices of feed rose quickly. It was that winter that I first noticed a real difference at Ormond. The Duke sold two of his finest breeding mares and then the prize cattle. I know that my father advised him otherwise. Those animals brought in an excellent income and should have been the last to go but the Duke was apparently loath to sell the family silver. Several of the staff either married or moved on and were not replaced and then Phillip announced that he was about to wed Lady Anne. They met in London only two months before the wedding and were engaged for only the necessary four weeks. Phillip didn’t appear very happy at the prospect but he went through with it of course. Rumours abounded about Lady Anne’s reputation but they were soon proven wrong only months later when there was obviously no pregnancy.” He took a long sip of the brandy and swirled it around his mouth before swallowing. “My father took ill that winter. He came down with pneumonia and only survived the cold months due to the Duke’s insistence on sending for his own doctor, but it weakened father so much. He was delirious at times and he said things that I’m sure he would never have revealed if he were lucid.”

Giles poured more brandy and Geoffrey gulped it down before continuing.

“Father insisted that there was a plot to ruin Ormond and all its descendants. It sounded so far-fetched that I didn’t believe him at first but then the Duke began to sell some of his precious furnishings. Of course he made excuses about redecorating and getting rid of the rugs and all the old armour but I never believed him. You could see the pain etched in his face every time something was removed. After the sale of those pieces, he began on the paintings, but he purchased nothing new. My father died that spring. The last thing he told me was to help you discover who was determined to ruin Ormond when you returned. Your father told me immediately that he would be letting our own cottage for the income, but he offered for me to share the rooms above the stables with Jennings. I couldn’t refuse. I had nowhere else to go but I’ve done everything I can to retain my position here, doubling as stable lad and farmer when I can. The estate is huge, Alexander. Your father and brother were doing as much as they could to keep it all going but now that they are gone too, well, you probably saw that there are dead sheep in the fields. A stray dog has turned rabid and I haven’t had a chance to burn the rotting carcasses or find the beast yet. I was hoping the animal would come back to his kill and I could shoot the damned thing then.” Geoffrey looked out of the window at the darkening sky.

“At one time there were a dozen men working the place along with the household staff. Now it’s me, a lame Jennings and your father’s old valet Grady and he knows about as much of running an estate as the pigs do. We’ve only managed to keep the swine and the chickens because they eat whatever scraps come from the kitchens and forage for themselves the rest on the time. Grady has attempted to keep Ormond itself in order but you can see what he’s like. Your mother only kept him on as he nowhere else to go. Ormond has been his home for his whole life.” He hung his head in what appeared to be shame.

Alexander stood up and walked around the desk. He breathed in deeply as he put his hand on Geoffrey’s shoulder. It was clear that the young man had only just been holding the place and himself together.

“One man can’t oversee an estate of this size, Geoff. Your position has been untenable,” he was about to go on but Geoffrey stopped him. He took in a shuddering breath and held up his hand to indicate he had more to tell.

“It gets worse, Alex, I haven’t reached the end of my tale. Have you not wondered why Phillip and Lady Anne were here at all?” He swallowed as he prepared to give Alexander an even bigger blow. “Phillip sold Evenleigh last year. That’s why he and Lady Anne were here for the Spring tide. They moved in last summer and took the East wing at Ormond.”

Alexander felt a weight pressing on his chest. He fell back in his chair in shock. The beautiful manor at Evenleigh had been his mother’s previous home. It was left to her by her father and given to Phillip on his majority. When Phillip became the Duke, Evenleigh was meant to come to Alexander. The estate, ten miles from Ormond was small but there was a living to be had. He steadied his quavering voice.

“Sold Evenleigh? I can’t believe it. Sold it to whom?” The desolation in his tone was clear. He had never for one moment thought that Evenleigh would be in danger. It was his final hope for any standard of home if all else failed. Now he wasn’t even sure that he would have a roof over his head.

Geoffrey saw the pain in his friend’s eyes but he couldn’t hide the truth.

“The manor has never been occupied since the sale as far as I am aware but curiosity got the better of me and I went over a few months ago to see who had bought it. The fields have gone to ruin and the gardens are a mess. Your mother would pass out from the shock if she ever saw it. I don’t know the name of the owner for sure. The local innkeeper said that a fellow called Oakley turned up once and engaged an overseer to keep up with repairs and the like but even he is not there often and he’s certainly not done anything to the land.”