The Lightkeeper's Ball (24 page)
“What is it, sir?”
“I’m not sure.” He knelt and picked away twigs and moss to reveal several shell casings. “I believe our shooter stood here.” The shells were cool and hard in his palm. He pocketed all four of them. “I shall show them to the constable.”
The men continued on toward the sound of rushing water. Harrison’s spirits plunged when he saw the debris of his beloved aeroplane strewn around the open field. There was no putting it back together. He would have to start anew. At least he had some modifications in mind. There should have been plenty of gas in the tank, yet the plane had faltered as though it had no fuel.
Eugene stood beside him with his hands in his pockets. “Do we seek anything in particular?”
“The engine and fuel system,” Harrison said.
“Righto, sir.” His valet wandered off in the direction of the stream.
Harrison picked up pieces of plane and discarded them as he went. Finding what he sought would be difficult. Flies buzzed around his head, and his boots sank into the boggy ground. It was best not to dwell on his time here with Essie. Tossing and turning on his bed last night, he’d remembered the scent of her hair and the way she fit into his arms.
He tore his attention from the evergreen boughs. There was one last patch of scattered debris to examine. He lifted a wing and found the prize. The fuel tank. The damp ground soaked the knees of his trousers as he knelt and uncapped the tank. The interior was too dark to make out the level of liquid inside. He grabbed a nearby stick and stuck it into the tank. When it clanged against the bottom, he withdrew it. The end of the stick was dry. Empty.
“Did you find something?” Eugene’s voice came from behind him.
“An empty tank.” Harrison rolled the container over and followed the lines out. “I’m looking for a leak. See what you can find.”
Eugene knelt beside him and dug through parts as well. “There’s this, sir,” he said, holding out a long end of fuel line.
Harrison almost didn’t want to see it. If he found clear evidence of tampering, then what? He ran his fingers over the length of line. His forefinger snagged on a rough edge on the side away from him. When he turned it over, he found a hole. The edges went inside. Sabotage.
“It appears someone put a nail through this,” he said, showing it to Eugene.
“Perhaps it happened when the plane crashed.”
He shook his head. “There were no nails. This was deliberate.”
His valet raised stricken eyes to his. “You think someone wanted you dead?”
“It appears so. No one knew I was taking Lady Devonworth up in the machine. It was a spontaneous decision.”
Had someone killed Eleanor to get to him? And how did the attack on Lady Devonworth play into the killer’s plan? Had someone gotten wind of her intention to investigate? Perhaps the attempt on her life was to deter her from being too nosy. He rubbed his head. None of this made sense. He needed to tell Lady Devonworth, though, warn her to be on guard.
“Let’s go,” he told Eugene.
“What about these parts?”
“I’ll show the fuel line to the constable and ask him to investigate Eleanor’s death as well.”
“Sir? Miss Eleanor drowned.”
“I discovered she was afraid of the water, Eugene. Lady Devonworth is a friend of the Stewart family, and they believe she would never have gone swimming.”
The men left the gurgling brook behind and tromped out of the forest.
Olivia didn’t want to believe Frederick Fosberg, but his blue eyes were full of truth. If only she had spoken with Eleanor before her death. There were too many contradictions to know what to do. Whom to believe.
Eleanor had been happy to marry Harrison. She liked nice things and pretty dresses, and Mr. Bennett’s promise that she would be the star of Mercy Falls had certainly had an impact on her. While Mr. Fosberg was attractive, Olivia doubted he had the money that Harrison had. Could Eleanor have actually fallen in love with Fosberg? Even if she had, that didn’t explain her death. It was clear to Olivia that Harrison hadn’t been consumed with a passion for Eleanor. He had merely been dutiful in a sensible arrangement. He would have bowed to her request to break the engagement, if in fact she’d made one.
Olivia prided herself on her ability to see past appearances and discover truth, but her abilities had failed her ever since she came here. “Do you know if she broke her engagement?” she asked Fosberg.
“When we last spoke, she was expecting him to call on her. She intended to tell him then that the two of us planned to wed.”
Mrs. Fosberg sat wringing her hands. “You never breathed a word of this to me, Frederick!” She turned to Olivia. “My dear, I’m so sorry.”
“I needed to know the truth.” Olivia barely managed to speak past the constriction in her throat.
She didn’t want to believe Harrison had harmed Eleanor. Maybe there was another explanation. Pain throbbed behind her eyes. Only decorum kept her from asking the pair to leave. She needed time to think this through, to analyze all the ramifications of what this new information meant.
Silence fell with the lengthening shadows. The Fosbergs drank their tea in a hurried manner as though they sensed Olivia’s desire for solitude.
“Thank you for your candor,” she said as the mother and son took their leave. “Do call again.” When she heard the front door shut, she slumped onto the sofa and put her foot on the pillow.
She had reached for her tea when the doorbell rang again. Who would be calling when she was an outcast?
“Olivia!” a woman’s voice called out from the hall.
Olivia bolted upright. “Mother?”
The sound of running feet came down the hall, and her mother burst into the parlor. Olivia had never seen her mother rush or show any indecorum. The older woman’s cheeks were flushed, but her attire was impeccable, as though she had just left her house on Fifth Avenue.
“My dear girl,” she cried, holding out her arms. She rushed to the sofa and embraced Olivia.
Olivia inhaled her mother’s delicate rosewater scent and relished the tight squeeze of the maternal embrace. “I didn’t expect you for another week,” she murmured against her silk dress.
“I told you I would come at once.”
Olivia pulled away and smiled up at her mother. “‘At once’ usually means after days of packing.”
Her mother unpinned her hat and placed it on the table. “Not when you call with such momentous news. And when I arrived, I found you had been in an aeroplane accident! Really, Olivia, what were you thinking to go off with a man unchaperoned in such a hoydenish way?” She draped herself elegantly on the Queen Anne chair by the fireplace.
Olivia sat up and smoothed her hair. Though her ankle throbbed, she didn’t raise it to the coffee table, an act her mother would find most uncomely. “I am trying to discover what happened to Eleanor,” she said. “I’ve been spending as much time with Harrison as possible so that I can question him.”
“Well, this is going too far!” Her mother nodded to the teapot on the silver tray. “Is that fresh?” When Olivia shook her head, her mother rang for the maid. When the girl appeared in the doorway, she requested fresh tea and cake before turning to Olivia with more questions. “I saw the newspaper, Olivia. You were alone with that man for two nights.”
“Nothing happened, Mother.”
“Of course nothing happened. I’ve raised you to know better than that.” Her mother smoothed her dress.
Olivia clutched her hands together. “I’m told the news was in the San Francisco papers.”
Her mother gasped and put her hand to her mouth. “Olivia, no!” She moaned and put her hands on her cheeks. “You’re ruined.” She fanned herself. “And I shudder to think what my friends will say if word of this reaches New York.”
“I know, Mother.”
Olivia had spent her life trying to be the perfect daughter, to make her parents proud of her. In one careless act of thoughtlessness, she’d thrown it all away. Harrison had said she could be the woman God saw inside if she had the courage. What if she used this opportunity to be herself?
“He offered to announce our engagement,” she blurted out. “Should I allow it?”
Her mother’s expression went from stricken to calculating. “Harrison offered to marry you?”
“He did. He said we could break the engagement after the furor died down.”
The maid arrived with fresh tea and white cake squares. Silver clinked against china as she served them then slipped back out of the room. Even when they were again alone, her mother said nothing.
“Mother? What should I do?” Olivia asked.
Her mother sipped her tea and stared at her with thoughtful eyes. She put her cup and saucer on the table beside her. “It’s tempting. But you realize we would be playing into Mr. Bennett’s hands if we allow this? If your father’s letter is to be believed, both men are dangerous. Perhaps they have been working all along to force you into this position. Whose idea was it to go in that plane?”
Olivia bit her lip. “Harrison’s,” she admitted. “But he knew I’d been longing to experience it.”
“Ah.” Her mother pressed her lips together. “Just as I expected.” She sighed and took up her tea again. “‘Harrison,’ is it? I must say it would solve our financial pressures. I would insist Mr. Bennett make the financial arrangements at the announcement. I’ll not wait until a wedding that may never happen.”
“He would delay until the marriage, I’m sure.”
Her mother smiled. “I could tell him I know his son planned to ruin you to force this engagement. He would not want that leaked. Then when we have the money, you could break the engagement. I’ll take you to Europe to find you a man with money
and
a title.”
Olivia stared at the smug expression on her mother’s face. Had she always been so manipulative? “Mother, that’s not honorable!”
Her mother sipped her tea before answering. “The pair killed your sister.”
“I no longer believe Harrison guilty of anything like that.”
The cup rattled on the other woman’s saucer. “Your father believed otherwise.”
“Besides, Harrison doesn’t know I’m Olivia Stewart. You must say nothing to his father until I tell him.”
“When do you plan to inform him?”
“As soon as possible.” She dreaded it though. He didn’t seem the type to tolerate deceit.
“Very well. Let’s not speak of unpleasant things. What of this ball you are planning?”
“The lighthouse was destroyed in a storm, and there have been several ships lost already without its light. It must be rebuilt. The invitations have been sent.”
Her mother sniffed. “I would imagine you’ll be receiving refusals after the news of your disgrace gets out.”
Olivia caught her breath. Katie and Will were depending on the success of this ball. If her naivety had destroyed it, she couldn’t face Katie with the news. “It must be a success! What can I do?”
“Announce your engagement, I suppose. Your friends in New York will be curious to meet him. The ball could be an engagement ball as well. And a masquerade, you said?”
Harrison in a costume. She wanted to see that. “True. I would have to call them all, since the invitations have already gone. I never gave Harrison an answer to his proposal other than that I would speak with you about it.”
“I don’t see that you have much choice at the moment. Agree for now. You don’t have to go through with it.”
“But if I give him my word
.
.
.”
“Don’t be tiresome, Olivia. Now ring for the maid. My head is beginning to pound and I want Goldia to rub it with rosewater.”
“Yes, Mother.” The respite would give her a chance to consider all her options. She needed to sort through her emotions after learning from Fosberg that Eleanor was in love with him and planned to break her engagement to Harrison.
