If He's Noble (Wherlocke Book 7) (Paranormal Historical Romance) (17 page)

“Not that I am aware of, m’lady.”

Jenson recognized the voice of the housekeeper, Mrs. Jakes, and sighed when he heard the fear in the woman’s voice. Augusta terrified all of them. He held his breath to see if he could hear what answer Augusta accepted, Mrs. Jakes, or one of her own.

“Then it was probably my fool husband who does not have the sense to even hide his intrusion here. Get me some tea and a few cakes.”

“As you wish, ma’am.”

“M’lady. I will be called m’lady. Remember that.”

Jenson held back the snort of disgust he felt ready to give. That woman was not entitled to the honors of the barony but clearly planned to usurp them. The only way to do that would be to wipe out the whole family. It was diabolical but he was not truly surprised. The woman had been talking as if that was her plan for as long as he had been trapped with her.

“Oh, and Mrs. Jakes, fetch my man of business.”

Jenson sat down near the door so he could be sure to hear as much of what was about to be said as possible. Augusta was evidently so certain of victory that she was already taking over the entire household. He did not think that fool Rufford knew the extent of his wife’s thefts or her intention to grab that title for him. That meant he did not know how near he was to being killed. Augusta would not allow him to throw away the money she saw as hers. The wait was long, however, and he began to feel very tired.

The sound of a door shutting and Augusta’s sharp voice jerked Jenson out of a nap. He rubbed his eyes and settled in to see if she meant to pull poor Mister Sutton into her plots through guile or threat. Could even be through bribery, he thought, although the man would have to be a fool to think he would ever see any of the money promised.

“Mister Sutton, I have some business that needs tending to.”

“Such as what, ma’am? Do you wish some advice on investments?”

“No, I need to deal with some of the business of Willow Hill.”

“That business is the sole province of the new baron, or in a few cases, Miss Primrose. You have no authority.”

“Here is my authority. You can see right there that both Simeon and Primrose have signed allowing me to deal with matters while they are gone.”

“But, they have not even heard the will read. This is most unusual.”

“They are not certain when they can return and do not wish to leave things untended. Can you think of anything in the will that would prohibit any normal sort of business?”

It was quiet for a few minutes and Jenson decided Mister Sutton was pulling the will out of his bag and quickly reading it through. “Ah, here is one thing that severely changes how business is done here. Courtyard Manor. It goes to Master Geoffrey and thus there will be no more payments.”

“Peter gave it to Geoffrey?”

“Every inch of it. All that is asked is that he agree to continue to be one of the regular suppliers to Willow Hill. I suppose that is because the baron saw the quality of the man’s goods.”

“That loss could cost Willow Hill dearly.”

“There is still ample income, ma’am.”

“Ample, perhaps, but that is still a large bite out of the purse. Do you think Geoffrey will sell it to us?”

“No, he is quite happy there and had done well enough that he never failed or even struggled to pay the lease. There is also a list of things to be done with Miss Primrose’s dowry, the lands and the money. It is not too long now before she is five and twenty, which would be when she would be handed it all to do with as she pleases.”

“What does she get?”

Jenson listened as Sutton listed several nice little properties and an enviable purse. That was not going to please Augusta at all.

“That is ridiculous. She is the daughter of a baron, not some princess. Willow Hill cannot afford to lose so much property or such a heavy purse.”

“This is what the baron wanted for her and he was well able to afford it. So is Willow Hill.”

“This kind of thing could bankrupt the estate.”

“Nonsense. I researched it carefully and he could see that, although when it is first handed out money will be a little less for a year or two, Willow Hill will fully recover.”

“And these things cannot be argued.”

“No, ma’am, and I see no reason for it to be. There is no case for what you claim, that it will bankrupt this estate.”

“I must think on this, Mister Sutton, but we will be sure to discuss it again. Now I need some funds to deal with the cottages.”

“What is wrong with the cottages?”

“They need new paint and roofs.”

“I just rode past them and their roofs looked fine.”

“I believe the word of the people living in them should count for more than the opinion of a man who just rode by and looked at one or two.”

Jenson could almost feel Augusta’s fury and he was certain Sutton could. It did not surprise him to hear her thank him in only a few minutes and then send him on his way, asking him to tell Mrs. Jakes to send in Jim Petty. He was just wondering what he should do when she left when he heard the door open again. This time he could actually hear a booted tread cross the floor and he knew it was another of Augusta’s hirelings. He had never met a Jim Petty, though.

“I need you to take this to a man named Geoffrey and tell him he must sign it or he and his family will pay very dearly. If he still objects, come find me. I will probably be in here struggling to find a way to keep that little bitch from taking such a big bite out of Willow Hill.”

“You want that threat vague or very, very clear?”

“I want it to make him shake in his muck-covered boots.”

The moment the door shut, she cursed, fluently and profanely. “This cannot be allowed. That fool Peter wrote a will that was going to beggar me,” she complained as she paced.
I cannot and will not allow it
, she decided. Geoffrey would be crushed and when that was done, she would see to making Sutton pay for standing in her way with all his papers and laws. She knew he disliked her, did not respect her, and looked down his long nose at her all the time. When she ran Willow Hill, he would have to find himself a new position, or, even more to her liking, a grave.

Jenson waited and waited. Even had another little nap. Then, just as he gained the courage to see if she was gone and get himself out of the smoking room, out of Willow Hill, and even out of the parish, a soft rap came at the door. He hesitated, terrified she had figured out where he was.

“Jenson, I know you are in there. You probably have about a half hour to get away from here so you better move.”

He quickly stepped out and stared at Mrs. Jakes. “I need to warn Sutton that he is stirring up the wrong woman.”

“He knows. That boy needs to get here and take his place. He is the only one with the power and right to get the magistrate after her.”

“That boy has been running for his life as has Miss Primrose. If Augusta gets her, she will either kill the poor girl or marry her off to Sir Edgar Benton.” Jenson nodded when Mrs. Jakes looked at him in horror. “Payment for gambling debts. Augusta has blood on her hands. Lady Wootten and her babe and the baron. She killed them both.”

Mrs. Jakes sat down heavily in a small chair near the desk. “Are you certain?”

“I am and so are Miss Primrose and Lord Simeon. There’s just no hard proof to get her to the hangman. She has been chasing them all over the countryside and kills anyone who knows what she is up to when she has no more need of them. I only got free of her with my life because of Miss Primrose and some man helping her, a Sir Bened Vaughn. Now, before I run and hide as I was strongly advised to, I am trying to find something, just one little thing that will help them in their fight against her.”

“Not her husband, I suppose.”

“If he is not the complete ass he acts, then he is in this with her, so no. Not him. I cannot take the ledgers away for that would be noticed.” He looked over what little there was strewn on the desk. “And she did not leave behind the papers she claimed Miss Primrose and Lord Simeon signed giving her the power to do Willow Hill business. And, no, they did not sign anything. That was a lie.”

“I have no idea what to do, Jenson.”

“Do not make her angry. Want to know why I was with her? Because she threatened the lives of my brother and his family and my daughter. She has just sent a man off to do the same to Master Geoffrey because the baron left Courtyard Manor to him and she will lose the lease money. That is how she works. And she has done something somewhere that makes them believe it, or her hirelings do for they are all violent men.”

“I might have something they can use,” Mrs. Jakes said as she stood up and started out of the room.

Jenson hurried after her. She went down into the wine cellar and he frowned. As far as he knew neither Augusta nor her useless husband had ever been down here for they expected, always, to be served. Then Mrs. Jakes tugged a little book out from between two bottles, the reddish-brown leather cover elaborately carved with a butterfly.

“It is Lady Wootten’s journal. She wrote in it all the time. I had just learned to read when she died and thought it would be lovely to read her words, that it might help me deal with the grief I was struggling with. She suspected Augusta of crimes, small ones at first but then larger and increasingly evil. It began slowly, with a few writings about hurt and disappointment concerning a woman she considered a sister to her. Near the end there was fear and on the last page she had decided to tell the baron.”

“At which time she conveniently dies in a fall,” Jenson murmured as he took the book from her hands. “Thank you, Mrs. Jakes. I will get this book to them. Even if, in the end, it is little help, it is something I think Miss Primrose would treasure. Now, be very careful and do nothing to anger the woman.”

“I will be careful. Just do your best to get that to one of the baroness’s children so they can end their mother’s killer. Now that she is back and searching every part of the house for something, perhaps more evidence of something valuable she can steal or sell, I fear she will find it.”

Jenson slipped out of the manor and into the woods. He knew of a shepherd’s shack on the hills where he could hide for a while. Being up on the hill would also give him a very good view of the road. For now he would just do his best to remain hidden but the moment he caught sight of any of the people riding with Miss Primrose, he would do all he could to get this book to her. Augusta was drunk on her own power and it was past time someone sobered her up.

Willow Hill Manor appeared in view as they crested a small rise. Primrose looked at it with relief for it signaled an end of a very long ride. She wondered if it would ever feel like home again now that her father was gone. It occurred to her that her brother was going to have a difficult time putting his own mark on the property for their father’s was so strong, so intertwined with all that was Willow Hill.

“It is not the same,” said Simeon as he reined in beside her. “It looks the same, I know, but it does not feel the same.” He shook his head. “And I am making absolutely no sense.”

“I know what you mean. The heart of it is gone.” She frowned a little. “Something else troubled me and I believe I now know what. None of us have been here and yet there are no signs that that has mattered. It has been run and cared for so efficiently, it appears it does not even need us. That is very unsettling. It is not a welcoming feel when I look at it, but it’s almost as if the house is shrugging and saying, ‘Well, come in if you must, but if you track mud from your boots on my carpets, I will crush you.’”

“Oh well,” he stuttered out, and then scowled at the house. “That was very fanciful and somewhat unsettling. It has been cared for correctly is all and, at some point, one of us would be needed. It is just that Papa hired good people.”

“Yet allowed two adders, one of them extremely poisonous, to freely slither about the place?”

Simeon sighed. “I did no better.”

“Nor I but I keep reminding myself that we were only children. Children are very good at believing everything is their fault, especially if some adult says it is, nor do they wish to give a parent any news that will cause discord. Penelope said a few things about the children she takes in, every one of them tossed out by their mothers. They all come to her thinking it is all their fault, that they are evil or whatever cruel thing they were told. Augusta was always telling me what a bad child I was. Why would I wish to tell Papa about that? I think I was terrified he would agree and not love me anymore. Then there is all that trouble I had with forgetting the truly horrible things she did to me.”

“It is why I never told him about the beatings. Then there were the times she told me that he was the one who had ordered my punishment and how sorry she was to have to do it.”

Primrose muttered a curse, causing Simeon to laugh. “That was particularly cruel of her, the bitch. We were not only too trusting, but, I think, we live in our own heads too much. It was easy for her to fool us, smart though we are. And we are. But we just never learned enough about people to see the signs of her sickness.”

Simon nodded. “We are. Papa was. You could become lost in studying your plants and herbs. Papa and I could be lost as we tried to sort out some invention or thought through some problem. We should have looked around now and then. Should have learned how to deal with and understand people.” He straightened up. “Best to go down there. Our companions must wonder why we linger here so long.”

“I was wondering why you were taking so long to move,” said Lilybet as she rode up next to Simeon. “’Tis a very fine view but I assumed you had seen it before.”

Primrose bit back a grin as she watched her brother scowl at the woman. Lilybet appeared to delight in irritating a man well known for his calm, amiable nature. The woman played the game so very well, too, Primrose thought. Simeon never failed to snap at the bait. For such a brilliant man, he was being especially obtuse in his dealings with Lilybet.

“We were just about to go down,” Simeon said.

Simeon nudged his horse onto the path that led them out of the hills. Men were coming out of the stables before he even reached the flat area that led up to the doors of the manor. Primrose shook her head. Her father had made the house efficient; hiring people who did their jobs well and never wavered in their work. Except that bills needed to be paid, stock and crops sold, and papers needed to be signed, but her father had also made sure that he and his family were little troubled by the simple routines of the running of the estate. It had been smart, making life pleasant, but it had also made the perfect hunting ground for a predator like Augusta. It had opened the door to her thievery as well.

Bened studied Willow Hill carefully and sighed. A tasteful elegance could be seen in every inch of the building. Lawns and gardens were beautiful, lush, and as close to perfect as any he had ever seen. He had the sinking feeling that the inside of the manor would be equally as perfect.

The men from the stables greeted the Woottens with quiet respect and all of their belongings were swiftly collected by the servants from the house, all of them dressed in pristine blue and white uniforms appropriate to their positions in the household. Mixed in with the proper greetings and introductions, he could hear both Simeon and Primrose asking various servants about some health problem or a family member, revealing that they knew the people who worked for them very well.

He had his hereditary title, his knighthood, and his big manor house with several acres of good land but it would all look like a ruin if compared to Willow Hill. Despite the money he had put into the house, he doubted Primrose would see more than the hulk of a stone building it was. He had not brought his manor back to its former state but even that would never match the beauty of Willow Hill. It had none of this quiet elegance or softness.

Seeing the inside only depressed him more as an aging butler took his coat. The place was so clean it shone. Wealth was evident in the paintings and furniture but nothing was too ostentatious. In truth, the care taken to not appear too proud of one’s history and wealth, to not be ostentatious and vain in the display of what one had or could have, was just a little too obvious to Bened, nearly ruining the attempt.

He felt someone move up beside him and looked down into Lilybet’s face. The awed yet uneasy look she wore probably mirrored his own, he thought. One could almost feel the weight of a long history and smell the wealth. It did not intimidate but it did impress. It also made Bened painfully aware of his place in such a world. That place was certainly not standing next to Primrose.

Bevan came up on his other side and slapped him on the back. “It is all so very precise, is it not?”

It was, but Bened frowned at the hint of criticism in Bevan’s tone. “
You
think that is bad?” he asked in a quiet voice, not wanting any of the servants to hear what could sound like a complaint, and knowing that his brother had a similar need for such precision and cleanliness, but not so much that he could not be comfortable in the chaos that was real life.

“Odd, mostly. I got the impression from stories told by Simeon and Primrose that the baron was intelligent, affable, and even a little silly at times. The house does not match the man unless he learned at a young age to have his servants keep it so while he did as he pleased.”

“That could be the way of it but, aye, it is difficult to see the man they spoke of living here.”

He looked around as the butler ushered them all into the parlor. Here were a few hints of the possibility that someone actually lived here. A few books on a table, a coat over the back of a chair, and an empty teacup, all of which a visibly flustered butler collected up and took away. Bened wondered if it had been a few of the upper servants taking advantage of their employers’ absence to enjoy a lovely sit-down in a comfortable room who had left the items behind.

Several maids appeared with refreshments for them but it was nearly an hour before Primrose and Simeon joined them. Neither looked happy and Simeon looked furious, an expression that sat oddly on his almost-pretty face. Perhaps Paradise was not as perfect as it looked. He waited as Primrose ordered the tea and food freshened. She then came and sat down next to him, and Boudicca hurled herself up onto the settee to nudge her way in between them.

“She has been here. Stayed here for two days, claimed a power to do as she wanted or we ordered, and even showed papers with our signatures on them to give her that power,” Primrose said.

“Do you think she has now turned her attention to just stealing from you?” Bened asked.

“We will have to go over all the ledgers and speak to our man of business to know that but I will not be surprised to discover she has helped herself to some funds.”

“According to Mrs. Jakes, the housekeeper, Augusta has ended Geoffrey’s lease and ordered him out of the house and off the land,” snapped Simeon as he waved aside Lilybet’s offer to pour him a cup of tea. “It seems Jenson made it here safely and was looking for something to help us prove what we believe Augusta is up to. She called our man of business in but he did not give her anything she wanted until she produced those papers. All she got was some funds to fix roofs.”

“Well, I am pleased to hear Jenson came back. One must hope he got his family out of her reach,” said Primrose.

“Jenson told Mrs. Jakes to warn Sutton not to push Augusta too hard and I said that would be a good idea. Jenson’s family has left and she has no idea of where Jenson is except that he would be hiding and watching for us.”

“I believe he has just found us,” said Bened as he helped himself to a little lemon cake and fondly wished it was one of Frederick’s.

Jenson entered the room warily. He did not look quite so stiff and prim as he had the last time Bened had seen him. Hiding from a woman with a growing love of killing obviously wore the man down. He shook aside that unkind thought. People born into service did not think like one who had lived independent if not rich and spent a lot of time as a soldier. Jenson was not guilty of anything except not knowing how to face down the ones he had been raised to obey and serve. He watched as the man approached Simeon, bowed slightly, and handed him a little leather book.

“Mrs. Jakes had it,” Jenson said. “It was your mother’s and although I do not believe it will help you capture Augusta, it will give you another’s word on what she has done to your family if you need it. She has men at Master Geoffrey’s home. He greeted her at the door with a rifle but one of her men already had his oldest boy so he quickly backed down. Augusta left shortly after they had all gone into the house.”

“Damn,” said Simeon. “She is playing her usual trick. Do as I want or I will kill your family. She discovered that will make the bravest of men bow and will just keep doing it to anyone in the way of what she wants if she is not stopped, and soon.”

“So we approach Geoffrey’s home as cautiously as we did the place where she held Bened,” said Bevan.

“Aye.” He set down the cup of strong tea he had been enjoying. “I can tell you where the enemy is. Once we know where they are, it will be easier to know what to do, how to remove them.”

“What of Augusta?” asked Jenson.

“If she is there she will be
removed
as well. She has shown us time and time again that she has every intention of killing us. Time to think of her not just as our aunt or a woman, and call her the killer she is.” He rubbed his hand over the soft leather cover of the book. “I actually ache to read this but Geoffrey needs our help now.” He handed it to Mrs. Jakes. “You kept it safe for years. Please keep it safe for just a little while longer.”

Primrose tried to still the trembling that had seized her at the thought of being able to read her mother’s words. She wanted to rush over and snatch the book from Simeon’s hands. Try as she would, she could not keep her attention on the talk of helping Geoffrey. The journal held all of her attention and she waited to see what would be done with it.

“I will, m’lord.” Mrs. Jakes grabbed Jenson by the arm. “Come along, Jenson. You need food and clean clothes. If that woman comes back here, there is always the wine cellar to hide you in.”

Careful not to draw any attention to herself, Primrose slipped out of the room after Mrs. Jakes and Jenson. Guilt tried to turn her back for she really felt she should also be doing what she could to help Geoffrey. Then she thought on the long, complicated argument there would be before any of the men would allow her to join them in what was sure to be a battle and the guilt eased. They would leave quicker if they thought they were slipping away without her.

It was a long time, one that required a great deal of sneaking around, before Mrs. Jakes put the journal in the place the baron had built for Primrose to work on her plants and all her medicines and lotions. Primrose waited silently in the shadows as the two servants talked quietly and, to her surprise, gently kissed before Mrs. Jakes led Jenson away. Then, after assuring herself that they were gone, Primrose hurried over to get the journal.

 

 

“Huh.” Simeon scratched his chin. “I did not know that Mrs. Jakes liked Jenson. Valets tend to keep themselves above other servants.”

“Oh, she likes him just fine,” said Lilybet, refilling her cup with hot tea and then putting in a lot of sugar. “If the fool would just look about a bit he would not spend his declining years alone.”

“Servants are not usually allowed to marry.” He winced at the look Lilybet gave him. “Did not say I agreed with that, just that it is a custom. Those who make such rules think it interferes with their ability to do their jobs. Did once say to a man that I could not see how that would be true and had anyone done a study to be certain. He gave me a look just like yours, Lily.”

“I think it is a rule made to make certain the servants have no life
but
serving the ones who pay them a pittance,” she said, and poured a lot of cream into her tea.

“Can you actually taste the tea?” asked Morris as he watched her drink some of it.

“A little. It flavors the sugar and cream very nicely.” She grinned and had another drink. “So, are we going to go rescue this Geoffrey person and his family?”

“We?” Simeon asked. “We will be me, Bened, Bevan, and Morris. Perhaps a few of the male servants. You will stay here.”