You Only Love Twice (42 page)

Rupert drained his glass. “Stone arranged that part,” he said. “The driver was some petty criminal who was paid to keep his mouth shut. He didn’t know about me, and I didn’t know him.”

“So if he were apprehended,” said Lucas, “he could only lead us back to Stone?”

Rupert nodded.

“If Jessica had not sensed something …” Lucas broke off and turned his face away. “And I didn’t believe her.”

Adrian said quietly, “Tell us what you sensed, Jessica, when Stone tried to get you into the carriage.”

She blinked rapidly. “Something malevolent, I don’t know, but it was the same feeling that came over me in
Rodney Stone’s rooms when Perry and I were there, and again this morning, in the crypt.”

“Try to be precise,” said Lucas quietly.

He wasn’t looking at her, but she sensed the rigid control he was imposing on himself. She looked down at her bruised and bloodied fingers and ragged nails. “I hardly know how to explain it,” she said. “I sense that something is very wrong. And I get impressions, fragments of dreams.” She looked at Rupert. “You went to Stone’s rooms, and you were in the crypt quite recently.”

He nodded. “I was covering my tracks, making sure I’d left no clue that would incriminate me. I knew I’d been careless, but that was because I never expected anyone to question Stone’s disappearance.”

She shuddered and hugged herself with her arms.

Lucas said, “I suppose you meant to murder Stone from the first?”

Rupert shrugged. “If I’d allowed him to live, he would have been too great a threat to me. Lucas, he was a nothing. He was despicable, and no loss to the world.”

Lucas showed no emotion. “His aunt would not agree with you. But if, as you say, Jessica can read your mind, what was to stop her knowing you had murdered Stone?”

“For one thing, she was sedated, and for another, I was more vigilant. She can’t read my thoughts at will.”

“Sedated?” said Lucas.

“I doctored her medicine with laudanum. It was the only way I could have her in my house and feel safe. And I wasn’t taking any chances when I got rid of Stone.”

Lucas’s hand clenched into a fist. Jessica was remembering Sister Dolores’s elixir and how groggy she’d been.

And all the time it was Rupert’s doing. That’s why she’d been so weary. It was only after she’d left Haig House that she’d started to get well again.

Another long silence, then Lucas said, “It was you who gave Stone an invitation to Bella’s ball?”

“I filled in his name in my own hand. That was a
stupid mistake. But as I said, I never expected anyone to question Stone’s disappearance.”

“And you found the card and destroyed it?”

Rupert inclined his head.

“You started the rumor that Stone was coming to Chalford to be with some woman?”

“Yes.”

“To divert suspicion from yourself?”

“Yes.”

“On to Jessica, in fact.”

“Yes. If she accused me, I thought people would take my word over hers. And it almost worked. Had you not caught me red-handed, had you not come upon us on the bluff precisely when you did, you would never have suspected me, no matter what Jessica said.”

Lucas looked at Jessica. Without inflection he said, “You’re wrong, Rupert. I would have taken Jessica’s word over anyone’s.”

At any other time, these words would have thrilled her. Now, they scourged her.

He watched her for a moment, then he turned back to Rupert. “I should have listened to her. She always suspected Stone.”

“I’ll say,” said Perry in a voice that burned with indignation. “It was Jess who kept asking questions about him. If she had left it alone, so would we.”

Lucas said, “How did you know about the crypt, Jessica?”

There it was again, “Jessica,” when he always called her “Jess.” That was how low she had sunk in his opinion. “It came to me in fragments of a dream,” she said. “I thought it was my dream, but later, I came to think it had come from … from my Voice.”

“That’s what I was to her,” said Rupert, “A Voice, not a person. But you must see my dilemma. It was only a matter of time before she unmasked me.”

Adrian made a sudden movement with his hand, and everyone turned to look at him.

“What?” asked Lucas.

“All this just to cover William Hayward’s murder? I hardly think so. There’s got to be more to it than that. We had a pact. If one was accused, the others would have protected him. We would have given each other an alibi. Jessica would have been laughed out of court if she’d sworn that Rupert was guilty because she could read his mind. There’s got to be more to it than that.”

“You say that,” said Rupert, “because it’s not your mind she can read. Can you imagine how tiresome it is keeping a guard on your thoughts? For the most part, I kept her at bay, but one can’t always be vigilant. And that first time, when I panicked …” His voice trailed away.

“What first time?” asked Lucas.

Rupert looked at him blankly and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

In a tight little voice, Jessica said, “The night he murdered my father. I saw him, though not clearly. But his mind was open to me, and I could feel his hatred and rage. He knew I was inside his mind and he came after me. He would have murdered me too if he’d caught me.”

“I panicked,” said Rupert. “She was there. She had seen me kill her father. She was reading my mind like an open book. Naturally, I went for her. But she eluded me.”

She eluded me
. This did not describe the horror of the next few hours. He’d hunted her down as if she were a wounded animal that he’d wanted to put out of its misery. That’s what had been so horrible. She’d felt his compassion and his regret, and it had made her sick to her stomach. At the same time, her heart had shattered because she thought he was Lucas.

She’d escaped by hiding on one of the river barges that was being loaded with farm produce for sale in London. She’d concealed herself in a bin of potatoes. It was near dawn before the barge cast off, and late afternoon the next
day when they docked in London. She remembered wandering the streets in a daze. Her father was dead because of her, and Lucas would kill her, too. And blind to everything but her own misery, she’d stepped in front of a moving carriage.

“And,” said Adrian, “that’s why you’ve done all this—just to cover your tracks?”

“No,” said Jessica. “He’s planning another murder.”

With a dry little laugh, Rupert rose and went to the table with the crystal decanters. After refilling his glass, he took his seat again. “I see,” he said, “that I’m to be spared nothing.”

“Whose murder?” asked Lucas.

“Bella’s, of course,” replied Rupert. “But I see from your expression you’ve already guessed it. Did you see through all my little ploys and stratagems, Lucas?” A sneer crept into his voice. “Or do you imagine that I love my wife? I despise her and that is no exaggeration.” He put his glass to his lips and almost drained it. “To think,” he said, “I chose her to be mistress of my ancestral home. My mother would turn in her grave if she could see the woman who has replaced her. Bella is vulgar from the tips of her fingers to her painted toes. She has no heart, and no taste. She has the mind of a child. Try and carry on a conversation with her and see what I mean. She has only one topic of conversation and that is Bella. Not that any of us thought the less of her for that when we were rivals for her affections. But we were young and foolish then.”

He set down his glass with a snap. “She has no appreciation for this house and its history. Nor does she want to learn. She despises my tenants and their wives because they have honest dirt under their nails. I assure you, the feeling is mutual.”

He stopped suddenly and shook his head. “Don’t you think I know, Lucas, that both you and Adrian thank your lucky stars that I was the one she married? I tell you, I had not been married a month before I knew what a
fool I’d been, but I endured for three years before I decided to do something about it. I had murdered once, I thought, and I could do it again. No. I
would
do it again.”

He looked at Jessica and said softly, “But you were there, even then, weren’t you, Jessica, listening to my thoughts, learning my secrets?”

“That’s not how it works,” she said. “Your thoughts come to me in blurred pictures and sensations.” She looked at Lucas. “I’d heard my Voice before, describing what I know now was my father’s murder. But this time it was different. It told me there would be another murder. From the moment I returned to Hawkshill, I had only one thought in my mind—how to prevent it.”

“And to think you’ve saved Bella!” exclaimed Rupert with a laugh. “What an irony! You always hated her when you were a girl. And she has never had anything good to say about you. That’s the trouble with Bella. She never recognizes quality.”

Lucas’s mouth twisted. “So you made up your mind to murder Jessica.”

“I had no choice.”

“And how were you going to do it, after the debacle with Stone?”

“I hadn’t the foggiest idea. I knew I couldn’t make any plans in case she got wind of them. It would have to be something I devised on the spur of the moment. When she walked out of the mist today, alone, with no one to protect her, I thought luck was on my side.” He drained his glass. “I wanted it to be quick and painless. I didn’t want her to suffer. But she was too clever for me.”

“And Bella?” said Lucas. “What plans had you made for her?”

Rupert clasped his hands and looked down at them. “I had promised her a trip to the Continent. It’s something she has always wanted. I would have arranged an accident, something, I don’t know.” He looked up. “Lucas, I am not a cruel man. She wouldn’t have suffered.”

There was an odd little silence, then he said, “Time is passing, Lucas, and I’ve told you everything. I think you, Adrian and I have matters to discuss among ourselves.”

Lucas seemed to stir himself, as though his mind had been miles away. He ignored Rupert and turned to Perry. “See that Jessica gets home safely. No. On second thought, take her to Hawkshill. The nuns are there. They’ll look after her. And Perry, stay with her. I don’t want anyone badgering her with questions. Understood?”

“Understood,” replied Perry quietly.

Jessica felt her heart constrict. “I don’t want to go to Hawkshill,” she said. “I want to go to the Lodge.”

Lucas shook his head. “There’s no one there to look after you. I’ll look in on you later. Perry?”

She made a halfhearted protest, but Perry’s arm went around her shoulders. “Come on, Jess,” he said, and helped her to her feet. “If you’re up to it, you can take my horse and I’ll take Adrian’s.”

There was a strained look in Perry’s eyes that made her uneasy, but when he saw her studying him, his expression cleared. At the door, she turned back to look at the men who had been such close friends, and she had the uncanny feeling that she was looking at statues. No one moved. If they were breathing, she wouldn’t have known it. No one looked at her.

She slipped out of Lucas’s coat and laid it on a chair. Then Perry ushered her out of the room.

CHAPTER
27

W
hen the door closed, Adrian walked to it and turned the key in the lock. He then went to the window and looked out. “We don’t have much time,” he said.

Lucas remained where he was, staring at Rupert. And under that stare, Rupert flushed. “I don’t think,” said Lucas slowly, “that I ever knew you.”

“You knew me,” said Rupert. “And I’m the same person I always was. God, Lucas, how can you look at me like that? You know what Hayward was. Do you think Jessica is going to waste any tears on him now that her memory has returned? I don’t think so. He was a careless, unfeeling father. And don’t waste your sympathies on Stone, either. Do you imagine I would have cut off the life of some promising young man? He was a wastrel. He would have done anything for money. As for Bella, you despise her as much as I do. I’ve seen it in your face when you’ve thought yourself unobserved. Do you think I
wanted to be tied to such a woman for the rest of my life?”

“Will you listen to yourself? These are
people
you’re talking about, for God’s sake, not vermin!”

Rupert sneered. “And weren’t the French people, too? Yet we killed them as though they were vermin and they did the same to us. Having wept bitter tears for some of the finest comrades who ever fell in battle while the scum of the earth got off scot-free, you’ll pardon me if I don’t shed tears for people who have no claim on my sympathies.”

“And Jessica?” said Lucas in a queer, tight voice.

Rupert looked down at his desk and began to riffle through some papers. “Jessica is my one regret. However, I will say this. If I’d known that you loved her, I would never have embarked on this course. But you see, Lucas, you hid it so well. I always thought you felt sorry for her. I wish I had known how it was before it was too late to turn back.”

Adrian spoke over his shoulder. “He’s here! Constable Clay is here.”

“I fear,” said Rupert, “I must beg a favor of you, Lucas. I don’t have a pistol in my library. Will you lend me yours?”

Lucas spoke through his teeth. “I’d like to see you hang from the highest gibbet for what you tried to do to Jessica.”

“No doubt. Then if you won’t do it for me, do it for her sake.”

They heard footsteps in the hallway. There was a knock at the door. The handle turned. “Sir?” A pause, then in an aside, “I know they are in there, Constable.”

This time someone pounded on the door, and the doorknob rattled. “Open the door at once.” Constable Clay’s voice. “Do you hear? Lucas? What the devil is going on in there?”

“Lucas,” said Rupert, “leave me some honor. For friendship’s sake?” He held out his hand palm up.

Lucas felt himself suddenly transported. Inseparable—he, Adrian, Rupert and Philip—that’s what they’d been. They were boys again, carefree, pounding up and down the stairs of this very house. On his fourteenth birthday, a surprise party on the lawns of Haig House, and later, a loan to buy his commission and so many kindnesses in between.
For friendship’s sake
, Rupert would say. It was a loose translation of the Haig motto. Loyalty, that’s what it was all about.