A Perilous Marriage (19 page)

“What if you find Tasker has moved in on them and they are in danger?”

“One cannot plan for everything. As always, one keeps the ultimate objective in mind but deals with any situation that arises. We must be prepared for problems but not anticipate them beforehand. That gives us the freedom to jump whichever way is necessary. I’m sorry, my dear, I cannot predict the outcome. It depends what we find, if indeed we find anything as it is all supposition at the moment.”

With that last statement she had to be content, so fearing she was being too inquisitive, she changed the subject and began to talk of her day as they ate dinner. Richard viewed the change with relief. It helped to calm his mind which had become tense; not only with the previous explanation which he felt he owed her, but with the wait he had to endure before true darkness fell.

Once dinner was over, he glanced out of the window, looked at his watch, and said, “I must leave you now. Go to bed and don’t worry, I shall be back soon. Edgar is remaining here overnight, so you won’t be on your own. He will stay in this room. Once he has escorted Mary back to her room, he will come back here to be with you and keep you safe.”

* * * *

Following the message he’d received earlier, Richard met Aaron Buckler on the road out of the village. The hunter was in a thoughtful mood as he sat his horse, waiting for the earl.

“Just one place to visit it seems,” he said. “Matthew Ketley has a wife and two children. The babe was born a month ago, so it would be unlikely that either parent would forego a visit to shop. He has various animals, but his wife has a lot of hens and she has regular sales of eggs. She didn’t come as normal this week to bring in her eggs. I presume the hens lay as usual.” He said no more, but the inference was apparent.

“That seems a positive place to search. Lead on, you know where to go.”

No more words were exchanged, and it wasn’t long before the riders stopped in the lee of a wood and Aaron dismounted. “We’ll leave our mounts and go on foot from here,” he said quietly, leading his horse further into the trees before securing the reins to a branch. “The farm is not far, just over that hill,” he continued in a whisper as Richard followed suit and tied up his own horse. “There could be a guard,” he added warningly.

Richard acknowledged the warning with a held-up thumb, then the two men moved silently towards the farm. They reached the house without sighting anyone. A guard would have given himself away by the time they had moved close, so if there was anyone suspicious around they would be inside the cottage. They circled around until they came to the lamplit window of the kitchen and watched as Matthew’s wife took a strip of lint from a pan and laid it across her husband’s face. He flinched but sat quiet as she laid another over a second cut.

It did not seem as though they had company, so after waiting and listening for a while, Aaron whispered, “I’m going in. Wait here till I give the all clear.”

Richard nodded. “I’ll watch, go ahead.”

Aaron went to the back door and knocked quietly. Immediately, the two inside jumped in fright as they heard the knock. Richard watched as they looked at each other, then the wife went hesitantly to the door.

“Who is it?” Her quavering voice spoke volumes.

“It’s Aaron Buckley. Let me in, please.”

The door opened, and Mrs Ketley glanced hurriedly at Aaron. “Are you on your own?”

“No, I have the earl with me. Are
you
on your own?”

“Yes, come in quick, both of you.”

Richard moved in a flash and was inside and the door shut as Matthew tried to struggle to his feet. “Stay where you are, man. You are hurt, and we have only come to see why.”

Matthew Ketley sank back in his chair with a deep groan. He was obviously in pain.

“How did you know?” Near to tears, Mrs Ketley waved them to a seat. “I’ll make tea.”

“No, see to your husband first, ma’am, he looks as though he has been in a fight.”

“Taking it, more like. I thought they’d kill him.”

“Who are
they
?” Richard asked.

“We don’t know. Never set eyes on them before. Three of them, it was, suddenly turning up, wanting shelter. Matt said they could use the barn, but the chief one said that wasn’t good enough, they’d use the house. Matt lost his temper, and they set about him and tied him to a chair. My little Betsy was screaming, and then the baby started crying. They threatened to...” She gulped and tears began to trickle down her face.

“Take it gently, ma’am, no rush. I’ll have a look at Matt while you get your breath,” Aaron said with a quick nod to Richard who went over and put a comforting arm around her.

“Was the leader tall, dark-haired, darkish skin, well-spoken?” he asked, then as she nodded, he said, “His name is Tasker. We are hunting him as he is a villain and wanted by the police. He followed me here and has tried to harm both my wife and myself. Aaron offered to help seek him out, but more than that, we knew he had found shelter somewhere and have been trying to trace likely places. He has two men with him as well.”

Recovering again, Mrs Ketley nodded. “The others were rough looking, nasty brutes.

One of them hit Matt every time he didn’t answer the questions the chief man was asking.”

“What did they want to know?”

She stared up at Richard as he spoke as though frightened to answer.

“Tell him, Gwen. He has to know, and it’s my fault for letting on,” Matthew mumbled.

“It’s where you go, milord.”

“Where I go? I don’t understand you,” Richard said, puzzled at the looks that floated between Mathew, his wife, and even Aaron.

“I think I understand, milord.” Aaron stood back from examining Matthew. “When you were a lad and lived at home, you’d take off at times into the hills. Up to Clee Grot.”

“You knew the place?” Richard stared back in bemusement.

“Yes. When we were young ourselves, there wasn’t much we didn’t know about the hills around here. Or our dads, come to that. So we were forbidden because of the rock falls, but your pa probably never knew where you went, so you had the run of the place. We all knew why you escaped there. Not too many secrets about your family ever stayed hidden for long.”

For a moment, Richard felt a wave of fury flash through him at the thought of his childhood exposure, and then reason calmed his mind. His father’s yells of rage or the beatings he gave his sons would never have gone unheard with servants around, and the village was too close for tongues to stay quiet. He knew the earl had never been liked—in fact, was detested—and had wondered before his return whether that hatred would be passed down to him once the villagers knew he was back. He was relieved that quite the opposite had happened, and he had been welcomed with open arms.

Would he have left so precipitously if he had known of their sympathy? Just as well he hadn’t, for what kind of a life would he have had if he’d stayed? As it was, he had travelled, made his fortune, and best of all, had a wife to be proud of. He buried the thought that, thankfully, he had never seen his father again.  

“You’ve been back, recently, into the hills, and you must have been followed by one of the men who came here. As you left your horses grazing then disappeared, they wanted to know where you went. Matt didn’t want to say, but somehow they knew he knew, so they kept beating him then threatened to harm the bairns if he didn’t own up.”

“You did the right thing by telling them, Matthew. I don’t blame you at all. If anything, it makes it easy to know where they are.”

“Well, they’ve loaded up with our provisions so they can hole up for a month inside that cave. Emptied every cupboard of stores we have. As well as the eggs, they stripped the pantry and killed half a dozen of the hens for good measure,” Matthew explained despite his swollen mouth. “Even took one of our horses to carry some of the load.”

“Don’t worry about restocking, Matthew. I’ll put that right, never fear,” Richard said.

“It’s not that I was worried about, it was how we could pass on the warning where they were. They said they would know if we went into town and told anyone, and we would die.”

“You won’t need to go into town now, so relax. From now on, we shall see to things. Try and recover from that beating, Matthew, and take it easy. We’ll get a neighbour or two to see to the farm and the livestock. I’ll send the doctor to check you over. Mrs Ketley, stay in the house and look after the family. I will make sure you have plenty of provisions to make up for your loss. Let Aaron know what you want. It is better he keeps in touch with you than me, just in case anyone else is watching.”

“Thank you milord, we are most grateful.” She curtsied deeply to Richard. “I have to add you are nothing like your father was. It warms my heart to know you as our earl.”

Richard almost blushed as he and Aaron made their farewells. His conscience stirred as he remembered he had almost decided never to return home. What a terrible loss that decision would have been. Was fate still taking a hand in his future?

* * * *

They trod silently and inconspicuously as they walked back to their horses. Whilst they did not think any of the three were around now, they did not want to take a chance. However, the night was quiet with hardly a breeze to stir the trees, and they reached their steeds without alarm, mounted, and rode some distance before they stopped short of Clun to talk.

“What is your intention now, milord? Clee Grot is not an easy place to storm from the front. They could hole up for a long time, and I doubt you have the patience for a long siege.”

“Why have you come to that conclusion, Aaron? Think me a hothead?”

“Not so. I think you have a regard for the men who you will need to help you winkle them out. You strike me as one who plans carefully. One I will gladly follow.”

“First thing that struck me, listening to Matthew talk about the horse they stole, was how were they were going to look after their beasts if they are holed up in the cave. The animals won’t last long if they are tethered and have only the rough grazing around them. Once the weather changes, they won’t even have that. Tasker has never had to deal with looking after his cattle. He has always had a groom to see to the feed and water. He’ll have to send someone out to deal with them, so that someone can easily be picked up. Then, if the horses disappear, if he wants to leave he must go on foot, and
we
should be able to deal with that. Short of starving them out, which I am loath to do as it will take longer than I have time for, is there any way into the cave from the other side?”

He waited for Aaron’s reply while thinking that he must not disappoint Lucie and prevent her from getting to the Harvest Festival.

“Yes, there used to be a way in. That hillside is honeycombed with passages, but it could well be blocked by a roof fall. That’s why we were forbidden the area years ago. One of my classmates nearly lost his life after being caught in a fall. T'was the talk of the town as one of his rescuers was hurt as well. All we children were threatened within an inch of our lives if we played up there again.”

“Yet you let me go there?”

“One of our dads went up to the cave and piled up stones at the back to hide the exit. You would not have been strong enough to move them. The roof in the cave was safe enough, and he could see you only used the front half and weren’t there long enough to come to harm. As long ago as that, you were safeguarded.” Aaron gave a disarming chuckle at the look of shock on Richard’s face. “It’s not remarkable, really. You have always been one of our own.”

“I never knew.” Richard shook his head in amazement. “Indeed, I was in two minds whether to return to England again. Fate has a mind of her own, and circumstances contrived my homecoming, though to be truthful, I never meant to bring trouble with me. Matthew’s injuries are the direct result of a man who thinks he has been cheated of his dues, which is why he has followed me here. It is almost certain he has killed in America. Authorities there are still hunting for him. I strongly suspect he murdered my wife’s grandmother, thinking he would have my wife as his bride and obtain her estate. He even sent a prowler into my house, we thought to kidnap her. Luckily, he didn’t succeed. Having been barred from that target, he is now after me. I wager there are other killings to lie at his door. Unfortunately, I have no way to prove it. Thank God Matthew wasn’t one of them.”

“I doubt I’ve heard tell of a nastier villain and one we need to swiftly rid ourselves of.”

Aaron stilled his restless horse as he listened to Richard’s explanation. “I am a peaceful man, in tune with nature as a rule. I hunt for food but never for sport. Killing animals for the sake of sport is against everything I believe in. The exception is, I won’t hold back with a rabid animal, or one that needs to be put down because of circumstances. Whilst capture and arrest seems to be a fair and just way, one I think you as magistrate for this district would advocate, I’d get rid of the three of them in one fell swoop. The caverns are unstable in parts—easy to engineer a collapse, and a rock fall is deadly. Even if not killed directly, injured and walled up in debris means certain death…these men do not raise my sympathy. I can obtain the dynamite. I just need your permission.”