There was no doubt that, along with Joshua disappearing once Charles was no longer of any use to him, so would Edmund. Clara felt bereft and cursed herself for her weakness; he had used them both; she should keep reminding herself of that.
The problem was that no matter how many times she repeated the mantra to herself, she still longed to see those eyes gazing into her own just before he kissed her.
*
The evening was the most enjoyable of the stay. It was just the Bakers and the Beresford’s who sat down, along with Joshua. All but Joshua were in a buoyant mood, and so the chatter was loud and jovial, especially after the official announcement was made. Clara noticed that Joshua left the room soon after the engagement was made public and was glad of his absence. His natural glower did nothing to lighten the mood.
It was late before everyone retired to their respective bedchambers. Clara sat in her window seat, not bothering to get undressed. She needed to have a few moments of undisturbed peace before she rang for her maid to assist her. It had been a noisy day, and she was glad of the quiet and time for reflection.
The moon was only partly obscured by cloud, there was a reasonable amount of light, illuminating the garden and glistening off the ocean in the distance. The sea always seemed majestic in the dark; tonight it was reasonably calm, but there was enough light to show the power of the smaller waves.
Clara suddenly sat a little further away from the glass; Joshua Shambles was making his way across the grass in front of the house, walking towards the beach path. He was not trying to conceal himself the way he had done on the other night she had seen him leave the building.
This must be the night that whatever he had planned was taking place, or he would still be taking care not to be seen. Clara breathed a sigh of relief; soon he would be gone from their lives. She should have been concerned that he was without doubt involved in something illegal, but she did not care; he would leave and no longer able to use Charles.
Edmund was out there.
Clara’s heart sank. Edmund could be at risk while Joshua was outside. She wanted to have the ability to warn Edmund but was sensible enough to realise that her presence would put him even more at risk as well as endangering herself. She did not like it but had to content herself with trusting that Edmund had enough experience and ability to keep himself safe.
Clara had relaxed again once Joshua had moved out of sight, heading onto the beach, but her peace was not to last long.
She was horrified to see Charles walking across the lawn, not attempting to hide himself, but following in Joshua’s footsteps.
Clara banged on the window with enough force that the panes of glass rattled with objection, but Charles did not hear them. He continued his walk, not looking back at all.
Clara felt sick with panic, but she jumped off the window seat, rushing to her wardrobe. Grabbing her pelisse, she flung it over her shoulders, struggling to put her arms in the sleeves as she hurried to her bedchamber door. Gone were the thoughts not to be anywhere near Joshua Shambles; Charles was putting himself in danger and did not realise it. Clara had to reach him before anyone else did.
*
Clara ran as fast as she could, gasping between barely contained sobs, thanking her foresight in not removing clothing or footwear that would have delayed her even more. She had opened the large wooden front door of Glazebrook House, leaving it swinging in the night air, not wishing to waste a second.
Why had she not told Charles any of what she knew? Joshua had shown her his true colours; she should have warned Charles to be on the alert. Even as the thoughts coursed through her mind she knew exactly why she had held her counsel; Charles would not have listened to whatever she had said to Joshua’s detriment. Clara stumbled in the dark; he was a foolish boy!
She reached the top of the pathway and almost threw herself against the Cliffside in order to conceal her descent. She could not make anything out on the beach, which she hoped was a good sign. Trying to control her breathing, which sounded uncommonly loud in her own ears, she made her way down the path.
The path was relatively smooth, but the cliff that it hugged provided a constant source of pebbles, soil and tufts of loose grass and caused Clara to curse as she stepped on one object after another or kicked a pebble scurrying down the path ahead of her. She hoped Joshua had disappeared, and Charles would be making his way back up the path, but she could hear no movement.
In fact she could hear nothing at all, apart from her own pounding heart and the noise of the waves rolling onto the pebbles.
As the pathway ended and she reached the pebbled beach, Clara hesitated. She had no light and was not sure which direction to start searching first. She dared not call out to Charles for fear of betraying both their positions.
Just as she was about to push herself off from the comfort of the cliff, Clara gasped.
“Now isn’t this sweet? Brother and sister come to poke their noses where they aren’t wanted,” came the amused drawl of Joshua Shambles.
Clara did not move; there was a gun being pushed into her neck. Her knees weakened through fear, and she prayed she would not suddenly faint.
“Not so talkative now, are you?” Joshua taunted at her silence.
“I-I just want to find my brother; I’m not interested in anything else that’s going on,” Clara stuttered, unable to stop the tremor in her voice, which was unsurprising as she had never been so afraid in her life.
“Don’t take me for a fool!” Joshua hissed, pressing the barrel of the gun harder into Clara’s neck.
“It’s true!” Clara gasped, hardly able to talk because the pressure against her artery was so great.
“Well, you’re going to see your brother, that’s for certain. I’m not one to prevent emotional goodbyes. Claude, take this snooty bitch to her stuck-up brother; let them have a family reunion while I think of how best to get rid of them,” Joshua instructed.
Clara was grabbed and hauled over the shoulder of what felt like a giant. She squealed in surprise, but any further sound was discouraged by the slap across the side of her head from Joshua.
She was unceremoniously bounced across Claude’s shoulders as he made his way across the beach. After the ringing in her ears had stopped, Clara decided it was best to keep quiet. The movement was causing her to feel nauseous so she concentrated on not embarrassing herself while being carried.
Claude walked into the main cave entrance, which was lit by two lanterns. He put Clara on her feet as he came to a halt, and she swayed at the sudden righting of her body.
“Clara! Clara! Are you hurt?” came Charles’ anguished cry.
Clara blinked until the dizziness faded, and she became used to the light. “Oh, Charles!” she moaned and moved towards him, but was pulled back roughly by her hair.
“Get off my sister, you damned lout! I’ll have you if you lay another finger on her!” Charles snarled.
Claude turned to Charles and smirked. He was the same man who Charles had been intimidated by when Charles had visited the warehouse with Joshua. Claude smiled and grabbed hold of Clara by the cheeks, squeezing them roughly between his strong hands. He pulled her close, and she heaved at the foul stench that came from his mouth.
“Now, now, Claude, how many times have I told you about getting amorous with the ladies?” came a voice from the entrance.
Bernard entered the cave and bent to tie Clara’s feet together while Claude still held her. When the job was done, he grabbed her hands, which had been engaged in trying to release Claude’s hands from his hold on her cheeks, and pulled them roughly behind her, tying them firmly.
“Claude, release her,” Bernard instructed.
Claude did as he was told, and Clara crumpled to the ground, unable to support herself due to being restrained by the ropes.
“You’ll pay for that!” Charles hissed. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life hunting you down!”
Bernard chuckled. “Well, we don’t need to worry for very long then; you’ll be fish food by the end of tonight. Come on, Claude, the boats are on their way.”
“You can’t do that!” Charles said hotly.
“Oh, we can, but in fact we don’t need to do anything actually. Look behind you, my little Baron; just look where you are and where the tide mark is on the wall. Your little lady will be sad to find out her beau has been washed out to sea by morning.”
Bernard walked out of the cave chuckling at the horrified expression on both prisoners’ faces. It was clear they had realised the reality of dealing with men like him. It was a lesson they would not easily forget.
Chapter 17
“Clara, are you hurt?” Charles struggled across the floor of the cave to be near his sister; he was restrained in the same way as Clara.
“I don’t think my cheeks will ever recover,” Clara responded. Her voice was shaky, but she tried to sound light-hearted when in fact she had never been more afraid in her life.
“Why did you venture out?”
“I saw you following Shambles. I was afraid for your safety; he’s dangerous, Charles.”
“I’m not going to argue against that after this evening,” Charles said ruefully.
“You’re hurt!” Clara exclaimed, seeing Charles’ face more clearly as he shuffled forward. A large purple patch was spreading across his eye and cheek.
“I’m hoping Joshua is going to have a similar bruise. I might be afraid of him, but he wasn’t getting away without at least a bit of a fight.”
Clara rested her head on her brother’s shoulder. “I’m just relieved you’re in one piece,” she said with feeling, glad they could at least touch.
“Aw, what a sweet picture you paint,” Joshua sneered at the pair as he entered the cave.
“You should be ashamed of yourself!” Charles snapped. “All I’ve done for you, and you repay me by murdering us!”
“You’ll just drown, nothing to do with me,” Joshua shrugged.
“The least you could do is untie us,” Clara said struggling against her bindings.
“So you can run to the magistrate? I don’t think so, Miss High-and-Mighty. Not so sure of yourself now are you?”
“Joshua, I was your friend!” Charles tried a different tack.
“Were you? Is that what you really thought? You’re more stupid than you look if that’s the case!” Joshua sneered.
“Why did you stick around after you saved me from those thugs, if that’s what you thought?” Charles asked, completely bewildered.
Joshua laughed. “You just don’t understand do you? That was a set-up, you fool! Do you honestly think I could’ve seen off that number of men? I’m good, but I’m not Claude!”
“It was a set-up?” Charles responded with disbelief.
“Of course it was!” Joshua snarled. “You were being watched, but you played right into our hands; I’ll give you that you’ve always been very obliging! We’d only found out that day who owned this land and who you were. You made it so easy for us. I’ll never forget the panic on your face when you were begging for your life.”
“It’s all been to get access to my land?”
“If it makes the little Baron feel any better, some of your peers will be feeling the same as you do tonight. We are using more than one beach,” Joshua mocked.
“You’ll pay for this!” Charles snarled.
“Don’t make me laugh!” came the sneering response before brother and sister were left alone once more.
Joshua left the cave and approached Bernard. “I want the men landing tonight under no doubt that they’re not to help those two,” he said, nodding his head in the direction of the cave.
“They won’t see them. They’ll be entering the cave at the higher entrance. They wouldn’t be bothered anyway; they’re going to be killing far more than those two. I’ve got a feeling they’re going to make us look like big softies!” Bernard responded with a chuckle.
“Good. I don’t want anything coming back on us,” Joshua replied, moving down to the shoreline to see how far the boats were from the beach.
Back in the cave, Charles was angrier than Clara had ever seen him. “I can’t believe I’ve been used right from the start! How could I be so stupid?”
“You always look for the best in people,” Clara said gently. The deceit would be hard to bear for one as naïve as Charles.
“You knew though, and I didn’t listen!”
“I hadn’t realised the friendship had started in such a way. You never told me you were attacked.”
“I didn’t want to worry you,” Charles admitted.
“I will always worry about you. I might not have nagged quite so much if I realised why you felt so indebted to Joshua.”
“If they think I’m going to accept my fate, they’ve underestimated me!”
“What can we do? These ropes are too tight; I’ve tried wriggling out of them, but I’m just cutting my wrists.”
Charles wriggled around on the floor until his left leg was near Clara’s hands. “Can you reach inside my boot? There is a knife sheathed inside it.”
“You carry a knife around? How? Why?” Clara asked in shock. This was her innocent brother who thought that all people were his friends.
“After the attack, I swore I wasn’t ever going to be that vulnerable again, so I approached Jones the boot maker, and they altered my boots to put a sheath in the outside edge of the boot. They also worked with the forge to create a knife that was slim in the handle and along the blade. I’ve carried it round with me ever since,” Charles responded. “Now if you can reach your fingers inside my boot, you should be able to touch it.”