Chapter Sixteen
“I ’ll go and fetch Gyda.” Niall held out a hand to his wife, who was pacing in the hall at Bluefield, eager to enter the parlor where Tom Hawkins had been placed.
Preston had gone in first to reassure the man. He could hear the soft murmur of their voices.
“Kara,” Niall said softly. Tugging on her hand, he pulled her close. All he wanted to do was to take her upstairs and to bed and spend the night wiping away the realization of what might have happened to her. He needed to reassure himself that she was safe and unharmed. But she was right. They had to finish this.
He sighed and leaned in close to her ear. “If it takes me a while to bring her down, just…wait. Can you do that?”
“Oh.” Kara’s impatience melted away. “Of course.”
After dropping a kiss on the top of her head, he went upstairs to Gyda’s rooms. He thought he might have to wait, but she called for him to enter on his first knock.
He found she had changed her clothes, but left her hair in the wild braids. It felt utterly suitable for the journey they meant to embark upon.
“Is Hawkins ready to talk, then?” She was closing the lid of an elaborately carved wooden box. It was covered with Norse runes, knotwork, and depictions of dragons. The top was inlaid with a metal warrior’s shield.
“Soon.” He nodded toward the box. “I remember when you bought that in the market in Birka.”
“I’ve kept it empty all this time. I was saving it to hold something special.”
As he approached, she draped the traditional beads she’d been wearing earlier across the front of the box.
“Please don’t be offended,” she said quietly. “I love the beads. I will keep them forever, along with the traditional gown, but I don’t believe I will ever wear them again.”
Niall shook his head. “Do what you must, Gyda. You could never offend us.”
She bit her lip. “Charles loved it. I wish you had seen his eyes light up when I walked into the museum tonight.”
“I am sure he admired the gown, but it was the woman inside it who made him light up.”
Her face crumpled. He opened his arms, and she walked into them and buried her face in his chest. He knew she shed tears, but she conquered them quickly. “I loved him, Niall.” Blinking and red-eyed, she looked up at him. “Isn’t that a hell of a thing? Who would have predicted it, if they had seen the pair of us competing for the barmaids’ attentions in Oslo?”
“Love happens where it will,” he said. “And it was very clear that he felt the same way about you.”
“It would have been tricky. Difficult. His family would have hated the idea of us together.” Her expression hardened. “We might have had only a slim chance at happiness, but that bitch of a woman stole even that.” She stepped out of his embrace. “I’m ready to hear what Hawkins has to say, but I want to move quickly. I know you count Wooten as a friend, but we have to stay ahead of him in this.”
“Stratton will be calling for justice. Now that she’s killed the son of a duke, the quiet part of this investigation will be finished.”
“Wooten will wish to keep her, interrogate her about her nefarious plans to harm the nation, but I don’t care about any of that. She’s a destroyer, Niall. She offers nothing to the world save chaos and destruction. I won’t have it. I meant it when I said I mean to finish her.”
Niall’s jaw tightened. Gyda’s heart was broken, and he ached for her. But she had come within seconds of dying tonight, and Kara had been not far behind. “And I meant it when I agreed with you.”
“Then let’s go.”
They found Kara pacing outside the parlor. Turner waited nearby.
She looked up with relief when they arrived. “Oh, good.” She took Gyda’s hand. “Are you ready?”
“Let’s hear what he has to say.”
They entered to find Preston seated. The slender man who must be Tom Hawkins stood at the window, staring outside.
“He’s agreed to answer your questions,” Preston said. “But I fear he doesn’t know much of use.”
“Let’s find out,” Niall said. He saw Kara draw a breath, but Hawkins spoke before she could.
“Who is that boy?” Hawkins glanced back. “The pair of you are only just married. He cannot be yours.”
Kara crossed to look out. Niall followed. He was surprised to see that the sun was up. Harold was out in the wintry morning. He must have been on his way to the laboratory, but he had stopped to examine the first green shoots of a border of snow drops.
“He is ours,” Kara countered. “Harold is my ward.”
“Your ward? Has he other family?”
“No.”
Turning, Hawkins looked intently between them. “The thing is, I think he might. He bears a strong resemblance to a boy I used to know. A small sprig of a street child.” He looked out the window again. “An uncanny resemblance, it is. I think there must be a sibling out there, somehow.”
Niall exchanged glances with Kara. “Was the urchin you knew called Pip?”
Hawkins’s brows rose in surprise. “Yes! You know him, then?”
“That is him. Harold was called Pip in those days.”
“Those days? But…that’s the same boy?” Hawkins seemed to struggle to believe them.
Kara nodded.
“And you’ve taken him in? Why?”
Niall was growing impatient. “Because Harold has a good heart and a quick mind. Because he told the truth when he didn’t have to—and when it would have been safer for him not to. Because he helped to clear my wife’s name of a misguided accusation—”
“Because he needed us and we needed him,” Kara interrupted.
Hawkins stared, as if trying to judge the truth of her words. “Well. Well, then.”
He turned around completely, to face the room—and noted Turner standing near the door. He flushed red. Ducking his head, he went to sit next to Preston.
At least he had the grace to feel ashamed.
Hawkins glanced quickly around the room, then hung his head again. “I suppose I owe you all an apology.”
“You owe Prudence an apology,” Kara said darkly. “You owe Turner a pound of flesh.”
“True enough.” Breathing deeply, Hawkins raised his head. “I do apologize, Mr. Turner. Not to excuse myself, but I was meant to shoot you. But you were kind to me when I came for that interview, and I heard many good things about you at Wood Rose Abbey. I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”
“I suppose I must thank you for your restraint,” Turner said wryly.
“I decided to spook the horse instead. Let me tell you, I was on pins and needles while you were so ill. I worried it might have had the same effect, in any case. If it makes you feel any better, Petra knocked me about the head when I told her I’d missed you.”
“She did far worse tonight,” Gyda said coldly. “She meant to kill Kara. She succeeded in murdering my…” She stopped and swallowed. When she spoke again, both her rage and her grief sounded clear. “She killed a man that meant very much to me. She shot him in cold blood.”
Hawkins paled. “I’m sorry to hear it, miss.” Clearing his throat, he looked up and met each of their gazes directly, one by one. “She won’t stop there. I spent days with her, and she did go on about you all. She means to see each of you dead. And that won’t be the end of it. She means to bring down the royal family, half of Parliament, and England itself, should she find a way to manage it.”
Preston made a distressed sound. “And with you as her accomplice, Tom? You know what she is. I don’t understand how you could have gone along with her.”
“Well, I didn’t know at first, did I? She first come ’round just asking for a place to stay while she looked for William.”
“William Barnstaple? Did she find him?” asked Niall. Stayme would be interested. As would Wooten.
“Nary a hint of him. And that lit a fuse to her temper, didn’t it? Then she heard the fuss about your homecoming. And that dredged up the news of your wedding beforehand. Didn’t that enrage her?” Hawkins sighed. “I believed it also worried her. You’d mucked up her works once before, hadn’t you? She started to plot against the lot of you. In the way of passing time between drafting her bigger plans.”
“And you just came down here to do her bidding? To frighten and harm these people, who had never lifted a finger against you?” Preston asked, incredulous.
“I did,” Hawkins admitted quietly. “It got me away from her.”
“And your creditors,” Preston said savagely.
“Well, yes. They were getting insistent. But I thought I had better remove myself from her vicinity, mostly. You know how she is when her temper is riled, Rob! And it just seemed never to pull back from a boil. Do you know, she even tore off my St. Simeon medal? You know what it meant to me. So did Petra. But she ripped it off, raging over Clémence’s death. She flung it somewhere and I never did find it.”
“I found it in the wreck of your rooms. I have it back at my place.” Preston’s tone grew rough. “Petra killed her, Tom. She killed Clémence in the midst of one of her fits.”
“I feared as much. There was something in the way she spoke of it. I could hear it in her voice. And she saw that I suspected. I know it.” Hawkins hung his head. “We’ve all seen it. The look in her eye when someone ceases to be of use to her and she starts to turn on them. To be honest, I feared I might go the same way as Clémence. I figured I had better do something to get back in her good graces. So I came down here and left her to stay in my rooms. At first, it was just pranks. The biscuits. The notes. But then she bade me to kill Mr. Turner. Well, I figured I could bumble my way through a couple of her orders without suffering too much. It would be no more than she expected of me. I thought I would stretch it out, this time here, while I worked out a place to run to.”
“And Petra showed up here at times?” asked Niall. “To give you orders? To hear reports?”
“Yes. She would come to the village on the train.”
“Did she mention anything more about her bigger plans?”
“Not much. I got the sense that she was making progress. I know she had others involved. But she didn’t want me near them.”
“And did she ever say anything about her sister?” Kara asked.
Hawkins frowned. “Nothing more than I already told you, raging about Clémence dying—and sometimes remembering to blame it on you.”
“Not Clémence. Her real sister. Her twin sister.”
Hawkins looked horrified. “Never say there are two of them!”
“We won’t, as only one is left,” Niall said dryly. “Come, man. Preston says you were with Petra last night—” Stopping, he looked at the light growing outside the window. “The night before last, I should say. She’d only just recently killed her own sister, and she said nothing of it to you? Nothing at all?”
“Not a word!” Seeing the doubt in their faces, Hawkins held up a hand. “I swear it! The other night, she railed at me again for ruining her plans for Turner. She said as she had to go into Town again for a meeting with her fellows. That’s what she calls them.” He looked troubled. “She never would take me along, but I did trail after her a time or two, just to see what she might be tangling me up in. I glimpsed her with more than one of them. I tell you, I didn’t like the look of them.”
“In what way?” asked Niall.
“They weren’t flashy, not loud like some of those League men used to be. Nor did they seem to be at her beck and call. She always has a few of those sorts around, ready to do her bidding.”
Niall did not remind Hawkins that he was one of those sort .
“These men…they are different. When they were together, it looked like a meeting of professionals. Simple. Direct.” His brow furrowed. “Not one of them looked like anything out of the ordinary. Nobody you would notice in a crowd. Plain. Someone your eye would slide right past.” He shivered. “Until you looked in their faces. Then it struck my nerves, I tell you.”
Niall didn’t like the sound of that. “You say she never mentioned a sister. What about a woman’s name? Any name at all?”
Hawkins shook his head. “No. I would have remembered. Petra don’t like most women. She don’t find no use for them.” He shot Kara and Gyda an apologetic glance.
“Is there nothing else at all?” Gyda asked, impatient. “Anything we might use?”
“Nothing…except she did say as she had her sights on a new hole to hide in, but that it was too far. She thought she might have to change locations.”
“Where?” Gyda demanded. “Where was it that was too far away?”
“I don’t… Wait! She did say something, once. Something about the river. Let me think. Prince, something? No. King. Kings.”
“Kingston?” asked Niall.
Kara shot out of her chair. “Kingston on Thames! Niall, it is upriver from Teddington Lock! The sister’s body floated down to Teddington Lock.”
“But she said she must move to a new spot,” Gyda objected. She glared at Hawkins. “Where?”
“She never said. I swear it!”
“It gives us a place to start.” Kara was already moving toward the door.
“Wait! Please?” Hawkins was on his feet too, shifting in place, his color rising. “I was wondering…hoping…”
“What?” asked Niall.
“It’s much to ask. I know it,” he said miserably. “I’m ashamed to ask it. But do you think…might I stay here? Until this is wrapped up and Petra is in custody? If she finds I’m gone from the abbey, she will look first for me at Preston’s.” He frowned. “I don’t want to put him in her sights.”
“I’m not sure that is a good idea,” Preston interjected.
Kara hesitated. “I’m not sure I can ask such a thing of Turner.”
Her butler stepped forward, eyeing the man who had injured him. “In the normal state of things, I’d be traveling with you, Your Grace. But I concede, my ribs are not yet healed. I won’t be a hindrance to you all. So, then.” He tilted his head toward Hawkins. “As I’ll be here to watch him, I won’t object to Mr. Hawkins’s staying. Not as long as he will pledge to make himself useful.”
“I would appreciate the chance to make amends,” said Hawkins.
“If you think to warn Petra, or in any way inform her of our doings…” Gyda stopped, but the threat was left, clearly dangling.
“No. I only wish to avoid her. Completely,” Hawkins said earnestly. “She will never think to look for me here.”
“Are you sure about that?” Preston asked.
“She’ll think I’ve scarpered off after failing to complete her task.” Hawkins gave them all a bitter grin. “It’s what I usually would have done.”
“Turner, are you sure?” asked Kara.
“Perhaps Mr. Hawkins merely needs some time to think about how he means to go on,” Turner ventured. “We will keep his hands busy and free his mind to ponder the question.”
“Yes. That is it, exactly. Thank you.” Hawkins sounded genuinely grateful.
Turner nodded. “He’ll stay here with us, then.” The butler turned to look at Niall, then raised his brows at Kara. “As long as you promise to keep us informed. I will do the same. We can use the old network, if messengers cannot be easily had or will be too easily detected.”
“Of course,” Kara agreed. She glared at Hawkins. “You will stay away from Prudence,” she warned. “And the rest of the maids, too.” The threat was clear in her tone.
Turner cleared his throat. “It might be best if I put a cot in the laboratory. He can stay out there with no one the wiser. No one goes in there, save for Harold and me. And the boy will enjoy being in on the secret.”
“You are being far kinder than we deserve,” Preston said. “Perhaps I will come out, when I can find the time, to check on things here?”
“Of course,” Niall said. “I’ll tell Stayme he might use you as a courier.”
“Let’s go,” Gyda called from the threshold.
Kara was right behind her.
Niall set out after his wife and his best friend, sending up a silent prayer for their safety. “Yes. Let’s go.”