Chapter Ten
Walking along the street, Liberty wandered for a while, not that she could see anything up close clearly. Distances were not too much of a problem, blurry, but mostly, she could navigate about the place easily, especially with Helen at her side.
Her mind whirled with the problem of how to stop her parents putting pressure on her to marry.
Yes, she knew that a woman in society had one goal.
To wed and wed well. There was no greater shame than being a spinster and living off your family.
Liberty had understood this but as time went on, she’d thought her parents had accepted the fact she would not marry.
“I don’t want to wed just anyone, Helen.”
“As you shouldn’t,” her maid said. “But it’s your duty to do so.”
“Duty to whom?”
“Your family,” Helen said with no hesitation. “A little to the left, my lady, as there is a raised cobblestone.
“I am not completely blind, but thank you for the reminder,” Liberty said, walking left. “And I understand it is expected of me to wed, even if I have no wish to,” she muttered. Helen wisely chose not to comment further.
Liberty walked, looking in shop windows and at passersby, but not really seeing as she contemplated her problem.
“Good Lord,” Helen said suddenly.
“What?” Liberty looked at her maid. The woman had a shocked expression on her face, and she was staring at a cart that was rolling away from them. “Helen, what is going on?”
“I’m sure Sydney was driving that cart.”
Helen and Liberty had known each other for years, as they’d both grown up close to Bidham. Helen was two years older, and far more responsible according to her parents, which is why she was chosen to accompany Liberty to London.
“Your brother Sydney? I thought he lived and worked a few miles out of Bidham?” Liberty squinted to focus on the cart, and then thought to hell with it, and took out her glasses.
“He does. I’m not sure why he’d be here,” Helen said, still following the cart with her eyes. “But I’ll tell you one thing, my lady. I don’t like this.”
Liberty remembered what Tobias had discussed with them that day he’d taken her to the inn.
“Helen, do you think it could be something to do with what Lord Corbyn talked about?”
“That all is not right in Bidham?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know, but it’s possible.”
“Do you want to follow that cart?” Liberty asked.
“I would if you please, my lady.”
“Excellent. I could do with a distraction. Let’s go.”
“I don’t understand,” Helen said keeping pace with Liberty. “Sydney’s wed now, and has a child back in Bidham. He works for a local farmer, so what would bring him to London and not then tell me he was coming?”
“I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation. Perhaps he is helping someone out, and is planning to call on your brother Norman, and then notify you he’s in London.”
“Perhaps.” But Helen didn’t sound confident.
The cart turned and then continued on down a narrow lane until it reached a building that had two large doors. It was definitely Sydney, Liberty realized, as he climbed down from the driver’s seat. She knew Helen’s family well.
They watched the doors open and someone walk out of the warehouse and join him.
The man had dark hair and was dressed as a gentleman.
He spoke to Sydney, but from this distance they could not hear what was being said.
He pulled back the covers on the cart and revealed barrels.
Two more men walked out from the warehouse dressed like Sydney, and soon they were unloading them.
“There you go. He’s doing a delivery for someone, Helen,” Liberty said.
“But who, and why don’t I know about it?”
“Perhaps you need to ask him what he’s about.”
“I’ll wait until he comes out of the lane, I think.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know, but after what we’ve heard about Bidham, I don’t want to make trouble for Sydney,” Helen said, which made sense to Liberty.
They retreated to the beginning of the street.
“You’ll stand back if you please, my lady. I don’t want you involved in this.”
Looking around her, Liberty wondered where she was meant to stand, but took a few steps to the right, which put her against the side of a building.
The clop of hooves seconds later had Sydney and his cart appearing.
The man spotted his sister but did not look Liberty’s way.
She’d heard the saying, the blood drained from a person’s face, but she’d never witnessed it until then.
Helen’s brother looked like he’d seen a ghost, not a family member. She moved closer as he pulled the cart to a halt beside Helen.
“Why are you here in London without telling your brother and sister you could be so, Sydney?” Helen said.
“H-hello, sister. How lovely to see you,” he said in a high, strained voice.
“I want the truth, and I want it now,” Helen said with her hands on her hips.
She was the eldest of her five siblings and Sydney was number three in the sibling line up.
“There ain’t nothing to tell. I-ah, I was doing a delivery,” Sydney said, looking ready to toss up the entire contents of his stomach. “Now, I need to go home.”
“You’re lying to me, Sydney,” Helen said. “You work for Mr. Hatcher. What reason would he have to send you to London?”
“Be quiet,” he snapped down at her. “You don’t know what you’re about, Helen, and for your safety, you need to stay out of this.” Sydney’s voice had lowered.
“This doesn’t concern you, sister.” With these words, Sydney flicked his reins, and his horse and the cart rolled away.
Liberty moved to stand with her maid. “Are you all right, Helen?”
“Something is wrong, my lady. Very wrong, but I don’t know what.”
“Do you wish for me to go back to where your brother unloaded those barrels and see what is happening?”
“We will both go back there.” Helen marched away before Liberty could stop her. She hurried to join her maid and soon they were in front of the warehouse that Sydney had delivered to.
“Do we knock?” Liberty asked.
“I think we could, but not come right out and ask what Sydney was doing here. I feel it was something nefarious, my lady. I don’t want you to walk into trouble.”
“All right. How about I knock and ask if this is the building that has those Greek sideboards mother wants with the saber legs?”
“Do you think they’ll believe you?”
“Possibly not, Helen, but as we are out of options, we shall try and see what happens.” Liberty knocked on the door. It did not take long before the man, who was the better dressed of the two they’d seen talking to Sydney, opened it.
He nodded, but didn’t speak.
“Hello. I just noticed you received a delivery and was hoping it was what I was after.”
“Pardon?”
“The cart that just rolled in there. I did not see what was unloaded, but I’m hoping it is what I am looking for. My mother has tasked me with selecting a sideboard from you that is in the Greek style. But it must have saber legs, you see. She was most insistent on that.”
He looked at her like she had two heads and an eye in the middle of her forehead.
Liberty looked up the side of the building, as if searching for a name, and then back at him. “Is this not Mr. Malcolm’s warehouse?”
“It’s not. On your way.”
“Well then, what do you sell? I am in need of a gift for my mother. It is her birthday, you know,” Liberty added.
The man’s lips tilted up condescendingly as he looked Liberty over. “I sell nothing a lady like yourself would wish to buy.”
She frowned. “Well, what do you sell? Surely, I can decide if I want to purchase it or not.”
His eyes narrowed suspiciously, and Liberty thought it was time to back off.
“Spirits,” he growled.
Liberty wrinkled her nose. “Can’t abide the stuff. Good day to you.” She then turned with Helen and left.
“My lady, there was a man in the window above watching us,” Helen said as they walked away. “Don’t look!” she whispered, as Liberty did just that. “I couldn’t make out his features, but he did not move the entire time you were speaking.”
Liberty wasn’t sure why she felt cold suddenly, but she did.
“Come along, I think we need a cup of something to fortify us,” Liberty said when they reached the end of the street. Something made her turn, and she saw that the man she’d spoken to was watching her. Raising a hand, she then kept moving until he could no longer see them.
“Well,” Helen said.
“Well indeed. I’m not sure what that gained us other than it is spirits in that warehouse.”
“Take off your glasses,” Helen whispered suddenly, as two well-dressed young ladies walked toward them.
“I’m sure I don’t know why I have to,” Liberty muttered, whipping them off and putting them in her reticule once more.
“Because your parents wish for you to do so.”
“Why is it wrong for me to see where I am going?”
“I have no idea, but it is,” Helen hissed.
As far as her maid was concerned, every word that spilled from Liberty’s parents’ lips was to be obeyed.
They walked, and she left Helen alone with her worrying thoughts about Sydney, and hers went to her own brother.
Thus far, Edward had done nothing that was overly taxing on the family. In fact, unlike her, he was a model child and brother. She was sure that would change after he went away to school next year. It certainly changed Tobias Corbyn.
He had come home at eighteen, nothing like the good-natured boy who left. He’d been cold and hard, and dismissed Liberty as if she had not once been his best friend. The boy she idolized.
She’d noticed the change in Tobias after his first year, when his brother Mathew had passed away, but put it down to losing someone he loved.
But when he came home four years later, she knew he was nothing like the Tobias she’d once known.
This one was mean and hurtful. The old Toby had never been that.
“And here we are. Come along, Helen,” Liberty said, happy to be distracted from her disturbing thoughts.
Blundell’s Chocolate House looked as it normally did. Busy. Liberty pushed open the door and entered to the delicious smells and chatter of patrons.
“I’m sure I don’t know why you can’t take tea like everyone else,” Helen said.
“It seems I’m not alone in my love of chocolate,” Liberty drawled, looking at the tables of people. Helen harrumphed.
“Lady Liberty.” A man rose from his chair as they walked through the tables.
Drat, it was Lord Patterson. Nice enough in a bland way. He danced well, and didn’t appear to have any noticeable faults. That didn’t mean she wanted to marry him, however, and after that conversation with her parents, everyone was now a prospective husband they would hurl into her path.
“Lord Patterson.” Liberty dropped into a curtsey, her eyes going to the two women he sat with. His sisters. Both smiled at her. She smiled back, and then, with a nod, went to the farthest table from where he sat and pulled out a chair.
“Sit, Helen.”
“I’m your maid and shouldn’t sit with you.”
“I don’t care about that, as I’ve explained before. Now sit. It has been a trying morning, and I wish to drink lashings of chocolate and eat those delicious small round discs with marvelous flavors.”
Helen sat.
“We’re going to Dobson’s after this, as I am in need of a new book,” Liberty added.
“That place smells,” Helen said wrinkling her nose.
“Old books,” Liberty sighed. “I love that scent.”
“How can I help you today?” A young lady approached.
“Two cups of hot chocolate, and some of those citrus peel and vanilla chocolates please.”
“I won’t be able to do up your gowns soon,” Helen said.
“Well then, your job will be a great deal easier if all I do is loll about on my bed all day like a whale.”
Helen didn’t have a sense of humor, but that wasn’t to say Liberty hadn’t tried to make her laugh over their years together. Her maid had a sturdy, dependable soul.
“Lady Liberty, do you believe Sydney was smuggling those barrels into that warehouse?”
“That thought crossed my mind, Helen. The village is on the coast, and there has been smuggling before. My belief is that it could have something to do with what’s going on in Bidham.”
“We need to tell Lord Corbyn, because he asked us to inform him of anything we learned regarding the village, and this could be that,” Helen said.
“If we mention Sydney, that implicates him,” Liberty said. She’d also rather choose to spend the day stitching than speaking to Tobias again, and she loathed stitching.
“I would rather he was implicated if it meant stopping this… whatever it is,” Helen said, her face tight with worry.
Liberty sighed, knowing she was right.
“Oh, now it’s as if we’ve conjured him up,” Helen said, her eyes on the door.
Liberty turned, dread slithering through her, and saw Tobias, Lords Hamilton and Stafford entering Blundell’s Chocolate House.
He saw her and nodded. Tobias then hesitated, and something passed across his face before it was gone.
Go to another table, she begged silently. She watched him lean in and say something, then Lord Hamilton shook his head and walked toward her. Lord Stafford followed, and lastly, Tobias.
“Lady Liberty.” The three men bowed after Lord Hamilton addressed her.
“We shall take this seat,” Lord Stafford then said, pulling out a chair at the table closest to the one Liberty and Helen sat at. Tobias took the one near hers. He then looked directly at Liberty, eyes intent.
“Are you well, my lady?” he asked abruptly.
“Have you been unwell, Lady Liberty?” Lord Hamilton asked, clearly overhearing.
Her eyes went to Tobias, who looked resigned.
“Lady Liberty’s carriage broke down after someone attempted to rob it. She was then thrown from it and injured her head. I arrived and took her to the nearest inn.”
“When did this occur, my lady?” Lord Stafford asked, his eyes going from his friend to her.
“A week ago.” She wondered why that mattered.
“Really, and yet we are only hearing about it now.” Lord Hamilton looked at Tobias, who in turn rolled his eyes.
It wasn’t a gesture she would expect this Tobias to give, but it was one her old friend would have made.
“My lord, regarding what we discussed the other day,” Liberty said. Helen was right. She needed to tell him about this, no matter how much she wished to have no further interaction with him.
“About Bidham?” He raised a dark brow, his eyes going from her to Helen.
“Helen, you tell him,” Liberty said.
“My friends are aware, as I have explained to them, of our concerns. So speak freely,” Tobias said.
“It’s my brother, Lord Corbyn,” Helen said, looking nervous as she stared at the powerful lords behind him.
“Don’t be nervous speaking before them, Helen. They’re both idiots. Your wealth may not be the same as theirs, but your intellect far outstrips them,” Tobias said with a gentle smile on his face.
And Liberty saw more in that smile of the boy she’d once known, but couldn’t allow herself to care for. Never again would anyone hurt her the way he had.