Chapter Eight
“Papa!” the prisoner screamed, tears and spittle flying from his face. “Papa, help me!”
Val had no idea who the man was talking to. He reached out and grabbed the man by the chin, forcing him to look at him.
“Who are you?” he demanded. “Tell me why these people believe you have murdered two children this morning.”
The man was filthy, covered in mud and blood and bruises. He wasn’t particularly tall, but he was stocky. It was clear that he was strong. But he wasn’t looking at Val; his gaze kept moving to McCloud.
“Papa!” the man cried again. “Take me home! I want to go home!”
It occurred to Val that McCloud had this man’s attention for some reason. When he turned to look at McCloud, the man’s face was sickly pale. He looked as if he was going to become physically ill.
“McCloud?” he asked, confused. “Do you know this man?”
McCloud tore his eyes from the prisoner, turning to look at Val.
God help him, his worst nightmare had come true.
This was a moment he’d been dreading, hoping to avoid, doing everything he could to make sure none of this came to pass.
He’d almost made it home without Val coming to his farm, or seeing Mat, and he’d been counting on the fact that he’d kept the law of Hampshire away from his home where terrible things had happened.
But… oh, God… it was not meant to be.
He must have gone out to kill again, McCloud thought as he recognized his son’s muddy, bloodied face. He must have gone out to kill again and now he has been caught!
McCloud had no idea what to say. To affirm Val’s question would only throw him into the mix of this rabid crowd, a criminal who had been an accomplice to a murderer.
But to deny it would mean he would have to make that lie convincing.
He would be lying to his long-time friend, a man whose money and support he wanted.
He had to have it. Val was about to make it possible for him to lift his family out of poverty, but now, his murdering son had ruined everything.
Mat had ruined everything!
“Aye,” came the soft answer behind McCloud. “He knows the man. So do I.”
Both Val and McCloud turned to Vesper, who was looking at the prisoner with a great deal of sorrow and contempt. When McCloud looked at her, looking as if he wanted to strangle her, she refused to meet his eye. Her gaze remained on the prisoner.
“Will you tell him the truth, Papa, or shall I?” she asked softly.
McCloud began to tremble. He had no choice now, forced by his honest daughter. “Vesper,” he hissed. “You will keep silent.”
But Vesper wasn’t listening. Although she hadn’t seen her brother in eight years, she would never forget the man who had made her life miserable for so many years.
He didn’t look all that different. But what was the most sickening was that he was about to make her life miserable for eternity as his shocking crimes were about to be revealed to a man she had come to adore.
It didn’t matter that she’d only known Val for just a few short days; in that time, she’d come to clearly and unabashedly adore him.
But now, it was at an end.
All of it had been dashed in a mere few seconds as Mat d’Avignon’s face came into view. Her terrible, murdering brother had ruined her life again, this time for good. All of those hopes and dreams of marriage, of living happily as Val’s wife, had vanished like dust upon the wind.
She had nothing left to lose with a confession.
“They were starving,” she said as she turned to Val, her features pale and her lips trembling with emotion.
“The d’Avignon farm is in ruins and my father and brother were starving.
I told you my brother is a simpleton; he is.
His mind is like a child and, along with that mind, he has no sense of right or wrong.
All he knew was that he was hungry, so he began to kill people to steal their food.
That is how he and my father have kept fed this past year – by killing and stealing.
The prisoner before you is my older brother, Matins d’Avignon, and, according to my father, he is, indeed, guilty of what he has been accused of. ”
Val felt as if he’d been hit by a giant fist, straight into his gut so that he could hardly breathe.
It was a struggle not to stagger from the force of the blow.
He looked at McCloud, who was hanging his head, eyes closed, as the reality of his once-proud life was laid bare.
Val’s gaze lingered on McCloud’s head in shock before returning his gaze to Vesper.
“Is this true?” he asked, his voice hoarse with emotion.
She nodded, feeling defeated. So very defeated. “It is.”
“And you have known this all along?”
She shook her head. “Nay,” she replied. “Only since my father came to Eynsford two weeks ago. He told me what had happened and explained to me that it was my duty to marry well so that I could provide for him and my brother, so my brother could stop this murder spree. He made it sound as if it was my responsibility to fix the situation. That was why I was coming home, Val. It was my intention to return to Durley to see if something about the farm was salvageable, something that would feed my father and brother so that my brother would stop committing these crimes. Meeting you was purely accidental, I assure you, but you fell into my father’s plans quite well.
He saw in you salvation for him and marriage for me.
He also saw marriage to your mother as an added bonus. ”
If Val didn’t think he could be any more shocked, he was wrong.
All he could think of was his mother warning him about McCloud and how the man seemed envious of Selborne and all that Val had.
My God… was my mother right? Val began to reel with the wider implications of Vesper’s confession, on how he’d been too trusting of an old friend he’d not seen in years.
Situations change; people change. Wasn’t that what his mother had been trying to tell him?
“Then you knew,” he said raspily, “and you did not tell me. That means that all of this… everything we have spoken between us – has been a lie.”
Vesper shook her head. “Nay,” she insisted softly.
“Everything we spoke of was true. My feelings for you are true, Val. Never doubt that. But I am selfish – I wanted you and your adoration. I knew that if I told you about my father and brother, you would see how low my family has become. Even though I have not had any part of their dirty dealings, I knew you would see me as part of that situation. I knew it would change your feelings for me and I could not bear it. I was simply hoping all of this would fade away and it would be something we would never have to discuss, but I see that I was wrong. My brother has been ruining my life ever since I was a small lass. He continues to ruin it, now ruining my future with you. I apologize that I did not tell you any of this, of my father’s schemes and my brother’s crimes.
I was hoping to fix such things so you would never have to know. ”
Val just stared at her. She was calm in her confession but he could see how emotional she was about it; pale and quivering. But he was so confused and upset that he didn’t know what to believe.
Was she even telling the truth now?
Or was she trying to manipulate him?
“Whatever you think of me, Val, do not think poorly of Vesper.” McCloud finally found his tongue. “What she says is true, all of it. She has no part in my dealings. She did not even know about them until I went to Eynsford.”
Val looked at him. “Then your son really did murder people?”
“He did.” It was a painful confession for McCloud.
“But Vesper… she is a righteous and accomplished young woman, much too good to be related to someone like me. She deserves you and you deserve her, so do not judge her for knowing about this situation. You will blame me; I should have told you but I could not. I was ashamed and frightened to. A man will do most anything to protect his name and his family. I fear that I have lost my sense of moral character.”
Val’s gaze moved to McCloud, hearing the man’s words and feeling both rage and pity; rage at McCloud for lying to him, pity for Vesper, but anger at her as well for not telling him what she knew.
He was so torn that he could hardly think straight.
As he stood there, his body so tense that he was grinding his jaw, Vesper removed her necklace.
“Here,” she said, extending the jewelry to him. “I cannot keep this. I will not keep this. I am sure your mother would love to have it. You need not tell her how you came into possession of it.”
Val looked at the very expensive necklace she was extending to him. “Vesper….”
“Take it. If you do not, my father will take it from me and sell it back to the jeweler for the money. It will feed him and my brother for the next year.”
Val still wouldn’t take it back, indecisive, but Vesper wouldn’t wait. She opened her fingers and let it fall to the ground before turning away and fleeing through the crowd. Val bellowed after her.
“Vesper!” he roared. “Vesper, come back!”
Vesper ignored him, pushing through people, running past the palfrey she’d ridden from Selborne. She was running wildly, trying to escape the horror she’d been forced to confess. Val grabbed McCloud.
“Go and find her,” he commanded. “Bring her back.”
McCloud was torn; a fleeing daughter and a captured son. He didn’t know what to do. “My boy….”
Val cut him off. “Leave him to me. Find Vesper. If even half of what she says is true, then you owe her at least that. What has happened to the man I once knew, McCloud? Since when did you become so dishonorable?”
McCloud knew he deserved the harsh words. Val would have done less damage had he physically struck him. Beaten, devastated, McCloud simply did as he was told, following Vesper’s path as Val watched him go.