Chapter 48
Chapter Forty-Eight
Obedient to his summons, Freddy, with Fanny on his arm, entered the library on the stroke of midday.
The girl leaned against her brother, her face pale and drawn, the picture of outraged innocence.
Sebastian, standing by the fireplace, spared her no sympathy.
He thought only of the vicious slash that now marred his face, marking him as a boor and degrader of women.
He looked from one to the other. If any of his soldiers had seen him, they would have been in no doubt that trouble would follow. Fanny gave her brother a nervous glance. Freddy, in his turn, raised his chin in a pugnacious fashion, but even he could not meet Sebastian’s cold eyes.
As Freddy reached for a chair, Sebastian spoke, employing a tone of voice he had not had cause to use since his army days.
‘I didn’t say you could sit.’
Freddy stepped back from the chair as if it had burned him.
‘You sent for us, Somerton?’
He produced a handkerchief from his sleeve and patted his upper lip where a few tell-tale beads of sweat had gathered despite the chill of the room.
‘Yes, I sent for you. To tell you, I have no intention of playing out your little game.’ He glanced at Fanny whose chin wobbled.
‘I am not the fool you played me for, Lynch. You think you may have trapped me into marriage with your sister, but that is as far as it will go. If it’s money you want, name your sum and be done with it. ’
The siblings stared at him as if they had never seen him before in their lives.
‘Sebastian... Lord Somerton...’ Freddy began in a jovial tone, as if all that Sebastian had said was some enormous joke they would laugh over later.
The words died on his lips as he looked into Sebastian’s face.
‘But Sebastian...’ wailed Fanny, her protests, like her brother’s, dying in the light of his lordship’s cold eyes.
‘Name your sum, retract your statement that I assaulted you, pack your bags and leave,’ Sebastian said. ‘Bragge here has recorded an agreement for your signature.’
‘And if we don’t agree?’ Freddy’s chin came up.
Sebastian shrugged. ‘You may both pack your bags and leave anyway. I can live with a ruined reputation. I doubt your sister can.’
Fanny began to sob. Beyond proffering her his handkerchief, her brother made no move to comfort her but glared at Sebastian, his arms crossed.
‘But I want to marry you. I would do anything to make you happy. I will give you an heir...’ Fanny sniffled through Freddy’s handkerchief.
‘You mean, not only marry you but share your bed? The answer is no, Miss Lynch. Nothing will induce me to partake in any charade of a marriage.’
At that, Fanny dissolved into a flood of tears. This time her brother put a solicitous arm around her shoulders.
‘No need to be so heartless, Somerton,’ he said.
‘Do you really expect me to spare Fanny’s tender feelings, Lynch? Whatever your plan was, she is as complicit as you are.’
‘But I love you!’ Fanny wailed.
‘Spare me!’ Sebastian spat. ‘Right now, I have nothing more to say to either of you.’
The muscle in Freddy’s cheek twitched. ‘On the contrary, Somerton, we still have a great deal to say to each other.’ He cast a meaningful glance at Bragge and added, ‘In private.’
Bragge looked uncertain and Sebastian reluctantly indicated he should leave.
‘And you, Fan.’ Freddy smiled at his sister. ‘Wait for me in the blue parlour. I won’t be long.’
Neither man moved until the door had firmly closed behind Bragge and Fanny.
‘Well?’ Sebastian demanded.
This time, Freddy sat unbidden. Crossing his legs, he flicked his ruffled cuffs and smiled in a manner that made Sebastian cringe.
‘That was a fine speech, cousin, quite worthy of dear Anthony,’ Freddy said.
‘I am not your cousin,’ Sebastian said between gritted teeth.
‘No indeed, you are shortly to become my brother,’ Freddie observed. ‘I’ve heard you out, Somerton, I think it is time you heard what I had to say.’
‘There is nothing I want to hear from you.’
Sebastian crossed to the window. He turned his back on Freddy and stared, without really seeing anything, out of the window.
‘Regardless of your wishes, I am certain society will be agog to hear that, as well as monstering my precious sister in your short time at Brantstone, you have also compromised the virtuous widow, Isabel.’
Sebastian’s stomach lurched, and he reached for the window ledge to steady himself. ‘What new concoction of yours is this nonsense?’
Behind him, Freddy laughed. More a high-pitched giggle worthy of Fanny.
‘Ah now, this I don’t have to invent. I have the evidence of my own eyes.
You and your precious Isabel forgot that a house has eyes and I just happened to be looking from my window and saw you rolling in the hay with the lovely Lady Somerton like a pair of randy farm hands.
I can produce two witnesses to the fact.
My man and his sister were both with me at the time. ’
A cold chill ran down Sebastian’s spine. Did Freddy mean those few snatched moments by the lake? Nothing had happened, but to the casual observer ...
The jolt hit Sebastian as hard as a physical blow beneath the ribs.
He felt the air leave his lungs as the enormity of what Freddy had said hit him.
Even without the glimmer of truth around it, once Freddy’s evil tongue had spread the vile whispers, Isabel would be ruined.
No respectable family would entrust their daughters to her school, and no man would risk her reputation to save her from a long and lonely widowhood.
Sebastian, his own reputation tarnished beyond redemption, would be powerless to save her.
‘What do you want?’ he said between clenched teeth.
‘I want what your late cousin allowed me as the price of my silence.’
Sebastian turned to face him. ‘Would that be the one hundred pounds a month that Anthony was paying to someone?’
Freddy smirked. ‘You know about that? I think, in the circumstances, that should be increased to two hundred pounds a month and, of course, I would expect you to do honour by my sister as your wife.’
‘There is no money. Anthony left this estate destitute.’
‘Then you will just have to find it, Somerton. Anthony did. Dear Cousin Anthony, so generous to a fault.’
Sebastian resisted the urge to grab the man by the orderly folds of his neckcloth and throttle him. He steadied his breath and considered Freddy for a moment, trying to read the implacable face.
‘What did you have over Anthony?’
Freddy’s eyes widened. ‘Now that would be telling, Cousin Sebastian. Let’s just say he was enamoured of a friend of mine and made the mistake of writing him letters, which, unfortunately for Anthony, came into my possession.’
‘How?’
Freddy met Sebastian’s gaze with equanimity. ‘Sadly, my poor friend succumbed to consumption, but he left the letters as an insurance policy, you may say. You never know when such things will be useful.’
‘But Anthony’s dead. They can’t hurt him.’
‘No, but they could certainly hurt poor Isabel. Betrayed by one man and impugned by another. Time to reconsider, dear Cousin Sebastian?’
‘You are no more Anthony’s cousin than you are mine,’ Sebastian snarled.
‘I don’t know who you are, but I know one thing for certain: you and your sister are imposters.
Not only have you inveigled your way into this house, but you have been systematically pilfering valuables from Brantstone since your arrival. ’
Freddy raised an eyebrow. ‘And can you prove that?’
Sebastian had no tangible evidence, just Connie’s encounter with Fanny. He had ordered both Freddy and Fanny’s rooms searched but had found nothing.
‘Fanny was caught red-handed by my sister,’ he said.
‘A misunderstanding, nothing more. And you think that would be sufficient for a court of law? You are naive in the extreme, Sebastian Alder.’ The name was said with venom, emphasising Sebastian’s lowly birth.
‘An innocent girl died with her name besmirched by your thieving, Lynch.’
Freddy raised an eyebrow. ‘My, you have been busy, Somerton. What a distrustful person you are. If you mean Amy Thompson, it was not the thieving that besmirched her name.’
‘Were you the father of her child?’
A look of genuine astonishment crossed Freddy’s face. ‘Me? Hardly.’
‘Then who…?’
Freddy rose to his feet and smiled enigmatically. ‘I really have no idea. Now, I must go and comfort my poor sister with the reassurance that you will be married by special licence within the week. I will see you at dinner.’
‘You will see me in hell,’ muttered Sebastian.
As the door closed behind Freddy, he slammed his fist into the desk.
‘Damn you!’
The door opened, and Matt came back into the room, accompanied by Harry Dempster.
‘How did it go?’ Matt asked.
Sebastian shook his hand, trying to restore the feeling to his tingling fingers.
‘Badly,’ he said.
‘You didn’t hit him, did you?’ Matt enquired.
Sebastian shook his head. ‘Sorely tempted as I might have been, it didn’t go that far.’ He looked at his brother. ‘I need to talk to Harry, Matt. Can you excuse us?’
Matt left the room and Harry sat himself in the chair recently vacated by Freddy.
‘Bad business,’ Harry said after Sebastian had finished recounting his interview with Freddy. ‘Do you think he did Somerton in?’
‘Why would he? Somerton was paying him regularly. He had a comfortable place to live. Anthony’s death ended all of that.’
‘Perhaps Somerton had offered him more? In the event of his death.’
Sebastian considered that notion for a long moment. ‘Surely not. No doubt Anthony would have been in mortal fear of exposure.’ Sebastian raised a hand to his throat. ‘It’s a hanging offence, Dempster. More likely Anthony had decided to withdraw his favour.’
‘Again, why? If Lynch was blackmailing him, he must have known that odious little swine would have no hesitation in calling his bluff. Just as he called yours.’ Harry ran his hand across his chin. ‘What are we going to do, Alder?’
‘We? This is my problem, not yours.’
Harry gave a rueful smile. ‘Never could resist a challenge!’
Sebastian allowed himself a smile in response. ‘Your selfless support is appreciated, old friend. The key to this is the saddle.’
‘What saddle?’ Harry asked.
‘I’ve got Anthony’s saddle. It clearly shows the girth strap was tampered with.’
Harry’s eyes widened. ‘You mean...?’
‘Not quite cut through but sufficient to break if any force was put on it. I’ve an idea to draw the killer out, but we’re running a risk.’
Harry grinned. ‘The riskier the better.’