Chapter 16 #2
Their dinner party was to start in about six hours, and he should have come up with a better idea than having Tulip move furniture about. “Do get on with your work. Let me not delay you.”
He hastened out of the parlor and took the stairs two at a time in his eagerness to reach Tulip and tell her what he’d found.
“Tulip,” he called, knocking on the door of her duchess quarters because he expected to find her in there changing out of her gown.
She would need assistance lacing the new gown, would she not?
He knocked again to give her warning he was coming in, and then turned the handle.
Locked.
“Tulip, it’s me! Let me in, sweetheart.”
When he heard nothing in response, he went to his chamber and hurried straight to the inner door connecting the two bedrooms. He breathed a sigh of relief upon finding it was open, for Tulip had insisted on no key and no lock between them.
But his relief was short-lived.
Tulip was not in either chamber, and there appeared to have been a struggle taken place in hers. Chairs were overturned and a vase and candlestick lay on the floor, the vase shattered.
His heart surged into his throat. “Tulip!”
He raced to his dressing area and tried the secret panel that surprisingly opened up for him this time.
Ernfield must not have been able to lock it while Tulip was no doubt kicking and punching him, and trying with all her might to fight him off.
Had he taken her up to the tower room?
He tore up the stairs and burst into that chamber through its connecting secret panel, but no one was up there.
Thank The Graces.
He thought for certain Ernfield meant to toss her out the window just as he had done with Elspeth almost two decades ago.
But the window would have been open had he done that, for he could not have shut it after pushing her out or else everyone would have known it was murder and not a desolate wife leaping to her death.
A dead person cannot close the window after they’ve jumped.
His stomach was in a tight knot as he grabbed a candle, lit it, and then made his way down the tunnel as fast as he dared.
Where was Ernfield taking her?
The tunnel led out into the grove of trees just as indicated on the building plans.
That access had also been left open, which meant Tulip was still conscious and fighting Ernfield as he’d dragged her out.
The earth was dug up around the access portal which was more evidence of a struggle, but his heart tore to pieces when he noticed a thick branch with fresh blood on it.
Ernfield must have managed to knock out Tulip as soon as they had emerged from the tunnel.
Was Ernfield mad enough to take her into the salt marshes and drown her as he had just attempted to do with Mrs. Granger?
The high tide was still rolling in…or perhaps it was starting to roll out by now. He did not know and did not care.
All that mattered was finding Tulip alive.
“Oh, no. Lord, save her.” He ran from the garden up to the terrace for a better view of the distant marshes. He was desperately looking for any sign of movement when a breathless Carver rushed to his side.
“Your Grace! The magistrate and his constables are here. So is the doctor, but I’m the one who told him about Mrs. Granger. Ernfield never went into town.”
“Because he’s here and he now has Tulip,” Alex said, his heart pounding through his ears as he pointed toward the water.
The constables now joined them and all of them had eyes on the salt marshes.
“This isn’t working,” Alex muttered, now almost in a panic, for every second was precious and he feared they would run out of time to save Tulip.
“Mr. Carver gather the workers and have them bring the boats and their rescue equipment. We’re going to spread out and search every inch of those marshes.
I’m certain Ernfield has taken her there. ”
“Blessed saints!” Carver appeared genuinely alarmed.
“Spread the word to the staff to be on the lookout for him,” Alex said, continuing to bark orders in all haste.
“Have the grooms search the stables and stop him from leaving. Tell them to grab him and bind him tightly, if they see him. Same for the household staff. They are to use extreme caution around him, and the house must be searched from top to bottom. Have them work in pairs for their own safety. Rescuing my wife is the priority. If they find her, they are to get her safely away, even if it means letting Ernfield escape.”
“We’ll track him down if he does give your staff the slip,” one of the constables assured him.
Alex nodded, but he wasn’t really assured because Ernfield was a madman and dangerous. “He must have taken her into the marshes. It is the only place that makes sense. But I still want every inch of Thornwycke searched.”
“There!” One of the constables suddenly cried out. “I see something moving in the reeds!”
Alex tore down the terrace steps, through the garden and into the marshes in the direction the constable had pointed. The constables and others now followed him, but he wasn’t looking back to know who else was with him.
Tulip was his only concern.
He spotted Ernfield dragging something toward the water that was ebbing and flowing all around him.
Tulip.
Was she still alive?
She did not appear to be struggling as Ernfield pulled her deeper into the water, but this probably meant she was unconscious.
Alex refused to believe she was dead.
She couldn’t be.
Love would never be so cruel.
He withdrew his pistol, ready to take a killing shot to stop Ernfield from dragging her any further out, when the echo of a hunting rifle resounded behind him. “What the…?”
Ernfield staggered backward and blood began to spurt from his chest.
Alex ran toward Ernfield, not caring who had taken the shot or that his deranged head butler had now tumbled into the water. His only concern was to get to Tulip before she drowned, for she was face down in the water and not moving as the tidal waves crashed over her.
Was she alive?
She has to be.
He could not lose her.
Why hadn’t he told her that he loved her?
The water was up to his knees as the next wave rolled in, but all he could think of was getting to Tulip and hoisting her out of these shallow waters before the tide dragged her further out where the water would be above her head.
A wave crashed over her, but he managed to grab her just as its ebbing force was about to pull her out to the sea. “Tulip!”
She remained unresponsive and he feared he was too late.
Tears stung his eyes as he lifted her into his arms. “Tulip, please. Breathe, my love.”
She hadn’t taken a single breath and her lips were beginning to turn purple.
No, he would not accept this.
True love had to win out.
He ran with her onto dry ground.
“Breathe, love,” he repeated time and again. “Please…breathe.”
He set her down as soon as they were safely on higher ground, and began to compress her ribs in the hope of forcing the water out of her lungs.
He refused to believe he was too late. “No, no, no.”
But she still wasn’t breathing.
Tears clouded his eyes. “Tulip, please. Live for me, my love. Don’t leave me.”
Someone knelt by his side.
It was the doctor.
“Let me take over, Your Grace. I–”
Tulip coughed up water just then and began to take big gulps of air into her lungs. Her throat and lungs were obviously sore, for she was breathing and coughing at the same time, as well as coughing up water and mucus and who knows what else.
The doctor smiled at him. “She’s alive. She’ll live. Look, her color’s good. She must have been conscious enough to hold her breath as the waves washed over her.”
Alex’s heart was still pounding through his ears as he lifted her into his arms once again to carry her back to their bedchamber.
As he looked around, he saw the two constables dragging Ernfield’s lifeless body out of the marsh waters.
Who had shot him?
He turned back toward the house where his estate manager was standing. Beside him was William Hester with a rifle in his hand and a look on his face that warned he was completely unapologetic. “I protect my family. No one harms my niece and lives to boast of it.”
“Uncle William,” Tulip croaked, her eyes now open as she smiled at him.
“Tulip, my sweetheart.” Her uncle now burst into tears.
“I knew something had to be terribly wrong when I heard Ernfield had never come for the doctor. He was always an odd fellow, but we never suspected he was capable of such lunacy. Puts everything we thought about the deaths of the dukes into doubt, doesn’t it? ”
“More than those deaths,” Carver intoned. “But that’s for His Grace to discuss with the magistrate.”
William appeared confused. “More? What else has he done?”
“I think the magistrate must reopen all the deaths that occurred here at Thornwycke while Ernfield was in service,” Carver replied, perhaps not yet aware that his own daughter’s demise was suspicious, too.
As well as the death of Edward, the poor lad who had delivered food to Martha daily from Thornwycke.
Well, it would all come out now.
Alex felt sorry for Carver, for he was about to learn that Martha’s death had not been due to a natural illness.
Or did such a thing matter?
His daughter was gone and that would not change.
And what of William? Had he been in love with Elspeth as rumored? Or had that been a lie spread by Ernfield?
Tulip was cold and began to tremble in his arms. “Let me get you upstairs, love. We’ll have you warm and comfortable soon. Blessed saints. Thank goodness you’re alive.”
“I fought him as hard as I could,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder.
Her voice had a pronounced croak to it, but Alex did not think he had ever heard anything sweeter.
“I wasn’t strong enough. I kicked him and punched him with all my might.
I tried to scream but he had his hand over my mouth and held it there while dragging me through a tunnel. I–”