Chapter Twelve #2
Teresa looked at Irene with disdain as she went on. “I find that Lady Irene also seems to be remarkably concerned with other people’s affairs.”
Lady Claire, who was just entering the room, colored a little and hastened to intervene. “I am sorry, Lady Odelia, I am afraid that Irene can be a mite too blunt at times.”
“Nothing wrong with honesty, Claire,” the older woman said.
“Don’t worry yourself into a taking. Always better to be blunt, I say, than to be one of those dreadful girls who cannot utter a plain statement.
I find nothing wrong in a having a healthy curiosity.
” She cast a significant glance at Teresa before returning her gaze to Irene.
“What were you saying about the kidnapping?”
“Everyone has heard about it, of course, but I have never really known the details. Perhaps it is simply that I do not know the full story, but it seems to me that there were some curious circumstances.”
“Indeed?”
“For one thing, is it not peculiar that the Duke of Rochford, while obviously a very capable man, was able to locate the earl with so little effort, yet no one was able to find him before?”
Pansy’s eyes widened, but Odelia simply nodded.
“Ah, is Gideon wondering about that? I must say, it does seem that Cecil should have learned more.” She shrugged.
“I was not here at the time, so I don’t know exactly what was done to find Gideon and his mother.
I could not come, despite Pansy’s pleading with me to, as my youngest girl was having her lying-in right about then. ”
She glanced around. “Pansy is the only one who could tell you about that time. It was long before you were here, Teresa.”
“Actually, Lady Odelia, I was here,” Teresa replied unexpectedly.
When everyone turned to look at her in surprise, she added, “Not here at Radbourne Park. But my family lives only a few miles away. I remember all the excitement. Naturally I was still rather young—I had not yet made my come out. I was—Oh, I must have been about fifteen. The abduction was the talk of the countryside for months. But of course, I did not know all the details of it, only the bits and pieces of gossip that I overheard. No one would speak to a young girl about such matters.”
“I expect that Cecil mishandled the search,” Lady Odelia commented. “He always was one to let his anger blind him to good sense.”
“Odelia!” her sister cried out indignantly.
“How can you say such a thing? Cecil did everything he could. Why, he sent Owenby all over the countryside looking for some clue to where they had gone. How could anyone be expected to track down the ruffians, with no idea who they were or where they went?”
“How were Lord Radbourne and his mother taken?” Irene asked the old woman gently.
“How?” Pansy looked at her blankly. “What do you mean?”
“Were they stolen from the house? Were they out for a stroll?”
“Oh. I…um…I’m not entirely sure. It has been so long.” Pansy looked down at her hands, knotted together in her lap. “It was such a dreadful time. Poor Cecil was so overset.”
Lady Odelia let out an inelegant snort. “I imagine he was! No doubt he strode about all over the place, shouting and slamming things and getting nothing useful accomplished.”
“Odelia!”
“I am sure he was most upset,” Francesca told Pansy soothingly.
Irene added, “Then you do not remember if Lady Radbourne and her son were in the house or were taken outside?”
“Outside,” Pansy said quickly, nodding her head. “Yes, it must have been outside. No one would have been able to just burst in here and grab them. They were in the garden—yes, that is it. They were in the garden.”
“Did no one see them taken?” Irene continued.
“No. They were quite alone. The kidnappers got away clean as a whistle.”
“How did you learn what had happened to them?”
“What? Why, Cecil told me.”
“But how did he come to know? Did he receive a note?”
“Oh! Oh, yes, he told me that they had sent him a letter, demanding that he hand over the Bankes rubies for his son—and Selena, of course. Beautiful necklace, given to the family by Queen Elizabeth herself. Part of a treasure trove captured from the Spanish queen.”
She stopped after that, and finally her sister said impatiently, “Well, go on, Pansy, what happened after that? What did he do with the necklace?”
“Oh, well, he gave it to his man, Owenby. You probably don’t remember him. He was Cecil’s valet, had been with him from the time Cecil was barely more than a lad. Owenby was someone whom Cecil could trust absolutely.”
“So Cecil did not think that this chap took the necklace himself and merely pretended to give it to the kidnappers?” Lady Odelia asked.
“No! No, of course not.” Pansy looked shocked. “Owenby would never have done anything to harm Cecil. Never. He—he took the necklace and gave it to them, but they did not return Gideon.”
“Or Lady Radbourne,” Irene added.
“Yes, of course.”
“Do you mean that this valet met the kidnappers face-to-face?” Irene asked, her voice tinged with surprise. “Was he able to recognize them?”
“What? Oh, no, of course not. I believe he left the necklace…somewhere, and then they were going to let Gideon go, but they did not. Gideon was supposed to be, um, up by that large old oak. The one along the road into town. So Owenby left the necklace for them, then went to the tree, but Gideon was not there. Owenby waited and waited, of course, but the boy never appeared. When Owenby went back to where he had left the necklace, it had been retrieved.”
“What did Lord Radbourne do then?” Francesca asked, her interest obviously aroused.
“Why, he sent Owenby to look for them, of course. He looked everywhere. Went to Liverpool and Southampton, all the ports.”
“The ports?” Irene asked, surprised. “He thought the kidnappers had taken them out of the country?”
The elder Lady Radbourne stopped, blinking, and color seeped into her cheeks. “Oh, well, I—I’m not sure. I suppose they would not have, would they?” She glanced around, as though seeking answers from the room.
Her sister fixed her with a firm stare. “Pansy, stop being so featherbrained. Where did Cecil send Owenby to look for them?”
“Well, I know the fellow went to London to make inquiries, but no one had seen them,” Pansy offered weakly.
“And that is all you can remember about the affair?” Lady Odelia asked.
“It was a long time ago!” Pansy flared up. “And we were all rather overset at the time. I—My memory is perhaps not the best.”
“It sounds as though this man Owenby is the person to talk to,” Irene remarked. “Is he still alive, Lady Radbourne?”
Pansy turned to Irene with a look almost of horror. “No! I mean, well, yes, he is alive, but he no longer works here. He, um, left our employ after Cecil died.”
“Does he live in the village? Gideon—I mean, Lord Radbourne—could go talk to him.”
Pansy blinked, then said weakly, “Oh, I am sure that is unnecessary. My grandson needn’t speak to the man. It would—it would be too painful, surely.”
“Nonsense,” her sister told her stoutly. “Why should it be painful? I imagine the boy would like to learn all he can about what happened to him. Better to know, isn’t it, than to wonder?”
“Better to know what?”
Everyone turned to look at the doorway, where Gideon stood looking at them. He repeated, “Better to know what? Wonder about what? Is this boy you are discussing me, Aunt Odelia?”
“Yes, of course. Irene brought up the subject of what happened to you all those years ago.”
“Did she now?” Gideon’s gaze flickered to her.
“Yes,” Irene replied, facing him calmly. “I am sorry if you find the matter disturbing. I had some questions….”
“As you know I do,” he told her. “And I do not find the matter disturbing. How like you, of course, to charge the battlements.” A smile flickered across his lips. He turned toward his grandmother. “I should have broached the subject earlier with you.”
“Pansy was telling us that the man your father sent in search of you is still alive,” Lady Odelia told him, taking charge. “He could tell you much more about it, I am sure.”
“Your grandmother was just about to tell us where Owenby lives now,” Irene added, bringing the conversation back to the question she had asked Pansy just before Gideon came into the room, a question that she noticed the woman had never answered.
Gideon’s grandmother, she thought, seemed peculiarly reluctant to talk about the whole incident.
Pansy shot her a look that, coming from some other woman, would have been venomous, but which from Pansy came across as more agonized than fierce.
“Lady Irene…it really…” She swiveled her head toward Gideon but obviously found no comfort there.
“I—I’m not sure where the valet went. But really, Gideon, there is little point in your seeing him.
” Her face turned entreating. “It would be better if you just let this whole matter…remain in the past.”
Gideon looked at her for a long moment. “No, I don’t think so. I am sorry if this distresses you, Grandmother, but I would like to talk to this man. Owenby, you said his name was?”
“Please, Gideon…” Pansy’s voice was soft, seemingly on the verge of tears. “What good will this accomplish? Owenby probably does not remember it well. It was so long ago.”
“Oh, stop being such a ninny, Pansy,” Lady Odelia told her sister bluntly. “As if he wouldn’t remember charging all over the country, searching for a gang of kidnappers!”
“Odelia!” Pansy looked from her to Gideon. “Please, can we not talk about something more pleasant?”
Gideon’s expression hardened. “Why are you so reluctant to discuss this? Do you not want me to learn the truth? Are you afraid that I will find out how very little my father cared? How little interest he showed in finding me?”
“No!” Pansy cried. “Cecil cared! He was devastated! You must not think that your father was indifferent. He was in such a state—I have never seen a man more overset than he was. She didn’t deserve his sorrow!”
Gideon froze. The air was suddenly thick with silence.
“What?” Gideon asked at last. “What do you mean, ‘she didn’t deserve his sorrow’? Are you talking about my mother?”
“No! I didn’t mean—” Pansy cast a panicky look around the room.
“Pansy!” Lady Odelia’s voice was sharp and commanding. “Stop dithering. Tell me right now—what did you mean by that?”
Pansy looked as if she might faint, but finally she squared her shoulders.
“Forgive me, Cecil,” she murmured, throwing a glance upward, then added, in a stronger voice, “But I refuse to let you believe that your father was not concerned about you, Gideon. It was Selene who separated you from your father and your family.”
“What?” She was greeted by a chorus of astonished voices.
Pansy raised her chin somewhat defiantly. “You were not kidnapped, Gideon. Your mother ran off with her lover and took you with her.”