Chapter Six
THISTLEWAYTE HALL
“Where is Eugenia?” Esther Wingfield, Viscountess of Gainsbourne, the Duchess’ best friend, frowned at the eldest Calthorpe daughter’s rather conspicuous absence. “I thought you told me that she had recovered from her bout of fever?”
The Duchess sighed and looked away, trying to hide her pained grimace.
“Most likely in her room, sleeping the day away, if I had to guess. She may have recovered from the fever, but she has not had any success with getting rid of the exhaustion that came with her illness. There is a melancholy air about her, as well.”
Lady Gainsbourne took a long sip of her tea, then set it aside and moved to sit beside the Duchess, patting her hand.
“How long has she been in this state?”
“Ever since the twins showed her that awful piece about Lady Duncan’s Ball in The Society Reporter.”
“I saw it.” Lady Gainsbourne winced, shaking her head. “Whoever wrote it must really wish to hurt Eugenia, or mayhap your family in general.”
“I don’t understand it at all.” The mantel clock ticked, seeming overly loud in the quiet room, and the Duchess sighed, shaking her head.
Her temples throbbed as she reached up and gently massaged them, trying to ease the ache building there.
“Eugenia is such a sweet girl. She is kind and generous to a fault. She has never once tried to use the rank and wealth she was born into as a reason to look down on anyone. As a matter of fact, she is all but blind to class differences, and treats everyone with equal kindness regardless of their rank. I know I am her mother, and perhaps I am biased in her favour, but I genuinely don’t understand.
How could anyone hate her enough to want to ruin her this way? ”
The question hung in the air, begging for the answer that neither of them had.
“It has to be jealousy.” Lady Gainsbourne leaned forward and retrieved her teacup, taking a sip before she continued.
“You are all kind and generous by nature, but truly think about it. Try to put yourself in her competitors’ shoes.
Eugenia is a beautiful, kind, generous, Duke’s daughter with a massive dowry and every possible opportunity open to her.
Girls with lesser looks and lower stations, but who have hard hearts and high ambitions, might very well dislike Eugenia as much for her kindness as for her beauty or her station. ”
“That’s so unfair!” Matilda’s fierce declaration from the quiet corner of the parlour where she’d been working on a piece of embroidery surprised everyone in the room, because she was generally a quiet girl, more often than not.
“Eugenia cannot help it. She did not choose her looks, or the station she was born into, or our family’s wealth.
I suppose she could choose not to be kind, but that would go against her nature.
It’s all ridiculous and bitterly unfair that someone might hate Eugenia for the life she was born into. ”
“As bitterly unfair as it may be, that doesn’t change the truth that it is in some people’s nature to be jealous and petty and tear others down because they cannot stand to see anyone happy when they cannot find happiness in themselves.
” Lady Gainsbourne clicked her tongue and shook her head.
“It is a shame that it has affected poor Eugenia so deeply.”
Edward set aside the newspaper he’d been reading and cleared his throat.
“Has anyone been able to draw her out of her room and engage her, or perhaps find something else to occupy her thoughts?”
“No.”
Matilda heaved a mournful sigh. The Duchess nodded her agreement with Matilda’s declaration.
“We have all tried, but nothing seems to be working.”
Georgiana who, up to this point, had been quietly observing the room while she sipped her tea, cleared her throat and leaned forward, in an effort to get everyone’s attention.
“I have an idea, if you’re open to hearing it?”
“Of course, my dear! Please, share it.”
The Duchess nodded enthusiastically, setting her own tea aside in order to fix her undivided attention on her daughter-in-law. Georgiana smoothed a hand over her stomach for a moment before she spoke, as if to settle a swarm of nervous butterflies fluttering there.
“We should send for Susan. She and Eugenia became fast friends this past season. Besides, after all of the rumours that Lady Henrietta started, if anyone knows what it’s like to be at the mercy of society, it’s Susan.
Perhaps she will be able to coax Eugenia out of wallowing in this gloom that has overcome her. ”
“I think that is a wonderful idea!” The Duchess clapped her hands and beamed at her daughter-in-law. “Please write to your sister at once and let her know that Thistlewayte Hall is ready to receive her at her earliest convenience.”
Georgiana rose and curtsied, smiling broadly first at Edward, then at her mother-in-law.
“It will be my pleasure.”
With that, Georgiana hurried from the room, leaving the family to their discussions while she went to write to Susan and summon her, along with the delightful Lord Seabury, to Thistlewayte Hall.
ASHEWOOD HALL
The sounds of shouting dropped Marco from the embrace of a delightful dream of dancing with his love, the sweet and refreshing Lady Eugenia, to panicked shouts of fear.
It took a moment for Marco to shake off the tendrils of sleep and become awake enough to cast off his blankets and rise.
Wondering what was happening, for it was still completely dark, he put on his bed shoes and banyan and went to his window.
What he saw stole the last vestiges of sleep from his mind and he became immediately wide awake and filled with a bone-deep mixture of anger and terror.
There was an orange glow coming from the direction of his stables.
“No!” Marco ran out of his room without even dressing.
He bolted downstairs, taking the servants’ stairs since they were closer to the stables, and exited through the door on the west side of the house.
Without stopping to talk to any of the roused servants who were watching from the doorway, he ran down the path to the stables, knowing that lives could very well depend on his speed.
Marco skidded to a sharp stop as he felt the heat of the fire hit him.
There were grooms and stableboys running around and horses crying out in fear.
The scene was utter and complete chaos. “This way.” Marco waved over one stableboy who was struggling with a terrified mare.
Marco assisted the young boy until he could get the mare to the fenced-in pasture just a short way down the lane, where he was relieved to see most of his other horses milling about.
It seemed that the grooms had been able to turn most of the horses directly into the pasture, via the fenced run which connected it with the stables, but a few horses had been trapped at the other end of the building, and had, perforce, to be led out onto the courtyard area, then walked past the blazing stables to the pasture’s gate on the lane.
Marco helped to secure those few and looked on in horror as his stable was completely engulfed in flames.
He saw his Stablemaster, Mr. Fairchild, coming towards him and asked, “Is everyone alright? Have you accounted for both men and horses?”
“Aye my Lord, I’ve counted, and all are safe.
We were awoken by the horses whinnying in fright, and kicking at the stable walls.
There was a small fire near the end door, which was quickly put out.
But them we realised that there was smoke coming from the feed room.
We began to get the horses out, sending them down the run into the pasture, when the outside walls beside the feed room went up in flames all of a sudden, with no plausible reason in sight.
We managed to get the last few horses and men out the doors to the courtyard and started dousing the new outbreak of fire with water from the troughs and the well.
Not that we were succeeding – the fire had such a strong hold by then.
That is when I saw you coming across from the house.
All horses and men have been safely removed from danger, but the stables, the feed we had stored there, and the tack are a total loss my Lord.
I’m very sorry. But at least we managed to prevent the fire from reaching the carriage house. ”
Fairchild had his hat in his hand and his head held down in shame. Marco took a deep breath, pushing his own sorrow away, and reached out to pat the shoulder of his stable master.
“You did what you were supposed to do, you got the men and the horses out. Like the gatehouse, the stable building can be rebuilt.”
The stablemaster excused himself and went back to work.
Even though the stable was hopelessly lost, the fire still had to be contained, lest it spread to other buildings or the main house.
Men were arrayed between the stable and the carriage house, beating out any ember which reached the second building.
Marco stood there watching as the fire burned hotter at first, and then lower and lower as it lost fuel.
The fire in the gatehouse, like this fire, had taken no lives.
In fact, Marco pondered, both had seemed designed to warn others of danger.
At least the dastardly fellow responsible for this mess did not seem to be actively trying to kill anyone.
There was some comfort in that thought, despite the losses Ashewood had suffered since Marco’s return.
After some time, the stablemaster came back to Marco, accompanied by the head groom.
Marco spoke first, before either of them had the chance, blurting out the thought which burned in the back of his mind.
“We must stop these incidents before someone, or some creature, dies.”
“Aye, my Lord. I brought Gregory, here, over with an idea.”
The stablemaster waved his arm in the head groom’s direction. Gregory looked down at his feet, still as shy as he had been since he was first hired.
“Speak up man.”
Marco’s voice shook with exhaustion.
“Well, my Lord, I feel that whoever is doing this does not mean to harm anyone.”
Gregory wrung his hands and there was a slight catch in his voice. He seemed so young to Marco in that moment, yet he had noticed the same thing that Marco had.
“Go on please,” Marco urged him, trying his best to sound reassuring.
“Well, as I said my Lord, they don’t seem to mean to hurt any living thing, so maybe they are setting things up before they escalate further – maybe this is all just their idea of a warning, or there could be more than one threat.
Seems to me that we should put our own watches on possible targets.
If we have eyes everywhere, we might notice that someone who isn’t supposed to be there is poking around. ”
“My Lord,” the stablemaster spoke up, “I feel, with all that has been going on, that the villagers would be more than happy to lend a hand to catch this fiend or fiends.”
“I agree.” Marco nodded. “Keep this only to those you trust implicitly. We don’t know who is doing this.”
“You think one of our own could be doing this my Lord?”
The stablemaster’s mouth fell open in a shocked ‘O’.
“I hope not, but we cannot afford to let this go until someone is killed. This must stop.”
Both men nodded in agreement, their heads bobbing vehemently, and turned back to look at the fire.
It was lower now, and less bright, but still the heat from it was strong.
Marco looked into the flames and vowed that this would be the last building that would burn.
They were replaceable, true, but each one came closer to being a death blow to his future and the future of Ashewood.