Chapter Fourteen
Nathaniel returned from the village shortly before noon with mud upon his boots and blood drying across the knuckles of his right hand.
Selina noticed the latter before he had removed his coat.
“What happened?”
“Nothing of consequence.”
“Then it will survive being looked at.”
He glanced at his hand as though he had forgotten it. The skin had split across two knuckles, and a narrow splinter stood beneath the third.
Selina sent for warm water and clean linen and directed him into the small morning room. He obeyed with a resignation she found suspicious.
When the basin arrived, she set it upon the table and held out her hand.
“Nathaniel.”
He surrendered his.
She turned it towards the window. “This was not done by falling from a horse.”
“No.”
“Nor by Mr Rowland, unless his face has lately acquired a grain.”
Nathaniel looked towards the window. “A stable door.”
“You struck a stable door.”
“Once.”
“And lost.”
“There was an iron fitting I had not taken into account.”
“That must be a comfort to the door.”
She dipped the cloth into the water and began cleaning the blood from his knuckles.
“Tell me what happened at the inn.”
Nathaniel let her work.
“I spoke to the landlord. Rowland took his rooms yesterday, as Bassett learnt, and has made no great effort to conceal himself. He has mentioned Giles’s name more than once and allowed it to be understood that his business in Berkshire concerns Wexford Park.”
“Allowed it to be understood?”
“He has not been foolish enough to say precisely what his business is. Only enough to make people curious.”
“Which is generally more effective.”
“Yes.”
Selina turned his hand beneath hers. “And that was sufficient to send you home quarrelling with doors?”
“No. Giles was there yesterday.”
Her fingers stopped.
“At the Wexford Arms?”
“He came in the afternoon. The landlord gave them the private parlour. They remained there for nearly an hour.”
“Together.”
“Together.”
Sowerby had already established the connection between the two men. This was different. Giles had followed Rowland into Wexford’s own neighbourhood and met him within a mile of the estate.
“What happened?”
“They quarrelled.”
Selina looked up.
“Did the landlord hear them?”
“Not enough to give us the substance. He was passing the passage several times and heard raised voices towards the end. Rowland said something about money. Giles answered that he had been promised results. The landlord heard my title once, and later the words ‘your assurances.’ He could not swear which man said them.”
“That is all?”
“Nearly. Giles came out first and reached his carriage without his hat. He had to send the inn boy back for it.”
Something shifted in Selina’s expression.
“Giles does not forget his hat.”
“So I gathered.”
“No. You do not understand. Giles may forget a promise, a debt or a relative without the least inconvenience. He does not forget his hat.”
Nathaniel almost smiled.
“Then he was angry.”
“At the very least, badly unsettled.”
She returned her attention to his hand.
Nathaniel watched her wash the last trace of blood from his skin.
“What do you make of it?”
“That we know more than we did yesterday.” She reached for the needle she had brought from her workbox. “Sowerby told us they were acting together. Now we know the arrangement is under strain.”
“Enough to use?”
“Perhaps.”
“Only perhaps?”
Selina glanced at him. “You have known me long enough to know that I will not manufacture certainty merely because you find it convenient.”
“I had hoped marriage might improve the service.”
“It has made me considerably more expensive.”
That drew the laugh from him.
She bent again over his hand. “Whatever they quarrelled about, I would rather not decide its meaning before we know it. Rowland may want money from Giles. Giles may want something from Rowland. One of them may simply dislike the other’s coat. We know only that they met and parted badly.”
“And that Rowland has deliberately attached Giles’s name to his presence here.”
“Yes. That interests me more.”
“Why?”
“Because Giles was careful when he came to us. Rowland is being careless now. If they agreed upon that carelessness, it serves some purpose we have not yet understood. If they did not, Giles will dislike it.”
Nathaniel considered this.
“There may be a division between them.”
“There may be the beginning of one. Let us not widen it until we know where it runs.”
She took his hand more firmly.
“This will hurt.”
“What will?”
“The part you have been avoiding looking at.”
Before he could ask, she worked the point of the needle beneath the splinter.
Nathaniel’s jaw tightened.
“There.”
She held the sliver of wood briefly towards the light before dropping it into the basin.
“You are disturbingly pleased with yourself.”
“I have removed the only part of the stable door which managed to come home with you. I consider that a victory.”
“Where did you learn to do that?”
“Necessity.”
She reached for the linen.
He waited for more. None came.
“Only necessity?”
“Do not become greedy. You have had an innkeeper, a conspiracy and a medical procedure before luncheon.”
Nathaniel gave her his hand again.
She wrapped the linen around his knuckles with practised neatness, drawing it firm without making it tight.
“You are very good at it.”
“I have had occasion to learn.”
He looked at her bent head and thought of all the questions he might once have asked simply because he wanted their answers.
Instead, he said, “Thank you.”
Selina glanced up.
“You are welcome.”
She finished the knot and turned it beneath his hand where it would not catch.
“There. Try not to strike anything else until Thursday.”
“I make no promises.”
“Then I shall hide the furniture.”
She should have released him. Instead, her fingers remained lightly around his wrist for another moment.
Nathaniel turned his hand beneath hers, careful of the bandage, and caught her fingers.
The change in the room was immediate and quiet.
Neither of them mentioned the folly.
He lifted her hand and pressed his mouth to her knuckles.
Selina’s expression softened.
“That,” she said, “was a considerably better use of the hand.”
“I am learning.”
“So you keep telling me.”
This time, when she withdrew her fingers, she did so slowly.
***
Nathaniel returned to the inn reports after luncheon. By evening he had succeeded in learning nothing further, which Selina observed was the natural consequence of having acquired all the useful information available and refusing to accept that there was not more of it.
The house went to bed without incident.
It was well past eleven when the bell at the country entrance sounded.
Nathaniel heard it from his study. A few moments later Bassett appeared at the door.
“A messenger for Your Grace. From Mr Sowerby. He says the matter will not wait until morning.”
Nathaniel was in the hall before the man had finished removing the rain from his hat.
The messenger had travelled by post with all possible speed and looked it. Mud marked his boots nearly to the knee, and his coat was wet across the shoulders. He refused refreshment until Nathaniel had taken the packet from him.
“Sowerby instructed me to place it into Your Grace’s own hand.”
“You have done so. Sit down before you fall down.”
The man appeared prepared to object.
“That was not a request.”
Bassett took charge of him.
Nathaniel broke the seal.