Chapter 11
“It is most unorthodox, I know.” Eleanor smiled at her cousin as the carriage rolled on. “Thank you for joining me.”
Catherine bit her lip. “I do think that I ought to have told Mama.”
“I can understand that.” Looking out of the carriage window, Eleanor clasped her hands in her lap, feeling nervousness working its way up from her core. “I was afraid she would forbid me from calling upon Lord Finchley, given that a lady does not do such a thing with any sort of frequency.”
Her cousin looked down at her lap. “I do want you to be happy, Eleanor. I trust that this meeting will bring you towards that.”
Eleanor, who had explained to her cousin all that had taken place thus far, taking her entirely into her trust, lifted her shoulders in a small shrug.
“I cannot say what the outcome is going to be.” She offered Catherine another reassuring smile.
“But you will be there to hear it and to advise me thereafter. If you think it best, we can tell Lady Cumbria of it all also.”
This brought a flash of relief to Lady Catherine’s face.
“Thank you, Eleanor. That is good for me to hear.” Her smile returned.
“I must hope that, one day, I will have the very same love as you share with Lord Finchley. It is clear to me that it has taken over every part of you, that there is a longing within your heart that can only be satisfied by him.”
“And yet,” Eleanor answered, her voice catching, “there is still the chance that we will not find ourselves happy. If this threat – whatever it is – cannot be removed, and removed soon, then I will find myself being courted by another, with no way of stepping back.”
Catherine’s brow furrowed. “Do you mean to say that Lord Ashworth would court you instead?”
“If my father insists, then I shall have no choice,” Eleanor replied, tears beginning to push themselves to the corners of her eyes.
“That is why I pray now that, whatever this difficulty is, there will be an easy solution that will bring an end to it all very swiftly indeed. Else, I fear, I shall lose Lord Finchley and his love forever.”
“Thank you for coming.” Lord Finchley cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck as he sat down. “I know this is most unorthodox, but I could not come to call myself for fear that we would be overheard.”
Eleanor nodded. “I quite understand.”
“I have asked my brother to join us, as you see.” Lord Finchley gestured to Lord Preston, who, Eleanor noticed, was smiling warmly at Catherine.
“He is aware of what has taken place both in the past and now, in the present.” He glanced at Eleanor and then looked to Catherine.
“Lady Catherine, has Lady Eleanor explained anything to you?”
Catherine shook her head no.
“Then let me briefly explain,” Lord Finchley said, casting a grateful look toward Eleanor, which she accepted with a smile. “My sister is wed to an excellent gentleman and they have one child with them.” Clearing his throat for the second time, he looked away. “The child is illegitimate.”
“Oh.” Catherine’s eyes grew wide. “I am sorry. This must be very difficult for you all.”
Eleanor held Lord Finchley’s gaze. “This threat you speak of,” she said slowly, seeing the lines that drew themselves across his forehead, “Is it to do with your sister?”
When he nodded, Eleanor’s heart dropped to the floor.
“I have received two notes,” he said, as Lord Preston rose to ring the bell for tea. “The first threatened to reveal all about my sister to society. The second note instructed me to give them a good deal of money, although this was done without their being present.”
“Money?” Eleanor frowned as Lord Finchley ran one hand over his chin. “They are trying to blackmail you?”
“They are succeeding,” Lord Preston replied, with a scowl. “For what can be done? It is not as if we can refuse, are we?”
“And you have no knowledge as to who it might be?” Eleanor asked as the door opened and the tea tray was brought in. “That must be very distressing.”
Lord Finchley waited until the servant had quit the room again before he continued.
“Yes, it has been most distressing. I have not told my sister anything as yet and do not intend to, but it is clear to me that someone who knows of her situation is now using this as a way to gain… well, to gain whatever they want from me.”
“You think that they will demand more money, then?” Catherine asked, as Eleanor held Lord Finchley’s gaze, her heart aching for him. The burden he now carried upon his shoulders was heavy indeed, and she had no thought as to how she might help relieve it. “That they will continue to demand more?”
“And more and more,” Lord Preston said, grimacing. “There is no name given, no easy way for us to determine who it is that is doing such a thing to us. The money that was given was handed to a child waiting at the door.”
“Just as a child handed me the first note and then scampered off into the dark alley,” Lord Finchley muttered, with a shake of his head.
“You see, Eleanor?” Shadows were lingering in his green eyes, darkening them.
“There is nothing that I can do at present, nothing that can be done to prevent this threat from continuing to hang over my head. I do not think that we will be able to – ”
“There must be something!” Eleanor exclaimed, unwilling to let Lord Finchley complete his sentence and bring her hopes and happiness to a crushing end. “If you think on it, Lord Finchley, is it not beneficial that we both now know of this?”
His brows pulled together. “What do you mean?”
“I mean to suggest that whoever it is that is threatening you does not know of our awareness of it now,” Eleanor explained, hoping that she was making sense. “We can assist you in discovering the perpetrator!”
“We could have followed that child, for example,” Catherine said quickly, apparently warming to the idea. “Without the perpetrator’s awareness that we were in any way involved!”
Lord Finchley’s smile was quick but faded just as hastily. “You make an excellent suggestion, but I could not have two ladies such as yourselves scurrying around London, particularly not when there are dark alleyways with all manner of dangers lurking within.”
“There must be something that can be done,” Eleanor said firmly, as Catherine quietly rose to her feet to pour the tea for them all. “This is an enemy that threatens us both, Finchley.”
“Both?” His eyebrows lifted. “My dear Eleanor, it is only I and my brother who face this threat.”
She shook her head. “Does it not also threaten my future? Our happiness?”
Lord Finchley swallowed hard and then nodded slowly. “Yes, I suppose that it does.”
“Then I am determined to help,” Eleanor said firmly. “Do you think you will receive another note soon? Another demand?”
As if the perpetrator had known that she was to ask such a thing at that very time, a knock came at the door.
“Do excuse the disruption.” Lord Finchley, frowning again at the interruption, called for the servant to enter.
The man came in at once, apologizing for breaking into their conversation but stating that this note was marked as urgent and, as Eleanor watched, Lord Finchley took it from the footman and, with a scowl, opened it.
Her breath hitched.
“It has no seal,” Lord Finchley muttered as the footman quit the room. “Just as the others.”
“Then this is from your enemy?” Catherine asked, sitting down again and sounding a little breathless. “From the person threatening you?”
Lord Finchley nodded, glanced at Eleanor, and then looked again at the note.
Unfolding it, he read it carefully and then handed it to his brother.
His hand went to his eyes as he sighed, shaking his head as his brother began to scowl.
Eleanor wanted to ask what it was, wanted to know what demand was now being made, but she dared not, sitting quietly and waiting for him to tell her in his own time.
“The scoundrel!” Lord Preston threw the note onto the table, then rose to his feet. “Yet another demand!”
“He knows that we will agree,” Lord Finchley replied, his voice a little quieter now. “He knows that there is nothing we can do but agree.”
Eleanor glanced at her cousin, who had gone a little pale. “Might I ask if you have any enemies, Lord Finchley, Lord Preston? Is there anyone you know who might wish harm upon you both?”
Lord Preston shook his head. “No, there is not.”
“Does anyone in your extended family have worries or the like?”
Lord Finchley and Lord Preston looked at each other. “I do not know,” Lord Finchley replied, after some moments. “We have cousins here in London with us; I could ask them if they had anyone determined to cause them difficulties.”
“You would have to ask discreetly,” Lord Preston said, as Eleanor nodded her agreement. “And with great care. We do not want to alarm them.”
“Indeed.” Lord Finchley looked back at Eleanor. “You think that there might be someone known to our family behind this?”
Eleanor spread out her hands. “Someone who knows your family and is aware of your sister’s present circumstances, yes. So it may very well be that someone connected to your family – extended or otherwise – has found out about her circumstances and is now doing what they can to gain from it.”
Lord Finchley scowled. “They are a coward, are they not? Hiding in the shadows, demanding such things as this from me!” Throwing out one hand towards the note, he looked again at Eleanor.
“The last time they asked me for enough money to purchase a box at the theatre. Whether or not they will do such a thing as that, I cannot say, but all the same, the demand was there. This time, they demand enough money to purchase a pair of greys.”
“Horses?” Eleanor frowned. “Then would that not be simple enough to discover?”
“In what way?”
She shrugged. “It would be easy enough to discover which gentleman has purchased horses recently, surely? So once the money is given, you would only have to wait for a short while before making quiet enquiries.”
Catherine shook her head. “No, for they will not purchase them here, surely? They would send the horses to their estate, wherever that might be.”
“And make it all the more difficult to find them,” Lord Preston muttered, looking back at Catherine. “You are very wise in your thinking, Lady Catherine.”
A blush touched Catherine’s cheeks as Eleanor frowned, thinking hard. “I thank you.”
“Then we must follow the money wherever it is to be taken,” she said, as Lord Finchley ran one hand over his chin. “Does the note say where you are to deliver the money to?”
Lord Finchley shook his head. “Not as yet. Another note will be delivered shortly, it says. That will tell me what I am to do… but I cannot keep doing this. At present, the money does not trouble me, but in time, it will. If I am to continually give this much coin away, then what will become of my fortune? Of my estate?”
Eleanor rose to her feet, hearing the desperation in his voice.
Hoping that Lord Preston and Catherine would not think poorly of her for doing so, given that it was most improper, she drew near to Lord Finchley and, sitting in the seat beside him, set one hand on his arm.
When he lifted his head and looked at her, she smiled quietly, trying to encourage him.
“It will not come to that,” she promised, fully aware that she could make no such assurances given their lack of certainty.
“We are in this together now, are we not? And that means that, together, we will not only find the truth but also the person behind it all – and we shall stop their game and put an end to their threats.” When his eyes melded to hers, Eleanor’s heart began to quicken, seeing all that she might have… or might lose. “We must.”