Chapter 15 #2
But Paget only responded with a harrumphing noise.
Or perhaps it had been a muttered curse, for Gage tsked.
“He may have told you something to the contrary, but I don’t imagine he’ll be quick to step in to save you, should you be arrested.
Not when he’s determined to sway the gentlemen here to his view of the Factory Act revisions.
Not when those gentlemen would all too readily believe us should we decry you as the culprit and reveal your criminal history. ”
“I ken that bumptious lass would cause me grief one day,” Paget groused.
“Warned Birnam the same, but would he listen? Nay!” Gravel crunched as someone shifted their feet.
“She was a troublesome one. Always stickin’ her nose where she shouldn’t.
Tourin’ the mills and factories. Talkin’ tae the men.
” His voice was gruff with harsh disapproval. “But Birnam said, ‘let her,’ so I did.”
“Isn’t that part of her job?” Anderley asked.
“Nay!” Paget retorted sharply. “She’s himself’s personal secretary. She’s no cause tae have anythin’ tae do wi’ the factories.”
“But surely even a personal secretary would have dealings with his businesses?” Gage pointed out.
“But she was a lady!” Paget countered, apparently of the same opinion as Thorndike. “She had nay place there. No’ unless she was one o’ the lasses workin’ the looms.”
“Is that why you doused her with acid? Because she wouldn’t mind her place?” Anderley pressed.
“Yer a bloody fool if ye think it was me,” he snapped icily. “A bloody fool!”
“But you couldn’t have been happy your employer was going to meet her under such odd circumstances,” Gage interjected silkily. “You said you’d seen the note she left him,” he reminded him.
“I said I’d seen it, not that I’d read it.”
“Oh, come now. Not even a word or two?” Anderley baited.
“Nay!”
“A likely story.”
“I canna read, ye lummox.”
I straightened. Well, this changed matters.
“You cannot read,” Gage clarified. “So you don’t, in fact, know what this note Birnam allegedly received said?”
“I never claimed tae have read it,” Paget protested. “Only that I’d seen himself pick up a paper that’d been slipped under his door, read it, and set it on the desk. That’s all!”
This much at least seemed to be true, for he’d not altered his story even under circumstances that might have easily tripped him up.
“Did he tell you where he was going?” Anderley continued to push.
Paget’s tone was withering. “Perhaps yer employer is different, but most do no’ bother tae give their servants an accountin’ o’ their whereabouts. Mine certainly doesna.”
He was right. Most didn’t, even Gage.
“Noo, if there’s nothin’ more…” Paget slipped away before either of them could stop him, charging past the spot where I was concealed without looking back.
I waited a few moments before approaching the corner where Gage and Anderley stood.
“I wondered if you were listening,” my husband admitted. His brow was furrowed in frustration. “What do you think?”
I turned to watch Paget as he continued down the slope toward where the other members of the staff were clustered, ready to assist. “He’s clearly loyal to Birnam, but how loyal?”
Gage agreed with a sigh.
“What did you make of what he said about Miss Whitlock touring the mill and factories and speaking to the men?” I asked.
Gage exchanged a glance with Anderley. “It could mean nothing.”
“Or it could mean everything,” the valet supplied for him.
And that was the trouble. We still didn’t know what information was pertinent and what was not. Not until we were certain of who the intended victim was.
“Let’s rejoin the party before we’re missed,” Gage advised, offering me his arm to help me navigate down the slope.
Anderley followed behind us, peeling off toward the group of staff like Paget had.
The maids and footmen present seemed just as invested in the men’s contest as the guests were, laughing and groaning and cheering along.
“Sad you missed out?” I asked my husband as we drew near.
“No,” he answered blithely before flashing me a smug smile. “Besides, it’s best I let someone else win from time to time.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. A sound that was nearly drowned out by the raucous shouts of the others over some contested feat.
However, Gage heard me, and his smile warmed with genuine pleasure and then tender regard, making me flush with delight.
Had we not been surrounded by several dozen people, I was quite certain he would have kissed me. Thoroughly.
I turned away, inhaling a deep breath to still my heart, and pressed a hand to the top of my head as a gust of wind threatened to dislodge my bonnet. This was just in time to hear a series of wild squawks coming from the direction of the pond.
“Good heavens!” one of the women exclaimed as the flock of ducks which had been swimming serenely across the surface of the water suddenly burst into panicked flight, with the result that two of them appeared to have collided into one another.
“Look, your terrible aim has even frightened the birds away, lest they be winged,” Lord Melbourne called out to everyone’s amusement.
It was only as the laughter died away that we became aware that something else even more alarming had occurred.
A woman, who I later discovered was Mrs. Birnam, screamed, and we all turned back from the distraction, attempting to discover the source of her distress.
It was Mr. Birnam. He lay sprawled across the ground at the opposite end of the archery range, though it wasn’t immediately apparent why. Had he fallen?
Gage and his father began to make their way over to him, slowly at first and then with more haste when it was realized that an arrow stood with its tip either buried in the ground very near Mr. Birnam or within his body itself.
“Someone fired at Birnam,” a guest gasped in outrage just as Gage broke into a run, with Anderley and Paget following close behind.