Chapter 17 #4
Mrs. Hargrave and Mrs. Johnston were tied together on a stack of pallets, by Mr. Lamont.
Mr. Thornbridge sent the other rope down to Cecilia and told her how to wrap it around herself.
When she was ready, and without the steady rain to impede them, Mr. Thornbridge, Gideon, and Miss Nieves quickly pulled her up.
Then he sent the rope down to James and they pulled him up.
“Hey! What about me?” Mr. Entwhistle said, still stuck in the mud at the bottom of the pit.
James tossed a shovel down into the pit. “Dig yourself out, then we can pull you up. That should be easy now that the rain has stopped.”
“Lord Monteith,” the baron said to Gideon. “I believe I—and my wife—have had enough excitement for the day. We will be returning to our home.”
“A moment, if you don’t mind, Baron,” said James, striding over to where he stood with Gideon. “Please give the coin you caught to Gideon.”
“I didn’t catch any coin,” he exclaimed, annoyed.
James took in and let out a deep breath as he stripped off his muddy gloves. He touched the small pocket on the front of the baron’s waistcoat designed to hold a pocket watch. “It’s in here.”
The baron slapped his hand away and backed up. “Keep your hands off me!”
“Compton!” Gideon said strongly. “It is not what you think it is. It is not gold.”
“You can’t know that! And I have it, it’s mine now.”
“Gerald? Gerald!,” Lady Compton called out from her carriage. “What is going on?”
“Not now, Margaret!” Compton yelled back to her.
“Why did you deny having it?” James insisted.
“To save discussion.”
James snorted. “Obviously it hasn’t.”
“I had Mr. Thornbridge plant the coin here. It was my father’s coin, given him by Mr. Norcroft,” Gideon said.
“Nonsense.” He turned to walk away. James shifted to stand in front of him.
“It was planted as bait which you, Mrs. Hargrave, and Mr. Entwhistle took. My wife, Lady Branstoke, figured out Mr. Entwhistle was the man walking away from the fire. When she first met him, he was on horseback, but the other day, she saw him walking and recognized him as the man she saw.”
Baron Compton tried to walk around James.
James moved in front of him again. Several others, drawn to the conversation, made a circle around them.
“What is going on up there! Dammit, get me out of here!” Mr. Entwhistle called up everyone out of the pit. He’d managed to shovel the mud away from the sides of his body, but he had to get his feet free. James ignored him.
“We knew Mr. Entwhistle couldn’t be acting alone to do the mischief to Gideon, or have the knowledge for the mangled verses, so at first, we thought it had to be Mrs. Hargrave,” James continued.
“But something bothered me about one of the incidents. The incident with the wire strung across the road did not fit with any of the motives we could think to assign to Mrs. Hargrave. She wants Pomum Court. Damaging or destroying the revenue sources for the estate might force Monteith to sell, or at least agree to marry her. The wire incident did not support that outcome. So, who else might want Monteith to sell, or to die?”
“Someone with an avid interest in evidence of Romans and a desire to acquire what they left behind. You, Baron Compton. You are convinced there was a major Roman presence here and much of it on Monteith property. You want to own all Monteith land, so it is in your interest to either impoverish Gideon or see him dead so you can buy the property. The only person who would benefit is you.”
The baron turned pugnacious. “You can’t prove I did more than encourage Mr. Entwhistle to mischief, not to the nature of the mischief.”
“I think you did, just as you planned the notes that went with each incident. I think a jury will, too.”
Mr. Thornbridge grabbed the baron’s arms from behind and secured them with another length of rope.
“Gerald!” yelled out Mrs. Compton.
James took the coin from the baron’s pocket. “This is not gold, it is orichalcum, an amalgam of zinc and copper. Isn’t that correct, Mr. Hawley?” James held the coin out to Mr. Hawley to examine.
Mr. Hawley snatched it from him. “Yes, yes. A denarius, orichalcum, just as Miss Nieves described.” He held the coin out into a patch of sunlight that had managed to come out from behind the clouds. “Late Roman.”
“That should be mine! All of it should be mine!” the baron protested.
“I told the old earl if he went up the ridge and looked down on his property he could make out where Roman buildings and walls were on the edge of the orchard. I told him he should excavate. He said he wasn’t interested.
It would disrupt his apple harvest. Imagine, choosing an apple orchard over what could be the greatest find in Roman Britain! ”
Noise came from the clay pit mine. Mr. Entwhistle had managed to get free of the dirt and, being a big man, was climbing his way out of the pit.
“Mr. Entwhistle!” Gideon said, “Consider yourself under arrest.”
“Not bloody likely, you insect!” He grabbed Cecilia, wrapping his arm around her neck as he pulled a muddy knife out of its sheath at his back.
“Cecilia!” James yelled.
Cecilia tried to kick backward at his knees, but she was too short and her foot slid against the mud on his leg. She struggled against him. He put the knife blade across her neck. She felt the bite. She stilled.
“I will kill her,” Entwhistle promised.
Cecilia believed him. She kept her eyes on her husband. She didn’t want Entwhistle to track where she looked.
Mr. Thornbridge, Mr. Lamont, and Mr. Bagnall-Bently took a couple steps toward him. Gideon carefully made his way behind him.
“Don’t come any closer! I can draw this blade across her throat faster than you can move to get me.”
Miss Nieves stealthily approached from his knife-hand side. Suddenly, Miss Nieves screamed, loud and long. Entwhistle whirled toward her, his knife having left Cecilia’s neck to point toward Miss Nieves.
Gideon threw his body into the back of Mr. Entwhistle’s knees. Entwhistle’s knees buckled and he went down, loosening his grip on Cecilia. Cecilia scrambled away.
Miss Nieves stepped on his knife hand as Mr. Thornbridge and Mr. Lamont landed on him.
James grabbed Cecilia up against him. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. For a moment she couldn’t do anything else.
“That was stupendous, cousin!” James said as Gideon got off the ground.
“Sometimes, being short has its uses,” he said breathlessly.
James laughed. “That it does, cousin. That it does!”