AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Twenty
Ever since making his deal with Johnny Shiemour, Baron Roster had been trying to figure out how he could have both his uncle the Duke and his cousin Lady Josephine murdered. He had needed to enlist Shiemour’s help in planning these crimes—for the Baron, obviously, could not be the one to do murder. Shiemour had many thugs in his employ who could and would.
The price had to be right, of course. None of this “sixty percent” nonsense that Shiemour was known for exacting when he backed gamblers. They settled on one-third as Shiemour’s share. And as the Baron assured Johnny Shiemour, a third of the estate of one of England’s richest men would make Shiemour very wealthy indeed.
Once he had greeted Lady Josephine, the Baron sent a verbal message (he did not dare put its contents in writing) to Shiemour, waiting in London. “I have them both, father and daughter. They are being closely guarded in the remains of a dilapidated, unused coach house, located on the furthest edge of my estate in Rosterbrook. We need a plan to dispose of them both. Sooner rather than later.”
In response, Shiemour took a coach from London and showed up at Rosterbrook. “What’s all this then? Why is the Duke back in England? I thought the very reason you sent him that fake note and tempted him to go to France was so that he could then ‘disappear’ over there.”
“Mr. Shiemour,” said the Baron, “I don’t like the tone you’re taking with me. You must address me as ‘Baron,’ or ‘Lord Alfred,’ or ‘my lord.’ Remember, you will soon be calling me ‘Your Grace.’”
“I’ll take any tone with you that I please,” said Shiemour, still omitting the Baron’s title. “Why is the Duke not in France, as we arranged?” Shiemour didn’t like bunglers, and he was getting a sinking feeling that the Baron was a bungler. “If you change our plans to suit yourself, we’ll both end up with our necks in a noose for this.”
The problem, Lord Alfred explained to him, was that the Duke had caused quite a fuss in France. While held captive in a roadside inn outside of Calais, the Duke apparently was able to persuade a serving maid that, although English, he was a staunch ally and supporter of Napoleon.
Mentioning the name of one of Bonaparte’s officers in Calais, it seems he asked her to carry a message that he was being held prisoner by hostile British, who wanted to prevent the Duke from delivering information to Bonaparte’s lieutenant.
“Next thing you know,” the Baron told him, “the inn was overrun with rag-tag French soldiers, trying to free the Duke.” It had almost worked too. As Shiemour’s hired men knocked the Duke out cold and quickly carried him outside through a back door, the French soldiers were already mounting the stairs to the room where the Duke had been imprisoned.
“Shiemour, your henchmen shot and killed two French soldiers in their effort to get away. How long do you think that will remain quiet, during wartime? We’re lucky we didn’t get caught up in a diplomatic nightmare. The best we could do was load the Duke onto an anonymous fishing boat and bring him back to England.”
“So you brought him to Rosterbrook,” Shiemour said.
“Yes. No one but your hired men know he’s here. And it’s still a matter of official record that the Duke boarded a Navy vessel and traveled to France. There’s no record of his returning though. Small-time fishermen don’t keep passenger logs.”
“So that excuse is still available to us. Very well. His Grace is here. How did you get the girl here too?”
“Her betrothed, the Earl, did us a favor. Servants at Worthington Hall tell me he imprisoned my little cousin for the better part of two weeks until she managed to escape. I had some of your henchmen searching for her in Worthington Town. And they found her,” the Baron said.
“Why would the Earl wish to imprison his own intended?” Shiemour asked. He obviously didn’t trust the Baron and his explanations.
“For the same reason we’ve been searching for her. If he marries her, he gets the Duke’s big inheritance through her. It’s rumored that Lady Josephine and the Earl do not like each other very much. He probably started to worry she’d back out of the match before the wedding,” the Baron told him.
“So let me see if I understand this. Either she marries the Earl—who, no doubt, was tailing her just as we were—and he becomes a rich man. Or you kill her before a wedding can happen and you’re a rich man,” Shiemour said.
“Webothwill be rich men, you and I,” the Baron said encouragingly. He hoped that Shiemour would not get cold feet now—just when the Baron had both prisoners at his mercy.
“I’ll think about the best way to accomplish this. I’ll get back to you shortly,” Shiemour said, turning to leave.
“For God’s sake, don’t take too long about it. Everything is at stake here!”
Shiemour nodded and left.
* * *
How desperate is the Earl for this money?Shiemour wondered.Would he pay me more—say fifty percent—if I threw my weight behind him instead of Lord Alfred?Shiemour was beginning to think the Baron was too much of a fool to pull this off. Perhaps the Earl was more sensible and reliable.
He told the coachman to drive him to Worthington Hall. The small county of Worthington was only a couple of hours from Somerset, where Rosterbrook was located. Shiemour sat back and enjoyed the ride.
* * *
Ace, meanwhile, had made his way from Portugal to Spain and from Spain to France. It was very slow going at times. Frequently, he could not get a coachman to travel outside his own city, so he was stranded. As he crossed the mountain country, torrential rainstorms hit, slowing him down even further.
But he pressed on, day by day. His worry over Josie drove him. He feared that bad things had happened to her since he had been forced into the Navy—and that the Earl had deliberately had him taken by a Naval press gang simply to deprive Josie of his protection.
But after weeks of travel, he finally found himself in Calais, bargaining with fishermen to carry him over to England. He struck a deal with one old captain, who was probably charging him twice the going rate. But the boat would leave in an hour or so. God willing, he might see Josie by tomorrow.
To pass the time until his boat would leave, Ace stopped in at a dockside public house. He pushed his way to the bar and ordered some ale.
