Page 41 of A Gentleman in Possession of Secrets (The Lord Julian Mysteries #10)
Sylvester ceased pretending to study the carpet. “Bri, hush. If Lord Julian wants to send for the king’s man, let him. It will be my word against Miss Hannah’s, and under English law, that ought not result in any hangings.”
“Right,” I said. “And you will intimate that Miss Hannah went with you willingly—which she apparently did at first, though, of course, she was trusting your lies at the time. You would further suggest she was ready to embark on a very abbreviated and unconventional sort of courtship at the romantic little cottage. She threw herself at you in desperation, given her advanced age and paltry dowry.”
The viscountess looked thunderous. “Hannah absolutely can and will marry Mr. Downing. If they spent days alone together, they must marry. Mr. Downing will not dare cast aspersion on his own wife. For Hannah, a quiet life in Ireland will hardly be a penance.”
“Mama, how on earth can you possibly—?”
Hannah fell silent when the captain patted her hand. “Your mother is concerned for your reputation, and we must not judge her for that. You need not consider marrying Downing. At Lord Julian’s suggestion, I have taken other measures to ensure that Downing behaves as a gentleman.”
Sylvester went back to studying the carpet.
“You bribed the magistrate?” Brian asked. “Of course you did.”
“Save your martyrdom for the stage,” I said.
“The captain bought up Sylvester’s debts, all of them.
The vowels, the outstanding bill from Tatts, the balance due from Hoby’s, the substantial rent owing to his landlord.
The sums individually aren’t exorbitant, but several years of fortune hunting has resulted in a staggering pile of debt. ”
“But how…?” The viscountess fell silent rather than discuss coin directly.
“James, you clever, clever man.” Hannah Stadler was quite attractive when she beheld the object of all her affections. The room should have glowed so clearly did she honor the captain with her esteem and so clearly did he reciprocate her regard.
“Clever enough that I could puzzle out who Sylvester’s accomplice was,” I said.
“The captain tried to locate and buy up Brian’s debts as well, but Brian had left no debts behind when he supposedly left for the New World.
That suggested Brian hadn’t taken ship at all, and here he is, embarking on a life of crime at the instigation of his elder sibling. ”
Brian smiled ruefully, while Sylvester swiveled a glower at the captain.
“Then you can have me jailed for debt,” Sylvester said. “Shooting would be more merciful. I started the rumor about Brian leaving Town ahead of his creditors. I did not want polite society knowing he’d become a ruddy schoolteacher.”
“Headmaster,” Brian said. “The work is honorable, and I was good at it.”
“That’s why you knew all the Proverbs,” Hannah said. “Your Shakespeare is decent, too, but your poetry wants work.”
Lady Ophelia’s gimlet stare landed on me and then on Strother.
Right. Enough pleasantries. “Strother Stadler, you owe your sister an apology.”
The viscountess sat up very straight. “Leave my son out of this. He has done his best to assist with all efforts to find Hannah and safely retrieve her. Those efforts have been successful. I will not hear a word against him.”
“Yes, you will. Several words, in fact. When I looked about for who had motive to put Miss Stadler in disgrace and who had motive to get his hands on the gold, Strother fits on both counts. He is in debt, not quite as spectacularly as Sylvester Downing is, but that’s only because Miss Hannah has been bailing him out to the extent she could.
He resents her aid bitterly and, worse, resents her support of his efforts to manage Pleasant View. ”
“Now that’s quite enough,” Strother snapped.
“I ride the property by the hour. I chat with the tenants and neighbors. I meet with the steward, and I call upon the landowners who border our property. I do Hannah the courtesy of discussing the property with her from time to time because Pleasant View is her home, but she is hardly, that is, I mean… Tell them, Han.”
“She reads agricultural pamphlets by the score,” I said when Hannah made no comment.
“She does the calculations of income and expenses and explains them to your father. She inspects on foot the property you trot over on pleasant mornings. She calls on the neighbors with or without you, and she is the brains that has managed Pleasant View’s dwindling resources. ”
The viscountess stared doom at me. Hannah merely looked shy.
“Han, you have to tell them. I do meet with the stewards, and I do chat with the tenants, and Pleasant View will one day be mine, and I am looking after my inheritance.”
Hannah’s gaze became sad. “I meet with the stewards and tenants first, Strothie. They all like you, and Pleasant View will be yours one day. You are right about that.”
For her honesty, Hannah got one of those furious-boy glowers, which, now that mother and son were in the same room, revealed a resemblance between Strother and his dam.
“Do I take it,” Lady Ophelia said, “that two intemperate young men schemed together to dispossess the Stadler family of its wealth and Hannah Stadler of her reputation?”
“Strother would never do such a thing.” The viscountess rose and treated the room to general sniffing and glaring. “Never. My son is honorable.”
“Your son,” I said, “is headed for debtors’ prison, and if Hannah married MacNamara, debtors’ prison would become inescapable.
Married women have no control over their funds, a fact of law Miss Hannah has made sure all in her ambit are well aware of.
Without her to guide management of Pleasant View and keep the worst creditors at bay, Strother would soon sink. ”
“I’m told Boston is lovely,” Brian muttered.
“Hush,” Sylvester said, shoving his brother’s arm.
Brian shoved him back. “Well, Lord Julian has the right of it. If you’d told Strother to take his harebrained scheme to the devil, we’d not be in this fix.
But no, you thought only of the gold and of sending the only woman to put you in your place to Coventry.
I despair of you, Syl, but I’m not lying for you. ”
“You have no proof.” This, from Lady Standish. “Strother denies the allegations, as does Mr. Downing—Mr. Sylvester Downing.”
I had hoped to avoid going into sordid details.
“Strother has given himself away, ma’am.
You claim he aided my investigations when, in fact, he thwarted them at every turn.
He could not recall the name of the friend whom Hannah visited at length last spring, though he propositioned that same friend when she was new to first mourning. ”
Hyperia’s expression became very severe at that revelation.
The viscountess was undaunted. “Young men flirt, and Strother can be forgetful.”
“Strother is forgetful,” I replied. “He forgot to mention the ransom note to me when I was the only party making a thorough search for his sister. He also observed that the kidnappers would have returned Hannah’s library book to Hamden Parva if they wanted to lay a false trail in the direction of Bath.
It must have slipped his mind that the only parties claiming Hannah decamped to Bath were you and your son. ”
“We turned in the ruddy book because she would not stop going on about it,” Sylvester said. “I might well be hanged for this day’s work, but I will never regret that my attempts to court Miss Stadler failed.”
MacNamara was half onto his feet before Hannah pulled him back to the sofa.
“Sylvester merely states the truth, James. We would not have suited. I’m glad we’re in agreement, though all he ever sought at Pleasant View was the gold.
I suspect he would have married me to get it, which is surely a symptom of some sort of brain fever. ”
“What has suiting to do with anything?” the viscountess asked. “Given recent events, nothing could be clearer than that Mr. Downing must pay Hannah his addresses.”
Even Strother looked puzzled by the viscountess’s insistence. “She’d quote him to death, Mama.”
“Strother, you are a son to try any mother’s patience.”
“Strother is also an accessory to kidnapping,” I noted. “He wanted the gold. He wanted Hannah disgraced. His motives and Sylvester’s marched to a nicety. I suspect Hannah has little idea where the gold is, though.”
“Little idea,” she said. “Not none. Papa can be devious, and when Mama and Strothie attributed relocating the gold to me, I decided I could be a bit devious too. I know the gold is somewhere on Pleasant View property, but not the specific location.”
“But why…?” Again, the viscountess did not finish her remark.
“Because you and Strother would have wasted it,” Hannah said gently. “We don’t need it. We’re managing.”
Hannah was managing, and rather splendidly. “Rather than debate that topic,” I said, “might we decide what’s to be done with the Downing brothers?”
“Sylvester believes the gold is rightfully his,” Hannah said.
“He harangued me about the plundering English and Downing lands seized by the crown and justice being in the eyes of the invaders. I cannot refute his tale—he claims the whole hoard was found on Downing land—but he also provided no supporting evidence.”
Strother stepped away from the sideboard. “Downing, you never said a word about this.”
“Did you really think I wanted to marry your sister?”
Strother took another step toward Sylvester. “You promised you would, if the need became imperative, provided you got half… Downing, you lied .”
“And you were in complete earnest when you said I’d get half the gold?”
Now the viscountess was staring at the carpet. Never had a pretty little pattern of roses and greenery fascinated so many people so thoroughly.
“The gold is Irish in origin,” I said, “but possession is nine-tenths of the law, and Lord Standish is apparently quite in possession of the goods, while Captain MacNamara holds your debts as well as your fate in his hands. Captain, what’s to be done with the Downings?”
“For a pair of dunderheaded felons, they were reasonably solicitous of a lady’s welfare, according to Hannah. My judgment of their deserts is not relevant, fortunately for them. Hannah shall determine their fate.”
Hannah rose and approached Sylvester. “If you worked half as hard to right your ship as you’ve worked to sink mine, you’d be solvent and happily married. Grow up , Sylvester. That is my judgment upon you. Grow up, and leave Brian in peace. He’s been sorting out your scrapes long enough.”
She shook a finger in Sylvester’s face. “Forget about a lot of pretty gold baubles that changed hands two centuries ago. Until the captain has been repaid for every penny of your debts, you’d best avoid England, but that’s between you and him as debtor and creditor. I never want to lay eyes on you again.”
With the dignity of a queen, she resumed her place between the captain and the viscountess.
MacNamara possessed himself of her hand.
“I’ll send an accounting to the Downing family seat,” he said.
“If Hannah is content to see you banished, then I am content. If I hear one word spoken against her that can be traced to you, Downing, you had best put your meager affairs in order, and quickly.”
I could see that neither Hyperia nor Lady Ophelia was content with this lenient judgment, and I wasn’t all that happy with it myself.
And yet, we had more malefactors to deal with, and Hannah was a lady who knew her mind.
“The brothers Downing may depart,” I said. “Take the first ship for Dublin you can find, and don’t think to leave the dog behind. Dutch and Dorset will see you on your way.”
“I wouldn’t abandon Boru,” Brian said.
I believed him, though I doubted his days of sorting out Sylvester’s scrapes were over. Loyal younger brothers with harum-scarum siblings had a thankless lot in life.
They made for the door, heads held high, Dutch and Dorset glaring daggers at the pair of them. Brian was the last to leave, and he paused before passing through the door.
“If it’s any consolation,” he said to Hannah, “I think Syl was smitten with you, with your brains and self-possession and great, robust talent of taking matters in hand, but he could not admit that to himself. Our grandmother was always going on about the gold. I do apologize. The whole scheme was farfetched, but Strother was convincing, and Sylvester talks himself into things, and one doesn’t… I am sorry.”
Hannah pointed to the door. “Apology, as belated and inadequate as it is, accepted. Now go.”
He bowed and withdrew, closing the door silently.
Good riddance and all that, and yet, there was more to be dealt with. “My lady, you owe your daughter an apology as well, and one for the captain wouldn’t go amiss either. Let’s be about it, shall we?”