Page 12 of The Beast of Barendale Manor

Evangeline found the Dowager Countess in the conservatory the following morning. The room was bathed in light and looked out onto a part of the gardens that seemed in a better state than the rest of the overgrown grounds.

Many of the trees were evergreen, needing little maintenance, and the gardener had cleared the paths of weeds. Some of the flowers were in bloom, and it made Evangeline’s mood darken as she took in the riot of colour. Nothing in the world seemed beautiful to her today.

The Dowager Countess sat on a small armchair in the corner of the room, doing her embroidery. As Evangeline entered, she looked up.

“Whatever it is, my dear, you look terribly pale.”

Evangeline had little choice but to confide in her. She had no one else to talk to of such things and was painfully aware that the Dowager Countess knew Edmund far better than she ever would.

“I overheard Edmund and his cousin speaking last evening,” she said as she sat down. Lady Viola placed her sewing beside her and looked at her gravely.

“Why do I not feel that it was a good conversation?”

“Colin was adamant that Edmund only had feelings for me as some kind of misplaced affection for Adelaide. Edmund is uncertain of what he truly feels for me,” she sighed. “I believed we had been growing closer, but every time we take a step forward, it is followed by three steps back. I would never wish to replace Adelaide in his affections; we are two separate women, but it all feels rather hopeless.”

The dowager sat forward on her seat and took Evangeline’s hands.

“What I said before remains true. You must not lose hope. I do not know what business Colin has of advising Edmund on his affairs,” she said with a sour expression. Evangeline felt that perhaps the Dowager Countess did not like Colin either. “However, if I may speak a little of Adelaide, it may help.”

Evangeline frowned. “I do not wish to pry into a time I was not present for. She died prematurely, and her existence is an important part of Edmund’s life.”

The lady’s eyes were warm, and she gave a genuine, wide smile that somewhat put Evangeline’s heart at ease.

“I always knew you were a gentle creature. You are right. Adelaide was part of Edmund’s life, and they loved one another for their part. But she was not perfect. She would often speak to Edmund in a manner I did not feel was entirely fair, and she was not half the hostess you are becoming. She had many fine qualities, and Edmund cared for her dearly, but there was always fire in their time together that did not suit Edmund’s gentle soul. I feel, and have always felt since meeting you, that you suit better together. You are a gentle spirit, Evangeline. Never lose that. And never lose faith. The only person who can tell you how he truly feels is Edmund. Colin is not privy to his private thoughts, and conversations overheard are often misunderstood.”

Evangeline tried to smile, but it was a false feeling.

It was reassuring to know that Adelaide had not been the perfect ideal she had conjured in her head, but Evangeline herself was not perfect either. No one was.

She still was none the wiser about Edmund’s actions. He had kissed her that night with all the passion of a man who cared for her, and yet he had pulled away as though burned by her skin.

She sighed. “Thank you, my Lady. We will have to wait and see how things progress.”

“You are so early in your marriage, my dear. These things take time.”

***

Timmons looked haggard when he entered Edmund’s study. His man of affairs had been sending weekly reports and bemoaning the troubles in the estate for weeks, and the toll had been telling on him.

Colin sat beside the desk, glaring at the man as though it were all his doing. Timmon’s hands trembled as he handed Edmund the papers, and his watery eyes were glassy and uncertain.

He was a portly man with a reddish complexion to his skin, and Edmund found it hard to swallow looking at his cravat. It was tied so tightly that he wondered how the man could breathe.

“These are the accounts for the tenant cottages, my Lord, and what must be prioritized.”

Edmund looked over the numbers in confusion. Jonathan himself had been clear about the costs involved, yet these were nearly double what he had expected. He read over them and passed them to Colin, who tutted under his breath as he saw the figure at the bottom.

“And have you been able to ascertain where the gap in the funding for the land has originated from?” Edmund asked.

One of the main issues Edmund had been contending with was how three thousand pounds had somehow been ‘lost’ when it should have been kept aside to rectify issues with the boundary fences. The patches Jonathan had been working on with a man in the village would suffice for now, but they were not a long-term solution.

How did three thousand pounds simply vanish into thin air?

“I have not, my Lord,” Timmons said, glancing at Colin. “We have reviewed the estate finances going back over eighteen months, and everything is as it should be. I believe it is merely an increased cost in labour and resources that has caused the deficit.”

Edmund sighed in exasperation. “But then, where has the money gone? I have reviewed the accounts myself, and there is nothing so large that it would warrant that much of a reduction.”

Colin cleared his throat. “Were you reviewing only the larger sums, my Lord? Often, the more minor expenses chip away at things over time.”

“I am well aware of that, Colin, thank you. I have reviewed everything, and it still comes up short. This is not a few shillings we are speaking of. It is an enormous sum to simply be unable to account for.”

“You are in a fortunate position in your marriage, my Lord,” Timmons added with a shake of his head. “Without the dowry, it could be that we would have to face financial ruin before the year is out.”

Edmund stared at him in astonishment, unable to believe that things had spiraled so far out of his control. He knew he had been neglectful in his recuperation, but Colin had supported him throughout that time, as had Timmons. Jonathan was the one who had brought the financial issues to his attention. Am I foolish to trust anyone?

As Colin asked Timmons to go over his findings again, Edmund grew increasingly frustrated. Jonathan’s calculations were far more reasonable, and he had set them out in a way that Edmund found much easier to interpret.

Timmons had a habit of making corrections across the documents and adding addenda to every page. This meant that he was constantly flipping back and forth between different reports. It made it almost impossible to keep track of anything.

Something is amiss here, he thought suddenly. Someone is not being truthful.

He narrowed his eyes at Timmons, who was now sweating profusely. He dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief, and Edmund did not let up on his questioning for the remainder of the meeting.

The conclusion of the discussion was that Timmons would go over it all again and produce a new report with fresh findings that stretched back over the last twelve months.

It was a burdensome task, but Edmund had reached the end of his tether. The rather puce skin about the man’s face was pale by the end of their discussion, and Edmund had no sympathy for the man. He seemed to be very good at reassurance, and complaining about everyone else’s mistakes, but did not take any of the blame upon himself.

“I shall show you out,” Colin said stiffly, and Timmons could not follow him out of the room quickly enough.

***

Evangeline walked down the wide corridors of the estate, looking for the place she had found before that held Adelaide’s portrait. Something about it made her want to look upon it again as though the lady might hold answers to the enigma of her husband.

As she kept walking, searching for the specific passageway that she knew would lead her in the right direction, she heard voices coming from one of the side rooms that she had believed to be locked.

Curious, she moved forward and found the door was slightly ajar. She recognized Colin’s voice at once and then the reply from a much gruffer voice than Edmund’s.

“You are making this increasingly difficult, Timmons,” Colin was saying, and the harsh quality of his voice surprised her. She had never heard him speak in such tones before. “If we do not act sensibly in this then Edmund will begin to suspect. There is too much riding on his belief in me, and today, he was beginning to suspect you.”

“But I have done everything you have asked of me,” came the desperate response from the other man.

“How have you been so careless as to remove three thousand pounds from a single budget? This is what I have been telling you all along. You must take what will not be missed.”

Evangeline stiffened. Colin’s movements were agitated and violent. Timmons cringed every time his hand moved toward him.

“A few pounds here and there from every quarter. That is how we will eventually ruin him. With his blasted wife in the picture, I have enough to contend with without supervising everything you do. The fire was one thing that should have caused far more damage than it did, and we have been fighting a battle with Edmund’s steward since that day.”

Evangeline’s spine was rigid as she listened to Colin’s words in disbelief. A chill skittered across her skin.

“Need I remind you that you are profiting very well from this? If you wish to keep your position when I am the earl, you had better convince him that this is all Jonathan’s doing.”

Evangeline felt cold at the calculating and emotionless way Colin spoke of his deception. He had spoken of the fire, too—surely, he had not been responsible for that?

But even as Evangeline tried to dissuade herself of such a horrendous thought, she recalled how false Colin had seemed from the beginning. He had been ‘assisting’ with the estate for some time. With Edmund incapacitated, it would have given him every opportunity to sabotage the estate if he wanted to.

Without Edmund, Colin would be next in line…

Evangeline was suddenly struck by the terrible truth of what she had heard. She, too, was a threat to Colin if he desired the title. With a new wife, Edmund might have an heir, and then Colin would never inherit.

She sucked in a sharp gasp of air and leaped back in fear as the door jerked open, and Colin’s true face was revealed to her. His eyes were dark and angry, his mouth set into a cruel line.

“It is impolite to listen at doorways, my Lady,” he said as he gripped her arm in a vice and pulled her roughly into the room.