Page 31 of The Tart’s Final Noel (Gravesyde Village Mysteries #3)
Twenty-seven
Rafe
Having just reassured Verity that the attic was well secured and helped her tuck the orphans and Lynly into bed, Rafe swore vociferously when Minerva arrived to tell him the stair lock had been jammed.
Accustomed to rough soldiers, Minerva did not flinch at his profanities but Verity did. His wife was already round-eyed with fear. He didn’t mean to upset her more—especially if the intruder had been up here in the past hour since he’d checked the deuced door.
He rubbed reassuringly at the delicate fingers clutching his big arm. “Now we know which door to watch.”
“Or there is more than one intruder,” Minerva warned. “They must know by now that the children aren’t alone.”
“We are leaping to conclusions. It may only be a thief intending to steal. Or worse, they could be after the heirs. There is no good reason to believe anyone wishes to harm either.” Verity picked uncertainly at a thread in Rafe’s coat.
“Will it be safer if we have all the children in one room or will that unnecessarily endanger one set for the others?”
Even Minerva frowned at that conundrum.
Rafe knew all about divide and conquer, but he didn’t think it applied here.
“There is only the one corridor to reach both rooms and two entrances into it. Unless an army marches in, they cannot take us all at once. Are there any musical instruments or bells or other noisemakers in this maze of clutter?”
Both women brightened. With troops as intelligent as this, Wellington might have beaten Napoleon much sooner.
“Mr. Birdwhistle or the boys will know. I’ll check with them.” Minerva slipped across the corridor to the schoolroom. The tutor answered her knock immediately, threw an anxious glance to Rafe and Verity, and let her in.
“Once you’re armed with noisemakers, I want to check the door on the other end leading to the new wings where the servants sleep.” Rafe hugged Verity. “We are not a helpless baker or nanny.”
“Be careful,” she warned. “You cannot reach that door without going through all the mazes the boys have created in the storage areas.”
“Then I won’t need Wolfie to guard the storage area door. He can mind the stairway with the broken lock. I’ll tie a trip wire across the opening. If an intruder stumbles, you and Wolfie will hear them.”
“Kate is working late on the maids’ uniforms,” Verity warned him. “She is likely to take those stairs to check on the children when she’s done. I don’t know where she means to sleep.”
“We’ll send Minerva down to warn her. Those back stairs go to the bachelor’s wing or I’d station Kate on the next floor.
Damien is not likely to return to his room until late.
” Rafe paced the corridor. He’d been a mess sergeant, not an officer who plotted traps for enemy troops.
The enemy had already killed two women. He couldn’t let him take more.
He just prayed he didn’t have two killers on his hands.
The gentlemen and ladies of the manor were all at dinner. The only troops he trusted were Verity and Minerva. He knew they would fight. He’d seen them in action. Mr. Birdwhistle, he didn’t know. He had to strategize.
Minerva returned with a grin and a toy trumpet. “The boys are thrilled to be included. They had a drum and are fashioning more. I believe sleigh bells were mentioned.”
“Even better! If they can fasten any sort of bell on doors, they might frighten an intruder away before he even reaches us.” Rafe tested the trumpet with a soft toot, then handed it to Verity.
“If necessary, blow really hard. I’ll be patrolling up here and will come running. Don’t worry about waking the children.”
He turned to Minerva. “Could you see where Kate means to sleep and warn her that our doors shouldn’t be breached? And if there is any way to warn the others. . .”
“I’ll be dining with the servants after dinner. In the meantime, I’ll talk to Kate and anyone else I find. We’ll pass the word. I don’t know if they can hear bells or toy horns from the ground floor, but you’ll most likely terrify anyone before it matters.” She slipped away.
“I need you to be brave and guard this room while I check doors.” Rafe handed Verity one of the knives he kept about his person.
He didn’t think she’d ever used a weapon, but she had certainly intended to in the past. She tucked this one in her waistband without a murmur.
“Don’t attempt to dodge into any doorways if you need to conceal yourself,” she warned. “I have no idea what traps the boys have set.”
“I’ll just flatten my slim form against a wall like a shadow,” he said in amusement. “Or kick the manure out of anyone approaching, depending on my mood.”
“If they have a pistol. . .” She finally look terrified.
“I have a bigger one. And I’m a fair aim with a few years experience. Besides, I know better than to dodge into doorways. I think I shall open them all in invitation.”
She didn’t laugh but hugged his waist. “You’ve been shot before. I do not ever want to see you hurt again.”
Rafe caressed the caramel silk of her hair.
“I really don’t think anyone is stupid enough to attempt to steal young ones from an attic without an army.
If your intruder meant anything at all, it was a reconnaissance mission, and you bravely thwarted him.
I don’t expect to be lucky enough to catch a killer tonight. ”
She nodded, accepting that theory.
Rafe thought if the killer could, he’d run a knife through the orphans the same way he had Willa, or feed them poison, but he kept that fear to himself.
He checked with the boys in the nursery, and as Minerva had said, they were eagerly fashioning noisemakers out of every toy in the room. He located Arthur showing his younger brother how to fashion a whip out of jumping ropes and beckoned him over.
“Yes, sir?” The fourteen-year-old would be a big man when he finished growing, and he showed every sign of possessing the Calhoun intelligence.
“I need you to slip out to the stable and see if they have bells I can fasten to doors. And while you’re down there, see if anyone has a wire I can tie across the stairs.”
The boy’s eyes widened. “I can do that, sir. They have wire at the hardware. Should I go there if the manor doesn’t have it?”
The new hardware had all sorts of tools a villain could employ. Rafe prayed Jasper wasn’t a villain. “No, I’d rather have you up here with the youngers by the time dinner is done. If we’re still here on the morrow, we’ll do it then.”
Arthur nodded and trotted off. After pulling the tutor into the corridor to explain what he planned, Rafe closed his lantern to a mere sliver of light and eased into the black recesses of the eternal attic.