“Exactly my thoughts, Lucien, truly-”
“Yes, I heard you say so not long before I-well, I haven’t completely departed now, have I?”
“How good it is to be able to speak to you again! But-is it terrible for you?”
“Not in the least-well, no, that isn’t true. There are things that one longs for, and can never have in this state, so one certainly feels a desire to-to get on with it, shall we say? As much as I am loath to leave you-and I promise you, I did my best to stay-now I feel something like a traveler who has harnessed his horses, placed his trunks on the coach, and climbed within-but sits in his own drive.”
“Not-not unsure of his destination!”
He laughed, and said, “Hardly gratifying that you have doubts! But you may be at ease on that score. I’m quite curious about the place, but my departure has been delayed. I gather I have some unfinished business here, and it isn’t difficult to see what it is. First, we must find my murderer, for that person is threatening my son’s life, now that I am-supposedly-out of the way.”
“Your murderer!” I said blankly.
“My dear Edward, have you not been attending?”
“The branch-”
“Was off the tree before it struck my head.”
“But I saw the place on the tree where the branch had broken off. It was not cut clean, as it would have been if cut off the tree with an ax.”
“I’m not saying my murderer was stupid. I’m only saying that the branch was already broken off the tree before it was applied-with some force-to my head.”
“Then how-”
“I’m not sure of all the particulars, but I’ll tell you what I do know. Examine Fine Lad, if you would, please-why are you looking so pale? You aren’t going to faint on me, are you?”
“The horse-I almost had him shot.”
He studied me for a moment, then said, “If I could have found a way to leave you without grief, Edward, I would have.”
I could not speak.
“I take it the poor creature has not been sent to his equine reward?”
“No, I decided that I needed to think of Charles, and not of killing horses or felling trees.”
“Dependable Edward. I could not have left Charles in better hands. Still, what impressive vengeance you planned on my behalf! I’m touched, truly. Now-let us channel that determination toward saving my son.”
“Yes. Tell me more about what happened to you-and your horse.”
“I was about to slow him, knowing we were coming up to that tree, when something slowed him for me-rather abruptly. Without the least warning, Fine Lad-who is quite sure-footed-stumbled hard near that tree. I flew from his back, landing flat on my face, the wind knocked out of me-disgraceful, but please note that I was still holding fast to the reins. I slowly raised myself to my hands and knees-a bit unsteadily-when suddenly a cloaked figure stepped out and knocked me senseless with that blasted branch. Hurt like the very devil-briefly.”
“A cloaked figure?”
“I’m afraid he was off to one side-the better to swing that branch, I suppose. All I saw were a pair of men’s boots-rather expensive Hessians, if I’m any judge-and the front of a large, black cloak. I was struck down before I saw a face, but I’d lay odds my attacker was wearing a mask.”
I considered this, and said, “Can you travel from the Abbey grounds?”
“I’m not sure. I can move within the Abbey, and at least as far as where you were standing tonight. I’m rather new at this,” he added apologetically.
“Were you in Charles’s room when the fire started?”
“No, although-it’s the strangest thing, Edward. I was merely looking in on him, watching him sleep, when I felt this urgent need to appear to him, even though I knew it would scare him-as if it were so vital to awaken him, I could not remain hidden.”
“It was vital,” I said. “Had he not come to me in the library, he might have perished in that bed.”
“And Henry Bane would have become the Earl of Rolingbroke.”
“Yes. But it was William whose coat smelled of smoke and showed signs of being singed.”
“Hmm. How disappointing. William has actually spoken kindly to me once or twice in the past few years. But then, he needed to borrow money.” He sighed. “He’s not immediately in line for the title, but I suppose if two Rolingbrokes could be disposed of, Henry might have a short tenure as well.”
“Who are you talking to?” a child’s voice asked. I looked in some dismay at Charles, peering at me sleepily from the bed. I glanced toward Lucien, but he had disappeared.
“Myself, Charles.”
“That’s a loud one,” he said, yawning.
“I beg your pardon?” I said, and thought I heard a ghostly chuckle near my ear.
But Charles had fallen asleep again, and though I whispered Lucien’s name, he did not reappear that night.
CHARLES WAS STILL SLEEPING PEACEFULLY WHEN I BESTIRRED myself just before dawn the next morning. I awakened Fibbens, who gladly kept watch over him while I went to the stables. I went down the row of stalls until I came to that of Lucien’s favorite, Fine Lad. An old groom was with the big dark bay, applying fomentations to its legs.
“I’m afraid he’ll be scarred, sir,” the old man said, showing me the horizontal cuts which neatly crossed the front of Fine Lad’s forelegs. “But he should be right as rain otherwise.”
“Those wounds-could they have led to the late earl’s injuries?”
“I wondered about it, sir, and thought p’haps he’d been tripped up, like. But then there was that branch, so I figgered our Fine Lad here hurt himself on the way home.”
“Tell me-what do you mean, tripped up?”
“It’s an old bad ’un’s trick, sir-they puts a rope across the road.”
“But the earl would have seen such a rope.”
“Beggin’ your pardon, but no, sir. The way it works is, Mr. Thief finds a place near a tree, like, and ties th’ rope around its trunk. Then he lays the rope across th’ road, and covers it with leaves, so it’s hidden. Along comes a fine gentleman like our lordship, and Mr. Thief waits until he’s near abreast of ’im, and yanks hard as hell-beggin’ your pardon-he pulls it tight, see, and the horse can’t stop nor mebbe even knows what’s hit ’im, and while all’s confusion, he coshes th’ fine gentleman-if he ain’t already knocked in the cradle by the fall. Then he robs him, and that’s that.”
“How do you know of this ‘tripping up’? Has this ever happened near here before?”
“Oh, not near here, sir. But I rememory it did happen to the earl’s-beggin’ your pardon-the late earl’s uncle.”
“Lord Alfred Bane?”
“Yes, sir. ’Is lordship’s groom told me of it. Said that when ’is lordship were a young man, he was served just such a nasty trick, and took an awful blow to the side of ’is brainbox-and that’s how he went deef in one ear, which is why ’is lordship was forever shouting. I used to hate it when that man came near our horses-his late lordship, I mean, no disrespect intended-but y’see, ours t’weren’t used to all that shoutin’ and carryin’ on. So his groom tells me what happen’d t’him, and tells me that the robbers got to look no how anyways, ’cause Lord Bane hadn’t more ’n a few shillings on ’im, whilst they were caught and hanged, which is what they deserv’d.”
I RODE MY OWN HORSE BACK TO THE PLACE IN THE WOODS where I had found Lucien. I searched for a likely place for an ambush, and found it just a few feet away. I did not find a rope, but one tree bore a mark on its trunk, a line that might have been made by a thin rope being pulled taut-and within the bark near that line, I found strands of bristly fiber, as from a cord or rope.