The youngest Miss Jenner, who had been sitting in wide-eyed silence, gave a squeak of alarm.
‘Hurry, you silly chit. Unless you want to see Lord Manners’ brains all over this nice white cloth.’
Theo caught Perry’s gaze and held it, every ounce of his focus on communicating the need to sit still and not do anything heroic. The Dragoons would have been alerted by the watchers above by now, Flynn and Lieutenant Morefleet would be with them, all armed. If she had decided to take one of the men, no-one would have moved, but this nervous young woman was another matter. They had to get Miranda Jenner away from that pistol before Mrs Finch realised she was cornered.
‘You cannot get away with this,’ a voice said from above and they all looked up. The black veil was pushed aside and Will Thwaite stood there. ‘Think what you are doing, think on your sins. Do not make matters worse by harming this innocent girl.’
She had stepped back to look up. The movement took the barrel of the pistol away from Perry’s head by a few inches and Miranda Jenner, getting shakily to her feet, was still out of reach. Theo dropped his hand to his side, shook his arm and the slim blade slid into his hand.
Jared had shown him how to do this two years ago, he had practiced with Flynn, but never on a live target. He got to his feet. ‘Listen to him.’
The barrel of the gun swung towards him, right away from Perry, and he threw the knife. It took her in the shoulder and she stumbled back against the wall as the door banged op
en and Morefleet, his men on his heels, erupted into the room.
Quite suddenly Annemarie Finch seemed calm as she stood there, the blood running down from the knife in her shoulder. ‘Listen, you fools. You will hear these words sung in Westminster yet,’ she said. ‘Que veut cette horde d'esclaves, de traîtres, de rois conjurés? Pour qui ces ignobles entraves, ses fers dès longtemps préparés?’ Then she raised the pistol and shot herself in the temple.
Eventually the shouting and the screaming died down. Mrs Giles and Mrs Bishop ushered the half-hysterical Jenner ladies into the drawing room and attempted to calm them down, the Dragoons carried the body out under Morefleet’s supervision and Theo and the others took chairs to the far end of the dining room, away from the blanket that had been thrown over the ghastly mess on the floor. Only the Rector was missing along with Will, who had taken the shocked and shaking man up to one of the bedchambers to try and calm him and offer what comfort he could.
Theo looked round for Laura, wondering if she wanted to expose herself to the unpleasantness as the Swinburns’ came to terms with what had just happened. Pitkin entered, murmured in his ear that Laura would come in just as soon as she was sure everything was all right in the kitchen and turned to go out.
‘You!’ Giles Swinburn pointed at the valet. ‘You’re that damned housekeeper!’
Pitkin dropped a perfect, and perfectly ludicrous, curtsey and closed the door, leaving Giles fuming.
‘What was that she said just before she shot herself?’ Jenner demanded. He was sheet-white, all his bluster gone.
‘It was part of the Revolutionary anthem, La Marseillaise,’ Laura said from the doorway and the Swinburns swung round and gaped at her. ‘I think it translates as something like, What do these slaves of traitors and conspiring kings want? For whom have these vile chains, these irons, been long prepared? I think,’ she added with the ghost of a smile, ‘we are the slaves.’
‘Laura? What are you doing here?’ her uncle demanded. ‘Where have you been?’
‘Running away from you,’ she responded with a calm that made Theo want to cheer. ‘My legal adviser here,’ she gestured towards Redfern, ‘will be in touch with you, although I expect you will be somewhat preoccupied sorting out the handover of the title and estates to Peter, is it? Or Paul. The one from Lincolnshire, anyway.’
‘You – ’ Giles began.
Redfern stood up, but Theo was before him. He went to her side, took her hand and led her over to sit beside him. ‘I suggest that you moderate your tone and your behaviour towards my fiancée or you will answer to me.’
He felt the shock in Laura’s body, heard the little gasp before she said, somewhat tartly, ‘It would be helpful if you asked me first, Theo. I was under the impression that you already had a fiancée. This is not the seraglio in Constantinople.’
‘My erstwhile betrothed is somewhere out in the Bay of Biscay by now and I hope that seasickness is not spoiling her wedding trip with her husband who is on his way back to the Peninsula with her.’
‘Theo! What on earth did you do?’
‘Later,’ he said with a smile. ‘And I will go down on one knee and do the thing in style when we are alone, but just for the sake of keeping matters straight with your family, will you marry me, Miss Darke?’
‘Of course I will,’ she said and slid her hand into his.
‘You lied to me, Northam!’ Sir Walter snarled. ‘You and your precious friends. You gave me your word you did not know where she was.’
‘Nor did we at that time,’ Jared said. ‘Miss Darke might have been in the house, or not. She might have been in the grounds – or not. And I hardly think, given your behaviour to your ward, that you are in a position to prate about honour. Mr Swinburn.’
‘Indeed,’ Redfern said, looking every inch the lawyer. ‘Your uncle was a smuggling parson, your father married bigamously, your half-sister was a traitor and you have been abusing your trust and defrauding your niece.’
Sir Walter, now plain Mr Swinburn, subsided onto the sofa beside his wife who wailed, ‘Will someone tell me what is happening!’
‘Quite simple, Mama,’ Giles said between what sounded like clenched teeth. ‘Father is illegitimate and we are disinherited. Redfern here is about to sue us for every penny that remains and your confounded niece is going to marry Lord Northam. Your sister-in-law has been stealing British gold and killing British agents – have I missed anything?’ he asked with furious sarcasm.
‘She murdered my father.’ Hogget, who had been prowling up and down while the Swinburns reeled with impotent shock and anger, came to a halt in the middle of the group. ‘But she did not do all of this single-handedly. We are congratulating ourselves on having discovered the traitor, but while we are sitting around here, at least one person, probably more, are escaping.’