The Unexpected Marriage of Gabriel Stone (Lords of Disgrace 4)

‘Do you indeed?’ Barton seemed unintimidated by the presence of a marquess, even Cris at his most arctic. Gabriel felt an unwilling twinge of admiration and an equally unpleasant lurch of apprehension. This old bird was going to show neither fear nor favour.

‘I wish to speak to my brothers in private.’

‘Collusion? I think not, my lord. If they wish to address me, they may do so.’

Louis stood up and Ben, magnificent in full scarlet regimentals, waved him back to his seat. ‘Let me. Lord Knighton has a grudge against my brother because of Gabriel’s elopement with his daughter. He has spread it about that his investigations have revealed a witness to my father’s death, but I know who did witness it and I can attest to the fact that none of those present that day have spoken to any investigator. In other words, he is inventing evidence.’

‘And who were those witnesses?’

Witnesses, plural? Gabriel looked at Louis again and saw that Caroline had put her hand on his forearm.

‘My eldest brother, the present Lord Edenbridge, you know about, sir. There were also myself and my other two brothers.’

‘You were not there,’ Gabriel interrupted. ‘And Louis was unconscious.’

‘Allow Major Stone to finish, if you please. Where were the servants? As I recall, we were told they were all below stairs or in various rooms not within sight of the hall and landing.’

‘Yes, sir. There was to be a dinner party that evening. The staff were either in the kitchens, or in the dining room or preparing the drawing room. My brother George and I were in the room where we studied because our tutor had left us an exercise in Latin translation before he went into Lewes. We heard a loud crash.’

‘Yes, I knocked over a valuable Chinese vase that stood at the head of the stairs,’ Gabriel stated. ‘You were nowhere in sight.’ He felt Caroline’s gaze on him as though she had prodded him with her finger, but he did not look in her direction. He wasn’t under oath, not yet.

‘That is not true,’ Louis said and all eyes turned to him. ‘I knocked it over and I was trying to hide the pieces, which was stupid of me. But I knew if I didn’t then Gabriel would take the blame like he always did and he would be the one who was whipped.’

‘Louis—’

‘No. We should have spoken up long ago, right from the beginning, but we were all too afraid. We let you pretend you were the clumsy one, or the one who had done something out of mischief. Father soon believed you were wicked—you didn’t have to try very hard to fake the evidence and protect us.’

‘Damn it, Louis! Will you be quiet?’

George, Ben and Sir Humphrey all began to speak at once.

‘No, Gabriel,’ Caroline said, her quiet voice stilling the noise like one chime of a bell. ‘No, Louis will not be quiet. He is going to tell the truth and so, finally, are you.’

At a stroke she was going to uncover all the wounds he had spent such pain and misery covering up, would shatter his brothers’ memories of their childhood, would make him break his vow to his mother. He knew why—she had a passion for truth, she had a fierce loyalty to him as her husband. But his loyalties were older than their marriage and he could not allow how he felt about her to shake them.

‘You are my wife and you will do as I tell you. Now, be silent.’ He had never spoken to Caroline like that before, had never thought he would. In his own voice he heard echoes of his father, of hers, and he saw her go white even as he felt the stab of nausea in his gut.

‘No,’ she said again. ‘We are all going to disobey you. Your wife, your brothers and your friend. We have made a conspiracy against your secrets. The truth matters and, besides, our child is not going to grow up believing she or he had a murderer for a father. Go on, Louis.’

It took perhaps two seconds for her words to hit home, then the rest of the room vanished from his consciousness. Our child? Caroline is expecting our child? But that is impossible.

He came back to himself to find everyone, his wife included, had their attention fixed on Louis, who must have simply carried on with his story. ‘...it was idiotic to try to hide the damage, but I was in a panic. Then I heard Father coming. He had heard the crash, of course, and he had his whip. I expect he thought it was Gabriel again. He rushed towards me, shouting.’

‘We’d heard the noise and we were just coming out of the corridor when we saw you running up the stairs, Gabriel,’ Ben said. He stood at attention as though he was making a report to his commanding officer.

‘Father slashed at Louis, who grabbed at the whip. Father jerked it back and Louis let go, so it flew back and it hit Father’s face. Louis crashed into the newel post and Father tripped over his body—he was going too fast and was off balance because of the blow to his face. He went down the stairs, hit the banisters on the curve—I think that was what broke

his neck—tumbled past you, Gabriel, and hit the floor. I saw you run back down to him, then all hell broke loose. George started retching and I dragged him away so he couldn’t see. By the time I came out again you were telling people the story you told at the inquest. I couldn’t contradict you, and besides, there was all the fuss over Louis.’

He turned to the Coroner. ‘If there had been any danger of Gabriel being blamed I would have spoken at the inquest, sir. But George and I were frightened for Louis. He was only a child and when he came round he couldn’t recall anything about it. Provided Gabriel was safe, we thought it was best to say nothing.’

‘And now you conveniently recall it all, young man?’ the Coroner said to Louis.

‘Now, yes. For years I just had nightmares, flashes of memory that I thought were a kind of waking dream. Then it all began to get worse about six months ago when I started working closely with Gabriel.’ He looked round at Ben and George. ‘When I read the newspaper accounts, I suspected it was real memories and went to talk to my brothers. I suppose you’ll want to arrest me now, Sir Humphrey.’

‘And me,’ Ben said, making to draw his sabre from his belt in formal surrender.

‘For what?’ Sir Humphrey enquired. ‘No perjury was involved. Neither of you was called to give evidence and you were both schoolboys. It is up to my colleague, of course, but I can see no legal reason to reopen the inquest. No new evidence has been brought forward that would make the verdict of Accidental Death unsafe in my opinion.’