CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Anne fell asleep and when she awoke Daniel was gone. She reached out and felt the warmth on his side of the bed, just to make sure he had really been there. She had missed him so badly. She had ached for him. And he had come home. He had come home, and he had told her he loved her, and she believed him.
She lay, luxuriating in the cocooned warmth of the blanket, thinking about what he had confessed. Daniel was so self-contained, so sure of himself, so dismissive of class distinctions, that she had been stunned he could think his illegitimacy would change the way she felt about him. Her lips curved in a satisfied smile as she thought of how she had reassured him about that misapprehension.
Next, she remembered how he had held her tightly in his arms after their lovemaking and murmured into her hair, “I need you to be safe, Annie. If any strangers come to the door, tell Thornton not to let them in and send for me. Will you do that? I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you.”
She had wanted to ask him what could possibly happen to her, but she could feel the tension in his body and in the arms that held her so close.
“Please,” he said. “Will you do that for me?”
She hadn’t asked him any questions, only replied softly, “Of course I will, Daniel.”
The tension had drained out of his body. “Thank you, Annie. Thank you, my love.”
She hadn’t asked any questions because she thought she knew the reason for his concern. Anne had been reading the London papers that Daniel had delivered each day to Grex, and she was well aware of the turmoil disturbing the country. Millworkers were demanding more rights, and in response the government had passed the Six Acts, which restricted their rights even further. Orator Hunt had spoken in Manchester recently and had stirred a huge audience of millworkers to smoldering anger.
And, in all of this unrest, the Dereham Factory had been the shining star pointed to by all mill workers as what they wanted. There had been some angry harangues about Daniel in the local Manchester paper, citing him as a rich nabob who could afford to play the role of factory owner, something the everyday businessman could not afford to do.
She had seen the angry bruise on his shoulder. He had told her he slipped and fell. Daniel moved like a cat; he was not a man who slipped and fell. She thought of him making his will and her blood ran cold. He knew he was in danger. Her fingers closed so tightly around the bedclothes that they cramped. What could she do to keep him safe?
The answer came back, stark and pitiless; she could do nothing.
# # #
Ten days after Daniel arrived home, Anne was out in the front yard when she saw him coming down the walk leading Amit. There was a body draped across the stallion’s back. She ran to meet them.
Daniel held up his hand as she approached. “Don’t spook Amit any more than he is right now.” The stallion was snorting out of dilated nostrils and tossing his head.
Anne slowed to a walk. “What happened? Who is that on Amit’s back?”
“I don’t know who he is. I’ll tell you what happened as soon as I get him into the house. He’s still alive. Can you send someone into town for the doctor?”
“Of course.” Anne turned and made herself walk until she was at a distance from Amit, and then she ran. One of the footmen had seen her coming and was there to open the door.
“Richard, run to the stable and tell Frankie to go for the doctor! He can ride Bonfire.” As the boy hesitated, looking toward Daniel, she said loudly, “Go!” and he bolted out the front door.
The butler came hurrying into the hallway. “Are you all right, Lady Anne?”
“I’m fine, Thornton, but Mr. Dereham is bringing home an injured man. Will you find Miss Bonteen and have her prepare a place to receive him? I don’t want Mr. Dereham to have to carry him up the stairs.”
“Of course, my lady.”
By the time Daniel arrived at the door, Miss Bonteen had spread sheets on the sofa in the small room she and Anne sometimes used for their sewing. Anne was waiting for him, and she reached for Amit’s reins so Daniel could lift the injured man off the stallion’s back. As she took the reins she saw blood on Daniel’s sleeve and said sharply, “Are you hurt?”
At the alarm in her voice, Amit threw his head up in the air and began to back away. Anne didn’t make the mistake of trying to hold the horse and moved with him. Daniel moved as well, keeping a supporting hand on the limp figure lying across the stallion’s back. When Amit finally halted, Anne held him while Daniel lifted the unconscious man off the jittery stallion. Jeremy, who was a big strong lad, came out the door and said to Daniel, “Give him to me, sir. You had better see to the horse.”
Daniel nodded, let Jeremy take the limp body, and turned to where Anne was trying to sooth a snorting Amit. Daniel took the reins from her, turned Amit and began to walk him toward the stable. He had reached the end of the walkway when Kumar appeared, running full out. When he reached them he said something in Hindu to Daniel, who responded in the same language and handed him Amit’s reins. Kumar set off for the stable and Daniel came back up the walk to Anne. “The blood’s not mine,” he said.
“Thank God.” Anne took a breath. “Frankie has gone for Doctor Seton. Who is this man? What happened to him?”
Daniel shook his head. “I don’t know who he is, but I damn well want to find out. He tried to kill me.”
# # #
Doctor Seton arrived and bandaged up the pistol wound Daniel had put in the stranger’s shoulder. Then the doctor gave him a sedative so he could sleep. This annoyed Daniel, who wanted to interrogate the fellow, but the doctor assured him the patient would be far more coherent after a rest. Anne and Daniel retired to Anne’s private sitting room upstairs. Daniel had a brandy and Anne a pot of tea.
“All right,” she said, when Daniel closed the door behind them. “What happened?”
Daniel briefly contemplated making up a story, but when he looked into her worried eyes, he changed his mind. Anne was too smart to be fobbed off with a story. He stretched his legs out to the fire, which had just been lit, and said, “The fellow must have been watching me because he obviously knew where I rode when I took out Amit. We were galloping along, having a grand time, when I saw something ahead that caught my eye. It was just a glimmer on the path, but I pulled Amit up and we were trotting when we came up to it.”
He took a swallow of brandy and Anne said tensely, “What was it, Daniel?”
He said, his voice grim, “Someone had strung a wire across the path, Annie. If we had galloped into that, Amit would have hit it and come down. I probably would have gone right over his head. If I hadn’t been killed by the fall, it would be easy for someone to bash in my head to make it look as if I was.”
Anne was staring at him in horror. “Was the man you just brought home the one who placed the wire?”
“I think so. I dismounted immediately, tied Amit and went into the woods to search. I knew he couldn’t be far away. He would have had to stay around to make certain the trap worked.”
Anne was looking so shocked that he took her hand into a comforting grasp, “I heard the sound of twigs breaking ahead and I got close enough to get a clear enough look at him to shoot. Then I brought him back here.”
Anne’s hand went rigid. “You were carrying a gun? You suspected something like this would happen?”
“I always carry a gun,” Daniel said reassuringly. “It’s a habit carried over from India.”
Anne shook her head. “You expected someone would make an attempt on your life.” She removed her hand from his. “You lied to me Daniel. You didn’t get that bruise from a fall. You’ve been on the alert for something like this ever since you got home.”
He sighed. “All right. I thought something might happen.”
“What are you going to do about it? You can’t just keep shooting people.”
“I need to find out who is behind this mission to kill me so I can stop them.”
“And this man might be able to tell you something?”
“I hope so - which is why we need to keep him alive.”
There was a silence as they both thought about what had just been said. Then Anne asked, “Daniel, do you think these attacks might be connected to the factory?”
She had surprised him. “Why would you think that?” he asked.
“I’ve been reading the newspapers,” she said. “I know about the unrest in Manchester. You aren’t very popular with the mill owners there.”
“I know, and I’ve suspected they might be after me. But the more I think about I, the less I believe it. They’re businessmen, not assassins.”
“If it’s not the mill owners, then who could it be? What really happened in London to give you that bruise?”
He might as well tell her the whole truth, he thought. She deserved to know. And, if he was being honest, he wanted her to know. He wasn’t alone any more, and it was a good feeling. He had Annie on his side. He said, “I was attacked on the street by a group of ruffians. I managed to overcome them and got them to tell me they had been hired by one of the biggest criminals in London.” He raised an eyebrow. “In thinking about it, I realized that if the attacks were coming from Manchester, the mill owners would hire local cutthroats. They would know the locals, but I doubt they would know anything about the London underworld.”
“But if it’s not the mill owners, Daniel, who else could it be?”
“While I was in London Viscount Longford came to see me.”
She gave him a bewildered look. “What does Viscount Longford have to do with any of this?”
“Do you know who Longford’s father is?”
“No. Who is he?”
“The Earl of Preston.”
Anne’s lips formed a silent O.
He waited.
She said slowly, “That means Longford is your half-brother.”
“Yes.”
“And he came to see you?”
“Yes.”
“Well … that was nice, wasn’t it?”
“It was very nice. He’s a nice fellow. I liked him. But, Annie, one of the reasons he came to see me was to warn me about his father – our father.”
“The earl?”
“It seems the earl is furious that my name has become so prominent in reform circles. In fact, he hates me so much that Matthew thinks he might try to have me killed.”
“But that’s insane!”
“From what I’ve heard of the earl, he might well be insane. Matthew clearly thinks he is.”
“But, Daniel … what are we going to do?”
That ‘we’ resonated in his heart. “To begin with, as soon as this miserable sod upstairs wakes up, we’re going to find out who hired him.”