‘She will be if I can just find some feathers to burn under her nose.’ Susan struggled to get the wilting companion into a sitting position, only to find his lordship bending at her side.
‘Here, let me, I think she is coming round.’ He scooped up Miss Prudhome, almost dropping her again at the screech of alarm she let out when she realised she was in the arms of a man. He hastily seated her in a Windsor chair by the range and retreated to assist Hester, who was urging Jethro to take the seat opposite.
‘I heard the to-do, Miss Hester,’ Jethro explained, wincing as the hard chair back met his shoulder. ‘But I didn’t reckon on being so shaky on my feet. It took me near ten minutes to get out of bed. I’m sorry, my lord.’ He turned his pale face towards Guy, ‘I should have been more alert-like, ready to help.’
‘It’s a very good thing you did not, Jethro, there were enough of us falling all over the place-I am afraid I let your ghost go.’
‘I think we need a council of war,’ Hester announced, marching back into the room with the brandy decanter in her hand. ‘Susan, brew some coffee, please. Tea is simply not stimulating enough.’ She placed the decanter on the table. ‘Now, who would like brandy in their coffee and who would like it in a glass?’
‘Oh, if anyone should see us,’ Miss Prudhome lamented. ‘Drinking brandy at three in the morning with a man in the house.’
Guy unstoppered the decanter, sniffed, then reached for one of the glasses Hester put on the table. ‘It would be a crime to mix this with coffee.’ He poured five glasses and pushed them around the table. ‘Is the rest of your wine cellar up to this standard, Miss Lattimer?’
Off guard she replied, ‘Oh, yes, all of it is very good, although I have not dared look at the clarets yet after their jolting on the carrier’s cart.’
‘You must introduce me to your wine merchant.’ Guy took an appreciative sip. ‘I imagine we are too far from the sea here for it to be run brandy.’
‘I inherited it,’ Hester admitted. ‘Unusual, I know…’
‘Your father had excellent taste.’
Of course, that was the obvious conclusion, there was no need to fear he would guess the truth.
Hester smiled brightly. ‘Thank you. Maria, are you feeling a little recovered?’
‘Yes, indeed.’ In fact, Miss Prudhome was faintly flushed, and Hester noticed that she was taking rather more sips from the glass than from her cup. ‘This is very reviving, although naturally I do not approve of spirits except in a medicinal capacity.’
‘Good. Now, what are we going to do?’ Hester looked round the kitchen table at her supporters. One nervous lady’s companion one feisty maidservant, a boy with a damaged shoulder and a nobleman who most certainly shouldn’t be there. ‘We know whoever is doing this is flesh and blood; Lord Buckland hit him.’
‘Hard enough to bruise.’ Guy rubbed his knuckles.
‘So we must watch out for men with a bruised cheek or a black eye. We know they can get in and out of here without using the doors and windows.’
‘Which is strange, in a house of this age,’ Maria remarked. She was sitting up, looking much recovered, a faint flush on her cheeks. ‘I mean, it is not as though it is some ancient mansion where you might expect priest holes and secret passages, is it?’
‘The ghost has therefore taken time to prepare something before your arrival,’ Guy mused. ‘Or the secret entrance was built at the same time as the house. The latter, I imagine.’
Hester shot him a suspicious glance. There was something about the tone of his voice that made her suspect he was putting two and two together-and that the clues he was adding up were unknown to her.
‘And that entrance is in this kitchen, or the scullery,’ Susan added. ‘That would make sense-this is the back of the house and shielded from passers-by.’
‘And the only person, other than his lordship, who has expressed a desire to buy the house is Sir Lewis.’ Hester shook her head in disbelief. ‘He has not pressed me about it, only said that if I was alarmed he felt it was his duty to buy it back. I cannot imagine that would be easy for him, his own home is in poor repair.’
‘You think him short of funds?’ Guy twirled the stem of his glass between his fingers. ‘If he does indeed want this house, then it must represent an investment of some kind to him, but what I cannot imagine.’
‘Someone was here at night, several times just before I arrived.’ Hester recounted the village gossip. ‘Lights were seen. But if they were searching, there was no trace of it. The Nugents could well have retained keys, of course-the back door was not bolted when we arrived. But why should they? It is only a short while since their father sold it to me; if there were some secret, something of value, surely both father and son would know about it, and it would have been removed before the house was sold.’
‘If Lewis did know. I wonder just how sudden his father’s death was.’
‘He was unwell-Miss Nugent would have it that he became so when he signed the bill of sale-but the end was sudden, following a fall, and, according to her, the moon was full and a dead rose was found.’
‘A nice piece of embroidery,’ Guy observed cynically. ‘Perhaps I am misjudging them and Sir Lewis is straightforward and Miss Nugent has a taste for melodrama, but I will call on them the day after tomorrow and see if Sir Lewis’s handsome features have become marred in any way. It will be as well to allow the bruise time to develop.’
‘Of course! That will settle it.’ Hester felt a flood of relief at the thought of such tangible proof. ‘It has just occurred to me,’ she added slowly. ‘Sir Lewis gave me the sleeping draught for Jethro. What better way of making sure that no one was sitting up with him.’
‘Hmm, you could well be right. I will send a footman over every night to sleep here in the kitchen, with a lantern lit. That should stop any attempt to enter.’ Guy raised an eyebrow at Hester, daring her to refuse his help again.
‘Thank you, Lord Buckland,’ she responded meekly. It seemed the most prudent thing, and the man would be in no danger if the ghost saw that the room was occupied.