“That seems like a very real possibility, My Lady.”
She bit her lower lips as she sat in pensive silence, unwilling to accept their fate just after she and Oliver found love in each other.
“Well, there is one other way and we can just pray that Mr. Harrold is smart enough to notice that something has gone wrong.”
They turned to Oliver, who was smiling grimly at all of them. “By this time,” he continued, “the constable should have reached Minsbury Park and discovered that something is amiss.”
“Yes, but how will they figure out that we are all in Ranhold House?” his sister asked him with a frown marring her beautiful features.
“There will always be clues and I am betting my life that Mr. Harrold did not become a constable for nothing,” Oliver grinned. “So, the best thing we can do right now is to take our sweet time in drawing out this process.”
“Enough time for the constable to figure out where we are,” Trixie said, a smile lighting up her face before she frowned again. “But how do we do that?”
Artemus smiled grimly to himself.
“We negotiate.”
* * *
Mr. Harrold was of the mind that no criminal would be able to hide his tracks forever. People did not simply disappear in midair and they were bound to make mistakes.
Mistakes that were crucial to solving cases.
He found it oddly disconcerting that the entire staff of Ranhold House had been sent to Minsbury Park and that these were supposedly the orders of the Duke himself, through his steward, Smithson.
It might be that he had been working with criminals for so long that he more or less had a grasp of the way their minds worked and he had been uneasy from the moment he had seen the steward on the night they investigated the residence of the Marquess of Draydon.
When he delivered the threats that the Duke had been receiving, he behaved rather oddly as well but Mr. Harrold had tried to dismiss it as the steward being naturally standoffish.
That did not mean that the constable discounted him from the list of suspects.
However, tonight, aside from the coachmen and footmen, only the steward had been aware of the decoy carriages.
“Dang it, he had been right under our noses the entire time!” he cursed to himself.
One of his men, Sheldon, scratched at his nose. “But he could not have accomplished all that alone. Hiring brigands and all that would require money—money that he does not have.”
“That is true,” the constable smiled grimly. “But has anyone ever seen the Duke of Lorchester in all this?”
The other men looked at each other and shook their heads.
Mr. Harrold peered out of the carriage window. He could already see Ranhold House shrouded in darkness.
“I have a very good feeling that we will be seeing His Grace tonight,” he said simply.
* * *
The Duke of Lorchester took one look at his watch and smiled happily to himself as he snapped it close. It was time.
After all his scheming, he was finally going to get his hand on the Rowley family fortune. Heaven only knew how much he needed it!
“A gentleman always pays his debts,” he muttered to himself.
In his case, he certainly needed to pay up or that thrice damned blackguard, Hamilton, would find a way to make him pay with his own blood!
He had never felt as much fear as he did when the man himself finally came to collect payment for his debts. He had already thought of marrying again to find another gullible girl willing to become a Duchess in exchange for money but nobody wanted to take him up on his offer.
It was then that he realized he had his only son left and if Artemus was going to be good for something at least, it would be to marry a nice, wealthy young lady and he would grab her dowry for himself.
