“Faugh!” Leroy grunted in disgust, dropping the wriggling creature into a bag. “Common grass snake. Still, tuppence is tuppence, and you shall have your share, young man.”
Leroy fished in his waistcoat pocket where he always kept a few coins and fished out a haypence. “For your vigilance,” he said.
The young man looked slightly disappointed. Probably he had hoped for the whole tuppence for himself. But coins were scarce and even a haypence was to be hoarded. No doubt the youth was courting one of his village neighbor’s daughters. This little coin would be added to the fellow’s growing hoard.
“Look sharp,” Leroy called out to the mowers. “Where there was one, there are likely to be more.”
Encouraged by the immediate reward, the mowers returned to their labors with renewed vigor.
Leroy mused sourly on the circumstances that forced him into competition with the hired hands and staff for bounties on snakes. He had been genuinely fond of his older brother, Barnard Rutley, but simply could not abide that sniveling little brat of a nephew.
Leroy had tried his hardest to be rid of the boy after Barnard’s passing, making little or no secret of his personal dislike of the youth. He first sent him to an especially tough military boarding school, but that merely led the unlikely little fiend to enlist when Napoleon made his moves.
There had been some hope with that enlistment. Military officers in France were notorious for becoming cannon fodder. But against all odds, young Rutley had come home without so much as a scar to show for his adventures.
There had been some hope when the boy evinced a liking for mushrooms.
Tricksy things mushrooms, one wrong one in a pot, and off you go without so much as a by-your-leave. But apparently his stay in France made him conversant in all the types of mushroom and their flavors.
Leroy was truly astonished the day that the staff had come to him, wringing their hands, and saying that the young Earl’s hat had been found beside a brook that in the spring freshets had turned into a raging river. A hat, a creel of rancid bacon, and a broken fishing pole were all that remained of the boy.
Such a tragedy!
Unfortunately, with no body at hand, the disappearance of the Earl of Hillsworth did little for Leroy. The courts required acorpus delictior other proof of death; or Leroy would have to wait long enough for his nephew to be declared legally dead.
Yet, in the absence of its rightful lord, Hillsworth still required maintenance and oversight. Moreover, it required it with no more funding than the day-to-day produce of farm and field. Barnard had been remarkably improvident, focusing on marble statuary, strolling lawns, cricket fields, and bowling greens.
Why could he have not been more interested in raising sheep, like our countrified neighbor?
Tolware certainly seemed to be thriving.
Three more snakes were frightened out of their hiding. Two of them were grass snakes, but the third was an adder. The science fellow seemed particularly interested in adders. While one did wonder why, a shilling for a viper was not to be sneezed at, so long as one did not get bitten by the creature.
With the mowing done, and the snakes collected in a covered pail—thoughtfully fetched by another servant—Leroy felt a little more cheerful. After paying the day laborers and giving the bonuses for the snakes, he scarcely broke even. But to show his own disappointment would be to brand him as common management, rather than as a sporting gentleman who enjoyed the excitement of snake catching.
I am common management. The principle is all tied up and beyond my reach until such time as it is proven beyond doubt that young Lord Hillsworth is dead. Such a bother. But it would never do for the villagers or the help to realize that such is my status.
That evening, Leroy pondered his plight as he dug into a simple meal of boiled beef and neeps. He’d never been overly fond of neeps, but they took on the flavor of the beef. With a dash of India spice, it was edible. The flavors grew more tolerable as he washed his repast down with several cups of small beer.
Just as he gave a mighty eructation brought on by the gaseous nature of his meal, inspiration came to him.
How had the mower found the fellow who wanted to buy snakes? He had found him listed on a broadside tacked up in the village square.
The very thing! He would have several broadsides with a description of his nephew posted around the country, along with a reward for finding him. It was completely in character with a right-minded uncle, frantic with grief and despairing of finding his nephew.
Yes, this would work. It would work very nicely, because if there was anything he had learned by being the steward of Hillsworth, it was that coins were extremely persuasive. Now, just how much could he put up as a reward? For sure as betting apples to cheese, the claimant would expect to get paid. Since that could very well involve some of the shadier members of society, Leroy had no desire to fall afoul of them by welshing on the reward.
These pleasant thoughts accompanied him all the way to the old study beside the library, where he had his brandy. Thus fortified, he chuckled softly to himself as he submitted his person to his valet, before retiring for the night.
Lying awake on his pillow, instead of thrashing around in frustration as had been his wont of late, he stared up into the darkness, imagining what it would be like to truly be in charge of Hillsworth Estate.
The first thing I would do is get rid of all those silly statues. Then I would plant oats on the lawn. But I would keep the cricket field and the bowling green. I do rather like a good game of bowls. Horses. I would start a fine stable, horses love oats. And I would...
Moonlight slanted across the floor in Leroy’s room, casting a soft glow over everything. As it did so, a very odd silhouette cast a shadow from the window.
Leroy’s eyes widened as what appeared to be the shadow of a hand moved across the window. The shape of a crescent moon shown through the wrist of it.
Leroy let out a shriek, and bolted from his bed. He grabbed an old sword from the mantle where it hung as a decoration, and charged toward the window. He heard a sort of breathy shriek, then someone said, “Owe!”
