‘I heard some of what Anna said. No wonder she is so very frightened.’
‘Clive Sherborne knew the man who killed him and Anna said that he was tall. There are two names left on my list and one of them has a disease that has stunted his growth.’
‘And the other?’
‘A lesser lord of the ton, but not for much longer.’
‘Would I know him?’
He held his smile and shook his head because he knew that the man was a cousin to the Duke of Winbury and Sephora would know him well.
Terence Cummings. The name hammered under each breath he took. I will have you tomorrow and you will likely not know what hit you, you bastard.
* * *
Sephora felt a jolt of some worry inside her as Francis turned away, a distant scattered recollection that had her reaching for the sense of it.
‘You think this lord is high up in the smuggling chain.’
‘I do. He’d have sent those who attacked me at Kew and he was probably there somewhere too, watching and hoping they might have hurt me a lot more than they did. People like that dwell in the shadows and attack in a way that holds no sense of justice and they like to see the results of their handiwork.’
He pulled her up from where she sat and she felt the heat on his skin despite his being out of bed in the middle of the night.
‘But come, Sephora, let’s warm each other. You are freezing.’
‘And will you stay there beside me? All night?’
‘I shall.’
He never seemed to feel the cold. Even now with his bare feet and light shirt and trousers he felt as hot as a furnace. She saw he had loosely tied his neckcloth around his throat and smiled. A further protection for Anna. When he shed his clothes to sleep naked she thought again how very beautiful he was.
‘What will you do when you find this man?’ The blankets were back across them now and she lay in his arms, moonlight falling across the bed.
‘I’ll teach him a lesson in how not to treat a child and then I will bring him along to Bow Street.’
‘Good,’ she said and pushed herself up across him to take his lips beneath her own. ‘Make sure your lesson is one he remembers.’
Sephora awoke an hour later into full consciousness, her eyes opening and her heart thumping. A lord of the ton he had said, and tall. A man who knew his liquor and would travel often. A man who was down on his luck in funds and had dreams of a lifestyle far more grand than his title allowed. A man who felt entitled and hard done by. A man who had been there in the gardens of Kew and would be interested in watching the fight between the Earl of Douglas and the others.
Francis was lying with his head on the pillow beside her, staring up at the ceiling, his feet moving up and down as if in deep contemplation.
‘You haven’t slept?’
He did not answer.
‘What is the name of the lord you suspect, Francis?’
At that he turned, his eyes hard. For a moment she thought he might not tell her anything, as was Richard’s way, but then the words came.
‘Terence Cummings.’
The truth of the name had her scrambling up into sitting. ‘He is a cousin of Winbury’s and he was there at Kew. It was him who had led us down that particular pathway in order to come across you, in order to slander your name. He was there in the street in London, as well. I remember that now because I tried to call out to him but he did not come forward. Anna would have recognised him and he knew it.’
Francis took her hand in his own, his forefinger running across the ring he had given her on her wedding day. ‘I don’t want you involved in this, Sephora. If you were to be hurt...’ He stopped and swallowed, but she was not to be silenced.
‘Richard did that to me, Francis. He made me less than I could be by his protections and in the end there was nothing left of respect in either of us.’
‘What are you saying?’
‘I know this man and I know his wife. Cummings’s father, Richard’s father’s cousin, was the second son of a Viscount so he did not inherit much. He needed to work for it.’
‘Or kill for it?’
‘Can we prove that, do you think? The fact that he murdered Clive Sherborne for the gold and that he was the one who tried to take Anna?’
‘I can goad him into thinking I have the proof until I do, for we are close to finding the paperwork trail he left. But to do so I will have to return to London.’
‘Then take me with you to help.’
She hated the way her voice shook with fury and desperation, but she stuck to her intent and stared her husband directly in the eyes.
‘Could I stop you?’ There was the slightest humour in his tone.
‘No.’
‘Then let us try to have some sleep and we will leave in the morning. Anna can go to the Wyldes for a time until it is safe for I don’t want her anywhere near the man and Montcliffe is impregnable. Celia and Timothy will accompany her. Confronting Cummings will however probably mean another dive in my already lowly standing in society if you are up to handling that.’
She smiled. ‘I shall be right there beside you, Francis, and our reputations are the last thing to be worrying about. It’s Anna we need to protect. But I remember something else Sally Cummings told me. She said that she and her husband would be leaving for an extended tour of Italy at the end of the month and that they might not be coming back to England for a long time.’
‘That’s the effect of a stolen fortune in gold because, believe me, someone will know that he has it and will want a share too. It also means we have to move quickly though or otherwise he will be gone.
Sephora smiled. ‘I used to be so scared of life I barely had an opinion, but now...’
‘Now you are beside me identifying murderers and exposing them. I am not certain if that is such a good thing.’
She stopped him by bringing one finger to his lips.
‘It is my salvation.’
Chapter Fourteen
They arrived in London late in the morning after seeing everyone safe at Montcliffe and letting Daniel and Amethyst Wylde know what it was that they were doing.
Anna clung on to them both as they left.
‘When will you come back?’
‘As soon as we have dealt with the man who tried to hurt you,’ Francis stated. ‘After that we can all live in complete safety.’
Maria was waiting for them with her maid in attendance at the Douglas town house as they arrived and she wanted to know every single thing that had happened since they had last been together. She also had surprising news of her own.
‘Adam Stevenage has asked for my hand in marriage, but Papa is not pleased with the match and refuses to give his blessing. He thinks that if you did not marry a duke then I shall be able to. I am going to give him a month to get used to the idea and if he has not then I shall simply run away to Italy with Adam. It’s a place I have always longed to go.’
Sephora watched Francis as he stood over by the window. Within a second of being in the house the problems of her family seemed to have landed upon him. But instead of being irritated as Richard would have been, he looked amused.
‘Go to Venice and to Rome and then travel south to Naples to see Herculaneum and Pompeii.’
‘You have been there?’ Her sister looked astonished, but before he could answer the first question she had asked him another. ‘You think I should go, then?’
‘It sounds as if you have already made up your mind.’
‘Mama and Papa and Josephine Allerly decry any place that is not England.’
‘So our parents are talking with the Winburys again?’ Sephora asked this because last she had heard they were not on speaking terms.
‘Indeed they are. Josephine is at our house every second day because she is not happy with Richard’s choice of bride-to-be and rues your loss.’
‘His loss and my gain.’ Francis came to stand next to Sephora and took her hand in his. Unexpectedly Maria blushed and began to mention the ball that was to be held the following evening.
‘Richard and his newly betrothed will attend. Mama and Papa are going too.’
Sephora’s heart sank at that information, but perhaps a ball might afford another opportunity.
‘Are Richard’s cousin Terence Cummings and his wife likely to be there?’
Maria laughed. ‘I suppose if Richard is there then they will be too. I never liked him much and I thought Sally Cummings always seemed browbeaten. Perhaps being domineering and arrogant is a Winbury family trait? Why do you ask?’
‘Cummings was there on the day Anna was snatched and I wanted to enquire if he saw anything we’d missed.’ Not quite a lie, but not the truth either.
‘You ought to be careful with him for I don’t trust him at all and Adam almost came to fisticuffs with the man a week or so ago.’
‘Why?’ Francis asked this and Maria grimaced.
‘He said something derogatory about you and Adam took umbrage. Cummings actually tried to get Adam to come into a business he’d invested in, something with liquor, I think, and he said he was doing very well in it. Their heated words put an end to that.’
When Maria was gone on the promise of seeing them tomorrow at the Clarkes’ ball, Francis pulled Sephora over to the window and brought his arms about her. His embrace felt warm and comforting.
‘Everything that’s said of Cummings draws the noose tighter in about him. Daniel let me know that he was seen in Hastings on the night that Clive Sherborne died.’