The Lady By His Side(104)

“Everyone else keep riding!” Sir Humphrey bellowed.

They did, all now peering ahead into the gathering gloom.

Three minutes later, Wilson, Worthington, and Parrish rejoined the line, with Wilson leading the other horse.

“Is it Boyne’s?” the inspector called.

“We think so,” Parrish replied. “It’s from the Hall stables, and other than us, who else had a horse out?”

They all digested that.

Riding on Sebastian’s other side, Sir Humphrey turned to him. “Any chance you more than winged him?”

Sebastian shook his head. “If I’d wounded him more severely, it would have slowed him down before he barreled out of the depths of the house. And the cavern where I shot him was just back from the shore—he’d covered a fair distance on foot in a reasonable time when he emerged, yet he made it to the stable, got on a horse, and rode off…” He paused, then grimaced. “It’s possible the effort and the blood loss have caught up with him, and he’s fallen off.”

Sir Humphrey grunted. He settled back in his saddle and called to the company to keep their eyes peeled for a body on the ground.

Antonia hesitated, then leaned forward and called across Sebastian to Sir Humphrey, “Connell might have met someone with a carriage and turned the horse loose.”

Sebastian grimaced.

Sir Humphrey looked disgusted. “That puts a different complexion on things.” He raised his voice again. “Damn it—let’s pick up the pace. We don’t want to lose the beggar.”

Sebastian and the inspector pulled a little ahead. Filbury joined them, all three keeping their gazes trained down, following the tracks imprinted on the grassy ground.

The group forged on. Connell hadn’t leapt fences but had left gates swinging wide; although he’d detoured to go through the gates, he invariably returned to his northwesterly course. It became increasingly clear that he was making for the northwest corner of the estate. Antonia remembered the dense coppice that occupied that area. If one wanted to rendezvous with someone coming from elsewhere and be sure no one on the estate would see, that coppice was perfect in structure, location, and isolation.

Sure enough, Connell’s horse’s tracks led directly to the entrance to the narrow path meandering to the clearing in the center of the large coppice.

They all drew rein, dismounted, and tied their mounts to trees along the edge of the coppice.

Sebastian, Filbury, and Crawford were crouched just inside the edge of the trees, examining the surface of the path. They rose as, together with all the others, Antonia joined them.

The inspector met Sir Humphrey’s gaze and tipped his head along the path. “He’s gone striding in. No sign he’s staggering.” He’d kept his voice just above a whisper, but then looked down the path and humphed. “Chances are he’s well on his way, but we’d better check.”

The path was only wide enough for one. Crawford led the way, with Sir Humphrey at his heels, with Sebastian, Antonia’s hand again in his, behind the magistrate. The others followed Antonia in single file.

When they’d visited the coppice earlier in the day, by standing in his stirrups on the tall gray, Sebastian had been able to see through the largely bare branches into the clearing, but only well enough to discern that there was no building hidden within it. At ground level, the density of trunks and saplings restricted their view. It wasn’t until, behind Sir Humphrey, Sebastian stepped into the clearing itself—obviously created to allow more effective access to the trees in the center of the unusually large coppice—that he could fully observe the enclosed space.

It was larger than he’d expected. Large enough that four trees had been allowed to grow in a clump in the clearing’s center.

Connell Boyne was sitting on the ground, facing away from them, with his back against one of the central trees.

Crawford had checked at the sight of him. Now, he went forward cautiously. “Connell Boyne!”

Boyne didn’t react.

Sebastian’s imagination immediately provided a reason for Boyne’s stillness, but he held the thought at bay and followed Sir Humphrey as, still moving slowly, the group split into two. Half followed Crawford clockwise around the trees, while the rest, including Sebastian and Antonia, followed Sir Humphrey in an anticlockwise direction.

Crawford was the first to look down on their quarry. The inspector’s features set. Boyne sat slumped with his legs stretched out before him.

Sir Humphrey joined the inspector several paces back from Boyne’s boots. The magistrate grimaced.

Sebastian and Antonia came up beside Sir Humphrey.

It was transparently clear that Connell Boyne was dead.