13 Chapter 13

"That'll be shiny bright." Fortunately Ruby could always be counted on to do absolutely nothing. "What do yer think I am exactly? Yer bleedin' servant?"

"'Ee got no roight after what ee-"

Barron gasped as Devorlane Hawley jerked the stick so hard across his windpipe, Cass was almost jerked off her feet.

"I have every right. You all want Lord Koorecroft fetched, don't you?So let's fetch him. I'm relishing the thought of the little chat I'm going to have with him about our dear Mrs. Armstrong here."

Cass's hackles rose. Why, he himself used the word rape. Did he think she wouldn't accuse him when her back was to the wall like this? Although the thought stole that stepping out here, dressed as she was, might require no small explanation.

Would it not be better to placate him? Or best still, push the stick herself in the hope he might take it as an invitation to depart before he got into trouble? She tightened her grip.

"How dare you speak to my companion this way. Ruby, stay exactly where you are."

Yes, it would be better to placate him. But if anyone was going to order Ruby, it would not be him.

"Wif pleasure, Cassidy."

Another vicious jerk of the stick. His breath, like hers, like Ruby's, hit the air in a freezing white puff. It also hit her. "Very well. How about I tell this man here-what's the name?"

"'Ee touch a solitary 'air on moih lydy's 'ead-"

"How about I tell Barron about the man who will touch not just that solitary hair, Lady Armstrong? The one with the nice length of rope who will touch your whole head, with a sack, who will put that rope around your-"

"Get 'im, Pearl!"

Dear God, while that would be very nice, if Cass didn't do something, blood would be spilled. His. Of course it would be his own fault. But it would also be hers if she'd to bury him in her herb garden. Besides she was unsure about Barron. Where he would stand on the matter of assistance. A broom handle may have been sawing his windpipe, but it didn't mean he was one of them. What might be around the county tomorrow about her?

"Kill 'im! Toffee-nosed snout."

Ruby sprung and Devorlane Hawley did not hit her back. Cass's throat constricted, the noise that came from the back of it not one she'd usually make. Men, certainly those of her acquaintance, would never do such a thing. Did or did her own back not bear witness to that fact? What Starkadder had done to her that day? And not just that day. Every day she'd refused to steal.

Of course, a corpse would make things inconvenient for her. Who would have thought he'd have retaliated like this, a powerful man like him, who had no fear of arrest, though? Plainly not herself or she'd never have opened her mouth. Let alone rowed with him over a kiss, a kiss she gave him so she could worm off the hook, a kiss which would be a complete waste if she didn't stop this unraveling further, if they now had to flee the county.

"Ruby. Ruby-no. No."

"Get orf of me, Cass." Ruby tried wrenching the handle free-plainly because her fists weren't good enough. "I knows whot I'm doin'. Stickin' it 'round 'ere like 'e owns the bleedin' place. Smarmy-"

"No, Ruby!"

"'E thinks 'e knows. 'E don't know jack-shit. 'E-"

"Ruby!"

"Here! What the bloody hell is going on here if you don't mind me asking?"

The voice-given it wheezed worse than a rusty gate hinge-still held that note. Unmistakable. Unbelievable. The one that always knifed right through Cass's senses, freezing her. Bones. Marrow. Thoughts. To quote what Ruby had just said a few moments ago, wasn't this just shiny bright?

Cass's shoulders sagged. All she had done was scream. Of course she'd not expected it to be heard by those who plainly had. The worst person in the world in fact. Gil Gressingham. To come by now and find them, find her-God Almighty, what were the odds on that? Obviously Devorlane Hawley wasn't the only one sneaking about.

All it took was Starkadder somehow rising from his grave for the cake to be well and truly iced. For that matter, maybe like her, he wasn't dead at all. And he was getting ready to lurch from the shadows cast by the straggling bushes in a pair of serviceable boots and a coat designed to keep out the winter chill, the pallor of the grave on his cheeks.

"Glad ee asked, sor." Barron's gasped with relief. But then Barron was not her. Not Sapphire. Not known to Gil Gressingham. "This gen'leman 'ere accosted Lyde Armstrong and 'e troihd ter strang'l me."

"I did not accost. I merely asked if Ruby there would be so good as to fetch Lord Koorecroft." Devorlane Hawley spoke as if to an idiot.

Cass cursed the fact he spoke at all. It was surprising given the number of blows Ruby had rained on his shoulders and his head. Although it was hardly surprising that now he did, Lord Koorecroft was the first person he mentioned. If he wasn't careful though, with Gil here now, it might also be the last.

"Lord Koorecroft, sir?" The pursed lips. The shrug. The fitting of his thumbs into his mulberry waistcoat pockets. Gil's bemusement was magnificently feigned. It was all Cass could do not to congratulate him. "You mind me asking now, what you would be wanting with him? I mean, grand sounding gent like that. 'Least I think he's grand sounding. Does anyone else here think he's grand sounding?"

"He's the local magistrate in case you don't know."

"The law and order man? Can't say as I do. Though it certainly looks like a bit of law and order is needing kept here right enough, you don't mind me saying."

The understatement of facts. She'd pay for this. Dearly.

Devorlane Hawley threw the stick aside and wiped the back of his hand across his nose. "Damn right it is."

She muffled a gulp as he shot out a hand. "I just wanted Lady Armstrong to tell him, if I sent this man here to hell, who he'd be sharing the journey with."

Well, maybe he did, but she'd be a whole lot happier if he'd let go of her wrist while he did it. Already she'd a robe to keep shut and Gil's eyes feasted like a starving maggot. She gritted her teeth. "How would I know, Lord Hawley? Unless it's a dead doxy."

He dragged her closer, so his breath fanned her cheeks. "That's sweet, Lady Armstrong, but the only dead doxy here is likely to be you."

She lowered her eyelashes. "You mean to add murder to your other crimes?"

"Then why not scream? Like you did a moment ago."

"If you want me to. It would not be a trouble."

"Whoa. Here, bear with me a minute here, sir, if you'd just be so good?"

Good? Cass dragged a breath. Good? How she stood here, how she didn't turn and run? She couldn't, could she? She didn't even have shoes on her feet. What if she fell into one of these herb bushes there? Tripped on a trailing bramble and nearly broke her nose as she had earlier?

"I'd like to but we have a little dispute here, my Lady Armstrong and I. Trust me, it can be solved in a trice if you help me take her to Chessington."

Gil stepped closer. She just must hope Gil hadn't seen that kiss. It was probably why his muddy brown eyes edged her face though. Then they edged Devorlane Hawley's.

"Your Lady Armstrong? Well, well. Now hold your horses a minute, sir. See, the man here ... what did they say was your name again?"

"Barron."

"Barron here says you accosted her. Is that so?"

Devorlane Hawley smirked, so confidently ignoring her wounding glare, it was all she could do not to smack his jaw.

"Much as I'm not a man to question a lady's virtue-"

Gil cocked an eyebrow, ran his fingers over his jutting sandy beard. "Her virtue?"

"Which is, of course, impeccable."

"You hear that, Cass, my girl? Now that's something .... something that ... Oh, never mind."

Cass? Girl? Devorlane Hawley's mind must be reeling through a set of jigs. Tilly had to have said Cass lived here, probably with Pearl and Ruby.

Cass, my girl suggested she did more than that, certainly with Gil Gressingham. Shedrew her head higher, although her heart tumbled down her ribcage. Another brother? A cousin perhaps?

"I never touched her," Devorlane Hawley said.

For a second, a second only, Gil lowered his gaze to the ground. Then he raised his chin and eyed Devorlane Hawley squarely.

"Actually, sir, you have no honest idea how good it is to hear these words. For a second there you had me worried."

"Why's that?"

The faintest smile played about his jaundiced mouth. "Why? Because I can't shoot straight. I wouldn't like to have to call you out because you accosted my wife."