Fall From Grace Read online

  ‘I didn’t imagine that he was serious,’ Lady Cantrell added. ‘When I pointed out that I would be a countess, he seemed unimpressed. He argued that titles meant little if one did not have the resources to live up to them. He appeared to know that Luke’s family didn’t possess those resources and advised me to marry a man of substance instead. He also said we hadn’t known one another for long enough to be sure we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, that Luke had a reputation for being irresponsible and that he would tire of me.’

  ‘I find that incredible,’ Jake said, shaking his head. ‘Excuse me, Lady Cantrell, but I cannot help thinking that your father must have had an ulterior motive.’

  Lady Cantrell shrugged, sending black swansdown fluttering before it settled again against her bare shoulders. ‘I tried to reason with him, to explain that I was violently in love and that surely he wished to see me happy.’ She was gripped by emotion and took a sip of water before continuing in a more controlled tone. ‘It did me no good. He was stubbornly determined to have his way and probably thought that I would comply with his wishes eventually, just as I always had in the past. But he didn’t make allowance for the fact that I was so desperately in love and we argued violently.’

  ‘I am very glad that you had the courage of your convictions and that you were happy for a while,’ Eva said softly. ‘Not long enough but…well, at least you have Sebastian.’

  ‘Oh yes, I have my beloved boy and shall always be grateful for that.’

  ‘Where is your father now?’ Jake asked.

  ‘I have no idea, which is what Lord Charles was apologising for just now. He persuaded me to leave India and promised to have his people there continue the search. My father left in a temper after our argument and took himself off to Goa in pursuit of a new spice contract.’ She looked Jake directly in the eye. ‘I have not seen or heard from him since.’

  ‘Are not those involved with the Company obliged to keep headquarters appraised of their whereabouts?’ Isaac asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Charles replied. ‘But the rule is not strictly enforced. It’s not that unusual for agents to wander about the country for months on end, striking deals with spice and silk producers, without saying exactly where they are going. They worry that others will learn of their whereabouts and try to steal their agreements before they are signed. It’s impossible to keep track of them if they are, shall we say, putting their own interests ahead of the Company’s.’

  ‘There’s no need to look so apologetic, Lord Charles,’ Lady Cantrell said. ‘I’m aware that my father is a law unto himself.’

  ‘Did he travel alone?’ Eva asked.

  ‘Heavens, no. The same three men always accompanied him. Two young Englishmen and a Hindi—as well as two servants,’ Lady Cantrell said. ‘I was upset but not surprised when he didn’t return to see me wed Luke. He can be absurdly stubborn. I wrote to him at Company headquarters in Goa when Luke was killed and it did surprise me when he neither responded nor returned.’

  ‘You think something might have happened to him?’ Jake asked.

  ‘I cannot think why else he would not have come when he must have realised how badly I needed him.’

  Lady Cantrell swallowed and took a moment to regain her composure but did not, as Jake half feared she would, break down in hysterics. She was clearly stronger than her fragile frame suggested. In terms of beauty she couldn’t hold a candle to Olivia or Eva. Her face was a little too long, her features pinched, her mouth small and round. But there was a vulnerability about her which he could easily imagine inspiring a man’s protective instincts. More to the point, she had the most engaging silver grey eyes and he could see that Charles found their expressiveness compelling. Be that as it may, Charles wasn’t well situated and probably couldn’t afford to support a wife and another man’s son. Even if they succeeded in having the baby acknowledged as the new Earl Cantrell, taking responsibility for the dowager countess and have her interfering in every aspect of his life would deter men made of sterner stuff than Charles.

  ‘I was alone in my grief with a young baby and little money.’ Lady Cantrell’s voice recalled Jake’s wandering attention. ‘Had it not been for Lord Charles…’

  ‘May I ask why your father was so adamantly opposed to such a good match?’ Isaac asked before Jake could pose the same question.

  Lady Cantrell wrinkled her nose. ‘He took me with him to India with the express purpose of having me marry a man of his choosing in that country.’

  ‘A native Indian?’ Eva asked, looking as astonished as Jake felt.

  ‘No. I never met the gentleman. In fact, I point blank refused to leave our lodgings when he called at Company headquarters. Papa was furious with me but short of pulling me from my room by the hair, he had no choice but to pretend I was indisposed.’

  Jake nodded his approval, his opinion of her courage reinforced. ‘Go on,’ he said, having cleared his plate and put his cutlery aside.

  ‘Your father wanted to forge trading connections with his father, I assume,’ Olivia said, shuddering. ‘How beastly of him to involve you in his negotiations.’

  ‘I agree with you, and told him as much. I made it clear that I was not one of his commodities and was not about to spend the rest of my days living on a silk farm.’

  ‘The man he wanted you to marry was a silk farmer?’ Jake asked.

  ‘His father was. They intended the son and heir for me.’

  ‘Do you know his name?’ Jake asked.

  ‘Yes. Mr Simon Warburton.’

  Jake glanced at Charles, who shrugged.

  ‘I know of his father by reputation,’ Charles said. ‘He is something of a legend in that he went to India as a young man and turned native. He married a local girl, despite the fact that mixed marriages are frowned upon, and didn’t seem to care what people thought of him. The marriage produced only one child, Simon, and giving birth to him cost the mother her life. Warburton never remarried, nor did he consider returning to England. Instead he became a bit of a recluse and concentrated upon making a success of his farm, which he has succeeded in doing. Merchants from all over vie for his business but few of them are desperate enough to offer their daughters in marriage in return for a contract to export it.’

  ‘Have you considered contacting Warburton to see if he knows of Mardon’s whereabouts?’ Jake asked Charles.

  ‘Naturally, I wrote at Megan’s request, enquiring after her father, but they claim not to have seen him. Whether that’s sour grapes because Megan declined to receive the son I cannot say. Other people located closer to Warburton asked some of his workers, but none of them knew, or were not saying. Warburton himself doesn’t receive anyone without an appointment but the people I set to enquire were unable to secure one. He has a rigid Indian secretary who deals with all callers, and few get past him.’

  ‘It is most mysterious,’ Olivia said. ‘I am very sorry for you, Megan, and do hope that your father extricates himself from whatever mire he has got himself into.’ She caught Jake’s eyes as she spoke and he knew they were both thinking the same thing. Mardon was very likely dead. No father, no matter how cold-hearted, would ignore his only child at such a time. ‘I am sure Charles has all sorts of useful contacts and still has an ear to the ground, even though he is no longer in India.’

  ‘You may depend upon it,’ Charles replied.

  The meal had come to an end and Olivia stood, indicating that it was time for the ladies to withdraw. The gentlemen were on their feet in an instant, helping them with their chairs.

  ‘Don’t linger for too long over port, Jake,’ Olivia chided as she left the room. ‘I suspect you are about to lay plans without us being involved because you wish to shield us from unpleasantness. Very noble intentions, my lord, but they will not serve. We are not the wilting violets you seem determined to turn us into.’

  Jake rolled his eyes. ‘Some of you are not,’ be replied softly with a significant glance at Lady Cantrell’s retreating back.
<
br />   Olivia nodded. ‘Even so, don’t cut me out.’

  He reached for her hand, raised it to his lips and kissed the back of it. ‘I would not dare,’ he muttered. He shook his head in resignation and resumed his seat as soon as Parker closed the door behind his beloved.

  ‘What are your actual thoughts on the matter, Charles,’ Jake said as the gentlemen took seats on either side of him. He helped himself to port, pushed his chair back so that he could stretch his legs into a more comfortable position and passed the decanter to Isaac.

  ‘Discovering who ordered Sebastian to be taken and is most likely also intent upon killing Megan is our most urgent priority,’ he replied, grinding his jaw, ‘but it doesn’t end there.’ Charles scowled at his port as though he bore it a grudge and absently twisted the stem of his glass between his fingers as he articulated his thoughts. ‘It’s a damned rum affair and I suspect there’s more to it than we have yet conjectured. We need to consider the broader picture.’

  ‘I’m with you there.’ Jake nodded, his expression grim. ‘We will get to Megan’s father and his extraordinary reaction to his daughter’s advantageous marriage in due course, but there are other concerns we ought first to consider. For instance, it seems deuced odd that Cantrell’s father died in mysterious circumstances just after Luke married Megan.’

  ‘You think Cantrell’s letter telling his parents of his marriage reached its destination?’ Isaac asked.

  ‘It seems likely. Arabella would have had a conniption at the thought of Luke denigrating the family name by marrying so far beneath himself. She, I gather, was the one who forced her father to break up Luke’s attachment to his actress. Old Cantrell wasn’t too worried about his son marrying the floozy and knew it wouldn’t come to that because he would soon tire of her charms if left to his own devices.’ Jake gave a derisory snort. ‘He spoke, naturally, from experience.’

  ‘But someone in Arabella’s social circle deliberately fanned the flames of gossip.’ Isaac raised a questioning brow at Jake as he spoke. ‘Perhaps Arabella suffered the indignity of embarrassment and forced her father to act.’

  Jake nodded. ‘That is what I believe. Parker had someone make a few enquiries of his fellow senior servants earlier at my behest. That is what he learned and you know how reliable servants’ gossip usually is.’

  ‘Sending a gentleman so far from the fold when he was known to form attachments to unsuitable females was hasty and ill-advised,’ Charles said pensively. ‘Not that Megan is unsuitable, of course, but she would be in Arabella’s eyes and she was not on hand to put a stop to it. Arabella might grudgingly accept the marriage but she couldn’t risk Megan consolidating her position by giving birth to a son. So when she did…’

  ‘It’s obvious that Lady Cantrell loved Luke, but were her feelings reciprocated?’ Jake asked. ‘Or, with no one to prevent him, did he take one of his infatuations to its ultimate extreme and live to regret it?’

  ‘Oh, it was a love match. I saw them together,’ Charles said, sighing, ‘and there is no question about it. There might as well have been no one else in the room with them when they were together, so involved with each other were they.’

  ‘And then the worst happened from the family’s perspective when they received word that the new Lady Cantrell was increasing,’ Isaac surmised. ‘Luke always was an optimist and probably thought that news would make things right with his family. But in actual fact it would have had the opposite effect. Arabella was probably desperate to do something to stop the title falling into unsuitable hands, but I’m not so sure that the old earl would agree to her extreme form of keeping the family name sacrosanct. I didn’t much care for him, but I can’t imagine him sanctioning dark deeds against his own grandchild.’

  ‘So Arabella somehow got rid of the inconvenience that was her father.’ Jake shared a sombre look between his friends. ‘Which begs the question, was Luke Cantrell’s accident actually an accident?’

  An elongated silence greeted Jake’s question. It was broken by Charles.

  ‘I had not considered that possibility,’ he said, looking shocked. ‘And frankly, it would be nigh on impossible to prove, even if we find grounds for suspicion.’

  ‘I think you mentioned that he was invited on a hunt in Goa,’ Jake replied pensively. ‘That’s over three hundred miles from Bombay. A hell of a way to go for a hunt, especially when he had the welfare of a wife and a young child to consider.’

  ‘He was keen to procure a contract that would secure the future for his family. The Raja with whom the ultimate decision lay enjoyed having white men marching to the beat of his drum,’ Charles replied. ‘Luke imagined that all of those the Raja was thinking of bestowing his contract upon would be invited to the hunt.’

  ‘So that the Raja could enjoy watching well-mannered English aristocrats and middle-class nabobs fighting one another for his attention, no doubt,’ Isaac said disdainfully. ‘Good God, how far would they be prepared to go?’

  ‘Luke knew it would cost him the contract if he didn’t oblige the Raja, so he had to go,’ Charles said. ‘Megan was aware that he couldn’t afford to ignore the opportunity and encouraged him, especially as she knew he enjoyed hunting and would probably show himself in a good light. She knew how important it was to their future to procure that contract. She was thinking, I suspect, that it would mend bridges with his family. It doesn’t surprise me that she was keen to earn her husband’s family’s respect, even if it was a naïve and unattainable ambition. She is too kind-hearted to appreciate that she would never be accepted by them, no matter how successful Luke became, and I’m afraid I blame Luke for pretending otherwise.’ Charles paused to sip his port. ‘Be that as it may, she feels responsible for what happened to her husband because she encouraged him to go.’

  ‘If I am right,’ Jake replied, ‘then Luke was in danger wherever he happened to be. If we can get to the truth it might bring Lady Cantrell some comfort.’

  ‘Not if she was the reason why Luke had to die,’ Charles replied sharply.

  Jake flexed a brow in agreement and fell into momentary contemplation.

  ‘Are there any particulars of the accident available?’ Isaac asked. ‘Do we know how it actually happened?’

  ‘Company officials investigated but I was never satisfied that they made a thorough job of it. But other members of the hunt agreed that Luke fell foul of a wild boar, which one of their number shot, but too late to save Luke.’

  ‘And their word was accepted?’ Isaac asked incredulously.

  Charles shrugged. ‘So it would seem. I agree with you that the death of any man under such circumstances ought to be more thoroughly investigated but we all know that the death of a earl would ordinarily rate more attention than that of, say, a native Indian.’

  All the men nodded.

  ‘I imagine the officials in question didn’t want to ruffle the Raja’s feathers, given that a lucrative contract was hanging in the balance and the Company stood to gain from whichever Company man it was awarded to,’ Isaac said.

  Charles nodded. ‘But in all fairness, if the others all agreed it was an accident and there was no evidence to contradict them, I don’t see what more they could have done.’

  ‘If it was murder disguised as an accident,’ Jake said, ‘the Raja must have given his approval to the arrangements since I don’t see Luke deliberately putting himself in the path of a boar.’

  ‘I tend to agree with you, Jake,’ Isaac said, ‘but we will never prove it in a thousand years.’

  Jake leaned back in his chair, pensively savouring his drink. ‘Let’s look at this from another perspective,’ he said. ‘I dislike coincidences. Lady Cantrell’s father objecting to her marrying Luke is, I think we all agree, an oddity.’ Isaac and Charles both nodded. ‘Mardon just happening to be in the same part of the country as Luke was when he was killed rings all sorts of alarm bells and I find it very hard to accept that it was a coincidence. Were they after the same contract?’

&nbs
p; ‘No,’ Charles replied. ‘Mardon was after spice. Luke had his heart set on silk. Besides, Goa is a big place. One might not even have known that the other was there.’

  ‘And equally, they very well might.’

  ‘Agreed,’ Charles conceded. ‘But Mardon couldn’t possibly have arranged for a marauding boar to attack his daughter’s husband, could he?’

  ‘You are forgetting Warburton and his determination to see Lady Cantrell married to his son,’ Jake reminded his friend. ‘We need to discover why there was such a pressing need for that union to take place. Then we shall have a better understanding of why Luke had to be disposed of—if indeed he was murdered at all.’

  ‘Arabella Cantrell bumped off her father and Warburton did for her brother?’ Charles raised a sceptical brow. ‘It seems a little far-fetched to imagine that two people were in league with one another when they could not have been acquainted. Warburton never leaves India and Arabella has never set foot there.’

  ‘Warburton’s son might well travel,’ Isaac pointed out, ‘and Arabella would never dirty her own hands.’

  ‘I agree with you both,’ Jake replied calmly. ‘Just because they are unlikely bedfellows, Charles, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have common interests. We urgently need to know more. Charles, can you ask your contacts with the Company to make further discreet enquiries, please? We need more particulars of the investigation into the accident that killed Luke. If the Cantrells received a written account they are unlikely to share it with his widow, and I assume that she didn’t receive anything.’

  ‘Not that I am aware,’ Charles said. ‘Word spread that it was a tragic accident and Megan was informed by Company officials accordingly. She was too distraught to question the findings and I was not there to advise her. Not that I would have questioned it myself, I don’t suppose,’ he added with a self-deprecating smile. ‘Accidents in India are fairly commonplace. People become careless and…well, wild animals take exception to having their territory invaded.’