When he arrived at his house, he realised that he was not alone. He scowled at the homely glow that lit the windows. Although the curtains had been drawn and the shutters closed, he could hear the low rumble of noise from inside. Whoever had invaded his home had made no attempt to hide their presence, but he didn’t recognise the voices.
Harper frowned and made his way toward the side of the house and the stables. As soon as he saw the three horses lined up side by side he knew exactly had invaded his house, and why. With a curse, he turned on his heel and stalked toward the back door.
“Jesus, you lot don’t know when to stop, do you? First kidnapping, now breaking and entering,” he growled as he stalked into the kitchen and slammed the door closed behind him.
The sight of three huge men gathered around his kitchen table didn’t perturb him; it was the heavy weapons they were busy cleaning that drew his attention. He studied them for several minutes before he lifted his brows and turned to look at the men.
“We heard from your brother that someone attacked you. He has informed us that someone has stolen the register you are after,” Dominic Cavendish declared firmly.
“Your brother, Robert, let us in and said we were to make ourselves at home. He told us you were ill from a head injury because someone had hit you over the head at the church and that you were staying in the vicarage tonight,” Sebastian mumbled around a mouthful of apple.
“My brother has a big mouth on him,” Harper grumbled and wondered whether Robert had told his uninvited guests that he was due to marry Arrabella too. That thought made him frown. When had he ever started to think about marrying Arrabella? It was foolish to consider the future when so much of his past was up in the air yet now that the idea was firmly planted in his brain, he felt strangely reluctant to dislodge it.
Sebastian pushed a chair out beside him and leaned back in his seat to get another goblet. He dropped it onto the table before he filled it with what appeared to be finest French brandy. Harper took a sniff and lifted his brows. This valuable cargo was extremely expensive stuff. He took a sip. The warm amber brew slid down his throat like golden nectar and, for the first time all evening, he began to relax as warmth began to ease his gnawing tension.
“So, I take it the man responsible for this -” he tapped his temple and nodded to Harper, “- is the man who has stolen the register?”
“When did you get in?”
“About an hour and a half ago,” Dominic drawled and watched as Harper began to relax. The man looked tired, battered, bruised and yet was still glowering fiercely. He immediately felt a kinship with his half-brother that he had only ever felt with Edward and Sebastian before and knew, deep in his gut, that Harper was a Cavendish. Even if he ignored the same broad shoulders Sebastian and Edward had, and the identical height; the way he carried himself was Cavendish through and through.
“We are here to help you find the register,” Edward drawled.
“I know where it is now. I had an altercation earlier with the man who stole it. He is staying at the inn at the far side of Moldton.”
“He is unlikely to be going anywhere in this weather. We will pay him a courtesy visit in the morning and make sure that we don’t leave without the book,” Sebastian declared confidently.
Harper snorted and gave Sebastian a look that warned him that trouble was afoot. “I am not going to wait until morning. I haven’t done the job I have for the last several years to hide away indoors just because of a drop of rain. That man has the information I need. I know where he is now, so I am going to damned well get what I want while I know where to find it. One thing is for certain, I am not coming back until I have found what I am looking for.”
He watched the men look at each other. The silent interplay was something he had only ever witnessed once before, and that had been with the couple who had raised him. He had never seen it between grown men though, especially without the hand signals to go with it.
Sebastian leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. “We are coming with you.”
Harper frowned at him. “What if I say no?” He wasn’t quite sure what to make of their somewhat dubious ‘offer’. Somehow, he knew that if he ignored them they would just tag along anyway. The weapons they were busy polishing were already polished to a high shine and extremely expensive. He absolutely refused to admit it, but he was impressed both with their choice of weapon and their determination to help.
“We are coming with you anyway,” Dominic challenged.
“Then let’s go.”
As they passed, Harper glanced at the vicarage and frowned at the sight of the soft glow of candlelight that filtered through the shutters.
“What time is it?” Dominic, who was beside him, glanced down at his fob watch. “It is twelve thirty. Why? Do you know them?”
Harper nodded. “The vicar and his family live there. The vicar is away at the moment but his daughter is still in residence. It is highly unlike her to be up so late at night.” Especially given the evening she had just had.
“Have you known her long?” Sebastian queried from the other side of him.
Harper shook his head. “I met her when I am came back to the village. She agreed to help me look for the register. We found the damned thing too; that’s the galling part, but the bastard in Moldton stole it before I could take a look inside.” He briefly explained what had happened to him and Arrabella since he had started his investigation into his background.
“Sounds to me like he has the information and is trying to stop you going after it,” Dominic growled with a frown. He hated people who took the law into their own hands. The family had experienced more than their fair share of people like that and he had no intention of letting one of them stop Harper getting the information he needed.
“What did he look like? Did you get a good look at him?”
Harper looked at Edward and quickly described his attacker.
“Jesus, I think I know who it is,” Edward sighed from behind them. “The last time I saw him he didn’t have jowls, but that must have been at least four years ago. From all accounts, he has aged a lot over the last several years.”
“Who?” Harper snapped and turned in his saddle so that he could see Edward more clearly.
Edward glanced at each man in turn. “Johnson has a son.”
Sebastian looked at Dominic. “Think about it.” The men reined to a stop. “The son is sole heir to Johnson’s fortune which, from our point of view isn’t large, but from his is a veritable fortune. I don’t know what other provision Johnson senior has made for Harper, but it is in the son’s best interests if Harper doesn’t find any proof that substantiates his claim of being a blood relation.”
Harper frowned at him. “But I thought he was a solicitor?”
“He is,” Dominic and Sebastian replied together. “But that doesn’t mean he is beyond breaking the law.”
“There is a thriving business and a small fortune at stake here, not to mention a scandal of mammoth proportions that could damage both Harrys if the gossips got wind of old Mr Johnson having a child with Alice Cavendish, deceased,” Sebastian reasoned.
While they rode toward the tavern, the men discussed how they were going to get into, and out of, the tavern without waking up the entire village if they got into a confrontation. By the time they pulled into the churchyard at Moldton, everyone had an allocated role to play.
Before he knew it, Harper found himself standing inside the upper hallway of the tavern. They had crept in so silently that not even the cat curled up on the bar downstairs had twitched a whisker when they had passed.
“Now what?”
Harper studied the doors that led to the bedrooms. “I don’t know about you three, but I am not going to start banging on doors at this time of night,” he whispered.
Sebastian shrugged and pushed open the door to the room next to him. It opened silently and revealed an empty room beyond. The next two bedrooms had occupants who were already in bed and asleep.
Edward opened the fourth door on the right and glanced at Harper with his brows lifted. Immediately they all knew that this room was different. Personal possessions were strewn haphazardly around the room but, more importantly, in spite of the lateness of the hour, there was nobody in the bed. Sebastian remained by the door while Dominic, Edward and Harper began to paw through the chaos.
Half an hour later Harper pulled out the drawers to the dresser. Having dealt with many situations just the same as this, he knew not to leave any stone unturned. When he got to the bottom drawer, he pulled it all the way out and sat back to study what lay before him.
A wild thrill of success swept threw him as he studied the leather bound volume that lay hidden beneath the bottom drawer.
“Is that it?”
Harper nodded and lifted it out of its hiding place. It wasn’t a very thick book, but it was long. He decided not to waste a second longer than was absolutely necessary and began to flick through the pages.
While he did so, he was aware that Sebastian moved to kneel to the left of him while Edward settled down on the right. Dominic squatted down before him and together they looked at the book that would change all of their lives.
Eventually he found the page he needed to see.
Harper Marcus Cavendish. Mother’s name: Alice Cavendish. Father’s name: Harry Johnson. Born: Hambley Wood, Yorkshire.
He read the words over and over until they were indelibly printed on his mind. Each time he closed his eyes he saw the long, elegantly flowing scrawl that changed his entire world.
Sebastian placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. While he was thrilled that he had a half-brother, the men remained solemn and watchful. Harper was stunned that his childhood was not what he thought it had been and all they could do was commiserate and wait to see what he wanted to do.
“God, I can’t believe it,” he whispered.
“You are a Cavendish, Harper,” Dominic murmured. “That makes you one of us.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“I do,” Sebastian growled. “Let’s get the hell out of here. Take this,” he lifted the register out of Harper’s numb fingers, closed it and shoved it at his half-brother. “Stuff it under your cloak. That register is coming home with us.”
Harper couldn’t find the voice for any objection and found himself doing as instructed. He was glad now that the brothers were there because he couldn’t remember leaving the inn or the ride down the country lanes back to Hambley Wood. Everything was a blur because he was miles away, in the memories of his youth.
At first he couldn’t get his mind off those fateful words written down so boldly one and thirty years ago. He wished now that he hadn’t seen them, or even known about the bloody register, but it was too late to go back now.
A small part of him grieved for the lost family of his youth. The people who had raised him had never given him any hint that he may not be theirs. He had never once stopped to consider the physical differences between them; after all siblings did tend to look different, even twins sometimes. Neither Agatha nor his father had ever mentioned that he had different parents.
Why? Why not tell him, especially before he went into the army? Had they been afraid that he would throw them out once he realised that the house was his, or were they afraid that he would go in search of his real family, most of who didn’t know about his existence? It irked him a little that they were not able to tell him the truth now.
It went against everything he was to have to leave something unsolved, but his brother’s wouldn’t be able to give him the answers. It was too late now to do anything but surmise what had happened all those years ago, and hope that one day he could find some peace with the situation.
“I don’t understand something,” Sebastian growled with a frown. He flicked a glance at Dominic. “Uncle Malcolm’s house is on the other side of Skipton. He was the only relation we had in Yorkshire at the time. How did Mama come to have the baby here?”
Dominic thought about that for a moment but, before he could speak, Edward broke the silence. “She must have visited with Uncle Malcolm and Aunt Nora.”
“But how did she come to have the baby here?” Sebastian persisted. “In Hambley Wood?”
“We know that Harry went to find her in her confinement and agreed to make arrangements to look after the baby. Maybe he found her at Uncle Malcolm’s and purchased the house here so she could move to Hambley Wood, where nobody knew her. She could have Harper without anyone even being aware that she was with child.”
“Makes sense,” Harper added. Agnes and Bartholomew were the nicest, kindest people he had ever known. They would have had no qualms about moving in and helping look after Alice during her confinement.
“Wait a minute,” he whispered. He reined his horse to a stop and frowned at the light that still shone from the vicarage window. He glanced at Dominic. “What time is it now?”
“It’s two o’clock,” Dominic replied.
“What’s wrong?” Sebastian demanded with a scowl.
“There is something wrong.” Harper’s gut instinct hardly ever failed him and it was warning him now that there was something amiss at the vicarage.
“Looks alright to me,” Sebastian replied after several minutes of studying the shadows around them.
“There is only Arrabella at home,” Harper whispered. “When I left her earlier she was soaking wet, freezing cold and exhausted. It is highly unlike her to be up at this hour.”
“You sound as though you are speaking from experience,” Dominic drawled without any hint of censure. He had enjoyed enough trysts with his wife before their wedding day to be the last person to judge anyone in that regard and he lifted his brows at Harper blandly.
“After we got locked in the crypt, I decided to keep watch on the house and saw someone leave the shadows. I have been keeping an eye on the place ever since. Arrabella usually goes to bed around ten o’clock to ten thirty. It is unlike her to be up this late.”
“Do you think he is in there?” Sebastian drawled and frowned down at their horses. They could hardly ride up the drive, but there was nowhere else to leave them except in the middle of the road.
Harper felt his lip curl at the thought that Arrabella may not be alone. “I don’t like the fact that she is up at this time of night, and nobody was in that room at the tavern.” His fists clenched tightly at the thought of anyone putting their hands on Arrabella. A huge wave of protectiveness swept through him with sufficient force that he had to fight the urge to get off his horse, stomp across the garden, kick the door down and beat the hell out of any man who was inside.
As though he sensed what was going through Harper’s mind, Edward leaned forward in his saddle to study him. “Keep calm. She is at home so will feel safe.”
Everything around the outside of the house was still and silent, but Sebastian still needed to make sure for himself that nobody was lurking in the bushes. He quickly dismounted and handed the reins to Dominic. “I will go and check to see if we have any watchers.”
Edward didn’t need prompting. He dismounted too and handed the reins of his horse to Harper, who took them absently. The men vanished before Harper had even taken his eyes off the house.
“If he has hurt her,” he shook his head. Not Arrabella. Nothing could happen to Arrabella. She was the only certainty in his world of utter madness. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing her too. Although their relationship was still in its early stages, he was certain that she was the one for him and he couldn’t let anything happen to her.
“We will get her out of this, I promise,” Dominic promised darkly. “There is one thing for certain.” He paused, dismounted and waited for Harper to look at him. “We aren’t going to help her standing out here in the middle of the road.”
As they reached the back door to the house, Sebastian and Edward appeared out of the darkness.
“We will go through the front.”
“Wait!” Harper growled and tried the door. To his utter consternation the latch lifted and the door swung silently inward. A wild flash of anger swept through him. He had told Arrabella several times to lock the doors and keep them locked; especially when she was at home by herself, so what was she doing with the door unlocked? He wondered if Mrs Able had forgotten to lock it when she had gone home and made a mental note to have a word with the housekeeper the first chance he got.
He crept into the empty kitchen and made his way silently around the large table in the centre of the room. All was silent in the house, but the atmosphere felt heavy with tension. When he didn’t hear anyone behind him he stopped and took a look around. He was a little stunned to find all three men inside the kitchen, but was also immensely relieved at their abilities.
Edward pointed to the register in his hands and lifted his palms in a questioning motion, as though to ask Harper where he should put it.
Harper glanced around them and spied a cupboard beside the huge oven which had a door partially open. Once it was tucked away safely, he counted to three and stepped into the hallway.