James was shaving when he became aware of a disturbance in the corridor. Even as he set down his razor in the porcelain basin, the door to his room burst open.
“Miss Faraday!” Pym protested, James’s navy coat draped over one arm. “You cannot be in here!”
“But she’s gone!” Eva cried, gaze going past him to James. “Maudie has disappeared.”
He grabbed a towel and wiped the remaining lather from his face. “Out chasing fairies, perhaps?”
Eva shook her head. She was clothed in a pink quilted dressing gown, and her hair sprang in a wild nimbus around her face and shoulders. “I had Yeager check the grounds close to the castle. Patsy says her bed hasn’t been slept in. What could have happened to her?”
James frowned. It was doubtful whoever had broken into the castle would seek to kidnap an elderly retainer, but Mrs. Tully might have wandered somewhere she would have a hard time escaping.
“Pym, fetch Miss Faraday’s coachman and groom from the stables. We’ll search the house. She may have fallen and is unconscious.”
Eva pressed her hand to her mouth as if holding back the same fear.
Pym handed him his coat and scurried out.
“We’ll find her,” James promised. “Perhaps you could ask Yeager and Patsy to help as well.”
She dropped her hand. “Of course. Thank you.” She left too. James shrugged into his coat, then set about pulling on his boots before following.
She was already in the great hall with Pym and her staff when he descended a short time later. Her eyes blazing, she marched up to him.
“Dastard! Coward! Bounder! How dare you!”
James took a step back. “What are you talking about?”
Pym put himself between them as if afraid Eva was about to do James violence. “I spoke with Mr. Connors, the coachman, sir,” his man said. “He noticed someone leaving the house last night. After everything that had happened earlier, he decided to give chase. It was Mrs. Tully. When he asked her why she was leaving, she said she’d been told to do so. He had Kip, the groom, escort her into the village.”
“You sent her away,” Eva accused.
“Why would I do that?” James asked.
“Because we just spent the night alone together,” she said, voice echoing to the high ceiling. “You know what that means to my reputation.”
Someone, likely her maid, gasped. James wasn’t about to take his eyes off Eva. Her face was florid, her body trembling.
“Eva, I…” he started.
She held up one finger to silence him. “I won’t let you get away with it. I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man on earth.”
~~~
She could barely stand to look at him. Why, oh why, had she allowed herself to trust him, to begin to care for him? She wasn’t stupid. She knew how the earl schemed. Why had she thought for one minute the man he relied upon would be any different?
He gazed down at her now, face impassive, as if he’d tucked any emotion safely away.
“I had nothing to do with Mrs. Tully’s defection,” he said.
“A likely story,” Eva fumed. “She knew she was needed. Why leave without saying goodbye?”
“Perhaps the fairies suggested it,” he said.
“That,” she spat out, “isn’t funny.”
“I understand the ramifications of her actions,” he said in that maddeningly calm voice. “But at the moment, the only people who know of the matter are the ones in this room and your staff in the coach house.”
“And Mrs. Tully and her kin,” Patsy put in.
“All of whom will be understanding,” James assured her.
Eva glanced around. Yeager nodded in support. Patsy drew herself up as if with pride. Eva knew she could count on Mr. Connors and young Kip; they too had served her father and rebelled against bowing to the earl. Mr. Pym met her gaze and stepped closer to his master.
Eva narrowed her eyes at the pair of them. “And you’ll tell no one?”
“You have my solemn promise,” James said. “Would you like us to sign in blood?”
Mr. Pym looked at him askance, eyes widening.
Tempting, but Eva shook her head. “That won’t be necessary. Besides, it would only put the matter in writing, and I’d just as soon pretend it never happened.”
“Done,” he said.
She couldn’t believe him. “That easily?”
“That easily. Now, if you are determined to put your best face forward, I suggest you prepare to attend church services. I’ll leave now and come in from the direction of the magistrate’s house. That ought to keep any tongues from wagging. And perhaps we can locate Mrs. Tully and discover who exactly advised her to leave us so hastily.”
All reasonable suggestions. “Very well,” Eva said. “I’ll see you at services, sir.”
He bowed, then headed for the stairs, Mr. Pym right behind.
“That’s a rare fellow,” Yeager muttered.
“Yes,” Eva said, watching the magistrate go. “At least, so he appears.”
~~~
James remained on her mind as she finished dressing, breakfasted, and then rode in the carriage with Patsy down to St. Andrew’s in the village. It was a small church compared to those she’d attended in London, long and narrow, with a white-washed face and a silver cross high on the steeple and shining against the grey of the cloudy sky. Inside, the box pews were stained a rich, warm color that had likely mellowed with age. She was standing in the shadowed narthex, contemplating where to sit, when Miss Archer, the painter, came up to her.
“Miss Faraday,” she said with a nod that set the candlelight skipping along the ginger-colored hair which peeked out from her straw bonnet. “It’s nice to see you again. Wondering where to sit?”
Eva nodded. “I know some churches have family pews. I wouldn’t want to take anyone’s place.”
She tipped her chin toward the pews on the left. “First two rows belong to the Howlands. No one ever sits there.”
“Not even the magistrate?” Eva asked with a frown.
“Not even the magistrate. But since you’re a guest of the earl, I see no reason why you can’t use them. I’ll join you, if you like. My mother wasn’t feeling well today, so I’m alone for once. And the Archers lost their family pew ages ago.”
It was not the place to pursue that comment, but Eva made a note to ask the lady why at another time.
“I’d be delighted for the company,” she said, and she led Patsy and Miss Archer up to the first row, feeling curious gazes on her back.
They settled themselves just in time, for the service opened a few moments later. The vicar was an earnest fellow who bobbed his head while speaking as if to emphasize the point he was making. She couldn’t quite agree with his sermon about being content with one’s lot. If her father had been content, she’d have grown up in the rented room off the Strand with little chance to improve herself. As it was, she could barely remember what it was like to want for anything. She bowed her head and whispered a prayer of thanks—for her father’s determination, for the opportunities that had come his way, for the blessing of a secure future he’d left her.
For James Howland coming into her life.
That last part slipped in before she’d thought better of it. She’d been so angry this morning when she’d thought he had betrayed her. She should have known better than to trust a Howland. Yet, he wasn’t a Howland by choice. And he’d been very composed throughout the entire affair. Perhaps he truly was a man she could rely on.
She raised her head and glanced around. Easy to spot him on the other side of the aisle, his face in profile. The light coming through the stained-glass window made patterns on his hair, as if he’d been adorned with jewels. Easy too to spy Maudie just behind him in her widow’s black, head bowed and lips moving as if she also recited a prayer.
And on either side, a dozen gazes were looking Eva’s way, some curious, some with an emotion she could only call envy.
Eva faced front again, cheeks heating. She did her best to attend for the rest of the service.
As the words of the benediction faded, she rose with the others to go. She turned toward the aisle, and her gaze collided with James’s. He inclined his head. She responded in kind. She watched as he walked down the aisle, pausing to greet that person, exchange words with another.
She had just stepped into the aisle when another woman crossed her path.
“Congratulations, miss, and many blessings,” she said, bobbing a curtsey.
“Thank you,” Eva said, bemused, but she hurried off and an older couple took her place. She recognized Mr. Ellison, the baker.
“We were all delighted to hear the news,” his wife said.
“If you celebrate in the village,” Mr. Ellison added, “we’d be delighted to help.”
Eva frowned as they moved past. “Do you have any idea what they’re talking about?” she asked Miss Archer.
“Not in the slightest,” her new friend assured her. “But stand your tallest. Here comes Mrs. Greer.”
She said the name as if a storm was approaching. The woman looked a bit formidable. Tall and slender, she held herself as high as a duchess Eva had once met.
“Miss Archer,” she said in a voice that trembled with emotion, “will you be so kind as to introduce me to your acquaintance?”
“Miss Faraday,” Abigail said obligingly, “allow me to present Mrs. Greer.”
The woman waited as if expecting more. When it wasn’t forthcoming, she huffed. “My husband is the Spa Corporation president and the leader of the Grace-by-the-Sea militia.”
“Under the magistrate,” Abigail seemed compelled to point out.
Mrs. Greer’s lips turned up, but she didn’t argue the matter.
“I’m sure he’s very needed,” Eva said.
“Unlike our spa hostess,” Abigail added. “We’re about to lose her.”
“And gain a noted physician,” Mrs. Greer said before turning to Eva again. “Forgive me for presuming, Miss Faraday, but I wanted to add my congratulations. Such an esteemed family. You must be overjoyed.”
The words were like fingers squeezing her shoulders. “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage,” she said cautiously.
She smiled. “No need to be coy, dear. We are all friends here in Grace-by-the-Sea.”
“At least, most of us,” Abigail muttered.
Mrs. Greer ignored her. “It isn’t every day we have the opportunity to entertain the woman who will one day be the Countess of Howland.”
Abigail turned to stare at Eva. “You’re to marry Viscount Thorgood?”
“No,” Eva said, putting every ounce of will into the word. “I don’t know where you heard that rumor, Mrs. Greer, but I am merely here on the order of the earl. I will not be marrying into his family.”
Mrs. Greer’s face fell, then flamed. “Oh! I knew I shouldn’t heed anything that woman said. She believes in mermaids!” She flounced off down the aisle.
“From princess to pariah in a matter of moments,” Abigail marveled. “That’s a record even for her.”
Eva glanced around. Many of the people had exited the church, but those that remained all seemed to be watching her. Several averted their gazes on meeting hers.
“Do they all think I’m betrothed to Lord Howland’s heir?” she asked Abigail.
“Perhaps not all of them at the moment,” the painter allowed. “But give Maudie time. Where did she get the notion, I wonder?”
“I have no idea,” Eva said with a shake of her head. “I certainly didn’t give it to her.”
She felt a movement behind her and turned her head to find Patsy cringing.
Her heart fell. “You didn’t,” Eva said.
Patsy bit her lower lip a moment. “I might have. I was just talking while I helped her dress. You know how I am. But I’m sure I said the earl wanted you to marry his heir. Not that you were going to.”
Would that have been enough to establish the matter in Maudie’s mind? Eva glanced around again, but her former chaperone was nowhere to be found now.
Instead, James was striding back up the aisle to their sides. He nodded to Abigail. “Ladies. If I might borrow Miss Faraday for a moment.”
Abigail patted Eva’s shoulder. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. I’ll be sure to correct anyone who mentions the matter to me.” She excused herself.
Patsy shifted closer as if to protect Eva.
“Let me guess,” Eva told him. “You’ve heard the rumor that I’m to marry Viscount Thorgood.”
“No,” he said with a frown. “I’ve had at least a dozen people congratulate me on my upcoming marriage.”
Now Eva frowned as well. “Who are you supposed to be marrying?”
“You.”
She stared at him. “What is Maudie telling people?”
He seized on the name. “Mrs. Tully? Is she the one who started these rumors?”
“Mrs. Greer claimed she had told her,” Eva allowed, “but Mrs. Greer was certain I was marrying the viscount.”
He sighed. “All Mrs. Tully would have had to say is that you were marrying a Howland. With you staying in the castle, Mrs. Greer would assume you were marrying the earl’s heir. Her less fawning neighbors assumed I was the groom. I’ve done what I could to convince them otherwise.”
“That was good of you,” Eva said. “But I think we must find Maudie and determine why she left and why she’s telling tales.”
The church was empty now. Patsy behind her, Eva walked with James down the aisle and through the narthex. The churchyard with its ancient gravestones and wrought-iron fence was nearly empty as well, except for Maudie standing with her niece and a handsome darker-haired fellow along the walk to the gate.
“Magistrate, Miss Faraday,” Miss Chance said with a nod of respect as James, Eva, and Patsy approached. “If we might have a word?”
“Miss Chance,” he said. “Mrs. Tully, Mr. Denby. Miss Faraday and I were hoping to speak to you as well.”
“I can imagine,” she said. “I was surprised when my aunt returned home last night, but she tells me you two are now betrothed.”
“A misunderstanding, I’m sure,” James said before turning to the older woman. Maudie looked up at him, eyes bright as a bird’s. “Mrs. Tully, we were also surprised to find you gone this morning. May I ask why you left?”
“I was told,” she said.
Eva glanced at James, but he merely nodded thoughtfully. “So I understand. By whom?”
Eva held her breath, but her former chaperone answered readily enough. “The cloaked fellow in the great hall.”
Now James glanced at Eva. She shrugged.
“A castle ghost?” he asked politely.
She stared at him. “Of course not! The Lady of the Tower is a lady, sir, and I couldn’t see through this fellow.”
Eva couldn’t see through the argument either. “Perhaps it was Mr. Yeager,” she guessed. “Or Mr. Pym.” Neither would have claimed her engaged, but they were the only other men in residence besides James.
Maudie made a face. “Certainly not either of them. They had already retired when I went downstairs to fetch my shawl. I’d forgotten it in the music room. Besides, what do they know about love and marriage?”
“Indeed,” James said. “You’ve had opportunity to watch your niece in her role as matchmaker at the spa. Did you think, perhaps, to hurry things along between Miss Faraday and me?”
Eva blinked. Had Maudie seen something Eva had been afraid to name?
But Maudie shook her head, grey curls bouncing. “You two will sort things out soon enough. The fairies said as much. I wouldn’t have thought it this soon, but he insisted Eva was going to marry a Howland. The earl told him.”
The air turned frigid. “The earl?” Eva asked, leaning forward. “This man claimed to know the earl?”
“Oh, the earl knows most of the smugglers hereabouts,” Maudie said. “I was sure I already told you that.”
Mr. Denby had been hanging respectfully back. Now he stepped forward as if ready to take charge. “There was a smuggler in the castle last night?”
James watched Maudie just as avidly, but she waved a hand. “A smuggler, a French spy, one of the two. I couldn’t make out his features in that hooded cloak. But he said you would be marrying, and it would be best if I left, so I did.”
Her niece was staring at her. Slowly she turned her gaze to James and Eva. “I’m so sorry, Magistrate, Miss Faraday. I don’t know who she saw or what he might have said.”
“No reason to apologize,” James assured her, voice kind. “Mrs. Tully, do you know why the fellow was in the castle last night?”
She glanced at him from the corners of her eyes, face sly. “He was looking for the note. Well, he won’t find it. I took it.”
“Aunt!” her niece scolded. “If you have something of Mr. Howland’s, you must return it.”
She drew herself up. “Why? I found it. And he couldn’t read it in any event. It’s in the language of the fairies.”
“Nevertheless,” James said, “I would very much like to see it, if you would be so kind.”
She pouted. “I don’t have it with me. It’s far too precious.”
Her niece put her hand on her arm. “We’ll locate it at home and bring it to the magistrate as soon as possible.”
“After I’ve had a chance to look at it as well,” Mr. Denby said. “I was always good at languages.”
Maudie sighed.
James inclined his head. “I await your verdict, Mr. Denby. And thank you all.”
Her niece apologized again and led Maudie off, Mr. Denby at their sides.
Eva shook her head. “Who do you think she saw?”
“You assume she saw anyone,” James said.
“That was rather pointed advice for a fairy,” Eva argued.
“But not for a troll.”
She glanced his way, but she saw the gleam in those blue eyes. She shook her head with a smile. “Perhaps a troll might have ordered her to leave, but I doubt one was hanging about the great hall. Could it have been the fellow I saw the night before? Would he have been so bold as to return?”
“If he’d left something behind in the castle,” James mused. “I’m as concerned about the mention of the earl. Could his lordship have ordered someone to spy on us?”
Eva laughed. “And he ended up sending off our chaperone so you and I would be compromised? That certainly didn’t serve the earl well. Can you imagine the look on his face if he heard we were about to marry?”
James laughed as well. “Now, that would be a sight to see.”
An idea popped into her head, far too tantalizing to ignore. Could they do it? It was a tremendous risk. The earl would seek revenge. There was still a chance James was not the man she hoped.
But oh, how she hoped he was.
She grabbed his arm. “Let’s stun him, James. Let’s get married.”