Page 108 of A Devilish Element
He raised a finger to his lips and shook his head, whereupon she quietened until she was right alongside him, and the warmth of her presence had him plucking at his collar and cravat. “What are you stalling for?” she said, leaning in close enough to stir the hairs above his ear.
He shivered, tried to control it, but ultimately failed. It was just what she did to him. “There’s only one way in or out. I don’t want to startle her into doing anything rash.”
“We need a plan.”
They did. He also wanted to listen to what Mrs Honeyfield had to say. It was likely stuff they could use when it came to trial, as proof of intent.
“Ah knew… Knew it t’minute he saw me John tha’ he were trouble.
“That were the thing about ’im, John. He were different, see. The bonniest man you’d ever seen. Folks ’ud say his kin rowed over with t’Vikings on account of ’is fair hair. He were pretty as a maid. Delicate, reet. Like fine bone China. It weren’t reet what Linfield did to ’im, having ’im dress up in frocks and paint ’is face like a strumpet.
“John, he says, ‘Now lass, it’s just a bit a fun between me and Lord Linfield like’, but it weren’t funny. And then off to ’em foreign parts he whisked ’im, without so much as a tarra and did who knows what to ’im while they were there. Well, I can tell ya, he weren’t the same again afterwards, so it were obvious summat bad.”
Her shadow trembled with the volatility of her feelings. Jem had far too clear a notion of what those times had encompassed: a great deal of fornication of the variety that the holy book condemned. His own sins in that regard make him even more hot around the collar. Why were the things that brought joy always tainted by Hell’s shadow?
“Three months I waited, and then when he comes back, he came inta shop and put head in ’is hands. Well, of course I was reet pleased t’ see ’im, but the moment he looks at me, I could see ’is soul had been ripped reet out of him. All the goodness, all the light, all gone due t’ tha’ devil.
“He weren’t reet from then on. Couldn’t focus. He’d always be off in some make-believe, or he’d disappear for days at a time and there’d be no getting out of ’im where he’d been. Then, the next I know, I get word from t’ Earl of Bellingbrook’s man, who says, me John’s gone for good, off t’ ’is maker. ‘Well, where’s he buried?’ I asked. ‘It’s only reet that a wife can lay a flower at ’er husband’s grave.’ But all I’d get was ‘Be away wif ya. And stop ya beefin’.”
No wonder the woman was aggrieved.
“Jem?” Eliza’s hand rested between his shoulder blades. “Haven’t we stalled long enough?”
He was sure it would be a mistake to dart out there without any certainty of what they were facing. “And if she’s a knife, or a pistol?”
“She meant to poison Jane in the way she did Linfield. She’d brought up a tray.”
“That doesn’t mean she’s unarmed.”
“I still don’t understand what this has to do with me,” Jane’s voice rang with fear.
“Then you ain’t been listening,” came the reply. “It’s why I came ’ere. To do away with ya, t’ take from ’im what he’d stolen from me, so he’d know the same agony like. An eye for an eye. Let’s see how he likes it when I take ’is precious wife, I said.”
“But he’s dead.”
“And so’ll be ’is bairn. Because a course ya were blessed with a little ’un reet away, mind.”
“But we weren’t,” Jane blurted, still cowering from the other woman. She raked her teeth over her trembling lower lip.
“Two months wed and one on t’ way! Ya didn’t waste any time, love.”
“But… It’s not his.”
Mrs Honeyfield cackled as if that were the grandest joke she’d ever heard. “D’you expect me t’ believe ya? A fine lassie such as you, carrying a bun that ain’t ya husband’s? No! I’ll not be persuaded by that. It’s ’is all reet. A proper little lording with hair as white and fine as ’is.”
“It isn’t.” Tears spilled down Jane’s pale cheeks. “I was pregnant before we were wed. Before I even met him. He didn’t know… Our fathers arranged the match. It’s why I agreed to it. I didn’t have to. I’m past twenty-one.”
Mrs Honeyfield’s shadow loomed larger. “Brussen, but unconvincing. Stand up now, Lady Linfield, be a love.”
“No! Listen to me. It’s not his. We never even consummated the marriage.”
“That’s wholly irrelevant,” Jem muttered, but Eliza was done waiting. She wrenched the door wide, which smacked Jem square in the centre of his forehead when he failed to back up in time.
“Ow!” He teetered backwards, bringing his hand up to the point of impact and found a new groove in his brow.
Eliza barrelled straight onto the balcony. She grabbed Mrs Honeyfield by her scrawny shoulders and pushed her away from Jane so that she fell against the stone wall.
“You!” the housekeeper barked. She righted herself and swirled. “How’d you get in?”
