Page 44 of Lady Audacious
Fletcher acknowledged his orders and trotted off to carry them out.
‘Why did you ask him to look into my parents’ death records?’ Odile queried. ‘We know that they are dead and how they died. They may not even be recorded here.’
‘If they were killed on the road between here and Portsmouth there is a good chance they will be.’
‘Hmm.’ Odile remained to be convinced, but since he was being so obliging she didn’t feel she had a right to criticise. He had found out more in half an hour than she had managed in eleven years. ‘Even so, my lord, we are getting somewhere at last.’ She bounced up and down on her seat, brimming with a combination of excitement and nervous anticipation. ‘Mr Smythe’s occupation is a direct link to my father’s. Perhaps he has relatives alive somewhere who will be able to tell us more.’
‘Or his own business close by,’ the earl suggested. ‘Your parents had connections to this area. I do not believe in coincidences, so I must assume they were also connected to Smythe. Someone acting for them has gone to a great deal of trouble to protect your interests as well, from your schooling to your inheritance when you came of age.’
She sent him a wary look. ‘You think they were involved in something disreputable?’
He looked surprised by the suggestion. ‘I have absolutely no idea, but I fail to see why you would jump to that conclusion.’
‘Wouldn’t you, given the secretive nature of my inheritance?’
‘Good point.’ He smiled at her. ‘Even so, I think you should reserve judgement until we find out more. Apothecaries are everywhere nowadays. It’s considered to be a highly respectable trade that requires a great deal of knowledge and one that does a lot of good.’
‘But it is also open to manipulation. Miracle cures have been sold from the backs of wagons since time immemorial, playing upon people’s desperation. I cannot help but worry. And…well, this will sound fanciful and you will probably think I am a candidate for Bedlam if I make the admission.’ She paused to draw a deep breath. ‘But the thing is, I am absolutely sure that I have been in the grounds of Fox’s Reach before, which is why I spend so much time in them now, hoping that things will become clearer.’
‘What have they made you remember?’ he asked, not appearing to dismiss her recollections as figments of her imagination or wishful thinking.
‘A lady. It’s as though I am looking down on her head. She is hatless and her hair is the same colour as mine. She’s holding a little girl’s hand as she leans over a herb garden and points out the different species, naming them all and explaining their uses.’ She fixed the earl with a look that defied him to laugh at her. ‘There is an overwhelming scent of magnolias, although there are none in the garden now. I saw it and felt it as clear as I see you. I am that little girl and the lady is my mother.’
‘I see.’ He briefly took her hand. ‘Odile, I…’
Fletcher’s return prevented the earl from saying anything more, so she was unsure if he actually believed her. His unconscious use of her name hadn’t gone unnoticed and she saw no reason to raise objections at his familiarity. No one had addressed her informally since her transition from pupil to teacher and it made her feel cherished in all sorts of unrealistic ways.
‘There is nothing in our records regarding the deaths of any of the people who interest you, my lord,’ Fletcher told them.
‘It was just a thought.’ The earl stood and collected up his hat, indicating that their visit had come to an end. ‘You have been very helpful.’
‘Glad to oblige, my lord,’ Fletcher replied, bowing them from the room.
Chapter Thirteen
Reuben drove them back to Amberley, sensing Odile’s excitement about the advances they had made. She must also be harbouring reservations about her parents’ activities, as Reuben himself was. Their discoveries had certainly thrown up as many questions as they had answers. If the Aspens had been trading lawfully, why all the cloak and danger arrangements for Odile’s future—and more to the point, where did the mysterious Smythe fit into it all?
‘I will set my man to ask questions in the Portcullis this afternoon,’ he told her as they approached Amberley. ‘Most locals stop there when they finish work for the day, and you can be sure than someone will know something about Smythe. I will call and see you tomorrow and discuss progress.’
‘Thank you, my lord, I am…’
‘It’s Reuben.’
She sent him an astonished look. ‘I cannot address you informally,’ she protested, sounding as though she was chastising one of the girls with whose education she had until recently been charged. Miss Odile Aspen had been part of a formal regime for too long and had yet to learn how to behave spontaneously. Ways in which he could help her to be herself and not what others expected her to be sprang to the forefront of his mind, causing him to flash a rakish smile. ‘It wouldn’t be fitting.’ She sent him a suspicious look. ‘Are you laughing at me?’ she demanded.
‘Not a bit of it. You simply make me smile.’
‘Good heavens, do I, my lord?’
‘Certainly you do. And it’s still Reuben.’
She flashed a mischievous little grin of her own, showing glimpses of the impulsive character that had been suppressed for so long that she probably didn’t know she possessed it. ‘What will people say?’
‘Tosh!’
‘Tosh?’ She sent him another amused look. ‘I have never heard the word before. What does it mean?’
Reuben laughed. ‘I have absolutely no idea. It’s a favourite expression of Emily’s when someone says something that amuses her or with which she disagrees. I think she made it up but it seems pertinent in this particular situation.’
