The Trials of Alaric (Twist Upon a Regency Tale #8)

Chapter Twenty-One

A fter a couple of hours, the men had completed their purchases, and had also imbibed more than a few jugs of ale to lubricate the negotiations. They were pleased with themselves and just a little loud and brash in their self-congratulations.

When Aunt Joan announced that the Cashtal Vaaich servants were serving an al fresco lunch, Bea was happy to retreat to the shade and relative privacy of their tents. Perhaps some food would help to soak up some of the alcohol.

She was seated off to one side, with a good view of the road leading into the field where the fair was just winding up, and so was the first to see two men riding at a gallop along the road toward the fair. By the time they turned off into the field, Bea was almost certain she knew their identity. “Ellie,” she said, “look there.”

Ellie took one look and beamed. “Luke is back.”

That’s what Bea had thought. The riders were Alaric and Luke, and they were fast approaching the tent, though they had slowed their mounts to a walk as they wove between the people who thronged the field.

Alaric’s eyes met hers and he held her gaze as he dismounted. He stepped toward her, leading the horse.

“Mr. Redhaven and Lord Lucas Versey,” Papa said. “I assume you have a good reason for your late return?”

“One obstacle after another, my lord,” Luke replied. “That is the short answer. We can give you the full details whenever you are at leisure.” His eyes looked past Papa to seek out Ellie.

Alaric had not looked away from Bea, but now he turned to Papa and said, “We brought my sister-in-law safely away. She and my brother are at the castle. There are matters you should know, my lord, but they are not urgent.” He frowned slightly. “Not anymore.”

“Have we missed the horse trading?” Luke asked.

Papa’s smile was slight, but it was there. “I do not know,” he replied. “I do not recognize this pair. Borrowed?”

“Purchased in Dara,” Alaric explained. “We had to put in there last night because of the storm, and we were in a hurry to return to the castle.”

“Tell me about them,” said Papa, stepping out of the tent to approach the horses. Alaric, with one last longing look at Bea, obediently began to explain the points of the horse he was leading, while Luke stood by, making cows’ eyes at Ellie.

Bea’s heart was singing. Alaric was back. He had been delayed by one obstacle after another, but he had overcome them to return to her. His eyes declared his continued interest, and perhaps more. Perhaps a warmth that was merely desire. But perhaps it was the love she yearned to inspire in him. And what a fool she would be if she did not make a push to find out.

*

Alaric was not too late, thank goodness.

Sir Henry Dashwood was inclined to be offended that Lord Claddach was prepared to credit Luke and Alaric with the three trials they had missed. For the bull herding, that frantic action on the day of the fête had been counted. For the carriage riding, which had apparently been yesterday, Lord Claddach pointed out that Luke and Alaric had been first, driving Alaric’s brother from one side of Claddach to the other.

And now the good earl was accepting the two horses that the men had purchased in Dara. There had been four, in fact—one for each of them. The footmen were coming back by carriage.

Including Eloise among the riders—though she could hardly have been left with her maid and the footmen—had slowed them down, too. Eloise was not a confident rider, and Luke and Alaric had felt it essential to stay with the couple. After all, Bebbington might still be out there somewhere, washed up on Claddach. Gorry, too.

The trip was so slow, they probably would have been better to have bought or hired a second carriage, if there had been one to be had. Well. No point in repining about impossibilities. And it was just as well, as it turned out, for now Alaric had passed all the trials so far. Eleven trials! Could that be true? Well. Ten, and the treasure hunt, which he had not yet completed.

Perhaps Odysseus was the last clue?

I haven’t told Bea about Odysseus . She was still sitting in the same place he’d seen her when he turned in at the gate—off to one side of the tent, a little aside from the others. Three of the other ladies had been with her. Ellie, who was now admiring Luke’s new horse, and Miss Radcliffe and Miss Bryant, who had left their seats to go to the tables where Claddach’s servants were serving food, and who were now chatting with Maddrell and Fairweather.

Alaric took his chance and the seat next to Bea. “I have so much to tell you, Bea,” he said. “But first, how are you?” Did you miss me? He was afraid to ask.

“I am well, thank you, Alaric.” She was looking at her hands, then she looked up and met his eyes, and her own seemed to be asking a question, though perhaps not the one implied by her next comment. “Your trip was not without incident, I gather.”

“I should have been back last night,” he admitted. “I would have been, but Beverley went off with your father’s yacht. Then Viscount Bebbington, Eloise’s brother, tried to have us arrested, and when we finally managed to get on the ocean, a storm came up, and we had to divert to Dara.”

“You took such a risk!” Bea exclaimed.

“How could I not?” Alaric told her. “I had promised your father. I had promised you, in the message I gave Ellie. I could not be back by dinner last night, but I am here as soon as I could be.”

There it was. Her smile. The smile that made his heart grow two sizes too big for his chest. “I am glad,” she said.

“I realized what the fifth clue meant,” he told her. “Tarquin, my brother, suggested we were like Odysseus, thwarted at every turn.”

“It is the rhyme!” Bea declared, after a cautious look to see that the others were all absorbed with their own conversations. “Odysseus and Penelope. Alaric, there is a frieze in the picture gallery of scenes from the Iliad and the Odyssey, and one of them is of Odysseus drawing his bow, with Penelope and her loom, and the suitors all looking horrified.” She chuckled. “Having one’s husband shoot them all is not something one can do with unwanted suitors in this day and age.”

“Am I a wanted suitor?” Alaric dared to ask.

She had no time to answer, for Lady Dashwood came hurrying up, her son beside her. “Dear Lady Beatrice,” she gushed, “what are you doing all by yourself over here? Henry has come to keep you company, haven’t you Henry?”

Their private moment was over, but Alaric was content. Lord Claddach had accepted them back into the trials. Bea wasn’t angry with him. Both had agreed to wait for a fuller explanation.

As they prepared to ride back to the castle, Bea found a moment for another private word. “The picture gallery is on the first floor. From the main stairwell, turn east and go through the double doors. At the far end of the passage, turn right into a salon. The doors on the other side of the room let into the picture gallery. Meet me there at two o’clock.”

They were interrupted by Dashwood again. He brought Bea’s horse, leading it with the reins gripped close to the bit, so that the mare was objecting, sidling sideways and rolling her eyes.

“Your horse, Lady Beatrice, though she’s a bit feisty for a lady, isn’t she?”

Bea held out her hand for the reins, her eyes snapping. “You are holding her too close and pulling on her mouth, Sir Henry.” She softened the rebuke, adding, “Thank you for bringing her to me.”

The horse had calmed immediately under its mistress’s tender hands, one on the reins and one on its neck. Bea said a few gentle words to it. “There you are. Good girl. Good girl.”

Sir Henry, who had bristled at Bea’s criticism, was looking around, frowning. “There isn’t a mounting block, my lady,” he pointed out.

“Mr. Redhaven shall toss me up,” Bea decreed, and Alaric took his cue, bending to offer his linked hands to her boot.

One of Claddach’s servants had taken his horse for water and food, and now led it to him, and soon the entire party was on its way back to the castle, leaving the servants to pack up the tent and all that was in it.

Bea rode next to the curricle containing her friends from the town, and Alaric took a place as close to Bea as he could, given that Dashwood had the same idea.

Dashwood had the coveted position when they were approaching the castle. The earl rode up next to Alaric. “I will hear your fuller explanation when you have had time to wash and change, Mr. Redhaven. I assume you will bring your friend Versey and your brother. Perhaps Stavely’s wife, too, if you consider it appropriate. Two o’clock. My study.”

“Yes, sir,” Alaric replied. Damn . The same time as Bea had set. “Sir? It might be helpful if Lady Beatrice was also there. She has a right to know what took me—me and Luke—away when we are committed to the trials.”

Claddach responded with a piercing look and a single nod. “Very well,” he said.

Alaric hoped Eloise did not mind.

He went up to the bedchamber the Stavelys had been assigned. Tarquin opened the door to their room. “Oh. Alaric. Come in.”

It was a two-room suite. Eloise was reclining on a sofa in a little sitting room, and Alaric could see the corner of a bed through the door into the next room. “Alaric. Did Lord Claddach forgive you for arriving late? Did Lady Beatrice?”

“Provisionally,” Alaric told her. “We have been granted a pass in the three trials we missed, since they were all things we’ve done on the island—catching bulls, driving a carriage, and buying a horse. He wants a fuller explanation, though. So does Bea. That’s why I came. Tarquin, he wants to meet us at two o’clock. Eloise, you too, if you wish. Bea and Luke will be there, too.”

Eloise paled. “Do you have to tell them about Bebbington and… you know.”

“Sweetheart,” Tarquin told her, bending over her and taking her hand. “Lord Claddach guessed at the same time as Alaric and I did. We shall not need to talk about it, will we, Alaric?”

“We can just say that Bebbington wanted to keep you from leaving, and Tarquin, Luke, and I had to rescue you,” Alaric agreed. “But Eloise, I would like your permission to tell Bea the truth. She is, I hope, going to be my wife—your sister. She will not blame you, I know. Indeed, she might blame you if she does not know the truth. For jilting me.” Was it unfair to say that? But Alaric thought it was true. When he had mentioned Eloise and Tarquin at the horse fair, Bea had made a caustic comment about forgiveness and his years of exile.

Eloise grimaced. “I am so sorry that I lied about you forcing me, Alaric. Or, at least, failed to correct Tarquin when I realized what he had assumed. It was wicked of me.”

“We understand, darling,” Tarquin assured her. “You did not know me well enough to know I would not blame you. Bebbington is at fault—for damaging your ability to trust as well as the other.”

“You did what you thought you needed to,” Alaric said, dutifully. He was determined not to hold a grudge, and he truly did not want Eloise to keep apologizing, which she had been doing at intervals ever since they’d extracted her from her stepbrother’s clutches.

This time, she explained. “I should have told the truth,” she insisted. “About falling in love with Tarquin, and about what my brother had done to me. Bebbington was threatening to ruin you if I married you, and you didn’t deserve that. Besides, I didn’t desire you, Alaric, though I could see you desired me. I didn’t think I would ever desire anyone. And then you introduced me to Tarquin, and I discovered I was not as broken as I thought. I knew my brother would be no match for the heir to an earl. In any case, it would not have been fair to marry you, feeling as I did about Tarquin.”

“I should say not,” Alaric admitted. “You did the right thing. And you do not need to keep apologizing, Eloise. You would have told the truth if you had been able. It has weighed on your conscience all this time, you said. If you feel you need punishment, you have had enough.”

It was true, he realized, the last of his grudge dissolving. Eloise had done her best in a bad situation he was blithely unaware of at the time, though surely the signs had been there. Neither he nor Tarquin were the least surprised when they guessed, after all. Had he desired Eloise? He supposed he had, but what he remembered feeling for her was only a shadow of what he felt for Bea.

Mostly, he had wanted to protect and shield Eloise, dimly sensing she needed a defender, like a half-fledged bird with a damaged wing and predators lurking.

Come to think of it, that had been part of Delphine’s attraction too. She had seemed to need rescuing when he met her, though in her case, it was a calculated ploy.

Not Bea. He could stand side by side with Bea, and what a marvelous thing that was!

“I shall tell Lady Beatrice myself,” Eloise announced. “I need to do that, Tarquin, so do not argue. Alaric says she can be trusted, and I trust Alaric. Alaric, will you let me tell Lady Beatrice? She won’t think me a disgusting wanton, will she?”

Ah, poor Eloise. Among her stepbrother’s sins had been convincing her that his abuse was her fault for tempting him, and he was only giving her something that, deep down, she really wanted. Alaric was glad it was Tarquin and not him who had had to deal with the aftermath of Bebbington’s appalling actions.

“Bea will understand that Bebbington is a twisted, cruel monster who preyed on an innocent he was bound to treat with kindness and respect by family loyalty and gentlemanly duty,” Alaric insisted. If she was the lady he believed her to be. “She will be on your side, Eloise, as are we.”

“Then I shall come to the meeting with Lord Claddach,” Eloise decided.

“Are you sure, my love?” said Tarquin. “We can do it, Alaric, Versey, and I. None of us will mention Bebbington’s unspeakable motives.”

Eloise was sitting up, toeing her feet into her slippers, and reaching for her shawl, which was draped over the arm of the sofa. “I am sure, Tarquin,” she insisted.

The three of them met Luke on their way to Claddach’s study, and inside, they found Bea was with her father.

“My dear,” said Claddach to Bea, “this is Lord Stavely, Redhaven’s brother. And, I take it, Lady Stavely?”

Eloise and Bea dropped curtseys to one another. “Welcome to Cashtal Vaaich ,” Bea said.

“Thank you for your hospitality,” Eloise replied. “And thank you, Lord Claddach, for allowing my husband and brother, and their friend, to use your yacht when they came to my rescue.”

“I am pleased to welcome you to Claddach, Lady Stavely,” said Claddach. “Unharmed, I trust?”

“Unharmed,” Eloise confirmed, with her gentle smile. “My stepbrother did not hurt me, but he declared his intention of turning Tarquin away, and keeping me imprisoned.” Her eyes filled.

“They were not going to prevent me from reaching my wife,” Tarquin declared.

Luke chuckled. “Tarquin walked right past the butler and up the stairs, and Alaric and I followed.”

“Then Alaric blocked the door, and we climbed out the window,” said Eloise. “Tarquin had the carriage waiting. Fortunately, my brother had turned my maid out of the house, and Tarquin and Alaric had already found her.”

“So, we left for Birkenhead,” Alaric commented. “So far, so good.”

Claddach turned his attention to Alaric. “My yacht is back in Dara, I suppose?”

Alaric grimaced. “No, sir. While we were at Bebbington’s estate, your nephew Lord Beverley commandeered your yacht and its crew. His declared destination was Brighton. I cannot tell you where your yacht is now.”

“Beverley!” Claddach’s eyebrows had shot up at Alaric’s words, and they now dropped again, drawing together fiercely over his eyes. “Lewiston needs to do something about that son of his, and so I will tell him. That was one of the obstacles you mentioned, I must suppose, Redhaven.”

“Yes, my lord. Beverley had sailed to Birkenhead with Gorry, who had stolen a fishing smack, so we thought we’d bring it back to its owner at Bailecashtel. A townsman we met at the harbor helped us find a captain and crew, but before we could set sail, Bebbington turned up with a justice of the peace.”

“The swine,” said Tarquin. “But Eloise was very brave. She stood up to him and told the justice she wanted to come with me, and that Bebbington had been holding her against her will.”

Luke took up the tale. “But by the time we set sail, we had already missed your six o’clock deadline. We would have made it to Bailecashtel before full dark if the storm had not come up. It blew us off course, and so we sailed to Dara instead.”

“Pursued by Bebbington and Gorry,” Alaric added. “Or, at least, so we believe. The fishing smack following us did not make it to Dara, but they may have come ashore somewhere else.”

“Then this morning, several of the roads we wanted to use were closed with floods or slips, so it took us a long time to cross the island,” Luke explained. “I was wondering what else could possibly go wrong, but here we are, my lord. Returned as promised, and with Lady Stavely. Late, it is true, but my lord, we did try!”

“Well, Bea?” Claddach asked his daughter. “What do you say? Are they forgiven?”

“They are, Papa,” Bea declared. “And Papa, Alaric tells me that he has solved the fifth clue in the treasure hunt.”

“Close to, at least,” Alaric amended. “I know the topic, and Lady Beatrice has told me where to find the objet d’art implied by the last two lines.”

“Indeed?” Claddach asked. “Then, young man, you had better repair to that location immediately. I take it, daughter, that you were about to ask me if you could take a walk with Redhaven here? You may, if Lord and Lady Stavely go to play propriety. And Versey, Lady Eleanor would undoubtedly enjoy your company. I believe she was intending to repair to the music room.”

“Thank you, sir.” Luke sketched a brief bow to the two ladies and left the room. Alaric offered his arm to Bea and inclined his head to Claddach. “Thank you, my lord.”

“The portrait gallery?” Bea asked.

“The portrait gallery,” said Alaric.

“I take it,” Tarquin murmured to Alaric, as they followed the ladies into the portrait gallery, “that my part is to distract my wife so you can kiss Lady Beatrice.”

It was good having his twin back. Tarquin had always been the friend who knew what Alaric was thinking before he spoke. The breach between them had healed, and he felt whole again. Winning the next clue had to be a priority, but Tarquin was quite right. Alaric would take any opportunity to kiss Bea.