Page 84 of The Cornish Inheritance

“Rubbish,” Trefusis snarled. “Your fall has addled your brain.”

“That is a ridiculous accusation,” Nat’s stepmother said. “Why on earth would Jan do that? He has no reason to want you to have an accident.”

“To want me dead, you mean.”

“I don’t want you dead,” Trefusis snapped. “Perhaps you should look at the way Old Pascoe looks after the saddlery and lay the blame where it truly belongs. On the shoddy work of one of the staff. The man is a drinker.”

Nat grit his teeth. “And you sent Yves out this morning to explore the adit in Penmar Cove, knowing full well how dangerous this would be and that Yves would do it on his own.”

His stepmother blustered, not quite so confident now. “That isn’t true. Yves wouldn’t do that. He’s far too sensible.”

“He did, Mother, he did. Caroline—Miss Fairfield—and I have just returned from Wheal Jenny. Thanks to her prodigious detective skills your plans have failed. We followed Yves into the adit on the beach, but the tide was fast coming in, and the only way out was to make our way up through the workings. Yves is safe, thanks to Miss Fairfield. Hetty overheard your friend Trefusis telling Yves about where to get into the adit and recounted it all to Caroline. He knew a boy like Yves couldn’t resist the adventure of it.”

Trefusis’s already darkened face now reddened in anger, turning a disturbing shade of puce. “How could I have known he’d do that? I don’t have the power to see into the future. If the boy was stupid enough to go down there by himself, it has nothing to do with me.”

Nat prodded Trefusis in the chest with a long finger. Hard. “And you were with my grandfather when he was taken ill. One of these things you might have been able to wriggle out of, but not all of them. And on top of that, there’s Yves’s medicine. Bridget has been trying to dose him with laudanum, as no doubt you both already know. Which one of you gave it to her? Which one of you persuaded her to dose him hoping that one night she’d give him too much and he wouldn’t wake up?”

His stepmother had come round to stand shoulder to shoulder with Trefusis, her face ashy pale. “Why would Jan want to do that?” Her eyes glinted like sharp flints. Nat’s heart did a leap of fear as he recognized the guilt in them. It was her. Caroline had been correct. Perhaps she had no knowledge of the rest, but she was behind the poisoning. Knowledge of her crime was written all over her face.

“Because he wants all of us gone,” Nat said. “As do you. Yves and I stand between him and what he’s come to see as his inheritance. What you’ve allowed him to come to see as his. Because he plans to marry Hetty and get his hands on this estate.”

His stepmother’s eyes widened in shock, all appearance of sangfroid flown. She hadn’t known that one. “That’s not true,” she blustered. “Tell him it’s not true, Jan. It’s me you love, not her.”

Trefusis must have realized his case was lost. “Why would I want a dried-up old hag like you, when I could have a fresh fruit ripe for the picking like Hetty? You stupid woman. I’ve had enough of pandering to you and your vanity.”

Her hand jerked back and the sound of the slap ricocheted around the parlor. “How dare you presume to cast your filthy gaze on my daughter! Get out! I never want to see you again. Get out right now.” Her coldly furious gaze looked daggers at the man she must have thought she loved. How swiftly love can turn to hatred. In the blink of an eye.

It seemed Nat wasn’t going to have to kick Trefusis down the drive. His stepmother might beat him to it.

Trefusis threw them both a furious glare and, shoving between them, stormed out of the parlor. Silence reigned for a long half minute, before Nat swung round on his stepmother. “And you needn’t think you’re staying. I know it was you with the laudanum, you murdering, cold-hearted woman. You made my life a misery when I was a boy, then you made Hetty’s life the same. I won’t allow you to repeat history by doing it to Yves. And you can take that shrew of a nursery maid with you. I know she’s in your pay. Go on. Get out.”

Her mouth hung open, for once lost for words.

“And don’t go anywhere near my sister before you leave.” He marched out of the parlor and into the hall, buzzing with pent up anger. Maybe he should have punched Trefusis in the nose. Several times. That might have drained away some of this emotion and made him feel better.

Having dispatched a shocked Ennion to give Bridget her immediate marching orders, he paced up and down until his stepmother emerged from the parlor. Ignoring him, she stalked up the stairs, back ramrod straight. “And don’t you touch any of the silver,” Nat shouted, as a parting shot. Maybe he was behaving in a rash and petty manner, but compared with how he felt, this outburst was nothing.

She disappeared from view, and Nat strode up and down again, fists clenched by his sides, chest heaving. A thought fought its way to the surface of his jumbled mind. Caroline. He needed to tell her what he’d done. Some of the tension fizzled out of his body at the thought of her, but by no means all of it. He took the stairs two at a time in a run.

He met Caroline, much cleaner now than she had been and wearing a fresh gown, in the gallery and ground to a halt facing her. “Caroline. I was coming to look for you.”

“And I for you.”

She sounded breathless, her cheeks a becoming pink. She’d only had time to braid her hair but had not put it up on top of her head. It suited her. She had a hairpin in her hand which she quickly tucked into the bodice of her gown.

The world stood still around him, the sounds of the house receding into nothingness.

He gazed into her eyes, lost in their depths, for an eon of time that might only have been seconds. His heartbeat pounded in not just his chest but throughout his body, and he felt himself harden with desire again. She was quite the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, even with a smear of dirt high on her forehead that she’d missed.

For once he had to let impulse have its way.

Stepping forward, he caught her in his arms and her face turned up to meet his. Her compliant body molded against his and she must have been able to feel the extent of his arousal, but he wasn’t embarrassed. This time, though, he ought to play the gentleman and seek her permission. Her face was so close to his he was breathing her in. “Do you mind if I kiss you again?” The words came out a little hoarse.

Her dark eyes flashed. “I should like it very much if you did, Nat.”

He needed no further bidding but bent his head and pressed his lips to hers. They parted, his tongue slipped in and met hers and her hands came up to grip his shoulders. His head spun and he might have fallen had there been something handy like a bed to fall onto, preferably with Caroline still in his arms. But there wasn’t, and he had to remain upright, his now throbbing arousal pressed against the softness of her stomach, something that only added to his ardor.

She kissed him back with enthusiasm, her hands rising from his shoulders to bury themselves in his hair, careless of the bump on the back of his head, pulling him ever closer. How small and delicate she felt in his arms despite her height, how fragile for someone who had just traversed an entire mine.