Helen Dickson - The Earl and the Pickpocket

Right on cue an elegantly attired woman in middle age moved slowly down the stairs.

‘Why, it’s you, Adam. I figured it must be. Who else would make so much bluster? Still, ’tis a pleasure to see you.’ She gave the man she had known since childhood an adoring, almost sainted look, before dropping her gaze to the boy and bending over him with concern. ‘Bless me! What have we here?’

Adam’s voice was urgent. ‘I need your help, Dolly. The lad’s injured and needs tending.’

‘I can see that. Who is he?’

‘A friend.’

Looking at the deeply etched lines of concern and strain on Adam’s face, Dolly realised the boy must be quite special. ‘Tell me what happened?’

‘Some thug being too liberal with his fists,’ he ground out.

‘Oh, the poor mite. Bring him upstairs. We’ll find him a bed right away.’

Following Dolly up the stairs and into a bedroom, Adam gently deposited his burden on the bed and loosened the fastenings at Edwina’s throat. She groaned and rolled her head from side to side, but didn’t open her eyes.

‘Who is he?’ Dolly asked as she busied herself with the unpleasant task of pulling off Ed’s oversized, almost worn-out boots.

‘He lives in St Giles. I hired him to help me find Toby.’

Dolly glanced up. ‘Still no news of the lad, then?’

‘No, unless Ed has something to offer.’

‘I do hope so,’ Dolly said sympathetically, knowing how important it was to Adam that he find Toby—his cousin Olivia’s boy. ‘And your cousin Silas?’ she asked quietly, keeping her eyes down. ‘What has become of him? It’s so long since I had news of any sort from Tap-low—not that I seek it or care.’

Looking at Dolly’s bent head and recalling the dreadful business that had forced her to leave Taplow Court, where she had been employed as housekeeper, Adam’s expression softened. ‘Silas is dead, Dolly—a month ago.’

She looked at him and nodded, digesting his words and straightening her back, knowing Adam would feel no remorse over the demise of that particular gentleman—and she even less—although there was a time when there was nothing she would not have done for Silas Clifford. She had been at Taplow Court just one month when he had taken her into his bed, and, though he didn’t have an ounce of affection for her—taking her body night after night without the courtesy of a caress, without the slightest endearment and with less feeling than a dog for a bitch—she became a necessity in his life and she had loved him with a passion that had made her ache.

‘Thank God,’ she said.

‘I always admired the way you put what happened behind you and got on with your life, Dolly. It can’t have been easy.’

‘It was very hard, Adam. But I cured myself of what Silas did to me before a serious depression could occur. Sadly the same cannot be said of your cousin Olivia—poor thing. What happened to the young lady Silas was to marry?’

Adam shrugged. ‘She disappeared without a trace.’ His firm lips curved in a wry smile. ‘Apparently Silas inspired in her nothing but repugnance and she refused to be forced into marriage. Young women of seventeen do not willingly give themselves in marriage to licentious monsters more than twice their age. When her uncle insisted, it appears she ran away and has not been seen since. I never met her, but, whoever she is, I admire her courage.’

‘And what of you, Adam? As heir to your cousin’s estate you are now the Earl of Taplow. Are felicitations in order—or commiserations?’

His look was sombre. ‘I never sought the title, you know that, Dolly. I always hoped Silas would marry and have children. My profession and my position as the Earl of Taplow do not rest easy together. There are many who would not approve.’

‘Since when did Adam Rycroft care what others think?’ Dolly remarked quickly. ‘In that you and I are alike. Approval and disapproval are not words in my vocabulary, Adam.’

Adam grinned. ‘You know me too well, Dolly.’

‘In that you are right,’ she said, laughing lightly. Thinking of Tap-low Court, she had a vision of happy children playing in the deserted gardens, running through the empty rooms, injecting them with life. ‘Some might say Taplow Court is a grim and gloomy place, but despite what happened I liked it there. Silas never appreciated it—he never appreciated anything. What that house needs is a family living in it—children, Adam. You should give it some thought.’

‘I have, Dolly, but what I do suits me. It is a part of me. The city is my home.’

‘Hertfordshire is only a few hours away from London. You could quite easily reside at Taplow Court and still manage your business here. You don’t have to sell your house in town.’

‘I suppose you’re right, but here I come and go as I please, and no man commands me. At Taplow, where I was never at ease, I shall be forced into habits, restricted, which will eventually kill my initiative—my spontaneity—which is an important part of my work.’

‘Being the Earl of Taplow will not necessarily change that.’

‘I wish I could be so sure. I do not want to become part of a system that stifles—a cog in a wheel that’s forever turning and going nowhere.’

Dolly could understand what he was saying. The tragedies of his personal life had made him cynical.

He combed a rebellious lock of hair from his forehead with an impatient hand, and paced the carpet between the window and the bed with long, vigorous strides, his eyes constantly drawn to the still figure laid out on the bed. Dolly could sense the restlessness in him.

‘You haven’t been back to Taplow?’

‘No, not since I left all those years ago. But I will. I have no choice. As yet I have not divulged my elevation to the title to anyone, Dolly, and I would prefer it to remain so until I’ve been back to Taplow. Had Toby been legitimate, the estate would have passed to him. You, more than anyone, will remember the circumstances of Toby’s birth, and the day Silas threw Olivia out of Taplow Court after slaying her lover.’

Dolly nodded. It was something she had tried so hard to forget, but the memory of Joseph Tyke, Silas’s incredibly handsome head groom, his blood pouring from a gaping wound in his chest and draining him of life, of Silas standing over him, gloating, bloodied knife in his hand, meant that she never would. That was the day she had come to hate Silas Clifford with a virulence that almost choked her, and made her turn her back on him and his home. She recalled Lady Olivia as being a demure young woman with a sweet nature, and, unfortunately, very poor health.

‘I do. It was a truly wicked, cruel act on his part.’

‘I know. He should have been apprehended for what he did—hanged, even, but he had the establishment background, wealth, power, influence, and the bland confidence of a noble lord,’ Adam said with snarling bitterness. ‘When Olivia knew she was dying, destitute and with no one else to turn to, in desperation she returned to Taplow Court and begged her brother to take care of the boy. You can imagine Silas’s reaction.’

‘Yes, I can. Your cousin was a man used to his own way, a ruthless man, too unprincipled, too wealthy, with too much of everything, who thought the world should pay obeisance to him.’

‘He also found disfigurement of any kind abhorrent…’ Adam paused. His face was hard with memory, the muscles tight, and his blue eyes were hard too. ‘Silas couldn’t bear to look at Toby with his twisted leg, so when Olivia died he cast him out—gave him like a bit of old garbage to some passing tinkers.’

His voice was calm, much too calm, carefully modulated, but Dolly knew that beneath the calm Adam seethed with anger, and the striking gentleman in claret velvet and lace became the youth again, the fervent, embittered boy who had been forced to live under Silas’s tyrannical dominance at Taplow Court. He took a deep breath and ran a hand across his brow. When he spoke his voice was still calm, but each word might have been chiselled from ice.