Free The Sudbury School Murders by Ashley Gardner Page A

breath, the woman
loomed over me, her hands filthy, her eyes wide with alarm.
    "For God's sake, Marianne," I gasped.
    Under the bonnet, Marianne Simmons' doll-like
face was as sharp as ever, her pretty eyes wary. "Lacey! What are
you doing here?"
    I pushed myself into a sitting position. My
left leg throbbed and hurt. "I ought to be asking you that. I have
taken employment at Sudbury. Did you not know?"
    "Yes," she snapped. "I have heard the full
details from him . I thought that if I bought myself a deep
bonnet and only went about in the small hours of the morning, I
could avoid you. I might have known."
    "Why should you avoid me?" I demanded. "And
why should you be here at all?"
    She looked away. "I have told you so many
times, Lacey, it is none of your business where I go and what I
do."
    "At least assist me to rise, please. Else
I'll have to crawl all the way back to Sudbury, to the ruination of
my trousers."
    "They are already ruined," she said,
unsympathetic. But she reached down to help me stand.
    Once I was on my feet she said, almost
contrite, "I would not have flung the mud if I'd known the horse
would throw you. I thought I'd killed you for a moment."
    "He did not throw me," I said. "I fell
off."
    "There is a difference?"
    "Yes."
    Even a very good horseman could be thrown by
an unruly horse; an incompetent one simply toppled off. The horse
had not been that frightened.
    "I will have to lean on you," I said.
    "Oh, very well." She retrieved her basket and
allowed me to drape my arm across her shoulders. Surprisingly, she
snaked her arm about my waist, supporting me while I hobbled
painfully out of the trees and back toward the path. My horse,
sadly, was nowhere in sight.
    "I suppose you will rush home and write to him of this," Marianne said. Her words were muffled by the
huge bonnet. "And tell him where I am."
    "I do not report to Grenville," I said. "He
will arrive in Sudbury soon in any case, because he wants to know
all about the murder."
    "Yes, I heard of it, and of the arrest of the
Romany. My landlady in Hungerford speaks of nothing else."
    "Things are not as straightforward as the
landlady in Hungerford believes." I glanced down at her. "Did you
walk all the way here from Hungerford? I must ask why."
    "To confuse you," she said.
    I professed myself confused. "Grenville is
worried about you. He is on the verge of hiring a Runner to look
for you. He will likely choose Pomeroy, my former sergeant. Your
fate is sealed if that is the case."
    She stopped walking, her eyes sparkling with
anger. "I will return to London and to him when my business is
finished. Why can he not let me be?"
    I tried to mollify her. "I do agree that he
should not try to keep you confined. But I must wonder, Marianne.
He has been kind to you. In return, you treat him callously. He is
a very powerful man, and he could make your life miserable if he
chose."
    "He treats you kindly," she said. "And
some days you can barely bring yourself to be polite to him."
    I had to acknowledge that. "He does like to
control people and events, I admit. But at least he is
benevolent."
    "Is it benevolence?" she almost spat. "To
have me dragged back to London by Bow Street? What happens if he
decides to bring suit against me--accuse me of stealing from him
or--or perhaps he'll force me to pay for the house and the clothes
and the meals he's given me."
    "I very much doubt that," I began, then broke
off. I'd seen Grenville angry only a few times. He was a man who
held himself in check, hiding his emotions behind a cool facade.
His sangfroid made him enviable, and even feared, among the haut
ton --a gentleman could lose the respect of others forever at
one quirk of Grenville's eyebrow. I held such power in disdain, but
I could not deny that he had it.
    "You see." Marianne looked triumphant. "You
cannot be certain what he will do. You must help me."
    "Tell me what you are doing here."
    "Damnation, Lacey."
    My exasperation rose. "My help has been
begged in the past