Princes Trilogy: The Leopard Prince Part 27

"Can't say, my lady." The tangles worked out, Tiggle began stroking from her crown down to the ends of her hair.

George sighed in pleasure.

"But he hasn't gone too far away, now, has he?" the maid pointed out.

"Mmm." George tilted her head so Tiggle could do that side.

"He wants to go-you've said so yourself, my lady- but he hasn't." Tiggle started on the other side, brushing gently from the temple. "Stands to reason, then, that maybe he can't."

"You're speaking in riddles and I'm too tired to understand."

"I'm just saying maybe he can't leave you, my lady." Tiggle set down the brush with a thump and began braiding her hair.

"A lot of good that does me if he can't bring himself to face me, either." George frowned in the mirror.

"I think he'll be back." The maid tied a ribbon at the end of George's braid and leaned over her shoulder to meet her eyes in the mirror. "And when he comes, you'll be needing to tell him, if you don't mind my saying so, my lady."

George blushed. She had hoped Tiggle wouldn't notice, but she should have realized the maid kept track of everything. "There's no way of knowing yet."

"Aye, there is. And you being so regular like . . ."

Tiggle gave her an old-fashioned look. "Good night, my lady."

She left the room.

George sighed and dropped her head into her hands. Tiggle had better be right about Harry. Because if he waited too long to return, there would be no need to tell him she was expecting.

He'd see it.

Chapter Seventeen.

"Aye?" The wizened face peeped out the door crack.

Harry looked down. The old woman's head didn't come to his breastbone. The hump on her back bent her until she had to peer sideways and up to see her caller."Good morning, Mistress Humboldt. My name is Harry Pye. I'd like to talk with you."

"Best come in, then, hadn't you, young man?" The tiny figure smiled at Harry's left ear and opened the door wider. Only then, in the light let in by the open door, did he see the cataracts that clouded the old woman's blue eyes.

"Thank you, ma'am."

Bennet and Will were there before him. They sat by a smoldering fire, the only light in the dim room. Will was munching on a scone and eyeing another on a tray.

"Late, aren't you?" Bennet was more alert than he'd been five hours before. He looked quite pleased to have got the first dig in.

"Some of us have to travel by back lanes."

Harry helped Mistress Humboldt lower herself into a fan-backed chair piled with knitted pillows. A calico cat padded over, meowing. It leaped into the old lady's lap and purred loudly even before she started stroking its back.

"Have a scone, Mr. Pye. And if you don't mind, you can help yourself to tea." Mistress Humboldt's voice was thin and whistling. "Now. What have you lads come to talk to me about that you must do it in secret?"

Harry's mouth twitched. The old woman's eyes might be fading, but her mind surely wasn't. "Lord Granville and his enemies."

Mistress Humboldt smiled sweetly. "Have you got all day, then, young man? For if I was to list everyone who ever had a grudge against that lord, I'd still be talking tomorrow morning."

Bennet laughed.

"You're quite right, ma'am," Harry said. "But what I'm after is the person poisoning the sheep. Who has such hatred of Granville that they'd want to do these crimes?"

The old woman c.o.c.ked her head and stared at the fire for a moment, the only sound in the room the purring of the cat and Will eating his scone.

"As it happens," she said slowly, "I've been thinking on these sheep killings myself." She pursed her lips. "Bad things they are and evil because while it hurts the farmer, it merely bothers Lord Granville. Seems to me that what you really should be asking, young man, is who has the heart to do this." Mistress Humboldt took a sip of tea.

Bennet started to speak. Harry shook his head.

"It takes a hard heart to not care that others are hurt along the way to getting at the lord." Mistress Humboldt tapped a shaking finger on her knee to punctuate her point.

"A hard heart and a brave one as well. Lord Granville is the law and the fist in this county, and whoever goes against him is gambling their very life."

"Who fits your description, Nanny?" Bennet leaned forward impatiently.

"I can think of two men that answer, at least in parts." She wrinkled her brow. "But neither are quite right." She raised her teacup to her lips with a wavering hand.

Bennet shifted in his chair, jiggled one leg up and down, and sighed.

Harry leaned forward in his own chair and selected a scone.

Bennet shot him an incredulous glare.

Harry raised his eyebrows as he bit into the scone.

"d.i.c.k Crumb," the old woman said, and Harry lowered the scone. "A while back, his sister, Janie, the one who's weak in the head, was seduced by the lord. A terrible thing, preying on that child-woman." The corners of Mistress Humboldt's mouth crumpled in a frown. "And d.i.c.k, when he found out, why, he nearly lost his head. Said he'd have killed him had it been any man but the lord. Would have, too."

Harry frowned. d.i.c.k hadn't said he'd threatened Granville's life, but then what man would? Surely that by itself . . .

Mistress Humboldt held out her cup, and Bennet silently poured tea for her and placed the cup back in her hand.

"But," she continued, "d.i.c.k isn't a mean man. Hard, yes, but not hard-hearted. As for the other man-Mistress Humboldt looked in Bennet's direction-"perhaps it's best to let sleeping dogs lie."

Bennet seemed bewildered. "What sleeping dogs?"

Will stopped eating. He looked between Bennet and the old woman. d.a.m.n. Harry had a feeling he knew what Mistress Humboldt was getting at. Perhaps it would be better to leave it alone.

Bennet caught some of Harry's unease. He leaned forward tensely, his elbows on his knees, both heels tapping now. "Tell us."

"Thomas."

s.h.i.t. Harry looked away.

"Thomas who?" It seemed to hit Bennet all at once. He stopped moving for a second, then exploded out of the chair, pacing in the tiny s.p.a.ce before the fire. "Thomas, my brother?" He laughed. "You can't be serious. He's a . . . a milksop. He wouldn't say nay to Father if he told him the sun rose in the west and he shat pearls."

The old woman compressed her lips at the profanity.

"I'm sorry, Nanny," Bennet said. "But Thomas! He's lived under my father's thumb so long he has calluses on his b.u.t.tocks."

"Yes, I know." In contrast to the young man, Mistress Humboldt was calm. She must have expected his reaction. Or maybe she was simply used to his constant movement. "That's exactly why I name him."

Bennet stared.

"A man so long under his father's power isn't natural. Your father took a dislike to Thomas when he was very young. I've never understood it." She shook her head. "Lord Granville hating his own son so thoroughly."

"But even so, he'd never . . ." Bennet's words trailed off, and he abruptly turned away. Mistress Humboldt looked sad. "He might. You know it ourself, Master Bennet. The way your father has treated him shows. He's like a tree trying to grow through a crack in a rock. Twisted. Not quite right."

"But-"

"Do you remember the mice he'd catch sometimes when he was a boy? I found him once with one he'd caught. He'd cut off it's feet. He was watching it try to crawl."

"Oh, Jesus," Bennet muttered.

"I had to kill it. But then I couldn't punish him, poor lad. His father beat him enough already. I never saw him again with a mouse, but I don't think he stopped. He just got better at hiding it from me."

"We don't have to pursue this," Harry said.

Bennet swung around, his eyes desperate. "And what if he is the sheep poisoner? What if he kills someone else?"

His question hung in the air. No one could answer it but Bennet.

He seemed to realize it was up to him. He squared his broad shoulders. "If it is Thomas, he's murdered a woman. I need to stop him."

Harry nodded. "I'll talk to d.i.c.k Crumb."

"Fine," Bennet said. "You've helped us, Nanny. You see things n.o.body else does."

"Maybe not with my eyes anymore, but I always could read a person." Mistress Humboldt held out a wavering hand to her former charge.

Bennet grasped it.

"G.o.d save and protect you, Master Bennet," she said. "It's not an easy task you have."

Bennet leaned down to kiss the withered cheek. "Thank you, Nanny." He straightened and clapped Will on the shoulder. "We best be going, Will, before you finish those last two scones."

The old woman smiled. "Let the lad take the rest. It's been so long since I had a boy to feed."

"Thank you, ma'am." Will stuffed the scones into his pockets.

She saw them to the door and stood and waved as they rode away.

"I'd forgotten how sharp Nanny is. Thomas and I could never get anything past her." Bennet's face darkened when he spoke his brother's name.

Harry glanced at him. "If you want, you can put off talking to Thomas until tomorrow, after I've sounded out d.i.c.k Crumb. I'll have to wait until nightfall to find him, anyway. Best time to catch d.i.c.k is at the c.o.c.k and Worm after ten o'clock."

"No, I don't want to wait another day to talk to Thomas. Better to do it right away."

They rode for a half mile or more in silence, Will clinging behind Bennet.

"So once we find whoever's doing this," Bennet said, "you'll be leaving?"

"That's right." Harry watched the road ahead but could feel the other man's gaze on him.

"I was under the impression that you and Lady Georgina had an . . . uh . . . understanding."

Harry gave Bennet a look that usually shut a man up.

Not him.

"Because, I mean, it's a bit thick, what? A fellow just up and leaving a lady."

"I'm not from her cla.s.s."

"Yes, but that obviously doesn't matter to her, does it? Or she'd never have taken up with you in the first "I-"

"And if you don't mind me being blunt, she must be pretty gone on you." Bennet looked him up and down as if he were a side of spoiled beef. "I mean, you don't exactly have the sort of face that women swoon over. More in my line, that."

"Bennet-"

"Not to blow my own horn, but I could tell you quite a tale of a delectable bird in London-"

"Bennet."

"What?"

Harry nodded at Will, who was wide-eyed and listening to every word.

"Oh." Bennet coughed. "Quite. Shall I see you tomorrow, then? We'll meet and exchange information."

They had neared a copse of trees that marked where the main road crossed the lane they traveled on.

"Fine." Harry pulled his mare to a halt. "This is where I must turn off, anyway. And Bennet?"

"Yes?" He turned his face and the sun fell full upon it, tracing the laugh lines around his eyes.

"Be careful," Harry said. "If it is Thomas, he'll be dangerous."

"You be careful as well, Harry."