“Yes,” Douglas said. “All right. James Wyndham said his little girl Alice named him.”
“Yes,” Jason said, “yes, she did.” He walked to his brother and hugged him tightly. Then he stood a moment, looking at his father from a distance of six feet. He felt tears rise in his throat. “Papa, I-”
“Uncle Jason!”
“Uncle Jason!”
Two small boys, their white nightshirts flapping around their ankles, burst into the room, arms raised.
Jason stared down at the two beloved little boys. Life always moved on. Even as he gathered up both of them tightly against him, the tears dried in his eyes and in his heart. “What are you two devils doing awake this late?”
Everett gave him a wet kiss on the neck. Douglas was squeezing his neck so hard he nearly broke it. “We heard Mama arguing with herself.”
Jason nodded. “That would arouse my curiosity as well. Ah, Mother, you’re awake too?”
Alex came over to peel one of the boys off Jason’s shoulder. “I’m here to rescue you. No, Everett, no waltzing tonight. It’s time for the two of you to get back into bed.”
After no more than two minutes of whining, at which point James said, “That is enough. You will both be silent. Kiss your uncle good night. You will see him again soon. I will come up in a moment and tuck you in.”
Douglas shook his head at his wife. “I believe I said the same thing to him and Jason.”
“Very probably. Innumerable times. Are you all right, Jason?”
Jason hugged his mother, stepped back. “Don’t worry about me, Mama. I’m off.” He paused a moment, then said, “I missed all you so very much when I was in Baltimore, please never doubt that.”
James said as they listened to Jason’s boot steps receding on the tile floor, “I am going to give Hallie anything she wants.”
His father smiled.
CHAPTER 40
At the breakfast table the following morning, Hallie said brightly, “It’s been nearly a week since the Beckshire race. What are we going to do about Lord Grimsby?”
Jason said as he smeared honey on his toast, “Those are the first words out of your mouth since I slammed out of the house last night and left you alone with Petrie and Martha.”
“I saw you ride back and knew you were all right.”
Of course she would wait up for him. “I slept in Angela’s room.”
“Yes, I know. I hope you slept well?”
“Not very, but it doesn’t matter.” He became suddenly very stiff and formal. “I wish to apologize for my melodrama last night, Hallie.”
“Yours wasn’t the melodrama.” Even when he raised his eyebrow in question, she simply shook her head, said nothing more.
“I see, you’re going to be mysterious about this. I was hopeful that yesterday would be the day I’d be off to see Lord Grimsby, but it wasn’t. I am hopeful, however, about today.” He pulled out the watch from his vest pocket and consulted it.
“Now you’re being mysterious.”
“Yes, I am, aren’t I? Well, we’ll see. I would imagine he’s wondering why the devil I’m waiting this long, particularly since he knows we have Kindred.”
Hallie said, “Perhaps he thinks you’ve forgotten about it since it seems to be the done thing. When will you be ready? What does your seeing him depend upon?”
He only smiled at her.
“Very well, be a closemouthed trout-brain, as Martha would say.”
“As mysterious as my wife.”
“That’s different, but no matter. Now, I have a wonderful surprise for you, Jason,” and she beamed at him.
An eyebrow went straight up. “You’re pregnant?”
She dropped her slice of toast. “Oh dear, I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“You haven’t had your woman’s monthly flow since we’ve been married.”
“Oh blessed hell, is that true? But I’m not always-Jason, that is very private. I don’t wish to speak of it.”
“I’m your husband. You’re to speak to me about everything.”
“No, surely not.”
“My father always said it’s very important for a wife to tell her husband everything. Tell me your surprise.”
Pregnant? Her flow was erratic but she wasn’t about to discuss that with him. She couldn’t imagine such a thing. It floored her that he would bring it up so easily. She took a bite of her toast, cleared her throat, and said, “At the race, you remember the other man, the one who actually shot Lorry, the one we didn’t catch-”
“Yes, of course, I can’t find out who he is, dammit. Kindred won’t tell me a bloody thing. He won’t even admit to a bloody thing.”
She looked at the clock beside the sideboard, gave him a fat smile. “Because I’m an excellent wife and partner, I am serving him up to you on a platter. Henry and Quincy should walk up to the front door with him very soon now.”
“The man who shot Lorry? What is this, Hallie? What are you talking about?”
“Early this morning, I had an informative encounter with Kindred. He told me the other man’s name. It’s Potter He’s also a stable lad for Lord Grimsby. He blamed Potter for everything, of course.”
Jason stared at his wife. “You’re telling me that Kindred spilled his guts simply because you asked him? I can’t believe that, Hallie. I threatened Kindred several times with a long voyage to Botany Bay, but still he wouldn’t tell me a single thing, claimed over and over, he was smoking his silver pipe when a rock comes flashing through the air to strike him in the head. I can’t believe he told you.”
“Big threats weren’t working on him, so I made a believable threat. Kindred said the ‘little bugger must believe he’s all safe’-and Kindred spit then-so I don’t think he was sorry to give up Potter’s name to me.”
He could but stare at her, this young woman who’d broken a man’s nearly weeklong silence early this very morning. He didn’t know whether to be happy or howl because she’d done it and he hadn’t. “Hallie, what did you threaten? Not to cut off his manhood, I hope.”
“Oh no, that’s not believable.”
“Tell me.”
Hallie sat forward, rested her chin on her steepled fingers.
“I told Kindred that I would strip him naked and have him walk behind my horse, hands bound in front of him, tethered to a rope. I told him we would ride all hereabouts-visit with every soul in the village, see all his relatives, his friends, his enemies, visit Lord Grimsby and the stables, and I would tell everyone what he’d done, and this would be the punishment for anyone who ever tried to harm either our horses or jockeys. He didn’t choose to believe me. He laughed, called me a cute little girlie, and surely I couldn’t be such a bold chit.”
Jason hadn’t realized what an excellent storyteller she was. He paused a beat, then, “And?”
“I had him stripped to his dirty hide, his hands tied together and looped to the end of a rope. I rode Charlemagne, holding the other end. He cursed, yelled I wasn’t a cute little girlie at all, and called me unnatural, among other charming names. When we were no farther than one hundred feet beyond Lyon ’s Gate, just getting a good start toward the village, he gave it up. He screamed out Potter’s name, swore that Lord Grimsby had told Potter to visit his brother in Cranston until everyone forgot about the race. He cursed again and said it wasn’t fair that Dodger still won, that he bet Lord Grimsby wasn’t happy about that.”
Jason didn’t want to picture Kindred naked in his mind, but he did. Not an appetizing vision. Kindred was tall, but he had thin legs and a chest that sank inward. He had hair everywhere. Even on his back? He wasn’t about to ask his wife. “So Henry and Quincy went after this Potter fellow.”
“Yes. The key is to follow through on the threat. One must even be prepared to up the ante for repeat bad behavior. While I had him naked in the middle of the road, I told him if he personally ever tried to harm any of our horses or jockeys again, I would have his mother-in-law lead him about. The idiot said she didn’t like horses, to which I replied that she could ride in my lovely gig on a delightful sunny day, with him trotting behind her. He believed me. I told him to spread this around since it would be the official Lyon’s Gate punishment for any trouble at the racetrack.”