I nodded. “I’m fine. His name was Fursey. He was a good man. He has—had—a wife and children in one of the cottages on the estate.” I felt the spring breeze ruffle the hair on my neck and I shivered. Fursey would never feel cold or spring breezes again. I groped in my pocket for my handkerchief. Tears sprang to my eyes unbidden when I thought about this man and what someone had done to him.

Richard lifted his arms to hold me. This time he was careless of who saw us. He wanted to comfort me, and I needed to be comforted.

“I’m all right,” I said into the warm folds of his coat. “It was the shock, that’s all.”

He tilted my face up and studied me. “I know.” He let me go and went to Tom, to take his flask back. He shook it to see how much was left, then returned and gave it to me. “Just a little.”

I lifted the flask and obediently drank some of the brandy, which burned a fiery trail down my throat. He stoppered the flask and put it back into his pocket, keeping his eyes on me, seemingly satisfied when I managed a wan smile. He looked back at Tom where he sat on the ground. No thoughts now about wet grass staining our clothes.

“Tom?”

Tom stared up, shaking his head in bewilderment.

“Who did this?” Richard demanded.

“He had no enemies,” Tom said. “Poachers wouldn’t have done this, they would have shot him, but—oh!” He turned and vomited into the grass behind him, as the shock caught up with him. We looked away, to give him his privacy while he regained control of himself.

“He was tortured,” I told Richard, quietly so Tom couldn’t hear me. “Then he was killed. That’s right, isn’t it?” He nodded in confirmation of my suspicions. “Then it could only be one group of people, and you’ve come across them before.”

“Why only them?”

“Anyone else would have killed him outright, not done that and then left him for us to find.”

“So you noticed they’d put him in our way, did you?”

“It must be the case. They saw us go, and laid him there for us to find. I don’t think it was deliberately aimed at you—you were a bonus—but at Tom. His father won’t give them access across his land, and you’ve seen how convenient it would be to them. Sir George sets people to watch on nights when there are runs, and they have to go the long way around. This is probably some form of coercion.” I put my hand on Richard’s arm. “What should we do?”

“What can we do? I’ve sent word to them I’ll leave them alone,” he said bitterly.

“Why should they care about you? What can you do?” I knew one man could achieve nothing against these villains, even if that man was Richard.

He smiled wryly, and covered my hand with his. “The time has come when I have to tell you about Thompson’s. I’ll consult my partner, and tell you tomorrow. It’s not my secret alone, you see, or I would have told you before.”

That was good enough for me.

He took my hand and led me back to where my horse patiently stood, and then he helped me get back up into the saddle. “For now,” he said, as he looked up at me, “we go and tell Sir George, and see what he wants to do. If you join the others, I’ll bring Tom across when he feels more the thing. Can you do that, my love? Will you trust me until tomorrow?” I nodded, and rode to where the others waited and he went back to Tom.

I broke the news to them and watched Georgiana closely. She hadn’t seen the reality of it as her brother had, and I didn’t go into unnecessary detail, so she took it better than her brother had done.

Gervase said little but exchanged a glance with Richard. He must know we would tell him later. Lizzie suggested she should ride ahead to tell Sir George, but I persuaded her against it. There wasn’t much point. The man was dead, not injured, and nothing would alter that.

We watched Richard and Tom remount and come over to join us. I was glad to see Tom had regained some colour in his face, but he was grim, and rode the rest of the way to his home in silence.

As luck would have it, Sir George was at home and Richard and Tom went immediately to see him, leaving the rest of us with Lady Skerrit, who did her best with tea and cakes.

They returned with Sir George, who informed us he’d sent some men for Fursey’s body, and someone had gone to tell his wife, but in the circumstances, they would bring the body here to Peacock’s. Lady Skerrit was extremely shocked, even though we didn’t tell her the whole.

Tom’s initial shock had changed to anger. His face was set and he murmured to me, “I mean to do something about this.”

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Richard said. “You can’t do anything on your own against these people.”

“You did, my lord,” Tom said defiantly.

Richard sighed. “That was to save a life, not to avenge one. No, leave it alone, Tom.”

He put his hand on Tom’s sleeve, but Tom shook him off. “This was a man I’ve known all my life. I can’t let it lie, it’s not in me. These filthy villains, they’re never