crashing to the ground with one lunge. A scuffle ensued as the two men fought, but Fairfax was no match for Sebastian’s height and strength. Within seconds, Sebastian had subdued the older man and dragged him to his feet.
Still clutching Andrew, Clara turned to search for Rushton. For a moment, she couldn’t find him in the growing crowd, but then he pushed past a group of people. Two police constables followed, their batons at the ready as they approached Sebastian and Fairfax.
Voices rose from the crowd in excited chatter. Clara tightened her arms around Andrew and led him to the safety of a doorstep. She pressed her cheek against his hair.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “So sorry it happened this way.”
One day soon she would ask him exactly what he saw happen between Fairfax and Richard, but that day could wait. Right now all she wanted was to hold her son again and get reacquainted with the boy he had become—this time, without the portent of fear hanging over them like a thundercloud.
They waited together, huddled close, as the crowd began to disperse and Sebastian returned to find them. He scraped a hand through his messy hair and crouched in front of them, balancing on the balls of his feet.
“You did the right thing, Andrew,” he said. “No harm will come to you for having told the truth. Had you feared that it would?”
Andrew nodded. Sebastian lifted the boy into his arms, then extended a hand to Clara and helped her up. He pulled her to his other side, holding them close. A tremble shuddered through Clara as she embraced both her husband and her son. She and Andrew would always be safe at Sebastian’s side.
Slowly, she turned to find Lord Rushton.
“Fairfax is in police custody.” His face reddened from exertion and lined with concern, the earl stopped beside them. “Rest assured, Mrs. Hall, I will do everything within my power to ensure that justice is served.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
Clara didn’t doubt his promise. Rushton was determined that nothing would shake the foundations of the earldom again, but he was not so uncompromising that he would allow a murder to go unpunished.
Her heart clenched. Murder. Richard had been murdered by the very man to whom he had entrusted his son.
As if sensing her thoughts, Sebastian lowered his head to whisper into her ear. “He will never harm you or Andrew again.”
She tightened her hold on him. “I believe you.”
Several days after returning to London, Andrew explained in slow, halting speech what he had seen that fateful day when his father died. They sat in the parlor of Blake’s Museum of Automata—only Clara and Sebastian, as Andrew had said he wanted no one else present. He huddled in a chair before the fire, his hands cupped around a bowl of hot cocoa. Soon he would have to recount the events to the police superintendent, but everyone had agreed to give the boy a chance to recover.
“They were talking about business,” Andrew said. Firelight flickered across his youthful features as he stared into the flames. “Grandfather and Papa. Railway stock or…or something like t-that. Then they started arguing.”
He fell silent, a distance blurring his gaze as if he saw the scene anew.
“M-my grandfather accused my papa of keeping him out of a…a contract,” Andrew continued. “Their voices got louder and louder. I’d gone into the woods a ways to follow a rabbit, so I don’t think they knew I…I was there. Then I heard the sound of a slap and I went back to see what had happened. Grandfather had…had grabbed Papa and was shaking him. They were both yelling. Then he…he hit Papa hard enough that Papa f-fell off the horse. There was a…a horrible crack. Blood. Grandfather jumped down and ran to Papa, shouting at him to get up.
“He shook him again, then looked up and saw me. He l-looked awful…scared, like something was horribly wrong. I knew it too. The m-minute he shouted my name, I turned and ran. Just k-kept running until I didn’t hear him anymore. I found my pony again and went back to the house to find Mama, but you weren’t there.”
“I’d returned to the woods to look for you.” Clara brushed her hand across Andrew’s hair.
“I…I didn’t want to wait.”
“Richard was dead by the time I reached him,” Clara told Sebastian, an old horror pushing at her memory as she recalled finding Richard on the path. “I think my father had gone for help, but