a hard man, my lord. You expect too much of us. ’Twas fear that kept me from coming to you. Everyone around Stanbury way knows how . . .” His voice trailed off.
“Knows what, Barth?” Garrett glared at Barth in anger, his fists balled at his sides. “That I kept you on, despite your drinking and carelessness, because of your family? Or that I demand things be done right? A fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage?”
“Fair?” Barth hissed. “You’re as wicked as Satan Himself. You should suffer as long and hard as I have.”
Garrett remained remarkably cool. Only his eyes were ablaze. As Barth’s eyes met his master’s, Madeleine saw the dawning moment of defeat in them.
Silence blanketed the room. All that could be heard was Barth’s labored breathing. At last he blurted out, “I might as well tell you the truth. Though it weren’t my fault at all, no, not at all. It was an accident.”
Garrett moved away.
Barth seemed to relax a bit with the distance Garrett placed between them. He rubbed his one good eye and sighed.
“Tell me about the day Lady Montayne disappeared,” Garrett demanded calmly.
“I’d been having a nip behind the barn, just to tide me over, when Lady Montayne came for her horse.” He squinted, as if he could see it in his mind’s eye. “’Twas the new one, the filly with the temper. She was a bit hard for the countess to handle but Lady Montayne was determined to ride her.”
“I remember. Go on.”
“She was in such a hurry. She always was. Rushing me here and there, distracting me with all sorts of foolish questions. How’s a man to concentrate with all that female prattling going on? Can’t do my work properly at all, if’n you know what I mean.”
A spasm of coughs interrupted Barth’s tale for a minute. When he recovered he said, “Then our reeve, Stephen, showed up, hurrying me. Said he had important things to do and would I please get the saddles on? He didn’t have time to be riding around with Lady Montayne anyhow.” Barth cleared his throat with a miserable sound. “Nobody appreciates me. They never did. Not Mrs. Barth, not my little ones, not no one. At least until that day. Then our reeve done owe me. He appreciated me for all my help in the matter.”
Madeleine shuddered involuntarily. She had never liked Stephen. He’d seemed efficient in his work but she had never forgotten the pleasure he’d taken talking about the typhus running rampant through London when he’d returned from one of his trips there.
Barth scanned his audience, seemingly pleased he had all their attention now. “Stephen told me when they began to ride hard, the girth suddenly came undone. If’n she just hadn’t rushed me, I could’ve saddled the horse properly. But, no, my lady fell from the horse when the saddle did. The horse spooked and trampled her. Crushed her skull.”
The silent horror on the faces of those present was deafening. All had been led to believe that Lynnette had run away with some secret lover—when all along, Stanbury’s reeve had been present at her death. He’d lied to Garrett all these years, forcing his liege lord into limbo.
She observed the tension surge through Garrett from head to toe. Madeleine wanted to call a halt to this sordid tale but she knew Garrett must hear it to the end before he could ever make peace with it.
Barth continued, more unsure of himself now as he took in the cold looks from those gathered in the solar.
“Stephen came and got me to help him. The countess was all broken and crumpled on the ground. He told me it was all my fault.”
Barth’s shoulders heaved and he began to weep. “We took her jewels and buried her in the forest.”
He raised his head toward Garrett, his eyes glassy and unfocused. In a pleading tone, he said, “We knew your temper, Lord Montayne. You’re Ryker’s son, after all. We knew we’d both be blamed. That it’d be the end of us both.”
He wiped his nose with his sleeve. “Stephen had me take my lady’s horse and ride it to London. I was to sell it there and the jewels, too. He said he’d cover for me. That I wasn’t to worry about being missed. He said he’d fix things for us both.”
Barth smiled satisfactorily. “He were right. Nobody suspected a thing at all.” His mouth hung in a surly pose. “Until now.”