The Heiress - Lynsay Sands [58]
Moving out of the way on the side of the carriage as Richard began to follow him, Daniel glanced over his driver with concern and asked, “And you weren’t hurt?”
“I was tossed, but landed on a bush. I’m all right,” the man assured him, but then added with disgust, “But the coach is a wreck. I don’t think it can even be fixed.”
“As long as everyone is all right,” Daniel said and glanced to Robert Langley in question.
“Fine,” the other man assured him, easing to the edge of the carriage to leap down. “I got an elbow in the face during one of the rolls and will probably have a black eye, but otherwise seem fine.”
Daniel grunted at this news and moved to inspect the two wheels on the upraised side of the carriage. Richard joined him as he inspected first the front and then back upraised wheel. Both appeared fine, so Daniel jumped to the ground and moved next to inspect the wheels presently lying flat on the ground. He frowned when he found the broken wheel and took note of the break of the spokes. Eyeing them suspiciously, he commented, “That’s a rather straight break.”
Richard was at his side at once. “You think they were cut?”
“Those three spokes certainly look like they could have been,” Daniel pointed out a trio of spokes next to each other where the breaks looked as straight as a cut. “The rest are more splintered and natural-looking breaks. They probably snapped under the pressure when those three gave way.”
Richard frowned and glanced around as they both straightened. “I agree. The question is who did it and why? And when?”
“The why is easy,” Daniel pointed out. “As far as George’s killer knows, the poison didn’t work. As for when . . .” He peered back at the broken wheel. “It couldn’t have been done in town. There were four of us in the carriage this morning on the way to Radnor and the wheel would have given out then under that kind of weight had it been cut before we left London. Besides, you weren’t even in my carriage on the way out of town.”
“So it was done at Radnor or one of the three stops since we left,” Richard reasoned.
Daniel nodded. Obviously George’s killer thought he’d failed and was making renewed efforts to rid the world of the man. A bit callous of the fellow to make the attempt in such a way that he and Langley could have died with Richard, Daniel thought dryly. He glanced to Richard to note that he was peering about again as if expecting the culprit to leap out at them and couldn’t blame him. If the spokes had been cut at Radnor or at one of the stops since then, it meant they’d been followed from town. The culprit may actually still be trailing them.
“Is that a carriage I hear?” Richard asked suddenly.
Daniel raised an eyebrow and listened for a moment, becoming aware of a faint sound that was definitely that of a distant but approaching carriage. “Yes, and it’s moving quickly. We’d best get off the road.”
Richard nodded and started to move. Daniel followed, calling out a warning to his driver as he went. The driver immediately urged the horses he’d been inspecting onto the grassy verge and then moved back to the edge of the road with his lantern and lifted it in the air to swing it back and forth to get the attention of the approaching vehicle.
“A coach and six,” Langley said as a vehicle careened into view on the moonlit lane.
Daniel nodded, relieved when the oncoming coachmen spotted his driver and swerved to miss the man. The carriage didn’t slow, however, but continued past at high speed.
“Wasn’t that—?” Langley began.
Daniel heard Richard’s grim, “Yes” to the unfinished question, but hadn’t needed it. He too had recognized the three faces pressed to the window as the coach had sailed past. He shook his head as the Radnor carriage rode out of sight around the next bend. It had been Suzette, Christiana, and Lisa, all gaping out the window at them.
“I did tell you they would not take our leaving sitting down,” Langley pointed out, sounding amused.
“You didn’t say they would follow,” Daniel said dryly.
Langley laughed