A flurry of footsteps could be heard in the hall, ending at the door to the parlor. “Miss Nora, Miss Nora! Someone has just hurled a stone through the kitchen window!” Mrs. Simpkins stood in the doorway, fanning herself and holding a wrapped stone in her outstretched hand while clutching her chest with the other. “I was standing with me back to the window, readying the biscuits fer the oven when this crashed in behind me.” She fanned her face with her hands. “Oh, me word! I can barely catch me breath.” The visibly pale housekeeper/cook slid into the striped chair near the parlor door, furiously fanning herself.
Nora passed the stone to Colin, who at once unwrapped it. “I have employed a Runner. He should have been at the back of the house, watching. I cannot imagine this happening without him seeing it.” He stretched out the crumpled paper. The smudged, wrinkled sheet of vellum held a scribbled penciled message.
Your children are in danger.
“Who do you think left this?” she asked, after reading the note.
“The handwriting looks familiar.” He stared at the paper in her hands. “Would you mind if I took this with me? I would like to compare this to something.”
Nora assented, and Colin folded the note and stuffed it in his waistcoat pocket. “This concerns me. I had hired a Runner who should have taken up his post. He was to have taken over earlier, from the two footmen. I had hoped he would provide more experienced protection.”
Mrs. Simpkins piped in from behind them. “A tall, red-headed man came shortly after ye left and said he ’ad been hired to watch over the orphanage. I saw him head towards the stables.”
“Did he give a name?” Colin asked.
“Let me think. I ’ad been helping set up the new boys’ room. Mr. Woods and Mr. Marsh finished the room today, you know. The boys, they ’ave a nice new place to sleep…”
“Mrs. Simpkins…” Nora interrupted this prattle without apology. “Did the man give a name?”
“Ah, yes, begging yer pardon, miss. I was just so excited about the new room fer the boys. Let me think. It was a cooking word… give me a minute. I cannot think properly when I get flustered.” Her voice cracked as she struggled to recall. Suddenly, she broke into a smile. “Peeling… Mr. John Peeling. I remember, ’cause ’tis an easy name to recall, since I peel carrots and potatoes and what not,” she announced proudly.
Nora bit her lip to hide a giggle. It would hurt the woman’s feelings, and she would never consciously do that. In Nora’s estimation the cook could run circles around two women half her age. “Thank you, Mrs. Simpkins. I never doubted you would remember the name.”
“Thank ye, Miss Nora. If ye don’t mind, I need to see to the evenin’ meal and the broken window. ’Tis getting cooler at night and it needs covering. In case ye are in need of her, Mary is upstairs getting the children readied for the evening. I will ask Mr. Marsh to help me.” She curtsied and hurried from the room towards the kitchen.
Nora gave a soft shrug. “It seems we never run out of excitement in this house, Colin.”
“Yes, I can see that,” he concurred.
“The men have added shelving and storage in several of the rooms during the week. They completed Mrs. Simpkins’ kitchen first, and she is quite ready to jump over the moon with it,” Nora explained. “I am sure she is most upset to see her window broken. According to her, the kitchen was near perfect.”
“Be that as it may, if Peeling was doing the job I hired him to do, he would have seen whoever threw this stone and broke the kitchen window. I need to find him.” Colin stood there for a moment, pinching the top of his nose. “Something seems very wrong.” He turned to Nora. “Would you mind if I asked Woods to help me? We need to make sure the house is secure.”
Nora nodded. “Not at all, Colin. Shall Marsh assist, as well?”
“I think Woods and I can cover the back. I would feel better if Marsh remained inside with you and the children.”
She pulled a cord in the corner of the room. “Grandmama had this installed. I tried to insist it was unnecessary. Perhaps she was right, though.” A moment later, Woods poked his head into the room.
“Did you call for me, Miss Mason?”
“Yes,” she responded. “Would you accompany Lord Shefford outside and help secure the perimeter?”
“Certainly, ma’am. I would be happy to do so.”
“Good. Come along with me,” Colin interjected.
Nora watched the two men leave, feeling oddly safe even after having her window broken with a stone. It was Shefford’s presence. Other than her father and grandfather, she knew of no other man who made her feel wanted until Lord Shefford.
* * *
“Do you have a sense for what looks normal out here, Woods?” Colin asked.
“Yes, my lord. The footmen you sent to watch the building suggested that I should not only learn the outside of the building but also the interior. They left this afternoon, shortly after showing Mr. Peeling around the orphanage. Come to think about it, I have not seen him in the last hour,” the footman said gravely.
“I am regretting having allowed them to leave,” Colin muttered, mostly to himself.
The area behind the building had vastly improved under Marsh’s attentions. Rose bushes provided an additional thorny barrier to the fence on two sides. A vegetable garden was being tilled on the right, marked off with a small, white picket fence. To the far left, a stable large enough to house a carriage and a horse or two stood next to gated access to the cows and chickens they kept in the mews for the daily dairy needs. Behind the stable, they had not cleared an older garden. Rogue bushes stood at the sides
