Chapter 12: Doppelganger

Vincent and Ulani were going to stay at the Way Station that was half a day’s ride from the Terville’s Manor in Bavindor.

They had left later than they planned from the one they had stayed in the night before. Vincent blamed it on Ulani, but she told him if he weren’t such a randy little cock, they would have left on time. Vincent countered that it wasn’t his fault that the sight of her naked had him worked up in mere moments.

Ulani had to chuckle because she had to admit she had enticed him a little. She seemed a lot hornier this time around than when she was carrying Victor. She suspected the fact that Vincent could lavish his attention on her was the main reason why. She couldn’t seem to get enough of him and visa-versa.

She often had to look at him in wonderment. She had always found him fascinating, and he hadn’t lost the naughty look that he had perfected to sweep women off their feet, but since she had been with him, he had only turned that look on her. He was polite and charming to the females of every Earl and Barron’s house they had stayed in but had done nothing that she could detect to try to entice them.

He’d even insisted that she was to share his bed every night and had joked it was so that he didn’t get accosted. They had both giggled when in one of his Barron’s homes a third went to crawl into bed with them one night. The lady of the house was most put out when she realised Ulani was in bed with Vincent, even though she had given them separate rooms.

The fact that they were both naked and Vincent was busily claiming his husbandly rights was not lost on the woman. They both agreed afterwards that it was just as well that they were leaving in the morning. Vincent had made sure he properly thanked Ulani for protecting his virtue. Although he did have to wait until she got over her fit of the giggles first.

On this day, the sky was ladened with dark clouds, and the small party agreed that it might well snow before they got to the Manor in Bavindor. Vincent had elected to ride. Andy, Nanny Dee, Victor and Ulani were in the coach. The four constables rode two a side of the coach and Vincent had ridden out a little ahead to give his horse a run.

He had slowed his horse to a walk to cool down and to give the coach time to catch up with him when he got that prickly feeling he got when he was in danger. He’d just passed over a small brook that was heavily treed on either side. As his horse ambled up the small rise on the other side, he looked back, to see the coach come down the other side and disappear under the trees that shaded the brook.

He turned the horse into the trees and dismounted. He pulled his pistol and headed parallel to the road in the underbrush. He hoped he was wrong and didn’t get shot by his own guards. He was diverting around a large old oak when he heard the shout for the carriage to stand to and then the first shot and then a grunt of pain.

Swearing, he realised the shot had come from the other side of the road. He was just about to divert onto the road when he saw movement. As soon as he saw the pistol line-up on one of his men, he fired. The man grunted and fell sideways to lie beside the tree the man had been trying to hide behind.

He heard some more shouts, another couple of shots and sounds of upset horses milling around. Vincent moved cautiously closer to the man that he had shot and looked at the scene that was unfolding before him. Caleb, one of his new men and two of the highwaymen, were lying on the ground on this side of the coach. Kyle was grappling with a fourth robber on the ground.

He was surprised when he heard a shot being fired from inside the coach. Two horses suddenly burst from the other side of the road on horses and headed in the direction they had come from. He heard a man swear and then the pistol reported again with another weapon was being discharged at the same time.

“Ulani?” Vincent called out with worry.

He grinned when he heard her unladylike reply of, “Shit, the bastards got away.”

Hardy called out cheerfully from the other side of the coach, “We have them routed, Vincent.”

When Vincent glanced at the two men on the ground that had been grappling, he had to grin. Kyle had the robber laid out on his back on the ground. Kyle grinned at him in return and said, “Knew we’d get to have some fun eventually.”

Andy opened the door to the coach and spying Vincent, he signalled that they were all okay. Vincent was surprised that Andy had a pistol in his hand. Druids were known to avoid the taking of life. Andy chuckled at Vincent’s surprise. “Druid Feather will tan my hide if I let Ulani or Victor get hurt,” he explained.

Ulani climbed down out of the coach. Vincent watched as she checked her pistol. She grumbled, “I’m a better shot with a long-barrel.”

Vincent replied, “I’m sure you are, dearest of my heart.” He then proceeded to kiss her and hug her. He was relieved that she wasn’t hurt. Andy helped Dee and Victor get off the floor of the coach, and they got out too. Andy went to check on Caleb. Caleb grunted when Andy poked his ribs.

Stan and Hardy came from the other side dragging the fourth body. “So, who shot who first?” Vincent asked his men.

Kyle said and pointed to one of the dead men, “That idiot shot at the driver and then yelled at us to stand-to. Caleb shot him, but then that other bloke shot Caleb. I managed to take him out. Stan got this bloke, and then we were shooting at the two that were in the trees. They spooked and ran and got to their horses.”

“Ulani took a shot at them as they rode out of the forest, but I think she missed, as neither fell off. I then tackled his young fellow when he went to ride off from your side. I don’t know why they didn’t just take us four out straight away. It was a bit sloppy. I think the big guy jumped the gun when he heard the shot from your side of the road.”

“Sorry, that was probably my fault,” Vincent replied. “My man was lining up on Caleb, so I took him out of the equation.”

Andy had Caleb sit up, while he helped him remove his coat so he could look at the wound under his arm better. Caleb replied, “I’m not sorry that you got him first. But why were they gunning for me?”

Hardy snickered, “Because you’re the doppelganger.”

“What?” Caleb exploded.

Vincent and Ulani both looked at poor Caleb.

When he had first joined them, he had been sporting a thin moustache and a thin, scraggly beard that the other men gave him grief about. He’d always worn a very sad floppy hat over his face and a ratty-old cloak. He’d been quiet, but Victor seemed to like him, so they hired him when Hardy recommended him.

Before they left the last town, the other constables had convinced him to shave and get a haircut. They had even presented him with a new hat and a good quality riding cloak. Vincent hadn’t really taken much notice of him when they had ridden out this morning as Caleb was guarding the rear.

Vincent couldn’t help himself, and he knelt down in front of Caleb and placed his hand on his temple as he looked into the younger man’s eyes. He then raised a brow and looked at Hardy, “That wasn’t very nice setting my brother up as my stand-in without telling us.”

Caleb looked even whiter when Vincent’s words penetrated his brain. Vincent’s soft smile reassured him that he wasn’t angry with him. Caleb had always wondered if he was a by-blow of one of the Arrondale brothers from what people had said about his looks.

However, his mother never told him who his real father was before she died of a fever when he was fifteen. His mother’s husband had been a constable and had died when Caleb was ten. He had been a man that Caleb had respected, and he thought to emulate him.

Caleb had managed to be accepted by the Constabulary in Arron Hills a year later and had been happily working for them for three years. When he had been asked by Stan to go on this assignment, he had jumped at the chance. He looked into Vincent’s eyes, and he knew that the man was his older brother.

He’d found something about Vincent and even Victor had pulled at him from the moment he’d laid eyes on them both. He guessed it was blood calling blood and he was both delighted and frightened by what this revelation would mean to him.

“I’m sorry I didn’t see the resemblance sooner, Caleb. The eyes are a dead giveaway, and the way Victor goes to you should have told me,” Vincent said as he and Andy lifted Caleb’s shirt so they could get a better look at the wound.

The bullet had sliced into the flesh along Caleb’s ribs just below his left armpit, and it had been bleeding freely. It was a nasty gash as the bullet had ripped his flesh open in a long furrow between two ribs. At least the bullet hadn’t been lodged in him.

Vincent didn’t think his healing strength was that great, but he wanted to alleviate his brother’s pain and at least stop the bleeding. He placed his hand on the wound that Andy had exposed. Both men were surprised when Victor approached them and placed his hand over his fathers.

“Poor, Uncle Caleb,” Victor said in concern. Vincent and Caleb both felt a ripple of heat over the wound. Victor removed his hand from his father’s and then Vincent removed his from the wound. It was now scabbed over and looked on the mend. All three men looked at Victor in shock. Victor smiled and said, “Can we go see the cousins now?”

Vincent hugged his son, “Soon son, we have to clean up the mess these bad men made first.”

“Okay,” the boy replied. He then tipped his head when he saw movement near a bush on the side of the road, and he wandered over to investigate what was under it. Andy pulled Caleb’s shirt back into place and got up to see what had distracted Victor and to make sure he didn’t find something that bit, to play with. The kid sure kept him on his toes.

Vincent helped Caleb to his feet, and the two men chuckled when they realised, they stood almost eye to eye. Like Vincent, Caleb had the soft brown curly Arrondale hair that was now cut in a style similar to his. The blue eyes with gold flecks of one man, stared into their mirror images, being the other man’s eyes.

Caleb had the same broad shoulders and had the trim, muscular physic, but he hadn’t filled out as much as Vincent had, being the younger by two years and shorter by a centimetre in height. Most people would only note this if they saw them standing beside each other naked.

They both noticed that their faces were different enough to say they were brothers but not twins. Caleb’s jaw and nose weren’t as stubborn looking or as pointed as Vincent’s were and his face had a more rounded, softer look. It didn’t make him any less handsome just a little different like a younger brother should be to Caleb’s way of thinking.

“Bloody hell,” Kyle said looking at them. “See Hardy, I knew if I got him that hat and coat, they would think it was Vincent.”

“Yes, it was a good idea. However, you put my brother in harm’s way without warning either of us. I don’t want him hurt now that I’ve finally found him,” Vincent admonished the men. He then shocked Caleb even more, when he asked him, “Have you found our sister, Bess, yet?”

Vincent surmised by the young man’s expression that he hadn’t known of her existence. Vincent sighed, “No, me neither. From what I know, her name was Bess Edgeway. She was living at Earl Eddie Edgeway’s estate. He said she left two months ago.”

“Her mother, who was Eddie’s older twin sister, died from a fall from her horse a year ago. I found out that Bess was kept on as a nanny even though she was Eddie’s niece and he was being paid to look after her from a trust fund.”

“Eddie was very tight-lipped about why she left but said that since she was now seventeen, she wasn’t his ward any more. So, I guess the money to keep her has run out. I’ll just have to keep looking. I’ve been trying to find you too, but your grandfather said he didn’t know where your mother had moved to after he’d kicked her out.”

Caleb told Vincent that his mother had moved to Arron Hills when he was ten. She had gotten a job working for Detective Inspector Bolton as his families cook. The Inspector had made sure he had been sent to school, and he had worked for him as a stable hand until he could sign up.

Vincent grinned at him, “Well if you want to become a Detective, I might have to get you sent to Ty. I’m sure Paul will be delighted to train another Arrondale.”

“I’m not an Arrondale,” Caleb stuttered in shock.

“Oh, our father may not have married your mother, but you are most definitely an Arrondale by blood. Ty’s father, Henry, knew of you and Bess. I found some of his journals in a safe that old Benson had told me about last year.”

“However, the records were over ten-years-old, so that’s why I’ve been having trouble finding you two. It was part of the reason we have been visiting the shires. I had hoped that your mothers hadn’t moved too far away,” Vincent told Caleb.