Winslow's Web

by Jeanie P Johnson

  “Alden, too, thought you looked a lot like the heiress in the painting, and that’s why he kept you around. Then when James told him who you really were, Alden wondered if you might try and blackmail them. I heard James and Alden talking about all this just before the ball, and Alden said he knew that there was something unusual about you when you first came to Emerson Manor. He said you had shown him a likeness of James, and he wondered why you were so intent on finding him? He felt it was best if he kept you close at hand, and it was just lucky that I needed a seamstress.

  “I thought maybe if I sent you to the ball in disguise, that you might learn some of these things for yourself. Then Alden told James that he would take care of everything, and he was sure you would not be underfoot much longer."

  Katie felt the shock drench over her like a cold soaking in ice water. She could not believe what she was hearing. This could not be true! Only what else could she believe?

  How would Alain have known about Katie showing Alden the picture of James in her locket? Even if Alden had casually mentioned to Alain the fact that Katie had showed him the locket, he had told Katie that he didn't know who the man in the locket was. It wasn't until the day that her saddle broke, that she told him the likeness was of James Langdon.

  According to what Alain had just told her, it had to have been Alden who locked Katie in the passage. Had he sent James up to jamb the door closed? Perhaps he had known all along, who the Snow Queen was, but he just wanted to make sure before he locked her in the passage.

  Katie’s mind faltered. Why, had he kissed her then? Was it his morbid way of bidding her farewell, or just making her trust him? Katie sickeningly wondered who had been responsible for cutting her cinch, Alden or James Langdon.

  Katie's thoughts were interrupted. "I just thought I should tell you all this before you take that long trip to Windy Gates with Alden. I didn't think you would go with him since I thought you were angry with him for some reason. Then when I heard this morning that he was escorting you to Windy Gates, I felt I should warn you in case they have planned something worse to happen to you.

  “If I were you Katie, I would leave here and never come back, even though I'd hate to see you go. You've been such good company for me, and you are my cousin, but something terrible may happen to you if you stay. If it did, no one could ever prove it was no more than an accident, because all I've told you is just what I overheard. In the end it would be their word against mine.

  “At this very moment the three of them are making plans to accuse you of stealing Katherine's emeralds. Then you will be sent away to prison and Alden won't have to...do away with you. Do you understand what I am telling you, Katie?"

  Katie’s heart sank to the very depths of despair. "Yes...yes I understand," she said, trying to blink back the tears that fought to spill over her lids. It had been Alden all along and she had finally decided to trust him! How could she have been so foolish, she scolded herself.

  "Thank you Alain," Katie mumbled giving Alain a quick hug. "I wanted so much to tell you that you were my cousin, but I wasn't sure it was the right thing to do."

  "You had better hurry so you can leave before Alden suspects anything."

  Katie, stumbled away in agony and fled to the stable yard where her horse was ready for the pending journey. Unfortunately, Alden was already there waiting impatiently for her. The moment he saw the expression on her face, Katie could tell that he realized something was wrong.

  "Katie, whatever is the matter?" he insisted, holding her back as she tried to mount her horse.

  Katie turned on him. "Don't play innocent with me, Lord Emerson!" she fumed. "You know the answer to that question better than I!"

  "What on earth are you talking about?" His brows were drawn, and he started to get an exasperated look on his face as he usually did when he thought she was being unreasonable.

  "I'm talking about you and that...that impostor in there!" Katie spat at him. "Don't think I haven't figured out your little game. Thanks to Alain, I have discovered what is really going on around here!"

  "Katie, you are not making sense," Alden protested.

  "Sense! Nothing makes sense anymore," Katie snapped. She pulled the side of her cloak out of her way, preparing to mount her horse, and felt something bulky in the pocket.

  Reaching inside, her fingers touched the cold icy strands of what Katie instantly realized must be the emerald necklace. The touch of it burned her fingers and singed her very soul, as it reinforced the incredible story Alain had just related to her. She pulled the jewels from her pocket. They hung like strange glittering green icicles dangling in frozen tear drops from Katie’s finger tips.

  "Alain was right; you were trying to implicate me! You can give these precious jewels back to your future bride!" she spat, as she threw the necklace in his face. "Go ahead and marry her. It is none of my affair. Don't fear, I shall not stand in your way! So you can forget about your plans of silencing me, or sending me to prison for some trumped up accusation!"

  She started to mount her horse, but Alden stood in her way, glancing down at the necklace in his hand and then back at Katie. "You had better explain yourself Katie, what were you doing with these jewels?"

  "Jewels, what jewels? I no longer have them! You have them. They are yours to keep, along with your sordid affairs. I don't know why I ever believed you in the first place, with all your talk about being friends, and different positions making no difference. I shudder to think what other lies you would have me believe. I can’t imagine why I ever trusted you, or actually thought I loved you? Oh, I, quail at the thought of it. You can have your heiress and your Estates, and go to the Devil with them, for all I care! I want no part of it. Do you hear me, none of it!"

  Alden grabbed Katie and spun her around to face him. "You are talking insane! You...you say you love me, yet want me to go to the Devil?"

  Katie wrenched away. "You needn't worry, Lord Emerson, I wouldn't dream of interfering with your plans. You have your heiress now, whether fact or fiction, it makes no difference to me. I shall be out of your way now and you can continue with your wicked scheming. Have no fear that I would stoop to blackmail you or James Langdon. Simply because I have nothing to blackmail you with! Your own guilty conscience has caused you to believe I know where the true heiress is. I hate to disappoint you, but my mother, like I said, never mentioned Winslow Hall, or Kathrine Gail Winslow. I wish to take no part in this, but I cannot help feeling sorry for Alain. She is the one who is losing everything, not I!"

  Katie placed her foot in the stirrup and mounted Chance, as Alden stared at her in astonishment.

  "You needn't bother accompanying me to Windy Gates, your Lordship. I am safer without your services. I shall not be returning here anyway, so you are no longer responsible for my welfare. Thank you for the use of your sister’s clothes, you may have them back now, and I shall return this horse as soon as I am able to purchase another. I shall keep no reminder that you were ever once considered a friend. Goodbye, Lord Emerson, I would say it was a pleasure knowing you, but I fear that would be an exaggeration!"

  "Katie! What the devil?" Alden protested again, "I...I don't understand what brought all this on?"

  "Then perhaps you should be more careful when you make your secret plans. There are other people in this house who have ears!" Katie threw back at him, as she spurred her horse into a gallop, and then thundered around the bend of the drive heading Chance in the direction of Windy Gates.

  The tears came freely now that her anger was spent. She swiped at them with an inpatient fist. There was no fire left in her now, and no one to fling her rages at. Katie sobbed helplessly into Chance's mane as the horse gracefully carried her back towards her woodland home. She should never have left there in the first place, she kept telling herself over the many miles down the leaf-strewn road. The leaves billowed up in her wake, as Chance’s hooves disturbed them, causing a scattering of gold and orange, to fly up around her, and then slowly drift to the ro
ad again.

  The bitter memory of how Alden had looked at her when she came down the stairs in his sister's green dress, stabbed at her heart. She had thought he looked at her in admiration, but it was only because he had been so shaken at seeing her uncanny resemblance to the heiress of Winslow Hall. He saw that resemblance right away, just as he had seen it in that impostor of his. It was just bad timing that she had appeared at his doorstep when she did and presented such a threat to his plans. She remembered back at how he had tried to calm Alain, when she first got the note from Katherine. He had never seemed very disturbed about the prospects of someone claiming to be the missing heiress. Now it all seemed to fall in place, she thought.

  She tried to push all the hurt and anger out of her mind. She would have to start over again. It would not be safe staying at Windy Gates. Everyone knew she was going there. As soon as she closed up her house, she would just disappear and soon they would all forget that she ever existed. Could she forget though? She felt she never would.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  It was late afternoon by the time Katie approached her beloved cottage. She realized how simple life had been before she had decided to leave Windy Gates. She wondered how she had managed to find life interesting there at Windy Gates, when the only catastrophe that ever occurred was getting Miss Mulberry's dress mixed up with Lady Sanders gown, or using the polka-dotted pattern instead of the checks for the bodice of someone's afternoon dress.

  Now her life had taken on an unexpected twist that awakened her to the feelings of fear, mystery, deception, and...even love. She felt her life could never be as simple and unpretentious as it had been living with her mother in Windy Gates. It seemed to Katie that her future looked very bleak, worse than it had when she left Windy Gates in the first place.

  The tears in Katie’s eyes and throat had long dried, and it made her heart feel like a heavy stone in her chest. With great effort she focused on her surroundings. The leaves of the white oak tree, in the yard of her house, were quietly falling to the ground, and Katie thought how sad the tree seemed. It was losing all its splendor and would soon look bare and lonely. It vividly matched her own feelings. The splendor of her own adventure was over and she couldn't help but think how lonely she felt at that moment.

  Katie slowly dismounted Chance, and led her to the well, and hoisted up a bucket of water for a refreshing drink for the both of them. She then tied Chance there while she entered the forlorn house.

  When Katie opened the door, she expected the homey cottage to greet her with the same calm with which she had left it, but what met her eyes, caused her to gasp in astonishment, and then stabbing pain. The entire place had been turned upside down!

  Books had been flung from the shelves, drawers pulled out and their contents strewn upon the floor, sofa cushions removed, rugs turned, clothes yanked from the wardrobes. There were even objects, which had been thrown from the attic and cluttered the attic stairway. Katie could see now that a window had been broken and someone had entered there. She knew she had nothing of value to steal. Whoever had come here had been looking for something, but what?

  She strolled from room to room in disbelief, not knowing quite what to do, or even think? The house brought back sad memories of her mother's death, and happy memories of her childhood there, and now someone had come to desecrate the only things she had left to her in life.

  She realized it had not been a stranger. This was the work of someone looking for something. Was it James or Alden, she wondered? It had to be James. He was the only one who knew where Nancy Dow lived. Only what was he searching for, and worse yet, had he found it? If Katie didn't know what it was, how would she ever know it was missing? In this mess even the things she knew about would be hard to find.

  She suddenly felt angry and apprehensive. She had as much as told Alden that she knew what was going on concerning the missing heiress. What if he did not believe her when she told him that she would not stand in his way? What if they hadn’t found what it was they were looking for there at her cottage? If Alden knew that James had searched the cottage and failed to find anything, maybe his plan was to go there with Katie and trick her into showing him what it was that he wanted to see. Yet what was it, and how would she discover what it was?

  Alain had said that James knew that Nancy Dow had information about the heiress falling down, or perhaps being thrown down that well. Had she held onto some sort of proof to use at some future date, in case the need arose? Had she kept it right here at Windy Gates?

  Whatever it was, it couldn't be in the main part of the house, because Katie knew everything that was there and nothing that she remembered had anything to do with Emerson Manor or Winslow Hall.

  She had thought that by just leaving Winslow Hall behind it would all be over, but now she realized it would never be over unless she found out what it was that her mother knew about the missing heiress. As soon as she discovered what it was, she would have to leave Windy Gates and go somewhere else, maybe to London, where she could lose herself in a crowd.

  She hastened into her bedroom and quickly pulled a few dresses out of the clutter, throwing them into a carpet bag. She looked around the room sadly, thinking she would never be able to see this place again.

  Katie went into her mother's room. It was less messy because the wardrobe and drawers had been empty. She had packed all of her mother's belongings away soon after she died, and stored them in the attic, along with the things her mother had put there over the years. It suddenly dawned on Katie, that if she were to discover anything about the past, it would have to be among her mother’s things. She had gone through everything at her mother’s death, except the ones in the attic that had been packed away there years before.

  Katie climbed the attic stairs, picking up articles of clothing, books, and other bric-a-brac, and tossing them aside, as she climbed. She pushed open the narrow wooden door. The Attic was dimly lit by one window, which was practically obscured by ivy and the white oak tree, and Katie almost tripped over articles strewn on the floor before her eyes became accustomed to the dim light.

  She stopped for a moment in front of an old trunk. The top was flung open and its contents lay in a heap, half in and half out of the trunk. This was the same trunk that she had once opened as a child, hoping to find something exciting inside. Perhaps, the secret box, but before she had a chance to explore it, her mother had called her and told her not to play in the attic. There were spiders and bats up there and it was no place for little girls to be. So she had reluctantly closed the lid and returned down stars.

  Now she looked down at the heap of old-fashioned clothes at her feet. She could see that the top compartment had been removed from the trunk and bundles of letters, it must have contained, had been gone through by whoever had done this. She too looked at the letters, but could find nothing of interest. Then she noticed that a small corner of a white envelope peered out from behind the lining of the trunk lid. Eagerly, she retrieved it from its hiding place.

  She almost dropped it when she saw the name of Nancy Dow scrawled on the front, and turning it over discovered the name James Langdon, written in that same bold scrawl above the broken seal. With shaking hands, she unfolded the letter and read:

  My dear Nancy,

  I hope you won't hate me for what I have to tell you. You were so upset when I last saw you, and you begged me to stay. I didn't have the heart to tell you then, but I see that I must now, to clear up any misunderstanding that has come between us.

  You see, Nancy, I am married. My wife left me for a time, but when I learned we had a daughter, about the same age as Katie, (isn't that what you call her?) I convinced her to return to me. It was because of my flirtations toward you and my dealings with Charles, that my wife left me in the first place, so you see, I must be careful of my actions from now on. I only stopped by to see how the child was doing. If you need me for any reason, concerning Katie, please do not hesitate to call on me.

  Yours truly,Jame
s Langdon

  Katie let the paper slip from her fingers. So he had returned to his wife. It made no difference that Nancy bore him a child. Again she felt a pang of sorrow for her mother, and a little for herself. That must be the reason he feared the truth to be exposed. It was one thing to have an illegitimate daughter, and another, to be married at the time. His wife was now probably anxiously waiting for him to return with a nice generous allowance from Katherine, when all the legal procedures of turning the estate over to her were finished. Perhaps Alain could expose them before that happened.

  Katie's attention was drawn back to the trunk before her, and she slowly lifted the tumble of dresses, hats, gloves, shawls and other articles of clothing out, one by one. She tried to push the thoughts of her father out of her mind. She was going to start a new life, and must not think about all those ugly things she was discovering.

  As she looked at the collection of old dresses, she suddenly stopped as her eyes lit on a deep green gown, definitely out of another era. Katie lifted the gown from the rest of the contents of the trunk. It was made of very expensive material, yet musty with age, and Katie wondered where her mother could have gotten such a dress? It was a beautiful deep green satin, trimmed with tiny seed pearls, and a wave of sadness came over Katie as she remembered another green gown she had worn at Emerson Manor.

  She held the gown, lovingly up to her, and as she did, something fell to the floor. She looked to see what had fallen. She saw that it was a book. A diary. The name Nancy Dow was neatly inked in one corner.