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Crimes Against the Crown
Wendy Bayne
Austin Macauley Publishers
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About The Author
Dedication
Copyright Information ©
Acknowledgement
Chapter 1The Abbey, Northumberland, England: April 1827
Chapter 2Secrets
Chapter 3Family
Chapter 4Farewell to the Abbey
Chapter 5London: Revenge
Chapter 6The Garden Gate
Chapter 7Problems Galore
Chapter 8The Clarkes
Chapter 9Mademoiselle and Samuel
Chapter 10Emilie
Chapter 11Not Quite a Gentleman?
Chapter 12Confrontation
Chapter 13September 1827: The Visit
Chapter 14The General
Chapter 15Best Wishes to All
Chapter 16Call to Arms
Chapter 17Fight or Flight
Chapter 18Taking a Stand
Chapter 19Help Arrives
Chapter 20And They Come
Chapter 21London: December 1827
Chapter 22Paris: April 1830
Chapter 23It’s All in the Eyes
Chapter 24Deadly Dinner
Chapter 25Shadows
Chapter 26Secrets Revealed
Chapter 27The Embassy Interviews
Chapter 28A Picnic
Chapter 29Autumn 1831, France: Lost and Found
Chapter 30Reunion
Chapter 31Rescue
Chapter 32Negotiations
Chapter 33Loose Ends and Going Our Separate Ways
Chapter 34England: October 1830
Chapter 35Troubled Minds
Chapter 36Actions and Consequences
Chapter 37Cornwall
Chapter 38The Journey with Gypsies
Chapter 39Surprises
Chapter 40Return to London
Chapter 41November 1830
Chapter 42A Knife to the Back
Chapter 43The Great Strategy
Chapter 44Secrets, Bequest and Travel
Chapter 45November 25, 1830
Chapter 46The Guests
Chapter 47Preparation
Chapter 48Prisoners and Victims
Chapter 49A Wedding and a Funeral
About The Author
Wendy Bayne lives in Ontario, Canada, with her husband and four sons. She had been a registered nurse until retiring a few years ago. A passionate reader, she turned to a lifelong desire to write historical fiction with a twist. When not writing, you’ll find Wendy most often curled up with a good book or on a walk with her husband wandering about the city, enjoying the sights and sounds along the Grand River.
Dedication
I lovingly dedicate this book to my husband, Charles, and our sons, David, Matthew, Eric and Izaak, for their constant support and love, and for their help in making my dream come true.
Copyright Information ©
Wendy Bayne (2020)
The right of Wendy Bayne to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528929462 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528929479 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781528965880 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgement
A special thank you to my sons, David, Matthew, Eric and Izaak who supported and encouraged my efforts. To my husband, Charles, who read this book multiple times and loved it more each time. Special thanks to Eric, who wasn’t afraid to criticise my work and who wouldn’t let me give up.
And a heart felt thank you to Austin Macauley for taking a chance on me and for all their guidance.
Chapter 1
The Abbey, Northumberland, England: April 1827
My name is Clarissa Hughes, but I’m known to the people who care about me as Lissa. I am the natural daughter of General Sir Richard Hughes’ deceased second wife, Charlotte the whore. At least that’s how my mother was referred to in the private conversations, to which I was not usually privy. Our home is known as the Abbey where I live with my brother Samuel and my sister Irene, but it’s more lovingly referred to by Samuel as ‘that pile of stones on the edge of nowhere’.
Since my birth the General has taken little or no interest in either my education or welfare. His horses, brandy and my brother Samuel have been the sum of his interests in life, or so it seemed. Though I was never exactly sure of how he felt about Samuel.
Samuel has always been the handsome knight errant in my life, coming and going as he pleases, which isn’t often, yet he always has time for me when he’s home. Then there’s my beautiful sister Irene who on the surface might appear to be meek and mild but underneath is an exceptionally strong and intelligent woman. I adore them both, as do the staff, our tenants and the villagers. Between the two of them they have been my protectors and the only family that care about me.
My place in our family is somewhat less exalted than Samuel or even Irene’s, who the General treats no better than a servant. But at sixteen years of age there was little that was expected of me except to behave like a lady and stay out of the General’s sight. I only wish that I had had some warning or an inkling that my life was about to change and that what I had taken for granted all my life was a lie.
The change came the evening Irene suddenly announced that she was marrying Samuel’s best friend Colin Turner. It was a shock to everyone but Samuel. It was so precipitous that I assumed she must be marrying Colin to escape the General and the bleakness of our ancestral home. However, I was soon to discover that it was a love match and not one of convenience. I would find that between them there was a genuine and passionate affection. What had appeared to be a whirlwind courtship to me was in fact a love affair of long standing; that had survived many years of separation.
Irene had for all intents and purposes been a mother to me since the moment of my birth. Even though she had been only seventeen years of age at the time, it was widely known but rarely spoken of that I was the natural child of the General’s second wife, a by-product of a drunken indiscretion during a school holiday, when Samuel and his friends had descended on the Abbey with only Irene and the General’s young, bored second wife, Charlotte, in residence. The General himself was on the battlefield in France at the time of my conception and was still there at the time of my birth. So, it was to everyone’s relief that my mother died as I came into the world. Leaving Irene to care for me. But rather than resentful or ashamed she and Samuel treated me as if I was in fact one of the family.
From an early age, my colouring and stature screamed that I was not a Hughes. I was not tall, but I was much taller than any other female member of the Hughes family had ever been. My unruly chestnut hair, chocolate brown eyes and alabaster
skin were not to be found anywhere in the ancestral portraits. The Hughes ladies were always blonde and petite with a peaches and cream complexion and either blue or sea green eyes such as Irene. Thankfully I was not a morose or sullen child and most people that knew me considered me a blessing for having brought laughter and liveliness back to the Abbey.
What the rest of the Hughes relations thought of me or my birth was unknown to me. For the most part, they kept their distance, the General being a taciturn and unwelcoming sort. Even then I had still heard the word bastard used more than once by visitors and relations. Yet the General had acknowledged me as his daughter so therefore I was legally his child. Fortunately for me I had not laid eyes on him until he returned to England from India ten years after my birth, by then my essential character had already been formed and he could not mould me nor destroy me.
He had been sent home to convalesce after being wounded in an uprising in India. But despite his injury and his age, he was still an impressive figure and Samuel was the image of him with the same tall, lean, muscular physique, stormy blue eyes and a wide, generous mouth. That was where the resemblance stopped. Samuel was forever smiling and laughing while the General was cold and distant.
I had never corresponded with the General at any time no matter where he was stationed. Though I had been told that he received regular reports about me from both Samuel and Irene. Yet never in all those years did he come home on leave. When he finally did arrive, I was immediately banished to the upper floors, garden and the moors.
As I understood it the General had only three objectives for me. One was that despite my origins I would not sully the name of Hughes, second that I was to be raised as a lady and third he was to see me as little as possible. How all this should be accomplished was left to my sister.
Irene had been responsible for me since my birth and as far as I could see she had no hopes for her own future. The only exceptions to date had been a biannual holiday to Cornwall to visit friends and two or three trips a year to London to visit our Aunt, Lady Mary Alford.
The General treated his children much as he would any of his troops, with disdain, and he expected to be obeyed without question. My quarters as he called them were inspected monthly and every evening I was to stand before him in the drawing room and give a brief account of my day. On those occasions, he never looked directly at me nor did he ever ask me any questions. After my daily reports, I was dismissed to take supper in my room alone. There was no affection between us nor was there any expectation of it on either side.
The Abbey is situated on the edge of the Northumberland moors, my playground; they could be ethereal and tranquil when the heather was in bloom or threatening and frightful when the weather turned wild. Being sparsely populate I was often without the benefit of playmates of my own age or social standing. So, I learned to keep myself amused by developing a talent for eavesdropping and was amazed by what I could learn just by lurking at keyholes, partially opened doors and windows. My advantage was that the inmates of the Abbey still considered me a child so no one paid any attention to me hanging about, plus the servants are incorrigible gossips and therefore a major source of information. So, eavesdropping became my preferred method for finding out what Irene or Samuel wouldn’t share. That’s also how I knew so much about the inner workings of the family and household. But not as much as I thought I did.
To my knowledge, the General never talked about me to anyone except Irene to issue the occasional order and he never spoke to me directly. That continued to be true until the night that Irene announced her intent to marry Colin Turner.
I had not heard Colin’s name mentioned since the day the General had returned home from India. Up until then Colin had been a frequent and welcomed guest at the Abbey. He had brought laughter to us all and presents for me and Irene from London and elsewhere. He taught me to ride astride like a man and to jump fences. He even promised that one day he would teach me how to use a pistol. But when the General returned home, his visits abruptly ceased. The Abbey suddenly became a dreary hulk sitting on the edge of the moors. After that Irene rarely smiled and Samuel’s visits became fewer and shorter. It was as if all the happiness had been sucked out of our world.
It was spring when Samuel had come home on one of his rare visits that Irene blurted out her intention to marry Colin. I had just finished delivering my evening report to the General and was walking towards the door to return to my room as I had done on hundreds of previous evenings, when Irene called to me, “Lissa, please stay.”
I spun around, startled by her request, to find that her hands were clenched into fists at her sides. Her face was composed but she was not looking at me, her entire focus was on the General. Samuel had taken up a position behind her with his hands on her shoulders as if to support her. Then in a very calm, determined voice, “Father, I am going to marry Colin Turner and Clarissa will be coming to live with us.”
The silence that ensued was painful. The General was struck speechless; though he appeared to be trying to speak. His mouth opened and closed like a codfish, but no words escaped. He turned his head and looked right at me. I was riveted to the spot but could feel my knees shaking from the sheer coldness of his gaze as he sneered at me. It was terrifying to see that kind of hatred on his face and in his eyes. I was used to his indifference, but this was like nothing I had ever seen before. He raised his hand pointing at the door and in what must have been his best battlefield voice shouted, “OUT NOW!” I glanced at Irene and when she nodded, I fled, banging the door open against the wall and racing across the hall like the hounds of hell were after me. Part of me still wanted to hear what would happen next, but I felt compelled to flee since I could still feel those icy cold eyes locked onto my back following me up the staircase.
I raced to my room, kicked off my slippers and threw myself onto my bed, burying my head under the pillows. I half expected the walls to shake with his fury, but no other sounds reached me.
It seemed like it was hours before there was a gentle knock on my door and Irene came in. She gracefully seated herself on one of the damask covered chairs by the fire and motioned for me sit with her. I admit that I feared the news that she brought, would Irene and I to be sent away to some remote location shut away from the world? I was often prone to such flights of fancy when I was afraid. This, however, was real not some flight of fancy. I was painfully aware that I was trembling while moving from my bed to the hearth to take the seat across from her. I pulled my legs up into the chair, wrapping my arms around my knees, so I could hide behind them if the news was bad.
To my surprise Irene looked very calm, even serene, she smiled shyly looking down at her unadorned hands that were clasped lightly in her lap. Then she reached into the pocket of her gown pulling out the most beautiful ring. It was ancient looking made of gold with darkened Celtic knots on either side of a square cut azure stone. She placed the ring on her finger and smiled as it caught the light from the fire and the stone’s depths glowed.
Looking up at me and composing her features, she said, “Lissa, as you heard me say downstairs, I am to be married to Mr Turner. The wedding will take place from our…his home in London. There is still much that needs to be done so I will need your assistance.” She took a deep breath, fingering and twisting the ring as if to assure herself that it was real, then she continued, “You, Samuel and I will be leaving for London the day after tomorrow, so I hope that I may count on your help and support.” She smiled then moved forward sitting on the very edge of her chair. “As my dowry, Father has agreed to allow you to live with Colin and me.” She watched me for a response, but I was frozen, and tongue-tied, so she took a deep breath and resumed. “You will not be coming back to the Abbey.” She paused once again before saying, “…at least not as long as Father lives.”
I was thrilled, scared and bewildered all at the same time, I wrapped my arms around my waist, curling into a protective ball, but I finally found my voice, “What do you mean?” I ask
ed.
She tried not to smile. “What do you refer to? My marriage, your coming to live with us or not coming back to the Abbey?”
I put my legs down to stare at my stocking feet. She laughed softly, and it sounded like the wind chimes that hung in the orchard.
I gazed up at her to see that she was genuinely perplexed by my question and yet I hardly knew what I meant. I licked my lips and said, “Well, all of it?” then I slid off my chair onto the floor to sit by her side, leaning my head on her knee as I had done so often when I was little.
She touched my hair lightly and sighed, it was not a despondent sound but rather it was peaceful. “Oh, Lissa it’s a long a story. I’m not sure how much I should tell you, without Colin’s approval. This much I will tell you is that I have loved him since I first laid eyes on him. Our first kiss was one of the most complete and perfect moments of my life.” She continued to play with the ring on her finger, turning it around and around as she was lost in thought. Biting her lip, she focused her eyes on the fire as if she could see that idyllic day reborn in its flames. “Colin had promised me when you were just a baby that we would be together when he made his fortune.”