The Fencing Master's Daughter

by Giselle Marks

  The new agent employed by Mr. Gladwin seemed to know his business and had inspected the properties included in the bequest. A few repairs were authorised and Edward decided which properties would be sold when their leases ran out, although the tenants would be offered first refusal and notified of the earl’s intentions. It was decided to lease Perriswood with the intention the house and lands should become the property of their eldest son, should they have one, when he reached his majority; or Sophia’s eldest boy if Edward and Madelaine were not blessed with children.

  Edward and Madelaine examined the furnishings of Perriswood carefully, choosing a few pieces and pictures they would keep as mementos of Lord Armstrong and deciding the rest could remain until it was decided whether the new tenant would bring his own furnishings or not. The silver and Lord Armstrong’s collection of Meissen porcelain would be sold. Julian found a number of rare Greek texts in the Library, as Lord Armstrong had been a scholar in his youth, which Edward told Julian he could keep, but the rest of the Library would be sold. There was an excellent pianoforte which Edward directed should be transported to the Dower house at Chalcombe Manor.

  The home farm was already tenanted by the neighbouring farmer and he was offered a longer lease as the land seemed to be in good heart and well managed. They stayed several days while Edward made his decisions about the disposition of the properties. The property of Seacliff was one of the last to be visited and it appeared to be as described, unoccupied, isolated with beautiful views of a secluded beach and the path from the sea well-worn as if trod by many feet. As it was the furthest from Perriswood it had been decided the earl’s party would stay overnight at the largest inn in the village of Westfield. Julian would remain at Perriswood to supervise packing of the items to be kept and those to be sold.

  Chapter Twenty-four – Enlèvement

  Madelaine retired early as she was tired after all the travelling around. She slept soundly but woke early. She washed and dressed silently leaving her maid to sleep on. She put on her redingote and bonnet and tiptoed from the room. She felt like stretching her legs with a walk as she had been confined in a carriage for days. Madelaine slipped out of the inn, having discovered from the inn-keeper’s wife that my lord had ordered breakfast for nine o’clock. Gelert, who had been sleeping in their carriage, set up a bark and she let him out to join her. He gambled like a puppy around her, before settling down to follow at her heels.

  Her thoughts were of her wedding which had been set for the first day of May and she dwelt on what would follow it. Madelaine had been finding it hard to resist succumbing to Edward’s desires. However after his behaviour when she told him the truth, she felt making him wait until they were decently wed was a fair punishment for his sins. She walked past the last house in the street and headed for the sea. The road narrowed as the hedgerows needed cutting back. A small house or large cottage was set beside the road and she noticed that although it was rather dilapidated there was smoke coming from one of the chimneys.

  The road split and a lane turned down towards a path leading to the beach. Madelaine headed in that direction and stooped to sniff some early briar roses which grew in the hedge. She was just about to turn back when Gelert began to growl and as she turned to discover what had disturbed him something thick and heavy was flung over her head and she felt a sharp blow to the back of her head.

  Edward woke late. He hurried Plovett in dressing and shaving him and then asked him to see if Madelaine was ready. Her maid stated Madelaine was not there and her redingote and bonnet were missing. Edward went downstairs and enquired as to Madelaine’s whereabouts and was informed she had gone for a walk with her monster of a dog. So Edward expected her return for breakfast imminently.

  He ordered breakfast delayed and sent Clarke and Brown, his two outriders to search for her. They split up enquiring of the villagers along the way whether they had seen her. She had been sighted heading for the sea. So they followed the route she had taken. They found signs of a struggle and then found Gelert just inside the gate of the isolated house. The dog whimpered, he had blood over his mouth and a sword wound in his side and his front leg was broken as if he had been bludgeoned with a heavy club. The door to the house was wide open and there were signs of a hasty departure. The fire was still lit and the remains of a meal lay upon the table. Clarke tore up a sheet and bandaged the injured dog’s side and leg, then sent Brown running to the inn to raise the alarm.

  Edward directed search parties from the inn and the villagers joined in the hunt for Madelaine but there was little to be found. A small scrap of green cloth torn from Madelaine’s redingote was found by the briar roses, but that only told them what they already knew; she had been abducted. Riders were sent down the road past the lane to the beach and eventually descriptions were given of a small dark carriage that had been driven at speed, along the road accompanied by two riders galloping their horses. No sighting had been made of Madelaine but the curtains had been drawn within the carriage. Edward sent Charlie Griggs on horse-back to Seacliff to search out Mr. Grey’s watchers and inform them of the disaster.

  Clarke and Brown rode further down the road the carriage had taken, enquiring at the few houses they passed. The carriage had continued on down the road and not stopped. After ten miles they returned to the inn where Charlie Griggs had returned in the company of a young man who wore the clothes of a country labourer, who named himself Paul Green. He informed Edward he had been in charge of Mr. Grey’s watchers. Together they examined the isolated house where Gelert had been found, but discovered nothing to indicate who had been staying there. There were four dirty plates which correlated with the reports of the sighting of a carriage and two riders. The dog had been carried to the inn and his injured front paw had been splinted. The Inn-keeper’s wife generously fed Gelert herself, calling him a hero and even risking stroking his head. Gelert licked her fingers, ate the meat scraps and then whined.

  The man known as Paul Green had brought another three men with him.

  “My lord this is Mr Paul Green who is in charge of Mr Grey’s watchers down this piece of coast. Mr Green, my lord Edward Charrington, Earl of Chalcombe,” Charlie Griggs had said to introduce them.

  “Pleased to meet you, Green. Charlie has told you of my fiancée’s abduction?” Edward asked curtly. “Charlie, have my carriage harnessed at once.”

  “Yes, I’m terribly sorry, my lord. We will do everything we can to rescue her,” Green stalwartly declared. “What do you intend to do?”

  “Search further down the road and hope someone saw something,” Edward said as he ran his fingers through his hair and paced up and down, while the stable’s grooms rushed to harness up his horses. He tried to get out of the way but was irritated that they were taking so long. The grooms were moving as fast as they could to get the carriage ready. Charlie Griggs took up his position on the box and Timothy climbed up beside him. Distracted, Edward opened the door to board as Gelert limped to the carriage and barked until he was lifted in. Paul Green and his men joined Edward’s outriders and followed as the carriage moved out of the inn yard.

  As they reached the isolated cottage Gelert set up a howl and scrabbled at the carriage-door to be let out. Edward reluctantly had the carriage stopped and the dog limped out, his nose to the ground. He sniffed the ground around the house to the rear and to a small outhouse where horses had been recently stabled. Gelert followed the scent and then headed out an open side gate back to the road down which Madelaine had been taken. Edward persuaded the wolfhound back into the carriage and they set off down the road.

  They reached the point to which Clarke and Brown had ridden and stopped as the road forked. Gelert insisted on getting out once more and sniffing around the junction. Edward fidgeted and wished he had chosen to ride with the others. Madelaine would be content to ride back with him, if they found her. They had intended to follow the road on straight but the dog barked at them and headed off down the side road that headed away from the sea. />
  “What is that damn dog doing now?” Edward cursed at Gelert, leaning out the window as the dog limped away down the side road.

  “If the dog thinks the carriage went that way, then I believe the dog,” Charlie declared.

  “He does seem determined to go in that direction and he is very loyal to Madelaine,” Edward reluctantly agreed. “I suppose you better turn the carriage and follow him, Charlie.”

  They pulled up when they caught up with Gelert. Timothy got down from the box, to lift Gelert back into the carriage, before they continued down the road. As the dog was heaved from the roadside, Edward could see that the lane had a few small dwellings ahead.

  “Brown, Clarke!” Edward summoned his outriders. They rode back to the carriage.

  “Ask at the houses ahead, about whether they have seen the carriage and riders,” he ordered. They touched their hats and moved ahead to do his bidding. The carriage followed the riders slowly as Clarke and Brown canvassed either side of the road. The second carriage had been left at the inn with Plovett and Madelaine’s maid, together with all their luggage. The houses were placed some distance apart along the road, having a few acres each. The houses were still small, but some effort had been made to repair and brighten them.

  Edward’s carriage and outriders travelled on, covering another ten miles, the riders stopping at each of the houses along the road. The cottage dwellers confirmed that the carriage carrying Madelaine and the riders had been sighted and had passed that way. Edward sat stroking Gelert who lay at his feet. He was trying hard not to think about how Madelaine was coping. To have finally won her heart and then for her to be torn away from him it was too much for him to bear. He knew that his worrying about her served no purpose and reminded himself to stay calm. It was hard for him not to remember that Madelaine for all her energy and fencing skills was still a vulnerable woman - whom he loved more than life itself. He told himself that she would be found unhurt.

  The road then bent towards the sea and merged with the larger coast road. The road soon reached another village with around twenty rundown fishermen’s cottages overlooking a small sheltered bay in which a couple of smacks were beached and three more small boats were tied up beside a stone breakwater. The searchers stopped in the village and made enquiries at every door. Only men opened to their knocks, taking some time to respond, although in such small cottages, their knocking must have been heard. Some did not open, although their chimneys poured out smoke from fires that they presumed were untended.

  Reaching the last but one cottage, an unshaven and grizzled man came to the door after Brown had beat upon it for some time. He had one single gold earring and his arms where his filthy shirt was rolled back bore faded blue tattoos, which clearly indicated that he was a sailor. The earring was payment for a grave, should his body be washed up elsewhere and the tattoos were an aid to description if a copse should be washed ashore.

  Brown stepped back as the man moved forward aggressively, shutting the door firmly behind him.

  “Whadcha want?” the sailor growled, hawked and spat a wadge of tobacco, only just missing Brown’s boot.

  “We are trying to find where a carriage accompanied by two riders, has got to. Has it passed through your village?” Brown asked politely.

  “Ain’t been nothing on this road all morning, ‘cept a hauler’s wagon,” the man said and hawked again, but Brown stepped back quickly to avoid the spittle. The final house did not open and Brown and Clarke returned to the earl’s carriage to report their failure.

  “Those that answered deny any knowledge of a carriage and riders. It’s strange that there are no children or women about. I would have thought the men would have sent their women to the door, in a place like this,” Clarke stated.

  “Surly bunch and rude with it,” Brown muttered. “Some of them are watching us to be sure we leave the village,” he added quietly to the earl.

  The village stank of stale fish offal and other more offensive smells and although Gelert had been allowed out of the carriage and sniffed around he could find no further trail. No carriage was in sight and although a couple of the cottages had carts covered by some oiled canvas and small lean-tos which each housed a single horse of no great quality, no carriage horses were visible either. There were a couple of smallish boat sheds at the top of the beach, but they were closed and their contents were not visible.

  “I am surprised that no-one here has seen anything,” Edward, said to his men, frustrated not to have discovered where Madelaine had been taken to. “We will continue on down the coast road and hope that someone has seen them,” he ordered the search party to set off once more. They travelled another half mile before the first cottage, but the occupants had not seen the carriage and riders. They carried on for another few miles, but none of the inhabitants of the road had seen the kidnappers. Paul Green rode up to the carriage door when they were well past the fishing village and Edward asked Charlie to halt.

  “That noisome fishing village we stopped at is a well-known nest of smugglers. I was informed by the local Riding Officer, that most of their income comes from ‘the Gentlemen,” Green enlightened the Earl. He continued on, “you can’t blame the dog for losing the scent in all that ordure. I’d lay odds your lady is being held somewhere in the village. They’ll probably try to leave on a boat tonight. The bay looks deep, but there is a shelf of rocks which will stop a boat leaving or coming in until close to high tide and tonight’s tide will be just after midnight. We have no hope in searching every building for her, without a lot more men because the whole village will be in on the conspiracy.”

  “But how do you suggest we get her back then?” the earl asked, desperately worried about Madelaine.

  “I recommend we call off the search and regroup. I’ll contact Lieutenant Willsbury, the local Riding Officer. Then together we can lay in wait tonight and perhaps we will finally catch a nest of rodents and maybe even a ferret.”

  Edward tried to appear calm, as he returned to the inn to organise their plan of attack, but Gelert placed his head in his lap and looked sorrowfully up at the earl.

  “You and me both, boy, we both want Madelaine back and I intend to get her back if I have to kill every surly wretch in that stinking village,” he said with some determination and Gelert replied with a sorrowful woof, as if he understood every word.

  Edward worried about Madelaine as he returned to the inn to organise their plan of attack. He loathed the idea of her being in the hands of the depraved ferret and the sadistic Sir Robert. The smugglers were also clearly disloyal, violent men. He could not imagine how frightened she would be, finding she was at their mercy. The earl’s party packed their carriages and drove ostentatiously past the fishing village, but stopped at the home of the local magistrate, Sir Andrew Quentin, who had been trying to clear out the smuggling, together with Lieutenant Willsbury and his men.

  Sir Quentin welcomed Edward and his attendants and fed them dinner. Plovett and Madelaine’s maid would stay at the house while the rescue took place. It was arranged that Edward and his protectors together with Paul Green’s men and the men in Willsbury’s command would set off at eight o’clock on horse-back to a farm which overlooked the other side of the bay. There they would leave the horses in the farmer’s barn with his knowledge and permission. They would then have to climb down a path to the sea without raising any alarm in the village, cross the beach which was traversable except at the highest tides of the year and conceal themselves beyond the stone breakwater.

  Lieutenant Willsbury together with twenty of his men arrived as promised; Paul Green came shortly after bringing ten of his own. At eight they set off together, leaving their horses with the farmer. They walked to the edge of the cliff and crouched down until their eyes became accustomed to the dim light. Stars were out but the moon was not visible. Looking down Edward could see the ocean was higher up the shore and the two beached boats now bobbed in a few feet of water. No ship was in sight and the only lights visib
le seeped through curtained windows in the smugglers’ cottages above the beach. They crept down the path slowly in pairs making little noise.

  When each pair reached the bottom of the path they hunkered down behind some fallen rocks and waited for the rest of the men. No sound or movement was heard or observed by the breakwater and they set off in groups of five across the top of the beach, keeping within the shadows of the cliff. They reached the breakwater and silently helped each other across it without being discovered. It was nearly eleven and no one was in sight. They sat on the damp sand to wait. Midnight came and there was no movement from the cottages or on the shore. Edward wondered despondently if they were anywhere near where Madelaine was being held. Then a small sliver of moon came from behind a cloud and a ship came around the headland and tacked towards the bay. As the ship sailed closer to the shore, two men appeared. They were warmly wrapped against the night’s cold and bearing lanterns. They clattered down the breakwater to where the fishing boats were moored talking quietly to each other.

  As the ship neared it could be seen it was a two-masted schooner but had only dark lanterns lit. The men on the breakwater swung their lanterns back and forth signalling the ship. A jolly boat was let down from the ship and rowed towards the breakwater. Figures emerged from one of the cottages and as they made their way down to the shore it could be seen two of them were carrying a large, wriggling bundle. The jolly boat was nearing the breakwater and the two men were preparing to assist with tying it up. The new group made their way down the breakwater; Edward’s companions could now count their numbers as eight and moved to intercept them. They had decided not to use pistols, because of the risk of Madelaine getting hit in the dark.