I refused to think the worst, but shook my ruffles back and tried to make Barbara more comfortable. I sent Tom to find a night rail for her. We would have to tell the company downstairs, but I didn’t know how, or who was to do it. Carier and Tom left the room while I helped the maid to undress Barbara. We got her into her night rail and a nightcap and between the sheets, instead of on top of them. All her finery stripped away, Barbara appeared so much younger, more vulnerable. The maid could wash the powder out of her hair later. I kept soothing her, telling her to rest.
There was a soft knock at the door and Carier opened it to let Richard in. Relief washed over me when I saw him. He must be safe. He took Tom’s hand. “I’m so sorry. We must pray and do all we can to help.” Then he came to me.
I held up my hands to ward him off. I wanted to know for sure. “Have you had smallpox?”
His first word chilled me. “No. My mother was a friend of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and at her bidding, she had me inoculated. Gervase was left, just in case, and he caught it a few years later. So we’re both immune, one way or another.”
I’d always assumed that Gervase’s rougher complexion had been gained by his years in the tropics, but smallpox could easily have contributed to it.
“I’ve sent a rider to Hareton and Helen will leave to Oxfordshire immediately. I’ve spoken to Martha and offered to take her children as well. She says she would like to go with them. She’s very concerned.”
I closed my eyes. It was a relief to know Helen would be safe and in good hands, but how I’d miss seeing my daughter every day. “I’d feel much better with Martha there to supervise the nursery.”
Richard nodded his agreement. “I’m glad she decided to go. She’s never had smallpox—did she tell you?”
“No.” Terror gripped me. Not again. I couldn’t face that again.
Richard being Richard, he saw my fear and gave me a hug before we went to Barbara. She sat in bed, propped up by pillows, and Tom sat next to her, holding her hand. She looked so afraid.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ve had it, James has had it, Gervase has had it. We’re still here.”
“But I might be ugly. No one will want to look at me anymore.”
Tom squeezed her hand. “I will. I’ll always want to look at you.”
I heard the sincerity in his voice and I knew he was telling the truth.
“The people downstairs should be told. They may be in danger too,” I said. “Smallpox rarely visits once.” The last time it had devastated the district.
“I’ll see that Sir Edward and Lady Skerrit are told, my lady,” said Carier, and quietly left the room.
I touched Tom on the shoulder and he looked up at me. The despair on his features was hard to see. “It might be a mild attack. Keep her comfortable, give her lots of drinks and call a physician. And don’t forget to get some rest yourself.” I saw the little boy in the man. Tom was so tall, so well built that most of the time I forgot what a lively imp he was, but the boy still existed under the powerful male exterior. I bent and kissed his cheek. “We’ll be here. Call on us whenever you want to.”
Tom nodded dumbly and then turned his attention back to his new wife.
Careless of anyone watching, I reached for Richard and felt the comfort of his arms around me. “We can do little now and we should let Barbara get some rest.”
“Come, my love, let’s go home.” Without looking away, he lifted his hand and beckoned. “Have our carriage brought round immediately, if you please, and let the Marquês Aljubarrotta and Miss Golightly know we’re leaving.”
There was a quiet “Yes, my lord,” and the door opened and closed again.
James joined us in our carriage on the way home. Martha had taken theirs, and at his urging, was already packing when we got back. We wouldn’t see her, for fear of contamination, but I sent her a message, and she wrote one back to us. She assured us she would take as much care of Helen as if she was one of her own children. I was happy with that, even if it meant I’d miss my own baby. She would be safer in Oxfordshire, away from any possibility of contamination.
Richard and I held each other tightly that night. I showed him the small scars from my illness, and he showed me the fine, silvery line on the inside of his elbow where he’d been inoculated. The sight invoked a memory, but I couldn’t place it, too weary to think.
Richard bent his head to speak quietly to me. “I’ve come into contact with the disease before and never taken it. I wanted to talk to you about having Helen inoculated when she’s old enough. There’s some risk, but not as much as catching the disease itself.”
I moved closer into the comfort of his arms. “Can we talk about it another time? I can’t think of anything but Tom and Barbara.”
“Of course,” he agreed.
“This is their wedding night. They should be happy, discovering each other as we did—”
“After a delay,” he pointed out. “Our wedding night was no more successful than theirs.”
“I always think of Venice as the start of our marriage.”
“So do I.” His voice softened as he remembered. It was what Tom and Barbara needed, time to get to know each other, to get used to each other. They might never have that time, and every time I thought about it, I felt helpless and so very sorry for them both.
I tried not to worry, tried to fall asleep. I woke up in the night. Richard was still holding me, and I moved in closer to him before I fell asleep again.
Chapter Ten
Tom came across the room to take my hands and kiss my cheek. “Rose, you shouldn’t be here.”
“Why not? I’ve had smallpox. I had to come and see you.”
“Not Barbara?”
“I want to see how she does, naturally. But at a guess, I’d say they’re all attending to her, and nobody to you.” I took off my gloves and put them on a nearby table.
“She needs them.”
“Yes, she does. But so do you. You look exhausted, my dear.” I turned and went to the window, looking out at the peaceful vista outside. This parlour lay on the east side of Peacocks, overlooking the orchard. In the distance, I saw people gathering the late apples and putting them carefully into the large rush baskets at the foot of the trees. A bruised apple is a wasted apple.
“The trouble is, Tom, you’ve grown so big and strong everybody forgets you may feel something too. I’ll wager you’ve been a tower of strength and you haven’t had much sleep in days.” I turned round to face him. “Have you?”
His face crumpled and he let me see all the hurt, all the distress he must have been hiding since it happened. Without a pause I ran forward and took him into my arms.
I led him to one of the sofas in the room and sat with him. He rested his head on my shoulder and I stroked his hair as though he was in truth that small boy again. He didn’t weep, but took his ease, and gripped my hand as though he wouldn’t let it go.
We must have sat there together for a good ten minutes before he lifted his head and gave me a weak smile. “Does Lord Strang know you’re here?”
“Of course he does.” I smiled back at him. “He made me come with the full entourage, but he sends his best wishes.”
Tom frowned slightly. “I didn’t think he relied on his consequence.”
“He doesn’t. It’s—it’s something else.” I bit my lip. I hadn’t wanted to add to his troubles.
“What?” He lifted his head and sat up, but kept hold of my hand. “What is it, Rose?”
I took a deep breath. I couldn’t lie to him. “There may be someone who wishes me harm,” I said reluctantly.
“Who? Drury?”
“We don’t think so, not this time. Besides, the fire at Hyvern might have been set deliberately, so someone may want them too.”
The control returned to Tom’s face, and it occurred to me that giving him something else to think about, other than his wife’s illness, might help him through this difficult time.
I told him abou
t the highwayman, the footpads and Barbara’s encounter, showing him how the incidents added up. He listened, nodding occasionally. “Why didn’t you tell me before?” he demanded when I’d done.
“There’s nothing you can do, and you had far more important things on your mind.”
“No, Rose, not if it involved your safety.”
“I’m better guarded than the Crown Jewels,” I told him, laughing a little. “There’s Carier, and Nichols, and two Thompson’s footmen outside. Richard would have come, but he’s arranged to meet the Cawntons today. He wants to discover if they are behind this and stop them.”
Tom nodded. “Strang wouldn’t put you in danger, I know that.”
“But I wanted to come and see you. I knew you’d be hurting, and no one would remember to talk to you. Oh, Tom, I’m so sorry. How is she?”
“Worse, but the doctor says to wait until the crisis. He says when the scabs drop off she’ll begin to get better. If not—” The “if not” I’d seen in my father. The pustules festered, became infected, the fever got worse and never broke, and then the patient died. We would know one way or the other in the next few days, but Barbara would need two weeks in bed, and rest after that. And she might be marked, terribly marked.
I let Tom grip my hand although it hurt. “I won’t say I’m sure she’ll be well, Tom, because we both know it might not happen that way. But give her your strength and your love, and she’ll be the better for it.”
He looked up and met my gaze, the soft, brown depths of his eyes revealing nothing but misery. “I do love her, Rose.”
“I’m pleased to hear it. She’ll need it.”
“I sleep in her room—my room—oh, I don’t know.” He hung his head.
“Is her mother here?”
“Yes, she never went home after the wedding breakfast. She sent for some luggage and stayed. She’s truly devoted to Barbara and takes her turn sitting with her.” He paused. “I wanted to be with her all the time, but they send me away to rest.”
“You’ll be no good to her if you’re ill with exhaustion,” I pointed out.
“That’s what they say too.” After a moment’s silence, he cocked his head to one side and met my troubled gaze. “What about the children at Hareton? What about them?”
“Martha has taken them to Strang House in Oxfordshire,” I told him. He nodded. “She should be back for Lizzie’s wedding. I love my daughter, but I can’t keep her here while there’s any danger.” I bit my lip. “I miss her so much. I’m glad Martha went with them. I feel much better with them under her care.”
“Why didn’t you go with them? If you’re in danger here, and your daughter is elsewhere, it seems the right thing to do.”
“Not for me.” I still felt unutterably selfish about my decision, but deep down I knew it was right. “I argued with Richard for hours the day after your wedding. He wanted me to go, but I couldn’t bear to be parted from him and he wants to stay here. I reminded him that my unknown attacker might follow me and that would put Helen in danger too. He saw the sense in that. Until we know who wants to harm me and why, I’m better with him and our army of bodyguards.” Because Richard had mustered a small army from Thompson’s, drawn from the box where we kept the names of the servants who would undertake special duties. “It might be a way to draw him out, and protecting both of us in two separate places could weaken us.”
Tom nodded but still disagreed. “I’d have sent you away.”
I smiled. “I don’t take orders well, Tom, or had you forgotten?”
He gave a brief, hard grin. “No.” He withdrew, removed his hand from mine. His smile was much more natural now. “Thank you, Rose, I feel much better now.” He took a breath. “I always wondered…”
“Yes?” I turned a smiling face to him.
“You went to Yorkshire as Miss Rose Golightly of Devonshire and came back Lady Rose Golightly, sister of the Earl of Hareton, affianced to Viscount Strang. Did you feel any different? What did it do to you, this sudden change?”
Nobody had ever asked me that before, but I did my best to answer him, my best of friends. And anything I could do to distract him from his present predicament would be welcome. “It completely overwhelmed me for a time. It grew worse when I married and people started to call me ‘my lady’. Even before, I didn’t feel I could do it, that I was worthy of all this. Richard kept telling me he was just a man, his family were just people, but I couldn’t see like that. The first time I went to Eyton I felt like a poor relation, although everybody was very kind. They use such ceremony there, everyone so carefully mannered.” Tom smiled. I was glad to see it. “My only comfort was Richard. He was kind, patient, constantly tried to put me at my ease, to make things easier for me, but I felt glad when the time came for me to go home, even if he couldn’t come with me immediately. I’m still the same, Tom.”
“In some ways, but in others you’ve grown.”
I shrugged. “I’ve learned a few tricks. But I’m still that terrified plain girl inside, and I don’t think I’ll ever lose her now.”
“You were never plain. Perhaps a little untidy.” He had the right of that.
“And now we’re both married, and nothing turns out like you think. Tom, you asked me something. Will you tell me about Barbara? You’ve known her for years. I was never so surprised as when I saw the Sturmans at Eyton and they told me the news.”
“You made them very happy, inviting them for dinner, treating them so kindly.”
“That was my mother-in-law’s idea,” I admitted.
He grinned at me, acknowledging my confession. “Before you met Strang, I’d almost thought of us as a settled thing. I didn’t have to think about a bride. When I wanted one I’d ask you. I was arrogant enough to believe you’d have accepted.”
“I probably would have done. But I wish I’d known. I was sure I was going to make an old maid. That’s why I turned to Steven.”
“I told you I was arrogant. Stupid of me. Then you came home, and after a while I saw how much you loved him, though I didn’t know how he felt about you. It wasn’t until I saw you in London that I felt sure he’d care for you as you deserved. He might have taken you because you loved him, because it flattered him to have a wife who adored him while he continued to go about his business.”
I smiled. “His previous way of life? The mistresses, the drunken sprees?”
“Exactly. But what I saw there convinced me you were happy and cared for, that you didn’t need me anymore. I was unhappy when I came home, but freer. I started to look about me and I saw Barbara. She’d tired of Eustacia, was less under her influence than she’d been before. We got to know each other a little better, and—the thing was done. I became settled and happy in her company, and we would do very well, but now…”
I took him in my arms again and let him rest his head on my shoulder.
“I don’t care if she’s marked. At least—yes I do, but only for her sake. It won’t make any difference to the way I feel about her. It’s just…she might die, Rose.”
“I know.”
I stayed with Tom until he felt a little better, a little stronger. He needed support now, so he could be strong for his wife. It made me realise, yet again, how lucky I was in my husband.
I travelled back in the carriage with my bodyguards. As I passed into the new grand entrance at Darkwater, a footman approached me with a note from Richard, requesting that I join him if I felt up to it. Of course I did.
I followed the footman to a small parlour on the ground floor, a lovely sunny room I knew Martha liked to use when she wasn’t receiving guests.
Richard stood when I came in and so did the two Cawnton brothers. They were dressed like gentlemen, in country frock coats and breeches. No one could have suspected they were smugglers from their appearance today. I let my heart rate return to normal. I’d known we’d have to confront them, after all, but as the Cawntons had perpetrated one of the most terrifying ordeals of my life, I found it hard to meet th
em like this.
I let my mind process them, remember that for all their activities they were normal human beings. They were stocky men, average height, with pleasant, undistinguished faces, but I knew they were two of the most influential men in the district—in certain circles.
Because of our clash, Richard had shown his hand and the Cawntons were fully aware of Thompson’s, what it meant and our involvement in the company. It had to be so because we’d had to meet strength with strength and demonstrate just what we could do.
Their manners were good enough for them to wait until I was seated until they resumed their chairs at my invitation. Richard sat across from me, where he could study me while not seeming to. His care for me touched me and made me feel much better about the coming encounter, together with the knowledge that the true atrocities were committed on me by someone else, someone entirely absent today and every other day. After a soft knock at the door Carier entered, moving over to stand behind my chair.
One of the Cawntons, the one I knew best, said, “You are serious, aren’t you? You want us to work together?”
“Oh yes,” Richard answered. “These gentlemen have had some troubles of their own recently, connected with our business.”
I had assumed as much and I’d discussed the possibility of a truce with the brothers while we uncovered the activities in the district and the disturbances we’d been subjected to recently. Still, knowing I’d have to face them and actually doing it proved to be very different prospects. They came here today under assumed names, in the guise of business. So nobody but we three would know their true identities. It said much that they were willing to take the risk. After all, we only had to call the authorities and condemn them for the game to be up.
The elder Cawnton, the one who had spoken before, glanced at his brother. Both men were, I’d judge, about forty, still vigorous, but not in the first flush of youth. Both had deep lines graven from their noses to the edge of their mouths, not a sign of stress, but a family trait. They sported brown eyes and larger-than-average noses, but there was nothing about them to indicate the desperate criminal.
Hareton Hall: Richard and Rose, Book 6 Page 10