“What is his name?”
“His name is Hagman, and he must be getting on for thirty-five by now.”
“I will try to find him,” Farica said.
“No,” Ivan said positively.
“I promise you I will not do anything foolish and I do think it is essential that we should know more than we do now.”
She paused before she went on,
“Your cousin must have taken somebody into his confidence, perhaps quite a number of people. The man who tried to kill you in France for one and I think it unlikely that he would have crossed the English Channel alone. Papa always says that thieves and crooks, highwaymen and robbers always work in twos or more to give themselves confidence.”
“There is something in what you say,” Ivan agreed. “At the same time, Farica, I am terrified for you and I will not have you risking even one hair of your lovely head on my behalf.”
“I think if we consider it sensibly,” Farica said in a small voice, “the one person your Cousin Fergus would not want to kill – is me.”
“Yes, of course,” Ivan admitted. “Equally if anything should happen to your father or to anybody else you are fond of, I would never forgive myself.”
“And I would never forgive you if you leave me to be pressurised into marriage to a man who is an imposter, a fraud and a murderer!”
She spoke violently and Ivan reached out his hand to take hers.
“I swear to you one thing, which is that I will prevent him from marrying you, even if I have to kill him myself!”
“Thank you, Ivan, that is all I wanted to know. It terrifies me even to think of it.”
They went on talking for just a little while before Farica said that she must go.
“Papa is expecting me for tea and it is very important he should not suspect that I am doing anything except riding, as I often do, through the Park and into the woods.”
“You know I want to see you again,” Ivan said, “but because I think it might be dangerous, you are not to come here unless you have something really urgent to tell me.”
“And you?” Farica asked him.
“I will come here every afternoon at about this time and wait hoping that there will be something urgent.”
“I am sure there will be,” she said optimistically.
Then, as she looked up into his blue eyes, they were both very still.
She had the strange feeling that he was wanting to kiss her, but because she felt shy she turned quickly towards Pegasus and Ivan lifted her into the saddle.
“Take care of yourself. I am ashamed and humiliated that I should dare to involve anyone so perfect and so exquisite as you in the mud and filth of what is happening to me.”
“You are not to put it like that,” Farica said. “Think of it as a fight, or rather a crusade, of right against wrong and of good against evil that we have to win.”
For a moment he seemed almost spellbound by what she said.
Then he turned his head and said harshly,
“If I was half the man you think me to be, I would go away now.”
“No man whom I respect would abandon his own people,” Farica replied. “You are not fighting just for yourself, you are fighting for the old servants who have been dismissed after years of loyal service and for the labourers on the estate, who have been sent away without a pension. I forgot to tell you, the Prospers are having to give up their farm.”
Now Ivan stared at her.
“The Prospers? I don’t believe it! They have been here for generations.”
“I know, but your cousin will not help them and like many farmers at the moment they are almost bankrupt.”
“God damn it!” Ivan exclaimed beneath his breath. “I will prove my case and set things to rights even if it kills me to do so.”
Farica put out her hand.
“Be here tomorrow afternoon,” she said, “and I will try to make sure that Hagman comes to you, but I will not be able to come myself.”
“Why not?”
The question was sharp and she realised that Ivan knew the answer before she replied,
“Your cousin is lunching with us and I promised to go driving with him afterwards.”
“You should not do such a thing,” Ivan said angrily, “and I have a good mind to tell your father so.”
“Don’t be foolish,” Farica told him. “We have to allay any suspicions that he may have already so that we have a chance of catching him off-guard.”
She saw the pain in Ivan’s eyes before he said,
“Forgive me, I am making a fool of myself, but I cannot bear to think of you, so perfect, so sweet and innocent coming into contact with a man like Fergus. He is evil, I know it, but I am at the moment powerless to protect you.”
“The fact that you are here gives me a feeling of protection and also that we are fighting what to all intents and purposes is a Holy War, which I know, with God’s help, we shall win.”
The way she spoke was very moving and Ivan reached out to take her hand in his.
For a moment he gazed at her and then his lips were against her skin and she felt a little quiver go through her.
Then he stepped back and said,
“Go, Farica, while I can still let you. And for Heaven’s sake take care of yourself.”
She smiled at him and rode Pegasus back the way she had come through the twisting moss-covered paths in the wood and out into the Park on the other side.
Then, as she rode as quickly as Pegasus would carry her back to The Priory, she knew that she had been right in saying that they were fighting a Holy War and that Fergus was representative of everything that was evil and wicked and he must be defeated.
*
Farica made her plans carefully and very early the following morning, when she thought that the Earl’s guests would still be lying in bed after a late night of drinking and dissipation, she rode up to a side door of The Castle.
As a servant looked at her in surprise, she said,
“I wish to speak to Annie. Please ask her to come here to see me as I do not wish to leave my horse.”
The manservant hurried away and it was some time before Annie came scurrying down the passage, her frilled cap a little awry on her hair and her white apron newly starched and clean.
“Why, Miss Chalfont, what are you doin’ here at this time of the mornin’?”
“I am not making a social call on his Lordship,” Farica replied. “I just called to ask you if you have found a very small ring on the washstand in the room where I washed my hands the other night.”
“No, miss,” Annie replied. “I’ve found nothin’ and the housemaids haven’t reported to me if they’ve come across anythin’ when they was cleanin’.”
Then she added,
“The lady sleepin’ in that room went back to London last night.”
“Last night!” Farica exclaimed in surprise.
“There were a bit of an upset, miss,” Annie said, lowering her voice, “with another lady in the party. I understands they was quarrellin’ over his Lordship and the lady as was sleepin’ in the King Charles II Room considered herself insulted!”
Farica listened in surprise and Annie went on,
“In the end I has to pack up her things at a moment’s notice. And she and one of the gentlemen left in a closed carriage with four horses, which should’ve made the journey quicker.”
“It is still a long way,” Farica observed, “but I suppose there was a moon to make it easier.”
“If you asks me,” Annie said, lowering her voice until it was a whisper, “she won’t go far. She’ll be back some time today. With all his Lordship’s given her, her can afford to take a few insults.”
Farica thought of the rubies, and there had been a great many of them, and suspected that Annie was right. At the same time it was just what she had wanted to hear.
“If the lady has left, Annie,” she said, “perhaps I could just slip up to the room and see if I can find the ri
ng. It was one of my mother’s and I don’t want to lose it.”
“Of course, miss, you come up with me,” Annie smiled. “Nobody’ll see you at this hour of the mornin’. They’re all tucked up in their beds, sleepin’ it off, so to speak.”
Farica dismounted and the stable boy who had been hovering in the background hurried to hold Pegasus.
Then she followed Annie up the backstairs, walked along the main corridor at the end of it and hurried past a number of closed bedroom doors before they reached the King Charles II Room.
As they entered, Farica saw that it had not been tidied since the occupant had left and there was, she thought, a terrible mess everywhere.
But she was not interested in anything except getting Annie alone and she went to the washstand slipping off as she did so, the little gold ring from the small finger of her left hand which she had truthfully said had belonged to her mother.
“Oh, here it is,” she exclaimed, “under the soap dish. It’s so small that it’s not surprising nobody noticed it.”
“I’m right glad you’ve found it, miss,” Annie remarked. “You should be more careful with your jewels. Things that are set down in this house often gets picked up!”
Farica knew what she was insinuating and, glancing across the room to see that the door was closed, she said,
“Is there still a servant called Hagman here, Annie, or has he left?”
“Oh, no, miss, Mr. Hagman’s here and he’s always sayin’ how disgusted he is at the changes that’ve taken place since his Lordship died.”
“I heard he used to valet the Viscount,” Farica said quietly.
“Yes, that be true, miss, and he talks about Master Ivan all the time. He could hardly believe it when he heard as how he’d been killed at Waterloo.”
“It must have been very sad for him.”
Farica paused and then she said,
“I wonder, Annie, if it would be possible for me to have a word with Mr. Hagman? One of the Viscount’s brother Officers told my father something that I think he would like to hear.”
“I’m sure Mr. Hagman would be pleased to have any news that came out of the past, so to speak,” Annie replied.
“Then how can I see him?”
Annie thought for a moment and then she replied,
“I’m sure if you wish to see him so early in the mornin’, miss, I could ask him to come here. Then I’ll take you down to the side door and you can take my word his Lordship won’t know nothin’ about it.”
“Thank you, Annie. I knew I could trust you.”
“If you’ll take a chair, Miss Farica, I’ll be as quick as I can,” Annie promised.
She hurried out closing the door behind her and Farica sat down and looked at the mess the lady with the rubies had left and which she was sure was very different from the way a lady like her mother or the late Countess would leave any bedroom.
There was face powder spilt all over the dressing table and the flowers, a pin cushion, and a hairpin tray had all been pushed together to make room for a large mirror that had powder and lip salve on its smooth surface.
There were hairpins scattered on the floor and a comb with a number of teeth missing, as well as pieces of cotton wool stained with rouge and eye shadow. It all looked unpleasantly scruffy and sordid and after a moment Farica rose to stand at the window looking out at the lake below.
It made her think of how Ivan had said that it was the first thing he remembered with the swans moving over it and the place on the bank where he had fished for trout.
She could understand that such a memory had been so precious to him that it had returned to his mind before anything else.
She told herself that things must come right. He must be back here in The Castle, looking out over his own domain and taking care of the people who trusted him.
The door opened and she turned quickly to see a small, wiry little man with thinning hair and sharp inquisitive eyes coming towards her.
When he reached her side, he said,
“I be Hagman, miss. I understands you wished to see me.”
“Yes, Hagman.”
Farica was silent for a moment, wondering frantically if Ivan was right and she really could trust his life, for that was what it amounted to, to his valet who was now in his cousin’s employment.
Then before she could speak Hagman said,
“If it’s about Master Ivan, I’d give everythin’ I possess to hear somethin’ about him!”
Farica did not speak and he went on,
“It was the darkest day of my life when I heard he wouldn’t be comin’ back. I never thought of him somehow as dyin’ so full of life he always was and laughin’ at everythin’.
“‘Come on, Hagman,’ he used to say to me, ‘what are you lookin’ glum about? There is always somethin’ better round the corner!’”
Hagman paused and as his voice broke he said,
“But there wasn’t anythin’ better for ’im, miss, and it’s only got very much worse for us.”
Farica was certain that no man could speak as Hagman had without being utterly and completely sincere and so she said in a very low voice,
“I have something to tell you. His Lordship is, in fact, alive!”
For a moment Hagman stared at her as if he thought that she was lying.
Then he said,
“What d’you mean? What are you a-sayin’ to me?”
“His Lordship is alive and desperately needs your help! But for reasons that he will explain to you, it is an absolute secret and you must not breathe a word of it to anyone, however trustworthy you may think them.”
Flagman’s shrewd eyes searched Farica’s face.
“You can trust me, miss! I’d rather cut out my tongue than say a word that’d harm his Lordship!”
Farica smiled.
“He told me I could trust you. That is why I want you to go this afternoon at three o’clock to the wood on my father’s estate known as ‘Hawks’ Wood’. In the centre there is a clearing that has been made by the woodcutters.”
“I knows it, miss,” Hagman said eagerly.
“Don’t let anybody know where you are going. Make certain they think you are off to the village or somewhere like that. Then find your way to Hawks’ Wood without anyone seeing you.”
“I’ll do that, miss.”
The words seemed to come from the very depths of Hagman’s being and she had the feeling that for the moment he was finding it hard to breathe.
But she had to be sure he understood.
“His Lordship is in danger, Hagman, in very grave danger and that is why everything has to be so secret.”
Hagman nodded his head.
“I understands that, miss, and the danger be only two doors away from here.”
Hagman jerked his thumb in the direction of the Master Bedroom.
“He would do anything to stop his Lordship returning,” Farica said.
“That be true, miss,” Hagman agreed.
“Anything!”
Farica emphasised the last word and she knew that Hagman understood.
Then she said,
“His Lordship is trusting you and so am I, with his very life! Now I must go.”
Hagman opened the door for her and she found Annie waiting outside in the corridor.
Without speaking they hurried back the way they had come and, when she went out through the side door, she found Pegasus waiting somewhat impatiently.
The stable boy helped her into the saddle and Farica said to Annie who was standing on the doorstep,
“Goodbye, Annie, and thank you so much for finding my ring for me. I would hate to have lost it.”
She waved her hand as she rode away and Annie waved back.
Then she was hurrying across the fields as quickly as she could to The Priory.
Her father, who was never a very early riser, was in the breakfast room and, as Farica joined him, she knew he supposed that she had come straight downstairs and had no i
dea that she had already been out riding.
“Did you have a good night, Papa?” she asked, knowing he sometimes found it difficult to sleep.
“Not bad,” her father answered. “As you know, my dearest, I am inclined to lie awake and worry about you.”
“I am quite capable of worrying about myself,” Farica smiled.
“You have not forgotten that the Earl is having luncheon with us?”
“No, of course not. You let me in for agreeing to go driving with him this afternoon when I would much rather go driving with you.”
“We will do that tomorrow,” her father promised. “I want to see if there is any way that we can open the old slate mine and give a few other men in the village employment.”
Farica bent and kissed her father’s cheek as she passed his chair.
“I love you, Papa. There is no one kinder and more considerate than you are, which is more than can be said of our neighbour.”
“You will have to talk to him about it, Farica,” Sir Robert replied, “and, of course, when you marry, it will be easy to insist that your money is spent the way you wish.”
Farica wanted to say that her father must be very foolish if he believed that the Earl would spend her money on anything that did not please him personally.
But she thought that to say so would be a mistake and she merely remarked,
“You know all I want is to have a great number of people re-employed and to have those wicked traps taken out of the woods.”
It was something that she was ready to say again when, after a slightly uncomfortable luncheon, the Earl helped her into his phaeton.
As it was new, Farica wondered how much it had cost and suspected that the bill for it had not been paid. Nor, she was sure, had he paid for the perfectly matched horses that were drawing it.
“At last we are alone together! I find it impossible to talk to you properly when there is always somebody listening,” the Earl began as they drove off.
“I cannot imagine what you could wish to say that could not be heard by Papa,” Farica replied.
“Well, first I want to tell you how beautiful you are, and how much you attract me.”
Farica looked ahead thinking that this was what she might have expected, but it seemed somehow trite and unpleasant the way the Earl spoke.
A Victory for Love Page 7