Her father, having finished his breakfast, then said,
“The sooner we are off the better. I expect when we reach your aunt’s house we shall find that she is fully recovered and cannot imagine why we are making such a fuss over her.”
Farica laughed because it sounded so like her Aunt Alice.
She collected her gloves and a small handbag that contained a handkerchief and waited for her father while a footman brought him his tall hat and riding gloves.
“You look very smart today, Papa,” Farica said. “And I do like your buttonhole.”
Sir Robert glanced down at it and smiled.
It was a small orchid from his greenhouse and she knew without his saying anything that he was regretting that the collection of orchids at The Castle that he had admired so much would now be out of his reach.
They climbed into the phaeton which was waiting for them, which was not as up to date or smart as the one that the Earl had taken her driving in yesterday afternoon.
But it was well sprung and was drawn by a perfectly matched team of four horses.
Then the young groom, having released the horses’ heads, jumped up into the small seat behind them and they started off down the drive.
Because it was so early it was cool and the sun had little heat in it, but Farica suspected that during the day it would grow warmer and she hoped that Ivan would not be uncomfortably hot on the long ride ahead of him.
They turned out of the gates along the narrow lane, its hedges covered in honeysuckle that led through the small village and past The Fox and Goose where Abe tended his animals and from there to the high road.
Without really meaning to, Farica looked about her searching for a sign of Riggs or his confederates who would be, she was sure, still visiting all the small villages in the neighbourhood.
Then, as they passed the duck pond and came to the village green with the inn on their left, she gave a little gasp.
Outside The Fox and Goose was a large crowd of people.
In fact it appeared as if the whole village was there, apart from some women and children who were still running across the grass to where the others were congregated.
“What has – happened, Papa?” Farica asked in a frightened voice.
“I have no idea,” Sir Robert replied, “but I shall certainly go and see.”
He drove his horses across the grass towards the inn.
Then, as they reached it, Farica gave a stifled scream of horror.
Standing just outside the door of the inn was Abe with Riggs on one side of him and a burly-looking man rather like him on the other.
Each of them was holding a heavy stick in one hand and with the other held Abe prisoner by his arms.
All around them, shouting and expostulating, were the people of the village who had obviously come straight from where they were working.
Some of the men were carrying pitchforks or spades, others had sickles or scythes, and there were woodcutters holding their axes and saws.
They were all shouting at once, making an incoherent babble, which made it impossible to understand what they were saying.
It was quite obvious, however, that they were protesting against something and Farica was sure that it was what the two men were doing to Abe.
Then, as her father drew in his horses, she saw that at the edge of the crowd, having obviously just dismounted from his horse, was the Earl.
He had his back to them, but the mere sight of him was enough to make Farica feel as if every nerve in her body became tense.
Instinctively she moved a little closer to her father and put her hand on his knee.
“What the devil is going on?” Sir Robert asked in an irritated tone.
At that moment Riggs’s voice rang out above the yells of the crowd,
“’E says, my Lord, ’e don’t know nothin’!”
Riggs was obviously speaking to the Earl and just for a moment the people around him were silent as if they wished to hear the answer.
“Then beat it out of him!” the Earl replied and he seemed to snarl the words.
It was then, as the two men raised their sticks to strike old Abe and Farica gave a scream of protest, that an axe flew from the back of the crowd.
No one knew who threw it, but it landed on the base of the Earl’s head, knocked off his high hat and buried itself in his neck.
Without a murmur he fell forward onto the ground.
Suddenly the crowd lost control and as he lay there, with his horse rearing in terror, forks and pickaxes were driven into his body, while Riggs, about to strike Abe, had half his leg slashed away by a scythe and his accomplice was knocked unconscious with a spade.
For a moment there was nothing but turmoil and the noise was as if a number of wild animals had been let loose on their prey.
Then, as Farica sat frozen with horror, her hands pressed instinctively against her breast, round the corner of the inn came Ivan riding Pegasus.
With him was Hagman on Waterloo.
Farica drew in her breath.
She saw Ivan take in what had happened, while the crowd, as if they were aware of his presence, were suddenly afraid and moved back a few steps.
Ivan could see the body of the Earl pinioned to the ground with forks, the blood running from the axe that had first felled him seeping crimson over his coat.
His two henchmen, Riggs and the other man, lay prostrate on the ground on either side of Abe, who had not moved.
Riggs groaned as the blood ran down his leg onto the dusty ground, while the other man was still and silent.
For a few seconds, although it seemed to Farica far longer because she could not move or think, Ivan stared at the spectacle in front of him.
Then he dismounted Pegasus, handed the reins to the nearest boy and moved through the crowd that was suddenly hushed and silent as if apprehensive over what they had done.
He sprang onto a heavy oak table where the old folk sat in the evening outside the inn drinking ale or cider.
Somehow to Farica he looked different until she realised that it was because for the first time she saw him dressed as a gentleman in the height of fashion.
She knew that Hagman must have brought him clothes from The Castle.
For a few moments he stood on the table looking at the crowd below him.
Then he began,
“My people, by the mercy of God, after I was left for dead at the Battle of Waterloo, I am now able to return to you and take my rightful place, now that my father is dead, as the sixth Earl of Lydbrooke!”
There was an audible gasp and then complete silence as if everybody listening held their breath and then Ivan continued,
“I am sure, although I have been away for many years, some of you will remember me, although, as you can see, I was wounded on the field of battle. I understand that in my absence a great many things have changed since my father’s death, which is not to my liking. I want your help and that means from every one of you, to restore The Castle and the estate exactly as it was in my father’s and grandfather’s time. This means that I am asking everybody who has been dismissed to return immediately.”
He paused to look round him at the mesmerised crowd and then went on,
“I want the Prospers and the Bradshaws to take over the farms again that they looked after in the past. The same applies to anybody who was employed in the gardens or on the land. There will be problems, of course there will be, but I shall be here and I am quite certain that you and I can solve them all together.”
He smiled before adding,
“All I want now is to thank God for bringing me home and for making sure that together, we can make The Castle and the estate as fine and beautiful as it has been in the past.”
As Ivan finished speaking, there was first a gasp and then they were cheering, cheering him wildly and spontaneously, waving their tools, their caps and their handkerchiefs in the air.
He had spoken with such sincerity that Farica could
hardly see him through her tears.
Now she was aware that many of the village women were crying openly, while the men surged forward to shake him by the hand and tell him over and over again how glad they were to see him back.
It was then that Sir Robert, looking down at Farica and seeing the tears on her cheeks, suggested,
“I think, my dearest, we should leave the Hero of the Day to his Hour of Triumph. There will be plenty of time for us to congratulate him later.”
He did not wait for her answer, but lifted the reins and drove on.
Only as they went did Farica look back to have a last glimpse of Ivan bending down from the table to shake hands with the people who were still wildly cheering him.
*
After they had seen Sir Robert’s sister and found, as he had expected, that she had recovered from her heart attack and was quite surprised that they should have taken the trouble to drive over to see her, Farica realised that her father had deliberately not talked about the extraordinary scene that they had just witnessed in the village.
She had been glad in a way because it had been a tremendous shock first to realise what Riggs had intended to do to Abe and then to see the Earl killed in front of her.
She recognised that it was what he deserved. At the same time the sight of the axe buried in his neck and the villagers striking him as he lay on the ground seemed like something out of a nightmare.
But it made, she realised, the situation very much easier for Ivan.
Now there was no need for him to go to London or to involve force against his own cousin.
She was quite certain that, as everybody would want to return to what they considered normal, The Castle in a very few days, perhaps even hours, would be itself again.
She felt, however, tearful and a little faint as her father had driven her away from The Fox and Goose.
Although her heart was singing because everything had come right, she felt that it was something that when it happened had been so horrible that she did not want to talk or even think about it.
It was only as they started homewards at about two o’clock that she realised how tactful her father had been and knew that it was because he loved her.
They had a closeness that was very precious.
But, as they drove down the drive and out through the iron gates and set off towards the main road to make for home, Sir Robert said quietly,
“I think, my dearest, I am not mistaken in thinking that you have kept something from me.”
Farica gave him a quick glance and he explained,
“I noticed that the new Earl was riding Pegasus and, as I cannot believe that he stole him from my stables, I can only conclude that you lent him your horse.”
Farica drew in her breath.
“You are quite right, Papa – I did lend Pegasus to him. I have a great – deal to tell you.”
“Why did you not confide in me before?” Sir Robert asked and she knew that he was hurt by her secrecy.
“The answer to that is quite simple, Papa. Ivan warned me that, if I told you what I had discovered quite by chance, I would be signing your death warrant!”
Sir Robert looked startled and then, as Farica unfolded the strange story, which seemed almost too fantastic to be true, he listened attentively without making any comment until she had finished.
She spoke in a very low voice because she did not wish the groom behind them to overhear what they were saying.
In fact it would have been an impossibility because they were travelling very fast and the open hood of the phaeton was between them and the seat behind.
Only when she had told her father how Ivan had been on his way to London to see his Colonel and ask for Military aid did Sir Robert say approvingly,
“That was a sensible thing to do. Even so it would have caused a great deal of talk and gossip and Fergus Brooke might have managed to add another crime to his already long list.”
There was a note of anger in her father’s voice that Farica did not miss and she said,
“He was very clever and plausible, Papa. You could not possibly have known how despicable and wicked he really was!”
“If I had been using my senses and my instinct properly,” Sir Robert answered sharply, “I should have guessed.”
He paused before he added,
“You must forgive me, my dearest, because I was blinded by my ambitions for you and I can only thank God who in His mercy saved you from being married to a man like that.”
Her father did not press her to say any more about her relationship with Ivan than she had already told him.
But she had the feeling that he already suspected what they felt for each other.
It was late in the afternoon when they passed through the village and everything seemed quiet.
There was no sign of the tumult that had taken place in the morning.
Farica guessed that the dead body of the Earl would have been taken to the family Church, which was about a mile down the road outside the gates of The Castle.
She did not, however, ask any questions and her father hurried on as if he was anxious to be back at The Priory.
‘Tomorrow,’ Farica thought, ‘I must go to see old Abe and make certain that he is none the worse for what has happened here today.’
The mellow red brick walls and the diamond-paned windows of The Priory looked very beautiful and welcoming and when she walked in, knowing from the expression on the butler’s face that he was longing to tell them what had happened, she quickly ran up to her room.
Her maid was waiting for her and, after she had bathed and changed into an evening gown, the maid said,
“I daresay you’ve ’eard already, miss, the terrible things as ’ave ’appened in the village this mornin’!”
“Yes, I know all about it, thank you, Emily,” Farica replied, “but I don’t want to talk about it.”
She hurried downstairs, expecting to find her father waiting for her in the drawing room. To her surprise there was a man standing by the mantelpiece and, as he turned round, she gave a little cry of sheer happiness.
It was Ivan.
Without thinking or asking questions she just ran down the room to fling herself into his arms.
He kissed her wildly and passionately until he at last raised his head to say,
“My sweet. My darling. It is all due to you and, because I had to see you, I have come here to ask if I may have dinner tonight with my nearest and most precious neighbour.”
“Are you all right? There will be no more – trouble?”
The tears were back in her eyes and Ivan kissed them before his lips found hers once again.
Only when she felt that they were flying in the sky and that there was no need for explanations or for her to feel anything except the beat of Ivan’s heart did he say,
“I love you! God, how I love you! I have come to ask your father if I may marry you immediately. I cannot do all there is to do without you.”
It was impossible for Farica to answer because his lips were holding her captive and they only moved apart when the door opened and Sir Robert came into the room.
*
The crowd of villagers outside the Church showered the bridal couple with flower petals of every sort as they came out into glorious sunshine.
The diamonds in Farica’s tiara glittered no more brightly than her eyes.
They stopped for a moment after they had passed through the lychgate for her to pat Pegasus, who was waiting for them with a wreath of flowers round his neck and his saddle decorated in the same way.
Ivan patted him too and then after he had helped Farica into the open carriage, which was also decorated with flowers, there was another shower of petals that made Pegasus toss his head and rear to show his dislike of such ostentation before he followed in the bridal procession to The Castle.
“I realise, Sir Robert,” Ivan had said, “that you expect Farica to be married from your own house, but I want to ask you to be
generous and allow the marriage festivities to take place at The Castle.”
Sir Robert had looked surprised and Ivan went on,
“My people have suffered more than I can put into words during the months that Fergus usurped my position and was in control. It is hard to believe that anyone could have been so cruel as to send away the old servants without proper pensions, without cottages and with no more than twenty-four hours’ notice.”
He saw that Sir Robert understood what he was saying and carried on,
“They are, of course, very voluble about their suffering and their fears and I am thinking not only of them but of Farica and myself when I want to give them something else to talk about.”
Sir Robert laughed.
“And that, you think, should be your Wedding!”
“They will be thrilled by it and I am certain that it will make them forget their unhappiness more quickly than anything else,” Ivan said simply.
Sir Robert put his hand on Ivan’s shoulder.
“You are a very wise young man and, of course, I understand. But I hope my own people, who have known Farica for so many years, will be invited to the festivities too.”
“You need not doubt that,” Ivan assured him. “I am having two huge marquees erected on the lawns and the presents, although there will not be many, will be shown in the ballroom of The Castle. I think we must also include a display of fireworks, besides the usual barrels of ale and kegs of cider and naturally the roasting of a whole ox which is traditional.”
His eyes were twinkling as he spoke and Sir Robert laughed again.
“It will certainly be something to remember,” he said.
“That is exactly what I am hoping,” Ivan agreed.
To Farica it was as if every Fairytale she had ever read had come true.
It was impossible to feel happier than she was and she knew that every time Ivan kissed her, in fact every time they saw each other, she loved him more and she knew that he felt the same.
“You know where we really ought to spend our honeymoon?” he said teasingly.
“Where?” she asked.
“In the doll’s house!” he replied.
“I think that would be a little too cramped,” Farica protested, “but where are we going?”
A Victory for Love Page 12