He was silent suddenly, putting his finger to his lips. He was clearly listening. Then he went quietly to the door and opened it suddenly. Carl almost fell into the room.
He grinned at us. “There’s a beef pie in the larder,” he said. “I’ll get a great hunk of that for him. And some ale, too. I’ll take it from the back and they won’t know it’s gone.”
We were all astounded and realized how careless we had been. It might have been one of the servants—perhaps Jasper—instead of Carl.
Leigh gave him an affectionate push.
“Do you know what happens to people who listen at doors?” he asked.
“Yes,” retorted Carl, “they come in and join in the fun.”
It was not difficult to get Jocelyn Frinton to the cave. Leigh and Edwin rode off with him that night after the household was asleep. If it was discovered that they had been out, the servants would shrug their shoulders and would believe that they had been in pursuit of those adventures which were characteristic of men in a lax society. Jasper would shake his head and prophesy hell fire, but no one else would take much notice.
Carl had been useful prowling round the kitchen; he was known to have a voracious appetite and if he were caught making off with food no one would have been very surprised. Christabel and I gathered up some blankets which they had taken with them.
A seriousness had settled on us all, for we knew—even Carl—that this was an adventure which could result in death.
It was midnight when Edwin and Leigh returned, for it was about three miles to White Cliff Cave. Christabel and I were waiting up and had been watching from my bedroom window. We had prevailed on Carl to go to bed, promising him that when Edwin and Leigh came up, we would let him know if he were still awake.
“Of course I’ll be awake,” he said; but I had looked in on him at about eleven o’clock and he was fast asleep.
He was very excited about the adventure and could be useful, but I would rather he had not been concerned in it.
“My father, who is quite tolerant about some matters, is fiercely against Catholics,” I told Christabel. “He dislikes the Duke of York. More than that he feels it would be a disaster if he ever came to the throne. He says the people won’t allow it and there’ll be a revolution. He is all for putting Monmouth up as the heir.”
“What would he have done if he had found Jocelyn Frinton in the grounds?”
“I don’t know. He knew his father and he must have been aware that they were a Catholic family. But a little while ago no one thought very much about that. It is only since Titus Oates came along with his Popish Plot that people started to worry. I know that if there was a conflict my father would be on the side of Monmouth rather than that of the King’s brother. But that’s politics. I know religion comes into it, but my father is not a religious man.”
“No,” said Christabel, “that seems to be clear at any rate.”
“I don’t know whether he would give him up, but I don’t think he would help him or want us to. What Edwin does is his own affair because Edwin is a man and my father is not his father. What my mother would think I don’t know. She would be alarmed because we might be putting ourselves in danger. But there’s Carl, you see. My father dotes on Carl and Carl has insisted on becoming involved.”
“He enjoys it. It’s a wonderful adventure to him and I notice that he likes to be in everything.”
“I should imagine my father must have been just like that when he was young.”
“You could be sure of that.” There was a touch of asperity in her voice, reminding me of the Christabel I had known before the coming of Edwin and Leigh, which had worked such a subtle change in her.
“Listen,” I said, “they’ve come back, I think.”
I was right. We stood tense at the window, and in a short time we saw Leigh and Edwin come into the house. We waylaid them and they came into my bedroom.
“All is well,” whispered Leigh. “A very good spot. Full marks, Priscilla, for thinking of it.”
I glowed with pleasure.
“He has food for tomorrow and he’ll be all right provided no one decides to picnic there.”
“Picnic in November in that bleak spot!”
“Bleak’s the word,” said Edwin. “But the blankets will keep him warm.”
“How long can he stay there?” asked Christabel.
“Not indefinitely, of course,” replied Edwin. “We’ll have to try and think of something before the winter gets really cold.”
“He’d freeze,” I said.
“Priscilla is worried about Carl’s being involved,” Christabel told them.
“Yes, so am I,” said Edwin.
“He’s a good fellow,” added Leigh. “It would be his extra exuberance which might give it away.”
“I’ll speak to him in the morning,” said Edwin. “Where is he now? In bed, I suppose.”
“Fast asleep. He wanted to stay awake to see how it went but I told him he should go to bed as normal. He did and was soon asleep.”
“We ought to try to get Frinton away somewhere before your father returns,” said Edwin to me.
I agreed with that.
Leigh said: “Well, it is late. We mustn’t stop chattering here. Who knows, we might be spied on. I don’t think anyone saw us, but we must all understand that this is no game and it’s no use treating it as such. It’s deadly serious. It could mean death for that young man and serious trouble for us. So … take care. Act as normal. We’ve done all we can for tonight. He’s safe temporarily. Tomorrow we’ll get some more food to him. We’ll ride out as usual … but we must take care.”
They tiptoed quietly out of my room and went to their own. I could not sleep. I doubted whether any of them would. Leigh was right when he said we were involved in a serious matter. I kept thinking of that young man. There was something noble about him, something which had made me want to help him more than anything else.
My thoughts stayed with him in White Cliffs Cave.
We all rode out together the following morning. I had told them in the kitchens that we were going into the woods and wished to take food with us as we did not want to go to the inn. This was reasonable enough but not something we could do every day. I supervised the packing of a basket and was a little shaken when Ellen said: “You’ve got enough food there to feed a regiment.”
“There’ll be three hungry men to provide for,” I reminded her, “for when it comes to eating Carl can do as well as any grown man. One gets an appetite riding you know, Ellen.”
Sally Nullens, who was there because Carl was going with us and she still thought of him as her charge, said: “He’s eating too much of that pastry. More good red meat is what he wants.”
She was going over the provisions with a sharp eye and I felt uneasy. I was afraid of Sally Nullens—and Emily Philpots, too. She was more sullen than ever because Christabel was being treated as a member of the family—something which she had never achieved. “After all I did for those children!” was her continual plaint; and I knew she spied on Christabel, longing to catch her out in some misdemeanour, and was, in any case, critical of everything she did. It might be a joke in normal times but we could not afford such spying now.
However, we got away all right, and I was wondering whether it would be wiser to warn Carl to be careful or to let it alone. He was heart and soul in the adventure, but it was true that he might be overzealous.
I shall never forget that late November day with the mist hanging in the air and the gulls shrieking overhead and the strong smell of seaweed in the air. We dismounted and managed to tether our horses to a rock and went down towards the cave, our footsteps loud on the shingle.
I imagined Jocelyn cowering in the cave, wondering who was coming.
Leigh went to the mouth of the cave. “All’s well,” he cried.
Jocelyn came out then and I saw him more clearly than I had the previous night. He was tall and slender with very fair skin, faintly freckled, and
light blue eyes. He had very white teeth and was indeed handsome. His breeches were light brown velvet and of the fashionable Spanish cut, and his leather buskins were of the same colour. His coat, also of velvet, came to his knees. It was rumpled from the night spent lying in the cave, but he was clearly a very fashionable gentleman who had obviously ridden off in a hurry before he had been able to attire himself for a journey.
Leigh said: “Come out into the open. We’re a party of picnickers. We shall hear anyone approach and in any case we can see for a long way. If necessary you can go back into the cave, but it won’t be necessary.”
We settled down and I opened the hamper.
“I don’t know how to thank you all,” said Jocelyn. “Thank God I remembered your place, Eversleigh. I guessed you would help.”
“Of course,” said Edwin. “You were right to come. It was luck that Priscilla happened to be in the garden.”
Jocelyn turned to me, smiling. “I’m afraid I scared you.”
“I thought you were a ghost,” I admitted. “In any case I always wanted to see a ghost. I’m glad I was the one and not our old gardener.”
“You had come all the way from your home?” Leigh asked.
“Not from the country. From London. It was to the Piccadilly house that they came for me. There is something almost obscene about Oates and his men.”
“I know it well,” replied Edwin.
“Where is this going to end?” asked Jocelyn. “I cannot understand why he is not seen as the villain he is.”
“It is terrible to realize how easily people can be roused to violence,” said Edwin sadly. “One observes it often. Individually they would never be capable of such actions as they will take when they become a mob.”
“I am sure that philosophizing can at times be a useful occupation,” Leigh put in, “but this is the time for practical suggestions. Now, Frinton, this place is all right as a temporary haven, but we have to think of something better. You can’t stay here. You could be discovered.”
“I’ll come out and guard you,” cried Carl. “I’ll bring the dogs with me. I’ll teach them to fight anyone who tries to get into the cave.”
“There is one thing I want you to do, Carl,” said Leigh.
“What is it? What is it? You only have to say.”
“It’s quite simple,” replied Leigh. “You just obey orders.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” said Carl. “You’re a sort of captain, Leigh. We have to do what you say. Does Edwin have to, too? Will you, Edwin? Perhaps you wouldn’t like to, being a lord and all that.”
“We are here to help Jocelyn escape,” said Edwin. “That’s all we have to think about.”
“It’s all I am thinking about,” retorted Carl.
“Carl,” I reminded him, “it will be necessary to say nothing of this to anyone … anyone, remember!”
“Of course I remember. It’s a great secret. Nobody must know.”
I looked at Leigh. “We’ve got to think of something quickly. I wonder if Jocelyn could come to the house as a traveller who has lost his way.”
“We would be expected to put him on the right road immediately,” put in Christabel.
“I wonder if he could come as someone to work in the house.”
“As what?” asked Leigh. “A gardener? Can you garden, Frinton?”
“As my tutor!” cried Carl. “They’re always saying that I don’t learn anything with the Reverend Helling.”
“That’s a reflection on you, dear brother,” I retorted, “not on the Reverend Helling. If we want a scholar in the family we shall have to get a new brother … not a new tutor. I think it’s dangerous for Jocelyn to come to the house. How could he possibly do that? My father and mother must have met you somewhere.”
“Yes,” said Jocelyn, “I have met them.”
Leigh, who had been rather thoughtful, sat there with a smile on his face. Something was brewing in his mind, I could see. I knew him so well that I realized he wanted to think about it before telling the rest of us and however I urged him he would say nothing until he had decided to.
Edwin was saying: “Well, that’s no good.”
“At least,” said Leigh, “you are safe here for the time being.”
We made all sorts of plans as we sat there on the beach but Leigh still said nothing of what I believed was brewing in his mind.
We would get a change of clothes for Jocelyn—something which would be more suitable for travelling if he had to go off in a hurry. One of us would come every day with food until we made up our minds what we were going to do. There must be no more picnics, as they would arouse suspicion. Emily Philpots would already be saying that we must be mad to think of such a thing at this time of the year, and Sally might even get someone to follow us to make sure that Carl kept his leather jerkin on.
No. We should come singly, or perhaps two of us together. We should have to be very wary.
We all looked to Leigh. He was the natural leader. He was more bold and ruthless than Edwin. Edwin was always too much afraid of hurting people’s feelings. It made him act overcautiously.
Leigh had always joked about being the elder of the two. He was, by a few weeks.
I think I admired Leigh more than anyone I knew, and I was gratified whenever he showed a special feeling for me.
We reached the house at about five o’clock. It was already dark and we went in as quietly as we could. Like a company of conspirators.
Ellen looked at the empty basket.
“So you finished off every crumb?” she said.
“It was the finest mutton pie you ever made, Ellen,” said Carl.
“Then it was wasted on you,” she retorted. “It wasn’t mutton, it was pigeon.”
A small thing, but it was an indication of how careful we must be.
Sally Nullens was fussing round Carl.
“And I hope you didn’t hang about on the beach, Master Carl. If that wind gets down in your chest …”
“Oh, we didn’t go on the beach.”
“So you didn’t go on the beach, then?”
“Only just to look at it as we went along the way.”
“And you didn’t sit on the shingle? Then what’s this seaweed stain on your jacket, eh?”
Carl was embarrassed. “Well, perhaps we did sit a little bit.”
He was looking at me appealingly.
I said: “You’re always dreaming, Carl. Of course we were on the beach for a while.”
Then there was old Jasper.
“Someone’s been trampling on those new trees I put in. Well nigh broke them saplings in halves. Godless lot.”
I was thankful that Jocelyn was safely away from the house.
I went up to my room and I didn’t have to wait there long before there was a tap on the door. Leigh came in.
He grinned at me. “I shouldn’t come into a lady’s bedroom, should I? Oh, but this is only my little sister, so all would be forgiven, even by old Philpots, I reckon.”
“Don’t be foolish,” I said. “What do you want?”
He was serious immediately. “I thought I’d talk it over with you first.”
The waves of inexplicable anger which his reference to me as his little sister had aroused were swept away because I was his chosen confidante.
“After all,” he said, “you know her better than any of us really … even better than I do.”
“Who?”
“Harriet. My mother.”
“Harriet! But where does she come into this?”
“I thought she might help us. She’s the only one I can think of who would snap her fingers at the risk. And we are taking a great risk, Priscilla. What we have done could bring trouble on the whole of the family.”
“What else could we have done?” I thought of Jocelyn Frinton, so handsome he had been, and his warm looks had been rather specially for me. I would have risked a great deal for him. But I saw what Leigh meant. We had to think of the family.
“I’ve
been turning it over in my mind but I didn’t want to say anything until I had talked it over with you. I thought of going over to Harriet and asking her if she would help. If she will, this is what I plan. Jocelyn calls on her. He will be an actor whom she knew in London … or somewhere. He will be John … Fellows … or something like that. We’ll keep the initials. That is always wise. She does have a lot of odd people calling on her from time to time and no one would take very much notice of a new one. Nor would they think it strange that he turned up like that. She could keep him there for a while. She might make him act a bit in one of those plays she is always arranging. He would be more safely hidden in the open as it were than in some cave where he has to be fed from our end. Besides, it would be desperately uncomfortable for him if the weather turned cold. Now what do you think of this?”
“Oh, Leigh, I think it’s a wonderful idea.”
“Do you think she would agree?”
“I’m sure she would. She loves intrigue and she hates intolerance. I am sure Titus Oates is just the sort of person she would dislike most.”
“I’m glad you agree. What I propose is this. I ride over to see my mother. I shall have to be gone a week. It takes two days at least to get there … and two days back. You can be sure that I shall not stay longer than necessary. In the meantime the rest of you must keep Frinton hidden and get food to him somehow. You’ll have to be careful. I shouldn’t like him to be around when your parents return. I think your father might well smell a rat.”
“It’s a wonderful idea. I am sure Harriet will help. When will you leave?”
“Today. There’s no time to lose. I really do want to get him out of the cave. I think I shall leave immediately. You can explain to the others.”
“I don’t think I shall let Carl into the secret,” I said. “He means well but he could betray something unwittingly.”
“Good idea!” He put his hands on my shoulders and kissed me. “I knew I could rely on my little sister.”
“Oh, yes, and, Leigh, there is one thing more.”
“What’s that?”
“I am neither particularly little, nor am I your little sister.”
He grinned at me. “I’ll make a note of that,” he said.
Love Child Page 5