by Janet Woods
What Prudence had heard faded into the background. It was only words – words that were a ritual to be aired for such occasions. They fooled none of the company present. Mary Bryson and the aunts had been bitter adversaries in life. The aunts would go to her funeral, and because she was dead and no longer a nuisance to anyone, condolences would be offered to her husband, whose bereavement would probably be a blessing, and then she’d be forgotten.
Adele caught Ryder’s eye and he winked before turning back to her Aunt Patience. ‘May I escort you into supper, Miss Manning? Miss Prudence? And we shall think of a more pleasant subject to talk about.’
‘Our pleasure, my lord.’ Looking pleased because the earl had singled them out for the honour, the pair twittered and attached themselves to Ryder’s arms, while Sarah and Adele shared the sergeant between them.
Sarah was reticent during supper, though Ryder gently tried to draw her out. The women retired to their rooms, leaving the two men to catch up with a decanter of brandy. Now and again Adele heard outbursts of laughter and smiled.
Some nightdresses had been borrowed from the staff for the aunts. The cats snuggled happily in the chairs on opposite sides of the fireplace as Adele and Sarah said goodnight.
Gypsy decided to guard his mistress and Sarah used the truckle bed.
‘You were quiet during supper,’ Adele prompted, for she needed to know if Sarah was worrying.
‘I was thinking … I don’t want to leave you and the aunts. I have a position in the earl’s household, and I love it here. It will be like going to live with strangers if they make me go with them.’
‘I think you are worrying unnecessarily, Sarah. All we can do is wait until the meeting. I imagine they will be a normal family with reasonable expectations. Through no fault of theirs they were deprived of your company. Were you my daughter I’d want you back, and even though you’re not I will miss you most dreadfully.’
‘Do you think that man who said he was my father was normal? Edgar Pelham was everything I hate. He was cruel and a liar and he hurt us both, but mostly you. I used to lie in bed and think awful thoughts, and hope he’d be dead when I woke. When it happened it was such a relief that I laughed and cried at the same time and ended up with a stomach ache. It is such a relief to know he wasn’t my father. All the same, I don’t want to go away and leave you.’
She drew the girl close. ‘Perhaps you won’t have to, because in the normal course of events you would be working for a living at your age. I’m sure the earl will put your case to your father and grandfather most reasonably.’
‘What if the rest of the family is just like him … Edgar?’
Adele sighed. ‘Then we’ll pack our bags and run away and find somewhere to live where nobody knows us. Perhaps we could travel with the gypsies.’
Sarah giggled. ‘The earl would move heaven and earth to find you again.’
‘That’s not true, although he is the most generous of souls and I love him dearly, I also hurt him badly and he has suffered. Eventually he’ll revert to convention. If he’d died serving his country I don’t think I could bear the guilt it would bring me.’
‘I’m sorry I hurt you by repeating gossip at the meeting. It was such a relief to tell somebody and it just came out.’
‘You could have spoken to me in private about it.’
‘I tried to, but every time the subject came up you began to talk about something else.’
‘Can you remember the two brothers and your grandfather?’
‘There, you see … you diverted the conversation. But oddly, now they have been mentioned I keep remembering little snatches.’
‘I’m not ready to speak of what I went through, and doubt I ever will be. Tell me the snatches that you remember of the brothers.’
‘They were alike in looks and build, almost like twins. Edgar Pelham used to come and go, and tease me. I knew something wasn’t right, but he scared me so. I addressed him as uncle once and he flew into a rage and said he’d burn my eyes with a hot poker if I didn’t address him as papa, and after a while I supposed I got used to it. We left in the dead of night and travelled a long way. I was tired, and he hid me in an old cottage and told me to stay there until he came and not make a noise, else the wolves would eat me. When he came it was just beginning to be dark and he had to hurry. Why did you stay with him, Adele?’
‘Much the same as you … out of fear. I was tricked into going with him. He confronted my father and asked for my legacy in exchange for me. My father refused, but by then it was too late. I couldn’t go home because of the scandal. Ryder wouldn’t want me back because I’d shamed him so. And then we were on the ship and on our way to Boston. I wanted to escape the storm of scorn that would have followed me. I considered a shipboard marriage and a change of name was better than being considered … well, you know … shameless.’
‘I don’t remember much, except the death of my mother. And then you came and everything was better.’
‘Go to sleep now.’ Adele blew the candle out.
After a short while Sarah said, ‘If you run away, I want to run away with you.’
With that solution looking more and more unlikely, Adele laughed. Then she remembered Ryder had warned her she’d be punished for how he perceived she’d treated him all those years ago.
Her smile faded. He’d always had a great deal of charm and the ability to manage any situation to his advantage, but he was stubborn and usually carried out what he said he’d do.
Now she was in his bed again, if you could describe a heap of hay in a barn a bed. It seemed as if their past plans had run full circle and they were back to where they’d started. Except, she was no longer a wide-eyed and innocent girl, and there was no Edgar Pelham to ruin her life. She had surrendered her body to Ryder, and apart from that she could only offer him her heart. Would that be enough to appease him for running away when he’d wanted her all?
‘I must tell him,’ she said. ‘I’ll send him a whisper in the wind.’
There was a sleepy murmur. ‘Must send what to whom?’
‘Nothing. Goodnight, Sarah, everything will look better in the morning.’
Nineteen
Duck Pond Cottage sat in a sea of mud and waterlogged vegetation.
A group of five men leaned on their shovels, three of them awaiting instruction.
The ducks paraded on the opposite bank, fluffed their feathers and quacked in consternation at the destruction of their home.
Ryder huffed with annoyance. ‘It’s a mess. Perhaps we should pull the cottage down.’
Head to one side, Hal said, ‘Nonsense! The cottage is quite sound and will dry out given time.’
Ryder addressed the labourers. ‘We need to clear everything out of the bottom floor and get rid of the mud. Anything that can be saved should be taken upstairs. The rest can go on the bonfire. Please bear in mind the privacy of the Manning sisters when you open the cupboards. Save anything loose such as ornaments, money, linens and general goods. They can be placed in that wicker basket. I’ll take them to Madigan House to be washed and dried. Can I leave this mess with you then Hal? I must go and offer my respects to Oliver Bryson. Afterwards I’ll come back and attach myself to the fighting end of a shovel.’
Ryder would rather not front up to Oliver Bryson at all, but under the circumstances he couldn’t just ignore the man. From now on he must become the servant of convention expected of an earl, if he wanted people to respect him.
Adele popped into his mind and he grinned … in her case, perhaps not quite that conventional.
‘Your help is not needed,’ Hal said. ‘You can go home and entertain the ladies. I’m going to pack a trunk so your guests have a change of clothing. I’ll put it in the donkey cart and you can collect it on your way back, if you would.’
Luke Ashburn gave him entry to the vicarage, and guided him to the morning room, where Mary Bryson was lying in state in a satin-lined oak casket. She looked small and childlike in death,
and wore an embroidered shroud of white linen. Her cheeks were sunken in slightly. Her eyes were closed and her hair tucked under a frilled cap. Her hands lay in an attitude of prayer on her chest.
‘Will you take a glass of brandy, my lord?’
‘Not at this time of day, Reverend.’
‘Your father didn’t drink to excess either. Very laudable.’
Obviously the reverend hadn’t seen the state he’d been in on the day Adele had spurned him. Hal had told him he was hanging on to Henry’s neck, his reins in one hand while the horse walked patiently around in circles. Henry had been youthful then – so had he.
Ryder moved his full attention to the reverend when the man said, ‘I believe you fetched Mary out from the pond and covered her nakedness.’
Ryder uttered a small lie. ‘Your wife’s clothing was in some slight disarray, but she was decently covered from head to toe with my cloak before anyone else saw her. Hal Stover helped Luke carry her to the cart.’
‘Thank you for that. Mary would not have liked people gazing at her, though death tends to overrides such vanity. Two of the women in my congregation laid her out. The death has been recorded in the parish register. Luke told me there needn’t be an enquiry.’
‘Not unless you’d prefer one. There seemed to be no suspicious circumstances. Hal Stover found obvious signs that Mrs Bryson slipped in the mud where the flow of water had undermined the bank and she was pulled into the sluice by the force of the water coming down the stream.’
‘The doctor said there were bruises on her stomach.’
‘As to that, it wasn’t my place to examine her. I imagine she would have got those from the branch that had her pinned against the sluice. I was trying to move it when I first caught a glimpse of her. The water was churned up and murky and I couldn’t tell who she was, at first.’ He crossed to where the reverend sat, a dejected figure in black. ‘We pulled the branch away using the farm horses. Then I went back down for her. I’m so sorry, Oliver, is there anything I can do for you?’
‘No thank you, my lord … Luke is being a great strength to me. Though Mary was troubled in many ways and I did care for her … I wondered … was it deliberate?’
‘Is there any reason why it should have been?’
‘Sometimes her behaviour was erratic. I imagine that thought must have crossed your mind, my lord.’
‘Not at all. My first thought was that she may have walked in her sleep and become disorientated, since her feet were bare and she was wearing only a nightgown. When Hal pointed out the signs to me it became obvious it was an accident.’
Oliver Bryson looked relieved. ‘I was never able to give her a child, you see, and she had these turns. When she learned about Luke’s existence it turned her head, and her mind began to play tricks on her. The doctor prescribed laudanum.’
‘Perhaps if you’d discussed it with her a little earlier?’ Ryder didn’t want to be the recipient of this man’s confession, or hand out advice like slices of stale bread, and the hands on the clock on the mantelpiece ticked away time with an irritating slowness. He could not spare much pity for this man’s loss, when the pair had treated his Adele so badly.
‘Matters are always easier with hindsight. I daresay you wouldn’t have returned to the responsibility of home had you known the problems awaiting you. Rather you’d have been gadding about, like most young men of your age.’
Ryder didn’t have to think about that. ‘I was being of service to my country, which involved very little gadding about. Returning home was always my intention, and the estate was in a better condition than I expected due to your diligence and management.’
‘I always thought … well, Mary and I both hoped it would become mine one day. I was doing it for myself … and Luke.’
‘Yes … I know.’
‘He’s a good boy.’
That was debatable, for Luke was a man not a boy, and knew right from wrong. Ryder didn’t offer an opinion.
There was a short, tense silence then the reverend said, ‘Mary must have slipped out during the night, for I found the door unlocked this morning. I thought she had woken early and gone to the church, but only a few people were there. I thought …’ Tears began to trickle down his cheeks and he suddenly looked old. ‘I thought she was out visiting the sick perhaps. Was it God’s punishment because I was too lazy to put a stop to her foolish prattling?’
‘I’m certain you did your best, Reverend. Best not to dwell on it, but allow bygones to be bygones.’
The reverend gave a faint smile. ‘A common platitude, one easier to spout than put into practice, wouldn’t you say so, my lord.’
The reverend was referring to his relationship with Adele, and Ryder had no intention of engaging him in a conversation involving her. Also he was not going to allow his private business affairs to be picked over by this man. ‘I decline to argue the point with you on that,’ and he managed to refrain from looking at the clock. ‘When will the funeral be held?’
‘Two days hence; it will be conducted by the bishop.’
‘I’ll be there.’
A knock at the door brought relief in the shape of Luke Ashburn. ‘Mr and Mrs Wilson are here to offer their condolences.’
Feeling like a hypocrite Ryder patted his uncle on the shoulder. ‘I won’t monopolize your time, Reverend, and will see you later in the week.’
He nodded to the couple coming in on his way out.
‘My lord,’ the man said and the woman bobbed him a curtsey.
‘Can you get away for a short time?’ he said to Luke Ashburn, after he’d shown the couple into the drawing room.
‘The housekeeper will be here in about half an hour.’
‘Good … then we’ll go and see Stephen Tessler and get our business over and done with. I’ll wait for you in the Antelope if you still want to go ahead with the sale.’
The business didn’t take long and Stephen had made sure that the sale was properly receipted.
Afterwards, Ryder said. ‘You will regret selling it? It’s a good piece of farming land.’
Luke shrugged. ‘But then, so might you regret buying it … especially if Mrs Pelham’s deeds turn up. The past should be left behind and forgotten, my lord.’
‘I have something to say to you now, Mr Ashburn.’
‘I hope it doesn’t take too long. I have to get back to my father. He has moments of remorse and melancholy.’
Ryder placed a purse on the desk. ‘I’ll be quick. Here is your wage for the coming two years.’
The man gazed at the purse, slightly bewildered. ‘I don’t understand, my lord. I thought …’
Stephen leaned forward. ‘Come, come, Mr Ashburn. You are being released from your obligation on full pay.’
‘I don’t understand.’
Ryder rose to his feet. ‘Then allow me to spell it out for you. Firstly, I will say I have no dissatisfaction with your work, for which a reference will be provided.’ He nodded to Stephen, who slid a folded paper across the desk.
‘Secondly, there is such a thing as loyalty, and you have been playing one against the other. You know nothing of my past except that which has been gleaned from gossip. Neither are you qualified to give me advice. I have bought the Lawrence property so Mrs Pelham will have the security of knowing she still has the home her grandmother left her. Duck Pond Cottage and the acres of land it stands on are also hers. I have employed another man to replace you.’
Ashburn’s smile faded. ‘Hal Stover, I suppose.’
‘You suppose wrong. Hal has made his own plans.’ And Ryder hadn’t been made party to them so far, so he could only assume the legalities hadn’t been finalized.
‘William Swift has agreed to take over. He grew up on an estate in Yorkshire.’
Ashburn said nothing. Just dug the toe of his shoe into the rug, which seemed reminiscent of schoolboy behaviour when caught out in a lie.
Ryder’s suspicion of this man grew. There was something Ashburn wasn’t tel
ling him.
‘Adele never lost the deeds to the cottage did she, Mr Ashburn? They were stolen and you know who by. Why didn’t you tell me? By claiming the cottage, you and the Brysons robbed the woman I love of the little security she had left. I have treated you more fairly over this matter than you actually deserve, Mr Ashburn.’
Ashburn didn’t say anything to that, but he nodded slightly. ‘I thought the sale was above board at first and closed my eyes. The man who inherited the Lawrence estate was keen to get rid of it … he had debts. The reverend overruled Stephen Tessler’s protest, which fell on deaf ears. He bought it for me out of conscience I think. It has not been easy to be passed off as Mary Bryson’s nephew.’
‘No, I don’t suppose it would be,’ and Ryder reflected that he’d been lucky that Adele’s father had become his own guardian. He had raised him to fit the plans their fathers had made for them. Neither of them had counted on Adele being abducted by another man. Her father’s anger and grief had influenced Ryder’s own behaviour at the time, but he couldn’t blame anyone but himself for the way he’d acted. Adele had been young, hardly a woman, and he’d deserted her at the very moment she’d needed him. He should have gone after them.
Ashburn gave a triumphant little grin as he turned away.
Ryder administered the coup de grâce. ‘And Mr Ashburn?’
The man turned, not one shred of respect in his eyes. ‘Yes, my lord.’
‘I will expect the missing papers, plus the other items stolen from Miss Pelham’s trunks to be returned. Otherwise charges will be brought against the pair of you.’
‘I didn’t steal them.’
‘But you know who did, and so does the reverend. Mary Bryson stole them and you both knew about it. That makes you culpable in my estimation.
Ashburn’s eyes widened in shock and a smile shadowed Ryder’s face. He hadn’t expected to enjoy this denouement, but he had. ‘That will include the original deeds, the silver buttons, the purse with its contents, the pocket watch and the tools of his trade, of course.’
The man found some courage. ‘I always intended to give them back. What if I can’t find what Mrs Bryson has done with them?’