‘Be fair, sir!’ she protested. ‘The reason I cannot ride is because I have never had the opportunity to learn, not lack of willingness on my part.’
‘Surely your relatives have horses you can ride?’
‘Yes, but none of them have ever offered to teach me how to ride. My cousin has occasionally tried to talk me into getting on her horse, but I have always declined because I am sure she only offers in the hope that I will fall off and she can then laugh at me.’
‘Surely your cousin would not do such a discourteous thing?’ said Gallagher.
‘You have not met her.’
‘This horse is as quiet as a lamb, my lady,’ Gallagher tried to reassure her. ‘He’ll be no trouble.’
But she remained unconvinced. The horse had begun pawing at the ground and did not seem at all quiet to her. ‘If you think you are going to talk me into getting on that wild-eyed beast, you can think again.’
‘That is well and good, my lady,’ said the mild-mannered sergeant with a sigh, ‘but how are you going to get over to Adderslee Farm with Sir Richard? It is much too far to walk, and he needs you to take down the notes—’
‘Look,’ Sir Richard interrupted, ‘if you do not want to ride that horse, get up behind me on Lucifer. You are such a tiny thing; he’ll barely notice you are there.’
She stared up at him in horror. ‘Did you just say that black beast is called Lucifer?’
‘Don’t ask me why. He was called that when I bought him.’
‘You seriously expect me to get on a giant stallion called Lucifer?’
Sir Richard dismissively flicked a black-gauntleted hand and gave an impatient huff. ‘We haven’t got all day! I need to interrogate that sheep stealer we have got banged up in the dungeons when I get back from Adderslee. Stop fussing and just get on.’
‘No, I can’t.’ Rowena could hear a note of panic creeping into her voice. ‘I am telling you, I really can’t ride!’
‘It’s not my problem if you’re afraid of horses. When I asked for a replacement clerk, I did not ask for a girl. If they had just let me have a normal clerk like I wished, this sort of damn irritating thing would never be a problem.’ The sheriff glared down at Rowena challengingly, as if to say I dare you to prove me wrong.
She knew he had got the better of her. Never one to back down willingly, she could not bear to say no now. ‘Very well, I will do it if you insist.’
Clearly aware that he had won with the use of rather underhand tactics, Sir Richard smirked sardonically and nudged Lucifer forward. ‘I will just move him alongside this step so you can get on.’
She mounted the step and waited while Sir Richard attempted to manoeuvre his horse alongside it. ‘If I fall off that thing and get killed, it will all be your fault.’
Lucifer was fresh out of his stable and keen to get going. Every time Sir Richard succeeded in getting him close enough for Rowena to mount, chewing maniacally on his bit and tossing his head, the tall horse side-stepped around until he faced her, leaving her unable to mount.
This did nothing for her already shaky nerves. If she had not felt so pressured by the sheriff, she would not have even considered getting on the skittish horse. But to her relief, Sergeant Gallagher decided to intervene before her nerves, which were momentarily fortified by anger, gave out.
‘Let me give you a hand, sir,’ he said, taking hold of Lucifer’s bridle and holding the charger still. ‘Here you are, Mistress Rowena.’
She shrugged helplessly. ‘But he is still so high, Sir Richard! How am I supposed to jump all the way up there with my short legs?’
Sir Richard took his foot out of the stirrup near her. ‘Stand right next to him, facing his ears, and put your foot in my stirrup.’
‘But your stirrups are so long and I am so short. I will never make it up.’
He held out his hand. ‘I’ll pull you up.’
She certainly was not going to give him reason to insult her on account of her being a girl again. She took a deep breath, then took his hand and placed her foot in the stirrup. He gave her a quick nod and, as she sprung from the ground, pulled her up with ease.
Although she was now safely aboard, she did not feel much better. ‘You will just walk slowly, won’t you?’
‘If you stop clinging to my shoulders like a monkey and put your arms around me to steady yourself, you will be fine,’ came his cross answer.
She immediately did as he suggested, locking her arms around his waist in a vice-like grip. ‘I am begging you to go slowly, Sir Richard. If I fall from here I’m sure I will be able to say ten Hail Marys before I hit the ground.’
‘Nonsense! Stop making such a fuss.’
‘Ready, sir?’ asked the sergeant.
Sir Richard nodded.
Gallagher let the stallion go and stepped back. Lucifer surged forward immediately, and Rowena, taken by surprise, shrieked in fright.
‘Don’t do that, you’ll frighten him!’ Sir Richard hissed.
‘Pardon me.’
‘And for God’s sake loosen your grip on me! At this rate, I’ll be completely numb from the waist down by the time we get there.’
She loosened her grip slightly. ‘Sorry, Sir Richard.’
Although Sir Richard restricted himself to a brisk walk, Rowena still felt terribly insecure. The considerable movement generated by the large horse’s massive strides made her feel like a cork bobbing on a rough sea. She was also beginning to wish she had got on the horse astride rather than side-saddle. It might be considered unladylike, indeed, almost obscene, for a woman to ride astride, but it was better than getting killed.
Once they had negotiated the busy roads leading to and from Hartfield, the path turned into the forest. The trail ahead was straight, slightly uphill and empty of other travellers. Lucifer began to pull at the reins and toss his head.
‘I always take this stretch of road at a canter; he’s keen to go,’ said the sheriff. ‘Would it be alright if I let him have a little trot just to take the edge off him?’
‘No, please don’t let him trot!’ she begged. ‘I’m barely coping with walk!’
But just as Sir Richard was about to reply, a startled rabbit darted out of the undergrowth and across the path in front of them. The already tense Lucifer instantly leapt to one side.
Rowena screamed in fright at the unexpected movement, startling the horse again, who jumped forward this time. Already unbalanced by the first jump, she started to fall.
She clung desperately to Sir Richard.
‘Let go of me!’ he shouted.
But it was too late. She felt him falling with her. Shutting her eyes, she braced for impact. After plunging down for what seemed like an age, but in reality was only a second or two, she hit the ground with a dull thud, face down.
Convinced she must have broken every bone in her body, she kept completely still and waited for the pain to set in. But it did not come—although the ground she had landed on did seem strangely lumpy and uneven…
She finally dared to open her eyes. She ought to have been looking at grass. But it did not look like grass, dirt, or any other such substance. She blinked hard, fearing she may have taken a knock to the head and started seeing things. But there was no doubt about it. What she was looking at was black and shiny with metal studs in it.
Then, coming from right by her head, she heard a choking gasp. It suddenly dawned on her: she had just landed on top of Sir Richard!
Despite her dazed state, she quickly dragged herself off him.
Freed from her weight, he immediately bent forward with his hand clutched to his chest, gasping for air.
Feeling rather panicked by the thought that she might have just killed the sheriff of Chaucy, Rowena hauled herself to a sitting position and grasped him by the shoulders. ‘Sir Richard, are you alright?’
But he had had the wind completely knocked out of him and seemed unable to speak.
Her face had gone all tingly from the sudden shock of the fall and her
legs felt weak, but Rowena managed to move behind him and seize him by the shoulders, pulling him back towards herself. ‘Lean back more, it will help!’
He did not resist, and fell weakly back against her. Unfortunately, she had not taken into account how heavy such a tall and well-muscled man was. She fell to the ground instantly under his considerable weight, with his head on her chest and half his upper body pinning her firmly down. He did not remove himself.
After only a few moments, Rowena could not bear to support him. ‘Could you—could you just—maybe—lean against that tree—next to you!’
‘You did say lean back more,’ came the unhurried reply.
‘Off—you’re killing me!’ she gasped.
‘And that’s my fault, is it? I told you to keep quiet.’
She pushed at him feebly. ‘You’ve—made—your—point.’
He shifted a little of his weight onto his elbow, but kept his head in place. ‘You might be a very insubordinate clerk, but you make a damn comfortable pillow.’
‘I told you I couldn’t ride! I should never have let you taunt me into getting on that skittish beast.’
‘You could at least have let me go instead of pulling me off and using my body to break your fall. I wish I had landed on you instead.’
‘Well I’m sorry for landing on you,’ she said unconvincingly.
He finally rolled off her and sat up.
The put-upon young clerk quickly pulled herself to her feet, keen to put some distance between herself and her crafty captor. ‘Try and play the good nurse and all you do is end up standing in for soft furnishings!’
He felt his side and winced. ‘I think you’ve cracked my damn rib.’
‘That’s your own fault for making me get on Lucifer!’
Sir Richard turned away with a ruffled air, as if her words were so ridiculous that they did not merit an answer.
Rowena suddenly put her hand to her neck. ‘My pendant, it’s gone!’ she cried, feeling around her throat desperately for the familiar old friend. ‘It must have been ripped off when I fell. Oh God, where is it—I have to find it!’ She started frantically searching the leaf-covered ground.
A few anxious moments later Sir Richard called out, ‘I think I have found it.’ He held aloft a small raying sun of thin gold attached to a leather cord. ‘It was snagged on my doublet.’
Rowena ran over to him. ‘Thank God!’ She took the necklace in her hand. ‘Thank you. It is so precious to me. I couldn’t bear to lose it.’
‘A gift, was it?’
‘Yes, it was a gift from my father to my mother. He died when I was very young and it was one of the only things she had to remember him by. Though we were very poor, she never sold it. On her deathbed she gave it to me—’ Rowena paused for a moment, then added in a barely audible whisper, ‘and when I wear it I feel like part of them is always with me.’
.5.
Death and the Maiden
LEANING against the window frame in the sheriff’s chamber, Rowena gazed longingly out the open window. How wonderful it looked out there in the sunshine! Wouldn’t it be lovely to be wandering through the forest on a day like this, or perhaps sitting on the bank of the brook where the blue forget-me-nots grew, dipping her toes in the cool water like she used to…
She turned back to the mountain of work still awaiting her on the table, and sighed. How much better than being in this cold, dark fortress, where rarely a ray of sunlight penetrated, slaving away on a thankless and seemingly never-ending task.
Presently, her thoughts were interrupted by the heavy tread of booted feet coming up the stairs. Although she was not expecting him to be about yet, the jingle of spurs announced them as belonging to Sir Richard, who promptly appeared through the door.
‘A report has come of a fifteen-year-old girl being snatched and carried off by two horsemen near the hamlet of Dovers Dell. Gallagher and I are riding over there right away. It happened last night, but as the messenger was on foot, we didn’t hear of until just now. Hopefully the villains’ scent trail is still fresh enough for our bloodhounds to pick up.’ Without waiting for a response, he started walking back out, hurriedly pulling on his gauntlets as he went. ‘I’ll be away for the rest of the day, so if there are any documents that require my attention, leave them until tomorrow,’ he called out as he disappeared down the stairs.
Another kidnapping… Rowena had heard a fair amount of talk around Eaglestone about two twin girls of seventeen who disappeared whilst walking to a farm not far from Hartfield two months earlier. She remembered the Cunninghams mentioning it at the time, but they had been of the opinion that the girls had run off with some young man or other, just like the young peasant girl who went missing a few weeks before that. And the girls were from the lower orders anyway. Who cared if a few maidens went missing if they were not nobly born? ‘Good riddance, I say,’ had been Lady Cunningham’s kindly sentiment on the matter.
* * * *
Sir Richard bounded down the stone steps and out into the castle courtyard, where Sergeant Gallagher and half a dozen mounted men-at-arms waited. Their horses, sensing the air of tension and urgency, fidgeted and chomped on their bits.
The sheriff leapt onto Lucifer, held saddled and ready to go by a pageboy, and urged the stallion into a gallop. The rest of his men followed, galloping out through the castle gates and over the lowered drawbridge, before disappearing down the road after him in a cloud of dust.
After a long, hard ride, the men finally arrived in Dovers Dell. The hamlet consisted of a small, ramshackle collection of cottages, widely spaced, with woven willow-fenced fields taking up the space between them. The cattle grazing in the fields looked up in surprise at the sight of the armed men clattering past, their sweating, foam-flicked horses steaming in the hot midday sun.
By the time the sheriff and his men reached the centre of the village, a small crowd had gathered. Except for an occasional whispered comment to a neighbour, the villagers stood sullenly staring in silence. A dog ran out barking at the strangers, causing some of the horses to nervously dance sideways. It was gruffly called back by its master.
Sir Richard rode up to the assembled villagers and halted in front of them. ‘Who reported the maiden missing?’ he demanded, scanning the crowd like a hawk after mice.
A balding man of late middle-age nervously stepped forward, clutching his cloth cap in his hands and bowing repeatedly. ‘My name be Tom, and it be my lass that were snatched, my lord.’ He kept his eyes on the ground, as if fearful that Sir Richard might be angered by someone so lowly looking upon him.
‘It was reported that someone saw the girl being taken?’
‘Argh, that be so,’ said the girl’s father, fidgeting with his cap. ‘It were her friend Elsie that saw it.’
‘Where is this girl? We need to speak with her.’
‘Elsie, come over ’ere!’ Tom called to a raggedly-dressed girl of about fifteen, who stood at the back of the crowd.
She dragged her feet as she slowly walked over with downcast eyes, and stopped a short way from Tom.
The grizzled peasant seized a reluctant Elsie by the hand and pulled her up to Sir Richard. ‘Tell the sheriff what it were you saw!’
The raggedy girl sniffed loudly and wiped her nose with the back of her hand before nervously beginning. ‘Well, me an’ Mary—that’s the lass that were snatched—was walkin’ ’long the path in the woods. We’d been to see ’er Grandma, who ain’t very well—’
Never mind that, tell me what happened to Mary!’ Sir Richard interrupted, his patience beginning to wear thin.
‘Perhaps it would be easier if she just took us to the spot and explained to us what happened,’ Sergeant Gallagher suggested quietly.
‘Yes, that’s not a bad idea.’ Sir Richard turned to the girl. ‘Elsie, lead us to the place where you saw Mary being kidnapped.’
She sniffed again. ‘But there ain’t nothin’ to see there.’
‘Just show us the place and let us
be the judge of that!’ Sir Richard replied curtly.
Gallagher, who had dismounted as soon as they had come up to the villagers, turned to Sir Richard. ‘Maybe it would be easier if you dismount from your horse and we follow her on foot, sir?’
Sir Richard wordlessly vaulted off Lucifer and motioned the girl forward.
Most of the crowd began to move off with them, but the sergeant held up his hand. ‘I’d be much obliged if the rest of you could stay back here. Too many people about might put the bloodhound off the scent, which will not help us find these felons.’
Elsie led the sheriff and his sergeant along the main street through Dovers Dell, which was a rutted dirt track that barely qualified as a road. When she reached the edge of the clearing, she turned sharply to the left and onto a smaller side path.
They had only been walking for a short while when the girl stopped. ‘This were the place Mary was.’
The path was fairly wide, but it did not look like many travellers used it, as the ground was overgrown in many places with grass and nettles.
‘And where were you when it happened?’ asked the sheriff.
‘I were some way ahead of ’er, cos she’d stopped to pick berries further back an’ hadn’t caught up yet.’
‘But you did see them take her?’
‘Aye. I ’eard the sound of horses comin’ an’ looked round an’ saw two men on ’orses trottin’ towards us. When they reached Mary they came in real close like. I ’eard ’er scream, then one of ’em hit ’er over the ’ead an’ dragged her up onto his ’orse, then they was gone.’
‘Which way did they go?’
She pointed up the road. ‘That way.’
And that road goes south?’
The girl swept a few strands of matted hair out of her face and shrugged her shoulders. ‘Dunno.’
‘What did the men look like?’
‘They was wearin’ kind of long dark cloaks with the ’oods up.’
‘Yes, and?’
‘And what?’
‘My God, what a bunch of inbred imbeciles...’ Sir Richard muttered to his Sergeant, before turning back to the girl. ‘Could you see their faces?’
The Heart of Darkness Page 6