The House

by A. O'Connor

“Well, I must have! I’ve searched everywhere for it,” she said, distressed.

  Edward’s face clouded over as he stood up and pulled the bell-pull.

  A minute later Barton arrived in.

  “Barton, Lady Anna has lost her gold watch-locket. I want you to supervise a search of the whole house – including the servants’ rooms in the attic.”

  Barton’s face clouded over with concern. “Of course, sir! Straight away.”

  “Come on, let’s search our room again,” said Edward, taking Anna by the hand.

  “I’m afraid we have looked everywhere, Lord Armstrong, and there is no sign of the locket,” saidBarton.

  “You’ve searched all the servants’ rooms?” said Edward.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m very pleased it wasn’t found there. I’d hate to think one of our trusted house servants would take something. But these are hard times and you can never be too sure.”

  “I suppose it’s feasible one of them could have smuggled it out already,” Bartonsaid.

  Edward turned to Anna. “Anna, think hard! When did you have it last? Where were you?”

  Anna got up and started pacing. “I definitely had it yesterday as I remember putting it on in the morning . . .I was writing letters in the afternoon in here . . .” Suddenly Anna’s face lit up. “And now I remember! I took it off and placed it on the writing desk so I could keep a check of the time as I wrote.”

  Edward dashed over to the writing desk. “Then it must be here somewhere.”

  “We’ve already checked there, Edward.”

  Nevertheless, he checked the desk itself and then examined the floor around it, while Barton searched the drapes of the curtains in the nearby window.

  “Well, who has been in this room since yesterday, Barton?” Edward asked then,becoming exasperated. He hated to think there might be someone dishonest in the house. “The bloody thing can’t disappear into thin air!”

  “Well, nobody – only the usual staff.Me, the under-house parlour maid to do the fires, a very trustworthy girl in my opinion – and . . .” Bartontrailed off and suddenly looked at Anna, full of concern.

  “Oh yes, I forgot!” Anna gasped. “Seán Hegarty was here as well!”

  “Seán Hegarty!” said Edward. “What the blazes was he doing here? He’s in the stables now!”

  “He arrived in, my lord, and caused quite a commotion, insisting on seeing Lady Anna,” Barton said.

  “Anna?” Edward’s turned to his wife for answers.

  “As Barton says . . . he insisted on seeing me and so I received him here in the drawing room.”

  “And what did he want? His old position back?”

  “No . . . He told me he has run up gambling debts and with the crops having failed on his land he couldn’t pay them back. He was asking, well, demanding, a loan from me to pay off the debts.”

  “I cannot believe he would do such a thing!” Edward’s temper exploded. “Why didn’t you tell me about this, Anna?”

  “I didn’t want to worry you, or concern you. I just told him no and that he needed to leave.”

  “That he would come here and ask you for money!” Edward was scandalised.

  “Could he have taken the opportunity to take the locket?” questioned Barton.

  Anna walked over to the writing desk. “It was resting on the writing table here, so yes, he could have swiped it when I wasn’t looking. In fact, I was so taken aback by his intrusion, it was probably why I didn’t notice it missing straight away.”

  “If you don’t mind me saying, my lord, I think we’ve found our culprit. He had opportunity, reason and cause,” Barton pointed out.

  “Not Seán!” Edward was horrified. “I’d never believe it of him.”

  “Well, we have to investigate it,” urged Anna.

  “Of course. Barton, send for Sinclair immediately.”

  That night Seán was in his cottage staring into the flames dancing in the fireplace as he thought of his confrontation with Anna.

  Suddenly the door burst open and in stormed Sinclair with several of his men.

  “What the –?” Seán leapt to his feet in shock.

  “You just stay there and be quiet,” commanded Sinclair before turning to his men. “Search the place!”

  “Why are you doing this?” demanded Seán, as the men went to work pulling the place apart.

  “You’re in enough trouble, so just keep that smart mouth of yours closed,” said Sinclair.

  As the dresser was turned over, the locket went flying through the air and Sinclair reached forward and grabbed it.

  Sinclair dangled it in front of Seán’s face. “Caught – red-handed!”

  Sinclair came marching into the drawing room where Edward and Anna were waiting anxiously.

  “Yours – I believe,” said Sinclair, handing the locket to Anna. “As we thought, it was in Seán Hegarty’s cottage. On top of a dresser.”

  “I’d never have believed it!” said Edward sitting down, his face a mask of disappointment.

  “I would!The whole country is going mental with these crops failing. They’d do anything for money,” said Sinclair.

  “But Seán!” said Edward. “Where is he now?”

  “My men locked him up in one of the stables. He won’t get out. We’ll leave him there till the morning and then bring him into town to the magistrate.”

  “Magistrate! You mean he’ll end up in court?” Anna looked up, alarmed.

  “Of course, what else did you think? He’ll be deported to Australia or Van Diemen’s land,” said Edward.

  Anna had heard so many awful stories of the convicts and the horrors that awaited them in the penal colonies. She had assumed, once the locket was returned, Seán would be thrown of the estate and that would be the end of it.

  She had counted on Edward’s kindness and his fondness forSeánto prevent him from taking it any further.

  “Oh no! I don’t want that!” insisted Anna.

  “Well, you’ve no choice. The law has to take its course,” said Sinclair.

  “We do have a choice, Edward!” said Anna urgently. “We just won’t report the robbery. Just evict him tomorrow and throw him out of the estate. He was obviously desperate when he took the locket. Losing his employment and his home will be punishment enough!”

  “Not at all! If it was my Diana who had been robbed, she –” began Sinclair.

  “Well, I’m not your Diana!” Anna snapped loudly at Sinclair. “Luckily! Now, I would like to speak to my husband alone. Please leave us, Sinclair.”

  Sinclair nodded curtly and walked out.

  Anna rushed to Edward, “Edward! Please! You were fond of Seán. Show him some mercy!”

  Edward nodded and sighed. “We won’t take him to the magistrate. We’ll evict him tomorrow. Oh, why did Seán do such a thing?”

  Anna gazed into the fire. “He was desperate. We can do anything – if we’re desperate enough.”

  Seán sat in the corner of the stable in darkness all night. He remembered Anna holding out the locket to him, bribing him to take it to leave the estate.

  He now knew she had set about framing him.

  The doors of the stable suddenly opened and in came Sinclair with his men.

  “You’re a lucky man, Hegarty,” he said. “Lord Armstrong has a soft heart and a softer wife.”

  “What’s happening?” demanded Seán.

  “You’re being evicted from the estate. If it was my decision you would be thrown out of the country to the penal colonies. Come on!”

  The men grabbed Seán and placed him on a horse. He was allowed back to his cottage to grab some possessions and then they rode quickly to the edge of the estate where Seán was dumped on the side of the road.

  “As you know my men are constantly patrolling the estate, so if I ever catch you around here again, you won’t be so lucky the next time!” Sinclair warned, before he and his men rode off.

  As Seán looked at his little money and possess
ions and looked around the forbidding countryside, he didn’t feel lucky at all as he made his way to Castlewest.

  Anna felt relief wash over her after that. She was free from Seán and exposure. Seán was evicted from the estate and would never be allowed near her or her baby again.

  As the summer months passed by everybody anxiously and hopefully waited for the potato crop. When the crop failed even worse than the previous year, despair and panic set in.

  Chapter thirty-five

  The doors into the library were open and Anna could clearly hear Edward and Sinclair talk as she came into the hall from the dining room where she had been having a light luncheon. She stood and listened.

  “People are beginning to die in their hundreds,” said Sinclair. “Many were just hanging on till this crop, but now that it’s failed again they can’t survive any longer.”

  “What can we do?” Edward sounded desperate.

  “We are in a terrible position. We are running into a second year of non-payment of rents. We risk financial ruin. We are liable for the rates on the farms of less than four acres. I say we clear the land of these farmers and their families, amalgamate the farm holdings to make them bigger. We’ll no longer be responsible for their rates payments and we can diversify into more cattle breeding, which is what I’ve been trying to do here anyway.”

  “And what do you suggest we do with all the evicted farmers and their families?” Edward’s voice was raised.

  “That’ll no longer be our problem once they are off the estate. They may emigrate, or go the workhouse –”

  “Or starve to death!” Edward nearly shouted. “And while we throw them out on the roadside why don’t we have a ball here in the house! A feast, a banquet to entertain ourselves while the poor die!”

  Sinclair ignored his sarcasm. “What do you suggest we do then, dear cousin?”

  Edward sat down at his desk. “I suggest we cope as best we can. I’ll write to the banks and tell them we need an extension on mortgage repayments. Even without eviction our tenants will need food provision to get them through this winter which we need to organise.”

  “On a practical note, Edward, I strongly suggest we put armed men at the entrances of the estate.”

  “Is that necessary?” Edward was shocked.

  “Riding through here this morning, I found a few wretched creatures wandering around the place scouring for food. With the amount of people being displaced and desperate we have to protect ourselves from being overrun.”

  “I don’t want to live in a fortress!” objected Edward.

  Sinclair slammed both his hands on the desk in front of Edward and shouted, “For pity’s sake, see sense, man! Do you want a couple of hundred starving peasants storming the front door here? If you have no regard for your wife and child, then have regard for the rest for us! Provide protection for your servants and the rest of us from a desperate starving mob!”

  Edward was taken aback. “Very well.”

  “Thank you!” spat Sinclair, before turning and walking out.

  Anna waited until she heard the front door slam before she went to Edward who was seated with his face buried in his hands.She put her arms around his shoulders and comforted him.

  “Is it as bad as it seems?”

  “I’m afraid it very much is. Can you write to your father again and tell him how desperate the situation is here? How we need Parliament’s help. Tell him to go to Westminster and beg for help if he has to.”

  “Of course I will. But I think he’s already aware how things are. I received a letter from him yesterday saying Dublin was being flooded by migrants fleeing the famine in the countryside. . . yes, he called it a famine. He said the streets are full of hungry beggars. He asked if the aid was getting through here.”

  “Tell him it’s not nearly enough. Write to him straight away.”

  “Of course I will.”

  That night Anna stood at the nursery window cradling Lawrence close to her while looking out at the lake. She tried not to think of the despair outside the haven of the house and estate.

  “You’re safe here, darling. Nothing can hurt you here,” she whispered to him.

  Anna’s covered carriage left the main entrance of the estate and headed towards Castlewest. Edward had advised not going out of the estate as he had warned she would see things that would upset her. But she needed to get materials to be made into clothes for Lawrence. And she was hearing such horrible stories that she needed to see for herself what was going on. As she looked out the carriage window she saw people walking aimlessly down the road. She was struck by their emaciated bodies, dressed in rags, their eyes sunk into their gaunt faces, barely managing to hold out their hands as the carriage drove by in some desperate appeal for help. As she approached the town, she saw a woman lying beside the ditch cradling a baby to her, both wasting away from hunger. And lying in the ditch there were some bodies that she wasn’t sure were dead or alive.

  The town’s streets were surprisingly empty – the town almost looked deserted. It was not the usual bustling market town it was normally, filled with produce and abundance. There was a police presence throughout the town, and a few fragile people stumbling around. The carriage pulled up outside the draper’s. Anna stepped down and looked up and down the street and got an eerie feeling. She went up to the draper’s door and went to open it, but it was locked, even though there was a sign saying it was open. She knocked loudly on the glass of the door, and a few seconds later the store’s owner, Mrs O’Hara, came to the door and unlocked it.

  “Oh, Lady Armstrong, it’s so good to see you, please come in,” said Mrs O’Hara, beckoning her in, and she quickly closed the door and locked it again.

  Mrs O’Hara was a large usually jovial woman who owned and ran the large draper’s store with efficiency and politeness. But as Anna looked at her that day, Mrs O’Hara looked distressed and anxious, holding a handkerchief to her face.

  Mrs O’Hara looked out the window. “They didn’t see you come in. But they’ll spot the carriage quick enough and be out soon.”

  “Who, Mrs O’Hara?”

  “The people of course.”

  “Where is everybody?” Anna asked pleadingly.

  “In their houses, if they still have houses. They have no energy to even walk anymore. I’ve never seen anything like it. None of the business people in town have. At least I sell only linen and cotton, they can’t eat that. But the food stores can’t even stock anything, because they would be rushed and looted by the starving poor.”

  Mrs O’Hara went behind the large counter which was stacked with materials.

  “How are you coping at the Big House?” asked Mrs O’Hara.

  “As best we can.”

  “I heard there were to be no evictions there.”

  Anna noted that Mrs O’Hara’s usual overly respectful manner of address was gone. Clearly, in her stress and panic, Queen Victoria herself could be standing in her draper’s shop and she wouldn’t care, she was so distracted with what was going on.

  “No, Lord Armstrong insists there should be no evictions.”

  “Well, that’s something. I don’t think the town could cope with another influx of people with nowhere to go. The Foxes have started evicting.”

  “The Foxes!” Anna thought of kindly Mr and Mrs Foxe. “I can hardly believe it.”

  “Believe it, because it’s true! I’ve heard them saying they need to clear the land of the cottiers to make the estate profitable again as they can’t rely on the potato anymore. Potato! And I’ve heard from Mr Byrne in the fishmonger’s they are still ordering in salmon and caviar. Caviar! While their tenants starve and we have to suffer it all in the town.” Mrs O’Hara took her handkerchief and started dabbing her eyes. “They say there will be a breakout of cholera or typhus if it goes on much longer. Typhus! I’ll have to go to my sister in Dublin to stay. There’s a field behind the town and they are just dumping dead bodies there into a mass grave. I’ve never seen anything
like it.” The tears began to spill down the woman’s face and she wiped them away with her handkerchief.

  Anna quickly pointed out some cotton and paid for it. Mrs O’Hara wrapped it up and gave it to her.

  “Oh no, here they are! I told you they would see the carriage and come out!” said Mrs O’Hara.

  At the doors and windows of the shop were gathered a gang of people, dressed in rags. Mrs O’Hara opened the front door and let Anna out before quickly closing the door and bolting it again. Anna saw the ravenous faces in front of her pleading for food. Hands reaching out, they looked as if they barely had energy to stand. She quickly opened her purse, took all the money out and handed it out quickly before hurrying to her carriage.

  “Take me home, quickly!” she told the driver.

  “Edward! We must do more!” Anna pleaded when she got home.

  “What else can we do? The workhouses are already being paid for by the landlords – it’s our duty to pay for them. We just don’t have enough money to feed everyone.”

  Anna made her way to the nursery and rocked Lawrence’s cradle slowly. As she looked down at him all she could think about was Seán. How she had thrown him fromthe security and protection of the estate, and cast him out to the catastrophe that was taking over the land. She had never realised it would be so bad. She hadn’t realised she was putting Seán out to that. It broke her heart thinking of him out there alone and hungry like all those people she had seen today. She felt crippled with guilt at the thought that she would probably be the cause of his death.

  “I’ll find him,” she whispered to Lawrence. “I’ll bring him home to safety.”

  Chapter thirty-six

  Anna discreetly enquired from the servants had they heard anything of Seán since he had been put off the estate. Nobody seemed to have heard anything. She asked some trusted servants to enquire in Castlewest if they knew anything of him.

  “There’s so many people dead or dying, my lady, it’s hard to enquire after one man and get a direct answer,” Barton informed Anna, after his enquiries had been unfruitful.