An Unusual Bequest

by Mary Nichols

  Taking charge! Stacey smiled to himself. One thing he was not and that was in charge. Charlotte Hobart would not allow it; they had quarrelled, though for the life of him he could not say exactly what it had been about, except that she had taken exception to being kissed. Was that the aristocratic side of her coming to the fore? Why had she never told him about her mother’s family? Was she testing him, trying to find out how he behaved towards anyone who was not highborn? He did not care a groat for that, though undoubtedly it would weigh with his parents and for that reason alone he was glad of her rank. He wondered if Hardacre had written to his lordship as he said he would and what the reply had been. Was she still to be ignored? It made no difference. Apart from Julia and stopping those evil men at the Manor, there was nothing he wanted more than to have that promised talk with Charlotte and to resolve their difficulties.

  Chapter Ten

  Charlotte went round the house, checking that everywhere was locked up and all the lamps extinguished and then she went to bed and lay there thinking about Stacey, reliving every word they had said to each other, worrying about the smugglers, or more correctly about the villagers. Unable to sleep, she put on a dressing robe and climbed the stairs of the tower to search the horizon through the telescope. There were a few sails on the horizon, but as none approached land, she had no idea if one could be the contraband ship. She gave up when the pink light of dawn began to lighten the sky and returned to her bed. It was, as Quinny had a habit of pointing out, another day.

  She took the girls to church and was astonished to find all the pews packed. It looked as though the whole population of the village was there, except the men from the Manor. Except Stacey. They sang more hymns than they had been used to do and said more prayers, most of which revolved around doing no evil and not assisting others to do evil, and the wages of sin being eternal damnation. The Reverend Fuller was at his tub-thumping best when it came to the sermon and it was then she realised why there were so many in church and why so many of them were fidgeting and looking sheepish. Without actually saying so, he made them aware that he knew what was going on and that he condemned it and, if they persisted, they would be punished. ‘And I do not mean in the next world,’ he thundered. ‘I mean in this. Retribution is at hand, closer than you think.’ A concerted gasp went round the church at this. ‘Now let us pray for guidance.’

  He let them go at last, but he stood at the door and spoke to each of the men and the bigger boys. ‘Doing what is right should be its own reward,’ he told them severely. ‘But in case it is not, whatever your sinful wages would have amounted to will be replaced by honest coin. If you are without guilt and you know what I mean by that, come to me tomorrow afternoon. Now, go home and think about it.’

  He smiled at Charlotte as she came out of the church, ushering the girls along. ‘Ah, my lady, a fine day, is it not?’

  ‘Yes, Reverend, very fine.’

  ‘Not so fine one would want to wander too far abroad though. There might be squalls.’ His words were loaded with meaning which she had no trouble interpreting.

  ‘There might indeed, but perhaps we are worrying for nothing and the day will pass uneventfully.’

  ‘Let us pray so. And the night too. Shall you open the school tomorrow?’

  ‘Oh, yes, it is important to maintain a routine, do you not agree?’

  She took the girls home, wondering if and when Stacey would come, but there was no sign of him. He preferred playing cards to visiting her, even though he had said he would come and they would talk. She concealed her disappointment even from herself and set about trying to amuse the girls. Confined to the house, they were inclined to be fractious and quarrelsome and could not understand why they could not go for a walk when it was such a lovely day.

  They played cross-questions, Jackstraws, Speculation and Lottery Tickets with mother-of-pearl fishes, which was very noisy and which Julia won. They had dinner at three and after that Charlotte had them take it in turns to read aloud from the bible while the others sewed. They were soon bored by that and Julia wanted to know why they could not read Waverley instead and Charlotte gave in. Outside the sun still shone and the ill-kept garden, which Jenkins had been trying to restore, looked inviting.

  ‘Why can’t we go out, Mama?’ Lizzie asked. ‘I know it is Sunday, but surely a little walk would not be wrong? We have done it before.’

  ‘Because Viscount Darton asked me to keep you in.’

  ‘But why?’

  ‘No doubt because he is coming to visit and he would not like to find us out.’

  ‘But we have been in all day and he has not come,’ Julia said. ‘It is always the same with him, he makes promises and does not keep them. No doubt he has found company more to his liking.’

  ‘Oh. Julia, you should not say that about your papa. He always wants to do what is best for you. You had a lovely day yesterday, looking round that ship, didn’t you?’

  ‘Oh, he only suggested that because he wanted to meet his friend there.’

  ‘I do not think he expected to see Captain Topham. They both seemed surprised by it. You must have more faith in your papa, Julia.’

  ‘I will when he deserves it. If he fetches Ebony for me to ride, then I will believe what he says. He is not coming today now.’ She gave a huge sigh. ‘I’ll wager he is out on Ivor, galloping along the beach, which is what I should most like to do.’

  ‘You know he is not,’ Charlotte said. ‘The horse is still in the stable.’

  ‘Could we not play hide and seek?’ Fanny, the peacemaker, suggested. ‘I am sure we would all enjoy that.’

  Fanny was the first to hide and was soon discovered in the pantry; Lizzie, the next, was found under the desk in the library, but when it came to Julia’s turn, she could not be found anywhere. Charlotte, worrying that she might have gone outside, searched the garden, coach house and stables, but there was no sign of her. Jem, who was polishing Ivor’s saddle, said he had not seen her. Turning to go back, Charlotte glanced upwards just in time to see a flash of light from the window of the tower as the sun caught the glass of the telescope. She ran indoors and up the stairs to find Julia with her eye to the glass.

  ‘Julia, what are you doing? You know you have been forbidden to come up here.’

  The girl swivelled the instrument to look up and down the coast. ‘I am looking to see if I can see Papa.’

  ‘Oh, Julia, he will come, I am sure.’

  ‘You can see so much through this,’ the girl went on as if Charlotte had not spoken. ‘All the ships out to sea and the little boats, and even some men on the beach further along.’ She sighed. ‘But you cannot see what is directly below us. Do you think he might be down there?’

  ‘I do not think so, he would have called on us on his way.’ Charlotte wasn’t sure of the truth of that, but she was on tenterhooks, having Julia up in the tower where she had no business to be. ‘Come away, Julia. I gave my word to Captain MacArthur I would allow no one to come up here. How did you get in? The door is usually locked.’

  ‘It wasn’t. It wasn’t even shut properly. I was looking for a hiding place and I peeped in. Then I saw this.’ She pointed to the telescope. ‘I was doing no harm, only looking.’

  Charlotte realised she had not locked it after her when she and Stacey had been up there the day before. She could hardly blame the child for her own negligence. ‘Leave it, Julia. Come down. It is supper time.’

  Reluctantly the girl left the room. Charlotte locked the door and put the key in her skirt pocket, then followed Julia downstairs. She was inclined to agree with the child; Stacey would not come now. She tried to imagine what might be happening up at the Manor. Were they still gambling? Really, the parson would do better to preach his sermon against the evils of the gaming table because that was what had caused all this upheaval.

  Stacey was bored and longed to go to The Crow’s Nest, but he dare not absent himself from the Manor until he knew exactly what was going on and that he had Sir Rolan
d and Augustus Spike where he wanted them: down on the beach when the contraband came in and Gerard appeared. Although Sir Roland, not one for more exercise than he could help, was in the room, Augustus Spike was out and Stacey assumed he was patrolling the cliff top. He prayed the man would go nowhere near The Crow’s Nest.

  Had the parson managed to persuade the village men to defect? He had no way of knowing. He played cards for cobnuts again because, unsurprisingly, Cecil did not have the cash to cover the vouchers. ‘A slight delay,’ he told Stacey, cracking and eating a nut from the pile at his elbow, thus depleting his stake. ‘Tomorrow I will have it.’

  ‘Are you going to conjure it up from the air?’ Stacey asked him.

  ‘None of your business.’

  ‘A little trading, perhaps, goods sold for cash and a profit made?’

  Cecil laughed. ‘Of course. What did you think?’

  ‘I think the delay might have something to do with a northerly wind.’

  Stacey heard Sir Roland growl angrily and turned to him, smiling easily. ‘Did you think I was a cabbage head to be gulled into believing you were staying here for the love of the company?’

  Cecil laughed harshly. ‘And why did you stay? Or do we need to ask? Though what you see in her I do not know. She hasn’t a penny to her name, or pretends she has none.’

  How he remained seated Stacey did not know. He felt like giving the man a facer—more than that, battering him to a pulp. ‘Nothing to do with the lady,’ he said, controlling his voice with an effort. ‘Much more to do with a pile of useless vouchers. And unless they are redeemed, I shall shout it from the rooftops that Lord Hobart is a welcher.’

  ‘We made a bargain,’ Cecil reminded him. ‘Are you going to renege on that?’

  ‘No. I am here, ready and willing. What about you?’

  ‘At your service, but tomorrow it will have to be.’

  ‘Then I assume the merchandise will arrive tonight and be despatched to its buyers by dawn. That’s how it works, is it not?’

  Sir Roland rose, standing over him, a threat in every gesture as he waved a wine bottle in one hand and a glass in the other. ‘A revenue man! I might have known.’

  ‘Not at all,’ Stacey said levelly. ‘I have no more liking for excise men than you have. Just rotten bad form not to offer a man a cut, don’t you know? Especially when you are in his debt.’

  ‘Never mind that. What have you heard? Who said it?’

  ‘Your friend, Cecil,’ he said with a smile. ‘He has a very loud voice. When I overheard the words “tub carriers”, I knew it could only mean one thing. And tub carriers are usually local men, so I spent some time in the Dog and Fox.’

  ‘Peasants!’ The man resumed his seat, to Stacey’s immense relief. ‘They know nothing, so what can they have told you?’

  ‘Oh, they told me nothing. I deduced it from overhearing them tell each other how they would spend their sudden windfall.’

  ‘I said we should not have trusted them,’ Sir Roland told Cecil. ‘No notion of how to keep their tongues between their teeth.’

  ‘Imported men would have cost more and would have drawn attention to themselves,’ Cecil retorted.

  ‘It’s of no consequence,’ Stacey said. ‘All you have to do is include me in your plans.’

  They looked at one another, mentally sizing up the consequences of not complying against the cost of allowing him a part of the proceeds. He could almost see their brains at work, wondering how they could pretend to comply and then cheat him. It made him smile.

  ‘How do we know we can trust you?’ Sir Roland asked.

  He shrugged. ‘Does it matter? I am not going anywhere, not tonight anyway, unless I decide to take a stroll down to the beach to see the fun.’

  ‘Well, I am not going down there,’ Sir Roland said. ‘Someone has to be here when the goods arrive. If you want to be included, Darton, you can go and keep an eye on those tub carriers, make sure they don’t purloin any of the cargo.’

  ‘What time are you expecting the vessel to arrive?’ Stacey asked.

  ‘As soon as it is dark enough and the tide turns. It’s a large cargo and we want it all off the beach and safely stowed in the cellar by dawn.’

  ‘The buyers are coming here for it?’

  Cecil gave a cracked cackle. ‘I’m giving another house party and they’ll all have blunt in their pockets. You will have your game, Cousin Darton, have no fear, though whether you will be the richer at the end of it, I cannot say.’

  Stacey laughed. ‘That’s all I ask. I’ll be off now, take a walk, see what’s going on.’

  ‘Take the flasher with you.’ Sir Roland handed him a pistol without a barrel. ‘It will burn a blue light when you pull the trigger. Make sure, before you do, that it’s The Kentish Maid lying offshore and there’s no revenue cutter lying in wait. You won’t see another sunrise if you make a mistake over that, I promise you.’

  ‘Do you expect a revenue cutter?’

  ‘No, they are too busy watching the Kent coast.’

  Stacey laughed. ‘Clever of you.’ And with that he went to his room, put on top boots and a black cloak and left the house, carrying the strange pistol in his pocket. If The Kentish Maid was there, he would signal it in and then send a message to the Manor that the village men had not arrived and the beach was littered with contraband and no one to shift it. That would bring them down to the shore in a great hurry and Gerry and his men, who were safely hidden, would round them up. And then, his part done, he would go to The Crow’s Nest and have that talk with Charlotte. Somehow or other, they had to come to an understanding.

  Charlotte was frantic. Julia was not in her bed, had never been to bed by the look of the neat quilt and unmarked pillow. What had made her go into the girl’s room to check she was asleep and not reading by candlelight, she did not know, but it was as well she had. A quick search established Julia was not in the house. Where had she gone? The back door, which Charlotte had so carefully locked and bolted, was undone, so it looked as though she had escaped that way. Oh, what a night to run away! It would have been bad on any night, but with a shipload of contraband expected, she could easily run into danger. But perhaps she was hiding in the coach house or the stable.

  Slipping her cloak round her shoulders, Charlotte ran to the outhouses; there was no sign of Julia, but Ivor had gone. Surely the child could not ride that great stallion? And there was no lady’s saddle, so it must have been Stacey who had come and taken it. Had he taken Julia with him? She dismissed that idea at once; he was too wrapped up with the smugglers and his card game and had left the girl in her care while he resolved whatever it was needed resolving. His daughter did not figure in that. So, where was Julia? She went back indoors and roused Betsy and Miss Quinn.

  ‘You’ll have to inform his lordship,’ Joan Quinn ventured when the three adults were sitting in the kitchen with the heavy curtains pulled across so that their light did not show. Betsy and Miss Quinn didn’t know why that should be important but Charlotte had said they must not show a light out to sea in case the sailors confused it with the lighthouse. It was the first they had heard of that, but their mistress was obviously too worried to think clearly.

  ‘Let’s see if we can find her first,’ Charlotte said, looking wildly about her as if the girl would suddenly pop out from a cupboard. ‘She surely cannot have gone far. It’s dark. She will be frightened.’

  ‘Not that one,’ said Miss Quinn. ‘Don’t know the meaning of the word. Wants her breeches dusting, she does.’

  ‘I’ll go and fetch Jenkins and Jem,’ Betsy said. ‘They will help.’

  While she was gone, Charlotte searched the house again, even going up to the tower, but to no avail, and by this time her daughters were wide awake and sitting up in bed demanding to know what was happening. ‘Did Julia say she was going out?’ she asked them. ‘What was she wearing? Do you know where she could have gone?’ But they knew nothing. Julia had not said a word to them and had gone to her ro
om when they had, but no doubt had crept out again when the coast was clear. They were round-eyed with a mixture of excitement, envy and fear. Julia was always boasting she might run away, but they never believed she would.

  Jem and Jenkins arrived, carrying storm lanterns that Charlotte, even in the middle of her panic, thought might confuse anyone lying offshore waiting for a signal. ‘Ivor has gone from the stables,’ she told them. ‘Do you think Lord Darton came for him?’

  ‘Could have done,’ Jem said. ‘But he never said he was going riding. He wanted the horse to have a good rest after yesterday, bein’s he’s so out of condition.’

  ‘Julia can’t ride him, can she?’

  ‘She can ride anything, my lady. Ought to ’ ave bin a boy, I’ve told her so many a time. Her own mount is only a hand or so smaller.’

  ‘And can she saddle him and ride astride? There’s no lady’s saddle in the stable that I know of.’

  ‘She learned to ride that way, my lady. The Earl bought her a little pony when she was a tiny thing, barely able to walk, and so impatient was she to learn she couldn’t wait for a suitable saddle to be found and we put her on an old one the Viscount had when he was a boy. It amused the Earl no end.’

  ‘Then we must conclude she has gone riding. I know she wanted to gallop along the beach. But in the dark!’

  ‘It was likely not dark when she left, my lady.’

  ‘But it’s been pitch black for at least an hour.’ Charlotte was grabbing her cloak from a hook behind the door as she spoke. ‘Come on, we’ll go down to the beach and see if we can see her. Betsy, find me another lantern.’

  ‘Don’t you think you should fetch his lordship?’ Miss Quinn ventured.

  ‘Not unless I have to,’ Charlotte said, unwilling to have to confess to Stacey that she had failed in her duty to his daughter. He would be furious and any cordiality they might have restored between them since going to Ipswich would be gone, never to return. And it would certainly not help her school if word went round that she was not to be trusted with anyone’s daughters. She had to fetch Julia back herself. Whether she would tell Stacey of it afterwards, she did not know. ‘We will try and find her ourselves first. If she’s simply riding on the beach, we can bring her back and no harm done.’