‘Are you able to tell me your name?’ Michael asked the girl as he recorked the bottle. She made no sound, but from the way she pressed her lips together he made a guess. ‘Mary? Is that it?’ It appeared he had guessed correctly for she did not make a second attempt. There was no point in asking her surname. That could come later. He helped her to lie down again and put the blanket over her once more. The anodyne did its work swiftly. She was in a sound sleep within minutes, her agony already half drugged away until the next dose should become necessary.
They followed many winding lanes and passed the house where Michael’s great-aunt had once lived, but it had been sold long since to strangers and they could not look for hospitality there. They crossed into their home county at dusk, hours later than if nothing had happened to delay their journey. Mary was kept sleepy with the anodyne and since she could not be left when they drew up at a hostelry, Michael went in to purchase a couple of hot meat pies and had a mug filled with broth. He had hoped to feed Mary with a little nourishment, but she could only take sips of water. When he and Joe had eaten the meat pies and shared the broth between them, they rode on again by the fitful glow of the cartlamps. Joe continued to be jumpy at every hoot of an owl or anything else that disturbed the silence of the dark countryside. Michael tried again to reassure him, convinced that their detour would have thrown any pursuers off the scent.
‘Listen, we are now well into Sussex and I’m sure we’ve had almost a day’s head start in any case,’ he said confidently. ‘Those medical students would almost certainly have gone straight back to the hospital and begun their dissections immediately, which means it was probably not till about a couple of hours ago that they dispersed to a tavern and their boasting reached military ears. The Roundheads would not start an extensive search with darkness falling and by the time they set off in the morning there will be no trail left.’
It would have been exactly as he had said if it had not been for the wife of the landlord of the St Cross hostelry. At noon she had been gossiping in the taproom and mentioned what had increased in her imagination from an impression of his height and dark hair to a marked resemblance to Charles Stuart. Two Parliamentary officers happened to be having dinner there at the time and overheard what was said. They sprang up from their table, cross-questioned her and then rushed out to set up a hue and cry. Within a remarkably short time soldiers were riding out in all directions and rumours ran through Winchester like a forest fire. The tyrant’s son had been there and nobody knew! Then suddenly people thought they remembered sightings themselves and more rumours were set in motion. One reached the hospital, borne there on the active tongue of the doctor’s housekeeper, and even the medical students began to wonder about the tall young man who had expressed such an interest in the survivor of the hangings and his insistence on the girl being taken away and nursed. By nightfall, with the landlord’s wife passing on everything she had heard and exaggerating her own tale for the benefit of the crowded taproom, all Winchester knew that Charles Stuart had whipped away a Royalist girl in his coach, assisted by Cavaliers armed to the teeth!
The Parliamentary Colonel investigating the case considered, on adding up all the evidence, it was highly improbable that Charles Stuart had been anywhere near Winchester, let alone deliberately drawing attention to himself in a hostelry. He knew there had been innumerable ‘sightings’ all over the country, especially since the enormous reward had been offered. Nevertheless, it did appear a Royalist had been involved. The missing girl was a seamstress named Marion Moore, who had been condemned for conspiring with two relatives, both watch-makers, to lead Parliamentary forces astray in their search for Charles Stuart. The three of them had professed to know where he was and had led the soldiers far from the house where the royal rogue was hiding and where he would otherwise have been found. It had all taken place in another part of the country where a certain commander, not wanting the word spread that he had allowed himself to be fooled, had insisted on the execution taking place where the three condemned were not known locally.
Now the responsibility was the Colonel’s to track down the two new quarries and the female escapee in order to bring them to the gallows and to ensure that there was no bungling this time.
*
Michael and Joe arrived home at Sotherleigh the following evening. Their pace had been slower than they had anticipated due to the torment of the girl. Whenever the effects of the anodyne wore off, her agony appeared to have increased a thousandfold, every lurch of the cart making her eyes roll up with pain, her hand clutching the blankets until the knuckles showed white. She had to be kept sedated most of the time. Towards the end of the journey they took woodland lanes that Michael had known since boyhood and they met nobody. It was dusk when they came to the rear gates of his home and found them locked, although a smaller gate in the wall, used by the servants, was not yet bolted and Ridley could be expected at any time to perform that duty. It meant leaving the cart and horses temporarily tied up by the gates. After wrapping Mary in the blanket, Michael picked her up in his arms to carry her through the gate, Joe holding it open for him.
‘Go into the house,’ Michael instructed, ‘speak to my mother and tell her to meet me at the Queen’s Door.’ It was the code word for the secret entrance to the house, never before mentioned to anyone outside the family, but this was an emergency. ‘Prepare her for my having an injured girl with me, but no more than that. She is to send Julia with a closed lantern to me at the orangery as quickly as possible. I know the domestic staff is trustworthy, but Mary’s life may depend on no word of her neck injury being released. When you’ve done all that, get the keys to the gate and take the horses to the stables as quickly as you can. The cart will have to be chopped up and burned later.’
When Joe entered the kitchen by way of the servants’ entrance into the house, he welcomed the familiar sight of its spacious proportions and copper pans, its glowing hearth and those he knew sitting at the long scrubbed table or busy at some task. For a matter of seconds nobody noticed him. Then one of the maidservants gave a shriek and leaped forward to box his ears before he knew what was happening.
‘You wicked boy! Where have you been all this time?’
He shoved her off. ‘You silly ’apporth! I’ve been to the war.’ Then seeing Cook approaching him with a bellow, he dodged to the other side of the table. ‘I ’ave to find the mistress. Where is she?’
‘With company in the Queen’s Parlour. Mr and Mrs Townsend have called,’ the youngest maidservant informed him.
He grabbed her by the wrist. ‘Come with me. You’ve got to tell ’er she’s wanted urgent and Miss Julia too!’
Anne, enjoying the neighbourly visit, excused herself and Julia from the visitors’ presence and left them with Katherine to go out into the hall where Joe was waiting. She asked him the same question as had been put to him in the kitchen but without abuse, only showing relief that he was back.
‘I’ve come home with Mr Michael, ma’am.’
‘He’s safe! Is Colonel Pallister here too?’
‘No, ma’am, but there’s no bad news of him.’ Then he gave her the message and the letter from her husband that had been entrusted to him.
Julia was excited about the task she had been given and with a shawl about her shoulders she ran to where her brother was waiting in the gathering darkness with an unknown young woman in his arms.
‘Good girl!’ he exclaimed as soon as he saw her. ‘Now don’t ask any questions. In fact, I don’t want you to speak at all. You’ll understand why in a minute.’
She nodded, clamping a hand briefly across her mouth to show that she was obeying him already. He set off by a path that went by the maze and she hurried after. As yet the lantern was closed, for there was still just enough light to see where they were going. She was bursting with curiosity about the silent person in his arms. The blanket had been pulled over the young woman’s head and hung down over her face like a monk’s cowl, which was making it imp
ossible for her to be seen. Yet she did not complain, only making odd little gasps and sighs.
To Julia’s astonishment her brother did not turn towards the house as she had expected, but went straight into the nearest entrance of the maze. Now she kept still closer to his heels, fearful of being left behind. In and out and round the box-hedges they went, she losing all sense of direction. Then when they were close to the centre of the maze he laid his burden down.
‘I’m leaving you here for a few minutes, Mary.’
Then he beckoned to Julia and they went together into the heart of the maze where a central octagonal stone seat awaited those needing rest after their achievement in reaching it. To Julia’s further amazement, Michael put his hands to the edge of one of the sections and it rose with barely a sound of its well-oiled hinges like the lid of a box. Drawing Julia forward, he whispered that she should go down the steps that were revealed and then light them for him.
She opened the lantern and went down into the darkness. There was a rail in the wall to hold on to and when she reached the bottom of the flight she saw that there was a strongly constructed passage with stout beams leading away into the distance. She was thrilled to have been initiated into this closely held family secret. No wonder her brother had kept the girl’s face covered and made sure she had no chance to see him open the entrance.
There was almost no time to wait until he reappeared with her. As soon as he was down the flight he laid his burden down again, this time on an ancient elm bench set against the wall. Then he darted back up the steps to pull the slab closed by a ring handle on the underside of it. ‘Lead the way, Julia,’ he said as he picked the girl up again.
The lantern beam danced ahead and their footsteps echoed strangely on the stone flags. Julia guessed they must be at the level of Sotherleigh’s cellars and supposed it was there they would emerge, but this was not the case. They came to a series of short flights, each divided off at the landings by a stout door and finally they came to one showing a faint chink of light. Michael told Julia to tap on it. Immediately it slid back into the wall and Anne stood there with a lighted candlestick in her hand. They had reached that section of the supper room that was kept closed off by the false wall.
‘Thanks be to God that you’re home!’ Anne exclaimed at the sight of her son.
He leaned forward to kiss her cheek. ‘Did Joe tell you that the last time Father was seen he was on his feet and active?’
‘I was told there was no bad news, but that does not mean you know him to be safe.’ Her anxious face hoped for contradiction.
‘Everything was so confused after the battle. He had every chance of getting away. I have good reason to believe he is with the King.’ It was a conviction he had formed since his own escape.
‘Pursued like an animal!’ she cried in distress.
‘Just as it’s possible this young woman is being hunted, although if that should be the case I believe the Roundheads after her will have lost all trace by now. Only yesterday by mere chance, she escaped their efforts to end her life for being suspected of attempting to help the King. Hence the condition of her neck. As yet she is unable to speak, but she gave some signs of assent when I asked her if her name was Mary.’
‘The poor girl!’ Anne was all compassion, ‘Should your father be with the King, and the accusations made against this girl be true, we shall have a debt owing to her that we can never repay. Anything she may have done to aid Charles has also aided Robert.’
‘My thoughts are on the same lines. There’s no danger in its being known that I’m home. The Roundheads will be too busy searching for the King to trouble about those of us who are home again, but Mary must stay out of sight for the time being. I have to get her upstairs without any of the servants spotting her. Gossip about her condition could easily cost her life at the present time.’
Anne nodded and went ahead to make sure the coast was clear. To Julia’s chagrin she was sent back to rejoin the company in the Queen’s Parlour, her mother returning briefly to explain to the visitors that one of the household was indisposed and she would be with them again as soon as possible. When Anne came back again into the hall, Michael was already at the top of the stairs. She bunched her skirts and flew up to him.
‘Bring Mary into the east wing. We’ll put her in the bedchamber next to mine.’
There Mary was laid on the bed and the blanket removed from her. Anne thought she had never seen eyes more stark with suffering. ‘I’m going to look after you and get your neck well again,’ she said gently, showing none of the shock she had experienced at the sight of the girl’s badly swollen face, black bruises having seeped up, grimly colouring the cheeks. ‘Michael shall stay with you while I fetch my basket of liniments and bindings.’
When she had gone Michael smiled down at his mother’s patient. ‘You’re in the best hands in England now. My mother is in her element when caring for people. Nobody will find you here and all you have to do is to rest and get your voice back again. We’ll have lots to talk about.’
Anne had collected her basket from a cupboard when she heard the visitors departing and hurried downstairs. They had been on the point of going earlier and had taken no offence at her absence, inviting her and Katherine to dinner the following week. As soon as the door had closed after them, Anne sighed with relief and shooed Julia back into the Queen’s Parlour. ‘Go and tell your grandmother all that has happened. Despite her outward control she is suffering from intense anxiety.’
Upstairs she summoned Sarah, her personal maid, who was her own age and had been with her since she had first come to Sotherleigh as a bride. Sarah had long since proved both loyal and trustworthy. She explained the situation and Sarah echoed what Anne had said earlier.
‘I’ll do anything I can for someone who has suffered in the King’s cause and more than likely helped the Master, however indirectly it was done.’
‘I knew I could count on you,’ Anne said gratefully.
When they entered the guest room the girl’s wild gaze was fixed on Michael and followed him as he left the bedside, almost as if she were silently calling him back. No sooner had he gone than strange sounds, almost like inner sobs, came from the girl’s throat. Having learned from Michael that it was at least three hours since Mary had last had a dose of the apothecary’s anodyne, Anne poured out a spoonful and gave it to her.
‘This will take away the pain while Sarah and I make you comfortable and dress your neck.’
On going downstairs, Michael was relieved to find the visitors had gone and went first to see Katherine for a few minutes, promising to return soon and give her a full account of all that had happened. He then went to the kitchen to give the household staff such news of their menfolk as he had been able to glean and finally ordered Joe to bring two jugs of hot water to his room. When the boy arrived, Michael made sure the horses had been stabled and fed and once again impressed on Joe there must be no word about the young woman.
Joe, happy and thankful to be home, reassured of being allowed to work in the stables, and the possessor of three gold coins given in thanks for all he had done, was only too willing to swear solemnly he would never tell a soul.
When Michael brought one of the jugs of hot water to the guest room, Mary was asleep again, undressed beneath the bedcovers and with the makeshift binding removed from her neck. He stared in horror at the grotesque swelling, the bruises purple and black. ‘Will she ever be right again?’
‘If it lies in my power she will be,’ Anne said firmly while Sarah poured the hot water into a Delft basin and put towels ready.
When Michael had gone, they bathed the girl from head to toe, put her into a nightgown and finally treated her neck. A soothing herbal ointment was smoothed on first to reduce the bruising, followed by a soft cambric layer and then a linen bag tight with wool to give a firm support with a final binding to hold it in place. Anne did not leave Mary alone that night but after reading Robert’s letter many times over she slept on a d
ay-bed in the room. It was always Sarah who woke her in the morning so she did not have to fear anyone else on the staff finding her absent from her bedchamber. She tended her patient several times in the night and when she went back to her own room to prepare herself for the day, she saw that Sarah had ruffled the bedclothes to make it appear that the four-poster had been slept in when the maidservant came later to see to the room.
It did not prove as difficult as Anne had feared to keep Mary hidden. Always it had been her custom during the last months before Christmas to keep locked that particular guest room where she would sew Yuletide gifts for the family and servants. Therefore the pretence that there was no other purpose than the annual one made it easier for her. The family had always been allowed to enter, if their gifts were shut away in a closet, and so the procedure went on as usual.
Anne did sew and embroider at the bedside and was thankful that the care of Mary kept her extra busy, for every morning she hoped the day would bring Robert’s return and every evening she went to bed disappointed. The village sweetheart of one of the maidservants came home from Worcester, having escaped capture, and Anne gave her time off to be with him. A week later the father of another returned. He was Sotherleigh’s coachman and was much changed by all that he had been through. Of the nine men who had ridden off with Robert only two more returned, both of them gardeners at Sotherleigh and, like those who had come back before them, they had endured great hardships on the way. They were able to fill in the final gaps as to the fate of the others who had been with them. Three of the four footmen had been killed, the fourth taken prisoner, and as Michael already knew, the groom had changed sides when he realized the odds would be against the King’s chances of victory. None of the survivors were able to give Anne any more news of Robert than she had received from her son already, although they gave her eye-witness accounts of his courage at the forefront of the defence of the bridge before he fell from his horse and was carried from the field. Had Michael not given her reassurance that Robert’s wound had not been fatal she would have feared the worst.
Circle of Pearls Page 14