Louisa faced him. “Roderick is here to bring you to justice,” she challenged him defiantly. “And he will do it.”
He gave an unpleasant, silent laugh. “You little fool! Roderick Blake is a scheming impostor, trying to step into a dead man’s shoes. It’s true that old Lord Cranford is dead, but so is his heir. The young Earl died in India, after a drunken brawl. Roderick Blake was his batman.
“India is far away and nobody has seen the young man for years. He must have thought he could get away with it. He manages to deceive credulous little girls with more imagination than sense, but he doesn’t fool me.”
Louisa flushed at the contemptuous way he referred to her.
“I don’t believe you,” she said firmly. “He is the true Earl and Cranford Manor belongs to him, because you cheated his grandfather out of it. Just as you cheated my father.
“Every penny you possess has been obtained by fraud and theft. But it’s over. The Earl of Cranford has returned to bring you to justice.”
His eyes narrowed. “When we are married, you will learn to mend your manners.”
“I shall never marry you.”
Lord Westbridge shrugged. He flung a cold glance at Lord and Lady Hatton.
“Talk some sense into her,” he said and stalked out.
Louisa looked at her parents with horror and then fled upstairs. Her mother followed her. She was becoming hysterical.
“My child, you must heed your mother’s pleas.”
“Mama, I have always been a dutiful daughter, but this is wrong. I cannot marry one man while I love another.”
“Don’t speak of loving that impostor,” Lady Hatton screamed. “You are not in your right senses.”
“But I am. Oh, Mama, try to understand. I am in love. Truly in love for the first time in my life. Let me bring Roderick to you –”
“Never! Your father and I will protect you from that wicked man.”
Lady Hatton dried her eyes and a stubborn look came over her tired face.
“I am acting in your own best interests, my child. One day you will appreciate that.”
She swept from the room and Louisa heard the click of a key in the lock.
“Mama!” she cried.
She ran to the door and tugged at it, but it was firmly locked.
“Mama!”
She shouted and banged on the door, but there was no reply.
All she could hear was her mother’s footsteps descending the stairs.
*
The next day Louisa was kept locked in her room. Her parents, who had once seemed so tender and indulgent, had become implacable.
Several times they came in to reason with her.
“If you do not marry Lord Westbridge, we are ruined,” her mother claimed. “You would not want see your parents thrown out of their home?”
Louisa cast beseeching eyes on her father, who stood there looking uncomfortable. He had always doted on her. Surely he could not destroy her life in order to pay his gambling debts?
But looking into his face she realised that she no longer knew him. He was not a tower of strength, as she had always thought, but a rather weak man who could not accept responsibility for his actions. He would bully her into submission while pretending it was for her own good.
“Papa –” she pleaded, although knowing it was useless.
“I do not know what we did to deserve such an ungrateful daughter,” he said to his wife, avoiding Louisa’s eye. “She thinks of nothing but herself.”
“Papa, don’t do this to me, I beg you.”
“I cannot stay here,” he said hurriedly. “I hope that prayer and reflection will bring you to a sense of your duty.”
He hurried out before he could hear more.
Her mother began to cry again,
“We are ruined,” she wailed. “What will become of us?”
“Mama,” Louisa said desperately, “it was not me who ruined you. You want to pay Papa’s debts with my life.”
He mother’s answer was a scream.
“May Heaven forgive you for saying such a wicked thing!”
Louisa had been raised as an obedient daughter. She began to believe that it was her duty to rescue them, even at the cost of the rest of her life.
But then she would think of Roderick, whom she loved with a love that came from God. How could she leave him?
When this bitter choice racked her, she threw herself down on her bed and sobbed wildly with despair.
That night, as she lay staring into the darkness, thinking her life was over, she heard the key turn in the lock and sat up, fearing more tyranny.
But it was not her Mama who entered, but Arabelle. The two girls threw themselves into each other’s arms.
“They have moved me to a room just down the corridor,” Arabelle confided.
“How did you ever find the key?” Louisa asked.
“I used the key to the cellar door. It opens this room as well. One of the maids told me. The whole household is on your side.”
“Is there any news of Roderick?”
“I spoke to him this afternoon. He is desperate. He said to tell you that he loves you and he will find a way to rescue you.
“He said too that if he can just collect the evidence he needs against Lord Westbridge, then your parents can be saved without your marriage. But you must hold out.”
“If only,” Louisa breathed longingly. “If only there could be a way out. I don’t want my parents to suffer but I cannot – oh, Arabelle, I cannot leave Roderick.”
“Of course you cannot leave him,” Arabelle agreed.
“Tell him how much I love him.”
Arabelle promised and slipped away. For another day and night Louisa was kept a prisoner, torn with indecision and misery. The next evening her mother came again to see her. She stayed only a few moments, just long enough to say,
“Lord Westbridge is coming to see you tomorrow and you will give him your consent.”
She swept out without waiting for a reply.
Louisa knew that this was the end. One way or another she was to be forced to marry a man she loathed. The parents she thought had loved her would show her no mercy.
She waited for Arabelle to come to her, but tonight there was no sign of her friend.
‘Has she too abandoned me?’ Louisa wondered in despair.
Then, as she lay in total darkness, she heard a sound outside her room. The next moment there was a soft scratching noise as something was slipped under her door, and a soft rustle, like skirts.
Lighting a candle Louisa picked up the paper from the floor.
It read,
Be ready to leave at midnight.
“Oh, thank God!” she whispered fervently, throwing herself down on her knees. “I haven’t been abandoned. There is still some hope.”
By the candle’s light she retrieved a small bag from the bottom of her wardrobe and packed into it a few necessities for travelling.
She selected her warmest winter clothes, but did not put them on until the last moment, fearful that her mother would come to see her and find her suspiciously dressed.
By midnight she was ready and sitting on her bed, anxiously waiting in the darkness.
Midnight. Twelve chimes from the Church clock in the village, floating over the snow laden fields in the clear air.
But nothing happened.
Nobody came.
Louisa sat there, motionless, while her heart filled once more with despair as the time passed. Next were the chimes for a quarter past twelve.
The shining hope had been dangled before her for such a brief time. Now it was snatched away again and the pain was sharper than if there had never been any hope.
Then she heard it.
The soft, almost inaudible sound of a key being turned in the lock.
The door opened a crack to admit someone.
“Arabelle!”
“Ssh! Are you ready to leave?”
“Yes, but what is happening?�
�
“There is no time to talk. You will soon understand. Come quickly.”
She was in her night dress, with a cloak thrown over it, her dark hair hanging down around her shoulders.
She ushered Louisa out into the hall and locked the bedroom door behind her.
“The longer they think you are still in your room the better,” Arabelle whispered.
Down through the silent house they crept, then across the hall and through the kitchens to the back door Louisa always used at night.
“Shall I go to the stables?” she asked.
But Arabelle shook her head as she opened the kitchen door.
“Head for that little copse over there,” she said, pointing. “Luckily it’s starting to snow again, so with any luck your footsteps will be hidden.”
“What will you do?”
“Lock this door behind you and go back to bed. In the morning I will be as astonished as anyone else to find you have gone.”
Louisa hugged her. “My dearest friend. When will we meet again?”
“I don’t know. God go with you.”
Louisa hugged her again.
“And with you and may He send you such a friend to help bring your own love to happiness.”
“Go now, quickly.”
Louisa seized up her bag and began to hurry across the snow. Behind her she heard the door close and the bolts shot across.
Guided by the moonlight she reached the dark shape that she knew to be the copse. Then a hand seized her and she gasped.
“Hush,” said Roderick’s voice. “Not a word until we are safe.”
Joyfully she followed his lead, her hand safe in his, until they reached the far side of the copse, where there was a rough road. There was a lantern, held up by a man she could not make out clearly and by its light she could see a shabby old dog cart.
“Why that’s the Vicar’s dog cart!” she exclaimed. Then she saw who the man was. “Simon!”
“Arabelle begged me to help you,” he admitted with a grin. “I don’t know what my father will say if he ever finds out. Still, it will be too late by then.”
“Oh, you are so good and kind,” she sighed, overwhelmed.
“Get into the back of the dog cart and hide under the blanket,” Roderick told her. “Don’t look out before I give you the word, whatever you do.”
He helped her into the back and pulled the blanket over her. Then he too climbed in, but sat on the side facing seat. She felt the bump and Simon climbed up behind the horse, heard him give the signal to start and they were away, swaying and jolting.
Under the blanket she sent a silent message to her parents.
‘Forgive me, forgive me, but I could not do as you wish. It would have been death for me. Try not to hate me and I pray that we may meet again in happier times.’
It was a rough uncomfortable journey, but Louisa did not care. After a particularly sharp jolt she felt a large, masculine hand slip down between the folds of the blanket, and seized it between both hers.
She cared nothing for the discomfort. She had entrusted her fate to Roderick, the man she loved and would cling to all her days.
From now on nothing could go wrong.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Louisa lost track of time. She only knew that the journey seemed to go on for ever and then suddenly they stopped. Roderick pulled back the blanket.
“We are here, my dearest,” he said, reaching out to help her down with both hands.
She was intolerably stiff and almost fell, clinging to him.
“Where are we?” she asked, looking around.
It was still totally dark, but from somewhere very close she heard the sound of a Church bell, striking one o’clock.
“We cannot have come very far,” she said, puzzled.
“This is my father’s Church in Lark Hatton,” Simon said. “There’s a curate’s cottage here that is empty at the moment. Nobody will think of looking for you so close to home and you can hide here until the hue and cry dies down and I can move you on.”
Through the trees they could see the imposing stone rectory, with one light still burning, despite the lateness of the hour.
“My father is sitting up late to write his Christmas sermon,” confided Simon. “Follow me. This way.”
The curate’s house was right next to the Church. Simon let them in and lit a candle.
“I pulled all the curtains before I left,” he said, leading them up the stairs. “Miss Hatton, I thought you would be best off in this room –” he opened a door, “because it cannot be seen from any other house. The window is small and looks directly onto the Church. Even so, you must be very, very careful.
“There is enough food in the house for several days and I will look in as often as I can.”
“How long must we stay here?” Louisa asked.
“I am afraid you will be here alone,” Roderick said. “I have to go back to Hatton Place and be found at my post in the morning. If I am missing too there will be a scandal and your name would be besmirched.”
“But if we are going to be married – Roderick, let’s marry at once, tonight!”
“I am afraid my father would not do so,” Simon said. “He is a good man, but nervous and he fears Lord Westbridge. Now, I must try to return the dog cart quietly.”
Impulsively Louisa kissed the young man on the cheek. “Thank you so much for helping us,” she said. “I hope you don’t get into trouble.”
He chuckled. “I shall not mind if it makes Arabelle think well of me.”
He gave them a cheeky wave and departed.
The next moment Louisa and Roderick were in each other’s arms.
“I was afraid I would never see you again,” he said hoarsely. “I felt so helpless – longing to protect you –”
“But you came for me,” she cried joyfully, “and now we will always be together.”
“Please God, we will – eventually.”
“Must we wait to marry?” she asked him sadly.
“Just a little while. I cannot escape with you. If I run now I lose my last chance to bring Westbridge to justice. And I must do that, for us, for your parents, for all the others he has ruined and for my grandfather whose only peace at the end came from my promise to avenge him.”
She wanted to cry out and protest that they should grasp their chance of happiness now. But she knew it would be useless.
Roderick was an honest man, inflexible in his decision to do what was right, at whatever cost of pain and hardship. And while she ached for the chance they might lose, her heart honoured him.
Instinctively she had chosen a man she could admire as well as love and though it tortured her, she would force herself to be as courageous as he.
“Yes, my love,” she said. “You have a duty to do first. And then it will be our time.”
He seized her in a clasp of fierce thankfulness.
“Thank you!” he exclaimed. “It would have been so hard if you had not understood.”
“But shall we be apart for long?” she enquired sadly.
“I do not know. I am doing all I can to bring that man to justice, but it isn’t easy. He has protected himself so well and his very name brings fear. The most important move was to spirit you away before you could be forced into marriage with that monster. Simon has friends in the next County who can hide you –”
“The next County,” she echoed in horror. “So far away? Will we ever see each other?”
“I fear not. But he will be our go-between, and somehow we will manage to stay in touch.”
She looked at the vista before her and separation from the man she adored, without knowing how long it might be and she shuddered. Only the deepest, most devoted love could help her endure it.
But they loved each other. And with God’s help they would be strong enough for anything.
Roderick took her face between his hands, looked at her for a long moment before lowering his head and laying his lips on hers. Louisa felt herself
transported to Heaven by the loving gentleness of his kiss.
This was the love she had dreamed about, passionate and steadfast. Whatever the future might hold, she knew this wonderful love would endure to the ends of their lives and beyond.
Whatever the future might hold, she would cherish this moment for ever.
Roderick raised his head and spoke very quietly and seriously.
“You are my own true love, in this life and into the next. And I want you to know that in my heart you are already my wife, now and forever. There can be no other.”
“My husband,” she whispered. “Lord of my heart.”
She pulled back the curtain over the little window. In the moonlight they could make out the Church close by, towering above them.
“The day will come,” he said “when we stand before the altar in that Church and become one in the sight of God.”
“Roderick – let us do it now.”
“My darling, Simon explained –”
“No, not with the Vicar. We don’t need a Vicar, just us pledging ourselves to each other in the sight of God. And then, however long we have to be apart, we will know that we are truly married.”
“You are so right, my love. But can we get into the Church?”
“The Reverend Lightly never locks it. He says people should be able to enter a Church at any time.”
They slipped out of the little cottage into the cold night air and made their way across the snow to the porch. The door creaked but opened easily and they were inside the Church.
From the faint moonlight coming through the stained glass windows they could just make out the gleam of candlesticks on the altar. Slowly they approached the altar rail and knelt side by side.
“If the Vicar was here,” Roderick said, “he would ask me if I would love you, comfort you, honour and keep you, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, as long as we both shall live. To all these, I say yes, with all my heart.”
“And I promise,” Louisa breathed fervently, “to love and honour you, obey and serve you, and keep you in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, as long as we both shall live.”
Roderick took her hand between his and began to speak.
“I, Roderick, take thee, Louisa, to my wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death us do part.”
A Heart in Heaven Page 10