“Which key?” she asked as she picked them up, fumbling with the large bunch.
“The... second... largest,” called Josh, between coughing.
Rebecca found the right key by the dim light and put it in the lock. It turned. She twisted the door knob, and Joshua came stumbling out. He was coughing and choking despite the handkerchief he had held to his face and he stopped for a moment, doubled over, gasping in the cleaner air.
Rebecca put her arms protectively round him. She stroked his dark blond hair. It was pure instinct, and as she felt him relax against her she knew that his response was pure instinct, too. There was a deep, intuitive bond between them, that no amount of disagreements could destroy.
But she could not allow herself to prolong the moment, no matter how precious it was. Smoke was billowing out of the doorway and there was no telling how much Joshua had inhaled.
“Come,” she said, closing the door to prevent the fire and smoke spreading. “We have to get away from here. There's too much smoke.”
The smoke was rapidly filling the corridor. She thought quickly, wondering where it would be best for them to go. Not down the stairs — the smoke was already in the stairwell, and Joshua needed clean air to breath. The office. Its heavy door would have kept out most of the smoke, and there was a window they could open if needed. She guided Joshua, still bent double, into the office, and shut the door behind them. She gave a deep sigh. The air in here was untainted. It would provide them with a brief haven until Joshua caught his breath.
Joshua responded to the clean air. He breathed in deeply, taking the handkerchief away from his face, and was soon able to straighten up.
“I should ask you what you're doing here,” he said, once he had recovered. He took her hands, and there was an unfathomable expression on his face as he looked down into her eyes. “But there's no time. We have to put out the fire.” He went over to the far corner of the room, still coughing occasionally, and Rebecca saw that he was lifting a large bucket of water which had been standing there. “I ordered these put here in case of Luddite attacks,' he said in answer to her questioning glance. “There's one in every room.”
“Then why —?” asked Rebecca, wondering why he had not used the one in the study to put out the fire.
“It had been removed.”
Premeditated, then, thought Rebecca. Up until that moment she had thought the fire had started naturally.
Joshua wet his handkerchief and put it to his face before opening the door. He strode out into the corridor with the bucket of water. Rebecca, gathering her wits, quickly wet her own handkerchief, then holding it to her face she followed him into the corridor. What could she do? The buckets. Going in and out of the rooms along the corridor she fetched the buckets of water that had been placed there. Joshua stood in the doorway of the study, taking the buckets from her and throwing the water on the flames. Slowly and surely the water began to douse the fire.
The buckets were soon empty and the fire still burned, but the flames were at long last small enough to be beaten out. Joshua pulled down the curtains and used them to smother the remaining flames, and by the time ten minutes had passed the fire was at last extinguished.
Rebecca sank back against the desk, exhausted. But Joshua seized her by the hand.
“No,” he said. “You can't rest here. There's still too much smoke.”
He took her hand and led her out of the fire-blackened room and back into the office. They had kept the door closed and the atmosphere was not too unpleasant. He pushed her gently in front of him and then closed the door behind them, leaning back against it in relief.
Rebecca, feeling his strong, firm hand still holding her own, turned... and everything changed. She could barely see Joshua in the moonlight, and yet his silhouette, dark and powerful against the black bulk of the door, was redolent of such virile strength that she caught her breath.
How was it that Joshua could make her feel this way? How could his mere presence make her heart race and her mouth go dry? How could he make her feel this sense of breathless anticipation, this time-stopping moment when she longed to be his arms? She wanted to go to him, to feel his arms close about her, to have him kiss her, but she knew she must not do it. She fought against it with all her will, standing there, frozen in the moonlight, whilst every part of her being cried out for him.
And then he pulled her roughly towards him. Catching her round the waist he dragged her close, so close she could feel the firm hardness of his muscular body beneath his clothes.
He took her face in his hands and looked down at her with burning eyes. “Thank God you're safe.”
She shivered as he pushed a stray strand of hair out of her eyes and she felt a wave of emotion go through her. She was lost in the moment, caring for nothing but Joshua. His hair may be blackened by the smoke and his face may be begrimed but nothing could dim the intensity of his eyes. They looked deep inside her and she began to tremble from head to foot. This was what she had dreamed of; this moment when she swayed against Joshua and felt his arms tighten around her. Her eyes closed and she felt the soft, sweet touch of his mouth as his lips brushed soft, gossamer-light kisses over her face, dropping them with agonizing sweetness first on her forehead, then on her cheek, then on the tip of her nose, her eyelids and her mouth. She felt his hands cradling her face, holding it tenderly yet firmly so that he could kiss her even more deeply, and her arms lifted, her fingers tangling themselves in his mane of blond hair. And then she was drowning, going under, lost to all else. She surrendered herself to his caresses, and —
She was thrown backwards with a terrible jolt.
Her eyes flew open. And then she realized what was happening.
Someone was opening the door.
It was the rudest of awakenings. One moment she had been in a state of bliss, the next, pushed backwards by the action of the door opening, she was weak and flustered and desperately trying to re-settle her bonnet and smooth her pelisse whilst fighting against her rapid pulse and trying to gather her scattered wits.
“Thank goodness!” exclaimed Mr Hill, the mill manager, as he burst into the room. “I thought you had been hurt.” He spoke to Joshua, not, for the moment, noticing Rebecca. “When I saw the smoke I feared the worst. What happened?”
“I think we could do with a little light,” remarked Joshua.
Rebecca marvelled at his voice. He was once more in command of himself, only a slight rapidity of words betraying the fact that he had so recently been in the grip of a strong emotion. No one hearing him now would know that just a moment ago he had been holding her face passionately between his strong hands and kissing her so deeply her whole being had shuddered with the ecstasy of it.
“Of course.” Mr Hill felt his way over to the gas jets that were set into the walls.
Rebecca made the most of the last few seconds of darkness to pull her bonnet firmly back onto her head. She took a deep breath to settle her breathing, because despite her best efforts to calm it, it was ragged and shallow. But by the time the gas was turned up she had regained sufficient composure to meet Mr Hill's surprised gaze with equanimity.
“Miss Fossington!” he exclaimed. What are you doing here? That is,' he said hastily, as if realizing that it was not his place to question one of the owners of the mill, “I was not expecting to see you.”
He looked from Rebecca to Joshua in confusion.
“I lost my reticule,” explained Rebecca. “When I got home I found it was missing and a search of the house and carriage proved in vain. Thinking I must have dropped it whilst looking round the mill this afternoon I returned, only to find smoke filling the corridor and —”
“And to find that she had to help me quench the flames,” interrupted Joshua smoothly.
Rebecca looked at him in some surprise. It was not like Joshua to interrupt her so rudely. But one glance at his bland expression told her that Joshua did not want the mill manager to know the full details of the fire. Why, Rebecca did no
t know, but he must have a reason for it and so she said no more.
“How did the fire start?” asked Mr Hill.
“That is something we don't yet know,” said Joshua, fixing him with a penetrating glance.
Mr Hill nodded in agreement. “It will take time to discover the cause. But you are all right, I hope?” he asked, looking from one to the other of them and taking in the full extent of their dishevelment. “You have not taken any hurt from the flames?”
“Fortunately, no,” said Joshua. “My study is a mess and will need re-decorating, and it will take me some time to discover if anything of value has been burned, but Miss Fossington and I are both perfectly well.”
“That's a relief,” said the manager. “Still, the fire could have been catastrophic. A lot of important documents are kept in that room.”
“As you say,” replied Joshua.
Rebecca, watching and listening to both men, detected an edge in Joshua's voice. Did he suspect the manager of having started the fire? she wondered. She frowned. Perhaps she should tell Joshua of what she had seen on entering the mill. She looked at him, intending to say something, but stopped short. He was giving her a warning look, and she realized that he did not want her to say any more whilst Mr Hill was present.
“See to things here, will you, Hill?” Joshua asked. “Check the documents and see if anything of importance has been burned. Then see to the mill. Look for structural damage, have the buckets of water re-filled and make sure nothing is amiss elsewhere. I will be leaving now. I am engaged to take dinner with Miss Fossington and her cousin.”
“Of course,” said Mr Hill. “I check everything personally, right away.”
He left the room.
“I thought you couldn't come to dinner,” said Rebecca once his footsteps had died away. She wondered what had caused Joshua to change his mind.
“Had you told Louisa I couldn't come?” he asked.
“No,” she admitted.
“Good. I wouldn't have liked to throw her arrangements out. But I have my reasons for wanting to leave the mill. Reasons which didn't exist this afternoon.”
“And what are they?” asked Rebecca.
“Hill,” said Joshua succinctly.
“Hill?” Rebecca was thoughtful.
Joshua nodded. “Yes.”
“But why should Hill make you change your plans? What does he have to do with anything?” she added with a frown.
“I don't know. Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. Someone started the fire in my personal office, and I want to know if it was him. I told him just now that I didn't know if any important documents had been burned but it was a lie. I know exactly what has and has not escaped the flames.”
Rebecca quickly grasped his point.
“If it was Hill who started the fire, and if he did it to burn incriminating documents — documents which showed he had been stealing from the mill, for example — then as soon as we have gone he will check to see if they have in fact been burnt,” she said.
“And if they are still intact, he will no doubt avail himself of the opportunity to destroy them,” said Joshua.
“So if any more documents have been burnt in the morning — documents which are perfectly all right at the moment — we will know it is Hill who started the blaze. And we will know why: to hide his own misdeeds.”
“Exactly.”
“But I don't think it was Hill,” she said. She shivered slightly as the scene she had witnessed on arriving at the mill came back to her. “I don't think he started the fire. I think it was the Luddites.”
The sound of footsteps coming down the corridor alerted them to the fact that they were about to be disturbed as Mr Hill organized a party of men to check the mill.
“We can't stay here,” said Joshua. “The men are coming to check for fire damage and refill the water buckets. You can tell me why you think the fire was started by Luddites on the way out to the carriage.” He paused. “You did come in a carriage?” he asked.
“Yes,” she smiled. “With Betsy. Only Betsy fell asleep on the way!”
He laughed. “It has been quite a day for Betsy!” He became more serious. “And for you. Are you sure you are all right?”
“Positive.”
“Very well.”
He offered her his arm and they left the study, going along the smoky corridor and down the first flight of stairs.
Rebecca was pleased to be leaving the mill. They could not talk further without being interrupted, and besides, something had occurred to her that did not seem to have occurred to Joshua. Regardless of who had started the fire, whether it had been Mr Hill, Luddites, or some other person, it might not have been important papers they had been trying to destroy.
It might have been Joshua.
Recalling the incidents that had occurred in London — a horse being ridden at Joshua and the rider aiming a whip at his head; the stone being thrown through the window, narrowly missing him and landing in his soup — she felt that if someone really was bent on killing him, he would be safer at Louisa's than at the mill. The thought of which made her keener than ever to leave, and leave quickly.
“Now,” said Joshua, as they reached the bottom of the first flight of stairs. “Tell me why you think the fire might have been started by Luddites.”
“Because when I arrived I saw a man painting LONG LIVE NED LUDD on the mill wall,” Rebecca said.
Joshua stopped dead. He turned to look at her. “A man painting the wall?”
She nodded.
He drew in a sharp breath. “Then it would seem the Luddites are still active.”
Despite his words, Rebecca detected a note of uncertainty in his voice.
“But you are not sure?” she asked.
“The Luddites are well organized and don't attack without reason. They target mills where the wages have been lowered, for example, and not mills like ours. It is possible they have been frustrated by their recent defeats and have changed their ways, but let us just say I am not convinced.”
They went down the next flight of stairs.
As they reached the bottom Rebecca caught sight of something glittering on the floor — a red spark. Could it be another fire? she wondered with a shock; before realizing it was the beading on her missing reticule. She breathed a sigh of relief. In all the excitement she had almost forgotten about it, but here it was, waiting patiently for her to find it. She bent to retrieve it.
“Your reticule,” said Joshua.
“Yes.” She closed her hand round it gratefully.
“The braiding on the handle has frayed,” she remarked as she examined it. “It must have fallen off when the braid wore through.”
She put it away in the pocket of her pelisse and together she and Joshua left the mill.
Joshua stopped briefly in the yard to examined the words, LONG LIVE NED LUDD scrawled on the wall. His eyes narrowed as he took in the large red letters, which were still wet and glistening in the moonlight. Then they continued on their way to the carriage.
“Did you get a good look at the man who did it?” asked Joshua as the gatekeeper greeted them, expressing delight that Rebecca had found her reticule.
“Unfortunately, no,” said Rebecca as they passed through the gate. “I couldn't see him clearly. He was just a figure in the moonlight.”
“Then you would not recognize him if you saw him again.”
Rebecca considered. “I think, actually, I would. Although I did not get a good look at him, he had a curious way of moving. He walked with a loping gait. I wouldn't recognize his features, but I'd recognize the way he walks.”
“Good. That will be useful for identifying him if we ever manage to catch him.”
They approached the carriage, and Rebecca's thoughts turned to Betsy, who had been left outside all this time. Although she had not been in the mill for very long — everything had happened so quickly that it had taken far less time than it had seemed — she was still worried about the elderly maid. But s
he need not have been. As Collins let down the step and Joshua handed her in she saw that Betsy was still tucked up in the travelling rug. With two stone hot-water bottles at her feet she was snug and warm and still fast asleep.
As Rebecca took her seat, Betsy stirred.
“Why, Miss Rebecca,” she said. “Are we here already?”
“We are. And ready to go home. I have found my reticule,” said Rebecca.
“That was lucky,” Betsy said, “finding it so quick and all. I'm glad you didn't have to go into that nasty mill again.”
Rebecca did not enlighten her, or tell her how long she had slept. If Betsy had realized she had been asleep for half an hour, and that Rebecca had gone into the mill without her, she would have been mortified.
“Mr Joshua is returning with us” said Rebecca as Joshua followed her into the carriage.
“A good idea” said Betsy comfortably as Joshua shut the carriage door. And then they were away, before long arriving at the house, to find Louisa waiting for them.
“I was beginning to get anxious” she said. She greeted them with relief as they went inside.
“No need” said Rebecca, smiling reassuringly. “We are here safe and sound.”
“Did you find your reticule?” asked Louisa.
“I did.” Rebecca held it up to show her. “It must have slipped from my wrist. Look, the braid has worn through.”
“I thought that must have been what had happened. But never mind, all's well that ends well. And you have brought Joshua with you. I was so hoping he would be able to come. Oh!”
This last exclamation was wrung out of her by the sight of Joshua, dusty and grimy, who was bearing all the signs of having been trapped in the recent fire.
Catching sight of himself in one of the gilded glasses that hung on the wall, Joshua realized that his appearance would need some explaining.
“Unfortunately, I did not have time to wash before I came,” he said. “Mills can be very dirty places.”
It was not the truth, but Louisa accepted his explanation, and Rebecca was glad that Joshua had spared Louisa any worry, not telling her about the real events of the evening.
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