She stared at him. Lieutenant Neville? Surely this couldn’t be Jonathan’s friend, the fellow officer described as ‘very noble and gracious in defeat’? There was nothing noble or gracious about this disagreeable creature. She shivered a little, for the night was very cold and she only wore her beige woolen gown. ‘Lieutenant Roderick Neville?’ she inquired, hoping that she was wrong.
‘I am, madam. Would you kindly inform Lieutenant Amberley that we have come for him?’ He controlled his horse, which capered a little as a dog began to bark by one of the nearby cottages.
Blanche was bewildered, and more than a little angered by his manner. ‘Sir, it must surely be obvious to you that if I run out of the house calling my brother’s name, because I erroneously take you for him, then it must follow that he isn’t here.’
‘Miss Amberley, I’m not such a fool as to be taken in by such a feeble ruse. Lieutenant Amberley is here, and it is my duty to arrest him.’
Her heart almost stopped with shock. ‘Arrest my brother?’ she gasped. ‘I-I don’t understand….’
‘Lieutenant Amberley has committed a number of crimes, madam, and is to be arrested to face a court-martial.’
‘There must be some mistake,’ she whispered, thoroughly shaken.
‘No, madam, it isn’t a mistake, for he was caught red-handed.’
She strove to collect herself. ‘Red-handed? Doing what?’
‘Among other things, stealing the regimental silver.’
Her head was spinning with disbelief and amazement, and she had to rest her hands on the closed gate to steady herself. ‘That is a monstrous untruth, sir, for my brother would not commit such an act.’
‘As I said, madam, he was caught red-handed, and now he has added desertion to the list of misdeeds.’
‘I still do not believe it, sir, for my brother is an honest and honorable man.’
He leaned forward in the saddle, his eyes glittering in the darkness. ‘Miss Amberley, your loyalty does you credit, but it is sadly misplaced, for your brother is not only a thief and a deserter, he is also a knave of the highest order, attempting to malign the name of an innocent lady in order to escape justice.’
‘Innocent lady?’
‘My fiancée, Miss Jennings.’
Numbly, she stared at him. ‘Your fiancée?’ she breathed, a thousand and one conflicting thoughts milling in her head. ‘Are you talking of Miss Deborah Jennings?’
‘I am, madam.’
‘But she is to marry Jonathan.’
He stiffened. ‘It is obvious that he laid his plans well, madam, relaying his lies to you as well as to Colonel Cummings.’
Blanche’s lips trembled, and she was so alarmed that she hardly knew what to say. ‘I’d be obliged, sir, if you told me exactly what is supposed to have happened. You have my word that my brother is not here, and that I am not attempting to gain time for him to escape, if that is what you are thinking.’
He hesitated, glancing toward the cottage door, and then he nodded. ‘Very well, madam, but even though I have your solemn word, it is still my duty to search the premises.’
‘There is nothing I can do to prevent you, sir.’
‘Very well. Lieutenant Amberley deserted his post in order to steal some of the regimental silver, evidently being in desperate need of money in order to fend off the duns. He was apprehended in the silver room, where the glass cabinets had been smashed and the silver scattered around. He claimed he was there to keep an assignation with Miss Jennings, whom he accuses of having agreed to marry him, but she denied everything, and then it was discovered that a silver cup was missing. He must have somehow stolen it earlier, for it was found in your brother’s quarters, and the colonel ordered his arrest, but the fugitive had already fled. The barracks were searched, but he’d left, and so I have been dispatched here to look for him.’
She looked up into his steady gaze. ‘I do not believe what you say, sir, for my brother would not behave like that. You are supposed to be his friend, so you must know that this is all untrue.’
‘I am ashamed that I was once the friend of such a despicable felon, madam, and I wish I had never been guilty of such a misjudgment. Your brother is a coward, thief, and knave, and soon the name of Amberley will be reviled throughout the county. ‘
‘He is innocent, sir, I am certain of that, just as I am certain that he will still benefit from the promotion that he has so justly earned. He is a fine officer, and a gentleman of the highest order, Lieutenant Neville, and justice will be done.’
‘Oh, justice will indeed be done, madam, for he will be punished, and I will be given that same promotion, for it seems clear now that his lies and conniving extended to his day-to-day activities as well. The promotion should never have gone to him, as Colonel Cummings is more than prepared to concede.’
Blanche searched his face in the darkness. ‘How very fortunate for you that all this has happened,’ she murmured.
‘I resent the implication that I may have in some way conspired….’
‘I did not say that, sir,’ she interrupted quietly.
Even in so little light, she could see the dull color that suddenly suffused his face as he turned sharply to instruct his men to commence a search of the cottage and stables.
She glanced quickly up at her father’s window, and then back at the lieutenant. ‘Sir, may I at least have a moment in which to warn my father about what’s happened? He’s elderly and infirm, and such a shock may….’
‘Go to your father by all means, Miss Amberley, for it is immaterial to me whether you inform him or not.’
‘I will not forget your unpleasant conduct tonight, sir, you have my promise in that,’ she said coldly, and then she turned to hasten back into the cottage.
She’d left the door slightly ajar, and the cold air had drawn through the cottage, causing a draft that had led a puzzled Hannah from the kitchen. ‘Miss Blanche? Whatever is it?’ She became suddenly anxious as she saw how upset her young mistress was.
‘Hannah, something terrible has happened. Jonathan has been accused of theft and desertion, and the army has come to search for him!’
The housekeeper stared at her, dumbfounded. ‘That can’t be….’
‘It’s happening, Hannah! Go and tell Jake, while I go to break the news as gently as I can to my father.’
At that moment the door was flung open and Lieutenant Neville came in with some of his men. With a gasp, Blanche snatched up the candlestick again and fled up the stairs. A sob rose in her throat, but she forced it back. She had to stay as calm as possible, and not frighten her father any more than absolutely necessary.
But as she hurried into the bedroom, he sat up sharply in the bed, his eyes alarmed by her pallor and agitation. ‘Blanche? Is something wrong?’
Putting the candlestick down once more, she sat on the bed, taking his hands. ‘Yes, Father, I fear it is.’
As she told him, his face grew pale and deeply troubled. ‘It can’t be, it simply can’t be,’ he said in a trembling, distraught voice.
But the sounds of the search were already echoing through the cottage, proving that it was indeed happening – Jonathan Amberley was being hunted like a criminal.
Roderick Neville did not stoop to search himself, but remained in the hall while his men carried out the work. Hannah remained in the hall as well, her cold gaze not wavering from him. Her intention was to make him feel uncomfortable, and she was successful. She’d managed to briefly warn Jake, who sat with seeming imperturbability at the kitchen table with his hammer, nails, and last, mending a pair of old boots. A poacher was a natural master of pretense, and there was no way of telling from his manner that he was very disconcerted indeed.
Blanche stayed with her father as at last the soldiers entered the bedroom. It was humiliating to watch them prying everywhere, even looking under the bed, but there was nothing for it but to sit there and allow the search to proceed. Blanche kept her eyes lowered. She couldn’t believe that this
was happening. The army was accusing her brother of theft and desertion? His so-called friend, Lieutenant Roderick Neville, had turned upon him? And the woman he loved and had asked to marry him was denying their love? It was all too much to absorb, a nightmare come true, and she felt utterly helpless.
At last the search was completed, and Blanche went downstairs to face Roderick Neville in the hall. ‘I trust, sir, that you are now satisfied that my brother isn’t here?’
‘He isn’t here at present, I agree,’ he replied stiffly, ‘but that doesn’t signify that he won’t come here in a short while, or that he hasn’t been already.’
She went to the door, holding it pointedly open. ‘Good night, sir,’ she said coldly.
He strode angrily past her, and his men followed. She remained by the door, watching as they remounted and then rode away down through the village, not bothering to be stealthy now by keeping to the grass. Her quick glance moved to the cottage windows, but no curtains twitched, and no doors opened as people watched what was happening. It seemed that Amberley St Mary was unaware of events at Orchard Cottage, at least for the time being. Roderick Neville’s words rang in her head. Your brother is a coward, thief, and knave, and soon the name of Amberley will be reviled throughout the county.
She turned from the door, closing it softly behind her, and immediately found herself looking into Hannah’s troubled eyes.
‘Miss Blanche, just before the soldiers came, Jake found this pushed under the back door. It’s a note from Master Jonathan.’ The housekeeper held out a grubby, rather crumpled piece of paper.
Blanche took it and read. ‘Blanche. Please meet me at the old fishing house as quickly as possible. Don ‘t tell anyone, and bring blankets and food. Keep my whereabouts a secret, or it will be the worse for me. Burn this. J.’
Hannah watched her anxiously. ‘He really is in trouble, isn’t he, Miss Blanche?’
‘Yes, Hannah, I fear he is.’
Hannah’s eyes filled with tears. ‘What’s happened, Miss Blanche? I know Master Jonathan wouldn’t do those things, for he’s an Amberley, and a gentleman through and through.’
‘We have to prove his innocence, Hannah, but I don’t know how. From what the lieutenant said …’ She didn’t finish the sentence, for it seemed at this very moment that the case against her brother was undefendable. Picking up the candlestick yet again, she looked at Hannah. ‘Will you tell Jake to saddle the horses?’
‘He’s already attending to it, Miss Blanche.’
Blanche nodded. ‘I’ll go up to tell my father what’s happened now, then I’ll change into my riding habit. I’ll be as quick as I can.’
‘Miss Blanche…?’
‘Yes?’
‘Bring Master Jonathan home here with you, for he can’t stay where he is in weather like this.’
Blanche didn’t reply, for she knew that Jonathan had purposely chosen the fishing house because it was isolated and deserted, and because he was a fugitive. He felt he had no alternative but to hide away like a felon, and he must know that the army would be searching for him, so the last thing he’d be prepared to do would be come home here to Orchard Cottage, where he’d be found in an instant. She felt close to tears as she went slowly up the stairs, but she blinked them back determinedly, for she had to be strong, for her father’s sake.
Mr Amberley listened in dismay as she told him about his son’s note, but then he nodded sadly. ‘Go to him right now, my dear, and try to persuade him to come out of hiding, for he does his cause no good at present. Whatever may or may not have happened at Cheltenham barracks – and I do not for a moment believe he is guilty of theft – he appears to be certainly guilty of desertion.’
Blanche stared at him in disheartenment. ‘How can you say that…?’
He took her hand. ‘My dear, be sensible. Jonathan is in hiding, and the army has been here searching for him. He has deserted his post, we have no option but to accept that unpalatable fact, and that is why I wish him to not only come away from the fishing house, but also to give himself up to Colonel Cummings. I know that Jonathan is innocent, Blanche, and if that fact can be proved, it is in the colonel’s discretion to waive any charges against him, including desertion. Jonathan has already proved himself to be an excellent and talented young officer, and I am certain that a man of the colonel’s caliber will choose to remember those qualities rather than punish for something that was done in the heat of the moment, as I’m sure this matter of desertion was. Tell Jonathan what I say, Blanche, and do all you can to persuade him.’
‘I will.’
‘And take care, for Sir Edmund’s keepers are more than a little jumpy at the moment.’
She and Jake rode away from Orchard Cottage a few minutes later, with the blankets and food concealed beneath Jake’s cloak. Like the army search party before them, they kept to the grass of the village green so that their mounts’ hooves made no sound to attract attention from the cottages. Anyone who looked out and saw Miss Blanche Amberley riding in the darkness with Jake Cutler, would have been very curious indeed.
No one emerged from the Red Lion alehouse as they passed. The sounds of singing and general merriment continued unabated, for it was the village blacksmith’s fiftieth birthday, and many a celebratory jar of ale had been imbibed. Not a soul was there to see the two horses trot quietly down to the fork in the road, and then turn to the left to ride up the narrow way toward St Mary’s church, which rose tall against the dark skyline.
The boundary wall of Amberley Court park swept in across the fields, meeting the lane directly opposite the church lychgate. Tall, well-established evergreen trees hung over the way, their branches moving softly in the stream of cold night air that still carried stray snowflakes to brush icily against Blanche’s face.
There was an unlit lantern suspended beneath the lychgate, and it swung rustily to and fro. Behind the lychgate, a wide gravel path led between ancient yew trees toward the church porch, and Blanche gave a start as a ghostly white shape swooped silently down over the path, vanishing amid the tombstones in the graveyard. It was only a barn owl, but her heart pounded fearfully in her breast as she returned her attention to the lane ahead. From the moment they passed the lychgate, they were on Major-General Sir Edmund Brandon’s land, trespassers without any right to be there.
CHAPTER 8
There was no grass to muffle the horses’ hooves now, and it seemed to Jake and Blanche that the noise of their passing echoed loudly in the quiet of the night. They were both very uneasy, needing no reminding that gamekeepers had been known to fire first and ask questions afterward.
The boundary wall still rose sharply to their left, and St Mary’s church rose against the sky behind them now as they rode down toward the river and the disused fishing house. Half-way down the hill there was a break in the boundary wall, where a postern gate afforded access to and from the park. It was wide enough for a carriage to pass through, and had been provided originally so that house parties could be conveyed to and from the fishing house. Only gamekeepers used the gate now, and Jake reined in warily as they neared it, listening for any sound that might be a warning, but all they could hear was the low soughing of the wind through the evergreens.
Blanche gazed through the gate and across the park toward the house where she’d been born, and which she still loved with all her heart. It was much closer from this point than it was from the main gates in the village. The drive from the armorial gates was deliberately long and winding, to show off the park to the full, but from here it was possible to make out the lights in the rooms, especially those behind the great oriel window in the grand chamber. Was Sir Edmund in that beautiful room now with his lovely Lady Hetherington?
She looked quickly away, for it was too painful to think of someone else living in the house. Her gaze roamed over the shadowy park, coming to rest on a particularly fine cedar tree, beneath which she could make out some of the red deer that had attracted the attention of the professional poachers.
A peacock called somewhere, probably from the sunken Tudor garden at the front of the house; it was a sound that she’d known throughout her life, and now it was a sad reminder of all that had been lost.
Jake moved his horse on. ‘Come on Miss Blanche,’ he said in a low voice, ‘we’d best be as quick as we can.’
The postern gate slipped away behind as they rode on down the lane toward the river. Anarrow, deep, muddy creek fell away sharply immediately to the right of the track, spanned by a rickety wooden bridge. There were many such creeks, or pills, on the River Severn, and this one marked the boundary between Amberley Court land and an adjoining estate owned by the Bishop of Gloucester. Water gurgled and sucked beside the lane, for the tide had recently come in.
The fishing house was balanced on the very lip of the riverbank, a delicate little wooden building of Oriental appearance, with a surrounding verandah that jutted right out over the water. It had once been painted a very becoming pale green, but the paint was flaking and faded now, weathered by the attentions of many a bitter winter. There was a graceful chimney, for once fires had been lit to warm the modish parties that had resorted to the riverside, but the glass in the little arched windows was either cracked or nonexistent. It was a bleak place now, but still possessed that irresistible air of mystery and danger that had so attracted Blanche and Jonathan when they were children. They’d known full well that it was out of bounds, but they’d been disobedient, and they’d received the punishment they’d more than deserved for such willfulness.
Jake dismounted by the little flight of wooden steps that led up to the verandah. He dropped the food and blankets to the ground, and then dismounted, tethering his horse to the wooden rail before assisting Blanche down.
They could both hear the gurgling and splashing of the river, only a few feet away. When the tide was in, the Severn flowed back upon itself, sweeping inland toward Gloucester instead of out toward the estuary, and the level rose almost eagerly toward the top of the bank, as if seeking to spill over onto the adjacent land. Blanche always hated it when the tide was in, but in the darkness she hated it most of all, because it frightened her. Her hand trembled on the rail as she looked up at the silent building.
A Christmas Courtship Page 7