Diamonds Fall

by Rebecca Gibson

  "Excuse my impertinence Miss but is the child indeed Mister Brogan's?"

  Making up her mind in a matter of seconds, wrenching her thoughts away from a tiny baby with Daniel's hazel eyes, she answered.

  "Of course - of course it is Theodore's child. Do you think a man spends three weeks under the same roof as his future wife and expects nothing in the way of...that."

  "Well I - of course not, I just -"

  The doctor looked at her doubtfully. He knew three weeks were not enough time to be showing the signs of pregnancy but once more, to suggest such a scandal would be his ruin.

  "You just took me for a whore. I will tell Theodore myself after our wedding Doctor and if this information is released you will face such a ruin you will never be able to work again."

  The doctor stood up, placing his equipment back inside his bag.

  "Then I wash my hands of you. I will tell your parents you are quite healed but you need another day's bed rest. I trust you will protect my diagnosis by acting well?"

  "Yes - yes of course. Thank you Doctor."

  "If I'd considered the deceit this job would entail I would have skipped the middle man and gone straight into politics. Good day to you Miss Annabel, do not call on me again."

  The doctor did not wait for a returned greeting. He simply tipped his hat slightly and rushed out of the door, his leather bag swinging at his side.

  That night Annabel picked at her dinner, eating it on a silver tray in her room just as the doctor had ordered. The smell of the meat and gravy turned her stomach although Annabel smiled, knowing what that implied. When she had finished she slipped a shawl around her shoulders and crept down to Patsy and Billy's rooms, where she would spend the night with the only people who would understand how she felt.

  When she told them about the child they both jumped with joy, wrapping her into such a tight embrace she couldn't breathe.

  "Oh Daniel will be so pleased! He'll make a great Papa." Patsy exclaimed without thinking.

  Annabel grinned, hugging her again.

  "Oh he will be perfect won't he?"

  Patsy's face suddenly fell.

  "But he's - he's in jail Anna."

  Annabel's eyes glazed over as her throat tightened.

  "He can't know."

  "What? But you jus' said -"

  Annabel took her arm, leading Patsy into her room so the two girls could talk in private.

  "He cannot know whilst he's in prison, it would drive him mad."

  Patsy looked as though she wanted to argue but seemed to see the truth in these words.

  "What's gunna happen to `im?" Patsy whispered.

  Annabel hesitated for a long while but knew she would have to tell her eventually.

  "He - he has been sentenced to ten years. Tom has been hung."

  "No. Daniel - but he's innocent."

  "They charged him with the attack on Trevor. I tried to say it was me, I wrote a statement but I fear my father has gotten rid of it somehow. He felt threatened. He told me he paid the police to keep him in jail. I'm so sorry Patsy. This is my fault entirely."

  "It ain't your fault Anna. It weren't you that put `im in jail. It were your folks. And anyway, prison's still gotta be better than the village. If it weren't for you we'd still be there."

  "Please Patsy." The understanding in Patsy's face was driving Annabel mad. She wanted her to be angry, to lash out at her. But she simply took her hand.

  "We're strong Anna. We'll be okay." She looked up, fire in her eyes, "you'll `ave to marry Theodore."

  "Not you too Patsy. Please, I can take it from everyone else but not you."

  Patsy did get angry now, she dropped Annabel's hand, frowning.

  "So you'll leave behind all o' this?"

  She waved her hands to indicate the luxuries of the manor. "The money an' the power, so tha' your baby can be a bastard? So tha' it will be an outcast? No Anna."

  Annabel let out a strangled sob and Patsy folded her into her embrace, patting her back maternally.

  "It's a hard world Anna. We gotta make the best of what we got."

  When Annabel had dried her tears she lay down on Patsy's bed, suddenly too tired to even move a single muscle. She woke up curled on top of Patsy's blanket due to the heat of the sticky summer's night. In the end, she had only managed an hour or two of restless sleep, her mind whirring all night. She sat up slowly, her muscles heavy and sore. As she rose to her feet nausea once more swept over her. Placing a hand on her stomach she took several deep breaths before making her way back to her own bed chambers.

  Her mother found her later that morning huddled in the middle of her bed, the sheets pulled up over her head, despite the heat. The wooden carving was once more pressed into her hand. Lady Elizabeth sat down, pulling the covers off of Annabel's slight frame, drawing in a breath at the state of her raw eyes and matted hair.

  "Annabel."

  Annabel said nothing, choosing just to lie back against her pillows.

  "I'm sick Mother, please let me sleep."

  "You're not sick you're wallowing. I'm sick of seeing you like this. I am sending in a maid, you're going to bathe, eat and come downstairs immediately. The doctor said you were fine. Your engagement ball is this weekend, you have a dress fitting to attend and then we are going for lunch. It will do you good to be out in society again."

  Annabel dressed carefully, summoning for Patsy - much to her mother's distain - who helped her with her corset, leaving it a tiny bit looser than she would have usually worn it. She put on a pale pink summer dress, which was heavily embroidered and beaded with exquisite pearls. Both girls ate their breakfast sitting back on Annabel's bed, holding the knowledge that she was feeding more than just herself and now had to be especially careful when it came to missing meals. Once finished she took Patsy's arm and walked her down to her own room, where she dressed in a similar, yet less elaborate, suit of a warm beige. The colour complimented her hair, which had turned a slightly more fiery shade with the expensive soaps. The two girls were beginning to feel a sense of hope when they met Lady Elizabeth out on the drive, by the very same golden carriage Annabel had used all those weeks before on her eighteenth birthday.

  "Who is this?" Lady Elizabeth asked, looking at Patsy with distrust.

  "Patricia Pierce. She is my distant cousin, on father's side of course. She has come to stay with us for a while."

  "This is the-"

  "The cousin? Yes."

  "Annabel you will ruin us all bringing people like that out in society."

  "Mother, you will ruin my patience if you protest."

  "Get in the carriage. Come on, hurry up!"

  Lady Elizabeth conversed little with Patsy, choosing instead to look her up and down in a silent judgement. It seemed she could find nothing amiss with the young woman; Patsy was dressed as properly as if she had lived in the higher classes since birth and her hands, in an imitation of Annabel, were folded in her lap, exactly as they should be.

  Annabel had spent many an hour already with Patsy working on her diction so she even sounded more like a high society girl. She was proving to be incredibly intelligent, picking up manners and information with an almost photographic memory. She even managed to contain her facial expression at the sight of the carriage, standing ornately in the driveway, although she did let out a slow wink towards Billy when she noticed him leading a horse towards the stables.

  Their first stop was the dress makers. Its high, perfectly arranged windows gleamed even in the over cast, muggy weather. The second they stepped inside they were ushered into a private suite, arranged with cream and pale pink furnishings, filled with the most expensive of the shop's items. They were seated and handed tea in fancy bone china cups before being presented with roll after roll of fabric for them to choose from. Annabel gasped at an emerald green shade.

  "Patsy that would look just divine on you, it would suit you so well!"

  The sales girl smiled, placing the roll amongst the others that had
been short listed.

  "Well I don't see why you're picking a shade for her Annabel. You can't expect her to come to the ball."

  "Mother, Patsy is my cousin if you remember. You can't very well expect her to miss it now, can you? Besides, the young girl of which we speak is in fact in the room, if you wish to discuss her, you could have the manners to direct the conversation to her personally."

  Her mother pursed her lips, shaking her head at another roll of fabric but said nothing else on the matter. A couple of hours later they had each chosen the material for their dresses along with several materials for other less important dresses and accessories, to be charged to the family account. They were now sat in a warm restaurant filled with society's elite women and the odd few journalists, who began scribbling furiously the second they walked in. This was, after all, Annabel's first outing in society since she had gone missing.

  The room smelt of expensive perfume and sugar, the tinkling sounds of chatter filled the air. Patsy looked awed by the place, its large windows, the golden chandeliers dripping from the ceiling in large upside down triangles, the pink silk walls and the elaborate displays of fresh roses on each table, seemed to have knocked all the air out of her. Even the food looked like a work of art, the cakes all iced with fancy designs, the plates arranged just so. The taste was exquisite as well although, of course, it would seem improper to gorge oneself on food in public so the three of them sat with straight backs, sipping tea and taking tiny bites from the ornate plates in front of them. Annabel found it thrilling to have Patsy with her, to know she was breaking her mother's rules right in front of her. To get the chance to view her world through Patsy's fresh, innocent eyes put everything in sharp perspective.

  A lot of people came up to speak to them whilst they ate, all wanting to hear firsthand about the story they had read in the papers. To all of them Annabel held the same air of impatient distance that she was famed for. When she had to, she told them all the same thing; she was "quite recovered but rehashing the old tale is not in my interests. I simply want to move forwards. Oh, have you met my cousin Patricia Pierce? She has come to live with us for a while."

  Thus, the conversation moved onto the fabricated past Annabel and Patsy had made up. They had decided on the surname Pierce as it was still similar to her original name and would therefore lead to the least confusion.

  Her mother wittered on about the ball and the engagement, glancing to the side every time she did to reassure herself that Annabel wouldn't argue the point in public.

  Annabel had desperately tried to avoid thinking about all that the ball implied. She had the entire future of both her and her unborn child's life to decide and under a week to do it in.

  By the end of the day they had planned pretty much every aspect of the ball, from parchment for the invitations, to the exact colour of the corset she would wear under her dress. It was a welcome distraction. However, when she returned home the thoughts came thick and fast. She excused herself to her writing room where she composed a list of her options. She thought about how she would go about getting rid of the child, where she could go to have the child whilst she waited the ten years for Daniel but the option that made the most sense had her stomach turning violently, her eyes clouding over. It was the option Patsy had already told her. She knew this option was the only way it could work. This was the option that would be best for her child, the selfless option. Picking up her pen, she wrote a letter to Theodore.

  Teddy,

  I am sure you have already been invited in a much more formal way than this however, as your future wife, I wished to invite you myself to Hoddington Manor this weekend for the celebration of our engagement. I should very much like to marry you as soon as possible. I feel we have both waited long enough already.

  I do hope this letter finds you well,

  Annabel Hoddington

  Folding the letter in two she leant back in the chair, feeling as if she had just signed away her life.

  In something of a frenzy, Annabel raced downstairs, almost colliding with her mother at the foot of them. Annabel threw the crisp letter at her mother's feet.

  "Read it!" she demanded.

  The older woman picked it up gingerly, a small smile playing on her lips as she read her daughter's calligraphy.

  "Annabel, my child, I knew you would come to your senses."

  "Can you at least let me say goodbye," Annabel whispered.

  "Goodbye to whom for heaven's sake?"

  "To Daniel Mother, please."

  "Whatever can you want to see that man for?"

  "Just let me say goodbye Mother and I promise, I will do everything you ask. I will marry Theodore, I will provide you with all the heirs you want. I will be your perfect daughter again Mother. You just have to let me see him, one final time."

  "I shan't allow it. You cannot bargain with me Annabel. You will marry Theodore whether your conditions have been met or not."

  "See, you don't get it do you Mother? I don't care about your riches or your promises. You can put me in a white dress, you can drag me down the aisle but in the end, it's me that has to say I do and if you don't let me see Daniel, or if you threaten me or my new cousins, I will tell the entire church about my illicit love affair in the forest and you will be ruined. That's the thing about having nothing to lose, you have everything to gain."

  Lady Elizabeth took a step back, dumbfounded.

  "You wouldn't dare. Your reputation-"

  "The reputation already built on lies? I don't care about it Mother. That is the difference between you and me. Let me see Daniel now, or watch your life crumble into dust."

  Her mother stood stock still for several minutes, her mouth moving as if to form words but always remaining silent.

  "You are to take a cab, not one of the manor's carriages," she blurted out eventually. "Wear something dark and inconspicuous. You mustn't be seen Annabel. You have one hour."

  Annabel raced upstairs without missing a beat, fleeing straight into the servant's quarters.

  "Does anyone have a cloak?" she called when she reached the kitchen.

  The staff all turned around, their foreheads creased in worry.

  "Please, can I borrow a cloak from someone, I need to go into town and I don't want to be mobbed whilst I am there. Please."

  One girl, looking about fourteen in age, stepped towards her warily, wiping her floury hands on her apron.

  "I - I have one miss."

  An elderly woman beside her gave her a look but the girl continued to advance.

  "Thank you," Annabel held out a shiny penny which the girl grabbed, beaming before running off, coming back with a thick, dark grey cloak of a scratchy material.

  "I shall return it in an hour. Do you know where Patsy is? Patricia Pierce."

  "Erm - I think she was visiting Billy in the stable. I can go fetch her if you like Miss?"

  "If you would, thank you."

  The girl rushed away again, returning once more within a matter of moments, a smiling Patsy trailing behind her.

  "Anna, what's happened?"

  Patsy looked at her with concern, noticing the frazzled look on Annabel's face, the wildness in her eyes.

  "We're going to see Daniel. I've got to say goodbye Patsy, I can't stand to just leave him."

  Patsy seized Annabel's arm, dragging her out of the kitchen and into the stairwell where they could be alone.

  "You can't tell him!"

  "I wasn't - I know what's at stake here Patsy."

  "I know you do Anna, I was jus' checking."

  "And I love you for it."

  Patsy smiled as Annabel gave her a kiss on the cheek and then took her hand, leading her out of the back door and down to the servants gate, after securing her own dark cloak so she too would be unrecognisable, their hoods pulled down over their eyes.

  They flagged down a cab at the foot of the hill, both panting from the speed they had walked to get there. Annabel flashed a handful of shiny coins and the driver
grinned, taking them to the station at lightning speed.

  When they reached the entrance Annabel glanced at Patsy, who looked as if she might be sick.

  "He will be alright won't he?" Annabel asked.

  Patsy nodded, "eventually."

  She squeezed Annabel's hand in her own; it was warm and sweaty with nerves.

  "You're doing the right thing Anna."

  Annabel nodded again and they climbed out of the cab, creeping up the steps and through to the dark entrance. There was a desk directly in front of them with a uniformed officer sat behind it. Annabel lowered her hood.

  "Ah, Miss - Miss Hoddington. Your mother sent a telegram. It arrived just two minutes ago."

  He looked uncertainly at Patsy, "and what are you here for?" he asked in a manner that could have been far more polite.

  "This is my cousin Patricia, she is here for the same purpose I am. She wishes to extend her thanks to my tragically imprisoned saviour."

  The officer looked as if he were going to protest but seemed to think better of it, realising with whom he was in fact speaking. Annabel placed a shiny guinea on the desk and he slid it into his palm.

  "For your discretion," Annabel added.

  "Of course Miss, please follow me." He took up a large bunch of keys and strapped them to his belt before escorting them through a narrow door off to the left of the desk.

  They walked down the corridor, swathed in an eerie darkness, with what Annabel believed to be deliberate slowness. Several gates were unlocked and clanged shut behind them before finally they reached another corridor, lined with cells. The cells all seemed to be empty, the corridor was deadly silent. One cell had its door wide open with what looked like an office set up inside it. There was a small desk on top of which sat a flickering oil lamp and a pot of cold tea. The officer ushered them inside.