Vengeful Lord, Defiant Lady.

by Maggie Pritchard

  ‘But what gossip and stories could bring about such a fright at the sight of a little wet shoe, even in a very silly maid?’

  ‘Oh nothing of any importance milady, I’m sure.’

  ‘No Anwen that will not do, if there is anything amiss I need to know about it and if you will not tell me then I must get Sally to tell me herself and maybe even some of the other servants until I do get to the bottom of it. I will not have mysteries.’

  ‘Oh no, please, then Mr. Evans will hear about it and we will all be in trouble for he has said there’s to be no more tales of ghosts and such and he specially forbade any of us from upsetting you milady.’

  ‘Well now you have intrigued me Anwen and if you want to keep this secret from Evans you will have to tell me all, come do my hair and we can talk as you work.’

  The maid returned to her work with a marked hesitancy and with a little prompting began to explain.

  ‘It is a sad tale milady, some years ago when his lordship’s great uncle was master of this house, he took a bride. A young bride, no more than a slip of a girl she was, well I don’t know the ins and outs of it but she was never happy here, finding the house too big and very dark and dismal, I don’t wonder for she was not from hereabouts.’

  ‘I can understand that,’ Catherine interrupted, ‘Llangorfan is very different to my homeland too, it can seem dark and gloomy.’

  ‘Then you’ll maybe understand her a little more than those of us who have always lived hereabouts and who don’t know any different milady. Well with her husband away on business a lot, Lady Ellen, for that was her name, would fall into a deep depression and nothing could lighten her spirit. Until her husband returned she spent much of her time in the gardens and praying in the old chapel. That was until the good news that she was with child became known and his lordship determined not to leave his wife again at least until the child was born. He would only have to make one more journey to the capital to see to his affairs and thereafter he would be at her side. This seemed to make Lady Ellen happy, that and the child to come. I suppose she could imagine less loneliness for herself once there was a child to love.

  Well the morning he left on this last journey Lady Ellen cried and begged him not to go, and when he departed, as he said he must she ran crying to the chapel and would not come out of there. Weeping she declared that she knew he would not come back, that something dreadful would happen to him. The last words her worried servants heard her say were that she could not bear it, and would not live on in loneliness. They begged her to think of the child, but she was beside herself and before they could stop her she climbed to the top of the small chapel tower and threw herself to her death.

  ‘Oh how dreadful,’ Catherine was white with emotion, ‘poor poor girl.’

  ‘Well milady it was worse than anyone could imagine. It transpired that his lordship was not on business at all, but with his mistress in the next town. So when the news was sent and he returned to such sadness, his guilt bore him down for the rest of his life. He lived in seclusion, sending away all but one manservant, letting the house and estates go to rack and ruin until he died all alone of a fever.’

  ‘Now this is all very tragic but how does it happen to upset a maid in the house today, and all for the sight of a baby’s shoe? I simply don’t understand’

  Anwen seemed to weigh her words carefully, as if trying to think of an easy way to tell the rest of this sad story.

  ‘Well you see mistress; the present master is the first of the family to return to Llangorfan. The house having been abandoned and left to go to ruin was sold to a local magistrate while the family preferred to stay in the Italian sun of their estates out there. Though the new master never did move his family in here and you can see there has been no work done on the house for many years, though Evans did oversee a skeleton staff here, until the master bought it back a while ago. So now we have a full staff there are bound to be stories, at least that’s what Mr. Evans says, only stories he says and we are to pay no mind to them. So maybe I should say no more’

  ‘Oh Anwen what stories, do stop prevaricating and tell me!’

  ‘Well it’s some of the maids; they think they hear a child crying, late at night, sometimes in the garden or even in the woods. They say it’s the ghost of the unborn child, cheated of its life and looking for its poor dead mama…’

  ‘There’s more, I can tell, don’t hold back, tell me all.’

  ‘Oh milady, it’s nothing to be worrying about, it’s easy for silly ignorant girls to make things up.’

  ‘What things, for goodness Anwen either tell me the rest or I’ll get Sally up here and frighten the truth out of her!’

  ‘Well it’s just that some of the girls believe that it is an omen, a new master, away a lot, leaving his bride. Not that anyone can say that you are desolate milady, though you are eager for his lordships return, which is only right. And that it should be you finding the shoe, well it was a shock, there being no children at Llangorfan not even on a visit. So some of the maids, silly girls that they are, have taken it as a sign that something of the story must be true. Tis nothing but silliness milady you must pay no heed at all.’

  ‘Oh no Anwen I must pay her some heed for you said others have heard a child crying, this mystery is not only in Sally’s mind is it, there must be more to it than this and I intend to find out what that might be. You have intrigued me now, but you must not worry, for I am certainly not desolate and his lordship is most certainly away on business when he is not at home and the finding of the shoe proves that this is no ghost but a reality we can surely discover.’

  ‘Oh please milady don’t let anyone know I have told this tale, I’ll be in the most terrible trouble if Mr. Evans finds out.’

  Anwen was almost in tears and Catherine had to give in and tell her that she would keep the secret. However as she went down to dinner her brain was busy with the tale and while she had no doubt that the sounds of a child crying and her discovery of the shoe did not mean there was a ghostly baby, she determined she would get to the bottom of it.

  “It will be a diversion, to get to the bottom of the mystery, but for now I must concentrate on the task in hand. How to prevail upon Alex to let me ride again. If I make him see how obedient I am now, what a model wife, then he must surely relent.”

  It was not until the meal was ended though that she brought up the subject of her return to riding. When Alex was replete after the carefully chosen menu and relaxing with a final glass of claret.

  Alex sighed, leant back in his seat and stretched his long legs out in front of the fire. It was a relief to sit for a while with nothing more taxing on his mind he acknowledged, than the prospect of taking this delightfully compliant Kate to his bed. It had been a long week, he’d ridden hard, and been in meetings fraught with intensity and the need for detailed planning if they were to achieve their goal. Their quarry was wily, he would be easily spooked, and the strain of keeping the secret safe was beginning to tell.

  “I’ll be glad when it’s done, and we can all rest easy.” he thought.

  Catherine who had seated herself in the chair opposite, spoke, breaking into his reverie.

  ‘Anwen tells me there is to be a horse fair in the village. Do you think we might go my lord? There will be much to see with stock coming from all around, so Anwen says.’

  ‘A horse fair indeed and why would I be thinking of going to such a sale? I have no need of a mount, Al-Ashab serves me well enough, I’m not inclined to ride any other as you know Kate.’

  ‘There is more to see than horses at such events surely, with all manner of stalls selling useful things, and jugglers and acrobats, it sounds set to be most entertaining. We would be sure to meet our neighbours and that can only be to the good, for we will be becoming acquainted with those to whom we will be issuing invites quite soon.’

  Alex thought for a moment, silently working a plan in his head. “It might be better; I could be less conspicuous on such a jaunt than if
I went in disguise. They’ve not seen me as a titled gent, only as an unnamed rogue, to go in the open with my lady on my arm, looking for quality horseflesh on which to spend my silver. It might just work.”

  ‘Come now Kate, out with the truth, what you mean to do is to bring up the damned business of riding again. I thought you had understood that it will be some time before I am convinced of your ability to curb your inclination to go against me in the matter of riding alone and without a suitable chaperone, and as I am still not able to spare the time to ride with you, I feel disinclined to furnish you with the means to disobey me. If there is no mount for you in the stable, you must be obedient to my wishes.’

  Alarmed that he’s seen through her so easily and was angered, Catherine unthinking, jumped to her feet and returned like with like.

  ‘Oh you are determined never to trust me and always to take a dim view of me no matter what. Tell me, when, since coming to this house, have I not been an obedient and model wife? Have I not taken pride in making every meal a pleasure for you, are not the changes I have organized in these rooms to your taste. I’m sure you could not have talked of entertaining unless I had been a good and obedient wife. Well maybe now when I see that obedience will not avail me of my husbands regard I will practice it no longer!’

  Catherine turned to flounce with a swirl of her skirts out of the room, but Alex reached the closed door with her, one hand reaching over her head flat against the wood so she couldn’t open it, while the other encircled her waist and pulled back hard against him.

  ‘Do you really think it is your obedience that wins you my regard lady and not some other of your delightful qualities?’

  Catherine felt her body respond to the heat of his and heard the chuckle in his voice, so turning in his arms she spoke.

  ‘It is so unkind of you to tease me A…’

  His kiss cut her short, robbing her of breath as his tongue invaded and for a while she could do nothing except kiss him back. Then she wriggled to free herself, pushing against his chest to stay him.

  ‘And the horse fair Alex?’

  Her question was accompanied by a sweet but questioning smile that made his decision for him.

  ‘Oh very well, we can go, but mark my words, Kate, this changes nothing, and you will wait to ride until I can accompany you. I will brook no disobedience on this. Now to bed I think.’

  Alex lay awake long into the night, Kate sleeping in his arms. He was less and less willing to return her to her bed after their lovemaking; it felt right holding her snuggled softly against his bare chest, her breath feather light on his skin. How on earth had he allowed this to happen, allowed himself to feel any regard for this girl who was meant to be the tool by which he claimed his revenge? Oh true enough that Calthorpe still suffered, not knowing could be as painful as learning the worst detail. To begin with he’d kept his promise and written, the first letters filled with venom and enough detail to assure Calthorpe that the hurt and indignity that had been promised had been heaped on his favourite, and with a clear message that he Alex Tremayne had taken and intended to keep taking what was his due. Then he’d stopped writing, unable to keep on putting such lies on the paper, no, let the man imagine the rest. The very fact of the complete lack of communication would feed his imagination.

  Alex felt no remorse for intercepting her letters to her family; it was keeping their letters from her that was rankling. She blamed their silence on herself, sure that her opposition to the marriage had alienated them, and every day she waited and watched, sure they would forgive her and write. Every letter the old butler delivered to him in secret now brought with it a stab of guilt, but how to resolve this was beyond him. Damn the weakness within him, the weakness that had made him feel for this girl as he’d never felt for any other.

  “If this is love “he thought bitterly, ‘then I want none of it.”

  But once again instead of returning his sleeping wife to her own bed, he tightened his arms around her slender body and waited for sleep to claim him.

  The morning of the fair broke fine and sunny. Catherine was in high spirits as she waited for Alex to return from his ride. She had breakfasted in her room, hardly able to eat for excitement and it took all her patience to wait.

  “It will be half an hour at least before he returns, then he will breakfast before changing, oh it is too much to bear.’

  ‘Anwen, let me have my bonnet and I will spend an hour in the rose garden, we need fresh flowers for the drawing room and I am fit to burst with all this waiting.’

  ‘Very well milady.’

  Catherine made her way outside, skirting the house to access the sunny, south facing rose garden. There were other flowers she could have picked but the roses were her favourite and they were coming into their own now, budding and blooming in abundance. Soon she was hard at work, filling the basket with the sweet scent of early summer. So absorbed was she that it was some time before the faint sound penetrated her consciousness. The first thought she entertained was that it must be a kitten, what else could make such a mewling sound, but it was not quite the sound she was familiar with from the kits she’d played with as a child. There was something plaintive about it, a sadness that was out of place on such a bright day. Carefully putting the basket down she stood quite still, straining to hear, and again there it was. Not as far away as she’d first thought, but faint and muffled as if coming both from indoors and high up at the same time. Slowly it came to her, not kittens, only one voice, the voice of a crying child, and as if to confirm the awful truth a stray cloud obscured the sun casting a shadow that silenced the birds and sent a chill down her spine. Then as quickly as it had happened the sun reappeared, the birdsong resumed and despite her straining her ears there was no more mewling from any direction. Catherine shook herself out of the spell that had been cast, picked up the basket of flowers and headed indoors, quite determined to find out if any of the servants had brought a child to visit, for what else could explain it.

  ‘Evans, tell me is there a child here today visiting one of the staff maybe?’

  ‘No milady, the staff are not allowed to entertain visitors as you know.’

  ‘Yes I do know but it is not uncommon for such rules to be broken occasionally and many of our staff are local, and so having family close by...’

  ‘No indeed milady,’ the old man interrupted, his voice carrying a clear note of censure, ’I assure you all your staff are about their work, not one would flout the rules of this house, not while I am butler.’

  Catherine was just about to give up perplexed, not only at the lack of a child visitor to explain what she’d heard, but at the vehemence of Evans’ denial. When Alex entered the hallway from the dining room and overheard part of the exchange.

  ‘Admirable sentiments Evans, but just who is being suspected of having the temerity to flout your rules, a brave but foolish soul surely?’

  ‘Tis nothing milord, nothing for you or the mistress to be concerned about,’

  ‘Kate?’

  ‘It is as Evans says, I was in the rose garden and thought I had heard a child cry from somewhere in the house, but I was mistaken.’

  ‘Hmm, from there the sound of buzzards mewling might be mistaken for a child’s cry, and there is a pair nesting nearby, I saw them and their hatch in the air earlier, see my dear, your mystery is solved. Evans we’ll have the carriage in half an hour.’

  As she watched her husband remove himself to prepare for their visit to the fair, Catherine was less than convinced, but seeing the relief on the old man’s face thought better than to pursue the matter further, she would have a word with Anwen later.

  ‘Yes that must be it, Evans, can you ask one of the maids to arrange these in vases for the drawing room please, and I’ll have tea served in the morning room while I wait for his lordship.’

  ‘Very well milady.’

  By mid morning the carriage was bowling along the estate road in the sunshine and Catherine reveled in the warmth of it
on her face as she leant out of the window determined not to miss anything. The soft green parkland passed by and she spotted some of the estate deer shyly grazing just at the foot of the mountains that dominated the skyline. This was the first time since she’d arrived here almost a month ago that she’d been outside the perimeter wall of the estate, and she felt quite giddy with excitement. Not only to be visiting the fair but also to be in company with her handsome husband and with the chance of prevailing upon him to purchase a pretty pony all of her own. Surely no one could ask for more? Turning back to the interior if the carriage she saw that Alex was watching her intently, steely grey eyes narrowed, a faint smile playing around his firm mouth. His long lean length reclined lazily against the far side of the carriage, his particularly elegant clothing showing his physique off to perfection. It was usual to see him dressed in well tailored, elegant but rather sombre clothing. But today his fine wool coat was of a deep rich blue, his linen as white as ever was complimented by a froth of lace at the collar and his long legs were encased in pale grey breeches and shining black hessians, the whole was brightened by a rich blue patterned waistcoat of finest satin.

  ‘Come her lady.’

  Catherine hesitated, not wanting to break the spell of the moment, but gasped when Alex reached out impatient hands to pull her onto his lap.

  ‘You look particularly beguiling this morning Kate, I must find other such entertainments to bring such a sparkle to these lovely eyes and a blush to these creamy cheeks’

  ‘I have no need of entertainments my lord, but I do admit to an excitement at our outing today, who could not enjoy such a lovely day?’

  ‘Who indeed?’

  Catherine watched as his eyes focused on her mouth, her lips parted slightly in anticipation, he meant to kiss her and she wanted him to, no that was not quite correct, she needed him to. So when Alex put his mouth to hers he was able to inhale her soft little sigh of pleasure as he helped himself to the sweet taste of her.