by Louise Clark
Her heart pounding as she raced for safety, Prudence watched with dismay as a soldier rode for the trees and emerged with her mount. Now, even if she reached the woods, she would never be able to get back to Strathern Hall quickly. However, she might just be able to lose her pursuers in the dense underbrush. She doubled her speed, panting with the exertion.
She had almost reached the edge of the forest when she felt a hand grasp her upper arm. Desperately, she tried to shrug off the restraint, but inexorably her captor dragged her to a stop. Turning, she looked up into the cold gray eyes of Cedric Ingram. “Od’s blood!” he gasped as the man called Osborne came up beside him. “‘Tis Prudence Leighton.”
In a frenzy to escape, Prudence fought to free herself from his hold. But Cedric was too strong for her. Moreover, he now had the assistance of Osborne and several troopers. Soon Prudence was subdued, but not cowed.
She glared at Cedric, her eyes snapping with outrage. “Now what do you intend to do, Master Ingram? Betray me as you have my brother?”
Cedric’s head snapped back as if he had been slapped. “You know?”
“How could you?” she flared. “You claimed to be our friend! You were courting Alysa!”
Cedric sneered, “I still am.” His features hardened into the frightening mask of a fanatic. “And I will marry her.”
“Not when she learns how you have betrayed our family, Cedric Ingram! She will have no more to do with you than any other person of quality in this area will.”
Cedric’s eyes glittered with cold brutality. “She will learn nothing until it is too late.”
It was at that moment that Prudence began to feel real fear.
Chapter 15
Prudence was missed by Abigail that afternoon when Alysa and she met in the family salon to enjoy a few minutes of quiet talk and a cup of herbal tea. “I haven’t seen Prudence since I returned from the vicarage. Do you know where she is, Alysa?”
Alysa jumped nervously. Prudence had been in her thoughts ever since she had watched her sister ride gaily after Cedric Ingram’s retreating form, but she had not been sure what she should do. On the one hand, she had promised that she would not tell their parents what Prudence was up to, should she be missed for any reason. On the other hand, Alysa couldn’t shake the fear that Prudence had gotten herself into trouble. If such was the case, the sooner Alysa told her parents, the sooner Prudence could be rescued.
“Perhaps. That is…. Yes.” Relief fought with guilt in Alysa. Relief that the story could finally be told. Guilt at betraying a confidence. Relief that someone else could decide what should be done. Guilt that she had withheld information from her stepmother.
Abigail’s expression was mildly amused. “Well, which is it? Yes or no?”
Alysa knitted her fingers together in her lap and wished desperately that Prudence would sail through the door to the room at that very instant. When she did not, an answer became inevitable. “It’s not really so bad, you know. What she’s doing, I mean.”
The amusement fled from Abigail’s features. Imperceptibly she straightened. “Prudence is up to something she thinks I should not know about.”
It was a statement of fact, not a question. Alysa took it as such as she nodded agreement.
“What has she done, Alysa?” Abigail’s voice was stern.
Alysa knew that tone of old. Through the years Alysa had been the daughter who did the daring, dangerous things and gotten herself into trouble. Abigail had responded with a firm hand, gentling Alysa into a lady, rather than breaking her spirit. Thus, Alysa knew that when Abigail demanded an answer she expected it to be honest and truthful. Alysa could not lie to her now.
Her expression pleading for understanding, Alysa said, “Prudence has been following Cedric Ingram and today—”
“Following Master Ingram? Whatever for?” Abigail interrupted incredulously.
Alysa leaned forward earnestly. “To get to know him, Mama. She believes that if she discovers his interests she will be better able to talk to him, and so to gain his regard.”
“Good heavens, wherever did the child acquire such an idea?”
“From you, Mama. You have always told us that gentlemen like to talk about themselves and that we should always ask them questions on the subjects dearest their hearts.”
“Dear Lord,” Abigail said weakly, “I didn’t mean her to take my advice quite so literally.”
“No.” There wasn’t much that Alysa could say at that moment, even though she sympathized with her stepmother.
Abigail shook her head. Her expression was bleak, but she spoke with her usual brisk authority. “Very well, Prudence decided she must learn all she could of Cedric Ingram by following him about. What happened today?”
“He passed by when we came out of the vicarage. Prudence told me she was going to follow him and perhaps speak to him. She rode off after him. He was just beyond the village when I last saw him. Prudence was some distance behind him.”
“She had not reached him? They were not conversing?”
Alysa shook her head.
Abigail nodded decisively and reached for the bell to summon a servant. “We must notify your father and then we will go over to Ingram Abbey. If Cedric Ingram did speak to Prudence he may know her current whereabouts.”
When Lord Strathern was apprised of the situation his expression darkened angrily. “She rode after Cedric Ingram, you say, Alysa?”
Alysa nodded apprehensively. Her father’s expression was forbidding enough to make the stoutest heart quail and Alysa was already so consumed by guilt that she began to fear that Prudence was in real danger.
“We will have to speak to Ingram, but I do not have much hope of learning anything positive from him.”
Lord Strathern’s voice was grim. Alysa hastened to reassure him. “Papa, I am sure Master Ingram must have seen her and even talked to her. Prudence was so determined to find out his secrets that I doubt she was willing to remain in the shadows.”
The grimness deepened on Strathern’s face. “Cedric Ingram is unlikely to give us the help we need, but we must begin by talking to him.”
An hour later, when the Leighton family was seated in a recently redecorated parlor in Ingram Abbey, Cedric Ingram was ruefully dismayed and very apologetic. He had not seen Prudence that day at all.
“I cannot think where she might have gone,” he said earnestly to Lord Strathern. “When I left the village, I returned to my lands and stopped by one of my tenant’s cottages. The poor fellow broke his leg two weeks ago and I have been checking up on him regularly to be sure his family is not wanting. After that, I rode back to the abbey. I did not see Mistress Prudence at all.”
Something in what he said struck Alysa as being false, but at that moment she could not identify it. She frowned and Cedric immediately hastened to reassure her.
“I promise you, Mistress Alysa, if I knew where your sister was I would be delighted to tell you. Indeed, I wish I did know so that I could chase the concern from your lovely blue eyes and see it replaced with pleasure.”
After their last meeting, when she had told Cedric that she would never marry him, the flowery promise sat ill with Alysa. As she considered how to respond, she forgot the question that had been puzzling her. “You are very kind sir, but when I last saw Prudence she was determined to speak to you. I cannot understand why she would have allowed herself to be diverted from her project.”
“Perhaps her horse threw a shoe. Or perhaps she saw a friend and decided a quiet gossip would be much more entertaining than chasing me. I cannot think why she would be so intent on speaking to me in any case.”
Alysa looked uncomfortably at Abigail. If it was true that Cedric Ingram had not spoken to Prudence that day, she did not think it fair to her sister to give away the secret of her infatuation.
Abigail interpreted Alysa’s dismayed glance and quickly improvised an answer. “We had been at a meeting at the vicarage, discussing what was to be done to arrange for t
he rebuilding of Master Wishingham’s forge. She must have thought you would wish to be involved in the preparations and rode after you to mention it to you.”
Cedric seemed to accept this. “Of course. Mistress Prudence is such a compassionate young lady I should have expected something of the sort from her.”
Again Alysa felt his remark grate against her sensibilities. Something was definitely not right here. Cedric Ingram had never before expressed such a positive attitude toward Prudence. Most of the time he seemed unaware that she existed, and when she forced her presence upon him, he acted as if she were an annoying insect to be swatted away.
Lord Strathern was looking grimmer by the minute. He put his hands on his knees in a gesture of frustration and stared at Cedric with hard eyes. “My daughter is missing and the last time she was seen she was following you, Ingram. I cannot take this information lightly.”
Cedric bristled. “What are you saying, Strathern? Are you implying that I had something to do with Mistress Prudence’s disappearance?”
Strathern’s expression didn’t change. “Did you?”
Cedric jumped up from his chair in a fine display of cavalier temperament. “I cannot believe that you would say such a thing to me!”
“Is it true?” Strathern growled.
“I must ask you to leave this house at once!” Cedric pointed dramatically to the door. “When your daughter returns home with a dirty riding habit after taking a tumble from her horse, or chagrined because she stopped to gossip with some other female and forgot the time, I shall expect an apology, Strathern!”
Lord Strathern stood, indicating to his family that they should do the same. “I will be happy to apologize, Ingram, if Prudence has, as you say, already returned home. Otherwise….” He let the words hang in the air for several long seconds. “I look after my own, Ingram. Remember that.”
Outside the abbey they paused on the steps as the carriage was brought round, along with Lord Strathern’s horse.
“What are we going to do, Papa?” Alysa asked anxiously. Responsibility for this whole mess weighed heavily on her. If she had refused to allow Prudence to chase after Cedric Ingram, her sister would be home safe now. Moreover, the rift between her father and Ingram would never have occurred had she not denied Cedric’s right to court her and then let this latest problem arise. Until now the two men had worked so closely together it seemed impossible that they should be enemies.
“You and Abigail will return to Strathern Hall in case Prudence does return. I am going to go to the village to see if I can learn anything further.”
There was a bleak look on Strathern’s face that said much more than the words he was speaking. He didn’t think Prudence would return home on her own, anymore than he would find out her whereabouts by asking about the town. But something had to be done. A start had to be made somewhere.
Abigail nodded acquiescence as the carriage arrived. After seeing the ladies into the vehicle, Lord Strathern mounted up and rode off. Abigail and Alysa watched him go with troubled eyes. As the carriage gained momentum, Alysa said diffidently, “Mama, would you mind if I did as Papa is doing? Go to speak to certain people, that is?”
“If it helps find Prudence, do whatever you like,” Abigail said, her voice shaking.
Alysa nodded. She knew what she must do.
*
Philip had no idea of the events that were rocking the Leighton family. He had spent the day with one of his tenants, helping to repair a barn with a badly leaking roof. He knew that his uncle would never have stooped to such manual labor, or his father for that matter, but times had changed. Ainslie and the people who farmed it were his responsibility now and he would deal with problems as he saw fit. His years in the army had taught him that the lower orders respected an officer who was tough, brutal and distant, but they gave their hearts and loyalty to one who demanded much, but gave more. He planned to manage Ainslie and his tenants in just that manner.
Now he was comfortably ensconced in front of the fire, casually dressed in black breeches and a fine lawn shirt, browsing though a book from his uncle’s extensive library. He remembered his father saying that Richard Hampton had been obsessed with books. The collection that Philip had inherited seemed to bear that comment out.
He was a bit surprised when Ashton, his butler, opened the door to announce that Mistress Alysa Leighton had called, but he was even more surprised when the lady did not wait to be properly announced by Ashton, but stalked in even as he spoke her name. She was dressed in the dark blue riding habit that suited her so well and the strands of her hair that had escaped from beneath her broad-brimmed hat told him that she had ridden to Ainslie at an indecorously swift pace. The loose, tousled hair clustered around her face in a wild, wanton way that bewitched Philip. Slowly he closed the book in his hands.
Deliberately, he kept his eyes hooded, his features expressionless. “Do sit down, Mistress Leighton.”
Alysa shook her head. There was a peculiar expression on her face, as if seeing him had freshened an old wound. When she spoke, her tone was sharp with desperation. “No, thank you. Philip, I need answers. Now.”
Something in her eyes and voice warned him that all was not as he would wish it to be. He raised one eyebrow inquiringly and kept his tone light. “What makes you think I have the answers you seek?”
Her lovely mouth tightened into an angry line. “Because you do. Philip, I know who you are!”
A muscle flickered in his cheek, but that was the only evidence that her remark had hit home. “Indeed. And who am I, pray tell?”
“The Roundhead brother.” She said the words flatly, watching him with a kind of despairing hope.
Philip sucked in his breath, but he did not deny the accusation. There was no point. Alysa had not asked a question; she had made a statement. “How did you find out?”
“My brother told me.”
Philip nodded, for the information fit. He wondered who else Thomas Leighton had told. “Is that why you refused to see me the other day?”
She shuddered, but she kept her head high and met his gaze squarely. “I could not decide what to do. My heart told me it did not matter which side you followed during the war, but my head said that I must not consort with a rebel.”
“Your head and other members of your family,” Philip said roughly.
“It is true that my father and stepmother know who you are, but—”
“And the amorous Cedric Ingram?”
Alysa was surprised by that, but he saw her eyes kindle as she responded to the inadvertent jealousy he had allowed to creep into his voice. “Heavens, no! At least, I don’t think so. Thomas told me and later Papa, but he said nothing about discussing you with Master Ingram and I am sure Papa has not done so.”
Philip drew a deep breath. “Why are you here?”
“Because… I need your help.”
A bitter irony twisted his mouth. “The help of a Roundhead?”
“I think,” Alysa said softly, “that a Roundhead is the only one who can solve this puzzle.” Her eyes pleaded with him, begging him not to reject her out of hand. Philip was not immune.
He dropped the book on a table beside his chair. “Why? What has happened?”
Alysa put her hand on his arm. The touch of her skin burned through the thin lawn of his shirt. He could feel her desperation in the clutch of her fingers and knew that she was frightened and vulnerable.
She said in a shaky voice, “Prudence has disappeared and it is all my fault!”
Responding to her despair, he caught her hands in his and squeezed them reassuringly. “Hold a moment. What do you mean, Prudence has disappeared?”
“Exactly that! She went riding off after Cedric Ingram this morning and has not returned. Nor has Cedric seen or spoken to her. Philip,” she said anxiously, “With soldiers in the area I am so afraid! What if a group of them found Prudence alone and unprotected and fell upon her? She could be lying somewhere unbearably hurt or even… even de
ad!” Her hands trembled in his. “You know these people. You are a man of the Protectorate. You can find out if any of them have seen Prudence or….” Tears started in her eyes and she couldn’t go on.
Philip gently pressed her into the chair, then crouched down beside her. “At one time I would have boasted to you that your sister would never be molested by Protectorate troops, but an army is only as good as the officers who lead it and I must admit that discipline in this troop is very lax. I promised Lieutenant Weston that he would have me to deal with should he allow his men to harm any of the people of this area and so he shall. But first we must discover if Prudence has been harmed, or if she has been captured.”
Alysa rubbed at her damp eyes and sniffed. In the past Philip had observed Royalist ladies shedding copious tears while they judiciously batted long, wet eyelashes at the man they had decided to twist into doing their wishes. More than once he had been the recipient of behaviour of that sort and he had been immune to the woman’s wiles, but Alysa’s defiant yet very vulnerable sniff overwhelmed him with a sudden protective urge. Smiling with a whimsical tenderness, Philip handed her a handkerchief, and when she returned his smile with one of her own, his heart leapt.
“Who would have captured Prudence? And why?” she asked, kneading the fine linen handkerchief into a knotted ball.
Drawing a deep breath, Philip made a decision. Once he had given his loyalties freely to Oliver Cromwell, but the Lord Protector was dead and the nation was fragmenting under the rough care of men like Sir Edgar Osborne. Loyalty, he knew, was a precious commodity that had to be earned. It was time for him to place his where it belonged—with the lady he loved and her family.
“Alysa, I am not what you think. It is true I am the Roundhead brother, but I was not allowed to inherit Ainslie freely. I was sent here to spy on the people of West Easton, on your family particularly.”