She let him do so, but as the door opened, to her horror he walked into the room.
For a moment she just stood in the open doorway looking at him.
Then he said,
“Now come along. You are alone and I’m alone. I’ll make sure that you’re not lonely if nothing else.”
For the first time Iona was aware of the danger she was in.
Swiftly, before the man realised what she was about to do, she turned and ran down the stairs.
She burst into the room she had seen the publican of the inn come from when she had arrived.
He was sitting at his desk at the far end of the room and she ran towards him saying breathlessly,
“There’s a man in my bedroom and I don’t know how to get rid of him.”
The publican rose slowly to his feet.
“A man in your room!” he exclaimed. “But is it someone who’s stayin’ in the inn?”
“Yes, he was in the dining room,” Iona said, “and he followed me upstairs and I am very tired and want to be alone. But he has pushed his way in and I am afraid, very afraid.”
The publican looked at her as if questioning if she was being truthful.
Then he said,
“Go to the next room where you’ll find my Missus and I’ll see what I can do about this man who’s upsettin’ you.”
“Thank you, thank you!” Iona replied. “I am sorry to be a nuisance, but, as I am alone, I don’t know how to make him behave himself.”
“You go and talk to the Missus and I’ll see what I can do,” the publican suggested.
He walked out and Iona opened the door at the far end of the room.
It was obviously the publican’s sitting room and his wife was there holding a baby in her arms.
The woman looked up as Iona entered.
“If you be wantin’ anythin’,” she said, “but I can’t come now. I’ve got me son to put to bed.”
“Your husband said – I could sit with you,” Iona replied, “while he deals – with a man who is being very tiresome.”
“Oh, not one of them! We gets them all the time ’ere. But you leave it to Bill, ’e’ll cope with anyone. So sit down till ’e comes back.”
She pointed to a chair near the fireplace and Iona sat down feeling suddenly very tired and very frightened.
The woman was rocking the little baby gently in her arms.
“Is that your son?” Iona asked.
“It’s one of them,” the woman answered. “I ’as three sons and two daughters and they be an ’andful I can tell you that.”
“They must be if you look after them yourself,” Iona said sympathetically.
“Two of them be quite a bit older than the rest and they be ’elpin’ me with the little uns but then it’s Bill who suffers. He’s short-’anded and it’s difficult to get reliable people to work for one these days.”
“I think it’s very brave of you to have a hotel and such a large family,” Iona said.
“That be true,” the woman answered, “we be at it night and day and there’ll be visitors who arrive long after we’ve gone to sleep. Then Bill ’as to pull on ’is clothes and find them a room. It ain’t all sugar and spice I can tell you, miss.”
“I am sure it’s not,” Iona said. “I did not think this sort of thing would happen because I was travelling alone.”
“Bill tells me you were a pretty young girl and ’e ’oped there wouldn’t be no trouble. It’s usually the girls who stir things up round ’ere especially when the men ’as had more to drink than be good for them.”
Iona felt herself shiver.
Then, as the baby started crying, there was nothing she could do but wait for Bill’s return.
It was nearly an hour before he came back and both his wife and Iona looked at him questioningly as he came into the room.
“Another of them,” he said to his wife. “This one’d talk the ’ind leg off a donkey!”
“What did he want?” his wife enquired.
“Need you ask,” her husband replied. “This young lady’s too pretty to be travellin’ alone and she’s bound to ’ave trouble wherever she goes.”
“Now you are scaring me,” Iona said. “Have you sent him away from my room?”
“I persuaded ’im to join others who was playin’ bridge, but it weren’t easy, I’ll tell you that. It cost me a large glass of whisky that I ’opes you’ll be payin’ me for.”
“I will certainly do that,” Iona replied, “and thank you very very much for saving me.”
“Oh, Bill can do anything if ’e wants to,” his wife said. “Anyone who comes ’ere and causes us trouble, ’e won’t ’ave ’em again and who can blame ’im?”
“Who indeed,” Iona sighed, “and thank you more than I can say.”
“Now you takes ’er upstairs and show ’er ’ow to lock ’er door,” Bill’s wife said. “When that man finishes ’is whisky, ’e’ll no doubt ’ave another try, you mark my words!”
“I thought he might do that,” he added. “I’ve tested the lock and there be nothin’ wrong with it. If she locks ’erself in and ’e ’ammers on the door and I ’ears him, I’ll go out and give ’im somethin’ to get on with.”
“Well, ’urry up about it,” his wife said impatiently. “I want to go to bed and you were up late last night, so you must be dead tired.”
“I certainly am,” Bill agreed. “So come on, Missy, up the stairs. I’ll show you ’ow to lock the door so that no one can get at you, unless they crawl underneath it and your friend be too fat in the tummy for that!”
Iona smiled at him.
“Thank you! Thank you for being so kind. I never thought that this would happen to me.”
“That’s good advice, you can take it from me,” his wife pointed out. “It’s pretty young women like yourself who causes all this trouble. Now come along, it’s time my poor ’usband ’ad a bit of shut-eye.”
“I will go up the stairs at once if you will be kind enough to escort me,” Iona replied.
“Come on then,” Bill said, “and unless ’e breaks the door down ’e won’t be able to get at you. That I promise!”
Iona said good night to his wife and then hurried up the stairs with Bill beside her.
The room was empty, but he had left the candles on the dressing table.
“Here be the key,” Bill said. “Turn it in the lock when I’ve left you and don’t open it however much ’e begs you to do so.”
“No, of course not. I would not think of doing anything like that.”
“Well, you take my best advice,” Bill insisted, “and don’t go stayin’ in this sort of place. It’s all travellin’ men can afford and a pretty girl like yourself be fair game.”
He glanced round the room as he spoke almost as if he expected to see someone under the bed.
Then, putting the key in the lock, he said,
“Turn it as soon as I’m on the other side. Then pull up one of the chairs and put it against the door in case ’e tries to force it open.”
“Thank you! Thank you! I am so grateful.”
Bill left and Iona did as he had told her and put a very heavy chair against the door,
“Goodnight,” she shouted after she had done so.
“I’ll see you in the mornin’,” Bill answered and she heard him go down the stairs.
She then pushed the door with both hands to make sure that it was closed and was convinced that it would be difficult for even a strong man to force it open.
Then, because she was afraid, she only took off her dress and stockings, leaving the rest of her underclothes on as she climbed into bed.
At first she listened, afraid that the man might come back and try to find her, but, because she was actually very tired, she fell asleep very quickly.
*
When she awoke, it was morning.
She looked at the clock and it was half-past seven.
She must have indeed slept peacefully through the long hours a
fter Bill had shown her how to lock herself in.
There had been no more trouble and now her one idea was to leave the inn as soon as she could.
‘I must never, never,’ she scolded herself, ‘stay in a place like this again.’
At the same time she was thinking that it might be very difficult to find anything better on her odyssey.
CHAPTER THREE
Driving with not too much speed down the narrow lanes, she was wondering what was happening at The Hall.
She reckoned that they would have found her letters when she did not go in to change for dinner yesterday.
She could imagine all too clearly the horror of her relatives and it would have been quite impossible for them to stop the guests travelling from London for the wedding.
As friends were staying in the house, it meant they would continue to exclaim at the extraordinary behaviour of Iona and the trouble it had meant when everything had to be stopped at the last minute.
First of all Iona thought, as she drove on, that they would have to notify the Vicar.
Then the men who were organising the fireworks would have to be told as well as the caterers.
Apart from all that she wondered what John would say to her family, if, as she expected, they had seen that she had written a letter to him as well as to her aunt.
He was bound to turn up if only to verify the fact that she really had disappeared and, extraordinary though it seemed, no one knew where she had gone.
One or two of her older relatives would remember Miss Dawson, but the rest would not have set eyes on her.
It was easy to imagine, however, the consternation of the whole house.
The small bridesmaids she had chosen from among her relatives would perhaps be the most disappointed.
Doubtless the wedding cake would be put on one side and kept for what everyone imagined would be Iona’s return home once her old Governess had died.
She could not help thinking, however, that the one person who would be delighted would be John.
She was certain that he would be tactful enough not to mention the fact that she had given him any money, also saying that the wedding was postponed and not cancelled completely, as she had made clear to him in her letter.
The people from London would return disappointed and there would not be a hue and cry for her which Iona was afraid might happen if they really believed she had run away completely from the idea of marrying John.
She felt that she had caused everyone a great deal of trouble.
Equally she asked what else could she have done.
And how could she marry John when he was in love with Mary?
If, as he would believe, he could join his friend’s Company, they would be able to be married in six months’ time without everyone thinking that it was particularly odd.
She reassured herself with these thoughts.
But, because of what had happened last night, she was now thinking about herself in a very different way.
She had driven off yesterday quite certain that she could just disappear for perhaps three or four weeks.
Then she would return home to tell them firmly that her marriage to John was cancelled completely and she had no wish to marry anyone.
It would give them something to talk about and to complain about again as they had complained before that she could not live at The Hall without being so heavily chaperoned.
She had thought that it would be easy to stay away until all the trouble had blown over.
What had happened with that man last night had really terrified her.
So she was now wondering how, because she was alone, she would manage to stay somewhere quiet and safe for at least three or four weeks.
She supposed it had been very stupid of her not to anticipate that a young girl alone driving expensive ponies would obviously cause comment.
And the fact that she was young and pretty would attract men as she had attracted that horror last night.
‘What can I do? Where can I go?’ she asked again.
Thinking it over she thought maybe she would have been wiser if she had let one of the older members of the family into the secret that she had discovered about John and Mary.
And she could have asked her to take care of her until she could return to The Hall.
But, when she thought it over, she had few elderly relatives who were unmarried or who had members of their family living with them.
She did not trust any of her female relations not to gossip about what had happened and, of course, they would whisper the story secretly. It would be passed on from mouth to mouth until they all knew the truth.
The truth, if nothing else, would be most unfair on John.
Iona was determined that she would not hurt him even if she was humiliated by the fact that he was marrying her for her money and not, as she had believed, because he really and truly loved her.
‘Perhaps no one will ever love me,’ she reflected sadly.
Naturally men would cluster round her as they had done in London and, as an heiress, there would always be fortune-hunters pursuing her and perhaps she would not be clever enough to recognise them.
At the same time it was not only her money but the magnificence of The Hall that shone behind her just like a huge jewel that was the envy of everyone who saw it.
It all came back to one question, she thought,
‘What shall I do?’
She drove on through the day, wanting to get away from that inn and the man who had tried to enter her room.
Then she realised, although she had bought some food in a small village and the ponies had been watered but not fed, that she had to find somewhere before it was dark.
It was just before five o’clock when she drove into a rather pretty little village.
It had thatched roofs on the cottages and brightly painted gates that opened into small flower-filled gardens.
‘I wonder if there is a Posting inn here?’ she mused.
But there only seemed to be rows of cottages and a rather larger building that she thought must be a school.
Then she saw a shop ahead and she thought perhaps that there was someone who could tell her if there was a Posting inn close to this village.
She pulled up outside the shop.
As there were two boys playing on the pavement, she asked them to hold the ponies while she went inside and they were eager to do so.
They ran to the ponies’ heads and patted them and talked to them in a way that told her that they were used to horses and not afraid of them.
Carrying her handbag, she walked into the shop and it was a typical small village shop.
It held everything from soap and socks to, at one end of it, fresh bread and sausages.
There was an elderly man with a kind face behind the counter.
He smiled and greeted her,
“Good afternoon, ma’am, what can I do for you?”
“I have just driven into the village,” Iona replied, “which I think is very pretty. I wonder if you would be kind enough to tell me if there is a hotel here or a Posting inn where I can stay the night with my ponies?”
“Now that be a difficult question,” he replied to her. “The nearest place for visitors like you, ma’am, be some miles away and I’ve heard complaints about the food.”
Iona gave a little sigh.
“There must be somewhere. I have been driving all day and my ponies are now tired and hungry.”
The man scratched his head.
“I be thinkin’,” he said, “where a young lady like you could go. It be difficult to find anywhere round here.”
“Oh, please try to think of somewhere – ”
She was about to ask if there was perhaps someone private who would put her up for the night if she paid.
Then before she could say the words, the shop door opened and an elderly woman came storming in.
Moving quickly she almost pushed Iona to one side as she walked up to the counter.
“I’m not stayin’ another minute,” she said, speaking loudly. “I’ve ’ad enough! As I’ve said before, ‘enough is enough’ and I’ll take no more of it!”
She seemed to almost scream the last words and the man behind the counter asked,
“What’s happened, Mrs. Jones?”
“Need you ask!” she shouted. “He’s failed again in what ’e be seekin’ and I swear ’is temper shook the roof!”
She gave a deep sigh before she went on,
“It shook me a lot when ’e comes into the kitchen to complain about the tea and then vents his rage on me because he can’t find what ’e wants. No one, you mark my words, no one will ever find that – ”
“Now sit down, Mrs. Jones,” the shopkeeper said. “Let my wife bring you a nice cup of tea.”
“I’m not stoppin’ for tea or for anythin’ else,” Mrs. Jones replied. “I’ve come to tell you what’s ’appened, because it’ll be you who’ll ’ave to find someone else.”
She shook her fist before she continued,
“I’m not sittin’ there to be sworn at by any man, let alone ’is Lordship. I’m sick to death of ’is tantrums and that’s the right word for them.”
As she said the last words, she walked out of the shop slamming the door behind her so violently that Iona was surprised that the glass in it did not break.
She then turned to the shopkeeper and asked,
“What has happened? What has upset her?”
“You may well ask,” the man answered rubbing his forehead. “This has happened afore and it’ll happen again. But it’s me, always me, who has to bear the brunt of it, to find his Lordship someone else to do the cookin’.”
“Why is he so disagreeable?” Iona asked.
The shopkeeper gave a short laugh.
“You may well ask. There’s many people who’ve asked that question. It’s one that everyone who lives here knows the answer to. There’s no mistake about that.”
“Then naturally I am curious,” Iona said. “I have never seen anyone so upset.”
She looked round the door almost as if she expected the woman to be outside, but she had obviously gone.
Iona wondered if she was telling other people in the village the reason why she was so upset.
Almost as if he knew what she was thinking, the shopkeeper said,
Beauty or Brains Page 4
