‘According to Mr Grace, you have the Luck to thank for that. He is quite sure it nudges events one way or another.’
The pain in his shoulder flared, and he felt her hand tighten on his own. He answered the pressure briefly and swallowed.
‘The Luck? But do we not believe the Luck destroyed? Have you found out how it came into my father’s hands?’
‘It seems there is more than one sort of meaning of “destroyed”. There is another visitor downstairs that I have not mentioned to you as yet. Mrs Lottie Tyers. As soon as she heard news of the shooting, and I do not think the word could have travelled any faster than the sound of the gun itself, she picked up her stick and walked over here. She is sitting downstairs and annoying the lawyers by referring to them as foolish young men. I shall send her up to you in a little while, if you are strong enough.’
He nodded and she took her hand from his and stood. As she turned, her green skirts spun behind her and she slipped through the door like a passing breeze.
Stephen walked very slowly, letting Mr Quince lean on his shoulder. Their stroll had been slow and faltering, and though Stephen had wanted to dash ahead he did not wish Mr Quince to feel abandoned so he tried to be patient and move steadily. The last light was soft on their faces.
Stephen wondered if Casper had found Swithun yet, and if Casper had managed to find out from him where Agnes was, but most of all he felt the weight of the Luck in his waistband. He was proud, but he hoped he would not have to keep it long. A secret was a heavy thing to bear, and he was glad not to have seen much of his mother that day. He felt Mr Quince stop: the tutor was peering up into the trees to where the higher path skirted the grounds of Silverside.
‘Stephen, is that not Fraulein Hurst?’ Stephen looked and saw a tall female figure in a dark-green cloak moving along above them. ‘Fraulein?’ The figure turned and put back her hood. Stephen saw the familiar black hair. It was dark as Joe’s back. ‘Please do run up and ask her if she would be so kind as to come and speak with us,’ Quince said. I wish to express my condolences.’
Stephen scrambled up the slope to the young woman’s side. She smiled at him. ‘Master Westerman, I hope you are well?’
‘Please will you come with me and speak to my tutor, miss?’ She hesitated. ‘He has been rather ill, you know,’ he added a little pleadingly. She set down a small bag on the path at her side.
‘Yes, of course. Will you give me your hand down the bank?’
Mr Quince brightened considerably as Miss Hurst put out her hand to him, but his kind round face was soon creased with concern. Miss Hurst was determined to see the ruins of Gutherscale Hall at dusk. Miss Scales had told her they were magnificent and her wish for some peace had encouraged her to make a late-afternoon walk round the lake. Mr Quince was worried that she might get lost in the dark or stumble and injure herself. She declared herself determined.
‘I would insist on accompanying you, Fraulein,’ he said, ‘but I am tired even having walked round the gardens of Silverside.’
She shook her head briskly. ‘There is no need, sir. I am quite capable of going myself.’
‘Perhaps one of the servants from the house, if you’ll allow me. .’
‘Please, no!’ Her voice had become quite sharp, and as if sorry for causing poor Mr Quince any offence, she added quickly and more kindly, ‘Dusk is coming on, and I am anxious to be on my way. Please do not worry over me, Mr Quince. I would hate to think you troubled at all on my account.’
Mr Quince’s sickroom pallor was warmed momentarily with a blush. Stephen looked from one to the other.
‘I can go with Miss Hurst,’ he said. ‘If you can return to the house without my help, sir.’ It was Mr Quince who hesitated now. ‘I know the way — you know I have been there lots of times since you were ill, sir. And we shall be quite safe if we go together. I am not afraid of the dark.’
Mr Quince looked at Miss Hurst with a slight smile. ‘I would be much easier in my mind, Miss Hurst, if you would take Stephen with you. He can be a pleasant companion. Do not chatter at Miss Hurst, Stephen.’
Miss Hurst sighed. ‘Very well, sir, if it will make you easier.’ She proffered her hand and Mr Quince took it between his own. ‘I am glad to see your health improving. We shall go now, Stephen?’
Mr Quince watched them make their way up the slope to the higher path. It was a hard thing to see his charge at the woman’s side, since an evening’s walk to the ruins in her company would have been one of the great occasions of his life. The pair disappeared into the trees, and he turned away feeling rather defeated, and through the lengthening shadows made his way slowly back to the Hall.
Harriet avoided the parlour when she left Crowther, and instead returned for a moment to the office. Crowther’s blood was darkening on the carpet, his bloodstained coat and Casper’s shirt tumbled and ripped beside it. She thought of her husband again, the way his blood had seeped through her hands, how he had looked at her while he lay dying. She stared at her hands curled in her lap. Her dress was damp in places where she had tried to scrub Crowther’s blood from it in the kitchen and her cuffs were still marked. Some traces remained under her fingernails. She had felt blood run across her fingers too many times, she knew its smell and texture too intimately, too well. She felt the muscles in her arms begin to tremble and the world seemed to darken. When she heard the rap at the door she started, and turned away to wipe her eyes as it opened. It was Mr Kerrick, the girl’s father.
‘Will he do, madam? Lord Keswick?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, thank you. I believe he will as long as there is no infection, though he is in pain now.’ She tucked her handkerchief back into her sleeve and attempted to smile. ‘How is your daughter? She is a brave girl.’
‘We were so frightened, madam. Can’t say as her mother will ever let her out of the front gate again. Thing is, we want to get her home and rested and fed, but she says she needs to see Casper first, and he’s off on the hills gathering plants for the baron. . She won’t tell us why.’ He sighed, and Harriet recognised the love and frustration of fatherhood. ‘She’s as weak as a kitten, but stubborn as ever she was.’
‘Do you think she might speak to me? I would be happy to see her.’
His long face flooded with relief. ‘Yes, madam, thank you, I shall fetch her at once.’
Harriet was looking out over the dark lawn when Agnes appeared in the doorway. She was still wearing her muddied skirts but had a clean linen shawl over her shoulders. It was dark red. She was obviously conscious of the bruises and cuts on her hands, and was trying to hide them in its folds.
‘Come and sit here, Agnes.’ Harriet sat in one of the spindly dining chairs and patted the one next to her own.
‘I shall dirty it.’
‘It is Mr Sturgess’s chair. You may dirty it all you like.’ Agnes grinned quickly at that and crossed the room to her. ‘Now, is there something you want to ask me? Is it about Mr Sturgess?’
She shook her head. ‘No, madam. Not that one. It is just. . the German lady — she’s all right, isn’t she? Safe, I mean. No harm has come to her?’
Harriet frowned. ‘Miss Hurst is staying at the vicarage with Miss Scales, Agnes. I am sure she is quite safe. Why are you worried about her? You heard that Sturgess killed her father, I suppose. He knew Sturgess’s secret and was blackmailing him, I think. But I do not believe she had any part in the affair, and in any case Sturgess’s secret is out now. Her father brought her here for other reasons. .’
Agnes’s fists continued to work in the folds of her shawl. ‘He was going to shoot me. Put an arrow through my head. He wanted to know where the Luck was, and I was so scared. I said that the German lady had it. That Casper told her to take it away till all was safe again.’ Harriet was quiet a moment. ‘I’m so sorry, madam. I thought she’d be safest. I didn’t know it was him, but I reckoned whoever it was they’d have a harder time chasing gentry.’
Harriet patted her knee. ‘It was a good idea, Agnes.
I would have done the same. Just the same. Go home now and rest. Sturgess has fled. Whatever his hope of finding the Luck, it is all gone now, I am sure. But I promise I shall send to Miss Scales. Perhaps Ham can make a bed there for a while, until Sturgess is taken or we are sure he is gone for good.’
Agnes smiled, and for the first time Harriet realised she was a very pretty child.
‘Thank you! Thank you, Mrs Westerman. I will sleep easy, knowing that. Lord, I am so tired I could stay in my bed a month.’ She yawned, showing her sharp white teeth.
Harriet delivered her to her parents and saw them ride away in Kerrick’s cart just as Mrs Tyers was emerging from the kitchen.
‘Mrs Tyers, you may see Crowther whenever you wish.’
‘Very well. He must hear it all now, I suppose. You got help enough, my dear? Lord, this house is looking poor.’
Harriet nodded. ‘Half of Keswick is here already, it seems.’
‘Mostly lawyers though,’ the old lady said, rolling her eyes. ‘I mean people who can work and be helpful, and tend to Master Charles.’
‘We have all the help we need for now, I think, Mrs Tyers.’
She narrowed her eyes and lifted her chin, examining Harriet carefully. ‘You may call me Lottie, I think, madam. Very well, when I’ve done talking to Master Charles, I shall be on my way.’
‘May I send someone to escort you, Lottie?’
‘Nay, lambkin. It’s hardly a mile. When I can’t manage that on my own roads with ease, I shall get into my bed and let the Devil take me off at last.’
Harriet watched her climb the stairs with a smile. She would go to her at some time over the next few days and ask for her stories of Crowther. First, however, she needed to write a careful note to Miss Scales and send Ham to sleep outside Miss Hurst’s door like a bulldog.
Stephen did not treat Sophia to another lecture on Austrian history on this walk. He could tell she was sad, and was still doing enough thinking and wondering of his own. They reached the ruins of Gutherscale Hall just as the sun was sinking. The haze in the air made for beautiful sunsets. To the south, Skelgill Bank began its steep black climb into the rose and gold sky; beyond Newlands Beck, Causey Pike and Outerside had become dark shadows. The last light struck the top of the pele tower through the trees, and the old hall was full of the voices of crows settling to sleep. They looked up at it together and it felt quite natural to Stephen to take Miss Hurst’s hand.
‘It looks so old,’ he said. ‘We could climb the tower, if you like, before we go back. You can see the lake from there.’
‘That would please me,’ she said, ‘but Stephen, I am not going back.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘I wish to leave this place as soon as I might,’ she said. ‘I am with child. I want to go away somewhere. I will say I am a widow, and have my baby. I learned many things when I was at the convent; afterwards I shall go to some small town and teach the daughters of the gentry.’
‘But you told Casper you have no money!’ He blushed. ‘I was near the camp when you came to talk to Casper. I haven’t said anything.’
She looked a little shocked for a moment, then squeezed his hand. ‘No matter, Stephen. Mr Sturgess knows my secret, I think. He came to see me this morning and was very kind. He said he knew I wished to carry something precious away from here and wished to help me. He has offered me money to slip away quietly. I think he brings it from someone less kind who wants me away from here. I am more easily bought off than my father.’
‘I don’t understand.’
She continued as if he had not spoken. ‘I am to meet Mr Sturgess here in a little while. He will have a carriage waiting nearby. I shall disappear. It is for the best.’
Stephen did not like the thought of Sophia leaving, for some reason. ‘But what of your father? Don’t you want to see him buried?’
She put her free hand to her eyes and wiped something from them. ‘He was not a good father. I must take this chance to get away. It is too painful to remain here.’
‘But why?’ He tugged on her hand.
‘Oh Stephen, it is difficult.’ She knelt down beside him and brushed his hair from his forehead. ‘You will try to be a good man, won’t you?’
He nodded, frustrated and unhappy. She stood again and said more brightly, ‘Let us climb the tower and we shall look at the lake. Then perhaps you should go home.’
He began to lead her to where the spiral staircase began its old climb through the tower walls. He sighed. ‘It is quite difficult to be a good man, if no one ever explains anything and just cries all the time.’ He thrust his hands into his pockets. ‘I shall wait with you. No one will worry about me for an age yet. Mr Quince knows where we are, and you should have a friend to say goodbye to you.’
V.9
Her note written and Ham dispatched, Harriet had retreated to the kitchen to let Mrs Briggs’s cook feed her, then realising her presence was making the woman nervous she returned to the study and sat drumming her fingers on Sturgess’s desk and looking about her. Tucked under the desk she saw the butt of a pistol and hissed between her teeth as she bent down to retrieve it. It was a Light Dragoon pistol, impossible to shoot accurately with such a weapon, but at close range it was devastating. Crowther had been lucky beyond belief. She felt herself flush with irritation. How could he have been so foolish as to not see what Sturgess was about? She laid the gun on the table top. It was a fine example and well cared for. But then had not Hudson said Sturgess had had military experience in one of his former lives?
She stood and looked into the open drawer of the dresser behind her. The drawer was very deep. There was the case for the gun, and the powder and ball. He must have been very quick to load it and prime the pan without Crowther noticing, but then she had served long enough at her husband’s side to see such weapons loaded and fired a hundred times. She would have recognised the necessary movements. Crowther, it was likely, was less familiar than she with such guns. The thought made her smile.
There was a knock at the door. She looked up, expecting to see one of the lawyers or servants, but instead saw Miss Scales hovering in the entrance with Ham beside her. Harriet felt a sudden cold dread in her stomach and her smile disappeared.
‘Mrs Westerman, Sophia is missing.’
‘Good God!’ Harriet said, emerging from behind the desk. ‘When? Did she take anything with her? Tell me all.’
Miss Scales was obviously distressed, but she answered calmly. ‘She told me she wished to go for a walk while I was reading to Papa, late afternoon that must have been. I thought she must have returned and gone straight to bed, but when I went to her room after reading your note, it was empty. She had taken some clothes, I think, but not more than she could easily carry. It is difficult to say. I think she had a small travelling bag, and I cannot find it now but I may be mistaken.’
Harriet began to pace the room. ‘Can we know what direction she took?’
‘We saw some parishioners of my father’s along the way and enquired. Miranda Dent is sure she saw her walking towards Silverside.’
‘Alone?’ Miss Scales nodded, and Harriet tried to reason herself out of her dread. No doubt Fraulein Hurst had regretted turning Felix away, and meant to try her luck at Silverside again. However unpleasant the Vizegrafin might be, Sophia would be safe there. Surely Sturgess would not make some attempt on her now, with the village ready to chase him down and his secrets exposed. He must be thinking only of escape.
But still. . ‘I am sure she will come to no harm, Miss Scales, but perhaps Ham, we should go and find her there?’ The huge coachman nodded. ‘Miss Scales, may I ask something of you?’
‘Of course, my dear. Anything at all.’
‘Would you be so kind as to take charge of Crowther’s nursing until I or Casper return? Lottie is with him at the moment but when she leaves, I would be easier knowing he is in your care. He may develop a fever yet and should be watched.’
Miss Scales nodded and Harri
et walked briskly into the hall and crossed it to reach the library. The circle of male faces looked up at her.
‘Gentlemen,’ she said with a nod. ‘Felix — a word with you, please.’
He shot to his feet and joined her. ‘Mrs Westerman, I have been kicking my heels for hours! I don’t understand what is happening at all. Why did Sturgess shoot my uncle?’
She kept her voice very low as she replied. ‘There is a chance that your wife is in some danger. She has left the vicarage and was seen walking in the direction of Silverside. Will you come with me to find her? I shall explain on the way, as best I can.’ He did not manage to speak, but he nodded at least. ‘Good.’
Harriet returned to the other room to collect her cloak and saw the pistol on the desk. She hesitated for a moment before picking it up and gathering ball and powder from the drawer, and re-attaching the ramrod to the barrel. Heavy as it was, she had no difficulty concealing it in the folds of her cloak. She did not want to spend the ride to Silverside arguing with Felix about the niceties of females arming themselves with such weapons.
As the darkness around them became complete Sophia tried to persuade Stephen to leave her to wait alone, but he remained adamant. He had a certain streak of his mother’s stubbornness under his gentle ways. He had decided it was right to remain at Sophia’s side and he would not be moved. Eventually she gave up trying to send him off and instead told him stories from the convent. Fairytales from the forests of Germany and Austria, folksongs that tricked his tongue and made him laugh. In turn he told her the stories he had learned at his mother’s knee of her adventures as wife of Captain Westerman. Sophia was eager to hear all that he could tell, and as the landscape disappeared into darkness the time passed quickly. Then they heard voices below them. Stephen jogged to the edge of the tower and leaned over the edge. Deep in darkness below them he could see a lantern, and peering up at him the face of Mr Sturgess. He was with two other men but they were all in shadow. He called out and waved.
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