by Mary Brendan
‘I saw you outside the vicarage,’ Dawn blurted. ‘I watched you following his cart from my window.’
‘I had a clear shot at him... I should have taken it.’
‘I’m glad you didn’t,’ Dawn said earnestly. ‘You are all the true family Lily has left. She will love to get to know you as she grows. You mustn’t risk imprisonment or worse for the likes of Mansfield.’ Dawn could see his agony in his features. He was torn between avenging his brother and keeping on the straight and narrow. But she imagined that he hadn’t taken that shot and had kept on the right side of the law for Sarah’s sake rather than for the niece he barely knew.
‘Has Sarah told you about us?’ William bashfully lowered his eyes. ‘I won’t ever come back and bother her if that’s what she wants. I’ll stay away if she tells me to, I swear. I’d never do anything to hurt her.’
A sound of rapid footsteps made them both twist about to see the young lady herself trotting towards them. Sarah had her pretty skirts rather high about her calves to keep the muslin from gathering wet from the grass. She uninhibitedly launched herself at William to give him a hug.
‘I’m so glad you came. I’m glad you’ve met my new friend. Mrs Fenton and her granddaughter have had a picnic with us today...indoors as it has been such foul weather. Now the sun is coming out we can all take a walk towards the parterre...’
William gently disengaged himself, holding her at arm’s length with a look of faint embarrassment on his face. ‘It’s nice to see you, Sarah, but you should not be quite so familiar with me when...’
‘Oh, I have told Mrs Fenton that I love you and intend to marry you,’ she interjected airily. ‘And when Jack gets home I shall tell him, too.’
‘I must speak to him as well when you do,’ William said.
‘Where is Lily, Sarah?’ Dawn interrupted rather shrilly, taking a few paces towards the house. She had been frantically looking to and fro while the couple talked. ‘Is she still asleep?’
‘No. She woke me up and wanted to find you. I spied you through the window talking to William so I brought her outside.’
‘Where is she, then?’ Dawn had started to swing glances to and fro, desperate for a sight of her granddaughter.
‘Oh, she is quite all right. The Reverend Peter Mansfield turned up to take her home. He claimed to be her papa. Lily said he was and she took his hand when he held it out to her.’ Sarah frowned, sensing her companions’ agitation. ‘What is it? Have I done something wrong?’
Dawn gave an anguished cry and started to run in the direction of the house, then veered aside, flying headlong towards the avenue of trees that wound towards Croxley Grange. Jack had at last galloped into view.
* * *
‘Hush...’ Jack rocked Dawn in his arms in an attempt to comfort her. ‘I will bring Lily back safely, I swear,’ he said hoarsely. A second later his lips touched the curve of her tear-wet cheek to seal that solemn vow.
‘But you just said the magistrate has already sent for the dragoons to arrest Mansfield...they might already have done so.’ Dawn clutched the front of his coat in despair. ‘What then has become of Lily? What has he done with her? Is she already...?’ Unable to finish expressing her tormenting thoughts on her little granddaughter’s fate, Dawn turned away, covering her face with her quivering fingers.
‘It is too soon for the dragoons to have arrived from the garrison,’ Jack soothed, turning her again to face him.
When he had first spotted Dawn outside, racing to meet him over the wet grass, he had immediately known something bad had happened. Vaulting from his horse, he’d sprinted to meet her, barely able to understand a word of her hysterical report. Once inside the house Dawn had forced herself to calm down. A corner of her mind had retained enough sense to know that if they were to beat Mansfield at his own game they must strive to be as cool and crafty as he was.
Jack knew he must go immediately to search for the child. Time was of the essence in bringing Lily back; but where to start looking? Now Mansfield knew the game was up he’d hardly be holed up at the vicarage.
‘A message, my lord. A boy from the village delivered it.’ The butler had entered the room at speed. The servants had been primed for a calamity to occur from the moment their master told them to be on the alert for the vicar’s unwelcome return.
Jack snatched at the note, praying he held in his hand Mansfield’s terms for releasing the little girl. He’d give the fiend every penny he had if he’d just let her go. He also inwardly vowed to hound the villain across continents if that’s what it took to bring him to justice. Jack’s eyes raced over the single pencilled sentence.
‘He has offered to exchange Lily for the letter Eleanor wrote to you.’ Jack paused. ‘He’s found out about that, then, and doubtless wants to destroy his wife’s testament. But that won’t save him from a noose. The magistrate has read it and knows the catalogue of his crimes.’
‘Peter doesn’t know that, though!’ Dawn pounced on a glimmer of hope. ‘If the dragoons have not yet caught up with him, we surely have a little time to try to negotiate?’
‘We do indeed...and must use it.’ Jack’s attention was drawn to the couple stationed in a corner of the room as a loud sob was heard. Sarah was being comforted by William. The poor girl had been distraught on learning that the man Lily believed to be her father was, in fact, a villain who might harm the child.
‘I don’t blame Sarah for letting the vicar take Lily.’ Dawn dabbed at her bloodshot eyes. ‘Nobody but us would have acted differently when he approached, demanding to take Lily home.’
‘I must assist you in bringing Lily back, my lord.’ The moment he noticed the Viscount’s eyes on him William quit Sarah’s side to approach him. He’d spoken quite forcefully and knew it wasn’t the only time he’d overstepped the mark with this man. But a conversation...perhaps a bad argument...about Sarah’s future would have to wait.
‘Mansfield is a dangerous man and doesn’t work alone,’ Jack warned William of the risks he faced in offering to pitch in.
‘So am I a dangerous man when needs must and my niece is in peril,’ William answered gravely. He needed no telling that the Reverend Peter Mansfield was a monster when his brother lay dead in Wivenhoe churchyard.
Jack cupped Dawn’s face in his hands. ‘Stay here inside the house. She’ll soon be home, I promise.’
Dawn was half-aware of William watching their interaction, of a dawning intelligence entering his eyes before he diplomatically averted his gaze.
A moment later Jack was striding from the room with William at his heels. The younger man glanced at Sarah, giving her an encouraging smile. She sniffed and blew him a kiss from her trembling fingertips as he closed the door.
Dawn watched from the window, a comforting arm about Sarah as the two riders thundered off over the turf and were soon lost from sight. She closed her eyes, praying for their safety and her beloved granddaughter’s, too.
‘I’m so sorry, Mrs Fenton,’ Sarah gasped out for the second time in a few minutes.
‘None of this is your fault and you must not blame yourself. Why don’t you go upstairs and rest? You will feel calmer.’ Dawn steered the girl to the door. Her suggestion hadn’t been wholly altruistic: Dawn wanted to be alone to deal with the muddle of emotions curdling her stomach. Once Sarah had left she eyed the black clouds gathering again overhead. The sunny interlude hadn’t lasted long. But a drizzle wouldn’t stop her going out. She knew she must defy Jack’s edict. She couldn’t simply stay where she was. The two people she cared most about in the world were in peril and she wouldn’t...couldn’t sit still and wait for news when every second might count in rescuing Lily.
If there was no sign of Mansfield at the vicarage and the dog cart was idle she would commandeer it and search for her granddaughter. She couldn’t put from her mind that Mansfield intended to double-cross them. For speed of getaway th
e vicar was sure to be on horseback, or he might have gone to ground. She believed that he had concealed Lily, too. He wouldn’t want to be burdened with a child while scheming with his gang on his next move. Dawn stuffed a fist to her mouth to stifle a sob at the thought of Lily, cold and frightened and alone. It was too much to bear. She bolted noiselessly to the door and was soon hurrying upstairs to collect her cloak.
Chapter Twenty
‘Why...Mrs Fenton! I wasn’t expecting to see you. I feared it might be him back again.’ Mrs Grove had opened the door of her cottage and peeked nervously through an aperture. She tugged the door fully open, beckoning her wan-faced visitor inside.
‘I’m sorry to bother you, but something terrible has happened.’ Dawn realised there was no point in beating about the bush; when the dragoons appeared in town the scandal would spread anyway. Mrs Grove had suspected somebody unpleasant had called on her and Dawn could guess his identity. Nevertheless she asked the question.
‘Yes, the vicar came here earlier,’ Mrs Grove confirmed. ‘And if I’d known the reason for his visit I’d not have let him in,’ she added darkly.
‘What did he want with you?’ Dawn anticipated hearing more bad news.
‘He was asking questions about his wife and none too politely. I believed you must have told him I’d given you that letter.’ The woman regretfully shook her head. ‘It was only afterwards I realised he’d been fishing for information, but by then it was too late. I’d told him what I’d found among Mrs Mansfield’s belongings and that I’d given the letter to you.’ Mrs Grove pulled back a sleeve to display a bruise. ‘The brute had me by the arm the whole time.’
Dawn embraced the woman in comfort. ‘I’ve come to ask if you know any of that devil’s secret hideaways. He has kidnapped Lily and I believe will take her to a local cottage. I pray he won’t harm her.’
‘Kidnapped his own child? Harm his own child?’ Mrs Grove parroted in a daze. She sank on to a chair, crossing herself.
‘The vicar isn’t Lily’s father. Eleanor wrote that letter because she wanted me to know the truth and protect Lily from Mansfield. She told me dreadful things about the man she’d married.’ Dawn kneeled on the rug beside Mrs Grove’s chair, looking solemnly into the woman’s face. ‘Lily is Ben Grove’s daughter...kin of yours, too. And the vicar found out the truth of it.’
Mrs Grove crossed herself again, falling against the chair back as though she might swoon in amazement. ‘I saw Mrs Mansfield with Ben once,’ she finally gabbled out. ‘They were down by the stream, but I thought them just acquaintances. Ben kept his distance from me after I told him his parents would be ashamed of him. He associated with rogues. I never saw him call on Mrs Mansfield at the house while I worked there.’
Dawn pounced on a small clue she’d just been given. ‘You said they were by a stream. Is there a cottage in the vicinity? Eleanor would rendezvous with your nephew at a cottage, but she didn’t pinpoint its location in her letter.’
‘There is a cottage...if you could call it such, it’s such a tumbledown affair. But the garden is still nice. Mrs Mansfield said she went over that way to pick flowers. She would come back with posies of poppies and put them in vases by the windows...’ she glanced at Dawn with an enlightened expression ‘...a signal to Ben, I expect.’
‘Where is this cottage?’ Dawn asked excitedly.
‘You’d need to head towards the windmill, then take the lane that leads to the farmhouse. It was a fine thatched dwelling in its time, but a fire destroyed half of it.’
‘I know it.’ Dawn sprang to her feet. She had seen that building with blackened timbers exposed to the elements. She’d seen the poppies, too, growing wild in the garden.
‘It’s not a night to be out alone, my dear, if the vicar’s up to no good.’ Mrs Grove grasped Dawn’s arm, giving it a warning shake. ‘You should wait here with me and when William gets back we can send him to fetch help. You’ve confirmed my fears that the vicar isn’t a character to cross. I worked for him for many a long year, but kept my place and kept my distance. I always wondered if that man dabbled in the same bad business as my nephew Ben. I saw lights at dead of night at the church when no decent body would be up there.’
‘Mansfield is a smuggler, but I don’t have time to explain how I came by that knowledge,’ Dawn said. ‘Viscount Sterling and your nephew William are on their way to try to negotiate with him to free Lily.’ A cold shiver passed over Dawn. ‘But now I’ve had time to think about it, I fear that Mansfield has tricked them and sent them on a wild goose chase.’
Dawn suddenly decided. ‘I must go; there’s no time to lose. William will explain everything to you in due course, I’m sure.’ She rushed outside and quickly climbed aboard the cart.
Yanking up her cloak’s hood, she set the cart in motion, praying that she wasn’t sending herself on a wild goose chase. But it seemed the sort of cruel thing that Mansfield would delight in doing: abandoning Lily in the place where she had been illegitimately conceived.
* * *
The drizzle was back and dusk had almost fallen when Dawn used the reins to halt the mare outside the dilapidated cottage. There was no discernible light or sound in the building. All that reached her ears was the rushing of the stream close by as it fell away into the valley.
She jumped down and bolted to the door, immediately entering when it creaked open. The smell of musty charcoal assaulted her nostrils and trepidation soured her stomach as she proceeded into the dim interior. Squinting, she carefully advanced by touch, urgently calling out her granddaughter’s name.
‘She can’t hear you...the sweet little thing is fast asleep, courtesy of the laudanum I gave her.’
Dawn froze at the sound of that hateful sarcasm, then pivoted about to find a shadowy male figure blocking out the pale moonlight filtering through the open door. He’d given up masquerading as a godly man and his silhouette displayed he now wore breeches and a jacket.
Fury conquered her shock and she stepped closer to Mansfield, fists balled at her sides. ‘Where is Lily? Let me see her at once, you vile beast.’ Dawn’s voice was shaking with loathing.
‘All in good time...’ he purred, kicking shut the door, then advancing on her. ‘She is safe...for now.’ He struck a match and it illuminated his vicious smirk as he jerked a nod at another room.
Dawn made to rush in that direction, but he discarded the light and grabbed both her arms, hauling her back against his body.
‘First things first, my dear,’ he hissed into her ear. ‘You must pay for things you want. We have business to attend to, you and I. You have caused me much trouble from the start and it is time you made amends for it.’
She fought him in earnest as his hands fondled her buttocks, making her squirm in disgust. But Dawn wasn’t strong enough to break his grip. In frustration she stamped hard on his foot and received a slap for her pains. ‘That is just the start,’ he snarled as she gasped and pressed a hand to her smarting cheek.
Keeping a cool head would be imperative if she were to outwit him. She wasn’t cowed by his violence; she simply despised him all the more. A piece of loose timber might have fallen from the charred roof and be easy enough for her to wield to defend herself. Talking to him seemed a good place to start while her eyes grew accustomed to the dark, enabling her to locate such a likely weapon. The more she knew of his scheming, the better it would be. ‘You didn’t want Eleanor’s letter, did you? That note you sent bartering for it was a red herring,’ she declared.
‘Of course I didn’t want that harlot’s letter. What good would that do me?’ he scoffed. ‘I want you, my dear, and now I have you. You are worth ten times what a scrap of paper is, or the child is.’
‘How dare you call my stepdaughter names?’ Dawn retorted. ‘Little wonder the poor woman sought comfort elsewhere. How wretched she must have felt married to a vile bully like you. Yet even that small happiness you to
ok from her, murdering the man who had loved her before she could leave you and make her life with him.’ Dawn’s voice rang out. She hoped that Lily would wake and start to cry. She was desperate for a sign that her granddaughter was still breathing. ‘You may try to flee, but you’ll be apprehended and will face trial. The dragoons are already on their way.’
‘I guessed as much and suspect I have you to thank for that.’ He snaked a hand out to grab her, but Dawn glimpsed it, slapping it away and making him chuckle nastily. ‘There’s nowhere for you to escape to and you’ll make it easier on yourself by coming willingly to me.’
‘You would add violation to your crimes, would you?’ Dawn elevated her chin. She wouldn’t let him see her fright, though the idea of what he had in mind for her had started her limbs trembling and her stomach rolling. Yet she knew even that she would bear if only he would allow her to take Lily safely home afterwards. But how could she trust the word of such a devil?
‘My crimes are not proven and never will be. I shall claim the child as mine and a father cannot kidnap his own offspring. A dying woman’s hysterical ravings, penned when she was not of sound mind, won’t be believed by a court. Eleanor was delirious at the end...the doctor will verify it.’ He barked a triumphant laugh. ‘I guessed you might know the details of her sordid fornication and know about their love nest. I guessed, too, you would come, in your infuriatingly meddling way, to save their bastard,’ he mocked. ‘Your lover meanwhile forlornly kicks his heels waiting for me to show up at White Ridge, the fool. I had posted a lookout and received word that he rode off in that direction. A message reached me that you had also emerged from the Grange and taken a different route towards town. I knew there was a good chance you would follow the clues here and so have been waiting for you, my dear.’
He sounded so horribly full of himself that Dawn felt like charging at him and pummelling him just for that. But she held her temper and let him crow.
