by Dilly Court
‘What can I do for you, miss?’
The speech that Rose had been rehearsing mentally since they left London deserted her completely. ‘I want to see my sister. I believe she’s here.’
‘’Tis a bad night to make such a mistake. I’ll have to ask you to leave, miss.’
‘I told you so.’ The boy stuck his tongue out at Rose and received a clip round the ear from his mother.
‘There be no cause for rudeness, Jory.’
His brown eyes sparkled with unshed tears and his bottom lip stuck out. ‘I only did what you said, Ma.’
‘I won’t leave without seeing my sister or Mr Barclay,’ Rose said stubbornly. ‘I know they’re here, and we’ve come all the way from London to see them.’
‘It’s all right, Derwa. Leave this to me.’
Rose turned her head to see Gerard coming down the wide oak staircase. He was casually dressed as if he had spent the day on the moors, and he had the appearance of a country gentleman, quite different from his man-about-town image. He walked slowly towards them, looking Rose up and down with a hint of admiration in his blue eyes.
‘Do you mean to tell me that you crossed the moors without a guide?’
‘I want to see my sister.’ Rose cast an anxious glance at Maisie, who looked about to drop. ‘My maid is in dire need of a change of clothes and a hot drink. We haven’t eaten since midday and our horse needs to be stabled.’
‘Of course.’ Gerard nodded to his housekeeper. ‘See to it, please, Derwa, and send someone to take care of the animal. We’ll be in the parlour.’
Derwa bobbed a curtsey. ‘Yes, sir.’ She shot a resentful look at Rose as she hurried away, but her son lingered, staring at them curiously.
Gerard turned to Rose with a boyish grin. ‘There’s a fire in the parlour. This old house is virtually impossible to heat.’
‘Perhaps we could go somewhere to change our clothes?’ Rose said urgently. ‘Maisie almost lost her life in a bog on the way here.’
‘It is a hazardous journey for the unwary. Many a stranger has got himself into trouble out on the moors.’ Gerard moved swiftly to collar Jory, who was about to follow his mother. ‘Make yourself useful and take these ladies to Aunt Tabitha’s room.’
‘Your aunt lives here?’ Rose said hopefully. An elderly relative might add a touch of respectability to her sister’s visit.
‘My aunt is long dead, but the room was hers from a girl, and tradition dies hard in this part of the world. Go with Jory and he can wait and bring you to the parlour.’
‘And I’ll see my sister?’
‘Of course. I’ll go now and tell her that you’re here.’ He was about to mount the stairs but he paused. ‘If your intention is to take her back to London, I’m afraid you will be disappointed. Cora knows her own mind.’
Chapter Seventeen
Aunt Tabitha’s room was just as Rose might have imagined it had she been reading one of Cora’s Gothic novels, an indulgence they both kept hidden from her parents. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein had enlivened many a winter evening in the vicarage, and at this moment Rose felt as though she had stepped into the world as described in these works of fiction. The windows shook as if unseen hands were tapping on the small panes, like the ghost of Cathy Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights begging for admittance to her old home. The room smelled of damp and mildew, with just a faint hint of orris root and the scent of violets, as if the old lady was still in residence.
Although what the former resident would have made of the housekeeping was another matter. Even by candlelight it was possible to see the fluffy layers of dust on the old-fashioned furniture. The grate was empty, except for the remains of a bird’s nest, and the bed hangings crumbled to the touch. The bedding itself was cold and damp, but Maisie was in a state of collapse and barely able to co-operate when Rose helped her to undress. She sent Jory to the kitchen with instructions to bring a cup of tea or better still some cocoa, laced with plenty of sugar, and a stone bottle filled with hot water to put at Maisie’s feet. He disappeared into the darkness, and Rose could only hope that he would remember at least part of the message by the time he reached the kitchen.
With Maisie tucked up in bed Rose changed out of her wet gown and hung it over the back of a chair in the hope that it would be dry by morning. She treated Maisie’s linsey-woolsey skirt and cotton blouse with the same care and had just finished when there was a thud on the door. She went to open it and Jory pushed past her with a mug of cocoa in one hand and a stone hot-water bottle wrapped in a scrap of cloth tucked beneath his arm.
‘It’s heavy,’ he complained as Rose took it from him.
‘Thank you, Jory. You’ve done well.’ She took the mug and placed it on a side table.
He eyed her warily. ‘Ma said you’d give I a tip.’
Rose lifted the coverlet and placed the bottle at Maisie’s feet. ‘And so I shall, but not now. You’ll have to wait until morning.’
‘You’ll forget,’ he muttered. ‘You will, I knows it.’
‘I will give you a penny, but only if you wait now and show me to the parlour.’ Rose plumped up the pillows so that Maisie could sip the rapidly cooling drink.
‘Don’t leave me, miss,’ she whispered, gazing nervously round the room.
‘I’m going to see Cora and then I’ll join you.’
‘It ain’t right, miss.’ Maisie swallowed another mouthful of cocoa. ‘You should have the bed, not me. I’m used to sleeping on the floor.’
‘Nonsense. I wouldn’t hear of it.’ Rose put the mug back on the table. ‘We’ve beaten the moor together and we’ll get through this somehow. We’ll be on our way home tomorrow.’ She smoothed Maisie’s tangled hair back from her forehead. ‘I’ll leave a candle burning and I’ll be back before you know it.’
Jory bounded along ahead of Rose and she had to quicken her pace in order to follow the flickering light of his candle. He stopped outside the parlour and held out his hand. ‘A penny, you says.’
Rose had come prepared. She placed the coin in his hand and he scampered off, leaving her to enter the room unannounced. In the glow of the firelight she saw her sister huddled in a chair with a shawl wrapped around her shoulders and her feet resting on the brass fender. She looked up and her lips trembled into a half-smile. Rose had been expecting their reunion to be fraught with Cora triumphant and also defiant, but she had not expected to see her looking pale and tearful.
‘Are you all right, Corrie?’ She crossed the floor to kneel at her side. ‘Are you unwell?’
Cora seemed to shrink even further into the depths of the wing-back chair. ‘Why did you come here, Rose?’
‘I came to bring you home, silly. What else would you expect me to do?’
Cora shot a wary look at Gerard. ‘I can’t go with you.’
‘Of course not,’ he said calmly. He was smiling but his eyes were like chips of granite. ‘Your sister has chosen her fate, Rose. She belongs to me now.’
Rose leaped to her feet. ‘Are you married?’
He threw back his head and laughed. ‘Barclays don’t marry women who flaunt their charms on stage.’
‘You’ll have to go home without me,’ Cora said plaintively. ‘I’m a fallen woman, Rosie. I’m no better than Ethel and Big Bertha.’
‘You cad,’ Rose cried angrily. ‘You had no intention of marrying my sister.’
‘Did you really think I would?’ Gerard’s mocking laughter filled the room.
Cora covered her ears with her hands. ‘I can never look Papa in the face again. I believed Gerard when he said he loved me. I was a fool, Rose.’
‘You took advantage of an innocent girl.’ Rose faced him with her hands clenched at her sides. ‘If my brother were here he’d make you sorry for what you’ve done.’
Gerard took a step towards her. ‘Your brother is wanted by the police. He’s a common murderer who broke gaol and ran away rather than face his trial. He’ll hang for his c
rime.’
‘I’m not stooping to your level,’ Rose said with dignity. ‘Say what you like, Gerard Barclay, but I’m taking my sister home tomorrow. We’ll leave as soon as it’s light.’
‘You will leave in the morning, but Cora stays here.’ His expression hardened. ‘I will tell her when I’ve had enough of her, and then she may do as she pleases. Until then she remains here with me.’
Cora rose to her feet. ‘You can’t keep me here against my will, Gerard. You tricked me into running away with you.’
‘You were a willing victim. You saw yourself as the future Lady Barclay, but that will never be.’ He moved to a small table and picked up a decanter. ‘I’d advise you to go to bed, Rose. Say your farewells now. You won’t see Cora before you leave.’
Rose enveloped her sister in a hug. ‘Be ready first thing in the morning,’ she whispered. ‘I’m not going without you.’ She held her at arm’s length. Cora’s eyes were red and swollen and in the glow of the firelight Rose saw a livid bruise on her sister’s cheek. She traced it with her fingertip. ‘Did he do that to you?’
Cora’s eyes filled with tears as she glanced nervously at Gerard. It was all the answer Rose needed. She grabbed her sister by the hand and made for the doorway. ‘Don’t try to stop us, Gerard. We leave at daybreak.’
He poured himself a drink. ‘We’ll see about that, but you can have her company tonight. I don’t enjoy the sight of her blotchy, tear-stained face on my pillow. I can get any woman I want.’
‘You disgust me.’ Rose hurried Cora from the room. ‘I don’t know what he did to you, Corrie, and I don’t want to know, but this is the last night you spend under his roof.’
‘He’ll follow us to London,’ Cora whispered as they made their way upstairs in almost pitch-darkness. ‘I’m ruined and he knows it. No decent man will marry me now and I’ll end up an old maid.’
‘Better to be an old maid than a slave to a man like him.’
‘He’ll find me wherever I go. You don’t know him, Rose.’
‘You need some arnica for that bruise,’ Rose said, ignoring Cora’s tearful protest. ‘I’ll leave you with Maisie and find Jory’s mother and have a quiet word with her.’
‘No, Rose. She won’t do anything to upset Gerard.’
‘Will she not? We’ll see about that.’
With Cora settled in the bed beside a sleeping Maisie, Rose went downstairs to the kitchen where she found Derwa seated by the range, sipping tea.
She turned her head to give Rose a suspicious look. ‘What d’you want?’
‘Something to eat wouldn’t go amiss.’ Rose stood her ground as Derwa jumped to her feet. ‘And if you have some arnica that would be a great help. You must have seen my sister’s bruises.’
Derwa stared down at her bare feet. ‘It be nothing to do with me, miss.’
‘I think it is,’ Rose said gently. ‘Why else would a young woman like you work in a place like this? I saw the way you looked at me when I first arrived. You thought that I came here at your master’s invitation, didn’t you?’
‘It crossed my mind, miss.’ Derwa raised her head slowly. ‘They come and go, but in the end he comes back to me.’
‘I saw the likeness between your master and Jory.’
A dull flush suffused Derwa’s features. ‘’Tis common knowledge in Warleggan. I’m not welcome at home no more.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘She’s different from the rest,’ Derwa said bitterly. ‘Most of the women are loose in morals, but she was fresh and untouched until he had his way with her.’
‘My sister believed that they would be married.’
A harsh laugh racked Derwa’s thin body. ‘They still fall for that one, miss. ’Tis hard to believe.’
‘But it’s true. Give me what I ask for and I promise you that we’ll leave at dawn.’
‘I can give you bread and cheese, and there’s a salve I make of comfrey leaves for the bruises. Heaven knows, he’s given me plenty in the past.’
‘Why do you stay with him?’
‘Where would I go?’ Derwa hacked some slices from a loaf and cut some slivers of a heel of cheese. ‘My family won’t have me back and I got no money. I have to think of my son.’
‘I’m so sorry.’
Derwa went to the pantry and brought out a small glass bottle. ‘This will bring out the bruise and ease the soreness.’
‘Thank you.’ Rose took it from her with a grateful smile. ‘If you could have our horse saddled and ready first thing in the morning I would be very grateful.’
‘That I will, and Jory will see you across the moor. He might be a child but he knows every inch of the path between here and Warleggan.’
After a restless night in the bed occupied by her sister and Maisie, Rose was up before dawn. She dressed quickly before waking the girls, and was relieved to find that Maisie had seemingly recovered from her ordeal, but it was Cora who gave her cause for concern. She was pale and listless and quite unlike her normal self; even so, she did as she was asked and followed Rose meekly down to the kitchen with Maisie holding her hand and whispering words of encouragement.
Derwa was on her knees by the range, encouraging the flames to take hold. She stood up, brushing a lock of hair back from her brow with a sooty hand. ‘Jory is waiting outside with the horse. Go quickly.’
Rose placed a silver sixpence on the pine table. ‘That will pay for our food. We’re in your debt.’
Derwa hurried to open the door that led out into the cobbled yard. Dawn was breaking with streaks of pale green light in the east, and soon it would be light. Jory was holding Hero’s bridle as he waited for them to join him. Then, without waiting for permission, he sprang onto the animal’s back. ‘’Tis best if I ride, miss. Follow I and the nag and you’ll be safe enough, but don’t step off the path or you’ll be swallowed up in the bog.’
Rose was about to protest but thought better of it. Cora was scared of horses and Maisie was well enough to walk. It made sense for the boy and the animal to lead them safely across the moor. ‘Very well, Jory. Lead on.’ She linked arms with Cora. ‘We’ll be home by nightfall.’
‘I can’t go back to London, Rose.’ Cora fell into step beside her with Maisie walking on ahead.
‘That’s silly. Where else would you go?’
‘I can’t face Aunt Polly. She’ll tell me what a fool I’ve been, and I don’t want to go back to the theatre.’
‘You’re wrong about Aunt Polly. She’ll understand, and there are other theatres, Corrie. We’re still the Sunshine Sisters.’
‘Wherever I go I know he’ll be there watching me.’
‘You have to forget about what’s happened. You can’t allow a cad like Gerard Barclay to ruin your life.’
‘But he has done that already, Rose. What respectable man would want me for a wife now?’
‘Anyone half decent would understand.’
Cora lowered her voice. ‘And what if I’m in the family way?’
‘We’ll worry about that when the time comes. Let’s concentrate on getting away from here before Barclay wakes up and finds you gone.’ Rose quickened her pace, taking deep breaths of the gorse-scented air. ‘This is so much easier in daylight,’ she added as the sun rose, drenching the wild moorland in a golden glow. ‘In the dark it was quite terrifying, but now I can see the true beauty of this place.’
Cora stumbled and would have fallen if Rose had not held her. ‘I’ve seen enough of the countryside to last me a lifetime. I long for the city, but I’m dreading our return. I don’t expect you to understand. You’re always so positive, Rosie. I think I must take after Mama.’
‘Maybe a few days or even weeks in Lyme Regis would be good for you,’ Rose suggested hopefully.
‘No, definitely not. I couldn’t face either of them after what I’ve done. Papa would never speak to me again if he knew the truth.’
‘He’s not speaking to us now,’ Rose said, chuckling. ‘He didn’t approve of the Su
nshine Sisters and he doesn’t want to have anything to do with Billy, but I’m not giving up on our brother. Bennett has sent his man to Portmorna to see if he can discover any clues as to Billy’s whereabouts.’
Cora shook her head. ‘All this began because of Billy. We were a happy family until he fell in with the wrong crowd.’
Rose said nothing. There was an element of truth in what Cora said, but she could not find it in her heart to put all the blame on their brother. They had each of them made their own choices, and now they must live with the results. She concentrated her efforts on keeping up with Maisie, who was sticking rigidly to the path created by Jory and Hero. There would be no repetition of last night’s near disaster.
By the time they reached the lane Rose’s skirts were mud stained and her boots were leaking, but it was a relief to have put some distance between them and Rosewenna Hall, and there was nothing to suggest that they had been followed.
‘I’ll leave you now.’ Jory leaped off Hero’s back and held a grubby hand out to Rose.
She opened her reticule and took out a threepenny bit. She closed his small fingers around the coin. ‘There you are, and thank you for your help.’
He grinned. ‘I’ll spend this in the village shop afore Ma gets her hands on it.’
Rose nodded absently. She was more concerned for her sister’s wellbeing than for anything Jory might do that would get him into trouble with his mother. Cora was dragging her feet and it was clear that she was exhausted, in complete contrast to Maisie, who looked fresh and filled with energy.
‘Are you all right, Corrie?’
‘I’m hot and tired, Rose.’
Maisie eyed Cora warily. ‘She’s coming down with a fever. I dare say it were that cold house what done it. But if it’s catching I don’t want it.’
Rose laid her hand on Cora’s forehead. ‘You’re right, Maisie. She’s burning up.’
A shout from Jory made them both look round. ‘I found your cart, miss.’ He scampered up to them, leaving Hero to crop the grass in the hedgerow.
