by Rebecca King
“Get out. Now. Or I swear you are going to leave your family destitute. I promise you now that I will destroy you and your family,” Wilhelmina snarled.
“Why? All my father has done is give you an allowance, pay your bills, given you everything you have so petulantly demanded from him. What do you have to gain by this? What could you possibly have to gain from my marriage to him of all people?” Sian glared contemptuously at the oaf who had already jumped down and was making his way into the church, most probably to summon the vicar.
“That has nothing to do with you.”
Sian folded her arms defiantly and stared at her aunt. “It has something to do with me seeing as you have seen fit to kidnap me and now intend to try to force me into a marriage I don’t agree to, you don’t have my father’s permission for, and neither of you have the legal right to arrange. Whatever little scheme you have cooked up that you think you can benefit I can assure you that you won’t succeed in gaining anything except a very long spell behind bars.”
“You can shut your filthy mouth,” Wilhelmina snarled. “You are going to get out of this carriage, go into that church, and you will marry Cedrick. Do you hear me?”
“No. Kill me because I won’t do it.” Sian defiantly leaned back in her seat.
When Wilhelmina made a grab for her, Sian slapped at her hands. Wilhelmina lunged toward her. Sian doubled up a fist and slammed it as hard as she could into the centre of her aunt’s face. Something cracked, but Sian wasn’t sure what. She didn’t stop to find out either. Wilhelmina cried out and clutched at her face, and in doing so slammed back in her seat. Sian spied the open carriage doorway and jumped straight out of it.
As soon as her feet hit the floor, she ran for her life only to realise that she had absolutely no idea where she was. Nothing looked familiar. They were on the outskirts of the town somewhere, but none of the streets were any she could ever remember having travelled before. She didn’t know which way to run but ran anyway. Down one street into another and across another cross-roads, onward and outward she ran until the streets began to thin out. Eventually, Sian couldn’t run anymore. Gasping for air, she found a tall hedge and, once she could be sure she hadn’t been followed, she slumped to the ground. Her feet hurt. Her legs ached. Her wrists were sore from where Cedrick had held them so tightly, but all she could feel was relief. Relief to be free. Relief to be alone. Relief at the knowledge that she might have a future with Ryan after all.
Ryan watched time tick by for another ten minutes and knew that something was wrong.
“She isn’t usually late. If Sian agrees to meet someone then she makes sure she is on time.” Martha wrung her hands in an outward display of just how upset she was.
Mabel’s fear was evident in her eyes which restlessly scoured every inch of the main street repeatedly.
“Hello.” Isambard hustled and jostled his way through the crowd on the pavement, his eyes locked on Martha. When he reached them, his smile of relief swiftly faded to a frown of concern. “What is it?”
Martha burst into tears. Isambard, ignorant of the people who might see them, gathered Martha into a hug. “What’s happened?”
Ryan briefly explained.
Isambard frowned. “Well, her father hasn’t been in today, so I doubt he will have taken her home.”
“Sian would not just take a lift home and not tell us,” Mabel insisted.
“Maybe she has just forgotten the time?” Isambard suggested helpfully. While he murmured endearments at his future wife, Ryan and Mabel shared a worried look.
“Which way was she heading when you last saw her?” Ryan asked Mabel.
“Over to the grocery on Riggor Street.”
Ryan nodded. “Stay here.”
He waved at Norman, who was sauntering toward them on the opposite side of the road. Dodging traffic, Ryan hurried over to him.
“I have just seen Wilhelmina and that associate of hers,” Norman reported.
Ryan froze. His heart pounded as he stared at his friend and absorbed what it meant. Deep in the back of his mind the haunting dream raced back into life again.
“Do you think they have her?”
“I don’t think Sian would have gone with them willingly, do you?” Norman snorted.
“The church,” Ryan bit out. “We have to find the church.”
“They won’t marry in St Michael’s,” Norman replied. “The vicar is over there. Look.”
“It has to be another church. Is there one? Is there another church in the town?” Ryan tried to remember but his mind wouldn’t move past the horrible reality that while they were trying to work out where Sian had gone, she was probably being forced into a marriage he couldn’t do anything to break.
He was losing her.
Pelting across the road, Ryan raced up to the vicar, who looked startled to see him.
“Is there another church apart from St Michael’s?” Ryan demanded.
“Why, yes,” the vicar replied.
“Where is it?”
“It’s over on Crombie Street.”
“Where is that?” Ryan demanded.
Norman placed a comforting hand on Ryan’s arm and glared at the vicar. “We are in a hurry.”
“Go to the end of this street. Go right, then take the second left, then third right. The church is half-way-” With a huff, the vicar fell silent and watched the men race down the street without a backward look.
Ryan ran until his chest hurt and he was sure he was going to fall flat on his face. His feet felt weighted. They were so heavy he struggled to put one foot in front of the other, just like he had felt in his dream when bogged down by the muddy field. Eventually, the church appeared and forced him to run again. The heady echo of the steady chime of the church bells heralding the start of a religious service rang in his ears. Each peel of those bells felt like the steady chime of a death; his death; his future’s death. Ryan dreaded what he would find when he got inside.
Norman reached the main church door first, and roughly shoved it open before disappearing inside.
“Stop right there. I object to this wedding,” he bellowed.
Ryan cursed viciously because he knew what was happening. He felt sick, and knew he was facing the ruin of his future. By the time he slammed to a halt in the church aisle, he was panting so heavily he bent over at the waist and braced his hands on his knees just so he could remain on his feet. He stared in horror at the couple standing at the aisle, both of whom had turned around to look at who was objecting to their union.
He almost wept when he saw that the bride wasn’t Sian after all.
“It’s not her,” Norman hissed. “It isn’t them.”
“Might I ask what the problem is?” the vicar demanded as he scurried down the aisle. Had anybody else interrupted the wedding he would have been furious and had them thrown out on their ear. But this was Lord Carson. Nobody threw him anywhere without risking social ruin. “My Lord?”
“Have you married anybody else this morning?” Ryan demanded.
“No, sir.”
“Have you been approached by anybody about conducting a ceremony for a young woman called Sian Mullen?”
“Well, yes, but the lady and the groom didn’t arrive. I had to carry on with this service,” the vicar explained.
“Did they give you the requisite paperwork?”
The vicar looked shifty.
“Did they?” Ryan snarled. When the vicar looked at the floor, Ryan grabbed him by his shoulders and glared at him. “Tell me now. Did they pay you to conduct the service with a promise that the paperwork would be sorted out after the wedding?”
“Well, yes,” the vicar replied. “But they offered a substantial donation to the church.”
“Did they give it to you? The donation?”
“Well, no, not yet. The lady promised that it would be with me just as soon as the wedding was finalised.”
“You do know that conducting a marriage ceremony without the requisite paperw
ork is a crime, don’t you? I can have you defrocked for even attempting to wed a couple without the proper authorisation,” Ryan snapped.
“Look, what is all this?” the bride’s father suddenly demanded from behind them.
“Fraud, that’s what it is. This vicar is a criminal and is facing being defrocked for accepting bribes,” Norman snorted.
“It wasn’t a bribe.” The vicar looked panicked.
“It was if you were prepared to ignore the legal requirements of a marriage ceremony for monetary gain, even a large donation to your church,” Ryan snorted. “You, sir, are a fraud, and should be defrocked. I shall have a word with your superior over your conduct.”
The vicar paled and stumbled backward until he fell into the closest pew, but Ryan wasn’t done with him yet. He stepped closer and bent over until the vicar looked him in the eye.
“Marry Sian Mullen to anybody and I shall have you arrested where you stand, do you hear me?” he hissed.
The vicar nodded.
“What do you know about Cedrick Aldover and Wilhelmina Mullen?”
“Cedrick Aldover?” The bride’s father interrupted.
“Do you know him?” Ryan’s voice was clipped but he made no apology for it.
“He owes the owner of the Dog and Duck a fortune,” the man replied. “I hear Aldover also has gambling debts he can’t pay off. People are after him, and they ain’t the kind of people you cross, if you know what I mean?”
“It’s unsurprising you want to stop the wedding, sir,” the man’s wife piped up as she made her way down the aisle to join the conversation. “He is a scoundrel, and not the kind of person you should allow into your mansion, if you don’t mind me saying so?”
“Not at all. What do you know about Wilhelmina Mullen?” Ryan described her. “She is always out and about with him. If you have seen Cedrick, you will have seen her.”
“She is no better. I hear she got kicked out of that house of hers for not paying the rent. She also owes people a fortune. I heard they had left town because they feared what would happen if they didn’t pay up, and they can’t pay up. Neither of them has a penny to their name.”
“So, they went to Arthur’s to leech of them,” Norman whispered.
Ryan nodded.
“Sian is their meal ticket,” Norman added.
“But Arthur cannot afford to pay both of their debts, even if Cedrick was married to Sian.”
“No, but he would be duty bound to accommodate everyone. He isn’t going to throw his daughter out on the street, or her husband, is he? He would cast out of society and ruined for life,” Norman countered.
“If I would be so bold as to give you a word of advice, sir? Go and speak to the magistrate. I hear he is after them for failure to pay their debts,” the man offered.
“Father?” The bride shifted impatiently. She looked about to burst into tears. When Ryan looked at her, she dutifully dipped into a curtsey but couldn’t stop her chin from quivering.
“I apologise for interrupting your special day. You must understand that Cedrick is trying to force a marriage to someone of a better class than he. I think it is to try to keep himself out of gaol. If he does turn up here, with a reluctant and very angry young woman, make sure he is not able to marry her. You will have my upmost gratitude.”
The father of the bride nodded emphatically. The ripple of murmurs which flittered around the congregation were all agreeable. The fact that there wasn’t even a murmur of discontent was enough to warn Ryan that neither Cedrick nor Wilhelmina were popular in the area. It was enough to know that neither Cedrick nor Wilhelmina would get any help from anybody linked to that particular church now.
Ryan and Norman strode out of the church leaving the shaken vicar to continue with the service. Together, they stared at the empty street before Ryan remembered the grocery.
“We need to go and ask what he saw,” Norman suggested.
“I am going to look for Sian. If she ran out of the church, she must have left the area on foot. What we do know is that she isn’t married.”
“Yet.”
Ryan’s face was grim when he nodded. “I am going to start to ask around to see if anybody has seen her.”
“I will go and have a word with the grocer. I will come and find you. I think we need Isambard and a few others to help find her again. There is just one thing, Ryan,” Norman continued when Ryan turned around to walk away.
Bristling with impatience to start looking for her, Ryan sighed and looked back at his friend.
“This is the second time you have lost Sian. Make sure there isn’t a third time, eh? People won’t keep turning out to look for her. Best keep her at home with you where she belongs.”
Ryan cursed and began his search leaving Norman to make his way back to the main street, and the grocer’s shop Sian had visited.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sian walked for hours. She was cold, hungry, tired, thirsty and so desperately wanted to see Ryan that she wanted to cry. However, she daren’t return to town for fear of running into Wilhelmina again. So far, she had yet to see any sign of either her or Cedrick, and that could only be a good thing. As far as Sian was concerned, she would be more than pleased if she never set eyes on either of them again.
Eventually, she cleared the houses and spied a small hillock not too far away. She stopped and turned around but could see nothing but empty fields and country lanes all of which led somewhere. Without stone markers to tell her where to go, she was hopelessly lost, though. The only option she had was to climb the hillock and hope to get a better view of the area so she could try to find out where she was.
By the time she reached the top, she was shaking so badly she slumped onto the ground and drew her knees up while she studied the area. It was then that she realised she must be five miles or so away from the town she was supposed to meet her family in.
“Now if the church is there, I have to cut across the fields to the left to get to the road that would lead me back to Terrell House. Somehow, I must find a way of staying close enough to the road to be able to follow it but remain out of sight.” Sian sighed when she looked down at the brilliant yellow fabric of her dress. “It is going to be difficult to do that while dressed like this, but I have to try.”
As if to warn her that she couldn’t stop and rest for too long, a rumble of thunder rattled warningly somewhere off in the distance. Given the day had otherwise been sunny, Sian knew that the thunderstorm was imminent and would be likely to crash down upon her head before she reached sanctuary at Ryan’s house if she didn’t hurry.
“God, he is going to rue the day he ever met me,” she whispered in disgust.
Forcing herself to her feet, Sian wearily began her long journey home. As she walked, she contemplated going home and telling her father what had happened, but seeing as he had given his agreement for her to marry Cedrick, he would more than likely demand she remain at the house until her future husband appeared and she would just end up married to the odious creature anyway.
“I cannot trust you anymore, Father,” Sian muttered.
“Ah, good afternoon, Miss Mullen,” an elderly gent called from atop his aged cart.
Sian jerked and looked at the man who had appeared out of nowhere. “Hello, Mr Wendle. How are you today?”
“I say, are you out here all alone? Where are your sisters and your mother?”
“They are busy,” Sian replied.
“Would you like a lift?”
Sian was about to shake her head but her shaking legs warned her that she needed to rest. She was cold, tired, and if those steel grey clouds were anything to go by, about to get wet.
“That would be wonderful, Mr Wendle, thank you.”
The old man shifted across the bench seat and patted it with a kindly smile.
“Might I ride in the back? I need to stretch my legs out.”
Mr Wendle frowned. “Do you need a doctor? I heard you had a spot of bother the other day. You had eve
ryone worried, you know.”
“I am sorry about that,” Sian replied. “I don’t know what happened.”
“Aye, well, it won’t do any good to keep wandering around the countryside. It isn’t right for you a young woman such as yourself,” Mr Wendle continued.
Sian climbed into the back of the cart and settled down in a huge pile of hay. As soon as she was settled, the cart lurched into motion and Sian resumed her journey in peaceful solitude. Her thoughts, however, were far from calming.
“Thank you,” Sian called when they reached a crossroads on the outskirts of the village she had lived in all her life.
“Do you not want me to take you all the way home? I am sure your father will be relieved to see you back.”
“No thank you, Mr Wendle,” Sian replied briskly. “I have things to do.”
With that, Sian thanked the man again and jumped down. Just in case Mr Wendle changed his mind and demanded to return her home anyway, Sian gave him a friendly wave and hurried into the field running alongside the road. She knew it was the very edge of Ryan’s estate, ergo she was about as safe as she could get, until she could get out of sight. Sian was about to heave a sigh of relief when she stopped and turned back to the farmer, who was watching her intently.
“If my aunt, Wilhelmina, stops to ask you if you have seen me, please tell her you haven’t. She has a questionable young man with her who has scandalous intentions,” Sian informed Mr Wendle solemnly.
The farmer’s brows shot skyward before falling as low as it was possible to get. “Aye, I had heard that they are scoundrels,” he muttered.
“Well, please tell them that you haven’t seen me,” Sian asked quietly.
Mr Wendle nodded, but still didn’t move. Eventually, Sian had no choice but to resume her journey, she hoped toward Ryan’s house.
“Damn,” she snapped when she heard the clip-clop of horses’ hooves and looked at the cause only to watch a horrifyingly familiar carriage rumble down the lane toward her.
As she looked, Cedrick’s face appeared in the window and the door opened. Even though the carriage was still in motion, Cedrick jumped down and began to walk down the road toward her. He eyed the tall stone wall running alongside the road, clearly looking for a lower point he could jump over. Sian didn’t stop to watch him jump it. She began to run for her life for the second time that day. To make her plight even worse, the threatening thunder chose that moment to release its deluge upon everyone unfortunate to be outside.
