“How do you mean?”.
Sarah looked directly at Adelina. “Maybe I shouldna be saying such things to you, ma’am, but you’ve been kind to me, and I’m grateful and – and I think you like Guy.”
Adelina nodded. “I’m very fond of him – yes.”
“And your husband, ma’am?” Sarah asked quietly.
“I can’t understand him, Sarah.” Adelina raised her shoulders slightly. “He seems so …” She paused searching for the right word, but Sarah supplied it. “ Cold, hard, ruthless?”
Adelina sighed. “I’m afraid so.”
Sarah nodded. “The resentment against him in the village is growing, ma’am, and I canna do anything to prevent it.”
“Why do they dislike him so?”
“He’s a hard man. The wages he pays us are poor. He never repairs the cottages he owns. An’ then there’s this Corn Law. Oh, I don’t understand it all – it all has to do wi’ politics. All I know is, the workers are worse off for’t.”
“May I come and see the cottages for myself?” Adelina asked.
There was fear immediately in Sarah’s eyes. “I don’t know about that, ma’am. If Henry knew I was even talkin’ to you like this, he’d – he’d half kill me!”
“Some time when he’s not there, then?”
“Well …” Sarah was still reluctant, but a week later Adelina visited Sarah’s tiny cottage.
As she entered she felt immediately closed in by the smallness, the darkness and the overpowering dankness. The hard beaten-earth floor, covered with rush mats, was cold and damp, the walls were rough and cracked. Two window panes were broken.
“What’s that rustling in the roof?” Adelina asked.
“Rats!”
Adelina’s mouth compressed. It was not that she had never seen such conditions before – indeed, on occasions when her father’s debts had plunged them into abject poverty, she had had to suffer such hardship herself. But that she should find it here, in a village where the workmen should have been cared for by their employer, shocked and angered her.
“Sarah,” Adelina faced her, “I don’t blame the villagers for how they feel, in fact – I can’t promise anything, but …”
At that moment the low door creaked open and Henry Smithson stood there. Adelina heard Sarah’s gasp and could feel the woman’s fear.
“Good afternoon, Mr Smithson,” Adelina said swiftly. “ I …”
“What are you doin’ here?”
“I came to bring your wife her wages.” Adelina opened her reticule, thankful that she had had the foresight to have an excuse ready. She placed the coins on the rough table. She smiled at the glowering man. “ I am sorry to intrude upon you, but I missed Mrs Smithson at the Vicarage earlier.”
“Oh. I see.” He looked as if he did not believe her, but there was nothing he could do.
Adelina turned to Sarah. “Thank you, Mrs Smithson, for all you’re doing for my relatives. I do appreciate it and I’ll see you are rewarded.”
As she left the cottage she heard Henry Smithson’s voice rise. “Rewarded, is it? Pah! We know what their promises are, don’t we? Looked after you, didn’t they? Left me to bring up their bastard …”
Adelina walked away, sorry to have brought his wrath upon Sarah’s head, but she guessed that the poor woman was used to it anyway.
As Adelina left the village and walked up the lane towards the Manor, she heard hoofbeats behind her, and turned to see Wallis approaching. He reined in close beside her, causing her to step back to avoid Jupiter’s restive hooves.
“Where the devil have you been?” Wallis shouted, glaring down at her.
“To the village,” Adelina replied, calmly determined not to be intimidated by him.
“You have no business there. I saw you coming out of one of the cottages. What were you doing?”
“I’ve been to pay Sarah Smithson her wages, that’s all,” she lied glibly, using the same excuse she’d given Sarah’s husband.
Wallis leaned down towards her. “You’ll keep away from the village folk. Do you hear me?”
Adelina gasped at his arrogance. Defiantly, she remained silent.
“Do you hear me, Adelina?” he shouted.
“I hear you, Wallis,” Adelina replied quietly. “But by what right do you order me as to whom I may visit?”
“As your husband!”
They glared at each other, for the first time since their strange marriage had begun, openly hostile.
“I don’t think much of the way you treat your employees. They are living in squalor.”
“Keep out of my affairs,” Wallis warned her.
“It is my affair. They’re my grandfather’s lands.”
“At the moment, maybe. But not for ever, my dear, not for ever. One way or another, they will be mine one day!”
He kicked his heels and Jupiter leapt forward, the horse’s hooves narrowly missing Adelina.
She gazed after Wallis as he galloped away.
“How could I have been so foolish – even for Francesca’s sake?” she murmured to herself and a picture of herself in twenty or thirty years’ time – remarkably like Sarah Smithson – flashed before her mind’s eye.
Adelina shuddered, pulled her cloak around her and hurried home to see the children.
Chapter Ten
It was just over two months after their marriage that the villagers’ open hostility towards Wallis Trent became more ominous.
A wild dog, or, as Wallis thought, probably two, got in among the in-lamb ewes, causing havoc. The dog, or dogs, ravaged and killed several sheep and chased others or frightened them so that quite a few aborted stillborn lambs. The slaughter was terrible to see. Adelina rode out on Zeus to the fields beyond the abbey ruins where the incident had occurred. There were six ewes dead, their bodies mutilated, their thick wool drenched with their own blood. Tiny lambs, which had never had time to draw breath, lay upon the ground, mere bundles of bones. Several other ewes were obviously very sick and did not look as though they would survive.
Adelina, unseen by him, watched Wallis sitting astride Jupiter, motionless as a stone statue, looking upon the carnage with a grim face. Beneath his arm he carried a shotgun.
Adelina urged Zeus closer until she stood beside him. “ What has caused this, Wallis? Foxes?”
“I suppose it could be – but I rather think it’s a wild dog or – more likely – two. They roam and hunt in pairs.”
“Have you seen the dogs?”
“No, but I intend to find them. Now you’re here perhaps you’d better come too. Just to see what lengths your village friends will go to!”
He turned his horse away from the awful scene and Adelina followed him. She wanted to learn the truth as much as he did, though for a different reason. At walking pace, they rode side by side so that they might talk.
“The men look even more sullen than usual, Wallis. Are they upset by what has happened?”
“I doubt it,” he said shortly. “ Not one of them seems shocked by what has occurred. It was as if they’d known it was going to happen.”
Adelina gasped. “ You don’t mean – you can’t mean they’ve planned it? That they’ve done it on purpose?”
Wallis nodded, his expression hard. “ They’ll rue the day they tried to tangle with me,” he muttered, harshly, more to himself than to her. His eyes, as he watched his workmen clearing away the carcasses, were bright with malice. That anyone – particularly anyone he considered his inferior – should dare to raise his hand against his master was beyond Wallis Trent’s arrogant understanding.
His words brought a chill to her heart.
Adelina said nothing but rode in thoughtful silence.
At a steady canter they rode northwards away from Abbeyford. Behind them lay the Royston farmlands, in front, rolling countryside with scarcely a farm or a cottage in sight.
“Do you farm all these fields, Wallis?”
He pointed with his riding crop. “ These directly
north and east are your grandfather’s lands. Over the hill to the west are Lynwood’s.”
They rode on, still going northwards. The ground was frozen hard, but there had been no snow as yet. The day was bright but bitterly cold and though Adelina was warmly dressed, she still shivered.
“Wallis, I’m cold. Let’s gallop to warm ourselves.” She spurred Zeus and he leapt forward, his restless energy responding eagerly. Jupiter, not to be outdone, thundered alongside. The sharp air stung her face, but Adelina found the ride exhilarating. Across the meadows they galloped, jumping low stone walls, steadying to a canter to thread their way through a copse, rustling through the dead leaves of autumn, then out into the open fields again, with flying hooves.
At last Adelina pulled her white stallion to a steady trot. Her cheeks were rosy, her eyes bright, but Wallis did not notice.
Still frowning, he said, “ There’s no sign of any dogs here. We’d better turn back now.”
They rode back towards Abbeyford in silence. As they crested the hill overlooking the village, they reined in and stood surveying the valley below them. The dead sheep had been removed, but there were still visible signs of the slaughter. Tufts of bloodstained wool and pieces of flesh littered the field.
Adelina said, “Where would wild dogs go in the daytime? Where would they hide out?” She watched Wallis as his eyes roamed over the valley, the fields and the hillsides. She saw his gaze come to rest upon the abbey ruins. Without another word needing to be spoken between them, they both turned their horses towards the abbey.
It was wild and lonely near the crumbling, desolate ruins. The wind whipped through the broken-down building, howling mournfully. It was eerie and forbidding. Adelina shuddered.
“Stay here, Adelina. I’ll take a look.” Wallis dismounted and stood a moment to load his shotgun. He did not go inside the ruins but climbed up on to a low wall. Then she noticed that he was beckoning her to join him. Swallowing the fear which rose in her throat at being so close once more to the ruins which evoked such horrific memories, Adelina dismounted and moved towards him. Without speaking, he gave her his hand to help her climb the low wall to stand beside him. Clinging to his arm she stood on the precarious, crumbling stonework and looked into the ruins. Wallis pointed and in the farthest, darkest corner she saw something move. She narrowed her eyes and gasped as, all at once, she realised there were two mangy, wild-eyed dogs in the corner – though to Adelina they looked more like wolves.
“They are tethered!” Wallis said in a low voice. “Can you see the rope tying them to that ring in the wall?”
“Tethered!” Adelina repeated in a shocked whisper. Then, as she realised the full implication, horror-struck, she added, “You mean – someone had them and – and – let them loose on your sheep?”
Wallis nodded grimly. “It looks very much like it. It’s what I expected. Stand down now, Adelina.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Shoot them,” he replied bluntly.
Adelina climbed down from the wall and stood watching him as he raised the shotgun to his shoulder. There was a loud report which echoed through the ruins and one of the dogs fell dead. The other immediately began barking frenziedly, straining at its leash in wild terror. Seconds later, Wallis steadied his gun again. A second shot rang out and the dog ceased its barking, swayed and fell.
Slowly Wallis lowered his gun. Then he stood looking at the dogs for a moment. He turned and jumped down from the wall. Together they walked into the ruins. They stood over the dogs. They were indeed the ones which had savaged the sheep, for their rough hair coats were matted with blood and scraps of sheep’s wool clung to their jaws. There were also a few tell-tale bones scattered nearby as if they had carried off a lamb or two to their hiding-place.
Adelina turned away, sick at heart, and went back to their horses. She watched Wallis anxiously as he walked towards her. His face was twisted with fury. His shoulders were rigid and his hands clenched. “The dogs were obviously unleashed amongst my sheep on purpose.” He spat out the words. “It was planned – all planned!”
“Unless someone has caught them since and tied them up here for safety,” Adelina suggested, clinging desperately to the hope that it had not been a deliberate act of vengeance.
He shook his head. “ No, it was deliberate.”
Adelina was forced to agree that he was right.
The slaughter of the sheep was the beginning of a campaign of hatred against Wallis Trent. His enemies were unseen and unknown. Whoever they were they came stealthily in the dead of night. There was a tense atmosphere of distrust throughout the village. Each villager suspected his neighbour, whilst Wallis believed that the whole village was involved in this war against him as an employer, but, above all, as a member of the hated Trent family, for no hand was laid against Abbeyford Grange and Lord Royston. The trouble was confined to Abbeyford; there was no sign of unrest at Amberly or at any of the other adjoining estates.
The vendetta went on for weeks and then months, right through the summer, and the tension mounted. Abbeyford was a village of unhappy, frightened people. Adelina mentally listed the damage caused and felt helpless to do anything. Fences were smashed and hedges torn up so that cattle escaped and wandered away. Wheels would come off farm-wagons without reason, causing a deal of damage to Wallis’s vehicles. Jupiter went suddenly lame. And poaching reached frightening proportions.
One afternoon in early September, Adelina was riding Zeus through the wood behind the Manor when she heard a horse’s thudding hooves behind her. Startled, she turned to see Squire Trent galloping towards her through the trees. He pulled hard on the reins and his horse halted abruptly beside her. It tossed its head and stamped angrily at its rider’s rough treatment of it. Zeus, too, became restive.
“Whoa there, boy,” Guy shouted and grinned broadly at Adelina.
Adelina smiled warmly at him. “ Shall we ride a little way together?” she offered.
“I’d be honoured, my dear. If you’ll permit me, I’ll show you something worth your while. You like a bit of sport, eh?” His eyes were feverishly bright. Adelina hesitated.
“Come on,” he said and spurred his horse forward. Adelina followed, a little reluctantly.
As they reached the edge of the wood, Guy Trent said, “ We’d best leave the horses here, Adelina.”
“Why?”
“It’s all right. You’re safe with me. But we must go quietly, we don’t want to be seen.”
“I don’t understand you. Where are you taking me?”
“To the abbey ruins.”
“No!” Adelina cried out. “ I won’t come.”
“It’s all right, my dear,” he said again. “I just want you to see a sport the village menfolk enjoy.” He pointed. “Look, several are making their way there now. Only we mustn’t be seen. We must stay here in the trees until all the men are inside and then we’ll creep up and watch from a place I know where they can’t see us. Don’t worry – I often come, but I always take care they don’t know I’m there.”
“But what is it?”
“You’ll see. I want it to be a surprise.”
They waited some time, watching from the shelter of the trees as men from the village arrived in twos and threes and slipped into the abbey ruins.
“There – I can’t see anyone else coming. Come on. Follow me and don’t make a noise whatever you do.”
Adelina, still wary, followed Squire Trent. He skirted the ruins and went round to the opposite side from that overlooking the valley. They climbed a small bank at the top of which were some bushes growing against a wall which was not so badly broken down as some of the others. Guy pushed his way through, holding the branches aside for Adelina. They came up against the wall.
“Here, over here,” he whispered, and Adelina saw him crouching down to peer through a peephole in the wall. Curiosity overcame her doubts and she crouched down beside him. Below them in the abbey, in what had once been one of the larger r
ooms, about twenty-five to thirty men were gathered. The rubble had been cleared away from the ground and they were all standing in a circle with a clear space in the centre.
At first Adelina could not think what it was they were going to do. Then on either side of the ring she saw two men each holding a fine cockerel. On the cocks’ feet were fitted metal spurs. The birds were struggling to free themselves, but the men held them fast, whilst a third man went round the others taking money from them.
Adelina put her mouth close to the squire’s ear and whispered, “What are they doing?”
In turn he whispered to her. “ Cock-fighting. The man in the middle taking money is taking bets on which will be the victor. I fancy the one on the left. Look at those legs! He’ll tear the other one to pieces.”
Adelina was not quite sure what he meant or exactly what was going to happen until she saw the fight begin. The man in the centre of the ring completed his bet-collecting and then the two cockerels were released. In a wild flurry of beating wings, necks outstretched, the cocks flew at each other. Their sharp, pointed beaks pecked viciously at each other’s head and neck. Then, one backed off a little and then surged forward. His wings flapping and both feet clear of the ground, he aimed the metal spurs straight at his opponent’s chest. The wounded cock staggered. Adelina clapped her hand to her mouth to still a horrified scream which threatened to escape her lips. It was not that she was squeamish, but the bloodthirsty attack was so unexpected.
“Come on, come on,” Guy urged in a whisper, for the wounded cock was the one which he had thought would win. Adelina glanced at him. His eyes were bright with excitement. He ran his tongue over his dry lips.
The noise from the watching men below was deafening. They were shouting or cursing whichever cock they had backed. Again the first cock made another lunge towards the already bleeding one, but he dodged away at the last moment, so that the assailant fell on to the ground instead, momentarily losing his balance. Taking swift advantage, the other cock flew at him from behind and mounted his back, digging in his spurs. The shouts increased as the fight swung this way and that, with first one bird seeming the strongest, then the other. All the time the watchers – all except the two hidden in the bushes – shouted encouragement.
Abbeyford Inheritance Page 15
