“Why would I be averse to it?” Beth said. “It’s not Anne’s fault that Richard’s an animal. I pity her. Is she still living with your aunt?”
“Yes,” Caroline said. “I told her Richard’s in Scotland at the moment, but I think she feels safer living in Hertfordshire. She hasn’t recovered from his last unexpected appearance at the house.”
“Tell her she’s welcome to visit,” Beth said. “It’ll be nice to see a new face.”
Anne turned up two days later. Afraid the presence of a child might upset Beth, she had left little George with Philippa and Oliver, but had brought with her presents, including flowers, and a tonic wine she had made herself.
“It is delicious,” she said, pouring a glass for Beth, “and contains powdered gentian root, which will help to stimulate the appetite, prevents swooning, and comforts the heart.” She looked at her subject doubtfully. “Although I admit you are looking very well, far better than I had expected.”
Beth dutifully drank the potion, and had to admit that it was indeed delicious, and knowing Anne’s comprehensive knowledge of medicinal herbs, it would probably be effective too.
“I’ve been here for four months now,” Beth reminded her. “I looked very different when I arrived. I’m completely well now. That’s why there’s a soldier outside the room, in case I attempt to overpower Edwin and Caroline and flee.”
Anne’s subsequent look of alarm at this prospect reminded Beth that, although kind and caring, and more confident now she was under the beneficial influence of Caroline’s eccentric relatives, her sense of humour remained non-existent.
“How are you, Anne?” Beth asked, hoping to put her at ease. “And George? He must be a fine boy by now.”
“He is very well,” Anne said happily. “He’s talking now and knows his numbers to a hundred, and all the colours, and he looks more like Stanley every day. I had hoped to have his miniature painted, but he will not sit still for long enough. Oh! I’m sorry!” she finished inexplicably.
“Why are you sorry?” Beth asked.
“I thought perhaps you…I had not intended to speak about George, in case…” She wrung her hands in her lap, and blushed.
“Anne,” Beth said gently. “You are very kind. But you know I cannot avoid children, nor do I wish to. Freddie comes in to see me most days, and we play little games together. If anything I should be apologising to you for not warning you what a bast…brute my brother was before you married him.”
To Beth’s amazement and relief, Anne neither defended Richard nor came out with some platitude about owing him her loyalty as his wife.
“I do not think I would have listened to you if you had,” she said sadly instead. “I was very lonely after Stanley died, and he…he seemed to care for me. I was very foolish.”
“I don’t think Richard has ever cared for anyone but himself,” Beth said. “Do you intend to stay at Harriet’s on a permanent basis? I know Richard is in Scotland now, but he will probably return in time, and it is imperative that…”
To her surprise, Anne immediately burst into tears.
“I’m sorry,” Beth said. “I should not have mentioned him. I meant only to advise you…but I have distressed you.”
“Oh, God!” Anne cried. “I am so afraid!”
“He cannot hurt you from Scotland,” Beth said gently.
“But he is,” she wailed. “He is seeking to take George from me!”
“What?! But he is not George’s father! How can he do that?”
Anne didn’t reply, but instead made a valiant attempt to bring her emotions under control, and after a few minutes of gulping and hiccupping while Beth put her arm round her sister-in-law’s shoulder and offered her a handkerchief, she succeeded in regaining control of herself.
“I am so sorry,” she sniffed. “I came here to cheer you, not to distress you.”
“I am not distressed,” Beth said. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“He has written to me and told me that as I have deserted him without reasonable cause, he wishes to take charge of George immediately.”
“But you’re his mother! And he is Stanley’s son. Surely Richard has no rights at all?”
“He does,” she said sadly. “When I married him, everything I had became his.”
“All your money, yes,” Beth said, “and your property. But not your child!”
“It would have been different of course, had Stanley known. He was so meticulous with legal matters,” Anne said. “I am sure that he would have named me in his will as legal guardian if anything happened to him. But of course he didn’t know I was with child when he died.”
“You mean that just because Stanley didn’t name George’s own mother as his legal guardian before he died, that means my bastard of a brother can take him?!” Beth cried. “That cannot be right. You must fight this, Anne.”
“That’s what Harriet said. She said…she said some bad things. But yes, she said that she will fight it through the courts if she has to.”
“Well, then,” Beth said soothingly. “I am sure everything will be fine.”
“What Aunt Harriet actually said was that if she lost the case, she’d cut the bastard’s balls off herself and choke him with them,” Caroline elucidated when Beth broached the subject after dinner that evening. The three of them had retired to the parlour to enjoy a bottle of orange wine which Anne had brought for them, and which was absolutely delicious.
Edwin winced.
“I am only repeating the words of my dear aunt,” Caroline said coolly. “Although I’d like to watch when she fulfils her promise.”
“How can she not win?” Beth said. “Anne’s George’s mother! And Richard’s insane!”
“Even so, it’s distinctly possible that she will lose, in spite of her influence,” Edwin explained. “Because in law Richard has done nothing to justify Anne leaving him, and in view of that he can automatically claim custody of George. The courts won’t grant Anne custody unless there are extremely powerful reasons to do so, because if they do it will set a precedent.”
“But there are extremely powerful reasons to do so!” Beth fumed.
“We know that, but Richard has not been charged with raping Sarah, nor has he been charged with murdering your servant and attempting to murder her child,” Edwin pointed out. “As far as the law is concerned, he’s a respectable captain in His Majesty’s forces.”
“And if he wins, then Anne will either have to surrender George to him, or return to live with him as his wife,” Caroline said.
“Of course she might be allowed to keep George temporarily, because Richard is on active service and a Scottish barracks is no place to keep a child. Although he may engage a nanny, and take him anyway.”
“Anne will never allow that,” Caroline said. “George is her life. She will go back to him.”
“She cannot go back to him,” Beth said frantically. “If she does George will die, and soon, and she will follow, and it will look like an accident. Richard has changed. I have not told you this, but when he came to see me in prison, I taunted him. The Richard I knew would have lost his temper and beaten me to death, which is what I wanted then, as you know. But he is different now. He’s colder, and controlled. If Ned hadn’t come in when he did, Richard could have tortured me for hours, maybe days without killing me.”
“But he did nearly kill you,” Caroline pointed out.
“Only because he didn’t know I was pregnant,” Beth replied. “He didn’t hit me hard enough to kill me. It was the miscarriage and the loss of blood that nearly did that. He is much more dangerous now than he used to be.”
The three of them sat and thought about it.
“Perhaps we could have a word with his colonel, Hutchinson, isn’t it? Maybe he can persuade Richard to abandon this custody idea,” Edwin said doubtfully.
“Could the colonel demote him if he refused?” Beth asked.
“No. He would have to commit a serious breach of military law for
that.”
“Then he wouldn’t agree. Richard’s only weakness is his ambition. He wants to be a general one day,” Beth said. “You said there would have to be powerful reasons for the court to grant Anne custody. What sort of reasons?”
“Well, the chancellor has parens patriae jurisdiction. So if for instance it was feared that a father was going to put his child into prostitution for example, or indoctrinate it in the ways of the Roman Catholic Church, or otherwise corrupt it morally. That sort of thing.”
“I wouldn’t underestimate Harriet, though,” Caroline said reassuringly. “She is not enamoured of Richard, and would do a good deal to thwart him. And she really does know everyone. We must wait and see what happens. We can’t do any more for now.”
The next day Beth discussed the situation with Sarah, who shared her outrage and her fear for what would happen to Anne and George if Richard won the case.
“It’s terrible. I don’t know why any woman with independent means chooses to get married at all,” Beth said.
“You married Sir Anthony, though,” Sarah said.
“I didn’t have independent means. I wouldn’t have looked twice at him if I had,” Beth said. “Anyway, I wasn’t really married to him, as Cumberland and Newcastle delighted in pointing out. I was his whore.”
“Do you ever wish you hadn’t?” Sarah asked. “Married him, I mean, real or not?”
“No,” Beth replied without hesitation. “I love him. I will always love him. ‘I am yours until I die, I will love you, and only you, and will take no other’,” she finished softly, almost to herself. She remembered his voice as he’d spoken the words, the gentle strength of his hands as he’d cupped her face, the scent of the suede gloves he’d worn, the blue intensity of his gaze.
“Who said that?” Sarah asked.
“Sir Anthony. When we were on our honeymoon in Italy. Anyway,” Beth said, pulling herself with obvious reluctance from the past, “Anne did marry Richard, and now she and everything she owns including George belongs to him, it seems.”
“Let’s hope he comes to see me when he comes back to London, then,” Sarah said.
Beth cast a puzzled look her way.
“After last time,” Sarah explained, “I bought a pistol, and Caroline taught me how to shoot it in case Richard ever came back. I’m a decent shot now. I keep it under my shop counter all the time. In fact I threatened John with it before I knew who he was. I always thought that if Richard came back I’d threaten him with it too, to make him go away, but in view of what you’ve told me about how he’s changed, I think I’d just shoot him the moment he came through the door.”
Beth looked at Sarah in amazement. She was serious.
“You can’t do that!” she said.
“Why not?”
“Because if you did, you’d hang!”
“Not if I said he’d tried to rob me, and rape me.”
“Sarah, he’s a soldier, a captain, not a beggar. You couldn’t just kill him and get away with it.”
“I’ll take my chances then,” Sarah said. “Because I’ll be damned if I’ll let that bastard get anywhere near me or…near me again. He’d kill me anyway if he did. At least if I hang I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing he’s already burning in hell.”
* * *
“Good morning!” Beth said brightly to the redcoat guard stationed outside her room as she opened her door the following morning. “Have you breakfasted already?”
The soldier almost smiled at her and then stood to attention and attempted a frown, reminding himself, as he had to several times a day under the onslaught of her persistent friendliness to him, that she was a traitor and his job was to ensure she didn’t escape, not to become her friend.
“I am not hungry,” he replied formally. His stomach grumbled, giving the lie to his words.
“Hmm. Are Sir Edwin and Lady Caroline at home?” she asked conversationally.
“I believe they are,” he said.
“Excellent. Then I will join them. I should be with them for at least half an hour, so if you want to go to the kitchen and get something to eat, I promise not to run away.”
He didn’t reply, but followed her down the stairs and stationed himself outside the breakfast room door. From inside came the clattering of cutlery and the soft murmur of conversation. His stomach rumbled once more. A moment later the door opened again and Beth reappeared, carrying a plate with two warm spiced rolls.
“I suspected you were too conscientious to abandon your post. There you are,” she said, handing him the plate. “Now you can do your duty without going hungry.”
This time he did smile at her. She really was kind. Such a shame she was a rebel.
Beth returned to the breakfast table, and sitting opposite Caroline and Edwin, spread butter on a roll and took a bite. She sighed blissfully. She was going to miss these rolls. She was going to miss a lot of things. She swallowed.
“I have made a decision,” she announced. Edwin looked up from his newspaper and Caroline, drinking tea, eyed Beth over the rim of the cup.
“I have imposed upon your kindness for long enough. No, please hear me out,” she said when both of them instantly made to speak. “I know you’re going to say that I can stay here for as long as I like, but I can’t stay here forever, and because of who I am I don’t think I’ll ever get a pardon if I won’t reveal the true identity of Sir Anthony. I’m completely well now, so I’ve decided it’s time that I faced up to reality. I’m ready to go back to prison, and I want you to send a message to the Duke of Newcastle and tell him that I want to talk to him.”
The reaction from the two people listening to this could not have been more different. Edwin grinned from ear to ear, while Caroline looked at Beth in utter shock and disbelief.
“That’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time,” he said. “I mean, you’re welcome, you know that, to stay as long as you want, and after you’ve spoken to Newcastle we can arrange for you to come back here until your release. I’m sure that once you’ve told what you know, that will be soon.”
“I’m not sure about that,” Beth said, “but I’ve decided to tell what I know anyway.”
“It’s the only sensible thing to do,” Edwin agreed. “After all, if he is dead, as you think, then revealing his identity can’t hurt him, and if he isn’t…well, he’s abandoned you, and he really doesn’t deserve your loyalty.”
Caroline, who had remained frozen until now, suddenly put her cup down on the saucer with a clatter.
“I can’t believe this,” she said incredulously. “After everything they’ve put you through to make you talk, why now, when you’re safe and Newcastle’s obviously given up on you telling him anything, do you suddenly want to give evidence against the man you say you love?”
“I need to talk to Newcastle because a lot of people have already been hurt by my silence,” she said. “I need to do what I can to make things right and to stop anyone else suffering. And I’m the only one who can. I know what I’m doing. And I think Anthony would approve.”
“You’re doing the right thing,” Edwin said. “I’ll send a message straight away.”
Beth stood up.
“Thank you,” she said. “And thank you for everything you’ve done for me. I don’t think I can ever repay you.”
“You don’t need to repay –” Edwin began.
“Who is he?” Caroline interrupted.
“Who is who?” Beth asked.
“Anthony. Who is he, really?”
Beth coloured slightly, but remained calm.
“I think the Duke of Newcastle should be the first to know,” she said.
“Why? We won’t tell anyone. And after all, we deserve to know. He masqueraded as our friend for over three years.”
“He didn’t masquerade…no,” Beth replied. “What I have to say is only for the duke to hear. I’m sorry.”
She turned away, and walked to the door.
“What are you up to, Beth?”
Caroline asked suspiciously as Beth opened the door.
“Nothing,” she said without turning back. Then she went out, and closed the door gently behind her.
* * *
The Duke of Newcastle, as expected, was ecstatic to hear that the stubborn Miss Cunningham had finally come to her senses, and revised his whole schedule for the following day so that he could see her.
Her appointment was for one o’clock, and she was in her room trying to decide between two suitable outfits when there was a knock at her door. She opened it to reveal a maid in a state of nervous excitement.
“You have a visitor, my lady,” she said, bobbing a curtsey.
“You don’t have to call me my lady,” Beth replied. “Who is it?”
“It is I,” came a voice from down the hall. “I hope you don’t mind. I have brought someone who particularly wanted to see you.”
The soldier immediately shot to attention, and the maid curtseyed so deeply she almost fell over.
Beth stepped out of the room and curtseyed expertly.
“Your Royal Highness,” she said. “What an unexpected pleasure! Of course I don’t mind. I’ll come downstairs directly. Would you care for refreshments?”
The prince waved his hand dismissively in a gesture reminiscent of Sir Anthony.
“Oh no, let us not be formal. If it does not disturb you, your apartment would be fine. Your reputation will be quite safe. We have a chaperone.” He smiled and stepped to the side, revealing Prince Edward, who, slight as he was, had been concealed behind his father.
She invited the royal pair in, and soon they were comfortably seated in her tiny living room, Prince Frederick opposite her, and Prince Edward, after a perfunctory ‘good morning’ by the window, where he gazed absently out onto the street.
“You have grown considerably since we last met, Your Highness,” Beth said to the boy, who did not appear to hear her and continued to look out of the window.
“He celebrated his eighth birthday last week,” Prince Frederick said proudly.
Pursuit of Princes (The Jacobite Chronicles Book 5) Page 44
