Three Medieval Romances
Page 9
“To go abroad is so extreme, Lorenzo,” Eliza said.
“But it may be our only means of staying together,” he replied. “On reflection, I think you are right; the way to guarantee the success of this scheme is to conduct it in secrecy.”
So, Eliza repaired to the servants’ quarters to pack her travelling chest, which, it was agreed, she would conceal in an alcove near the entrance to the kitchens so that Lorenzo could add it to his own luggage. And the lovers also decided that Eliza would wait just beyond the gates of the Park to be collected by Lorenzo’s carriage when it departed later in the morning.
* * *
In the servants’ quarters, Eliza swiftly filled her small trunk with her few possessions. After stowing it in the chosen location, she made to quit the house, walking down the long corridor that ran alongside the great hall.
Partway along she detected footsteps nearing her from behind. She didn’t dare look back but quickened her own pace. The steps turned into a run and, despite herself, Eliza turned to witness the athletic form of Harriet fast-approaching. Before Eliza had the opportunity to escape, Harriet had gained on her. “Not so fast,” Harriet declared, catching hold of Eliza.
Eliza struggled but Harriet was so much taller and stronger than her that her resistance was futile. “I hope you did not have a notion to slip away with my cousin, Eliza,” Harriet began, dragging Eliza in the direction of the staircase that led to the upper levels of the Hall. “I shall be needing you now as my spinster-companion. Thanks to your intervention, Eliza, my hopes of happiness have been dashed. My father has forbidden me from ever seeing my lover again and I am to be confined to the house once we reach home later today.”
They had scaled the stairs and now approached Lady Maria’s chamber. Harriet, keeping a tight hold of Eliza, produced a key to the door from her pocket and opened it wide. “So the only place you shall be going today, Eliza, is back home with me to live out our spinster days in quiet, celibate solitude.”
Harriet pushed Eliza into the room. Eliza fell to the floor. “I shall be back for you later,” Harriet vowed as she shut the door on Eliza and turned the key.
* * *
Once Harriet had gone, Eliza picked herself up off the floor and tried the door but, as she had anticipated, it was locked fast. She looked about the chamber. Lorenzo, she noticed, had carefully restored the bed to a state of order after their night of passion. Eliza suddenly realised that, if she could fashion a rope from the bedclothes, she could escape to freedom via the window. Feverishly, she set about inspecting the linen for its suitability for the purpose. It was only when she’d concluded it was adequate that Eliza thought to check that she could open the windows.
She tried first one, then a second and finally the third window in the casement but, to her despair, they were all stuck. She kept on trying them and then trying again the locked door but all her exertions were in vain. And Eliza realised that Lorenzo would, by now, be due to leave.
Within minutes, Eliza stood agitated and forlorn in the bay window. Tears of frustration and despair ran down her face at the sight of a carriage drawing away from the Hall; her master would be travelling in it and she would never see him again.
Despondently, Eliza fell onto the bed that had been the site of their lovemaking and wept herself to sleep.
When Eliza awoke, Harriet was standing over her in a travelling cloak. “Come, Eliza, we must go,” she directed coldly as she stared down disdainfully at her maid. “It’s time for you and I to begin our life of celibate misery together. Get up,” Harriet commanded.
Eliza sat up and tried to compose herself and smooth her appearance.
“Are you not wondering what has become of my cousin?” Harriet asked menacingly.
Eliza said nothing – she knew Harriet would only be vindictive now.
“I shall inform you. Lorenzo, all too easily, accepted my explanation that you had looked into your soul, repented your whorish ways and decided to be a good little spinster and stay with me, rather than go with him.”
Eliza made no response.
“I dare say Lorenzo will find himself some Latin mistress to amuse him. Men are so fickle, Eliza. Only mine has a true heart and will wait for me for all eternity. Lorenzo, like the run of them, will have forgotten you by tomorrow.”
Eliza stood up when Harriet had finished saying her piece. “I’m ready now, Miss,” she announced as calmly as she possibly could.
“Let us away,” Harriet replied, opening the door to the chamber. “And in case you have any doubt in your mind, Eliza, rest assured, I aim to make your life a living hell from here to kingdom come,” she promised, looking with malice into the eyes of her lady-in-waiting, as they quitted the room.
* * *
In the late morning, Eliza set off in a carriage with Sir Harry, Lady Jane and Harriet, bound for their home. Eliza’s vision was obscured by tears as they passed through the great gates of Braggot Park.
“Look, Eliza,” Harriet remarked as the carriage stood still for a moment beyond the gates. “Is that not your trunk, there, on the ground in the verge?”
Eliza looked out of the carriage but could barely see, so blurred was her sight from crying.
“Why, Eliza, I do believe it is!” Harriet said excitedly and she swiftly exited the carriage to call to the driver to collect the chest.
Upon returning to her seat, Harriet beamed in unhinged triumph. “There, Mama!” she declared, “Quite as it should be; we have full possession of Eliza once more.”
* * *
Nine months passed, during which time Eliza sank deeper into a reconciled state of despair in the service of Sir Harry and Lady Jane. The knight and his lady treated her with cool civility but Harriet did, as threatened, inflict every possible deprivation and humiliation upon Eliza in revenge for the loss of her lover.
One morning in mid-winter, when Eliza had tidied Harriet’s chamber after the young lady had left to hunt with her father, Eliza found, upon trying the door to the room, that she had been locked inside it. She knew the cruel deed could only be the work of Harriet.
Eliza sat down on Harriet’s bed and considered her predicament. Harriet’s chamber was on the first floor of the house. Eliza knew the windows opened. She decided very quickly to execute the plan she had not been able to undertake at Braggot Park. She would exit by the window and flee the Braggots’ household forever. Destitution, poverty and worse might lie ahead but Eliza considered the risk of these fates preferable to the living death she now knew.
Eliza double-checked the windows – they opened as she had anticipated. She then quickly set to ripping Harriet’s bedclothes into shreds wide enough to hold her weight when joined together to form a rope.
As Eliza tore apart the linen, the thought occurred to her that Harriet must have had some reason to try to incarcerate her today. The more she considered it, the more Eliza sensed that there had been plans afoot in recent times for a visit. The household servants had been busy and Lady Jane in a particularly bossy mood all week. Harriet’s control of Eliza had been as stringent as ever, but Eliza also suspected a campaign on the part of Lady Jane to keep her out of the picture.
Eliza stopped what she was doing as the possibility occurred to her that it was Sir Richard who was now resident in the house. Sir Richard, the one member of the Braggot family who might still possess any sympathy or regard for her.
Eliza redoubled her efforts and, within minutes, had finished making her escape ladder.
She knew that Harriet’s chamber was above a library that was not often used. Still, she must be careful. Eliza opened the window and let down the rope slowly so as not to tap the window of the library below. When it reached the ground, Eliza tied the end fast to the sturdy leg of the frame of Harriet’s solid wooden bed.
She prepared to climb out of the window. This was the hardest part. For one thing, her skirts caught on the window fixings. But most daunting was the point at which she had to clamber off the ledge and tru
st the fashioned rope to support her weight. From here, the ground looked a long way down.
Eliza, through an awkward combination of lowering herself on the rope and pushing against the wall of the building, managed to descend to the library level. To her joy and horror, she spied through the window the back of Sir Richard’s head. He sat reading; Eliza knew his disdain for hunting.
Realising that she couldn’t continue in her descent without making contact with the pane of the window, Eliza, in a last show of courage, dropped to the ground.
There was no time to check whether she’d disturbed Sir Richard. Eliza needed to run to escape the house.
She ran through the gardens of the Braggots’ estate and out into the open parkland. Knowing the area well, Eliza took what she believed to be the most direct route to the estate border – and freedom.
Once she was clear of the house, Eliza dropped to a walking pace. She could run no more. Only then did she begin to reflect upon her actions.
Would she have been better to remain at the house and appeal to Sir Richard to take her back to Braggot Park? But her distrust of the family was too great to have risked that. Eliza convinced herself that the course of action she’d taken was the only one that was viable.
In ten minutes’ time the estate boundary came within sight. Eliza’s pace increased as her spirits lifted at the prospect of liberty.
But as she approached the perimeter fence, Eliza became aware of horses’ hooves thundering towards her.
Turning, Eliza realised she had wandered into the path of the hunt. In an instant a red fox shot past her and dived through the same break in the boundary fence that she was heading for. In a moment the hounds followed and then Harriet’s horse emerged from around a bend. Both horse and rider encountering Eliza in the place where they were gearing up to scale the fence, Harriet’s indecision, combined with the horse’s instinctive shying away from the jump, led to a botched attempt, in which the rider was thrown from her horse as Eliza was knocked to the ground.
* * *
The next thing Eliza knew was the sensation of being cradled in strong arms. A familiar voice spoke soft words to her. “Eliza, my love, open your eyes; talk to me.”
Eliza beheld the dark, handsome features that were so familiar to her. Lorenzo’s look of anguish melted into a warm smile as he realised she had regained consciousness.
“Sir,” Eliza uttered in dazed amazement.
“My darling Eliza,” Lorenzo whispered back, drawing her close to his chest. “How I have longed to hold you.”
“I too,” Eliza replied breathlessly.
“Harriet told me you had rejected me–”
“Never,” Eliza replied feverishly.
“Sshhh,” Lorenzo soothed, “don’t upset yourself. I realise that now – I realised it as soon as I boarded the ship – but it was too late.”
“And now you are returned?”
“Yes. My father was pining away for love of me and I pined for you, Eliza.”
“You are back for good?”
“Yes.”
Lorenzo stroked Eliza’s cheek and kissed her forehead.
“How’s Harriet?” Eliza asked, catching a glimpse of Sir Harry and his servants tending to the young lady.
“That’s no concern of mine, Eliza; I care only for you. As soon as you are well enough we will return with my father to Braggot Park.”
“I will gladly be your father’s servant again, Lorenzo,” Eliza whispered, deliriously happy at the thought of escaping Harriet’s regime and resuming any connection with Lorenzo.
“Not as our servant, Eliza, but as my wife,” Lorenzo said firmly, pulling Eliza even closer to him. “I swear we will never be parted again.”
* * * * *
If you have enjoyed Three Medieval Romances, visit Catherine E. Chapman’s Smashwords profile for details of her other books:
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/CatherineChapman
The stories included in Three Medieval Romances are available individually:
Braggot Park – short Elizabethan romance:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/404382
Danburgh Castle and Rhiannon – short Medieval romances:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/269771
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/155276
They are also included in the anthology, Collected Romances - seven short historical romances in one volume: Brizecombe Hall, Kitty, The Hangar Dance, Danburgh Castle, Rhiannon, Braggot Park and High Sea:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/560116
Catherine’s other books include:
Brizecombe Hall and High Sea – short Victorian romances:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/75187
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/517058
Kitty - a short Regency romance:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/338206
Miss Millie’s Groom – a romance set in WW1:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/710062
The Hangar Dance - a short WWII romance:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/277501
Brizecombe Hall, Kitty and The Hangar Dance are also available as a collection of Three Romances:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/356113
Elizabeth Clansham - a contemporary romance set in the Scottish Highlands:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/68015
The Beacon Singer - a contemporary novel set in the English Lake District:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/111240
Clifton - a contemporary novella:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/387978
For tasters of Catherine’s contemporary writing, read The Office Party, Opening Night, The Ramblers, All the Trimmings and The Family Tree, short stories available to download free:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/463518
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/393878
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/180502
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/369854
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/438936
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