Chapter 7 #2
He looked down at her, his mouth curling in a sneer. Small and slight, she hardly presented a physical threat to a man who stood nearly a foot taller than her.
He held up a placating hand. ‘Enough of these games. Please believe me, Agnes. I will take care of the children as if they were my own. They are my closest blood kin.’
She searched his face, looking for evidence of his veracity. It remained implacable. She had no choice in the matter but to trust him. She had to believe that he would act in the best interests of the children.
She sighed. ‘I know what the commissioners said, but surely it’s within your power to let me come with the children?’
Tobias’s eyes hardened. ‘Even I cannot go against an order of the Committee, Agnes.’ He raised a hand as if to lay it on her shoulder in reassurance but thought better of it, making a pretence of straightening his collar. ‘You have my word. The children will be safe in my care.’
A knock on the door made them both start.
Ashby opened it to admit Septimus Turner.
Tobias’s faithful hound, James had called him.
Turner was a slight man with ginger hair, moustache and beard, probably well into his forties.
Not much above middle height, his figure was trim and he carried himself well.
He had served at Tobias’s side since the first engagement of the war.
He had with him a woman so pale as to be translucent — green-blue veins could be seen beneath the skin of her forehead and hands. Even her tightly compressed lips seemed bloodless.
‘Captain Turner,’ Agnes said with barely concealed distaste. ‘I might have thought you would not be far away.’
Tobias gestured toward the woman. ‘I do not believe you have met Septimus’s sister, Leah?’
Agnes turned to face Leah Turner. She was dressed austerely in a dark grey gown with plain collar and cuffs, with her hair tucked beneath a matronly white cap. Only the ginger colouring of her eyebrows indicated that it might be a similar hue to her brother’s.
By rights, the woman should have curtsied to another of superior rank, but she remained as still as a sentinel, her grey eyes fixed on Agnes’s face. Agnes shivered and looked away from the unnerving stare.
‘The coach awaits, sir,’ Turner addressed his commander.
‘Very good.’’
‘They are only young,’ Agnes made one last attempt to secure her position. ‘Two men such as yourselves are not suitable for the care of such young children.’
Turner raised one ginger eyebrow and indicated his sister. ‘The children will be in the care of my sister, Mistress Fletcher. You may rest in the assurance that they will be in capable and godly hands.’
The flesh on the back of Agnes’s neck crawled. She didn’t know Turner’s sister, but her acquaintance with the mealy-mouthed Turner only increased her fear for the children.
She turned back to Tobias.
‘What about me? Charvaley was my home … Where am I to go?’
‘Charvaley was only your home by James’s grace and favour.
I am under no obligation to you.’ Ashby’s lip curled into a derisive smile.
He placed a finger under her chin and tilted her face up.
‘My dear Agnes, you’ve a pretty face. By all accounts, you have already bedded an Earl.
It shouldn’t be too hard to find yourself another protector. ’
Anger flared and she raised a hand to slap him, but he caught her hand before it connected with his face.
‘Now, now. That will never do. Of course, should you remember the details of the matter we just discussed, I may reconsider your position. In the meantime, I gave you my word. You may say your farewells to the children.’ Squaring his shoulders, he turned to the Turners.
‘I want to be away from London before dark. Let us go.’
***
Agnes hunched into the furthest corner of Tobias’s coach like a sparrow caught in a trap, wilting under the unrelenting gaze of Leah Turner.
The woman seemed to be enjoying her misery.
Beside her, Tobias had puffed up like a peacock, the buttons of his coat straining even more.
He had gained control of the one thing he probably coveted more than anything, the earldom and estates.
True, it was as a trustee only, but he had years before Henry reached twenty-one.
At the thought of Henry, a band tightened on her heart.
It had never occurred to her that she could be separated from the children.
Henry was only four, still in petticoats, still a baby.
What could she say to them that would ease the parting — for all of them?
How could she explain that she would not be returning with them to Charvaley?
At the sign of the Blue Boar, the coach turned into the courtyard, and Agnes dismounted even before the groom could put the footstool down.
She took a deep, shuddering breath and, without looking back to see if Tobias and the Turners were following, she returned to the inn room where she had left the children in the care of one of the hostelry maids.
She stood in the doorway removing her gloves as the children ran toward her. She signed for the maid to leave, which she did with a quick dip of a curtsey.
‘Aunt Agnes!’ At their shrill cries of welcome, her heart broke just a little more.
In normal circumstances, she would have hugged them tight, but she could not bring herself to move. If she touched them, she could never let them go.
‘That’s enough,’ she said, employing a hard tone that drove the nail deeper into her heart. ‘Children, pack your belongings. You are leaving.’
‘Where are we going?’ Lizzie asked. ‘Back to Charvaley?’
‘Yes,’ Agnes answered. She glanced behind her as a shadow darkened the doorway. ‘Cousin Tobias has come to take you home.’
Henry shrank back against Agnes’s skirts at the sight of Tobias. Behind him, the Turners hovered like dark birds of prey.
Instinctively Agnes’s hand fell to Henry’s shoulder, drawing his little body against her. He huddled behind her drawing her skirts around him.
‘Are you coming too, Aunt Agnes?’ Lizzie, older and more attuned to the complex undercurrents of adult life, glanced up at her.
Agnes swallowed and straightened her back, holding her head high. ‘No, Elizabeth. Cousin Tobias is now your lawful guardian.’
‘But I don’t want to go with Cousin Tobias. I want to stay here with you!’ Henry began to cry.
‘Now, now, children,’ Tobias said, in a tone that he probably thought of as soothing, but coming from a large man in a military uniform it caused both children to shrink back against Agnes. ‘Charvaley is your home. You belong there.’
‘But not with you!’ Lizzie declared. ‘Why isn’t Aunt Agnes coming with us? I’m not leaving without Aunt Agnes!’ She took a step forward, her hands on her hips, three feet of aristocratic outrage. ‘I know what you did. You betrayed our father.’
Agnes thought she saw Tobias flinch at the harsh but truthful words, and wondered how much more Elizabeth knew about her father’s betrayal and death. Adults always underestimated children.
‘That is not the concern of children,’ Tobias said.
‘Mistress Fletcher, see that these children are packed and ready to leave in ten minutes. I will be waiting at the coach.’ At the door, he turned and looked at her.
‘And don’t think of trying to escape with them.
Say your farewells and bring the children to me. ’
‘Colonel … ’ Leah Turner stepped forward. ‘I can see to the children.’
Tobias held up his hand. ‘Thank you, Mistress Turner, but I suggest you come with me. We will wait for them in the inn yard.’
‘Thank you,’ Agnes said, recognising that by leaving her alone with the children he was at least affording her an opportunity of a proper farewell. She supposed she should be grateful for that small kindness.
She waited until the door closed behind him and went down on her knees, her skirts billowing around her. The children fell into her arms.
‘Please don’t make us go with Cousin Tobias,’ Lizzie said, her voice muffled against her shoulder.
‘I have no choice, Lizzie. The colonel has promised he will take good care of you.’
‘I hate Cousin Tobias,’ Henry said with a vehemence that almost made Agnes laugh.
‘You don’t know him. He has your best interests at heart.’
Lizzie stood her ground, her eyes blazing. ‘He did betray Father, didn’t he? I heard Father telling you —’
Agnes straightened and fixed the child with a hard, uncompromising stare of disapproval. ‘Eavesdroppers hear no good of themselves, Lizzie. Shame on you! I do not know what part if any, Cousin Tobias played in your father’s arrest and it is not for you or me to judge him.’
Lizzie’s mouth tightened and her eyes narrowed. ‘Yes … but … ’
Agnes held up her hand. ‘It will not be spoken of again. What is past is done. You must be brave and strong. It would be what your father would expect of you. In a few days you will be back at Charvaley with the animals, and … ’ She named all the members of staff who had known and loved the children all their lives. ‘Come on, let’s pack your box.’
There was little to pack. Apart from their clothes, the children had few possessions — an odd assortment of wooden animals, the leather ball that Agnes had bought from a street vendor, and Lizzie’s precious wooden doll.
She tied the strings of their cloaks and settled hats on their heads.
Handing the doll to Lizzie, she gave the children one last kiss and a hug.
‘Come children, Cousin Tobias is waiting for you. Be very good for him and for Mistress Turner. It is a long journey home.’
She threw open the door and ordered the soldier waiting outside to bring the box.
As the children emerged onto the open gallery that encircled the courtyard, Henry pulled back at the sight of the large, black coach. Agnes tightened her grip on their hands.
‘Remember your father. He was a very brave man and he would want you to be brave,’ Agnes whispered to Lizzie, wondering if she was trying to convince herself.
‘Good.’ Tobias all but rubbed his hands together as they descended the rickety stairs into the inn courtyard. ‘Come children, into the coach. I promise you a special treat if you are good for me.’
‘What?’ Henry demanded.
Tobias glanced at Agnes in mute appeal.
‘If you are very good, Cousin Tobias will stop at the baker on the corner and buy you one of those sugar mice.’
Tobias’s lips tightened. ‘Sugar mice?’ he muttered.
Agnes fixed him with a hard glare. ‘They are Henry’s favourite.’
Henry’s fingers tightened on Agnes’s and she recognized the jutting of his jaw, so like his father.
Not even the promise of sugar mice would pry him away.
Agnes went down on her knees, wrapping the small, sturdy body in her embrace, breathing in the scent of him, holding her to him.
Captain Turner grabbed her arm, wrenching her away and thrusting her at one of the guards who held her tight as Henry was lifted by one of Tobias’s soldiers and carried away, screaming Agnes’s name.
Another soldier had Lizzie firmly in his grip.
Both children were unceremoniously dumped into the coach and the door slammed on them.
Agnes had a brief impression of Lizzie taking her little brother in her arms as Tobias climbed in after them.
Lizzie’s face, wet with tears, appeared at the window of the coach.
She appeared to be wrestling Henry, who screamed uncontrollably and would have thrown himself out of the coach had not Tobias caught him by the collar and dragged him back.
Released from the grip of the soldier, Agnes fell to her knees.
She covered her ears with her hands and doubled over on the filthy cobbles of the inn yard, her body wracked with sobs.
‘Agnes!’
She could not shut out the child’s screams as the coach turned out of the inn yard into the street beyond.