Chapter 33
Agnes passed a restless night, tormented by the thought of Henry and Lizzie being so close and not even knowing she was in the castle. What if Ashby sent her away without seeing them?
Sarah brought her breakfast, and when she enquired after Lucas, Sarah said only that he had been busy in the stable with one of the horses. The maid also brought the summons Agnes had been waiting for. Colonel Ashby requested her presence.
A fire had only just been lit in the parlour, and Agnes’s breath misted in the air as she stood with her eyes demurely downcast and her hands clasped in front of the serviceable green woollen gown she had retrieved from her chest. She closed her eyes, breathing in the familiar scent of beeswax that arose from the well-polished furniture, before dropping a deep and respectful curtsey in the presence of her nemesis.
This is for the children, she told herself, as she brought her gaze up to meet Tobias Ashby’s self-satisfied smirk.
Ashby, clad for once in a plain blue woollen suit of clothes, not his more familiar military uniform, stood with his back to the fireplace, his arms folded and his eyes narrowed as if he was inspecting her for signs of rebellion.
Septimus Turner stood by the window, looking out across the damp gardens as rain speckled the diamond panes.
Leah Turner was notable for her absence.
Tobias rubbed his hands together. ‘It’s going to be a cold winter,’ he said conversationally, with what looked like a smile lifting the corners of his straggly moustache. ‘I trust your journey here was not too fraught. Did you come far?’
Agnes ignored the question, clearly aimed at establishing where she had been for the last weeks since she had been abandoned in London.
Tobias picked up her note from the table. ‘You sent this. What is it you have to tell me?’
‘You will hear nothing until you let me see the children,’ she said.
Tobias narrowed his eyes. ‘If that is how it is to be.’ He nodded at Turner. ‘Go and fetch them.’
Alone with Tobias, Agnes squared her shoulders. ‘Did you know that I have been kept a virtual prisoner since my arrival?’
Tobias’s moustache twitched again. ‘My dear, Agnes, you may recall that you were forbidden this house. We could hardly have you wandering around without some form of protection.’
‘Mistress Fletcher to you,’ she responded. ‘I have been mistress in this house since the death of my sister. I’m not sure what I needed protection from.’
Tobias opened his mouth to respond, but a shrill cry from the doorway interrupted him.
‘Aunt Agnes!’
Agnes turned on her heel and held out her arms to the two small people who came hurtling toward her. She went down on her knees, burying her face in their warm, sweet embraces, breathing in the scent of her child.
Her child. As much as she loved Lizzie, Henry was her very blood and being.
Still on her knees, she drew back.
‘Let me look at you,’ she said. ‘Henry, I swear you have grown two inches at least and Lizzie, darling Lizzie, you must have grown at least four.’
Inwardly her stomach quirked at the sight of their pale, drawn faces. Dark circles shadowed their eyes and their movements seemed slower, more inhibited.
‘Children!’ The frosty command came from Leah Turner, and at the sound of her voice, both children stiffened in Agnes’s embrace. Agnes rose to her feet, drawing the children in against her skirts.
‘Thank you for the care of the children, Mistress Turner. It is pleasing to see them looking so well,’ Agnes said in a civil tone.
Much as she wanted to fly at Leah and demand to know how the children were being treated, she didn’t need or want to make an enemy of this woman.
Leah fixed her gaze on Agnes. ‘You spoiled these children for too long. They are wilful and disobedient and I have been forced to chastise them for their wayward behaviour. I am pleased to report they are beginning to see the Word of the Lord and to learn meekness and humility.’
Lizzie whimpered and pressed her face into Agnes’s skirt. A cold hand tightened around Agnes’s heart. Chastise in Leah Turner’s lexicon could have just one meaning.
‘I assure you, Mistress Turner,’ Agnes said, her voice tight with emotion. ‘I was diligent with their study of the Bible. Perhaps it is the manner in which you present it that is the difficulty. I have always found them biddable children.’
‘Enough!’ Ashby’s harsh tone cut across the tension. ‘Now, you have satisfied yourself that the children are in good health. Leah, return them to the nursery. Ag … Mistress Fletcher and I must talk.’
The children clung tighter to Agnes. Their very silence concerned her and she turned to Tobias. ‘You will get nothing from me unless you allow me free access to the children while I am here.’
‘Colonel —’ Leah protested.
Tobias fixed his gaze on Agnes and she returned it without blinking, grateful he could not see how her stomach churned.
‘Very well. I don’t anticipate your visit here will be protracted. Leah —’ he held up his hand, forestalling any further protest.
Agnes bent and kissed the children. ‘I just have to talk with Cousin Tobias. I will be up presently,’ she said. ‘Go now with Mistress Turner.’
Lizzie took Henry by the hand, and with dragging footsteps, the two children crossed to Leah. The door slammed shut behind them and Agnes turned once again to face Tobias.
He gestured at a chair. Agnes glanced at Septimus Turner, who had not moved from his position by the window. Ashby followed her gaze and said, ‘You may leave us too, Turner.’
Turner looked from one to the other, his brow furrowed. Meeting the impassive face of his superior, he inclined his head. ‘Of course.’
Tobias waited until they were alone before he took a seat in the chair by the fire.
He ran a hand down his face as he said, ‘Forgive me, I am a little weary. It was a long journey from London in this atrocious weather. These are uncertain times and I do not wish us to be enemies, Agnes. You must understand, I am bound to obey the letter of the Committee’s order. ’
‘No one can accuse you of failure to exercise diligence in your duty, Tobias, but may I remind you the directive of that Committee may not outlive the King’s return?’
He gave her a sharp glance. In his younger days he had been quite a good-looking man, she recalled.
They had met at James’s wedding to Anne in the early years of the war.
James’s avowed neutrality, and the fact Tobias was his heir until a son was born to James, ensured regular invitations to Charvaley in the following years.
He had even, and she shuddered at the thought, made overtures through James for her hand in marriage. Her obvious revulsion at the suggestion, and the fact that beyond her connection to James’s wife she brought nothing to the marriage, had quickly dissuaded him.
‘You may be right, Agnes,’ he said. ‘But until the order changes, the children are in my care and custody. I shall do all in my power to ensure their health and happiness, but children take ill and sometimes there is nothing to be done except pray.’
Something in his tone made her skin crawl.
He straightened in his chair and tapped the note again. ‘Enough of this. What is it that you have to tell me?’
She took a steadying breath. ‘I have been thinking much on our conversation in London,’ she said, ‘and I may have recalled something of use to you about the valuable property you mentioned.’
‘May have recalled something?’ Tobias’s lip curled back in derision, showing yellowing teeth beneath the straggly hairs of his moustache.
Agnes ploughed on. ‘This is an old house, Tobias, riddled with hiding places. What exactly is it you seek? If I knew then I may have a better recollection of hints James may have dropped.’
Pulling at the ends of his moustache, Tobias narrowed his eyes. ‘Your paramour,’ he said with a snarl, ‘was responsible for the theft of a shipment of gold. We believe the gold may be hidden here.’
Agnes made a pretence of surprise. ‘Gold? What makes you think it is still here and not already with the K … Charles Stuart?’
‘Because our agents at the court of Charles Stuart report that someone has been dispatched to recover it.’
This genuinely surprised Agnes. Did he mean Daniel?
‘You have spies at the exiled court?’
He waved a hand. ‘Of course, we do. Charles Stuart does not sneeze without us knowing.’
‘Who is this man who has been sent?’
Tobias shook his head. ‘Unfortunately, our informant did not have that information. A stranger at court was all he could tell us.’
So Daniel’s identity was safe for the moment.
‘You had James in custody for months; why did you not ask him directly?’
‘Oh, we did — even showed him how he could be persuaded if we had a mind.’
A sick knot of fear and revulsion gathered in Agnes’s stomach. ‘James said nothing of being tortured.’
Tobias gave a huff of humourless laughter. ‘It is not politic to torture Earls,’ he replied. ‘Now, let us stop this prevaricating, Agnes. You have my word that you can spend time with the children. Just tell me where the gold is hidden.’
Agnes cast a glance at the door and took a few steps toward Tobias, lowering her voice. ‘There is a hiding place in the room James used as a study,’ she began.
Tobias threw up his hands. ‘I know of that one. It was empty. Do not forget, Agnes, I knew this house as a child and James and I spent many a long hour looking for its secret places. I’m not the fool you take me for.
’ He leaned forward, so close their foreheads almost touched.
‘This is not about the gold. You want the children.’
Agnes raised her chin, looking the man in the eye. ‘I tell you truthfully that I well recall the night that the gold arrived. At the time, James secured it in his study. If it is not there then he must have moved it alone.’
Ashby turned away from her, pacing the room several times. ‘That is not enough, Agnes.’