Chapter 40
Agnes woke from a fitful sleep to a world still in darkness as Sarah Truscott entered the room carrying a tray from which the scent of fresh-baked bread rose.
‘You’re early,’ Agnes said.
‘Place is in an uproar,’ Sarah replied. ‘Let’s get you dressed, Mistress Fletcher. The way the Colonel is rampaging around, I’ve no doubt he’ll be here soon enough.’
‘How’s the soldier who was hurt?’
‘Simpson?’ Sarah yanked on the laces of Agnes’s bodice. ‘Sore and sorry but he’ll live. Teach him to go crawling after the skirts of that hoyden.’
‘And the intruders …? They got away?’
Sarah hesitated. ‘Aye, except for the one, but you know that.’ She lowered her voice. ‘You can trust me, Mistress Fletcher. Whatever it is you are planning, I’m your friend. I’ve no love for Ashby or those Turners. You’re the rightful mistress here.’
Agnes grasped the girl’s hands. ‘Thank you, Sarah. God knows I … we need friends.’
The sound of heavy, purposeful footsteps in the corridor outside caused Agnes to stiffen. A man’s voice raised in furious admonition almost shook the door. From the tongue-lashing Tobias Ashby was giving Brown, he was not in a good mood.
The door flung open and Ashby stood framed in the doorway.
‘You — out,’ he said to Sarah, who bobbed a curtsey and fled.
‘It’s very early, Tobias.’ Agnes said with a respectful bob of her head. ‘Have you not slept, cousin?’
He glared at her with red-rimmed eyes. ‘No, I have not. You heard about the intruders?’
‘It was hard not to, with that stupid maid’s screams and the comings and goings all night. How is the man who was hurt?’
Tobias dismissed Simpson with a wave of his hand. ‘He’ll live.’ He advanced on her. ‘I want to know what the intruders knew that I don’t. Time you were honest with me, Mistress Fletcher.’
She met his hot, angry gaze. Beneath her ribs, her heart pounded, but she forced a calm smile.
‘I have been reflecting on our conversation of yesterday, and I believe that there is a secret chamber concealed in the children’s nursery.’
Ashby tossed his head. ‘Why didn’t you tell me this yesterday?’
Agnes licked her lips, their careful story was unravelling around her and the more lies she told, the harder it became. ‘Because I only remembered something James told me as I was going to bed.’
‘And what was that?’
Tobias narrowed his eyes and she swallowed. He didn’t believe her and, indeed, why should he? From his perspective, the reappearance of Agnes Fletcher and the theft of the gold could not be a mere coincidence.
‘When he was a child, he found the entrance to a cavity in the wall between the nursery and the chamber adjoining it. I intended to look for it this morning and come to you with the information.’
‘What sort of fool do you think I am, Agnes Fletcher? It seems somewhat coincidental that the men who came last night knew the exact location of this secret cupboard that you have only just remembered.’
Agnes swallowed. ‘Choose to believe it or not, for it is a coincidence. It is entirely possible that James got a message out to them before he died,’ Agnes ventured but even to her ears, her voice lacked conviction.
She had never been a good liar. ‘You yourself said there was an agent sent by the King — by Charles Stuart.’
Tobias took a few steps forward until he was almost on top of her. His fingers closed around her right forearm.
‘Come with me, Mistress Fletcher, and let us find this secret cupboard together.’
Tripping over her skirts in her haste to keep stride with the man, Agnes was breathless by the time they reached the children’s nursery.
Septimus Turner opened the door to them.
The maid, Hannah, sat huddled by the fire, sobbing into her apron with Leah Turner looming over her and a birch cane in her hand.
Henry and Lizzie, still in their night clothes, huddled together in a corner of the bed, their eyes huge and their frightened gazes fixed on Leah Turner.
Turner closed the door and stood in front of it, barring any exit.
Agnes veered in the children’s direction but Tobias dragged her away.
‘You are a lying little bitch,’ he said and struck her across the face with an open-handed blow that sent her reeling to the floor.
Lizzie screamed and Henry started to wail.
Clutching her jaw, the world ringing in her ears, Agnes looked up into the man’s face.
Two spots coloured his cheeks and his eyes glittered in the pale light of the early morning.
She rose slowly to her feet, backing away from him so she stood out of arm’s reach.
‘You,’ Ashby indicated Hannah. ‘Tell her what you told me.’
Hannah sniffed, but the look she cast Agnes was heavy with malevolence.
‘When Simpson was ‘urt, Mistress Fletcher … she said she’d heard me screaming, but I saw her, Colonel, coming out of this room, not from the direction of her chamber. Anyway, she’d not have heard me, not all the way over there, and then Master Henry,’ Hannah pointed an accusatory finger at Henry.
‘He told me he’d seen her in the night.’
Lies beget lies, Agnes thought, her dazed mind casting around wildly for a plausible explanation. Was it too much to hope that Daniel would come bursting through the door with sword and pistol to sweep her away?
She took a deep, steadying breath. No one would be coming to her aid. Just as it had been all her life, she was on her own.
She looked from one to the other and said in a clear, steady voice.
‘It’s true. I did come here last night. Very late, after everyone was asleep, including that useless man you left outside my room.
I knew I only had a few more hours with the children and I wanted to just sit with them.
’ Her voice wavered, the emotion coming naturally.
‘I pulled the curtains around the bed and I was just sitting there … ’
‘Just sitting there?’ Tobias expostulated.
‘Yes, just sitting with the children. I heard the door open and I was afraid it might be —’ she stopped herself before she said “you”. ‘I … I didn’t want to be discovered so I hid under the bed.’
Tobias frowned and she sensed him wavering. Her story had seemed plausible enough to anyone who knew her as he did. ‘So what did you see?’
‘Two men — or at least the feet of two men. I dared not move to get a better view. They knew exactly where to go and what they were looking for. They were in and out in bare minutes and then there was an altercation in the corridor. Someone was hurt and that girl,’ she looked at Hannah, ‘screaming like a fishwife. I waited until I thought it was safe and came out. I had hoped no one had seen me. Sitting with the children seemed a foolish, sentimental thing to do … ’
Genuine tears welled in her eyes.
Tobias cleared his throat and his shoulders relaxed. Was it possible he had begun to believe her? All she had to do was stick to her story and hope he would let her leave.
He gestured at the room. ‘So if you know where the entrance to this hidden cavity is, you had better show me now.’
‘Behind the tapestry,’ Agnes said.
Tobias turned to face the tapestry, hauling it off its rings. The ancient material ripped as it fell to the ground in a cloud of dust. He stood with his hands on his hips, studying the old wainscoting.
‘So how do you get in?’
Agnes shook her head. ‘I didn’t see.’
Tobias felt along the panelling, pressing corners and indentations, but it was Leah who found the entrance, indicating the scuffed footprints on the dusty floor.
Tobias grunted, running his fingers along the panelling until he located the catch. The entrance swung open and, stooping, he looked inside. A man of his size would never have fitted through the small opening.
He swore volubly.
‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘Something was here but it’s gone.’
He brushed the dust from his coat sleeve and sighed heavily. ‘So they got away with the gold, but they won’t have gone far.’ He smiled without humour. ‘My men report that they managed to put a pistol ball into one of ‘em. As for you … ’
Agnes’s heart skipped a beat, and she schooled her face to remain unconcerned.
Who had they shot? Daniel was still within the castle so it must have been either Kit or Jonathan.
Please, dear God, let them get away. Don’t let them die, she thought.
Gathering herself, she looked up at Tobias. ‘You have no evidence that I had any involvement. I have admitted to being present in the room but that was as far as it went. My time here is over. I will be leaving as soon as the horses are saddled.’
Lizzie whimpered. Tobias glared at the child with narrowed eyes and she gave a strangled sob and fell silent.
He strode over to the window and stood looking down into the courtyard.
‘I think it may be safer for you to stay a little while longer, Agnes,’ he said, his voice now a soft purr. He glanced back at her. ‘It would be irresponsible of me to allow you to travel while such ruffians are still at large.’
‘I will be quite safe. My servant —’
‘Ah, yes. Your servant, Lucas, is it? What can you tell me about him?’
She licked her dry lips. ‘I found him after you left me in London. His last employer had left England and he needed work. I could hardly ride through England as an unescorted woman. He was a good worker and he saw to my needs. I will be quite safe with him. Now, if you will excuse me, Tobias.’
She turned for the door but Turner stepped in front of her, barring her way.
‘You’ll not leave until the men who stole my gold are apprehended,’ Tobias said.
Agnes turned back to face him. ‘Your gold? It is not your gold.’
He narrowed his eyes, an avaricious gleam in their depths. ‘It was on my property, therefore it is my gold.’
Agnes stared at him. ‘If you extend that logic then it is Henry’s, not yours. This is not your property and it never will be, Tobias Ashby. Everything on this land is yours only by dint of Henry’s guardianship.’
Tobias’s gaze flicked to the little boy with a look in his eyes that made her blood run cold.
‘Turner. Escort Mistress Fletcher to her bedchamber and ensure she is locked in.’
Agnes stiffened as Turner took her arm. ‘You found what you were looking for, Tobias. My obligation to you is relieved. Let me go.’
Ashby shook his head. ‘Oh no. There is far more to this tale than I am hearing and I am not convinced by your pretty little tale. Take her away, Turner, and ensure that servant of hers is suitably detained as well.’