The Wicked Widow Read online

He wanted to see what was happening inside.

  If there was anyone hiding there, they would be frightened at his finding them.

  The Priest’s Hole was illuminated by one of the special oil lamps he had himself placed at the openings from the various rooms in The Castle.

  By its light he could see the two people lying on the bed.

  It was not hard to recognise the girl he had known as ‘Miss Taylor’ with her golden hair glinting in the light from the lantern.

  She had her head on one of the pillows and was fast asleep.

  Cuddled next to her with his arm across her, as if to protect her, was the boy purporting to be ‘Gerald Blair’.

  They were both dressed in their ordinary clothes and had a blanket over their legs and the boy had taken off his coat and was in his shirtsleeves.

  The Earl stood looking at them without moving.

  It suddenly struck him how young, innocent and vulnerable they both were.

  As he looked at the girl, she did not seem much older than the boy he knew now was her brother.

  She looked very helpless and quite suddenly the Earl felt that he wanted to protect her and to save her from what had made her appear so terrified.

  He knew now that it was the dominating and determined woman who had just dined with him.

  The Earl decided that the kindest thing he could do was to let Kyla and Terry believe that he had not discovered their secret.

  He would very much hope that Lady Shenley would not return to The Castle.

  Walking very slowly so that he did not waken the two refugees, he moved silently back the way he had come.

  Picking up his candle, he reached his own room.

  Before the Earl fell asleep, he told himself that the two young people would be quite safe with their old Nanny.

  There was no likelihood, he thought, that Lady Shenley would find them here.

  Unless, unfortunately, something had been said to make her suspicious.

  *

  Kyla awoke because she heard Nanny calling for her.

  She opened her eyes and realised that the lantern was still burning brightly.

  There was, however, also a faint light coming into the Priest’s Hole from the outside.

  “Get up,” Nanny was saying. “Get up, Miss Kyla, and come back to your own room.”

  Kyla was suddenly awake.

  “Do you mean it is safe?”

  “Her Ladyship left after dinner,” Nanny said, “and I intend to tell his Lordship that you and Terry came back while they were eatin’ their meal.”

  Kyla jumped off the bed.

  “You are quite certain it is safe?”

  “It would seem very extremely strange if you had not returned,” Nanny answered. “I told his Lordship that Terry had only gone to visit his grandmother and her sister so, of course, he would have come back with you.”

  “You don’t think that Stepmama still suspects that we are here in The Castle?” Kyla said in a nervous voice.

  “She couldn’t find you and that should be enough,” Nanny replied. “But we shall have to be on our guard in case she comes back unexpectedly.”

  Kyla thought this over while Nanny bent over the bed to wake up Terry.

  “Come along,” she was saying briskly, “you can get into your own bed now and be more comfortable than you were here.”

  “I was dreaming,” Terry said sleepily. “What has happened?”

  Then he opened his eyes and said in a frightened voice,

  “Has Stepmama gone?”

  “She has really gone,” Nanny said. “Let’s all of us hope we have seen the back of her.”

  They climbed up the ladder into the cupboard.

  “Now, go to bed, both of you,” Nanny said. “I won’t wake you until breakfast is on the table.”

  Terry yawned.

  “I am very sleepy,” he confirmed.

  “I will come and undress you,” Nanny answered.

  She was just going into his room when Kyla gave a little cry.

  “I have just thought of something, Nanny,” she said.

  “What is it?” Nanny asked. She was busy unbuttoning Terry’s shirt.

  “We must not go out while Stepmama is still in the vicinity,” Kyla said. “She might see us and then we should be lost.”

  “That’s true,” Nanny replied as if she had just thought of it herself.

  “I know what we can do,” Kyla said. “We will get Bill, our highwayman, to find out for us where she is and if she has gone back to London. I know he would do it for us.”

  “How are you going to get hold of him?” Nanny asked.

  Kyla told her how Bill had told them to put something red on the Magic Oak in the Park.

  “And then he will meet me there when it is dark,” she told her.

  “That sounds a bit of common sense to me,” Nanny remarked.

  Kyla thought that it was more than that.

  It was the one way for them to know that it was safe to go riding or even to play in the garden.

  When she went to her room, she told herself that she must be very careful not to take any risks.

  She was quite certain that, if her stepmother had them back into her clutches, there would be no escape.

  The Earl actually was not surprised when only Jane joined him to go riding.

  “Gerald is still asleep” Jane said. “Nanny says that yesterday was too much for him.”

  “What about Miss Taylor?” the Earl asked.

  “She said that she had a bad headache and I was to ask you to excuse her from riding with us.”

  The Earl knew the real reason for the non-appearance of Miss Taylor and the boy who was called ‘Gerald’.

  He said nothing but merely took Jane with him.

  They rode into the paddock and through the woods to the flat lands.

  She enjoyed every moment of her ride.

  When they had returned to The Castle, she thanked him very prettily for letting her ride with him.

  “You are very kind, Uncle Rollo,” she said, “and I love you nearly as much as I love Papa.”

  “If you are writing to your father this week,” the Earl said, “tell him he must be very proud of how well you ride. You must also tell him that you are learning a lot with your new Governess.”

  “We have had only one lesson,” Jane said, “and it was Arithmetic, so I did not like it.”

  “What do you like?” the Earl enquired.

  “I like hearing the stories Miss Taylor tells me and Nanny tells me some too and they are exciting.”

  Jane went back into The Castle and the Earl was just leaving the stables when he saw someone coming towards him.

  He gave an exclamation of delight.

  It was Charles Sinclair, who had arrived, he thought, just when he needed him.

  “I thought you would be pleased to see me,” Charles announced. “I have come here at breakneck speed. I slept only for a very short time at a very uncomfortable Posting inn.”

  “Why did you not go to Carstairs, where I always stay?” the Earl enquired. “You know James would have been delighted to have you.”

  “I know that,” Charles replied. “But it would have taken a great deal longer. I had the idea that you needed me urgently, although I don’t know why.”

  The Earl smiled.

  It was a kind of instinct that they had had about each other during the War and which still lingered on in Peace.

  When they were back in London, he only had to think about Charles to bring him from his lodgings to Berkeley Square.

  So there was really no need to send a groom with a note.

  “Yes, I do want you, Charles,” he said. “And I have something to tell you that I think you will find really interesting.”

  He took Charles into the study.

  While he was having some coffee, which he had asked for when he arrived, the Earl told him about Lady Shenley.

  Charles Sinclair listened attentively.

 
And then he said,

  “I have heard quite a lot about that woman. She has quite a bad reputation amongst the Dowagers and is, I think, living with a very unpleasant man called ‘Hunter’.”

  “I think I know him,” the Earl said. “He is a bad lot. On one occasion he was accused of cheating at cards.”

  “I should imagine that he cheats at a great number of things,” Charles replied. “Now that I think about it, I did hear that several people thought it strange that Lord Shenley died for some reason the doctors could not diagnose while he was still a comparatively young man.”

  The Earl thought for a moment and then he said,

  “If Lady Shenley wanted to get rid of her husband to marry Hunter, why should she be so concerned about her stepchildren?”

  ‘Hunter has no money. Not a penny,” Charles replied. “And I imagine that what Shenley had is all left to his son.”

  The Earl frowned.

  “It still does not seem to make sense to me,” he said. “You would have thought that if they had run away, Lady Shenley would have been glad that they were off her hands.”

  “Why do you not face the girl with the truth and then ask for an explanation?” Charles enquired.

  “Because she is already very frightened,” the Earl answered, “and if she thinks that I am over-inquisitive or finding fault, she and the boy might run away from here. At least they are safe here with their dear old Nanny.”

  “I see your reasoning,” Charles replied, “in which case we must just play it off the cuff.”

  “That is what I thought,” the Earl agreed.

  *

  Kyla slipped down the drive when the servants were busy in the kitchen and the pantry and the Earl was having luncheon with his friend.

  She told Nanny that she would be back before anybody would even notice that she had left The Castle.

  She reached the Magic Oak and was relieved to see that there was no one about.

  She wondered if there were many more emblems added to those which had been already hanging from the bough.

  As she looked round the huge tree, she gave a gasp.

  On one of the most conspicuous boughs there was a red handkerchief.

  And she knew at once that it must have been put there by Bill.

  There was therefore no need to use the red ribbon that she had brought, which Nanny had found for her in one of the nursery drawers.

  He will be here as soon as it is dark, she told herself and hurried back to The Castle.

  Because she was worried and anxious as to why Bill should want her, Kyla felt that the hours went by very slowly.

  The Earl and his friend came up to the nursery after tea.

  Although the Earl introduced her to Mr. Sinclair, he spent most of the time talking to Jane and Terry.

  Kyla had no idea that the real reason for the visit was for Charles Sinclair to see her.

  She would certainly have been embarrassed if she had heard Charles say as the two men went downstairs,

  “Good Heavens, Rollo, the girl is a beauty! I suppose because she has been in mourning for her father she has not yet burst into the Social world. She will certainly create a sensation when she does!”

  “I think she has a very unusual face,” the Earl replied, “and that she rides better than any woman I have ever seen.”

  “Well, I should imagine that her stepmother is very jealous of her,” Charles remarked, “if nothing else.”

  The Earl did not answer.

  He found himself feeling sure that it was something more than that, yet he could not put a name to it.

  Because they were always content to be together, the two men sat and talked in the study before dinner.

  They went into the dining room and they were laughing.

  When the meal was finished, they went back into the study and the Earl suggested,

  “Would you like a game of piquet or backgammon?”

  “I think I would rather talk to you,” Charles said. “I missed our conversations when you were in Paris and I have still some amusing gossip to tell you about our friends.”

  The Earl laughed.

  “Well, go ahead. Here is a glass of old brandy to loosen your tongue.”

  He handed a glass to Charles as he spoke and took one himself.

  As he sat down in a comfortable chair, the door opened and to his surprise Miss Taylor came in without being announced.

  She closed the door behind her.

  Then, as the two men rose to their feet, she looked at the Earl and said,

  “Please, my Lord, can I talk to you?”

  “Of course,” the Earl answered. “Anything you have to say can be said in front of my friend, Charles Sinclair, whom I would trust with my life, if necessary, as I have done since the War.”

  Kyla came a little nearer to them both.

  Then she said, looking at the Earl,

  “If I tell you the truth, the whole truth, will you promise to believe me?”

  The Earl looked at her and replied very quietly,

  “I promise I will believe everything you tell me.”

  *

  Kyla had gone to the Magic Oak earlier than Nanny had thought sensible.

  “It’s only just nine o’clock,” she said, “and I doubt if that highwayman’ll be waitin’ for you till it’s really dark.”

  “I feel that he has something urgent to tell me” Kyla said. “I think he is somewhere in the woods on the other side of the drive”

  Nanny did not argue, she merely lent Kyla a cape made in a dark material, which would make her less conspicuous.

  Kyla slipped out of the house by a side door and she hurried down the drive, keeping near to the bushes.

  The sun had already sunk and the first evening stars were coming out in the sky.

  She hurried along hoping that no one would notice her.

  If they did, she hoped that they would think she was just a girl returning to the village.

  She reached the Magic Oak and stood gazing at the red handkerchief.

  It was still tied round the bough.

  It was then that she heard a whistle from the other side of the drive and knew who it was.

  She hurried from the tree.

  Pushing her way through several bushes, she then found Bill seated on Samson among the tall trees.

  When he saw her, he dismounted and tied the reins as he had done when they had first met.

  As he moved towards Kyla, she said,

  “Oh, Bill, I am so pleased to see you. I came to the tree this afternoon to put a red ribbon on it, hoping that you would see it, and then I saw yours.”

  “I were afraid you’d forgotten our arrangement,” Bill said.

  “No, of course, I had not,” Kyla answered.

  Then she looked up at him and said,

  “What has happened? What have you to tell me?”

  “Bad news!” Bill replied.

  There was a fallen tree lying beside them and he sat down on its trunk.

  “Now come and listen to what I’ve to tell you,” he ordered.

  Kyla sat down next to him and, as she did so, she said,

  “I have a feeling you know that my stepmother is in the vicinity.”

  “I knows about ’er,” Bill said. “And that’s what I ’as to tell you.”

  Kyla clasped her hands together.

  “This is just what I wanted you to find out,” she said.

  “I finds out right enough,” Bill answered, “but I’m afraid it’ll frighten you.”

  “Tell me, tell me what ‒ you have discovered,” Kyla pleaded.

  Bill told her that not far from The Castle there was an inn where the highwaymen like himself knew that it was safe to go.

  “I were in there last night,” he said, “’avin’ a wee bite to eat, ’cos I’ve been fortunate in gettin’ the money to pay for it.”

  “Oh, Bill, do be very careful!” Kyla said involuntarily. “I am so frightened that someone might capture or kill
you.”

  “I’ll be careful,” Bill said, “not only of the gentry as I wishes to rob, but of me own kind, so to speak.”

  Kyla looked at him questioningly and he explained,

  “There’s ’ighwaymen and ’ighwaymen, and some of them be scum, as I’m ashamed to be connected with.”

  He then went on to tell Kyla how, when he was at the inn, three highwaymen, whom he disliked, came in.

  “I ’ears them comin’,” he said, “and knows by their voices who they be, so I tips me ’at over me nose and pretends to be asleep.”

  “And they were not suspicious that you were awake?” Kyla asked.

  Bill shook his head.

  “They goes to the other end of the room and talks low but I ’ears what they be saying.”

  “What were they saying?”

  “They says as ’ow Black Jack, ’e were the worst of them ’ad been approached by a woman called Lady Shenley, who ’as a stepdaughter called ‘Kyla’ and also a stepson called ‘Terry’.”

  Kyla gave a little gasp and Bill went on,

  “I knows who they were talkin’ about and I made sure I didn’t miss a single word.”

  “What did they say?” Kyla asked in a frightened voice.

  “This Lady who be your Stepmama then tells Black Jack to snatch you away from ’Is Lordship when you be out ridin’ with ’im.”

  Kyla drew in her breath, but she did not want to interrupt and so Bill carried on,

  “’Er says ’er’ll pay ’im five ’undred pounds for the boy and a thousand if ’e be killed in a struggle.”

  Kyla gave a cry.

  “Oh, no, Bill!” she exclaimed.

  “That be what Black Jack says and ’e adds, ‘I told the woman we’re not takin’ any risks of ’anging on the gibbet, but a thousand pound be a thousand pound’.”

  “What did the other men say?” Kyla asked in a whisper.

  “Jack tell them and the Lady says ’er’ll give three ’undred pounds for you and there be no reason for them to injure you in any way and they agreed that three ’undred pound be a lot of money.”

  He began to explain exactly how they had planned it.

  Apparently Lady Shenley’s coachman had learnt from one of the servants that the Earl had taken Jane, the boy and their Governess out riding early in the morning.

  “They’ll be waitin’ in the woods outside the flat lands,” Bill said. “They’ll take the Earl by surprise knowing that ’e won’t be armed. There’ll be nothin’ ’e can do when they takes you away with them.”