In Hiding Read online

  She knew this man, whom she had once thought she loved, had been very determined to trap her into a forced marriage, but she still felt badly at leaving another human being in pain.

  But Nancy was pulling at her arm and Tamina shook herself out of her guilt.

  Her first responsibility was to get herself and Nancy away from this place.

  Hopefully one of the other servants would be sure to find Edmund soon and help him.

  “Quickly, my Lady. Oh, do hurry!”

  Tamina followed Nancy down a long tiled corridor and out through the kitchen, ignoring the startled looks of two cooks busy working at the stove.

  “We must go back into Funchal town,” said Tamina as they ran across the courtyard and out of a gate that led to an orchard. “I shall go to the Embassy immediately and tell them what has been happening.”

  “But we cannot go by the road, my Lady. That wicked man ’as an ’orse and will catch us easy as easy. Oh, I do wish my Joe was here. He’d know what to do.”

  “I fear Joe and the Earl are heading out to sea at this very moment,” grunted Tamina as they hurried through the trees.

  It was hot and humid under the leafy branches and for a second she longed for the cool sea breezes she had grown used to on board ship.

  She could not say so out loud, but she wished as fervently as Nancy that the man she loved were by her side to help her.

  Suddenly Nancy winced, stumbled and wailed as she caught her foot on a large root and turned her ankle.

  “Oohh!”

  “Nancy! Oh, what has happened? Are you all right? Can you walk?”

  Nancy fought hard to hold back the tears that were starting to brim in her eyes. The pain in her ankle was awful, but she was not going to tell Lady Tamina how bad it felt.

  She leant against a tree trunk to catch her breath.

  “I turned my ankle over. Yes, it was bad for a second, but now ’tis better. But perhaps you should go on without me, my Lady. You’ll be a sight faster alone.”

  Tamina looked shocked. She had been brought up listening and learning stories of honour and courage told to her by her father and brothers.

  She recognised she could never abandon Nancy to Edmund’s anger.

  “Nonsense!” she urged briskly, inspecting the ankle, which was swelling even as she looked. It would need a bandage of some sort.

  Without thinking twice she ripped the sleeve from her white dress, which was now sadly dirty and tied it tightly round Nancy’s foot.

  “There! That should help. Now Nancy. Lean on me and we will get along very well. Look – we are nearly at the end of the orchard. I do believe that is the cliff top in front of us. We are sure to find a path there leading down to Funchal.”

  She was right.

  Half-carrying the limping Nancy, Tamina left the shelter of the trees and came out onto the grassy cliff top.

  The humid atmosphere vanished immediately and Tamina took a deep breath of the fresh breeze blowing in from the Atlantic.

  It was early evening now and the hot sun glowing orange was dropping down through the aquamarine sky towards the far horizon.

  Tamina wondered if the Earl was standing on the deck of the Blue Diamond watching the sun set and cursing the day he had decided to employ Miss Tabitha Waites as his secretary.

  Even as she and Nancy stumbled over the short turf, Tamina could think of nothing else but the Earl.

  Even Edmund’s perfidy faded into the background of her mind.

  But suddenly her thoughts were rudely interrupted as Nancy gulped.

  “My Lady, listen, there’s an ’orse comin’! I can ’ear the ’oof beats.”

  The two girls stopped and turned.

  With a sinking heart Tamina realised that Nancy was right.

  A horseman was indeed riding at full gal op across the turf towards them. She could see the blood on his face – it was Edmund Newson!

  *

  The Earl and Joe had left the Blue Diamond seconds before it set sail on the next leg of its journey.

  The gangway had actually been lifting from the pier when the Earl raced down it, his face grim, his dark hair flying, with Joe close on his heels.

  A flying leap off the end of the gangway had landed them on the dockside, ignoring the alarmed cries and angry shouts of the sailors and workers around them.

  A handful of sovereigns were thrown at the driver of an open carriage who was waiting for customers to be taken up the steep slope to Reids Hotel.

  “Villa Mimosa, as fast as you can!” the Earl snapped in Portuguese and only wished he could have taken the reins himself. “There’s another guinea in it for you if you make this old buggy fly!”

  “You are quite certain that is where Newson said he would take his kidnapped victim?” he asked Joe.

  He could hardly speak the words.

  Tamina kidnapped!

  She was in such danger and only now could he admit to himself that he still loved her.

  Whether she was Tabitha Waites or Lady Tamina Braithwaite, she was his dearest, darling girl and he would do anything in his power to save her.

  The young valet nodded not having the breath to reply. He was terrified, clinging to the rough sides of the swaying carriage as it careered through the narrow cobbled streets of Funchal.

  He glanced sideways at the Earl’s angry dark face and felt a twinge of pity for Edmund Newson.

  He would not want to be in that gentleman’s shoes when the Earl caught up with him!

  The sun was beginning to drop down the sky when they reached the villa Mimosa. The wide iron gates were standing open and the carriage careered up the long drive, gravel flying from the horse’s hooves and ground to a halt outside the ornate front porch.

  Joe saw gold change hands once more and next the Earl was battering on the huge studded door.

  “Tamina! Tamina! Are you there? Answer me! It’s Ivan! Don’t be scared. I’ve come to fetch you.”

  But there was no reply and the door was firmly locked.

  “I know where the kitchen entrance is, my Lord.”

  “Quickly then, Joe. Lead the way.”

  But as they both hurried around the villa, he felt a growing dread creeping through him. What would they find?

  He was beginning to doubt Newson’s sanity and a madman could not be trusted.

  Tamina would surely have struggled. Would he have hurt her in some way in trying to restrain her?

  The Earl knew he would never rest again if that monster had inflicted pain on his beloved.

  A hasty word with a servant in the kitchen sent the two men running from the courtyard out through the orchard towards the cliffs beyond.

  “Why did they come this way, my Lord?” gasped Joe. “Why not ’ead for town?”

  The Earl quickened his stride.

  The servant had made it quite clear that the girls had fled from the house. And they had both looked frightened – as if all the demons of hell were after them.

  “The kitchen boy said that Newson left the house on horseback just after Lady Tamina and Nancy fled. I would expect that Lady Tamina realised he could easily catch them if they stayed on the road. She would have had her wits about her, even though she was scared.”

  Suddenly, as they hurried through the trees, the Earl stopped, bent down and picked up something caught on a low bush.

  “Look! This piece of muslin – the yellow and white pattern – I believe it has been torn from Lady Tamina’s dress.”

  The Earl raised it to his lips. He could smell the faint aroma of lavender and rose – the perfume that his beloved girl wore.

  Joe frowned.

  “I reckon they’ve used a piece of the lady’s dress as some sort of bandage, my Lord. So – one of them has been hurt in some way!”

  And with a look that said more than words ever could, they both broke into a run, heading for the cliff tops in front of them, dreading what they would find there.

  *

  Tamina stood with her arm
round Nancy as Edmund cantered up.

  There was a trickle of blood on his forehead, but it was the mad soulless glare in his eyes that frightened her the most.

  She knew that there was nowhere to run, but was determined to fight and show him she was not afraid.

  He swung out of the saddle and strode towards her.

  “So, my sweetheart, did you find my hospitality so abhorrent? I can assure you that when you have spent the weekend in my company, you will be only too delighted to be my fiancée once again.”

  Tamina’s blue eyes blazed.

  “Edmund! Have you lost your wits? Do you think you can keep me locked up like some – some slave girl? Are you living fifty years ago in the last century? This is ridiculous.”

  “You say that now, Tamina, my love, but you will think differently very soon!”

  “My Lady, ’e ’as gone mad!” whispered Nancy. “Look at ’is eyes. We ’ad a dog like that once. My old Dad ’ad to destroy it!”

  Tamina raised her head defiantly.

  “Edmund, think what you are doing. Lord Daventry will inquire as to my whereabouts. He is not the sort of man you would wish to have as your enemy.”

  Edmund laughed – and it was a cold callous laugh.

  “The Earl, your would-be rescuer, is far out to sea by now. He is of no use to you at all. Indeed he seemed to almost have a dislike for you when we met in the town earlier. What can you have done to upset him, my sweet?

  “So it is no use calling for him to help you. Anyway these book-writing aristocrats possess no backbone or courage when it is a matter of a hand-to-hand fight. They are only of use when ordinary men are in the front lines in battle, fighting and dying at their commands.”

  “What rubbish you speak, Edmund. Ivan is worth a hundred like you.”

  “Oh, it is Ivan now, is it?”

  He swayed violently and his expression grew even wilder.

  “So perhaps your innocent air is not as genuine as you would have everyone believe!”

  As Tamina groaned, the colour rushing into her face as the meaning of his insult reached her, Nancy suddenly limped forward and launched herself in a fury at Edmund.

  “You ’orrible wicked man! Speakin’ like that of ’er Ladyship. You should be ashamed of yourself!”

  She flung herself at him, her little fists battering at his chest.

  Edmund laughed and fended off her attack, then took two steps backwards as her onslaught grew fiercer.

  Nancy was only slim, but she had been born and bred in the roughest area of London and had learnt to fight on the streets as soon as she could walk.

  Edmund yelled as the young girl’s nails found his face and he roughly grabbed her arms and tried to shake her free.

  But she clung on like a terrier with a rat.

  They both staggered sideways and then with a curse Edmund flung Nancy away from him.

  “Watch out!”

  Tamina raced forward as she realised with a great rush of fear that Nancy was swaying right on the cliff edge, hundreds of feet above the jagged rocks that speared upwards out of the sea.

  Nancy tried to find her balance, but her sprained ankle gave way under her.

  Tamina clasped her hand and pulled her forwards, but as she turned, the ground crumbled under her feet.

  With the last inch of her strength she pushed Nancy to safety as she herself slid over the edge.

  And as she tried to stop herself falling, her hands scrabbling at the loose earth of the cliff, she thought she heard the sound of a struggle and the Earl’s voice calling out in despair,

  “Tamina!”

  Tamina now slid down the crumbling cliff face, screaming as she struggled to find a foothold, a handhold, something to stop her falling hundreds of feet into the sea.

  Suddenly her toes hit a thin hard ledge and there to her left was a gnarled root sticking out from the earth and mud.

  She clung to it and realised that her headlong fall had stopped.

  She gazed upwards and to her joy the Earl’s dear face appeared over the edge of the cliff.

  “Tamina! My darling girl. Oh, dear Heavens! Do not move. Not an inch.”

  “Ivan! You came back for me.”

  “Did you think I would ever leave you? This is all my fault!”

  “Oh! – ”

  Tamina gave a little cry as the root began to ease out of the mud.

  “Ivan!”

  But he had vanished.

  Tamina stood as still as she could, refusing to look down at the wicked rocks and crashing waves far below.

  Even in this time of desperation, part of her heart was singing with joy. He had called her his darling girl!

  He must have forgiven her for misleading him.

  Her feelings for him were returned!

  He loved her! Even if her life was about to end, she knew that she would know the meaning of ecstatic joy in these last few moments.

  “Tamina!”

  The Earl was back, leaning precariously over the edge. In his hands he held the bridle off Edmund’s horse, the long reins still attached.

  “Listen, dear one, I am going to lower the bridle down to you. You will need to catch it and then let go of the root and hold it with both hands.”

  “Ivan – !”

  Tamina felt a great rush of terror.

  “I know – but you must trust me. Joe and I will pull you up. It will hurt your poor arms and shoulders – I will not lie to you. But we can only do it if you trust me. Do you?”

  She stared up into the dark eyes she had come to love so much.

  The Earl’s face was now white and tense, already streaked with dirt. He had cast off his jacket and was leaning out over the edge, the leather bridle in his strong capable hands.

  “I trust you – with my life – forever!”

  And a look of great love passed wordlessly between them.

  The Earl dropped the bridle slowly down the cliff and Tamina spluttered as streams of dirt and small stones spattered onto her face.

  She could see that the end of one rein was twisted round his wrist and she guessed Joe held the other one.

  Now the bridle was two feet above her head and she realised with a sinking heart that it was as far as it would reach.

  She would need to stretch right above her head to catch it with one hand and that would mean letting go of the root that was the only support holding her upright.

  On top of the cliff Joe was lying flat out next to the Earl, gripping the end of the thin leather straps with all his might.

  “They’re a bit too short, my Lord,” he muttered desperately. “Lady Tamina will never be able to reach the bridle. No young lady could.”

  The Earl blinked and then recognised the words that came immediately to his mind as the truth.

  “Believe me, Joe. This young lady can – and will!”

  Tamina took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

  For a long moment the cliff, the swirling air and the perilous fall beneath her – all vanished.

  She was eight years old and she had followed her two big brothers, Peter and Guy, to the fast flowing river that ran through the Braithwaite estate in Devon, insisting she was old enough to play with them.

  Jeering they had made her tuck her petticoats in her bloomers and then forced her to jump from rock to rock across the deep rapids.

  One of them had always been just behind her waiting to catch her if she slipped, but it had not made the jumps any easier. And she had learnt to be brave, to take chances and to trust in those she loved.

  Now she opened her eyes, took a deep breath and gazed up into the Earl’s loving eyes.

  If this was to be her last sight on this dear earth, then she wanted nothing more.

  Letting go of the root she jumped feeling the ledge give way beneath the pressure of her feet.

  For a second she hung there, then her hands tangled in the straps of the bridle and the Earl and Joe grunted as they took the full weight on the reins.


  The leather cut cruelly into Tamina’s wrists and she bit her lip to stop crying out.

  She hung in mid air, felt both her shoes fall off and go tumbling down to the rocks below.

  Next the two men were hauling her up, up, over the edge of the cliff onto the turf and into the Earl’s strong waiting arms.

  For long minutes neither spoke.

  He cradled Tamina against his chest, kissing the red weal’s the reins had cut into her delicate wrists.

  “Edmund – ?” she mumbled.

  The Earl’s voice was harsh and cold.

  “Gone and to the devil, I do hope. He’ll never dare show his cowardly face in England again.”

  He brushed the tangled golden curls back from her face.

  “Tamina, my darling girl. I thought I had lost you! I thought my stupid pride had cost me all I hold most dear in the world.”

  He shuddered.

  “You will never know the curses I brought onto my own head when I heard about that scoundrel Newson and his wicked plans for you.

  “I should have listened when you tried to tell me what had happened to make you pretend to be someone you were not.”

  She smiled up at him – all her courage and love for him shining out of her eyes.

  “My pride caused me as much trouble as yours, Ivan. If I had not been so much concerned with my own feelings, I would have told you right away who I was. That I was running away from England and a man who had no honour.

  “But then I would never have had the chance of travelling with you and falling in love. I never stopped trusting you. As soon as I heard your voice, I knew I was safe, my Lord.”

  “No! Not my Lord. It must be Ivan and Tamina from now on.”

  He brushed his lips across her forehead.

  Tamina felt her heart swell with happiness.

  She was not aware of Joe and Nancy standing a few yards away, hand in hand, or that the brief Madeira sunset had given way to night.

  She was only aware of the Earl’s dark eyes gazing down at her, full of the passionate love she had always longed for.

  She smiled and his heart jumped at the beauty of her lips.

  Even bedraggled and dirty with scratches across her cheeks and dark bruises on her hands, she was the most glorious creature he had ever seen.

  “Are you certain you would not prefer me to be Miss Tabitha Waites? After all, that is who you fell in love with, not Lady Tamina Braithwaite!”