Imogen Robertson - Island of Bones

‘It looks so old,’ he said. ‘We could climb the tower, if you like, before we go back. You can see the lake from there.’

‘That would please me,’ she said, ‘but Stephen, I am not going back.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘I wish to leave this place as soon as I might,’ she said. ‘I am with child. I want to go away somewhere. I will say I am a widow, and have my baby. I learned many things when I was at the convent; afterwards I shall go to some small town and teach the daughters of the gentry.’

‘But you told Casper you have no money!’ He blushed. ‘I was near the camp when you came to talk to Casper. I haven’t said anything.’

She looked a little shocked for a moment, then squeezed his hand. ‘No matter, Stephen. Mr Sturgess knows my secret, I think. He came to see me this morning and was very kind. He said he knew I wished to carry something precious away from here and wished to help me. He has offered me money to slip away quietly. I think he brings it from someone less kind who wants me away from here. I am more easily bought off than my father.’

‘I don’t understand.’

She continued as if he had not spoken. ‘I am to meet Mr Sturgess here in a little while. He will have a carriage waiting nearby. I shall disappear. It is for the best.’

Stephen did not like the thought of Sophia leaving, for some reason. ‘But what of your father? Don’t you want to see him buried?’

She put her free hand to her eyes and wiped something from them. ‘He was not a good father. I must take this chance to get away. It is too painful to remain here.’

‘But why?’ He tugged on her hand.

‘Oh Stephen, it is difficult.’ She knelt down beside him and brushed his hair from his forehead. ‘You will try to be a good man, won’t you?’

He nodded, frustrated and unhappy. She stood again and said more brightly, ‘Let us climb the tower and we shall look at the lake. Then perhaps you should go home.’

He began to lead her to where the spiral staircase began its old climb through the tower walls. He sighed. ‘It is quite difficult to be a good man, if no one ever explains anything and just cries all the time.’ He thrust his hands into his pockets. ‘I shall wait with you. No one will worry about me for an age yet. Mr Quince knows where we are, and you should have a friend to say goodbye to you.’

Her note written and Ham dispatched, Harriet had retreated to the kitchen to let Mrs Briggs’s cook feed her, then realising her presence was making the woman nervous she returned to the study and sat drumming her fingers on Sturgess’s desk and looking about her. Tucked under the desk she saw the butt of a pistol and hissed between her teeth as she bent down to retrieve it. It was a Light Dragoon pistol, impossible to shoot accurately with such a weapon, but at close range it was devastating. Crowther had been lucky beyond belief. She felt herself flush with irritation. How could he have been so foolish as to not see what Sturgess was about? She laid the gun on the table top. It was a fine example and well cared for. But then had not Hudson said Sturgess had had military experience in one of his former lives?

She stood and looked into the open drawer of the dresser behind her. The drawer was very deep. There was the case for the gun, and the powder and ball. He must have been very quick to load it and prime the pan without Crowther noticing, but then she had served long enough at her husband’s side to see such weapons loaded and fired a hundred times. She would have recognised the necessary movements. Crowther, it was likely, was less familiar than she with such guns. The thought made her smile.

There was a knock at the door. She looked up, expecting to see one of the lawyers or servants, but instead saw Miss Scales hovering in the entrance with Ham beside her. Harriet felt a sudden cold dread in her stomach and her smile disappeared.

‘Mrs Westerman, Sophia is missing.’

‘Good God!’ Harriet said, emerging from behind the desk. ‘When? Did she take anything with her? Tell me all.’

Miss Scales was obviously distressed, but she answered calmly. ‘She told me she wished to go for a walk while I was reading to Papa, late afternoon that must have been. I thought she must have returned and gone straight to bed, but when I went to her room after reading your note, it was empty. She had taken some clothes, I think, but not more than she could easily carry. It is difficult to say. I think she had a small travelling bag, and I cannot find it now but I may be mistaken.’

Harriet began to pace the room. ‘Can we know what direction she took?’

‘We saw some parishioners of my father’s along the way and enquired. Miranda Dent is sure she saw her walking towards Silverside.’

‘Alone?’ Miss Scales nodded, and Harriet tried to reason herself out of her dread. No doubt Fraulein Hurst had regretted turning Felix away, and meant to try her luck at Silverside again. However unpleasant the Vizegrafin might be, Sophia would be safe there. Surely Sturgess would not make some attempt on her now, with the village ready to chase him down and his secrets exposed. He must be thinking only of escape.

But still. . ‘I am sure she will come to no harm, Miss Scales, but perhaps Ham, we should go and find her there?’ The huge coachman nodded. ‘Miss Scales, may I ask something of you?’

‘Of course, my dear. Anything at all.’

‘Would you be so kind as to take charge of Crowther’s nursing until I or Casper return? Lottie is with him at the moment but when she leaves, I would be easier knowing he is in your care. He may develop a fever yet and should be watched.’

Miss Scales nodded and Harriet walked briskly into the hall and crossed it to reach the library. The circle of male faces looked up at her.

‘Gentlemen,’ she said with a nod. ‘Felix — a word with you, please.’

He shot to his feet and joined her. ‘Mrs Westerman, I have been kicking my heels for hours! I don’t understand what is happening at all. Why did Sturgess shoot my uncle?’

She kept her voice very low as she replied. ‘There is a chance that your wife is in some danger. She has left the vicarage and was seen walking in the direction of Silverside. Will you come with me to find her? I shall explain on the way, as best I can.’ He did not manage to speak, but he nodded at least. ‘Good.’

Harriet returned to the other room to collect her cloak and saw the pistol on the desk. She hesitated for a moment before picking it up and gathering ball and powder from the drawer, and re-attaching the ramrod to the barrel. Heavy as it was, she had no difficulty concealing it in the folds of her cloak. She did not want to spend the ride to Silverside arguing with Felix about the niceties of females arming themselves with such weapons.

As the darkness around them became complete Sophia tried to persuade Stephen to leave her to wait alone, but he remained adamant. He had a certain streak of his mother’s stubbornness under his gentle ways. He had decided it was right to remain at Sophia’s side and he would not be moved. Eventually she gave up trying to send him off and instead told him stories from the convent. Fairytales from the forests of Germany and Austria, folksongs that tricked his tongue and made him laugh. In turn he told her the stories he had learned at his mother’s knee of her adventures as wife of Captain Westerman. Sophia was eager to hear all that he could tell, and as the landscape disappeared into darkness the time passed quickly. Then they heard voices below them. Stephen jogged to the edge of the tower and leaned over the edge. Deep in darkness below them he could see a lantern, and peering up at him the face of Mr Sturgess. He was with two other men but they were all in shadow. He called out and waved.