Barbara Cartland - Stand and Deliver your Heart

Finally she decided that it was something that she must discuss with her father as soon as she could.

He would know if there was any Military in the vicinity.

If the worst came to the worst, they could get soldiers to turn out the intruders who were causing trouble.

‘That is what I must do,’ she mused.

But equally she knew that it would be a mistake to tell the Taylors what she was intending to do about this serious problem.

“I can see you have been very brave,” she said gently, “but at the same time it is something that cannot continue.”

“Now don’t you be doin’ anythin’ about this yourself, Miss Vanda,” Taylor said hastily. “If you do, they might ’urt thee and the General.”

“I doubt that,” Vanda answered. “They can hardly come into the village, bursting into people’s houses and beating up or murdering ordinary citizens.”

“That’s exactly what these men will do,” Taylor said stubbornly.

Vanda stared at him.

“Now you are a sensible man, Taylor,” she said, “and you know as well as I do that we cannot have rough people taking the law into their own hands in this County.”

“This lot,” Taylor remarked with the jerk of his thumb, “be above the law.”

Vanda shook her head.

“Nobody is above the law and no one has the right to interfere with or to threaten ordinary citizens ‒ ”

“You don’t understand,” Mrs. Taylor interrupted.

She looked at her husband and went on,

“You’d better tell who they be.”

“It’d be a mistake,” Taylor replied sharply.

Then he added,

“Well, as Miss Vanda knows so much, she ’ad better understand that unless she keeps ’er lips closed we’ll be in bad trouble.”

Again Vanda was staring from one to another.

She was trying to understand exactly why they were so frightened and why they were so determined that she should do nothing.

She was suddenly afraid that these men might break into the rest of the house.

Wyn Hall was so beautiful inside and she felt as if every piece of furniture and every picture and all the books in the great library belonged in some way to herself.

She had known and loved them ever since she was old enough to appreciate such exquisite possessions.

Wyn Hall had definitely become as familiar to her as her own house and she knew that, if any of it was damaged, it would break her heart.

Now she thought with horror of the miniatures that hung on the walls in the drawing room.

The portraits of the Wyns that hung on the beautifully carved stairs and the pictures in the Gallery, which had been added to by every Earl.

She clasped her hands together.

“We must protect The Hall from these terrible people,” she asserted. “Supposing they ransack the State rooms and supposing they set the whole place on fire?”

“They’ll not do that, Miss Vanda,” Taylor said, “so long as we give ’em shelter. But if we tries to then turn ’em out anythin’ might ’appen.”

“They cannot stay here indefinitely,” Vanda persisted.

“They’ll go when it suits ’em,” Taylor said. “They just want somewhere to rest and ’ide their ’aul.”

“Hide their haul?” Vanda repeated. “What do you mean by that? What can they have to hide?”

They were questions that once again seemed to leave the Taylors silent and fearful.

In fact Vanda began to think it was ridiculous. Taylor was a well-built man. Why should he be shaking in his shoes when he thought about a few riotous young men who so far had done no harm as far as she knew?

“Now what I want you to let me do,” she said in a soft voice, “is to talk to my father. You know how clever he is and he has been a soldier all his life.”

Mrs. Taylor suddenly gave a scream.

“Soldiers!” she cried. “If soldiers come here they’ll kill us. We’ll both be dead, that’s what we’ll be, Miss Vanda, and it’ll be you who’s done it.”

Vanda reached out to put her hand on Mrs. Taylor’s

“Please don’t upset yourself,” she said. “The soldiers will not come here if it frightens you, I can assure you of that, but we have to do something.”

“There be nothin’ we can do and that be the very truth,” Taylor insisted.

“Just you go away and forget us,” his wife begged. “We be all right so long as we do nothin’.”

Vanda felt as if she was up against an insurmountable obstacle.

After a moment she suggested,

“Tell me where these men come from and who they are. Surely you must know that.”

“Yes, we knows that,” Mrs. Taylor said in a whisper.

“Then tell me so that I can understand why you are so frightened,” Vanda pleaded.

She looked at Taylor.

Again he glanced over his shoulder towards the door as if he thought someone might come through it at any moment.

He then leant across the table and admitted,

“They be ’ighwaymen!”

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