Mary Nichols - A Dangerous Undertaking

‘It would be easy enough to find out.’

‘No, Charles, I forbid it.’

The girl looked up suddenly and met Roland’s gaze. She had clear violet eyes and very dark hair which curled over her forehead beneath the black lace which lined the cape’s hood. Her face was pale and she looked apprehensive, though not exactly frightened.

‘She seems a little lost,’ Roland said pensively. ‘Like a kitten that’s strayed from its mother.’

‘Perhaps she has. She is in mourning.’

Margaret Donnington could not hear what they were saying but she sensed they were talking about her and she felt herself blushing. She turned away in confusion. She should not have come into the building at all. It had made her the object of curiosity.

She had never in her life before been into an inn alone; it was not something a well-nurtured young lady should ever have to do and, though she was not really afraid, she was certainly nervous. She had been uncertain whether to come in at all, debating whether to enquire the way to Winterford and see if she could find someone to take her there at once, or to use some of her precious savings on a meal and a room for the night, and continue in the morning. She had written to Great-Uncle Henry advising him of her arrival, and had expected that he would send a conveyance for her, but there was no conveyance, no Uncle Henry, nothing, and if she turned up on his doorstep at this time of night there was no telling what sort of welcome she would be accorded, especially if he had not received her letter.

Until a week ago, she had not even known of his existence and she was not sure he had known of hers. She was beginning to wish she had never left London, but it was too late now; she had burned her boats. She had given up the tiny apartment she and her mother had occupied, and spent all but a guinea or two of her savings on the journey, so there was no going back. Besides, what was there to go back for? Her darling mama had died and she had no relatives in the whole world except Great-Uncle Henry Capitain, her mother’s uncle. Mother had made her promise to go to him. ‘He is family,’ she had said, that last day when not even Margaret could convince herself that her mother would get better. ‘He will not turn you away.’ She had gone on to explain that Henry Capitain lived at Winterford, a small village in the Fens, not far from Ely.

Margaret had been too concerned with making her mother’s last hours comfortable to ask questions about the unknown relative, and only after the funeral had she found herself wondering what was to become of her. There was no money, hardly enough to pay the rent they owed. Mama had been ill for some months and unable to work herself, and though Margaret had had a position with one of London’s leading milliners, which was just enough to keep them both, she had been forced to give it up to nurse her mother. Walking away from the simple grave, Margaret had been overwhelmed by grief, and not until she had returned to the tiny apartment that had been her home did she realise that she no longer had a home. The landlord had been adamant, telling her that he had not pressed for payment because of Mrs Donnington’s illness, but now the time of reckoning had arrived. He wanted the back rent and he wanted Margaret out; he had others waiting to move in who would pay more, and regularly too.

She had sold everything except her clothes and one or two pieces of inexpensive jewellery which had been her mother’s, and paid him, then taken a stage-coach to Cambridge. In Cambridge she had changed to another coach, a very heavy old-fashioned vehicle which had jolted its passengers unmercifully over the rutted tracks which went by the name of roads, making her wish she had never set out. The feeling had been heightened as the coach had taken them through the bleakest countryside she could ever have imagined. True, it was winter, not the best time to see it, and there had been a cold mist which hung over the fields and obscured everything except one or two houses which stood very close to the road. And even these signs of habitation had disappeared as night fell. In common with the other passengers, she had been glad when they’d finally turned into the yard of The White Hart, but she was still short of her destination.

She called the waiter over to her and smiled, determined not to be cowed. ‘Would you please tell me how to get to Winterford?’ she asked.

‘Winterford?’ he repeated. ‘It’s a fair step. Eight miles, I reckon. You weren’t aimin’ to go tonight, were you, mistress?’

‘Eight miles.’ Her smile faded. ‘Then is it possible to hire a vehicle to take me there?’

‘I doubt anyone would want to turn out at this time o’ night,’ he said. ‘Whereabouts do you want to go? There’s nobbut there but a fen, a church and a handful of houses. And Winterford Manor, o’ course…’ He paused, looking her up and down, wondering if anyone going to the Manor would arrive without being met, but then, his lordship was sitting on the other side of the room; he would surely have come forward if the young lady were his guest. ‘You weren’t going to the Manor, were you?’

‘No. Sedge House.’

‘There!’ His manner suddenly changed. ‘That ain’t even in Winterford. Right out on the edge of the fen, it is, miles from anywhere, and there’s many that’s thankful for that, everything considered.’ He looked at her again. She seemed on the verge of tears, not the sort of girl who normally visited that old reprobate, Henry Capitain. Sedge House guests were usually colourfully dressed, painted and be-wigged, and licentious, to say the least. ‘Are you sure you mean Sedge House, miss?’

‘Yes. Is something wrong there?’

‘No,’ he said hurriedly.

‘You haven’t answered my question. How can I get there?’

‘I should send a boy with a message in the morning and Master Capitain will send his carriage for you.’

It seemed a reasonable suggestion and Margaret resigned herself to waiting until the following day, and asked for a room for the night, something she had wanted to avoid doing. But tomorrow, perhaps, the sun might be shining and everything would look better; even her prospects might seem rosier, though she doubted it. She stood up and picked up her valise to follow the man up the stairs.

‘There!’ said Charles as she disappeared from sight. ‘Did you hear that? She is going to old Henry Capitain’s and no one with an ounce of good breeding would be going there. She is some waif he has picked up and invited to visit him. You could save her from a fate worse than death.’ He gave a cracked laugh when he realised what he had said. ‘Well, a short life but a merry one, eh?’

‘It is not a matter for jest.’

‘I am not jesting.’

‘We don’t know anything about her.’

‘We don’t need to know anything, apart from the fact that she is not already married, because that would certainly be an insurmountable obstacle.’

Roland laughed harshly. ‘And what about Susan?’

‘What about her? She is miles away in Derbyshire and she won’t come here in the middle of winter, considering the state of the roads and the fact that you have not yet issued the invitation.’ He paused, looking at Roland with his head on one side. ‘Have you?’

‘No, but are you suggesting I should keep news of my marriage a secret from the woman I love?’

‘That’s up to you, old fellow. You aren’t exactly betrothed, are you? You have not yet offered for her?’

‘No, but I believe there is an understanding…’

‘What good is an understanding to a young lady who has her heart set on a wedding-ring, not to mention babies? If my estimate of the fair sex is correct, she will not wait forever, so why not do something to hasten the day?’