Historical Romance – The Best Of The Year. Кэрол Мортимер

could she have gone? For the moment he was lost, unable to think of anyone she knew in that part of the country.

      His arm was hurting quite a bit and he needed food. He would return to his lodgings and enjoy the meal his landlady had promised. After that he would make a plan of campaign. He was too impatient to sit around waiting for Hobbis’s brother to return.

      Perhaps if he wrote to her father and told him she might be in danger, he would provide a clue as to where she might have sought a refuge...yet that would take time and he was on fire to see her.

      * * *

      ‘That is the house just ahead,’ Thomas said and steadied his horses. ‘Your friend will be expecting you, ma’am, for I took the liberty of sending a groom to warn her when we reached the inn last night.’

      ‘You sent a groom?’ Madeline said. His thoughtfulness overwhelmed her and she said, ‘You must keep an account of what you spend on my behalf, Thomas. I shall find the means to repay you.’

      ‘It cost me nought but a bit of time, for I cleaned the stables in his place and he was glad to do it.’

      Madeline accepted his word, but she still felt indebted to him for he must have been tired after driving them for the past two days, and was not used to such a manual job. However, he wanted no thanks and, once again, she could only smile and think how fortunate she was to have such friends.

      She was a little apprehensive as to what her former governess would think at having three guests thrust upon her, but as the chaise drew up in the yard, the front door of the large, rambling farmhouse flew open and a woman came running out.

      ‘Miss Maddie, is it truly you?’ she cried. ‘Oh, lord above, how good it is to see you. Come in, come in to the warm, my dove—and your friends with you. My Bert is at work, but he will be as pleased as can be for me to have you stay, for he says I never stop talking of you.’

      ‘Hattie,’ Madeline said and her eyes stung with tears. ‘I am so glad to be here. May I truly stay for a while—just until I can find some employment?’

      ‘Employment—what’s this?’ asked the good woman, who was a deal plumper than she had used to be. ‘You’ll do no such thing while I have breath in my body. You have a home with me—and your friends too, though they might prefer their own cottage?’

      ‘They are not yet married, though I believe it is what they both wish for,’ Madeline said and laughed. ‘We shall stay with you for a time, but then we must find a place we can manage ourselves—and perhaps I shall find some kind of work. I might take in sewing.’

      ‘We’ll talk of that another time,’ Hattie Jenkins said. ‘Come to the fire and warm yourselves for it is cold enough to freeze and I dare say we’ll have snow before long.’

      Maddie laughed. She’d always been fond of her former governess and missed her company when she had left to marry. Their letters had been infrequent after she married for the count did not approve of her having a friend he considered below his wife in the social scale.

      ‘It is so good to see you,’ Madeline said and smiled. ‘I missed our conversations. Reading poetry together...’

      ‘I’ve had little time for poetry of late,’ Hattie said and laughed. ‘A farm kitchen is always busy and always dirty from muddy boots, my love, but I shall enjoy talking of it with you.’

      Madeline followed her into the large kitchen. Furnished with a huge dresser, the shelves of which were crammed with china, glass and pans, also a long pine table and chairs, a black cooking range, several painted cupboards and chests of drawers, it was as clean as a new pin, the red tiles on the floor polished and gleaming.

      ‘Your kitchen is spotless,’ Madeline said. ‘You must work hard to keep it so clean.’

      ‘I have some help, but Bess is away at the moment. Her mother took sick and she asked me to let her go until the good lady recovers.’

      ‘I should be glad to stand in for her,’ Sally said at once. ‘I can scrub floors and wash dishes, Mrs Jenkins. I’ll be glad to earn my keep—and Thomas will help your husband in the yard, if he would be of use.’

      ‘Well, bless you, my love,’ the kind woman said. ‘I won’t say no to a bit of a hand now and then, Sally. I shan’t take advantage, but an offer of help now and then won’t be refused.’

      ‘I can help, too,’ Madeline said, but Hattie shook her head.

      ‘Now that you won’t, my dove—leastwise, not with the rough work. We don’t want to spoil your pretty hands. I might find you a bit of sewing, if you need employment. I never find the time for it and you always did set a neat stitch.’

      ‘That is why I thought I might earn my living with my needle,’ Madeline said. ‘I must do something after all.’

      ‘But why?’ Hattie asked, looking puzzled. ‘You’ve run away from your husband, I know, for the message your groom sent me told me so—but surely you have a little money of your own? Did neither the count nor your father settle anything on you when you married?’

      ‘You do not know what happened after you left us,’ Madeline said. ‘I did not tell you when I wrote for there was nothing anyone could do—Papa lost everything to Lethbridge at the card tables and I was forced to accept him. My father made no settlement himself, for he could not, and the money Grandfather left me went to Lethbridge. It was meant to be my pin money, but my husband gave me only a few guineas when he felt like it. I do not know what happened to the capital, though I think it was put in a trust in my name.’

      ‘Cry shame on him,’ Hattie said in high disgust. ‘How could he treat you so ill? It is no wonder that you left him.’

      ‘You do not know the half of it,’ Madeline said. ‘I shall tell you later when we have a little time to talk.’

      ‘I’ll take you up to your rooms,’ Hattie said. She looked at Sally. ‘You’ll be next to your mistress—and your man can sleep over the stables for the moment. If you would care for it, you’ll find the things for making tea on the dresser. We’ll be down again by the time you’ve boiled the kettle.’

      She took Madeline by the arm and steered her from the welcoming kitchen up a wide staircase to the landing above and then led the way to the end of the right-hand passage. Opening the door, she ushered Madeline inside a neat, pretty room furnished in cool colours of blues and greens with a dash of white.

      ‘It isn’t quite what you’re used to, Maddie, but it will do until we can sort you out,’ she said. ‘So tell me why you decided to leave him. Something must have happened.’

      ‘Yes, it did,’ Madeline said and described the last scene with her husband.

      Hattie listened in silence, saying nothing, but shaking her head sorrowfully from time to time. ‘I never heard such wickedness in my life,’ she said when Madeline had finished. ‘The man deserves to be flayed alive, so he does. Any decent man would take a horsewhip to him for his treatment of you. Well, if he comes looking for you, my Bert will see him off.’

      ‘I do not think he will know where to look. I never told him where you lived, but of course my father might do so, for he may guess where I have gone.’

      ‘Surely he would not? Knowing what that man did to you he could not wish you to return to him.’

      ‘I hope that he would not, but I would rather he did not know where I am, at least until I am ready to move on.’

      ‘Is there no one to help you, Maddie?’

      She hesitated, then sighed. ‘I believed there was, but I wrote to him and he did not come. I fear he may have been wounded or killed...’ A tear ran down her cheek. ‘Otherwise...he would have come for me, I am sure.’

      ‘Well, perhaps he was prevented by some circumstance you know naught of,’ Hattie said in a practical tone. ‘Does he know where to find you?’