Blood Roots: Are the roots strong enough to save the pandemic survivors? (18 page)

At the conclusion of breakfast the following morning, Jasper announced that Cheryl was to report to the ballroom at ten o’clock. She arrived carrying both babies. She found Jasper and Virginia waiting for her, lounging on a sofa. No seat had been provided for her and she was forced to stand before them, a baby cradled in each arm.

‘Give me my son,’ Jasper commanded.

She handed over Nigel. Jasper looked down at the baby and smiled. For a split second Cheryl forgot what a tyrant he was. ‘Would you like to hold your daughter too?’ she heard herself saying.

‘No,’ he grunted. The illusion was shattered.

‘We’ve decided,’ he said, patting Virginia affectionately on the thigh, ‘that Prince Nigel will be brought up with the other royal children.’

It was the first time the term ‘royal children’ had been used at Haver. The Chatfields had always behaved as if they were royalty,
but they had never referred to themselves as such. Even Jasper’s father, who had managed a rapid transition from commoner to Lord Nigel of Haver, had not had the affront to call himself royal. Prince Nigel, it appeared, had transcended the great divide. For a split second Cheryl wondered if that made her a queen or a princess. That thought was quickly shattered too.

‘Prince Nigel will therefore come and live with Virginia and me,’ Jasper continued.

‘But he’s my baby,’ Cheryl cried. She had quickly bonded with him and considered him her own.

‘You will be his nanny — his wet nurse,’ Jasper announced. The look on Virginia’s face indicated Jasper’s decision was news to her. He had apparently made the pronouncement in response to Cheryl’s distress.

Virginia recovered quickly. ‘She can be nanny to all the royal children.’

‘A good idea,’ Jasper agreed, patting her thigh again. He turned his attention back to Cheryl. ‘You can tell Rebecca you’re replacing her as nanny.’

‘Can I bring Al …?’ Cheryl caught herself just in time. She knew she had better not let Jasper know she had named his daughter Allison. ‘Shall I bring your daughter Alexandra to the nursery too?’

‘I think you’ll have enough children to look after,’ Virginia interrupted. ‘Your sister Bridget can look after Alexandra.’

‘Alexandra needs me, she needs to be fed.’

Virginia turned to Jasper. ‘Vanessa Morgan’s still feeding her baby, she can wet nurse this … this Alexandra.’

A look of horror spread across Cheryl’s face and she opened her mouth to protest.

‘Quite right,’ Jasper said. ‘There are enough girls in the royal family already. I don’t want Prince Nigel here being swamped by females. He needs the company of brothers, not sisters.’

‘That’s right,’ Virginia agreed. This time it was her squeezing high up on Jasper’s thigh.

‘Shall I take Prince Nigel now?’ Cheryl asked, resting Allison on
her shoulder and stepping forward.

‘No, go and see Rebecca. Ask her to show you the nursery and explain the routine. I’m going to show my son the staterooms.’

‘Yes,’ Virginia said, ‘let’s show our son round his new home. Away with you,’ she said dismissively to Cheryl. ‘We’ll let you know when Prince Nigel needs his wet nurse.’

As Virginia led Jasper quickly away, Cheryl turned and walked sad-faced back to the Grey quarters.

Unlike Rebecca, she would take no pleasure in the post of nanny — even though the position carried a few perks. She would rather be looking after her own children, Ruben, Harry, Mary-Claire and baby Allison. They might not be princes and princesses, but they were her children and she loved them.

She also loved Prince Nigel.

Steven, Lee, Harry and Ruben had started work in the Punishment Room at six o’clock. They had taken only twenty minutes for breakfast as they had found the ampere-hour reading very low when they arrived after their night’s sleep.

They pedalled furiously for the rest of the morning, with one of them resting every few minutes. Somehow they managed to get the levels up by noon and were able to enjoy a full thirty-minute break with the Grey family when lunch was served in the Great Hall.

Cheryl was no longer sitting with the rest of her family. She had been promoted and was looking after the small children at the other end of the refectory table, directly in front of the dais. Prince Nigel was sleeping in his bassinet and Cheryl had her hands full attending to Virginia’s precocious six-year-old daughter Hazel, and Amy and Beatrice’s daughters Emily and Janet, both a year old. She was forever looking longingly down the table towards her own children, including baby Allison, who was being looked after by Bridget. It was a bizarre and unhappy situation.

All too soon the lunch break was over and Steven led his crew back to the Punishment Room. The needle had dropped to just above the red zone and the race was back on. He could tell the boys
were finding the work hard going. ‘We’re going to cycle around the world,’ he announced.

‘What?’

‘We’re going to cycle around the world.’

‘Don’t be daft,’ Harry said. ‘Thanks to you, we’re stuck in this prison.’

‘We’re the Four Musketeers, remember? We’re going to imagine that as we pedal these machines we’re cycling round the world. I’ve been to a lot of different countries and I’m going to tell you all about them as we go. We’ve all read books, we’ve all seen films. You’ll be surprised what’s locked away in our minds. And what we don’t know, we’ll make up. We’re going to talk about the places and imagine the people we meet along the way. And as we cycle, I’m going to educate you. I’m going to teach you everything I know.’

‘Well, that’ll take you about an hour,’ Harry laughed. ‘What are we going to do after that?’

‘You’re going to tell us everything
you
know,’ Steven retorted.

‘As long as it’s not everything he
thinks
he knows,’ Ruben quipped, rolling his eyes. ‘Otherwise we’ll be here for years.’

Lee was enthusiastic. ‘Which country are we going to first?’

‘First we’ll cycle round Britain and then we’ll head off around the Continent.’

‘I went to France before the pandemic,’ Ruben bragged.

‘You see?’ Steven said, seizing on the revelation. ‘Ruben can tell us all about France when we get there. Then I’ll tell you about Italy and Austria before we make our way through Turkey, then Asia and down to Australia and New Zealand.’

‘I can tell Harry and Ruben all about Australia and New Zealand,’ Lee boasted.

‘Exactly, and after we’ve done Australia and New Zealand we’ll cycle back to England by a different route, visiting the Pacific Islands and America on the way.’

‘I can tell them all about America, and Mexico too,’ Lee said excitedly.

Steven knew he had them. ‘First we’ll cycle round Haver Park,
and then around Sevenoaks and the surrounding villages. You can lead off, Ruben. Describe the start of our journey for us.’

‘Get in behind,’ Ruben bellowed. Steven smiled as he noticed the needles of all three cycles flicker and then climb. ‘We’re going to do a lap of Flag Court first,’ he continued, ‘and say goodbye to everyone. Look, there’s Uncle Duncan chopping turnips again …’

Harry and Ruben started laughing. Ruben told the story that Steven had already heard from Paul, but with a great deal more relish and detail.

By dinnertime, the cyclists had still not left the courtyards of Haver House. They had spent more than two hours imagining riding their bikes around the courtyards, being chased by Damian as they said goodbye to their families, wearing ruts in Jasper’s bowling green and being pursued by the overweight Greg after Harry had kicked the jack just before his perfectly weighted bowl was coming to rest against it.

There was so much laughter and whooping that Steven had to caution the boys to keep the noise down.

Shortly after returning from dinner, Steven was peering through the window, listening to Harry leading his fellow cyclists along the gravel tracks of Haver Park, when he saw the door leading to the Great Hall open, and Damian begin to saunter across Flag Court towards the Punishment Room.

‘Heads down boys, Damian’s coming. Quit the commentary for a few minutes, Harry.’

When Damian arrived, he found Steven had locked the door from the inside. He peered in through the hatch

‘Open the door!’ Damian ordered.

‘Sorry Sir Damian — can’t do that,’ Steven replied.

‘I said, open this door.’

‘I’m sorry, Sir Damian. His Lordship’s orders, I’m afraid.’

‘I need young Lee there, to help me in the stables.’

Harry glanced at Ruben.

‘I’m sorry, Sir Damian,’ Steven said yet again. ‘His Lordship was
very precise. The door is to be kept locked and the boys and I are not to leave the Punishment Room under any circumstances, except for meals.’ Damian was looking at Steven suspiciously. ‘Of course, if you would like to make your request to His Lordship personally I am sure he will reconsider.’ He tried hard to suppress any sarcasm in his voice. ‘Or shall I tell him you asked, if he calls by?’

‘You only do what I tell you to do,’ Damian said — far too quickly.

Steven finished the evening shift tired but elated. Damian now knew exactly where he stood. There was no way Steven was going to allow him to be alone with any of the young boys. His ruse had worked.

Jasper might have imprisoned their bodies, but he hadn’t imprisoned their minds. Steven didn’t know how, and he didn’t know when, but he knew that one day the physical imprisonment would end. In the meantime, he would find out as much as he could about what had gone on at Haver while he had been away, and about the new dynamics between the different families.

He just wished his father and Fergus were with him, to help size up the situation and prepare a plan. He felt vulnerable. In making his proposal to Jasper he had promised he would not make trouble and that he would not try to escape from Haver. He had no doubt that if he put a foot wrong, Jasper, despite his revulsion of his brother’s past behaviour, would take his revenge in the most terrible manner possible.

Only Paul and Penny were still up when Steven and the boys reached the Grey quarters. Cheryl was sleeping in the nursery with the royal children. Ruben and Harry were so busy telling their grandfather about their cycling adventures that they hardly seemed to miss their mother.

‘It won’t be too long before I follow,’ Steven promised as Penny hurried Lee, the boys, and herself off to bed.

As soon as the others had left, Paul poured Steven and himself a mug of tea and settled back into his armchair. Steven sat down opposite.

‘So the Chatfields were now armed and taking pot shots at you,’
he said, recalling his uncle’s final words from the night before.

‘It was scary, I tell you. They had a go at shooting the party tending the cattle on the farm. Fortunately we had converted the cart Nigel used for executions into a mobile fort and everyone managed to take cover. A few days later, they took a shot at Bridget when she was on sentry duty on the West Tower.’

‘It must have been a difficult time.’

‘It certainly was. We started to wonder how Haver could continue to function. Then a strange thing happened. The problems ceased. We never heard another gunshot. There was no evidence of the Chatfield boys being in the park — no more cattle were stolen or deer killed. It was as if they had vanished into thin air. Duncan and I were convinced they’d fallen ill and died.’

‘So you relaxed your guard?’

‘No! Diana wouldn’t let us — she insisted we maintain the sentry on the West Tower day and night. The staterooms were alarmed at night and we had additional armed guards on duty during the day. In fact, there were so many people engaged on defence it was difficult to get all the work done.’

‘So given all those precautions, how did the Chatfield boys do it?’

‘Search me,’ Paul sighed, as he put his empty mug on the table. ‘One morning I woke up and found a gun pointing at my head.’

‘Jasper?’

‘No, Virginia. Jasper had got into the King’s Room and taken Diana prisoner. God knows how he had got there without setting the alarm off.’

‘Virginia would have told him about the alarm, surely?’

‘No, I’m sure she never knew the location of the sensors. Neither she nor her daughters visited the staterooms at the time I installed them. It’s like the keys. Virginia claims she didn’t know about them either. There’s no reason she should lie. It would be more like her to boast about helping Jasper if she had. She seems as keen to know who gave him the information about the alarm as we are.

‘Anyway, getting to Diana was the key to their attack. She held the key to the armoury. Jasper took Diana prisoner, Virginia had me
covered and Duncan, who was on sentry duty on the West Tower, found himself with Damian’s rifle pointing between his eyeballs.’

‘How did Damian manage that?’

‘Don’t quote me, but I’m guessing Duncan had nodded off. Next thing we knew, everyone was assembled in Flag Court with Greg standing up on the parapet with a machine gun mounted on a tripod, staring down at us. We were petrified he was going to massacre the lot of us. Then Damian ordered Duncan and me to get the axe and block and bring them into Flag Court.’

‘So they could execute Diana?’

‘Yes. They obviously wanted to make an example of her and pay her back for what she had done to their father. Jasper made her undress in front of everyone, all part of the humiliation, I suppose. Then he started berating her and poking fun at her. Suddenly she just keeled over. We all thought she’d fainted. Jasper shouted at her and kicked her. She didn’t flinch. Jasper and Damian dragged her head over the block and Damian swung the axe.

‘We’re sure she was already dead before the axe fell. Duncan noticed her slip something in her mouth as she undressed.’

‘So she cheated them?’

Paul nodded. ‘They were furious, we could tell. I half expected they’d kill someone else in retribution. I was sure Duncan and I were going to cop it. We had thrown Nigel’s body in the rubbish tip, after all. I think it was only because Jasper wanted as many servants as he could get that he didn’t kill us. As it was we were ordered to exhume Nigel’s body. Two days later he was buried beside Miles. It was the most elaborate funeral I’ve ever seen. It was fit for a king.’