‘Do you wish me to go on?’ he asked a silenced Scott. ‘Shall I tell how the witness saw you stand your wife at the edge of the river and then turn away to fasten your bootlace? As you turned away, you pushed her into the water.’
Dolly gave a sharp scream. ‘I knew you’d be found out! I said that somebody would see. It wasn’t me,’ she urged Ralph. ‘It was his idea.’
‘Be quiet,’ Scott shouted again and raised his hand to her. ‘Stupid woman!’ he sneered and asked, ‘So why didn’t this witness come forward before?’
‘Too frightened!’ Ralph said. ‘But a priest was informed, and—’ He held up his hand as he saw the derision on Scott’s face. ‘Yes, I know that a priest cannot divulge details from a confessional, but the police will take note of it.’ He gave a wintry smile. ‘They will only have to look at your bank accounts to know that you only ever marry ladies with property. I expect you have some other lady waiting in the wings?’
Dolly looked at him sharply as he made this remark and then lunged towards Scott. ‘You said,’ she shrieked, ‘you said there would be no more! I’ve waited all these years for you.’
‘I do but jest, Mrs West,’ Ralph assured her with considerable irony. ‘He thought he had found a long-lost son to support him instead.’
Dolly stood with her mouth open as she realized her blunder and then staggered as Scott hit her across the face.
Ralph rushed to seize him but as he grabbed his arm there came a sharp rap on the front door. They all started, Harriet and Amelia both clutched their throats and Scott loosened his grip on Dolly.
‘Probably the constables.’ Ralph cast a concerned glance towards Amelia. ‘Pehaps I’d better go.’
‘I’ll go,’ Amelia whispered. ‘Scott is not to be trusted.’
Which he wasn’t, for as soon as the door was heard to be unbolted, Scott tore out of Ralph’s grasp and out of the room and through the front door, knocking Amelia to the ground and almost unhorsing the rider who waited outside. Dolly ran screaming after him, shouting that she wasn’t going to be blamed, and in the houses across the narrow street curtains were drawn back and faces peered from windows in an attempt to see what was happening outside.
‘Amelia?’ Ralph knelt beside her. ‘Are you hurt?’ He raised her to a sitting position.
‘Ooh,’ she groaned. ‘I banged my head on the wall. Did he get away? Who is it at the door?’
‘Your servant, Miss Amelia!’ Jack leant down from his mount and looked in through the open
door. ‘What’s happening, Ralph? I can’t leave you for a minute but you’re in trouble. Who was that? Not a thief?’ He gathered up the reins. ‘I’ll go after him!’
‘No. Don’t! It was Scott. He thought it was the constables come for him. Come inside and I’ll explain.’
Jack looped the reins to a ring in the wall and followed Ralph who assisted a shaky Amelia back into the parlour. Harriet put her hands to her face and started to weep. ‘Such a dreadful man,’ she cried. ‘Did he really do those terrible things? Will he come to trial? Is the witness reliable? How did you find out?’
Ralph and Amelia exchanged a glance. ‘I doubt if it would come to a trial, Harriet,’ Ralph said. ‘Amelia, could you – are you feeling all right?’
‘Yes.’ Amelia turned to go out of the parlour. ‘I’ll fetch the witness, if she’s still here and hasn’t run off in fright.’
She found Moira still cowering behind the kitchen door and after being persuaded that the villain had indeed gone out into the night, she clutched Amelia’s skirt and followed her back into the parlour.
‘Here she is,’ Amelia gently pushed the trembling girl forward. ‘Here’s your witness.’
Moira looked up at them all with wide blue eyes. ‘I swear to God on my mother’s name,’ she whispered, ‘that what I said was true. I saw that man push the poor lady into the water.’
‘But she’s only a child,’ Harriet breathed. ‘She couldn’t give evidence.’
‘She could give it,’ Ralph said. ‘She could be called to the stand. But it wouldn’t be enough.’
‘Tell Miss Harriet what you saw, Moira,’ Amelia said gently. ‘Just as you told Mr Hawkins and me. You needn’t be afraid.’
‘I’d been to the market, miss,’ she said nervously. ‘They sell stuff off cheap at the end of the day, and I took a short cut home by the river, and then,’ she glanced across at Jack and Ralph and hung her head. ‘And then,’ she said so softly that they had to strain to hear her, ‘I had a call of nature, miss. I just couldn’t wait so I went into the bushes. I was just – I was just straightening meself up, when I happened to see the three of them walking by the water, and it was the way they were holding up the lady in the middle that made me look again.
‘I thought, glory be to God, it’s a bit early in the evening to be on the bottle, especially for a lady, though I knows as there’s some who couldn’t be called proper ladies, have a drop quite early.’
She took a breath. ‘But I could see by the look of their clothes that they were proper ladies, and he a gentleman all right. And then I saw it as I told Miss Amelia and Mr Hawkins, and I never want to see such a thing again for I didn’t know what to do! And then after a few minutes, he, that man, started running up and down and shouting for help, and he ran up the grass
towards the bushes and I was so scared he would see me and kill me, so I crouched down again, and then some people came and I saw another man jump in the river to fish her out.’
She started to tremble and Amelia drew her to a chair and sat her down. ‘There’s no need to worry about it any more,’ she assured her. ‘They’ve gone now.’
‘Will I have to go to the police, sir?’ Moira implored Ralph. ‘I’d rather not. They’ll not believe a poor little Irish girl.’
Jack looked at her with some sympathy and shook his head, and Ralph, interpreting his thoughts, knew that he and Moira were right. ‘No, I think not,’ he said softly. ‘But I rather feel that we have seen the last of Scott and his friend Mrs West.’
‘But the constables?’ Harriet asked. ‘You’d sent for them. You thought they were at the door!’
Ralph looked sombre. ‘I regret that I have told a few lies, Harriet. In this respect I am like Scott. I did not send for the constables. There was no time and what could we have told them?’
‘But Scott believed you, Ralph, therefore the lie justified the outcome.’ Amelia had a catch in her voice as she spoke. ‘And you are not at all like him! How could you be? He has had no influence on your life.’
They all remained silent as they mulled over the evening’s events, then Ralph looked up. ‘Jack,’ he said suddenly. ‘What are you doing
here? I wasn’t expecting you, though your arrival was timely!’
Jack avoided Ralph’s eye and looked down at his boots. ‘I needed to talk to you,’ he murmured. ‘Something important to discuss. I borrowed a horse from Captain Linton’s stable.’
‘Something important?’ Ralph raised his eyebrows.
‘It seemed so at the time. I went to the inn, but you weren’t there, so I came to Miss Harriet’s.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with my sister?’ Harriet asked anxiously.
‘I saw Miss Fielding only briefly,’ he said. ‘But she seemed in good health. This is a matter which concerns only my friend Ralph and me.’ He smiled reassuringly. ‘Do not worry yourself, Miss Harriet.’
Ralph, puzzled, gazed hard at Jack, but there was no hint on his placid face of any anxiety which he could interpret. ‘Then we had better be going.’ He rose to his feet. ‘Sleep well, Harriet.’ He bent and kissed her cheek. ‘You too, Amelia.’ He bowed and kissed her hand and she blushed.
He turned to Moira. ‘Thank you, Moira. We shall be forever in your debt.’ He patted her cheek. ‘You’re a good brave girl.’
As they bolted the door behind the two men, Moira turned to Amelia and Harriet and breathed, ‘Sure, isn’t he the kindest, handsomest gentleman you could ever wish to meet?’
Harriet smiled and raised her eyebrows
questioningly at Amelia who turned her gaze away, then smiling answered in a pseudo-Irish voice, ‘Sure, and I think the child is right!’
Ralph, with Jack leading the horse, walked across the deserted St Sampson’s Square. In the distance they heard a church clock strike eleven. ‘So what was so important that you had to ride immediately to York?’ Ralph asked. ‘Has something happened?’
‘There have been no changes since you left the Lintons’ house,’ Jack replied quietly. ‘But I have come to a decision and I would like to discuss it with you.’
‘If you have already made the decision,’ Ralph bantered, ‘why does it need discussion?’
‘Because I need to know your feelings on the matter and I want to know if I will still have your friendship.’
Ralph stopped in his tracks. ‘We have been friends all of our lives. Why should our friendship not continue?’
Jack put his free hand on Ralph’s shoulder. ‘Because you want to marry Miss Boyle – and so do I.’
‘
MAMA! MAY I
speak to you?’ Phoebe found her mother alone in Emily Linton’s sitting room. ‘Are you expecting Mrs Linton to join you?’
Mrs Boyle looked up from the piece of embroidery on her lap. ‘No. Mrs Linton is with Captain Linton and Roger. Seemingly their son is anxious about something which he wishes to discuss with them. Come and sit down, dear. I have hardly seen you over the last few days.’
Phoebe sat down on a nearby chair and tried to compose in her head what it was she wanted to say without giving heartache to her mother, who she knew had her own private problems.
‘I understand that Mr Mungo has gone to York.’ Mrs Boyle picked up her sewing again.
‘Yes. He has something to discuss with Ralph. Mama!’ she burst out nervously. ‘Why are you now calling him Mr Mungo, when previously you used his first name?’
Mrs Boyle chose a thread of silk before
replying. ‘When we were on board ship,’ she said softly, ‘when we had cast off from the shore, it was as if we had cast off outdated values and didn’t have to conform to the rules of society in the same way. Oh, I know that essentially we did – for instance, Mr Mungo wasn’t able to dine with us, but it was easier somehow. At least,’ she added, ‘that is the way I felt then, but now – ’ she sighed. ‘I suppose we must conform.’
‘Jack dines with us here,’ Phoebe said quietly.
‘Yes, I know,’ her mother replied, ‘but the Lintons are different from any other family I know. Almost Bohemian, I suppose. And yet they are not.’
‘I have something to say to you, Mama.’ Phoebe rose from her chair and started to pace the room. ‘I need to prepare you before Jack and Ralph come back from York.’
‘Prepare me?’ Mrs Boyle said in alarm. ‘For what? What has happened?’
Phoebe came and sat beside her mother. ‘You know, Mama, that I suggested to you that Ralph was fond of me?’
‘Yes.’ Her mother frowned. ‘But I have been inclined lately to think that you had misled me.’
‘I had my reasons for wanting you to believe it,’ Phoebe admitted. ‘Though in part it was true. Ralph, I do believe, thought that he cared for me.’
‘Thought that he did? You mean that perhaps now he does not?’
Phoebe nodded. ‘That is why Jack has gone to see him. To ascertain his feelings towards me.’
‘I fail to comprehend – ’ began her mother. ‘Why should Mr Mungo – ?’
‘Because,’ Phoebe took a deep breath. ‘Because Jack cares for me as I do for him.’ She hesitated a moment to let her mother absorb what she had heard, and then said, ‘Jack will ask to speak to you, Mama. We wish to marry.’
Mrs Boyle put both her hands to her face; her needlework slithered from her lap and lay undisturbed on the floor by her feet. ‘Oh, Phoebe!’ she said in a shocked voice. ‘You don’t know what you are saying. How can you think of such a thing? Mr Mungo – he seems such a considerate, thoughtful person, how can he contemplate asking to marry you?’
‘He is a considerate person, and he loves me,’ Phoebe said patiently. ‘And I love him. I always said that I would choose the man I wanted to marry, and I have. There is no-one else.’
Mrs Boyle started to weep. ‘This is my fault,’ she cried. ‘I have been far too lenient with you. I have not guided you as I should.’ She drew in a quick sobbing breath. ‘What will your father say? He will not allow it, of course. You know how he feels about – about – ’
‘About the Aborigines? Yes, we all know Father’s views on the Aborigines, the convicts and anyone else who is downtrodden and tries to raise themselves up.’ Phoebe couldn’t help but let scorn creep into her voice. ‘But I don’t
really care what Father thinks and I intend to marry Jack anyway, if not now, then when I come of age.’
‘But you hardly know him, Phoebe. You have had only a short acquaintanceship – the ship, here at the Lintons.’ Her mother strove for every possible excuse.
‘I have known him for years, Mama,’ Phoebe said quietly. ‘He used to come with Mrs Hawkins sometimes to collect Ralph from dame school.’
She gave a smile of remembrance. ‘We used to give a secret wave to each other when no-one was looking. I think I knew even then that he was the one for me. That was’, she confessed, ‘the real reason I wanted to come to England. When I heard that Ralph was coming and that Jack was travelling with him, I knew that it was the only way that we could meet and get to know each other.’
‘But think of the consequences, Phoebe.’ Tears rushed down Mrs Boyle’s face. ‘No-one will speak to you, you will be cut entirely from society, even Mr Mungo’s family won’t accept you.’
‘I know there will be difficulties. We are both aware of that, and if people cut me then so be it, Jack is more important to me than anyone else. But you forget, Mama, that Jack’s mother has white blood, her father was an Englishman. She, at least, will accept me.’
‘I would never be able to see you! Your father would forbid it.’
Phoebe was silenced. It was true. Her father would forbid her mother to visit her. Their meetings would have to be secret, as her mother’s meetings with Meg Hawkins were secret. ‘Ralph’s mother!’ she exclaimed.
Her mother looked at her sharply. ‘What about her?’
‘We could meet there. Mrs Hawkins would be happy for us to do that.’
Mrs Boyle gazed at her daughter. ‘You know that Meg is my friend?’
‘Yes,’ Phoebe said softly. ‘I have known for a long time and Ralph knows too, but no-one else,’ she assured her.