The Straw Halter (13 page)

‘How did you travel?’ Daniel said.

‘By carriage, but I left it with my coachman a mile or so outside the village and walked in.’

‘I can take you back there,’ Daniel said.

‘Thank you, that would be welcome.’ Richard climbed on to the trap, Daniel flicked the reins and they set off. As they turned the corner leading out of the village they saw a woman walking in.

‘That’s Betsy’s Aunt Agnes,’ Daniel said. He drew on the reins and handed them to Richard, then hurried over to her.

‘Hello,’ he said. ‘It’s Aunt Agnes, isn’t it? I was wondering if you’ve seen Betsy this last week?’

‘I have not and I hope I never see her again. Mislaid her, have you?’ She strode away down the lane.

S
ir Richard Choicely and Daniel Forrester might seem to be unlikely companions. Yet circumstances had drawn them together. Daniel was ready to take advice from anyone who might have knowledge of his wife’s whereabouts, and Richard claimed to have seen her at the fair.

Richard Choicely wanted to find out whether she was his brother’s child and he also wished to follow up the thought expressed by his father’s late gamekeeper, namely that his brother Benjamin’s accident was in fact not an accident at all, but murder.

On top of all this he was tremendously attracted to the
beautiful
Mrs Betsy Forrester. For now however he and the farmer had one common purpose: finding out what had happened to Betsy. They pooled their knowledge of the last time she was seen by each of them.

‘Betsy does not get on well with her family,’ Daniel said, ‘so it was really a forlorn hope that she had contacted them. There are several aunts and uncles and she dislikes them all. They were cruel to her when she was a child,’ he said quickly by way of explanation. He did not say that her Aunt Agnes had told her she had a different father from the rest of the family, and that his name was Choicely.

Richard, in his turn, did not mention the likeness to the maternal side of his family, nor why he too was concerned for Betsy. They parted amicably but with a promise to let each other know when any news of Betsy came.

Back home Daniel did wonder why Sir Richard was so
interested
in Betsy when he had only seen her a couple of times at most. Was this another case of Betsy’s power over men? Or had she approached him on the possibility of her being his daughter? No, she would have told him. In any case Richard Choicely himself would surely have hinted at the possibility this afternoon if he had any idea about it.

He went out to the fields. There was a lot of work to do and these last few days he had put most of it on to Jim. For the time being he must get out there and look after his farm for everyone’s sake.

When Betsy ran from Richard Choicely at the fair she
instinctively
made for Rosa’s caravan. To her great relief both Rosa and Bill were there. ‘We are talking about moving on tomorrow, Betsy. Have you thought what you are going to do? Because you are welcome to come with us, you know.’

‘I should like that,’ Betsy replied.

‘There are a great many fairs at the moment and we shall stop for a while at the next one. If we leave in the early hours of the morning we shall arrive before it has got going and we shall have the pick of the work.’

‘I must pay you – I have the money I earned this week before they threw me out.’

‘No. You may need it later and there is plenty of room here. You pay in friendship Betsy, not in money, yes?’

Rosa’s words made sense and Betsy hugged her. ‘I will
always remember your kindness,’ she said quietly, ‘and maybe one day I will be able to repay you.’

‘There are other ways than money. To give women a voice because someone gave you a chance, never give up on that.’

Betsy had told Rosa and Bill about how she had learned to read and write when she was with Mrs Wallasey at Wren Court and a little of the devastation she had felt when that lady died. She shuddered and Rosa put her arms comfortingly around her.

They bought their sausages and eggs from old Will’s stall the night before they left.

‘We’re moving out tomorrow, Will,’ Rosa said. ‘Take care of yourself now.’

‘I will, gal. You too, mind. An’ that pretty wench you’ve befriended. Ah, not much misses my old eyes, Rosa,’ he added, noting her surprised expression.

‘Will’s an old pal,’ she told Betsy, who was waiting on the edge of the throng jostling to buy his food. ‘We look out for each other. You ever get to a fair without us, go see him. He’d never let you starve.’

They set off on their journey at three o’clock the next morning and had the road to themselves.

‘Later,’ Bill said, ‘the lanes will be blocked with carts and animals and people all travelling to the fair and we shall be there cooking our eggs and sausages, and ready to start work again.’

The road was rough and rutted, in some places more than in others, and under the trees it was just a muddy track. Bill and Rosa knew every inch of the way and the horse clopped steadily on through the moonlit night. Twice they had to cross a ford and once a narrow bridge and Betsy found she was enjoying this quiet, unusual journey. She and Rosa talked some of the time
and were silent at others, in a warm companionable silence which brought a modicum of peace into her heart. That and the calmness of the night, only punctuated by the calls and
movement
of wildlife gave her the hope that she would find steady work to go to when the fair was over.

They were amongst the first to arrive, having stopped in a clearing a mile or two from the site and partaken of a hearty breakfast and fed and watered Patch, their horse.

The three of them soon found work in different areas of the field. Betsy was kept busy all morning and only once, when she was washing down a cow which looked so remarkably like Sadie, did she find her eyes filling with tears as she remembered the night they had tried to save her.

Blinking them away she said softly to this one, ‘They say you all look alike, but you don’t, you know.’ The animal gazed back at her, its velvety brown eyes sad.

She was so tired by the end of the day she fell asleep almost as soon as she climbed into her bed. The caravan was
comfortable
and during the next few days Betsy thanked God each night for her friends and her surroundings.

‘If it hadn’t been for you two I might have been wandering from place to place with no money to buy food and no shelter and safety,’ she said.

‘You would have found something, Betsy, but we are glad to have you with us until you and your Daniel are back together again.’

Betsy turned from the little stove where she was on cooking duty. ‘That’s not going to happen. It was no ordinary quarrel we had, Rosa.’ She took a deep breath and said, as steadily as she could manage, ‘There is something I haven’t told you. Daniel bought me in the market three years ago.’

There, it was out. It was the first time she had told anyone how she came to be Daniel’s wife, the first time she had said aloud those dreaded words.

‘He bought me as he would a cow or sheep,’ she added, her voice catching on a sob.

Rosa walked over and laid an arm round her shoulders. ‘But you fell in love with each other later. I can see you did. That is the important part, not the way it began. Women will change all that given time, but love will go on for ever. You love Daniel, and although I have not met him, from all you’ve told me he loves you.’

‘So much that he would not throw away the straw halter he led me from the market place with.’ Turning into Rosa’s arms she sobbed bitterly.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said as her crying subsided, ‘I ran because he was going to sell me again.’ Shivering now at the memory of seeing him through the window, holding the straw halter, she lifted her head high and said with as strong a voice as she could muster, ‘He thought I was unfaithful. I wasn’t. Someone tricked me and Daniel believed him.’

Reaching up she touched her locket, hidden beneath her dress now in case a thief in the markets tried to steal it if it showed.

Rosa had seen it earlier and said softly, ‘Daniel gave you the locket, didn’t he?’

Betsy nodded, ‘I would starve rather than part with it.’

‘We won’t let you starve,’ Rosa said in an attempt to lighten her friend’s thoughts, ‘and we can protect you from other men, although from what I’ve seen you do it well enough yourself. Come on, we’d better get this meal ready, don’t you think?’

Sir Richard Choicely consciously tried to think about the girl he was to marry in a few months time. He had known Lily
Aston-Jenkins
for two years now, and he liked her very much. Was fond of her even, but he knew he didn’t love her. Not as he had loved his first wife. When she died a great chasm opened in his life.

Lily was an only child and moved in the same circles as he did. The family originally came from Devon and moved to the Kent/Sussex borders two and a half years previously.

Richard’s eldest son would one day inherit the title and the manor and he realized that with this new marriage he could have other children. He and Lily had talked about finances and were in agreement over all of it.

‘I am twenty years older than you but everyone will be provided for in my will,’ he had told her not so long ago. ‘My two sons and any children we may have together. I also have an eye for a property a mile away which I shall buy. It is not large but large enough and it will be in your name so you will have independence when I die.’

‘Richard,’ she said, half-laughing and half-crying, ‘We are about to get wed and you talk about dying.’

‘We need to sort things in a proper manner,’ he replied gently. ‘I am sure there would be no problems but this makes
everything
legal.’

He thought about his forthcoming marriage now and for the first time since his proposal wondered if he was doing the right thing. The feelings that Daniel Forrester’s wife stirred in him were worrying.

It wasn’t simply the physical stirrings thing, he could get those anywhere, it was a protective feeling too. Did this stem from the fact that she could possibly be family? He had found himself fantasizing about her more and more lately.

Now he was in touch with her husband, even, to an extent, helping him to trace her, and his mind was in turmoil about Lily. He did not want to cheat her. He knew many cases where men married to carry on the name and estate, but he had no need of that. He already had two sons.

Yet life would be easier for him if he had a wife. Someone to grace his dinner-table, someone to turn to and trust. He and Lily liked the same things. She was a placid girl, or she seemed so, and when he pushed her on the age question she told him she liked older men. He had no desire to be a father-figure to her, but he knew now that she did not excite him as the girl who was Daniel’s wife, and possibly his niece, did.

He and his brother Ben had always been so different in their looks and ways. He knew the situation wouldn’t have worried his brother when he was alive. He would have married the
suitable
one and taken the other whenever he fancied. But that was not Richard’s way. Betsy had inherited the maternal line
physically,
had she also inherited it mentally? Had she in fact run off with a man? Was she as wayward as Ben? Now he was presuming she
was
his brother’s daughter and he knew he must be on his guard against this. The girl might be nothing to do with the Choicelys at all.

‘I need to know,’ he muttered to himself, ‘and if she is Ben’s child I must find out whether her mother killed Ben.’

He rode over to Daniel’s farm early one evening, realizing that the man would be busy outside during the day. He tried to think of a logical reason for calling on the farmer, but
abandoned
the idea quickly. It would surely be seen through and he disliked pretence anyway.

Daniel had just sat down to his evening meal when Richard
arrived. His reaction on seeing the man there was alarm. ‘Sir Richard,’ he said. ‘What brings you here?’

‘I was in the area and wondered if you had news of your wife yet? I ask because I visited the village earlier and discovered from my henchman who lives there that the boy she was looking for is called Zac. Of course you may already know this.’

‘I didn’t know his name.’ They were both silent for a moment, then Daniel said, ‘It doesn’t matter now anyway. As you know she has left.’

‘Yes and I am sorry. If there is anything I can do to help find her just say. You have a farm to run while I have more time for searching.’

He left the question in the air and Daniel said, ‘But why should you, Sir Richard? It is a kind thing to offer, but for what reason?’

‘You were good enough to look after one of my men some time ago,’ Richard said quickly, ‘and one kindness deserves another. I travel further afield perhaps than you do, and your wife is very beautiful. If she is in a certain area it is possible that someone will know.’

Daniel offered Richard some ale and as he raised his own glass to his lips he said, ‘I would come to wherever she is should you discover her, Sir Richard.’

‘I realize that. I will keep my eyes and ears open. You have no idea where she would run to, I suppose?’

‘If I had I would have been there,’ Daniel said quietly. ‘There is nothing I can tell you that would help. You have seen her home and family and I have asked questions of my family. It was most unlikely she would have gone to either of them, and she hasn’t.’ Suddenly he put his head in his hands, ‘I pray to God she is safe,’ he said in a voice thick with emotion. ‘She is strong-willed and could put herself into great danger.’

The two men shook hands when Richard left. As the sound of the horses’ hoofs disappeared Daniel wondered again why Sir Richard Choicely was so interested in Betsy. Had he any idea of the possible link between her and his family? Was he indeed her father?

B
etsy, Rosa and Bill left the day before the fair finished. ‘Will give us a good chance to be first at the next one,’ Bill said, laughing. Betsy, who thought she would have to say goodbye to her friends when they all moved on, was to travel with them as far as the next place. ‘After that I must go my own way,’ she said. ‘it isn’t right to burden you like this.’

‘You are no burden,’ Rosa said, ‘and you may find work at the next place. We will be travelling in a sort of arc so you will not actually be going much further away than you were before. You don’t want to be too far away from your home ground, after all.’

Betsy looked at her warily. ‘Why, Rosa?’

‘Because Daniel will find you more easily. From what you tell us he can’t leave the farm for long enough to travel great distances, so it makes sense to stay as close as possible.’

‘But we are not together any more.’

‘Not now you aren’t, but you will be. Come and help me with this bag, will you, Betsy?’ When everything was packed and ready Bill saw to Patch, the horse, and Rosa went outside and looked around. Betsy joined her to gaze at the throng over in the main part of the field.

‘Rosa, do you truly believe Daniel will come looking for me?’

‘Yes, I do. I feel it in my bones.’

‘But he was going to sell me. He said so.’ She whispered the last three words. ‘That’s why I left.’

‘Have you never said something in anger and regretted it, Betsy?’

The girl nodded miserably. ‘I couldn’t stay, though. He was looking at the halter and I was never going to have that happen to me again. Never, never,
never
.’

Tears welled in her eyes and Rosa put an arm round her shoulder, ‘I can’t see what will happen. My grandmother could, but I haven’t inherited her gift. But I do
feel
things that come true and the vibrations for you and your Daniel are strong. I’m telling you the truth as I feel it Betsy. Come on, Bill’s ready.’

They arrived at the fair just outside Canterbury later that day and when the horse was fed and watered the three of them walked into the city. They bought food and drink and went into the cathedral.

It was the first time Betsy had been there and she was enthralled. Before they left she knelt down and prayed that Rosa was right and that Daniel would look for and find her. Then she added another prayer that he would stay well and always prosper whatever happened. The anger at what he was going to do was far, far below the love she felt for him. Even if she never saw him again she could wish him no harm.

Back at the caravan they made a meal and then sat outside in the balmy evening air until the sky darkened. A few others began arriving on the field before they went inside, and when they looked early the next morning the field was half-full of stalls and people. The fair was coming alive.

This was a three-day fair and Betsy found work on the second day. She decided she would go for a live-in position and so joined half a dozen others in the line for kitchen work. She did not mind standing there and being looked over for this purpose. She needed work and this was the best way of finding it. The man who hired her and the girl standing next to her worked for Lord Aston-Jenkins of Clover Court.

‘Wonder what this place will be like,’ the girl said. ‘I’m Marie and my last place was awful. The son of the house had his hands all over the place – I couldn’t wait to get out.’

‘I’m Betsy.’

‘Where did you work before this?’

Betsy had already decided on her story. She would say her first job had been her last and hope that any would-be employer would not question it.

She turned to face the girl. ‘With Mrs Wallasey at Wren Court. She died,’ she added, ‘so that’s why I’m here.’ Neither the girl and, which was more important, her future employers
questioned
it and she breathed freely again.

She hoped she wouldn’t have to share a room with Marie, who seemed a nice enough person but Betsy didn’t want to have to talk about her personal life to strangers. It might be difficult not to do so with the chatty and friendly young woman being taken on with her. She needed to fit in and not be thought of as high and mighty, as she had once heard herself described.

Clover Court was a lovely country house and Betsy was relieved to be given a tiny room almost in the eaves. But it was hers and private. She and Marie were given the choice of one of them sharing the lower room with the two others already in residence or using this very small attic. Betsy quickly said she
would be happy with the attic, which seemed to suit the
garrulous
Marie.

It was strange at first being entirely alone again. Since the age of ten, when she had shared with the two girls at Wren Court, there had always been somebody there. George, her first husband, then Daniel, and recently she had been sharing with Rosa and Bill; now suddenly she had a small space which was hers alone.

She worked in the kitchen with Marie. The cook was a large, jolly lady who said to them both on that first strange day, ‘There are two rules in my kitchen: No taking food out and no lads hanging round the door. Obey them and we shall get on well.’

Betsy was happy enough with those. The other two girls who were already employed worked mostly in the house, although they came to the kitchen for their meals. These were eaten with the cook and butler at each end of the scrubbed table and were companionable occasions.

She was lonely however, especially for the first week because, from what Marie said, the three of them who were sharing a room chattered and laughed and Betsy was isolated from this. Not that she wished it any other way, but lying in the narrow iron bed at night she couldn’t stop her thoughts from returning to the bedroom she had shared with Daniel. She missed Dumbo too and wondered whether the cat looked for her and was sad. Such silly thoughts, she chided herself as she turned into the pillow to stifle her sobs.

A month later Richard Choicely came to dinner. He had been before but because he was referred to in the kitchen as Miss Lily’s fiancé Betsy hadn’t known who he was. One of the upstairs maids, who also waited at table, had been poorly all that day and by the evening had to take to her bed. Marie was
chosen to take her place because she had experience of waiting at table.

Remembering the harvest suppers, the kitchen at home, and Mrs Wallasey’s beautiful dining-room Betsy smiled to herself. She had not volunteered more information about herself than was needed to be a kitchen-maid and was content for matters to remain that way, at least for the time being. Possibly not for ever she thought, as she watched Marie parading round the kitchen with a silly grin on her face.

The meal looked and smelt delicious and later, when Marie was sitting at her place next to Betsy and eating her own meal she said, ‘Miss Lily’s fiancé is so handsome, isn’t he?’ She gave an exaggerated sigh, ‘I think I like older men really, she
is
a lucky girl.’

‘Yes, well, that will do,’ cook said quickly. As they washed up together, Marie whispered to Betsy, ‘I expect I shall dream about Sir Richard Choicely tonight. He smiled at me you know.’

Betsy just saved the plate she had in her hand, and let it slide back into the soapy water. ‘Is – is that his name, Marie?’

‘Mmm. So good-looking in a manly way, not like some of the silly boys who make passes. Mind he’s
ever
such a lot older than her. Funny, isn’t it, ’cos you’d expect her to marry someone her own age, wouldn’t you? But I s’pose there aren’t any suitable ones, don’t you?’

Fortunately Marie was so carried away with her exciting evening she didn’t seem to notice that Betsy was not really answering, just murmuring her agreements.

As soon as everything was finished and away and the kitchen floor washed ready for the following day she said goodnight and went to her room. Sitting on the edge of the bed she let the facts roam round her mind.

Richard Choicely, the man who
could
be her father, was going to marry a girl who was only about her own age. Why not? she thought, after all, Daniel is much older than me, even George Hatton was older, but Richard was different. She thought of him as Richard and not Sir Richard now, and more and more she thought of him as the father she never knew.

Although it had been such a shock at the time she discovered it, she believed her Aunt Agnes had spoken the truth. The knowledge made her uneasy, especially if it had been as Aunt Agnes said. Yet having met the man she could not imagine that it was. She preferred her own version of what she thought might have happened. The two sisters enticing him and her mother being the one he chose.

After all he was a man and that said it all. Perhaps he never knew about the baby – she pulled herself up sharply – it was more likely that he did know and his family paid her mother off.

He would have only been a young man at the time and he obviously married later because Daniel said he was a widower with two sons. Strange to think that if it were all true, those sons were her half-brothers. Betsy no longer knew if she wanted it to be true or not. She only knew that she must never venture from the kitchen area because if Richard saw her he might tell Daniel. Of course they would only meet at the market or the fair and in the normal way of things they would not know each other. But because of the encounter with Sir Richard’s groom the
acquaintance
had been made and Betsy knew that he would not pass her by without speaking, nor pass Daniel without enquiring about her.

She shivered as she recalled her last meeting with him at the fair when he told her he had seen Daniel and that he was
looking for her. She needed to be very careful or the situation could so easily get out of hand, and much as she longed to be with Daniel again, the risk of being found was far too high.