Daughter of Dark River Farm (43 page)

‘I couldn’t make her move,’ he said. ‘She just stood there. I started to move off up the road, thinking it might make her go back ho…somewhere more familiar. But she started following me instead, and I didn’t like to think of her on the road alone.’

I didn’t know whether to slap him or hug him; he’d been desperate, terrified for his life, making worse and worse decisions every step of the way, and yet he had still been moved to risk everything to protect this child he barely knew. Yes, Nathan was a rogue, but he didn’t deserve to die.

‘Archie was right,’ I said gently. He sniffed, and the part of me that felt sorry for him grew a little bigger, edging aside the anger and frustration. ‘Will you come back to the farm? Just long enough for me to get you the money,’ I hurried on, as he started to shift backwards—an instinctively defensive movement that took him farther into the darkest part of the stable.

‘You were telling the truth?’ he said, his voice taking on a hopeful note.

‘For once, yes.’

He came closer again. ‘Why didn’t you say something when we were in the barn?’ He didn’t sound suspicious, more pleading, and I shrugged but my voice was dry and somewhat unforgiving when I answered.

‘I have asked myself that very same question. I believe I might have been slightly distracted by the fact that you had just stabbed my husband.’ A silence fell, and as the seconds slipped away I felt the urgency to leave like a painful tug in my chest. ‘Will you come?’ I said, when the wait became too much.

He stirred from whatever thoughts had him in their grip. ‘Yes, I’ll come.’

‘Good. The trap is still at the station.’ I eased Amy off my lap and stood up, then held out my hand to her. ‘Come along, sweetheart, we’re going to see Mister Archie now.’

‘I’s tired,’ she said. ‘Can’t walk no more.’

‘Let me carry her.’ Nathan moved towards her, and I had to stop myself from snatching her up into my own arms. But while he might not be very strong, and the wheezing sounds he made reminded me he needed to be careful of exerting himself, he was still stronger than me. When Amy didn’t balk at his approach, but lifted her arms to be carried, I let myself relax.

As we started back up the road to the station Nathan glanced behind us. ‘I was going to leave her there, as soon as dawn came,’ he said quietly. ‘She would have been asleep, and Seth Pearce, or one of his lads, would have found her and brought her back to you.’

‘She’d have been comfortable, yes,’ I allowed, brushing sawdust from my trousers. ‘But what you did, Nathan—’

‘I know.’

Pippin had begun to pull at his harness when we reached him. Guilt niggled at me for leaving him for so long, and I murmured my apologies and unhitched the long rein from the fence. As we rolled along the dark road, Pippin picking his way carefully back towards Dark River Farm, Nathan asked what had clearly been on his mind since he’d learned I’d been telling the truth about the money.

‘How much did the girls give you for Amy?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I didn’t want to accept it, and now it feels wrong to sit and count it. I was going to take it to the bank tomorrow.’

‘Then how do you know it’ll be enough?’

‘How much do you owe?’ He didn’t answer at first, and I slowed Pippin until we were barely moving. ‘How much, Nathan?’

‘Seven hundred pounds.’

I snatched a horrified breath. ‘Seven
hundred
? How on earth did you borrow so much?’

‘I didn’t. I borrowed one hundred and twelve. Almost enough to pay Will back, but not quite. Then…’ He trailed away again, and I remembered what Archie had said about paying back so much more than the original loan. Still…seven hundred?

‘Then what? Come on, you might as well tell me everything.’

‘Then I found a job as a chauffeur. A businessman with an appreciation for art, which is why he took me on despite my lack of experience. I thought I would be able to pay back the loan, but it kept growing, faster than I could earn. They found me, those who’d set up the loan, and offered to remove the responsibility of cutting my fingernails, one by one, unless I made a substantial payment by the end of the week.’ He flexed his fingers. ‘As an artist, I felt compelled to accept their terms.’

Despite the wry humour in his words, I shuddered, with no small degree of sympathy. ‘What did you do?’

‘I stole the money from my employer.’ He said it in a small voice, so unlike the confident, cheerful Nathan I’d first met. I had to remind myself it was the same man. He cleared his throat, and carried on, in matter-of-fact tones. ‘Unfortunately I didn’t do it very well, and I was caught, convicted and imprisoned. The debt mounted up while I was in Walton Gaol, and by the time I came out, complete with pneumonia—’ he thumped his chest ‘—I owed just over four hundred pounds.’

‘When was that?’

‘In July of 1915. Two months later I heard about Will, how he’d married into money, and so I went back to Breckenhall. That was the day I met Evie, in Will’s old shop.’

‘And Martin told you where Will was living,’ I finished.

‘Yes, and that he was wounded, but not how badly. I would never have—’

‘Yes, you would,’ I said. ‘Of course you would. In your position you’d have been a fool not to try.’ Something else puzzled me. ‘How did you know to get talking to Belinda in the bank?’

He leaned down and patted the side of the trap, where the name of the farm was painted. ‘This was waiting in the street. The only people I saw in the bank were two old men, a very fat nursemaid, a woman with three children in tow, and a pretty young woman in trousers and boots. It wasn’t hard to make the connection.’

‘Poor Bel,’ I murmured. ‘Go on.’

‘When I settled into Dark River, it felt like the safest place in the world,’ he said. ‘I thought, I can stay here, make a new life. No-one would ever find me. Then I got talking to Archie out in the fields. I’d never seen him really angry, not like this. He told me if I brought violence to Dark River he’d…’ He broke off.

‘He’d what?’ I said, intrigued to hear of this new, harder side, especially since he’d been the one to send me after Nathan to try and save him.

‘Doesn’t matter. Wasn’t very nice though. Anyway, I remembered how easy it had been for me to get Martin to trust me, so it would probably be even easier for them.’

‘It was easy to trick him by friendliness, because he’s a gentle soul,’ I said. ‘But he’s also loyal; he might not give in so easily to intimidation.’

‘No,’ Nathan said, ‘but would you want to be the reason he was in that position?’

Once again I felt the complication of combined anger and affection. ‘You’re a waste of a very nice man,’ I said at last.

He gave a little laugh. ‘Pretty Kitty…what on earth do you see in that tall, strong and handsome Scotsman, when you could have me?’

I laughed too, and it felt surprisingly good. ‘It was a hard choice,’ I said, and nudged his arm. ‘But you make a very nice friend when you forget to be such an arrogant oik.’

He remembered something then, and sat up straight. ‘Did you call him your husband?’

‘I did,’ I said, pride unfurling inside me. ‘We’re handfasted.’

‘I’m glad,’ he said softly. ‘Really, I am. You’re made for each other.’

‘And what of Belinda?’ I asked.

‘I like her. I thought perhaps there might be something there for us, until I saw Evie and Will, and then you and Archie.’ He fetched a deep sigh, and shrugged. ‘I want what you have, or nothing at all. What would be the point in settling for less?’

We had reached the top of the lane now, and as I turned Pippin down it I realised I had almost forgotten everything that Nathan had done, but his mention of Archie brought it all vividly back again. I became once more aware of my shirt, stiff with Archie’s blood, and of the pain in my hands where the reins cut into the sore spots and blisters. With Amy safely in the back of the cart, and home growing closer with every turn of the wheels, it had been easy to let my mind release the fear that had consumed it throughout the night. But now it returned; what if the money was not enough to tempt him to exchange it for the diamond? After everything that had been risked for it, everything that had nearly been lost… Evie hated the thing, but it was no longer hers to hate, and it was Lily we had to think of now. If only Evie hadn’t already sent that blessed telegram…

‘Leave the cart here,’ Nathan said, interrupting my thoughts. ‘We’ll walk the rest of the way.’

‘Why?’

‘No-one else must know we’re back. Those who know what’s happened will be awake, and waiting for you to come back.’

‘And what if they hear us? The money’s up in my room.’

‘They won’t. Amy won’t make a sound, and if someone’s in the kitchen you’ll just have to think of an excuse to go straight to your room.’

But the house was all dark; it was predawn and there would have been no sense in Jessie and Belinda worrying Frances and the others into a sleepless night. Belinda was probably asleep by now too, and even if Jessie were awake I could be quiet enough that she wouldn’t hear me.

The lantern Belinda had brought out was still on the ground in front of the barn, and I picked it up and turned to Nathan. ‘Matches?’

He fumbled a silver box from his pocket, and gave it to me before pulling open the barn door as quietly as the broken latch would allow. I stepped inside before I lit the lantern, and in its light I saw his face had taken on a pinched look; things had grown taut between us again, the pleasant interlude of the drive home was no more.

‘You must understand, if anyone but you comes out of that house, I will run.’

It was on the tip of my tongue to say, ‘Do it, and be damned; it’s your life,’ but I didn’t. I could see the fear in the set of his brow, and in the tremble of his lips. Besides, it was Lily’s life too.

‘I’ll keep Amy with me,’ he said, and held up a hand as I started to protest. ‘No, listen. She’s in no danger. But you’ll be quicker and quieter on your own.’

I eyed him closely, then realised the only real hostage was the Kalteng Star. The lantern swung, illuminating the blood-soaked strip of sacking on the floor, and my stomach clenched at the sight of it. One minute it had bound my arm to Archie’s, our heartbeats finding each other through the thin skin of our wrists, the next it had been pressed tight against Archie’s chest, glistening with blood, and held there by that same hand.

I saw Nathan’s gaze follow my own, and a muscle jumped in his jaw. He took a long, deep breath and I could hear it shaking when he let it out again. ‘Don’t go to him,’ he said, and I’m sure he meant it as a warning but we both heard the desperation and pleading in his voice. He turned to me. ‘I mean it, Kitty, no-one can know I’m here.’

I nodded, and left him the lantern, then bent and kissed Amy’s soft, rounded cheek. ‘Soon be time to go to bed, sweetheart,’ I said. ‘I just need you to stay here and look after Nathan for a minute while I go and find something. All right?’

She nodded and sat down on her favourite hay bale, the same one Archie had leaned against earlier. I saw my folded pullover on the floor… How could I go into that house now, knowing he lay in Frances’s bedroom, and not go to him?

‘Mister Arsh?’ she said, as if she’d read my mind.

I choked back a little sound of distress, and smoothed her hair. ‘He’s sleeping, but you’ll see him at breakfast.’

As I crossed the yard to the kitchen I couldn’t help wondering, with a low feeling of dread, if I’d just told yet another lie. The biggest one of all.

Chapter Twenty-Two

In our room, Belinda lay face down, with one arm hanging off the edge of her bed, snoring lightly. I found myself glad for once, that she slept like the dead; if it made for a ridiculously difficult job waking her for work, at least it meant that the harsh squeak of the top drawer, where I’d put the money, did no more than make her snuffle and twitch her fingers.

I let out a relieved sigh, tucked the packet into my pocket and crept from the room, pulling the door closed carefully. As the metal arm of the latch clicked into its notch, I held my breath and peered down the landing, waiting for the telltale flicker of someone lighting a lamp. Nothing happened, and I cast a longing glance at Frances’s bedroom door. Behind it, Archie would be lying, either sleeping or trying to sleep, no doubt worrying about me, and about Amy. And also, I realised with a flicker of exasperated affection, worried about Nathan. It would be the quickest, easiest thing in the world for me to go in, tell him we were all right, and then go down to the barn.

My fingers hovered by the latch, my thumb extended ready to press down on the flattened metal, but I couldn’t do it. Archie would want to know everything, and when I told him about the money the girls had given Amy, and that I was giving it away, he would try and stop me. He’d believe it was possible to keep the money and still persuade Nathan to stay, but he’d be wrong. And he’d hurt himself even more proving it.

My hand drew back slowly, reluctantly, and I curled the fingers into my palms so they wouldn’t be tempted to return to the cool metal that would simply clunk gently, and then let the barrier between Archie and me swing away. It was painfully difficult, but I stepped back from his door, and turned to go downstairs, Amy’s future bumping against my thigh.

I couldn’t tell how long I’d been in the house; it felt like hours and I fumbled my way back across the dark kitchen, hitting the edge of the table with my hip in my frantic hurry to return to the barn, in case Nathan had grown impatient. I was almost there, when the door to the hallway opened and I saw Jessie, fully clothed and with a paraffin lamp in her hand.

‘What are you doing?’

I wanted to just tell her to go to bed, but my heart overtook my impatience. ‘How is Archie?’

‘Sleeping. No thanks to you and your noise.’ She relaxed slightly, and put the lamp on the table. ‘He’s well, Kitty. He’s tired, and sore, and horribly worried about you, but he was too exhausted to stay awake, particularly after Belinda force-fed him the last of Frances’s best whisky. The others don’t know anything yet. What happened? Where’s Amy?’

‘With Nathan, in the barn. I’m…I’m taking him Amy’s money so he’ll go.’