Degrees of Hope (16 page)

She put the tray in her room, then went to see Hope and dismissed Hopkins, with her thanks. She took Hope back her bedroom and poured them both a nice cup of tea.

“Are you all right?” Martha asked.

“I'm still angry,” Hope admitted. “I hate him.”

“I know... me too.”

Hope looked shocked. She had heard her mother express distaste for someone before but she had never heard her use such strong language.

“He reminded me of my father tonight,” Martha said.

“But you beat him,” Hope tried to reassure her.

“Did I?” Martha asked. “He was just as vile as Malcolm but I rewarded him for his sins, I paid him to leave the family alone.”

“But what else could you have done?” Hope asked. “You know that fathers have the right to rule their families. And you said he drank himself to death, so it worked.”

“I know, but that doesn't mean that he shouldn't have paid for his crimes.” She sighed sadly. “And now, yet another man will get off scot free. What if he marries again, what do we do then? And what about all the women that we don't personally know? All this suffering, all this misery, it shouldn't be allowed to continue.”

“Then we will do something to stop it,” Hope assured her mother, slightly unnerved by her defeatist tone.

“How, darling?”

“The same way you and Papa started the school.”

“No abusive husband is going to allow his wife to become educated.”

“Then we'll get to them before that. The girls in our school now have a better understanding of life and with an education, they have more options available. They don't just have to marry or go into factory work.”

“Perhaps, but there also has to be the jobs for them, and one school isn't much in the scheme of things.”

“But it isn't just one school, is it? There are new Ragged Schools springing up all over the country. Things are changing.”

“But not quickly enough.”

“Mother! I am quite ashamed of you and this attitude. I'm not saying that it will be easy or fast, but we can do something, I promise you!”

“Don't talk to your mother in that tone!” Lucien reprimanded as he came in, although he sounded weary.

“No, darling, she is right. For once.” Martha smirked at Hope who, whilst pleased that her mother seemed to be shrugging off her malaise, did her best to glare in reply. “How did it go?” Martha asked, turning towards the door.

“He is appeased for now but I don't think that it will last.” He shrugged his dressing gown off, then pulled a third armchair closer to the fire that his girls were grouped around. Martha handed him a cup of tea. “Don't you have anything stronger?” he asked, although his tone was teasing and slightly weary.

“Are you certain that there is no way to trace Honoria?” Martha asked quietly.

“As sure as I can be; they have passed through two major cities so should be hard to follow, although I confess, I will feel a lot more comfortable once the ship has sailed in the morning.”

“Me too,” Hope said.

“I want you to be very careful for the next few weeks,” Lucien told Hope. “I know that you don't like restrictions being placed upon you, but please don't go anywhere alone for a while.”

“What about riding?”

“Take the stable lad with you.”

“But Malcolm wouldn't dare hurt me.”

“I'm not sure what he would or wouldn't do right now so please, just be cautious for a few days.”

“All right, Papa.”

“And now we should try and get some sleep,” Martha said. “We must look for Honoria again in the morning.”

The hunt for Honoria and Mary continued for another two days but after that time, the police called off the search. Hope and Martha had remained at Marchwood Hall each day as they were unwilling to be in Malcolm's presence.

To their great surprise, many town folk and local farmers began coming forward with stories of thefts, vandalism and women who had felt uncomfortable or been molested in the streets. Of course, this was just a coincidence; Martha was in little doubt that the crime rate hadn't actually soared in the past week, but the missing women had focused everyone's thoughts on crime and people were talking of events that they might otherwise have shrugged off more easily. The stories did help confirm suspicions that the women had been abducted though, and itinerant workers got the blame.

On the fourth day, the day after the search was called off, Constable Pierce came to see Lucien at the workshop in Marchwood and was shown to his office by Lucien's clerk.

“Sorry to disturb you,” Pierce said as he shook Lucien's hand.

“Not at all. Is there any news?”

“Nothing yet.” He wrung his hands together, as though nervous. “The thing is, Mr Arundell has stated that he believes that your daughter helped Mrs Arundell to stage an escape of some sort, and that his wife is being hidden by you.”

Lucien nodded. “I suspected he might go to you. He came to our house in the early hours, the morning after she went missing. Woke up my family, my staff and insisted on searching the Hall and outhouses.”

“Did you let him?”

“I wasn't inclined to but my wife convinced me. I was angry with him but we have nothing to hide. You are welcome to look for yourself.”

“That's very kind of you, sir.”

“It's nothing. You are also welcome to speak with the staff. As I'm sure you know, nothing goes on in these big houses that escapes the staffs' notice.”

“Thank you, Lord Beaumont. I understand that your wife and daughter were friends with Mrs Arundell?”

“Yes, they were. In all honesty, I didn't want to sell that land to Malcolm but my wife and daughter had taken a shine to his wife, so I agreed. I am beginning to think that I might have saved everyone a lot of heartache if I had refused.”

“You can't blame yourself, none of us can see the future.”

“No.” Lucien sighed.

“I am sorry, Constable, but the time I took off work to help search for Mrs Arundell has caused a backlog and I must get on.”

“Would it be all right if I visited your house in your absence?”

“Of course; my wife is home and will be happy to show you around.”

“Would you object if I asked your wife and daughter a few questions whilst I'm there, or would you prefer to be present?”

“Not at all only, this situation has them both rather upset since my wife's sister is also missing, so please try not to cause them too much distress.”

“Of course. Thank you, Lord Beaumont.” The constable left and Lucien got back to work. Thankfully, Lucien knew that his wife could handle the constable and he had no need to worry.

Martha and Hope happily showed the constable around the house and its outbuildings and when they were finished, he wanted to know if he might ask a few questions about Honoria and Malcolm. Martha and Hope guided him to the study and offered him refreshments, although he refused. Martha had decided to answer his questions honestly, as long as it would not give their plan away.

“Was Mrs Arundell upset of late?” the Constable Pierce asked. He took out a pencil and a small notebook, where he jotted down some notes as they spoke.

“Of course she was, she had just lost her child. The last time Hope and I saw her, she was a shell of a woman.”

“Her child?” he sounded surprised. “I wasn't aware that she had a baby.”

“She didn't,” Martha explained. “But they were expecting a happy event. I'm sorry to have to be the one to inform you, but Mr Arundell was known to beat his wife. It was one of these beatings that caused her to lose her child and as a god-fearing woman, she did not take that very well.”

“Is there anyone who can back up your claims?” the constable asked.

“His staff,” Hope jumped in. “He's terrified them into silence but if you guaranteed to keep their confidence, I'm sure that they will tell you the truth.”

Constable Pierce nodded thoughtfully. “Do you know how often Mr Arundell would chastise her?”

Martha felt like slapping
him
. Beating someone was
not
a simple chastisement.

“I know that when her brother arrived, she had to pretend to be sick so that he wouldn't see her bruises. The
attack
that caused her to miscarry happened just after the brother left, about two weeks later. Malcolm doesn't like sharing his wife with anyone, not even her brother.”

“Did she see a doctor?”

“Never when she was marked but her staff were worried about her, so once her bruises had faded, Mrs Kenner called Dr McCoy in to see her.”

“And what was she like when you saw her?”

“She was suffering,” Martha said. She couldn't help the sadness that entered her voice as she remembered Honoria on that day. “She was remote and detached, she hardly even seemed to notice what was going on around her. The housekeeper told us that Dr McCoy had diagnosed melancholia but said that it should pass; she just needed time to grieve.”

“I hate to ask this, Lady Beaumont, but is there any chance that Mrs Arundell... well, that's she might have done something... silly.”

“She was a very devout woman, so I think it unlikely.”

“And do you believe that there is any possibility that she has run away,” Pierce asked.

“I would like to believe that but I don't honestly think that Honoria is brave enough to try something like that.”

“And what of your sister, Mary Dawley?”

“What about her?”

“What kind of woman was she?”

“She was brave, but also devoted to our mother and her school.”

“How is your mother taking the news?”

“Poorly. She keeps to her room and takes all her meals there, but I'm sure she would speak to you if you would like.”

“I'm sure that will not be necessary.” He wrote something in his notebook then looked up again. “Mr Arundell is certain that his wife took nothing when she left; was anything missing from your sister’s home?”

“We didn't check but nothing that we could see.”

“I understand that Lord Beaumont has offered a sizeable reward for information leading to her discovery?”

“Yes, for both Mary and Honoria.” The reason for that had actually been to overwhelm the police with misleading information, since every man and his dog had a pet theory, or claimed to have seen Mary and Honoria in a variety of places, from Marchwood, to Edinburgh, to near her family's estate in Norfolk. New people were coming forward daily, each hoping to claim the reward as theirs.

“Can I ask, what do you believe has happened to them?” Constable Pierce asked.

“I'm afraid that given the impeccable character of both women, I think it likely that they have met with misfortune.” She turned away and bowed her head. Hope came forward to comfort her.

“I'm sorry if I have upset you, Lady Beaumont.”

“No, your questions are justified, Constable.”

“Still, I apologise. I'll take my leave now.”

Martha nodded, although she kept her head averted and dabbed at her eyes with her handkerchief.

Wary of Lord Beaumont's earlier warning about upsetting his wife, the constable left then. He had never really considered the Beaumonts as suspects, for not only was Lord Beaumont a Magistrate of this town, he and his wife had done a lot to help improve the town, both by attracting business and by improving conditions in the slums, that so many had been forced to live in. Marchwood was far from perfect but it was a damn site better than many other towns and cities, from what Pierce heard.

Now though, he was beginning to think that perhaps Mr Arundell might have had something to do with his wife's disappearance. He had nothing against a husband keeping discipline in his home, but it appeared that what Mr Arundell did went above and beyond that. If indeed he had gone too far, he surely wouldn't leave the body lying around. And perhaps whilst disposing of the corpse, he had happened upon Mary, who he had then had to silence.

Of course, Mrs Arundell went missing in the middle of the day, on her walk, so perhaps it hadn't been an accident. Perhaps Mr Arundell had lain in wait for her. Perhaps their fight or struggle had caused her lace cuff to be torn from her dress.

Of course, Mr Arundell was supposed to be in London at the time, but Constable Pierce intended to check on that. Alibis were easily faked if you could pay someone enough to lie for you.

First though, he needed to verify what he had been told, so he mounted his horse and rode over to Arundell Hall, intending to speak with some of the staff. After assuring them that what they told him would be dealt with in the strictest confidence and that their master would never find out, they confirmed Lady Beaumont's story, with even more gruesome details since many had actually witnessed these events and their aftermath.

He left Arundell Hall with a new picture of Mr Arundell, that of a cruel, tyrannical and sadistic monster. Suspecting the Beaumonts never entered his mind again.

After Constable Pierce left, Martha went to check on her mother, who was sitting on the window seat in her bedroom, looking down at the gardens below. Martha almost felt it was cruel to keep her here, since the elegance and luxury of her home made her mother feel uncomfortable, but to send her back to her cottage, alone, would have been even more cruel.