Lies and Misdemeanours (23 page)

Charlie nodded. He didn’t ask what they were going to do if she wasn’t there.

Hetty would merely be an innocent pawn in a very dangerous game.

Charlie galloped through the countryside toward the safe house. Although it was dark, he knew instinctively that he was heading in the right direction.

As long as his horse didn’t give out beneath him there was nothing going to stop him from getting to her. The thought of anything happening to Hetty brought his world to a halt. The entire focus of his being would be destroyed forever more.

He realised then just how much she had come to mean to him. He couldn’t live without her. Life would never be the same if he couldn’t have her by his side.

It took far too long to get to the safe house. His horse hadn’t even stopped running before he dismounted, and raced toward the door.

He burst into the kitchen, and glared at Wally, Simon and Joshua, who were all seated around the table playing cards.

“Where’s Hetty?” He demanded as he stalked through the kitchen toward the hallway.

“What? Why?” Simon asked, but Charlie didn’t wait around to explain.

“Hetty!” Charlie shouted as he ran through the house, bursting into each of the downstairs rooms as he went. “Hetty? Where are you? Hetty!”

Nothing but silence greeted him.

He tore up the stairs, and slammed into their bedroom. The sight of the empty bed, neatly made, brought forth a blistering curse that had him racing back downstairs.

Hugo was stalking down the corridor toward him by the time he got to the bottom of the stairs.

“When they last spoke to her, she was going out to the rose garden for some air. They thought she had gone back upstairs like she did earlier.”

“When?”

Hugo looked at him.

“When?” Charlie demanded.

“Three hours ago.”

Charlie swore, and stalked toward the kitchen door. 

“I thought she was back, Charlie,” Joshua snapped. “I heard the damned back door squeak. She said that she was going outside for ten minutes. I saw her in the rose garden, and kept an eye on the time. Ten minutes later, I heard the back door slam and just assumed it was her.”

“You didn’t speak to her?” Charlie growled. He physically trembled with rage at the thought that she had been taken. She must have been terrified.

Joshua scowled. “She looked as though she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. I just thought she needed some time to herself.”

“Meldrew has her,” Charlie bit out. He glared at Wally and Simon who both swore loudly and followed him to the door.

“Where?” Simon growled.

“We don’t know,” Hugo sighed. “Search the grounds.”

His order was meant for Joshua, but Simon and Wally nodded as well, and followed everyone outside.

Everyone searched the grounds, but came up empty. They soon congregated in the yard, where Simon was saddling up two more horses.

“There is no sign of her,” Joshua growled as he strode toward them. “God, I am sorry Charlie.”

“Where is he likely to have taken her?” Wally growled.

“Besides to Derby jail to await hanging?” Simon sighed and shook his head. “God knows.”

Charlie stared off into the distance. His face was hard and calculating; his mind was racing. He suddenly frowned, and speared Simon with a dark look.

“You said that Meldrew had demanded you pay him protection money,” he drawled.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Meldrew demanded protection money from Blagmire, and killed him so he could take over the business himself,” Charlie said as he shared a look with Hugo.

He watched a frown darken his boss’ face, and knew that Hugo understood.

“Why would Meldrew want the mill?” Hugo asked with a frown.

“He asked for a lot of money. We just couldn’t afford to pay,” Simon replied darkly. “We could have made the first payment, but to pay the man on a regular basis would have rendered us bankrupt.”

“So he was trying to drive you out of business too? Why?”

“So he could take over it himself most probably,” Wally said dourly. “That’s what he did with Blagmire’s tavern. He killed Blagmire as a warning to businessmen in the area that he could bankrupt them if he chose to.”

Hugo cursed. “He frightened Mrs Blagmire into leaving the tavern so that he could put his own people in there to run the place.”

“He could be profiting from the business himself,” Charlie reasoned.

“He was building himself a little empire that he couldn’t afford on his magistrate’s earnings,” Hugo mused.

“The mill is a profitable business. We have been there for generations,” Wally declared proudly. “Everyone knows us.”

“How many more mills are there like yours in the area?”

“One more in Derby, but that is on the Nottinghamshire border and doesn’t affect our business,” Simon replied. “Why?”

“He would own the only profitable mill for miles around,” Hugo replied.

“He could charge people what he wanted, and they would have to pay if they wanted their grain turning,” Charlie shook his head in disgust at not having thought about it before.

Suddenly he knew, deep in his gut, where she was. He felt as though she was calling out to him.

His suspicious began to flourish into unshakeable certainty. He didn’t know how he knew, but he was positive that he was right.

“I know where she is,” he whispered. “I know where Hetty is.” He said once more as he ran for his horse.

Wally and Simon stared at him, but he didn’t bother to wait around to explain.

“Where are you going?” Hugo asked as he raced to follow.

“The mill,” Charlie shouted as he spun his horse around.

He galloped into the darkness without a backward look.

He didn’t look back to see if they were going to follow. Nothing was going to stop him from getting to Hetty. He had no doubt that Meldrew had done something that had put her precious life at risk.

If only Charlie could get to her before her life was stolen from her – from them both, then he had some chance of a happy future.

Hetty swallowed, and struggled to keep her panic at bay. Her breaths came in short pants. She struggled not to scream in terror. The last time she had taken a deep breath, she had sunk three inches at least, and the rope around her neck had bitten cruelly into the soft skin just under her chin. She didn’t know how long she had left; how long the rope was; but knew that if she moved, at all, even breathed too deeply, her life would be over.

It was as simple, and as terrifying, as that.

She hoped that she was some time away from actually being hung, but that didn’t help her given that nobody knew where she was. Nobody even knew that she had been dragged from the safe house rose garden without being given the chance to even murmur a token protest.

Her thoughts immediately turned to Charlie. Tears gathered on her lashes. There was so much she wanted to say to him that she felt robbed of the opportunity to tell him how much she loved him.

She wished she could have just a few moments with him so she could say the things she desperately needed him to know.

She understood now a little of what he had been through on the morning of his own hanging now. Thankfully, she didn’t have a crowd of baying people waiting to watch her slow death.

Her stomach roiled alarmingly at the thought of what might befall her any moment now, but she had to ignore it.

She wanted to scream, but couldn’t.

She glanced around her without moving her head, but it was too dark within the grain barn to see much at all.

Desperate to keep the panic at bay, she closed her eyes so that the mental image of Charlie would come forward again. It was as though he was her guiding light, warning her to stay calm and remain in control of herself, if not the situation around her. Just thinking about him helped her remain in control as much as she was able to.

Unfortunately, with her hands tied behind her back, balanced precariously on tip-toe, with a noose around her neck, there was little she could do but wait – pray – and hope that salvation wouldn’t be too far away.

Charlie raced into the courtyard of the mill and scoured the buildings for any sign of life. His heart pounded heavily in his chest.

His first shout was muffled by the sound of the other horses tearing into the yard behind him. He waited only long enough for them to come to a stop before he called again.

“Hetty?” He watched Wally and Simon race for the house before he turned his attention to the outbuildings.

The stable block and hay barn were both completely empty. The door to the mill itself was locked.

“I’ll get them to bring the key,” Hugo growled as he stalked across the yard.

Charlie tried to look through the narrow windows, but couldn’t see anything except shadows. Frustration clawed at him at the thought that this might be yet another wild goose chase.

“Hetty? Can you hear me?” he called in a voice that was as loud as he could manage.

A muffled shout suddenly broke the silence.

Everyone froze.

Charlie frowned and stared at the empty courtyard. “Did you hear that?” he whispered to nobody in particular.

Another muffled noise sounded from the far corner of the yard. Charlie turned, and saw Simon hurry through the darkness clutching a large circle of keys.

“It’s the grain store,” Wally called.

Another muffle shout confirmed that.

Everyone waited impatiently for Simon to unlock the huge wooden door, but nobody was prepared for the sight that greeted them.

At first they couldn’t see anything because there was no light within the large stone building. Precious moments were lost while they tried to find enough candles to light the area but, when they did, they stared in horror at Hetty’s predicament.

The sight of her, balancing on tip-toes, with wild panic in her eyes as the grain shifted and slid beneath her feet, was something that would remain with everyone for the rest of their lives.

It was going to be damned impossible to get to her without risking hanging her.

“How in the hell did they get her there?” Hugo growled as he studied the distance from where Hetty stood to the narrow planks that ran around the walls.

“Planks,” Hetty gasped quietly. “They slid planks across. The grain has shifted since then.”

“Stay still,” Charlie urged her. “Stay perfectly still.”

“I can’t move. If I do, the grain shifts and the rope gets tighter. I am going to hang myself if I move. There isn’t any more give in the rope, so don’t move me,” Hetty murmured quietly. “Please, Charlie. Don’t move me.”

While she spoke, Simon and Wally gathered the planks they usually used to cross the grain pit but, when they slid them across, it quickly became evident that Meldrew’s men had cut them in half, and they didn’t cover the distance needed.

“Do we climb across the beam, and haul her up that way?” Marcus asked as he studied the heavy oak beams that held the roof up.

“Those beams are over a hundred years old. They won’t hold our weight,” Wally warned.

“We need bigger planks,” Simon growled.

“We don’t have any now. The bastards cut the only ones we have.” Wally stomped out of the barn and studied the courtyard.

“Charlie!” Simon called moments later.

“What?”

“Come and help me.”

“What are we doing?” Charlie asked as he followed Simon across the courtyard.

“The barn doors should just about do it. I will loosen the hinges. You get the horses out of the way so they don’t get hit when this thing falls. We need to break the wooden planks off. They should be long enough. We need help.”

Before he could say anything else, several of the men appeared and began to lead the horses away.

Moments later, the sound of the heavy door hitting the ground reverberated through the silence of the night, but nobody paid it any attention. No sooner had it hit the ground than the men began to hammer, tug, and pull two of the long planks off the main framework.

“Got one,” Marcus cried.

He carried it with Charlie into the grain barn. Thankfully, it was long enough. They slid it carefully over the grain pit, directly behind Hetty, and waited while Wally and Simon slid a second one directly beneath her feet.

Once in place, Charlie began to sidle across the coarse planks toward her.

“I’ll go too. I am a bit lighter than everyone else,” Marcus suggested.

He copied Charlie’s side-steps, and began to sidle across the planks. They bowed dangerously low beneath the weight of both men, but mercifully didn’t break while the men crept toward her.

“Stay still for me, darling,” Charlie murmured gently once he reached her. Sweat popped out on his brow as he stood on tip-toe, and balanced his weight so that he didn’t fall off the plank into the grain, and inadvertently kill her himself.