Salting the Wound (23 page)

‘Poor Nick.’

There were tears in the eyes that came her way. ‘You’re not telling lies about Nicholas, are you girl? He’s suffered enough at the hands of your family. Oh, I know he acts tough, and he brought most of it on himself by attaching himself to Charlotte in the first place. I’ll never forgive—’

‘Don’t say anything more, Aunt Daisy. Despite the way Charlotte has treated me over this, I love my sister and I know that one day we’ll be reunited.’ She gave the woman a hug. ‘I truly love Nick. Don’t you worry, I’ll be a good wife to him,’ and she placed her hands over her stomach, ‘I love this child that I’m carrying. Today I felt him move inside me, and it was a wondrous feeling. You’ll see, when Nick comes home you’ll know that I’m telling the truth.’

‘Aye, well, I guess I’d better believe you then, else I’m going to end up looking the fool, which is exactly what your sister will look when the truth be known.’

‘Then let that be your secret pleasure from this situation, but it won’t be mine.’

Marianne missed her sister, and although she went to Harbour House to try and repair the rift between them, she found the doors and windows closed against her. No amount of door banging would gain her access.

Seth called on her a couple of times. Dear Seth, who hadn’t known what a formidable adversary Charlotte could be, and who was doing his best to reconcile them.

‘How are the children?’ she asked him.

‘Thriving.’

‘And John? Is he getting on with the book for his grandfather?’

‘He’s doing his best. Luckily, most of the drawings are done, and I can help him with the letters. Are you all right, Marianne?’

‘I’m well,’ and her voice thickened. ‘I miss you all so. I hate being embroiled in an argument. Charlotte is being so stubborn, but I have faith. She’ll relent eventually.’

‘I do hope so. She feels you betrayed her by taking up with Nick.’

‘But she scorned him, Seth, and in the most cruel way. He didn’t deserve being threatened with a gun. If she’d truly loved him she’d have married him. Now she’s punishing me to lessen the burden of blame she carries, when all she’s achieving is to add to it. She’s lucky to have you. Another man wouldn’t put up with her moods.’

‘I’m under no illusion that I was anything but second best to her. But I’m not unhappy, and she has given me two beautiful children.’

She touched his cheek, seeking to sympathize with him. ‘Dear Seth. She was guided by instinct, as was I when I wed Nick. I’m sure that Charlotte will forget her injured pride in time. She’s too passionate, and finds it hard to forgive a wrong. But she is also loyal, and she will soften in time.’

On Seth’s second visit he tried to leave some money to help pay for her board.

Erasmus had just returned from Boston, and his curt reply was, ‘The Thorntons look after their own, mister. Marianne is a Thornton now, for I’ve seen the registry of her marriage to my nephew with my own eyes, and have brought back a copy with me. I’m satisfied that all is above board and you can tell that sister of hers that we’ll look after her.’

Marianne longed for Nick to return and help to put things right. When she lay in his bed she imagined she was lying in his arms. It was a nice room. A mahogany dresser with unadorned brass handles contained his clothing. There was an oval mirror on the top, and the small drawer underneath it contained a hairbrush, a silver card case, and several other bits and pieces. There was room in the wardrobe for most of her clothes, because she didn’t have many. The rest, she placed in a trunk at the end of the bed.

‘You won’t need any more cupboards,’ Daisy said. ‘When Nicholas returns, no doubt he’ll look for a home of his own that the three of you can live in.’

There was a lace-edged handkerchief in the drawer. It had Charlotte’s initials embroidered on it. Marianne tried not to feel jealous at the sight of it, but the next time she went out she threw it into the harbour and watched it bob away on the tide. Then an awful, but ridiculous thought occurred to her. What if the handkerchief sailed around the world and washed up on the shore where Nick was sitting?

She came to the conclusion that it was hard to be in love when she was uncertain that her love was returned. Marianne was under no illusion that if Charlotte snapped her fingers at him Nick would surely go to her. And that would crush her. It would probably crush Seth as well, because it was obvious that the man was smitten by Charlotte, also.

When Adam Chapman knocked on the door of Harbour House, he handed his card to a maid.

She was back in a couple of minutes. ‘Colonel Hardy said he can give you five minutes, and to show you into his study.’

The house had a comfortable, lived-in feel. In the study the floorboards were covered in rugs that were worn in places where feet usually trekked back and forth. The study looked out over a garden of ragged lawn covered in fruit trees, dandelions and daisies that pushed against a thick fringe of nettles and into the tender green bracken beyond. Beyond that was a vegetable garden walled against the wind. Chickens clucked somewhere.

Adam absorbed his surroundings. Books leaned untidily against each other on the shelves, the leather chairs were worn, the panelled walls dark with years of rubbed beeswax. A fire was laid in a grate inside a large moulded iron fireplace with a brass fender and firedogs. A clock ticked on the mantle. The desk held ledgers, a silver inkwell and penholder.

There was a picture on the wall . . . two young girls posed on a seat in a rose-covered arbour. One had a puppy on her lap. He went to study it more closely.

‘They are my wife and her sister when they were children,’ Seth Hardy said from the doorway behind him.

Adam turned.

The eyes of the man he’d come to see widened and his voice was dry when he said, ‘Adam Chapman, I presume. We’ve met before, and I now know why you didn’t give me a name outside the school. Would you prefer to be called Henry Smith?’

Hardy had a sharp mind. ‘I’d actually prefer Adam. I’m sorry for the deception. I’d completed my assignment and hadn’t intended to involve myself in your affairs any further. I felt the need to pass on what I’d heard to you, since a young woman was involved. I hope the fisherman proved useful.’

‘He did, and my thanks.’ Seth held out a hand to him, and the pair exchanged a smile. ‘Why are you here now if your assignment has been completed? Do you need to meet the object of your investigation, or do you intend to scrutinize my private life as well?’ He spread his hands and smiled. ‘We are as you see us.’

‘May I ask why you agreed to see me, first?’

‘I’m curious to meet a man who discovered so much about me. You know, if you’d knocked on my door and asked for the same information, I’d have probably given it to you. It would have been quicker.’

‘More likely I’d have earned myself a punch on the nose.’

Seth chuckled. ‘That’s entirely possible.’

‘As it is I have all the information on you I needed to know. I do have scruples, and was hired to find a man’s grandson, not to destroy your life. Sir Charles has since rehired me to be his envoy, something I was reluctant to take on.’

‘But you did. Why?’

‘I have a mother and sister to support and the pay offered was excellent. I think you know why I’m here.’

‘Because of John. So much for your bloody scruples.’

‘I assure you, I’m here because of my scruples. Sir Charles had a very different plan of approach than the one I’m making here on his behalf.’

Seth gave a faint smile. ‘I can imagine.’

‘Sir Charles Barrie requests that you take his grandson to London so he can meet the boy. He’ll pay all expenses.’

‘And he sent you to ask. Why didn’t he write or send his lawyer again?’

‘He didn’t think you’d come . . . and Edward Wyvern didn’t have the time. He’s a busy man, and in my estimation, a man with integrity.’

‘Sir Charles expects you to persuade me, after you investigated my affairs?’

‘I wouldn’t even attempt to persuade you. You’re an intelligent man, Colonel Hardy, and well aware of the rights and wrongs of this matter.’

‘Please feel free to call me by my first name. And so far it’s his own rights that Sir Charles has been concerned with. I’ve been threatened with them on occasion and that doesn’t impress me. The man lacks charm.’

‘Not entirely, but he’s autocratic and possesses a dogged determination. Surprisingly, he also has the ability to absorb plain speaking. You’ve impressed Edward Wyvern, who is about the only person Sir Charles will take advice from. You could do the same with Sir Charles if you put your mind to it. He’s a crafty old fox, one who knows a lie when he sees one. Trying to humble him is not the right approach to take. I’ve tried it.’

‘I’ve never employed lies with him, and I don’t play games. John’s happiness and his future is my only concern.’

‘The boy does have the right to know he has a grandfather.’

‘John does know. He also knows that he’ll see him in a few weeks when Sir Charles comes to visit. In fact he’s looking forward to it.’ He gestured toward a drawing book on a side table. ‘He’s making his grandfather a book with drawings of the heath birds in it. For a lad of his age he has a steady hand and his aunt is . . . was helping him.’

Adam didn’t miss the nuance. ‘His aunt is no longer here?’

‘Marianne has married and has moved into her husband’s home. She is Mrs Thornton now.’

Judging by the hurried marriage, obviously the fisherman had told the truth about what he’d seen, then. ‘John must miss her.’

‘Yes . . . John and Marianne were good companions. She grew up in this house, and used to take him out on the heath. He enjoys learning things.’

‘You have a father’s pride in your voice.’

‘And the same love for him that a father should have. To all intents and purposes John is my son, since his mother put him in my care from infancy.’ His voice took on a slightly mocking tone. ‘I concede that his artistic talent comes from his father’s blood, for I have several Barrie drawings and paintings, including some of Mary . . . his mother. They are John’s legacy. You know, Adam, you didn’t need to argue me into it. I’m quite willing to take John to London to meet his grandfather if Sir Charles is not well enough to travel here. I’ll go to London on Friday and return on Monday, so John doesn’t miss too much school.’

Adam smiled with relief. ‘Good, I had planned to travel back on Friday myself. We could go together, perhaps.’

Laughter coloured Seth’s voice now. ‘Surely you don’t intend to act as my escort?’

‘Certainly not. You look to be more a man than I could handle should you want to give me the slip, and I’m not given to violence unless it’s in defence of myself. The truth is I find the journey is tedious and I would welcome your company and that of John.’

‘Then you shall have it. Now, would you care for some coffee, Adam?’

‘Thank you . . . but I believe my five minutes might be up by now.’

Seth laughed. ‘I can afford you five more, I imagine. Are you accommodated? I can put you up if you wish. We don’t often have guests; we’re rather isolated.’

‘Your surroundings are beautiful, so that must compensate for it. You were born here in Dorset, were you not?’

‘My mother was from Dorchester, and my father was a soldier. He died abroad and I can’t remember him all that well. I was born and brought up in the home of my maternal grandmother. My mother took in pupils, so she saw to my early education . . .’ Seth raised an eyebrow. ‘But I imagine you know that.’

‘Not that particular snippet. You were twelve when she died, and your grandmother sent you to a boarding school. There was enough left in her estate to pay for your commission . . . and your Scottish relative left you quite well off when he died.’

‘And I never knew he existed until then.’ Seth looked him straight in the eye. ‘I really must change my legal representation in Scotland.’

‘It might be a good idea. I can suggest someone whom I know to be both honest and discreet, if you’d wish. And thank you for your offer of hospitality. I accept, because I’d really like to explore your heath a little. You mine clay and gravel, I believe.’

‘I can take you up and show you the pits if you like. The clay is conveyed in carts along rails to the loading barges, sorted, and then sold to the various potteries.’

A few days later two men and a boy were about to board a train at Poole Junction. They would change trains at Southampton, then alight at Waterloo Bridge station.

John’s quick smile revealed his nervous excitement at this momentous event in his life, but he pressed hard against Seth’s side and hugged a small exercise notebook, in which Seth had drawn a map of their journey and the towns they would pass through.

Before they’d left the house Charlotte had fussed. She’d checked all their buttons were attached, and that they both had clean handkerchiefs in their pockets. ‘Make sure you’re on your best behaviour, John.’

‘Yes, Mama.’

‘There’s a picnic basket. Don’t eat the food all at once in case you’re sick . . . that goes for you too, Seth. And you, Mr Chapman.’

The three men exchanged a grin when she said, ‘Goodness, what are you waiting for then? Off you go. The cab is outside and you’ll miss the train if you don’t hurry. Goodbye, Mr Chapman. It was nice meeting you. You’ll have to bring your mother and sister to visit one day.’

‘They would enjoy that, I’m sure.’

After the other two had left the house Seth took Charlotte’s face between his hands and gazed into her wary blue eyes. She’d been low in spirits since Erasmus Thornton had collared her at the church and given her a dressing down, something he knew she’d deserved. He kissed her mouth with more intimacy than she usually encouraged, and colour flooded her cheeks.

‘Do something for me,’ he said.

‘What is it?’

‘Don’t think so badly of Marianne. Make your peace with her.’

Her face tensed. ‘Not while she’s living under Thornton’s roof.’

‘You sent her there, and thank God they took her in.’

‘Oh, my sister always lands the right way up. People like her with her pretty ways. She didn’t have to fight for anything when we were small. I did it for her. Well, now she knows what it’s like to have people talking about her, and it serves her right. Running away with Nick Thornton without a word and bringing shame down on her family is unforgivable. And I don’t believe they are married, whatever Erasmus Thornton said. He’s just trying to save face.’