A Captive Heart (13 page)

Chapter Thirty-Four

Tamsin watched the horseman ride quickly in the gathering darkness up to the house from her window seat and the loud rap of the heavy door knocker sounding through the house. Was he the vendor of bad news? She knew that the Prince had left safely for the Scillies; this had been an ill-concealed secret in Cornwall since his presence had been revealed at Pendennis castle almost immediately after he arrived there.

Everyone thereabouts worried about what would happen next. Would Cornwall be invaded soon? Was Treganna at risk?

Edward
Whittle brought a mug of ale to the tired rider in the hall and called the stable lad to take his weary, lathered horse round to the stables. He had travelled long and hard that day and the news he brought to Treganna was not good. Tamsin, standing on the stairs in her dressing robe, saw this immediately by the anguished look on Edward Whittle’s face as he hurried to inform his mistress.

Pale
faced, Lady Phoebe received the parchment scroll from him and broke the heavy red wax seal on it with fumbling clumsy hands.

She read the words on it with her eyes blurred with sudden tears and looked over at Tamsin who stood close by for help. ‘Alas all is lost, Tamsin, Sir Bevil… is dead. Murdered by our enemies.’

‘Aunt
Phoebe...’

She
swayed unsteadily and turned to Tamsin as the parchment dropped to the floor. ‘Your Uncle Bevil was killed in battle at Oxford,’ she said and crumpled up into a dead faint into Tamsin’s open arms.

‘Get
Martha now at once, please if you will, Edward!’

‘Yes,
Miss Tamsin.’

When
her aunt recovered sufficiently with Martha and Tamsin’s help she was assisted upstairs to her bedchamber. They called the doctor and the vicar who came at once to her bedside.

The
family were now in mourning.

*

‘Your father has now inherited Treganna, Tamsin.’ Martha told the sorrowful girl quietly as they left her aunt to the doctor. ‘He will have heard of this already. He will have been sent the sad news of his brother’s death by a pigeon to Tresco.’

Tamsin
nodded. ‘And it must distress him so, Martha. He would never wish for this to happen to his dear brother. Poor Aunt Phoebe; her son and now her husband both lost. How she must wish that they had never gone to fight in this cruel war.’

Tamsin
doubted that her father would ever live there again in peace. Everyone who knew Lord Bevil had taken the news of his death badly. He was well loved; a kind and generous Squire and landlord. His loss was felt by everyone.

Tamsin prayed that her aunt would never learn of Adam’s duplicity. Could he have been responsible for details of Sir Bevil’s movements reaching the enemy?

She
wept sharing her Aunt’s bitter tears during the next few days as they waited for Sir Bevil’s sad return to Treganna. They heard news daily of the Parliamentarians rapid progress farther down into southern Cornwall. There seemed little to stop them on their march. It was almost inevitable that they would take it all from the Royalists.

Tamsin
, feeling angry because she could do nothing to prevent this, took to riding out on her own across the clifftops, trying to find some way to relieve her pain and frustration. If only she had been the son she believed her father had wished for.

Reuben
tried hard to reason with the unhappy girl, but Tamsin would not listen to her good friend. He was afraid for her, as he was for everyone at Treganna. Everything was about to change for them all.

Tamsin
would need to be responsible now for her aunt’s health and well being; Lady Phoebe had no one else left to love and care for her.

Reuben signed his worries to his mother who had been attending a sorrowing Lady Phoebe still in her bedchamber.

‘Tell
her that she is not to blame for what might happen here, Mother. She believes she could have betrayed her uncle and his Royal Highness through protecting the enemy agent, Adam Carey.’

*

Martha accosted Tamsin in the stables as she prepared to go out riding again early in the morning.

‘Let the
poor animal have a rest today. As things are here now, I think it is high time, my girl, you are prepared for the what is ahead of us. Your Aunt needs you now more than ever.’

Tamsin
frowned. ‘I am well prepared, Martha. I am making the most of it now while I can still do as I please. Did Aunt Phoebe tell you to stop me?’

‘No
- we are all worried about you, my girl. That poor woman grieves in her bed chamber. You are grieving for your Uncle Bevil and your father too that you cannot see and for the young man you believe has betrayed us all here.’ Tamsin shook her head but she listened as they left the stables. ‘I have spoken to Edward Whittle and we have decided to show you the hidden chamber where the prince stayed and the secret passage that leads down from it under the house and into the woods. You may need to put it to good use some day.’

Tamsin’s
face lighted up. ‘A secret passage... and the special chamber! You will show me this?’

‘Yes, it is most important that you should know. It is a way out for you should you ever need it. Hush now,’ Martha said putting a finger to her mouth lest Tamsin gave away her excitement.

‘Where
is it?’ Tamsin was eager to hear more. ‘Is it really so well hidden, Martha?’

Martha
chuckled at her eager face. ‘You must wait and see. It is our secret. You must not divulge it to anyone else. We are entering a dangerous time; our enemies may surround us here before long.’

‘Pray
do not keep me waiting for long or I shall burst, I’m sure I will.’ Tamsin said as she changed her clothing in her bedchamber. ‘I promise I shall not tell anyone.’

‘Even
Adam Carey if you should by chance meet him again?’

Tamsin’s
face coloured. ‘Never. Especially not him.’

Martha
studied her young charge’s face carefully and laughed. ‘It is in here - in your bedchamber.’

‘In here? How could I not have known it?’

Martha
smiled at Tamsin’s gasp of surprise when she realised that the Prince had been sleeping in safety so close to her.

‘Yes... and you will learn now how to put it to good use. Take heed of what I show you in case I am not here when the time comes for you to use it.’

Tamsin
watched carefully as Martha pressed on an oak apple carving on the wall panelling and saw it move aside easily to reveal the dark passage behind it. Another touch on a lever inside opened up the door to the small neat chamber within, revealing a truckle bed, wooden chair and a table with a candle, used dishes, a tankard and an open bible resting on it.

This
then was the Priests hole which was used in James the First’s reign by the visiting priests. Now it had been used once again to save the young heir to the English throne.

Martha
stripped the bed quickly and Tamsin still slightly bemused with shaking hands picked up the used dish with the crumbs on it still from the last meal served to their royal visitor and the heavy pewter pot with the October brew drained from it.

The
young Charles Stuart might never rest his head under their roof again but Tamsin knew his visit there would never be forgotten by her aunt, herself or Martha, and the few trusted ones that were held responsible for his safety in the house.

Chapter Thirty-Five

The Parliamentarians arrived at Treganna in force one week later while a quiet family funeral service was being held in the Treganna chapel. Sir Bevil had been brought home to be buried in the family tomb. His family, closest friends and members of the household were praying devoutly when Cromwell’s troopers interrupted the funeral service.

Guided
there by the hymns they could hear from afar they stormed in through the heavy oak chapel door and rampaged noisily down the narrow aisle, frightening everyone with their bawling and loud shouting.

They
upturned the oak coffin and the flowers at the altar as they did so, and pushed and overturned the Reverend Thomsett as he knelt in prayer. They pulled down and destroyed a statue of Jesus on the cross as they ripped off the embroidered white linen Altar cloth and snatched up the heavy silver wine chalice, spilling the red wine used in the Communion service and leaving it to drip like a pool of blood over the vicars white surplice, as he lay fallen and stunned on the stone floor.

The
female mourners sobbed and clung together with their men folk were shocked at such a display of irreverence towards the dead and their Vicar, who was picking himself up shakily from the floor.

T
his was brought to a close abruptly by the sudden arrival of the Parliamentarian officers, Colonel Ridgeway and a younger officer, Captain Traynor, who ordered the Ironside troopers out of the chapel immediately. Under guard, the service was allowed to continue until the coffin was carried out of the family chapel and laid to rest in the family tomb.

Edward
Whittle, carrying the coffin, was glad that he had personally seen to it that the large, glorious stained glass windows over the altar were taken down carefully only a month earlier and hidden away in the tomb for safety and replaced by plain glass.

Tamsin
looked over at the mourners at the back where she knew there were at least two young officers in mufti, both local men from the Fort that had dined previously at Treganna. They, with Whittle and Reuben, had carried the coffin and they were now attempting to assist and help the frightened women mourners. If it was made known that they were from the military fort then they would be arrested immediately. She summoned Martha to her with a sharp glance. She addressed the two young men. ‘Come with us,’ she said quietly. ‘You, sirs, are now members of our household staff.’

‘Martha!
Take them back in with you. Take them through the kitchens up the backstairs to my bedchamber.’ Martha nodded. ‘You can arrange things. There is nothing that will give them away if you act quickly. These are local men. We must help them.’

Martha
nodded. ‘Aye. You must come with me now, young sirs,’ she said taking advantage of the Ironside officers’ attention being diverted to Lady Phoebe. Colonel Ridgeway was making his apologies known to her tearful aunt who was near to fainting again.

Martha
managed to slip away quietly unobserved with the young men while Tamsin stayed with her aunt and coolly accepted the Parliamentarian officers’ presence. Inwardly she wished them dead but if Adam could hide his feelings so carefully with his smiles then so could she.

The troopers had their orders from General Oliver Cromwell to destroy and strip all the religious ornaments and trimmings from the Royalist churches. These orders they carried out in the village and in the outlying hamlets and they went through the houses afterwards like a host of greedy locusts rifling the cupboards and stores stealing food and valuables while their officers watched attentively close by.

Another
priest of Cromwell’s own choosing, the preacher Samuel Crowther, was brought in and the Reverend Thomsett and his wife were ordered out of their home in the Vicarage while all Prayer and Hymn books were destroyed and burnt on a bonfire in the village square in favour of those used by the Puritan regime.

This
done, barely hours after the funeral, Colonel Ridgeway and Captain Traynor with their escort of Dragoon troopers rode up to the doors of Treganna where they were received with proud courtesy by Lady Phoebe and her niece. They had little choice but to accept their chilling presence in the house.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Lady Phoebe and Tamsin were informed by Colonel Ridgeway that Helford Fort and those officers and men serving in it had been overtaken and there was no one left to protect them.

‘The
Lord Protector has ordered that no one should be moved from your home. You shall live under our protection and jurisdiction till it is decided what shall become of you.’ Ridgeway paused briefly and then stated coldly with chilling pale blue eyes, ‘I have heard that your brother in law, Richard Trevenian, is serving still on Tresco. But not for long, madam. Not for long ...’

Tamsin was quick to intervene. ‘My father will be ready for all ventures to remove him and his men from Tresco, Colonel Ridgeway.’

He
smiled coolly. ‘Be assured, Miss Trevenian, we shall presently drive him and the rest of the Royalists out of the Scillies and straight into the sea.’ Ridgeway uttered this with relish on his thin grim features. He obviously believed that her father would be dealt with quickly and soon. It was like a death knell striking in Tamsin’s heart. This man wanted to destroy all hope that still remained within her that she would ever see her father again. But she was not about to betray to this man how bad she felt at this moment. For her Aunt Phoebe’s sake she was going to be as strong and brave as her father would wish her to be in the face of their enemy.

Tamsin
curtseyed and with her head held high declared boldly, ‘Colonel Ridgeway, I am also well assured that my father will do his damnedest to keep the Scillies and their people free for as long as he is there to fight for them. I wish you both a good day, gentlemen.’

With
this said and inwardly shaking Tamsin, with her head held high, turned round, opened the door and walked out of the room. She thought she heard him laugh as she crossed the hall. Colonel Ridgeway evidently was not at all disturbed by her outburst as he continued to instruct her aunt as to his intentions.

‘You
will see to it that we have adequate board and chambers here and the barn is to be used for our troopers, Lady Phoebe. I shall personally see that you are disturbed as little as possible by our presence here,
if
you remember not to attempt to cross our wishes, or try to get in touch at any time with Richard Trevenian regarding our intentions towards him.’

Lady
Phoebe viewed Colonel Ridgeway coldly, holding back her tears bravely.

*

Tamsin’s first encounter with the Parliamentarians served only to make her determined to undermine all of their dealings and she vowed that she would have little to say and do with them from now on.

Tamsin
was well aware that she would be closely watched and it could lead to her own chamber being entered and searched at any time if she was not careful. This was verified the following day when, accompanied by Martha, she discovered Captain Traynor seated in her on a window seat in her bed chamber.

H
e turned round as the two women came into the chamber. They exchanged worried glances. Why was he there? Had he been searching the room for the secret passage? The two young officers were hidden in there waiting for the night to come when they could leave in comparative safety with Reuben’s help and the aid of the hidden passage.

He
rose from his seat, bowed, and made no apology for his presence there, but instead said, ‘You have a fine view from here of the Helford Passage, Miss Trevenian.’

His
eyes were on her dark purple silk gown which in deference to her Aunt’s mourning for her uncle was neat and plain but still not in keeping with the Roundheads Puritan values. She had deliberately chosen this. Tamsin had decided that she would in future wear her finest gowns if her aunt would allow it when they sat down to dine. She was no Puritan maid. She would do anything to show that she was a Royalist and so far she had not been restricted by their rule.

‘I
have indeed, sir. Is there anything I can help you with Captain Traynor? Are you not satisfied with your own bedchamber?’

Martha
sniffed and held the door open wide. ‘You need to change your gown, Miss Tamsin. If this gentleman would kindly leave your bed chamber immediately.’

‘Ladies…’
He bowed and left.

‘Do
you think he was searching for the hidden chamber, Martha? Perhaps they suspect the whereabouts of the Priest Hole. Has someone mentioned it in the kitchens? If anyone knows about it then we are truly lost. The men cannot leave till tonight. If they are caught...’

Martha
shook her head. ‘Not from our people. They would never betray Lady Phoebe or you.’

‘The boat will be there tonight? You are sure of it, Martha?’

‘I am, do not worry yourself further. They will be gone from these shores ere long. Mr Whittle will keep the Parliamentarians well occupied and out of the way for us.’

*

Later in the parlour, Tamsin told her aunt about Captain Traynor’s invasion of her bedchamber. Lady Phoebe said anxiously, ‘What’s to do? It is disgraceful, Martha. The Colonel holds the keys to every room in the house. They have free reign everywhere, even in the kitchens.’

‘They do, my lady. But we shall hold our heads high for as long as we can.’

‘So
you say, Martha. But Ridgeway orders our people to wait on them. He has taken over the library for his own use. And his troopers are resident in the Armoury, where they flirt with the young girls and have taken everything of any value from us.’ She sighed heavily. ‘So much for their Puritan ways. I despair of our living here in peace with them under this roof, Martha.’

‘We cannot afford to give them good reason to turn us out, my lady,’ Martha said to Tamsin’s desolate aunt, who looked pale and wan attired in her black silk gown. ‘They are our gaolers in all but name. It is better by far to keep our enemies close to us. We shall know then where they are and what they are up to.’

Lady
Phoebe nodded her lace capped head. ‘You speak rightly, Martha. We must be careful lest we betray ourselves to them. You especially, Tamsin, with your father a serving Royalist officer. You must keep your high temper on hold.’

Tamsin
knew she would struggle with this. She found it difficult to keep her true feelings hidden from their enemies, but because so much depended on their behaviour she was helped much by remembering how Adam Carey had managed so admirably to behave like he had while he played out his role for them. If he could do it then she could too.

*

That night the two young Royalists officers left the safety of the Priests hole quietly and escaped down the passage way with Reuben’s able assistance and onto the French boat waiting for them down the Helford passage. This success helped to give Tamsin some assurance for the plan that was already forming in her mind to save her father. If her father was to be taken prisoner as Ridgeway promised then there could be a way to help him…

The
Ironside Dragoons had arrived in force in the village and it seemed that they had done their worst by robbing and looting all the local houses of food and valuables. They frequented its main town square and streets daily. Her Aunt bravely attempted with Martha’s help to run the Treganna household as it was before but they now lived daily under the constant attention given to them by the two Ironside officers.

It
could have been far worse. They knew they were watched lest they should sabotage the Parliamentarians movements. Captain Traynor, the younger, unmarried man displayed a polite friendliness towards her. She had shown by her guarded manner and her coolness from the beginning towards the officers that she heartily disliked their presence in their home.

Colonel Ridgeway allowed the Rev Thomsett and his wife to stay on in Helford, providing he no longer practised his religious services for the village parish. Edmund Whittle moved into the servants quarters in Treganna, giving up his small house on the Treganna estate and the Vicar and his wife were allowed to take up residence there. Tamsin decided to call on the vicar and Mrs Thomsett and they made her most welcome.

‘My dear child, I can see you are sorely troubled. Have you had any news yet of your father?’

‘No, I haven’t. I am calling on your help, Vicar. For should something happen to my father and if he is brought here and put on trial I know that his fate will be sealed. Colonel Ridgeway has warned me that when he is taken from Tresco he will be brought here and executed.’

The vicar sighed. There was little he could say to relieve her. ‘He is in God’s hands then, Tamsin, as we all are.’

She nodded. ‘I hope you will listen to what I have in mind. You may think I am asking for the impossible. You can refuse me, of course.’

He heard her out with an expression of gravity and surprise as she told him just what she intended to do if her father was taken prisoner and put in Helford Fort, clasping his hands together on his prayer book in his lap as she anxiously awaited his verdict.

‘It’s a brave thing that you have suggested to me. May I have a moment or so to think it over?’

‘You
may of course. I’m asking you to risk your life too if we carry this out together.’

He
was silent for a moment as he thought over what he’d just heard. He chuckled. ‘It is a most audacious plan, my child.’

‘I
know but they will not expect it and the advantage gives us the chance to do it quickly.’

‘Colonel Ridgeway is no fool he will be most careful to avoid something like this. A prison breakout is rarely successful, a great deal depends on his officers and guards...’

She
nodded. ‘I know but I am prepared to try anything that will save my father if the worst should happen…’

He nodded. ‘I am also prepared to help you, brave girl, should it come to pass.’