A Woman of Influence (12 page)

"Do you not wish to live there anymore? We could come to a convenient arrangement, Pauline would have no objection I am sure," he had said rather lamely, but Becky had been adamant.

"No, Walter, I do not wish to enter into any such arrangement; you and your wife need have no fears that I will arrive on your doorstep and demand that you accommodate me for the rest of my life! I cannot imagine anything worse, for all of us. No, for several very good reasons, I must have my own place, and to that end, I shall sell the house in London and use the proceeds to acquire one elsewhere."

Becky recalled that Walter had been distraught.

"Pauline will be most upset; she had her heart set on spending some part of the season in town each year," he had said plaintively, and Becky had shrugged her shoulders gently and replied, "I am sorry to disappoint your wife, Walter, and I am confident you will find a way to comfort her. But you are both very welcome to come and visit me when I am settled into my place in Kent."

"In Kent?" Walter had exclaimed, as though she had named the Outer Hebrides as her chosen place of residence. Perhaps he had hoped she would choose to settle a little closer to London--in Richmond maybe, where he and his wife might still stay conveniently and inexpensively when in town. But not Kent! That would have been most inconvenient. Pauline would have been very vexed indeed.

But she had enjoyed telling him that she had already decided to purchase the picturesque property of Edgewater on the outskirts of the village of Hunsford, some two miles from Rosings Park and many miles from the noise and bustle of London.

"Why ever not?" she had argued. "It is without doubt one of the most salubrious and civilised counties in England, and besides, I shall be within walking distance of my sister Mrs Burnett. No, Walter, do not waste your breath, my mind is quite made up."

Walter Tate had not looked very pleased at all.

Becky had thought at the time that he must not have looked forward to telling his stylish wife Pauline that they would no longer have the use of a fine London residence for the season every year.

Now, as the train sped through the Kentish countryside, which she was coming to love, Becky savoured the memory of his disgruntled expression, even as she looked forward to returning to her home, confident in the knowledge that it was a good deal more elegant and comfortable than anything Walter and Pauline had to offer at the old Tate place in Matlock.

Above all, it was her very own.

Back at Edgewater, Becky found to her relief that everything had proceeded as she had hoped, by which she meant that nothing of any real consequence had happened at all. Mrs Bates reported no problems.

The girl Alice (or Annabel) Grey had settled in and was continuing with her work satisfactorily; her son, Tom, was quieter and more amenable, often playing on his own, no longer clinging to his mother's skirts.

Becky could not have been more pleased.

Then, to her greater satisfaction, she found waiting for her a substantial communication from Jonathan Bingley.

Having extracted it from the bundle of mail on her desk, she retreated to her bedroom, ostensibly to rest awhile, but in truth, keen to discover what information it contained.

Opening the bulky packet, she found within it two letters, one from Jonathan Bingley to herself and the other some pages of carefully written notes, sent to Jonathan by his son-in-law, Mr Colin Elliott, MP.

Jonathan's letter was brief and to the point. He wrote:

Jonathan concluded with felicitations and good wishes to her, her sister Catherine, and Catherine's husband, Frank Burnett.

Turning to Colin Elliott's notes, Becky read them eagerly.

They comprised a number of paragraphs in which he outlined some of the information he had gleaned from his contacts in the Home Office. It revealed that a William Rickman had indeed been tried for stealing from his employer, a brewer, and reselling the loot to a publican. Information had been laid, and Rickman had been arrested, tried, and sent to prison.

Initially, he had been sentenced to be transported to Australia, but too late it seemed, for the government had just decided that convicts would no longer be sent twelve thousand miles across the world, but would be held on prison hulks off the coast or incarcerated in remote jails on the moors. Out of sight and out of mind was what the authorities desired, and to that end Dartmoor would serve as well as Port Arthur. Becky read quickly, trying to discover what had happened to Rickman, but could find nothing significant. She was keen also to identify the brewer Rickman had worked for as well as the informer who had accused him, but found no clues as to their identities in Mr Elliott's notes. Colin Elliott had hinted that he might be able to get further information if he had access to some detail of names and dates to which the girl alone would be privy, and promised to maintain an interest in the case.

Becky suspected, because the girl had been unwilling to reveal anything at all, that there was more to the matter than met the eye.

She determined to speak with Catherine first and try to persuade Annabel Grey, in her own interest, to tell her more, chiefly in order that they may attempt to discover the whereabouts of her husband and Tom's father. She hoped it would provide the girl with a motive strong enough to overcome her reluctance to name persons of whom she was very afraid.

Despite the fact that she was rather weary from her journey and should have enjoyed a bath and rest before dinner, Becky decided to call on her sister and show her the information she had received. Catherine had a capacity for clear thinking that Becky had previously relied upon, and she wished to sound her out about a plan she was developing in her mind.

When she set out alone and on foot, she did not immediately realise that she had not alerted anyone to the fact that she was going to visit her sister. Her mind concentrated upon her plan, and anxious to convince Catherine of its practicality, she had almost reached the boundary of Rosings Park when she saw, wandering through the trees, a woman, who on her approaching closer, turned out to be none other than Alice Grey.

Seeing Becky, she stopped in her tracks then approached with an expression that betrayed her astonishment. Clearly she had not expected Becky to be walking in the woods at this hour, and Becky made no secret of her own surprise at seeing her there.

"Alice! What are you doing here at this time of day?" she asked, and the girl, having initially looked rather sheepish, answered that she had been trying to rid herself of a headache by walking out in the fresh air.

"My head ached from working indoors all day, ma'am, and I thought the fresh air would clear it. The woods in these parts are very beautiful."

Becky agreed and, while she did not say it, wondered why the girl was this far out--there was similar woodland aplenty around the grounds of Edgewater.

"Does Mrs Bates know you are here? And Tom? Will he not fret if he finds you missing from the house?"

Alice's answer was plausible enough.

"I did tell Mrs Bates I was going out, ma'am, and Tom is asleep in our room. I wasn't going to be long, ma'am; I was just on my way back to the house."

Becky was not inclined to press the issue. Instead, she took the opportunity to send a message to Mrs Bates herself, ensuring thereby that Alice would have to return to the house promptly.

"All right then, but do have a care, Alice. When you return to the house, please tell Mrs Bates that I have gone to visit Mrs Burnett at the Dower House and expect to be back in time for dinner." Indicating the overcast sky, she added, "If it rains, she should send the carriage for me at seven. Now, do not delay; I am not happy that you should be in the woods alone at this hour. It may not be safe."

Alice nodded and looked relieved, "Yes, ma'am, I will return to the house at once, ma'am," she said and turned to go.

Becky waited a few minutes, watching the girl take the path out of the grounds of Rosings Park, before resuming her walk towards the Dower House. Being keen to see her sister as soon as possible, she took a shorter route, cutting across a meadow, rather than following the footpath through Rosings woods.

Arriving at her destination, she found Catherine and some members of her household in an unusual state of high anxiety.

Two of the maids, returning from a visit to Hunsford village, had taken the familiar path through the woods. Not far from the boundary of Rosings Park, they had encountered a man, a stranger whom they had never seen before, who in dress and general aspect had appeared quite frightening to them.

"His clothes were very odd, ma'am, ragged and foreign, like a gypsy, and his face, which was half covered by his hat, was very strange--pinched and desperate looking," said one of the maids, while the other, a quieter younger girl, was still shaking from the encounter.

"I was very afraid, ma'am," she said, and Catherine had to put her arms around her and reassure her that whoever he was, the stranger could not harm her now.

Both girls had been very distressed by the experience, Catherine explained to Becky, whose thoughts went immediately to Alice Grey, who had been walking alone in exactly that part of the woods. She determined, on returning to Edgewater, to draw the attention of all her servants, and especially the women, to the need for caution; alerting them to the presence of a stranger lurking in Rosings woods. It occurred to her that, had she not been in a hurry and decided to walk across the meadow rather than stroll through the woods, she may well have encountered the man herself.

Catherine, having pacified her maids, turned belatedly to her sister, embraced and welcomed her, inviting her into the parlour to partake of tea and cake, but Becky had more pressing matters on her mind.

Her unexpected arrival on the very day she had returned from Derbyshire had surprised Catherine, who had no idea that Becky had received more significant information about Alice Grey and her husband. When Becky produced the material received from Jonathan, Catherine was astonished by the amount of detail the notes contained.

Reading through them, she shook her head, unable to comprehend it all.

"Becky, this is very strange indeed. Why has Alice Grey been so reluctant to reveal the truth about what happened to her husband? If she is keen to find him or even to learn of his fate, would she not have spoken earlier and told you more about it? I cannot make it out," she said.

Becky nodded. "Indeed, in ordinary circumstances, one would have thought so, Cathy, unless of course, she fears that some other party may discover it too and may try to harm him in some way. Remember that William Rickman is still a convicted felon, and if it is true, as Alice swears it is, that he was indeed innocent, then should the man who informed against him discover his present whereabouts, is it not understandable that Alice would have fears that her husband may be in some danger from him?"

Catherine was not always inclined to accept her sister's more dramatic interpretations of situations; Becky's creative imagination could often eclipse her judgment of the facts of a case.

Catherine could recall occasions when Becky, with little material evidence to support her contention, had mounted a case that, when looked at more logically, did not stand up to scrutiny. She remembered teasing her sister and urging her to "go away and write a novella," but this time, she had to admit that Becky was being particularly persuasive.

She could not dismiss her arguments as exaggeration or flights of fancy, nor could she find some more mundane explanation to put in their place.

Both the behaviour of the girl, Alice Grey, and the information contained in Mr Elliott's notes did suggest that something quite extraordinary was afoot.

"I do wish Frank were here," she said. "I should have liked to have the benefit of his opinion on this matter. He has had much more experience of such matters and should be able to advise us. You would have no objection, would you, Becky, if we were to lay this information before him and ask his opinion?" asked Catherine, and Becky indicated immediately that she would not.

She had a good deal of respect for her brother-in-law's knowledge and understanding of legal matters, as well as his sound common sense.

"It is such a pity that he has had to go up to London and does not return until tomorrow. If you would leave these with me, I could let him read them, and perhaps we could bring them back to you at Edgewater," Catherine suggested, and Becky agreed, inviting both Catherine and her husband to dine with her on Sunday.