Breaking the Governess’s Rules (30 page)

Arthur sat down in the dirt, looking up with wide grey eyes.

‘We ought to take him back. To be sure that he makes it,’ Louisa urged. If she could get Annie to return to the house, she could get help. Her arms ached to pick Arthur up, but Annie had positioned her body between Louisa and Arthur as if she were standing guard over him.

‘There isn’t time, see.’ Annie gave him a shove. ‘Go to Nanny, Arthur. There’s a good lad.’

Arthur began to toddle off. Louisa started off towards him, but Annie’s fingers closed around her wrist and held her tight, forcing her to walk away from the boy. Annie’s strength surprised Louisa. She tried twisting her arm, but the woman only tightened her grip.

‘Annie, what are you playing at?’ Louisa brought her arm down sharply. ‘Arthur’s a little boy. I need to take
him back to the nursery. You cannot be serious about abandoning a child out here in the gardens.’

Tears shimmered in Annie’s eyes. ‘I don’t have a choice, like, miss. I promised. Me mam’s life depends on it.’

‘But he is only eighteen months old.’

‘There, see!’ Annie pointed towards the house. ‘My aunt has him. See, I told you. My aunt looks after me.’

Relief flooded through Louisa as she saw Arthur reach Nanny Hawks and wave back. Arthur’s ordeal was over. All she had to do was to free herself from this madwoman. Even now, Annie was pulling her towards the copse of trees. Surely Nanny Hawks would help her, but as Louisa watched, the older woman turned her back and strode briskly away. Suddenly the meaning of Annie’s words became clear—
helped me afore.
Nanny Hawks knew the household routines. And what was it Nanny Hawks had said the first time they had met? Something about Annie meaning more to her than her own flesh and blood. Louisa put her hand to her mouth. Nanny Hawks had helped Annie by letting Trevor in. Nanny Hawks was the insider. The world tilted and then slowly righted itself.

‘You are all right, miss? My aunt says that Lord Chesterholm is sweet on you and that you inherited a great deal of money from an elderly lady. Handy, like.’

‘Annie, you must tell me what is going on. I can get help, but only if you trust me enough to know the truth. Nanny Hawks was the one who let Trevor in so he could steal the cameos and the snuffboxes. She did it for you.’

Annie gave a tiny nod. ‘I didn’t know he was going to do that. Not until after it were done, like.’

Louisa kept her voice steady and tried to ignore the tremors of fear coursing through her stomach. She had guessed correctly, but it also meant that she was in far more danger than she had guessed.

‘I helped you before,’ Louisa said quietly, willing Annie to remember the day they met. ‘When you were frightened and alone. I can do it again. Lord Chesterholm is a kind man. He gave you a handkerchief to bind up your cut. Why do you want to steal from him?’

‘No, miss, not this time. Lord Chesterholm has so much money. He won’t miss a little bit.’ Annie’s back stiffened and a single tear went down her ruddy cheek. ‘You come with me or I will get Arthur again. He sent me for the snuffbox and said if I couldn’t get it, I was to bring Arthur to him because surely the boy’s life was worth a snuffbox. He has me mam tied up. My aunt knows that. I can’t go back without anything. Me mam … she is going to get hurt.’

Louisa thought quickly. She had to raise the alarm. ‘You are amongst friends, Annie. No one can harm you here. You tell your story to Lord Chesterholm and he will get a rescue party for your mother.’

‘It’s too late, Miss. Trevor has come for me.’ Annie shoved Louisa forwards and Louisa fell to her knees, losing her reticule amongst the bracken.

‘You took your time about it, girl. Where is that blasted snuffbox and the other pretties I sent you for?’ a rough voice said. A man who might have been handsome once, but had run to corrupt fat, emerged from the
undergrowth. A crude bandage was tied about his upper arm. ‘You weren’t going to cross me, were you?’

‘I couldn’t get them, Trevor. Honest. I brought her instead.’ Annie dragged Louisa by the arm. ‘Now let me mam go.’

Trevor sent a stream of spittle arching towards Louisa. ‘A woman is worth less than nothing. His lordship will bargain for the boy, his own flesh and blood, but not this creature.’

‘You are not having Arthur Fanshaw,’ Louisa said, using her best governess voice. Her insides felt ice cold.

‘She has money, that one. They will pay to get her back.’ There was a note of desperation in Annie’s voice. ‘You see she is worth it. My aunt reckons that his lordship wants to marry her. And she inherited money.’

‘You reckon?’ The man stroked the stubble on his chin. ‘You reckon she is worth the price of your mother’s life?’

‘And more.’ Annie stuck out her chin. ‘You gave me your word. I have brought you someone to bargain with.’

‘Annie, don’t pay attention to him. He is just using you.’ Louisa held out her hands in supplication. If she could get Annie to help even the tiniest bit, Louisa knew she could escape and get back to Chesterholm. Surely they could run together. Two against one. Annie was not a bad person.

Two tears spilled down Annie’s face. ‘I have no choice, miss. I can’t lose me mam. This is all my fault, miss.’

Before Louisa had time to react, her arms were
grabbed and bound, and a gag made from a dirty rag was thrust into her mouth.

Louisa kicked out with her feet but Trevor merely laughed at her, shoving her forwards so she stumbled. Her reticule was inches from her fingertips. Louisa glared at it. Her tiny pair of scissors, a nail file, everything that might be useful was in that reticule and she couldn’t get it.

‘What do we do now?’ Annie asked. ‘You will let me mam go now. She’s no use to you.’

‘We take her somewhere quiet until I decides. It was lucky you heard about the inheritance and the old lady. Else, your mam and you would not live to see the light of another day, I reckon.’

Ropes were slung around Louisa’s wrists. She stumbled forwards as the rope was tugged. She wanted to believe that Jonathon would try to find her once he realised that she was missing. He had to know that she would not abandon him again. A stab of fear went through her. What if he didn’t? What if she never had the chance to say how much she loved him and how much she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him?
What might have been.
They were the most depressing words in the universe.

Her foot hit a rock and she nearly fell. She bit back fierce tears. She refused to give Trevor and Annie the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

Jonathon regarded the morning room. Miss Elliot was in the corner with the younger Miss Blandish, but Louisa was nowhere to be seen. And without Louisa
sitting there, sipping a cup of chocolate, it felt empty and desolate.

He had visited the nursery earlier, but Louisa had not appeared there either. And much to his annoyance, Nanny Hawks had taken Arthur for an early morning stroll. It was not really Arthur he sought, he wanted Louisa; not having her at his side made him jumpy. He had held out as long as he dared, hoping she’d relent and come to him but the feeling had grown. Something had happened to Louisa, something was far from right.

‘Miss Elliot, is Miss Sibson still a-bed?’

The elderly lady looked him up and down and Jonathon was tempted to blush like a school boy. She knew somehow what had happened between him and Louisa and disapproved.

‘Miss Elliot, I had only wanted to make certain that Miss Sibson was well.’

Miss Elliot drew her upper lip over her teeth. ‘It is odd. I have not seen dear Louisa since yesterday evening.’

‘I would wager that she has been kidnapped,’ Miss Nella said with great relish. ‘What this house party needs is a good kidnapping!’

‘Nella!’ her mother called.

‘There is no doubt a logical explanation, Brother.’ Margaret came up and linked her arm with his. Now that Venetia had departed, Margaret seemed far more relaxed than she had in years. ‘Louisa is probably out on a morning walk. She used to be a great one for walking.’

‘Yes, Louisa does enjoy her morning walks,’ Miss Elliot confirmed. ‘They help her to think.’

‘Pa pa Lou la An.’ Arthur burst in the breakfast room,
shouting his head off. He gave a little stamp of his foot. ‘Lou An Go.’

‘What is wrong, Arthur?’ Jonathon knelt down beside the boy. Arthur’s eyes were wide, scared and his entire body trembled. Jonathon forced his breathing to be even. Louisa had said that Arthur spoke much better than he gave him credit for. ‘Slowly now. Try.’

Arthur burst into noisy sobs.

‘Jonathon,’ his sister said reproachfully. ‘You ask far too much of the child. He is a toddler.’

‘Lord Chesterholm, Lord Chesterholm!’ Nanny hurried into the room, her ample bosom heaving and her cap askew. ‘I am so sorry. Arthur got away from me.’

Jonathon put Arthur down and glared at the woman. She refused to meet his eyes, pretending a deep interest in the wooden floor. ‘What happened, Nanny Hawks? My son is upset. He has had a fright.’

She twisted her apron round and round. ‘I would not like to say, sir. We were out in the air, like.’

‘You had best divulge what you know.’ Jonathon looked at her, hard. ‘Tell the truth and shame the devil. You are a good woman, Nanny Hawks, but something has happened to upset Arthur.’

The woman twisted her apron. ‘Miss Sibson has gone with my niece, I think.’

‘And Arthur doesn’t like that. He’s frightened for Miss Sibson. Why?’ Jonathon gave Arthur’s soft curls a stroke.

‘I don’t like it neither, sir, if truth be told. There is something amiss. People could get hurt.’

‘Why would Miss Sibson go with your niece?’

‘Because Annie took Arthur!’ The woman burst into
floods of tears. ‘I do not know what to do, truly I do not. It was not supposed to be like this. They have Elizabeth. What could I do? Annie knocked me down and took Arthur and then … afore I could catch up, Miss Sibson was there. Arthur came back to me and Miss Sibson went. Miss Sibson is a right canny lass.’

‘You had best tell me everything.’ Jonathon put his arm about the woman’s shoulders as the blood in his veins ran cold. The words Nanny Hawks spoke kept running through his brain. He was missing something, something big, and all because he kept his life compartmentalised as Louisa had accused him of. A place for everything and everything in its place. ‘Who are you talking about?’

‘That man of Annie’s. He is a right danger. She thought him wonderful. He promised her the earth if I’d just let him in the house. Annie thought he might leave without her. I thought she’d stay if I did as she asked…’

‘Nanny Hawks, did you let that man of Annie’s into the house the day things were stolen? Did he threaten to expose Annie? Is that why you did it?’ His head pounded when he remembered what Louisa had said on the carriage journey.

Nanny Hawks stood silent in the room with the clock ticking behind her. ‘That man threatened me and mine. I was only doing what I had to do to survive. I thought he had gone away, but he came back and … and he has Elizabeth. Except you had locked up the snuffboxes…’

‘Do you know where they have taken Louisa?’ Jonathon fought against the urge to shake the woman. The
law would have to deal with her. ‘Think carefully. Any clue.’

The nurse shook her head. ‘Honest, I don’t know.’

Hard hands shoved Louisa to the stone floor. She did not want to think how long they had been walking, her hands tied, mouth gagged. Several times, her skirt had caught and snagged on brambles and thorn bushes. Once a branch had held her captive and her dress now bore a great rip along the hem. And it was one of her favourite dresses. Louisa gritted her teeth—another black mark against this couple.

And then they had come upon it—the stone hut down a dirt track, the same one where a few short days ago, she had sheltered with Jonathon and he had shown her what it was like to truly experience passion and to be alive. Everything was exactly how they had left it—the straw on the floor, the little wooden table where she put her reticule and the place where they had made love. And somehow it had made it worse, to be a hostage in the one place where she had felt loved and cherished.

On the other side of the table, a very frightened Mrs Sims cowered. When Trevor approached she gave a small whimper and curled up in a ball.

Louisa winced as Trevor’s foot connected with Mrs Sims’s back. A hostage? She might die here. She wished now that she had told Jonathon of her love for him, and how in the last few days she had rediscovered all those things that she had lost: laughter, joy and even tears. She had started living again. If she had tried to explain, would he have listened?

Her back straightened as Trevor bound her feet, tying
the other end of the rope to the table. Louisa knew she could easily become like Mrs Sims, cowering and whimpering. But she had a reason to live and fight—to be able to tell Jonathon how she felt and how she had never truly stopped loving him. She had only forgotten for a while and had allowed her doubts and misgivings to crowd out what was true and good about their relationship. He was right. She had been so worried about going back to the old Louisa that she had neglected to see that he had changed and that she had fallen in love with this new Jonathon, not her memory.

‘There you goes—two women and my ticket to riches.’ Trevor gave a leer as he tied the last knot.

Annie stood on her toes expectantly. ‘Here, I thought you were going to release me mam.’

‘Slight change of plan.’ He rocked back on his haunches and nodded towards another man who lay on the ground. ‘Old Tom was hurt bad in the fight. He needs someone to look after him, like. We stays here for a few days. Then we get out and starts a new life. His lordship is going to help us do that.’

‘But you said …’

Trevor caught Anne’s chin. ‘You do as I say or else more people will get hurt.’

‘I don’t like you.’

‘Too bad. You are stuck with me.’

Louisa took a deep breath and bid the panic to be gone. Calm, collected and reasoned. She knew her way back from the hut if an opportunity to escape presented itself. ‘Let Annie and her mother go,’ she said around the gag. ‘You do not need them.’