Friendship's Bond (34 page)

‘And you’ll always ’ave my love.’ Leah returned the kiss planted on her cheek. ‘Now get y’self off to bed and I’ll fetch you up a nice cup o’ cocoa.’

Chapter 30

‘The lad be nigh on asleep afore he finished of his cocoa.’ Leah smiled at Edward who at her usual insistence had stayed for ‘a bit o’ supper’.

‘She’s really taken to the boy.’ Edward Langley’s glance followed the dark-skirted figure as it disappeared into the scullery. ‘She’ll really miss him when he leaves for good but then we must accept that he will want to search for these relations of his.’

He had wanted to ask if Ann would be going with him but not wanting to hear her say yes Edward’s glance dropped to his own cup.

‘Leah will understand.’

‘What be it I’ll understand?’ Leah emerged from the scullery.

‘That when the time comes Alec will go search for his relatives . . . maybe even return to St Petersburg.’

Edward looked up quickly. ‘The place you say he talked of. Did you know it?’

‘The Peterhof.’ Ann nodded. ‘I knew of it, I would imagine everyone in St Petersburg did. It is a very beautiful building, the walls are sandy pink with pilasters at each corner reaching to the eaves and the large windows are set in high graceful arches. I only saw it depicted in a watercolour painted I think by my mother. I could not bring . . .’ Ann stopped speaking for a moment, fighting tears. ‘The embassy would not pay . . . I did not have money enough to ship my parents’ belongings home.’

Watching Ann’s struggle with emotion Edward’s grip tightened fiercely about the stout pottery mug. If he could take her in his arms, comfort her with his love, but the cool politeness she had always shown him had intensified since he found her in Chapel House. It seemed almost she was afraid of friendship, afraid to allow anyone other than Leah and the boy to get close to her. Why? Did some man already hold her heart, had she gone to him on returning home; was that the hurt he sometimes caught reflected in those vivid blue eyes, had some man turned from her, hurt her so deeply she could not trust another? He smiled grimly to himself. Whatever the truth was, why would Ann Spencer take a lame man for a husband?

Feeling Leah’s eyes on him he took up the conversation. ‘The way Alec described that ballroom, the guests, the clothes they wore, it was pretty impressive. Do you think he saw the inside of that Peterhof place, that maybe he saw the event he spoke about?’

Ann shook her head. ‘I very much doubt that. What I learned from reading my father’s books supports what Alec said. The Peterhof is one of the imperial palaces of the Tsar, reason enough for not allowing a young boy to wander its rooms much less attend a function, especially one as import-ant as a possible royal engagement.’

‘
One
of the palaces!’ Edward smiled.

‘Tsar be another word for King don’t it?’ Leah slipped a cup on to its hook on the dresser then glanced at Edward. ‘So like our own King George he’ll ’ave more’n one palace to his name.’

‘My father’s books recorded several built by Catherine the Great, she presented them as gifts to various of her lovers; these of course are not imperial palaces and so not as beautiful as the Peterhof or the larger Winter Palace, though they are very elegant.’

‘Bit much for me, I wouldn’t know which room to be in next.’

‘Bit much for all of us.’ Edward’s smile flipped to Leah before returning to Ann. ‘Alec,’ he said, ‘has he ever spoken of any other place, of where he lived, of his parents?’ At Ann’s shake of the head he continued, ‘Don’t you find that odd? That in all the time you have been together he hasn’t once spoken of where he is from? Of why his parents let him leave that country alone?’

‘There has to be a reason; could the lad be orphaned?’ wondered Leah.

‘He spoke of a mother, it was a friend of his mother told them of that ball.’

‘ “It was told to
me
by a friend of my mother,” ’ Ann corrected, ‘Alec said it was told to him, not to his mother.’

‘There y’be.’ Leah stirred milk into tea Ann poured. ‘The poor woman must be dead and her man along of her, ain’t no other explanation for a lad o’ that age bein’ sent so far on his own!’

‘There was a man with Alec.’ Ann stared down at her own cup. ‘They were together in the Ploschad Morskoy Slavy, the great square fronting St Petersburg docks, he . . . the man . . .’ Ann was suddenly back in that moment, her ears filled with the sounds of horses’ hooves pounding on flagstones, the shouts of men, the screams of terrified women and children running for their lives, the crack of a pistol shot bouncing from wall to wall of the surrounding buildings, leaping from one to another, reverberating, drumming its deadly tattoo. ‘The man . . .’ Her voice had become the whisper of a frightened observer. ‘He is asking for help . . . my father . . . he knows my father . . . nooo!’

‘Ann.’ Edward caught a trembling hand. ‘Ann, it’s all right!’

‘Let ’er be,’ Leah said softly. ‘Whatever be inside won’t never heal lessen it be brought into the open.’

Ann blinked away the scene but not the regret colouring her next words.

‘The man said he worked with my father at the embassy, he spoke of a promise; he wanted my help but I didn’t listen. I didn’t listen and then . . . a soldier on horseback shot him and I grabbed Alec and we ran away.’

‘That be a terrible thing for any to witness, more so for a lad young as Alec were, the shock o’ that could be cause of his not talkin’ of his folk or his whereabouts.’

‘Yes.’ Edward nodded agreement. ‘I’ve seen the like in men so shocked by what they witnessed on the battlefield they only survived by shutting it completely out of mind.’

‘That was not the only thing that happened.’

‘You means the robbery on that boat, some no good a stealin’ of your money!’

‘There was more than that, I . . . I didn’t tell you the rest. It happened on that same boat.’ Ann talked on as Leah slipped into a chair beside Edward. ‘I don’t truly know how it happened, I’ve gone over it so many times; maybe the darkness of that night, the worry of finding myself not as I’d thought on a steamer for England, but on the ferry sailing to Finland has made things unclear in my mind.’

Leah was sympathetic. ‘Tek your time Ann wench. It be summat of the same wi’ y’self as wi’ the lad, your mind most like were numbed by fright.’

‘I did not see it happen, he must have been waiting in the shadows . . .’

‘Ann, you don’t have to—’

‘I heard a sound, a sort of gasp.’ Ann seemed not to hear Edward’s anxious interruption, ‘Alec he . . . he was not at my side, I was about to call his name when I saw he was held by a taller figure, a man with one arm across Alec’s throat, the other hand holding a club over his head.’

Ann looked down at her fingers twisting in her lap as she recounted the whole experience, finishing with, ‘The other figure, the man who . . . who shot Alec’s attacker, he said it was not money being demanded but the precious possession I had taken from St Petersburg. But I had taken nothing except the framed photograph of my mother and I can’t possibly see anyone thinking of that as precious apart from myself.’

‘It be strange and no mistake and though I don’t be a lover o’ violence I thanks God that second man acted as he did; frightening as it must ’ave been for the pair o’ you, at least it meant you bein’ safe.’

‘I prayed so.’ Ann did not look up. ‘I kept Alec as close as I could but when we were ordered off the ferry . . . the night was so black and the waves of the sea so whipped by the wind they tossed the rowing boat like a cork.’

‘Rowing boat.’ Leah’s brows drew together. ‘Y’means to say that ferry weren’t in no dock when you was put off and that in the dead o’ night? Whoever were responsible for that should ought to be locked up!’

‘People were being pushed to the rail, I could hear voices calling, possibly women separated from children, men anxious to locate their families, but the seamen shoving them into the boats paid no heed. Then I was seized. I grabbed at Alec but somehow we were separated; it was just as the sailors in the boat took up the oars that I saw him, he was half over the side of the ship but then someone made a grab for him, tried to haul him back aboard; I thought the tussle would see him being dropped into the sea but the sailor holding him threw the other figure aside and Alec was beside me and the rowing boat moved off. Then above the crash of waves I heard a shout; words broken apart by the wind: “We will find . . . take what you carry . . . both die and any who help them.” ’

Leah shook her head in incredulity. ‘Lord wench, what in the name of heaven could it be thought you carried?’

‘It was enough to have one man commit murder and another threaten to do the same. It was that threat had me so afraid for Maija and her sons.’

Maija . . . sons? Leah met Edward’s eyes, and she indicated that she also knew nothing of those people. A slight shake of her head silently advised him not to ask but sit and listen.

‘Maija found us next morning wet through and almost frozen with cold . . .’

The only other sound in the small room was that of the clock ticking above the fireplace. Ann continued speaking softly as though to herself, the tension of her body telling clearly the fears she had lived with, but it was Edward Langley Leah watched, the concern on those strong features, anger which had the fine mouth thin to an almost invisible line, the hands bunch to fists clenched so fiercely the knuckles strained white against the tan of his skin when hearing of the German sailor’s intended rape. Though her sympathies were with the girl she had given a home to, her heart went out to Edward: he had suffered heartbreak in his life and would suffer it again should Ann Spencer choose to go along of Alec to search for his relatives. Given her feeling for the lad it was certain she wouldn’t let him go alone.

‘I thought we would live with my grandmother,’ Ann went on, ‘but she had died a few weeks after my leaving for Russia. There was not much left of the money Aarno had given us and as I was unable to find employment I knew the little we had would not last long. That was why I was so grateful for being allowed to rent Chapel House, but even then . . .’ She looked up from staring into her lap, the strain of the past stark in her eyes. ‘Careful as I tried to be when buying food it . . . it became necessary for us to relinquish that tenancy.’

And it be my belief I don’t be needin’ of two guesses as to why. My mind says the kind of rent Thomas Thorpe were set on collectin’ were refused and it be that reason had you put on the street.

To speak her thoughts would serve only to incense Edward Langley still further; Leah kept them to herself saying simply, ‘All o’ that be past and done, you and the lad be safe thank the Lord.’

Safe! Ann rose, taking the cup and plate Edward had used into the scullery. Then why the stab of fear whenever the words of the gypsy woman returned to haunt her in the still of the night: ‘
Kalo RAI searches for another, the dark Lord of Death waits in the shadows
.’

Chapter 31

‘
You have my heartfelt sympathy.
’

Thomas Thorpe smiled as his hands smoothed the long black gown. ‘
If there is anything I can do you need only to ask
.’

Red-rimmed eyes swollen with weeping had looked up at him, a crumpled scrap of cloth was pressed to quivering lips.

‘
It be ’ard for her to say anythin’ just now Mr Thorpe, but y’can be sure her’ll thank you later.
’

He had knelt in front of the weeping woman taking both of her hands in his. Secretly revelling in the caring picture he made before the assembled group of sympathetic neighbours he had crossed himself, piously murmuring as if for the ears only of the bereaved woman but careful his words were just loud enough to reach the rest.

‘
Greater love has no man than he lay down his life for another.
’

He had squeezed her hands gently.

‘
Your son has given his life for the good of many, your comfort is in knowing the sacrifice was seen by the Lord who will reward it in heaven
.’

He should have been wearing this when visiting that house. Watching the reflection in the mirror he touched the white dog collar. It would have made such an impression, the women there would have gazed in admiration.

‘
It be terrible painful Mr Thorpe, terrible painful for a woman come to know the losin’ of a child.
’

Reaching for the white fringed stole laid carefully across his bed Thorpe’s smile deepened at the words murmured by Ada Clews as he had risen to his feet.

A pain that woman would know for herself. He draped the stole about his shoulders, placing the fringes in elegant lines. Yes, Ada Clews would soon know the pain of losing a child. The life of Mary Carter’s son had been given for his country, he would be spoken of as a hero; and Ada Clews’ daughter? Hands together in the attitude of prayer Thorpe watched himself smiling back from the mirror. Hers had been given for a more important reason, the saving of the good name of Thomas Thorpe.

‘But your sacrifice my dear,’ he laughed full-throatedly, ‘your death will not be remembered as that of a heroine. You will be remembered for the whore you were.’