Hide in Time (15 page)

Laura would allow herself to go home
now. She could return to her own little cottage and know that
Alexandra was safe and happy. She might even be able to get a kitten
at last; she had so longed for one. All she had planned was
proceeding. Well, not quite all. There was the little matter of Adam
needing to forget her and start thinking about Alexandra. That
wouldn’t take long and she must not, not, not resent it. There
was still the problem of Jack.

She tiptoed out of Alexandra’s
room and made her way to the door at the back of the house where she
had first entered. There, peering through the window, was Billy
Beggar. He was still in his old greatcoat but he stood erect and was
clean-shaven. She was short of time; if she didn’t leave now,
she would miss the coach. Indeed, perhaps he had come on the
overnight coach, if there was such a thing, and it would be used to
go back to Canterbury. She must hurry. How could she distract him and
slip out of the door unnoticed?

Billy started hammering on the door,
then he stepped back and looked up. Alexandra was leaning out of her
bedroom window. “Who are you? What do you want?” she
called.

“Laura? Is that you?”
Billy’s face was radiant.

“No. Laura is no longer here.
What do you want?”

“Work. I have a note addressed to
Adam Leigh-Fox, Esquire.”

“Wait there and I will call the
footman,” said Alexandra.

As the footman opened the door, Laura
slipped out, and Billy Beggar stepped in.

She must concentrate on returning to
the seventy-seven steps. Where were her directions? While she
searched in her bag, she tried to recite what was in her diary for
the following day. What day was that? Never mind – get to the
steps. She went around to the front of the house and sat on the
steps. Steps. Where were the steps? Everything was slipping away, as
if she had just awoken from a dream. Steps. Keep saying that word.
Seventy-seven of them.

Hide in Time ~ Anna Faversham

“A horse of my own?”

“You’ll need a horse,
Alexandra,” Catherine called out merrily as she ran to the
stables. “And it will be important for you to choose one you
like while we still have some to choose from.” Catherine
laughed and looked over her shoulder at Alexandra hurrying to catch
her up. “Adam will help you. He’s so knowledgeable about
horses.”

Bally butterflies again, thought
Alexandra.

Catherine led the way into the stables
where Adam, wearing his riding-coat, was talking to his groom.

“Adam, will you help? Alexandra’s
here to select a horse.”

Adam turned and looked at Alexandra.
His eyes flicked from her face to her toes and back again before he
said, “Your clothes are not the most appropriate, Alexandra. Be
sure to visit the town and purchase something that will enable a
little more movement and comfort in the saddle.”

So matter-of-fact. Yet his eyes had
said much more than that.

“We have an account; Catherine is
known there.”

“May we use the carriage, Adam?
We were planning to visit on Thursday to seek out all that Alexandra
needs,” Catherine’s eyes appealed successfully.

Adam looked across to the man standing
beside his trusted deaf-mute groom, “Billy, tomorrow the ladies
need the carriage. See that it is cleaned and ready for them. Half
past one in the afternoon will probably suit them fine?” He
turned to smile at the two girls and catch their agreement.

“Laura, it is you!”
exclaimed Billy.

“No, I am Alexandra. Laura is no
longer here.”

“But I have seen you before, I
know I have. You are Laura. Or you look just like her.”

“That’s enough, Billy.”
Adam rounded on Billy and Alexandra thought he was going to lash him
with his riding crop, so vehemently did he roar. “You’ll
mind your place or not work here at all. This is Miss Mulberry, a
guest of the Leigh-Fox family. Miss Laura Yager has left us and you
are not to mention her name.” Adam paced back and forth before
he cracked the crop against one of the stalls and said, “Now
muck out the stables this instant. I never want to see them looking
like this again.”

Catherine pulled Alexandra’s
skirt and tugged her arm. Alexandra followed her hint and stepped
outside.

“That man arrived with a note
asking Adam for a job and that his name was Billy. He couldn’t
remember his last name. It was in Laura’s handwriting; I saw
it. It’s unnerved Adam.”

“I saw him when he first arrived
but his note cannot have been in Laura’s handwriting surely?
Didn’t you say she was shipwrecked and all were drowned?”

Catherine lowered her eyes. “We
had lost all hope that she might have been saved. Adam had made
extensive enquiries, then you arrived, with a letter from some
unknown person who knew him well. You even look like her but she was
shorter.”

“Oh, I see,” said
Alexandra, “and now this confused man is piling on the agony.”

Catherine blinked then began
diffidently, “Your speech is quite unlike Laura’s;
indeed, it is different from anyone’s I have ever heard. You
are rather unusual, Alexandra, though I love you for it.”
Alexandra laughed gently. “Your voice is so soothing too. I’m
sure you will be good for Adam.”

From around the back of the main
stables, Billy led two horses into the yard and Catherine’s
attention turned equestrian. “Have you ridden much, Alexandra?”

Alexandra couldn’t remember if
she’d ridden at all but she felt very comfortable in the
stables and she moved closer to rub the horses’ heads. An apple
wouldn’t go amiss, she thought. “I cannot be sure,
Catherine. I don’t remember. A little perhaps.”

Adam’s groom, William, led two
saddled horses out. One was a large chestnut stallion and the other a
smaller, dappled grey mare. The little grey whinnied with pleasure on
seeing Catherine and the stallion pawed the ground and threw his head
with joy. Alexandra knew she could ride. The sight of these two
apposite animals, clearly bonded to their riders, awoke within her an
eagerness to ride with the wind in her hair.

Adam stood beside his horse and said
with a grin, “Meet Aesculus Hippocastanum.”

Alexandra noticed that the colour of
Adam’s hair was an exact match for the darker shade of the
horse’s neck near the mane.

“Horse Chestnut,” she said
surprising herself for her deduction.

“Esky to his friends,” said
Catherine watching Adam produce a carrot from his pocket for each
horse.

Alexandra walked towards Billy and the
two horses he was leading from the stables. It was clear that
Catherine and Adam were happy for her to choose. Adam handed Esky’s
reins to his groom, and followed Alexandra. “Two very different
horses, Alexandra, both with spirit, so if you are not used to
controlling a horse, take it gently at first, I beg you.”

“Until I feel confident I shall
be very careful to ride only when accompanied, Adam.”

She looked at the two horses and
instantly warmed to the smaller black horse with white socks.

“Holly,” said Adam. “The
stallion is the faster but has a mind of his own if not very firmly
handled but Holly is a delight. She loves difficult terrain. Hills
and vales are no trouble to her and she can hold her own against the
stallion in this locality. She also gallops as if she knows she is a
work of art. A good temperament.”

“Holly.” Alexandra had
decided.

Adam’s eyes grew wider as he
looked at her and he shifted his shoulders as if he’d
experienced a shiver. “Saddle Holly, Billy. Right away.”
He handed Billy two carrots.

Catherine and Adam exchanged glances
and even the mute groom seemed uncomfortable. She’d chosen
Laura’s horse. She couldn’t undo that now. Surely they’d
known it was the most likely choice. Feeling the significance of the
silence, Alexandra followed Billy around to Holly’s stable and
reappeared mounted. Their stunned faces told Laura something more was
wrong. Adam roared at Billy, “Fool man, where’s the
ladies’ saddle? You can’t expect her to ride like that!”

Billy looked at Alexandra and she could
see he had no idea what Adam meant. “I’m very comfortable
like this, Adam. It seems to suit me.”

Catherine, having already mounted her
little grey, drew alongside Holly. “It isn’t seemly,
Alexandra. Your ankles and even your legs are on show. And you will
not be comfortable once you start to ride. Billy should not have
subjected you to this indignity.”

Adam bounded to her side, his hand
raised to help her dismount.

Some ten minutes later, they set off
slowly and, in Alexandra’s case, not terribly surely. I’ll
have to go along with it for the moment, she thought, I’ve
already unsettled everybody enough for one day. Boots, that’s
what I need, knee-length leather boots like Adam's; that’ll be
a good start.

~

The leaves had now mostly fallen from
the trees but despite the blustery, crisp November days, Catherine
and Alexandra rode almost daily. Alexandra, dressed satisfactorily,
with black leather boots and a very loose skirt, mostly rode astride
rather than side-saddle. Catherine had been sworn to secrecy and
Billy couldn’t see what the problem was anyway. On the
occasional days when Adam accompanied them, Alexandra rode
side-saddle. Adam was patient with her ineptitude. “One day it
will feel like second nature,” he had said. “And there’s
no need to gallop when a trot or canter will prove more enjoyable.”

Second nature? She examined the notion.
Nothing she did, nothing she wanted to say, nothing at all felt like
second nature. Everything felt quite strange, yet utterly
fascinating. She would repay him in some way, she thought, for the
care he showed and attention he paid her. She’d heard he liked
the smell of pine. She would collect a basket of pine cones for the
hearth.

~

On an unusually sunny, mid November
day, Catherine, Adam and Alexandra decided upon a morning ride.
Catherine mounted elegantly and carefully: Alexandra managed
carefully but not quite so elegantly. Adam let out a low whistle and
Esky trotted towards him, unsaddled. He leapt on his horse, like a
circus acrobat, completely unassisted. Alexandra was magnetized. The
speed! If she’d blinked she’d have missed the most
bewitching moment of her life. Further thought recalled an increasing
collection of such moments. And now he’d gone, like the
proverbial wind.

Catherine, noticing Alexandra’s
attraction and inability to follow, confided to Alexandra that she
was relieved Adam was coming with them, despite the hindrance to her
riding.

“Why?” asked Alexandra.

“He seems so preoccupied lately.
It is not long since…” She modified her thoughts. “I
thought as time passed, he would forget Laura, especially as you are
here to lift his spirits.”

Alexandra reflected. Not only
preoccupied but also aloof. He now rarely entered into conversation.
“Do you think running the estate is proving onerous?”

“Jack is useless, it’s
true. Adam, being the younger, should not have to shoulder the burden
entirely.”

“As Jack will inherit “Foxhills”,
why doesn’t he take more interest?”

“You have forgotten, Alexandra,
in this county gavelkind is usual. We have never been conquered,”
Catherine said with pride.

Though Alexandra could not remember her
personal history, she hadn’t lost all sense of British history;
nevertheless, gavelkind was not a word with which she was familiar.
“Gavelkind?”

Adam had joined them and, as their
horses, gently walking, found their way to the grassy slopes, he
answered the question for her. “In brief, the men of the county
of Kent were rewarded for their superior bravery by the man who
called himself William I of England.”

Catherine whispered to Alexandra,
“William the Conqueror.”

“If you wish,” said Adam
indulgently with a wink.

His straight back, the flash of those
dark eyes and now that hint of a smile sent her stomach to her knees.
Every muscle tightened and Holly whinnied. Adam lent over to pat
Holly’s neck and Alexandra drew in her breath. His proximity
and the scents of man, horse, and countryside were a heady mix. He
turned to look at her and his smile broadened for a brief moment and
his eyes searched hers before he continued.

“Kent did not bow to the feudal
law of primogeniture. It kept England’s law of custom. Land is
inherited by all the male heirs, not just the firstborn.”

Catherine added, “Jack cannot
bear to think that had “Foxhills” been just a little
further west he would have been the sole inheritor.”

Adam turned his horse to cross
Catherine’s path and, leaning towards her, murmured. “It
is not wise to conjecture on a brother’s thoughts, Catherine.”

Chastened, Catherine remained silent
but gave what could pass for a look of profound consequence towards
Alexandra. Wise or not, it was the missing link in Alexandra’s
understanding of Jack. She now understood Adam rather more too; he
even undertook to guide Catherine as only a parent should.

Their ride was cut short by worsening
weather and, cantering back to the stables earlier than expected,
only Billy was there to take the steaming horses.

“Where’s my groom?”
Adam asked.

“He’s taken Mr Jack’s
horse round the front.” Billy turned to Alexandra and enquired
pleasantly, “So d’yer have a good ride, Laura?”

Adam spun around and thrashed his
riding crop against the stable door. Billy, taken by surprise,
staggered away and swore.

“Your vulgar mouth will never
utter that name again nor cuss in our presence.” Adam bellowed
for his groom, more as a release, surely, then added to the dazed
Billy, “You will only address the ladies when first spoken to.
Is that understood?”

“Yessir.” Billy had the
good sense to stare at the ground before he turned to lead Holly and
the dappled grey, called Black, to their stables.