Shackles of Honor (65 page)

“Oh, Nanna! I didn’t know what else to do! I…I…Havroneck and Syndle…I’m sure they mean to…” Katie sobbed suddenly.

The old woman smoothed the girl’s hair and looked up to Cassidy. “So you’ve come for the truth of it, have you?” she said to Cassidy.

Cassidy was rather astonished at having the woman address her thus. “Katie assured me I should come,” was all she could say.

The old woman nodded. “Enough is enough. Secrets are too many in that manor house. Those that are born there know their own
. B
ut there is more
…
more that is not known. I think all should be revealed now.”

Cassidy felt great fear and trepidation rising in her bosom as the woman motioned for her to come sit near her. Slowly Cassidy obeyed the woman’s gesture and found herself nestled on a rug at the woman’s feet.

“I begin it simply, my dear,” the woman began. “My name is Andromina Pearson. I married a man named John. We had several children
,
one being Rosemary…who married a man named Hubert Darcy. They had a daughter, Minna, named for me. Minna Darcy was my granddaughter. Do you know of Minna Darcy?”

Cassidy’s mind swam in thick confusion. The name, Minna Darcy, she knew it. She knew it. She did. But from whence?

“Minna Darcy worked at the
m
anor when LaMont Carlisle was a youth,” the old woman added.

“Minna Darcy,” Cassidy repeated in sudden remembrance and understanding. “The girl LaMont loved before Devonna.”

The old woman nodded and smiled. “He told you of her then?”

“He did. The day he died,” Cassidy confirmed.

“A good man he was to remember her that day.” Cassidy watched as an expression of grief crossed Katie’s face. The young woman placed her head restfully on her grandmother’s lap, closing her eyes as if readying for some painful remembrance. “Minna Darcy was my granddaughter…and Katie’s mother.”

Cassidy gasped and looked to Katie to see only that her eyes were still closed, though a tear escaped each one and moistened her face.

“Minna Darcy was Katie’s mother…as well as the mother of the man you know as Havroneck and the kitchen maid you know as Syndle.” The old woman paused
,
as if waiting for Cassidy to guess her next words.

“You…Katie,” Cassidy whispered. “You’re Havroneck’s sister?”

Katie only turned her face from Cassidy, burying her tears in her grandmother’s coverlet. “Katherine is half sister to Blythe and Syndle. She is Minna’s daughter from her second marriage to Robert Minson, and they know not of her.”

“What?” Cassidy questioned as her head began to pound with trying to decipher the secretive and confusing information and relationships. “How could they not know of her if she is their sist
er? She works at Carlisle Manor.
I don’t understand all this! What has this to do with
—
”

“Let me begin once more, my dear,” the old woman suggested. “Minna was heartbroken when LaMont married Devonna. I…I do not think LaMont realized how fully she loved him. Her heartbreak was deep
,
and she strove desperately to heal it. In searching for the cure, she met and married quickly a man named Kenneth Havroneck. Shortly, almost on the eve of their marriage, Minna found out what a vile character Havroneck was, but it was too late. She had wed him
,
and he owned her. Abusive he was and a drunkard. He stayed only a few months.

“Minna kept her marriage secret, using her maiden name, for she feared that news of her villainous husband would give cause for her dismissal at
Carlisle
. She continued to work for the
Carlisle
family, even though I, as her legal guardian, for her parents had died of
a sudden
illness
shortly before
, thought she should seek other venues of employment. So Minna married a man she did not love
,
who left her forthwith, and she continued working for the man she did love until she feared it would be obvious that she was with child. She left the
Carlisle
service and stayed with me until after Blythe and Syndle, twin children conceived of a violent drunkard, were born. It became necessary for our survival that Minna work once again. Lord and Lady Carlisle very generously welcomed her back into their service. While she worked, she left the children in my care.

“All went along for nearly three years, until one day
,
when Minna was at the manor and I was here alone…Kenneth returned. He hit me about the head with a large tree branch and took the children, taking with him, thief and coward that he was, Minna’s only hope for happiness. She had no word where he had gone, where he had taken her babies. There was naught to do but try to live life, try to find happiness again somehow.

“Then LaMont’s wife gave birth to a boy, Mason LaMont Carlisle. He was a beautiful baby and took to Minna quickly. Devonna was a doting, loving
,
and good mother. There was little time left for nursemaids or governesses, but the lad took to Minna when his mother was not with him. She pampered him and loved him like her own child, and I think he felt her love for him. It healed Minna somehow to have a baby to love and cuddle. The fact that it was LaMont Carlisle’s baby made it all the more dear to her.

“And then the news came—the news of Kenneth’s murder. Well he deserved it, for there was no trace of the children until years and years later. But that must wait in the telling.

“Minna’s heart was again opened, and
when the first man at Carlisle M
anor, Robert Minson, took notice of her, although he was considerably older than she, she did take to him. They fell in love and married. They were happy
,
and I was happy for Minna. Finally she had found love again, someone who could and would love her back.

“Well, not so long after Devonna Carlisle gave birth to a baby girl, Jillian, there was born to Minna and Robert a girl
,
and they named her Katherine. Katherine Darcy Minson. She was her mother’s pride and joy and happiness in life. Minna continued to work at the manor, for she loved Mason and Jillian…not quite as she did her own
,
but she had true affection for them and they for her. Robert wished that she would not work so hard as she did for the Carlisles, but he did not force her to stop.

“Life went merrily along, until one day a young man and a young woman appeared at Carlisle
M
anor, a brother and sister, but no one knew they were siblings. No one. Secretive twins seeking employment. Minna, however, knew. A mother knows. Blythe was…Blythe
is
very appealing and convincing when he connives to be. As is Syndle. Young Mason was reaching the age of manhood and needed a valet. Blythe was offered the position
,
and Syndle was employed in the kitchen. At first, Minna was overj
oyed. Her long-
lost children were near!

“On their first day she spoke to them, not revealing herself, but asking about their families, backgrounds
,
and so forth. They responded they knew who she was, their own mother who had sold them for money to try to win the heart of the lord of the manor at which they now worked. Kenneth had told them all manner of atrocious lies about her before he died
—l
ies that his sister continued to tell and embellished upon after his death while she was left to raise them and plant the seed of envy and hate deep in their hearts. Minna argued with them, trying to let them know the truth, to give them her heart. But they would not hear it, would not listen. Would not see the truth in her soul. They told her to speak to no one of their relationship to her else they would reveal her lying, deceitful soul to LaMont Carlisle and all else in the household.

“I will never forget the day Minna came home with the tale. It was frightened she was! In pain and grief, yet frightened. ‘
They have the evil of Kenneth in their eyes
,’ she told me. And she told me else. She told me that never was anyone to know that Katherine was her daughter. She and Robert agreed that night that Katherine should remain a secret from Blythe and Syndle, for something
—
maternal instinct, I believe it to be
—
spoke to Minna, telling her that if it were known to Blythe and Syndle that they had a sister…Katherine’s life would be in ruins at the least.

“They told young Katherine that, for reasons they could not explain to her at the time, she must from that point forward be known as Katie Pearson
—t
hat someday they would reveal the necessity for it, but she must promise to keep her true name a secret until such time as they gave her leave to do otherwise.

“Soon after Blythe and Syndle came to Carlisle Manor, Robert took gravely ill and died very suddenly. You cannot imagine the horror in Minna’s face when she returned home one evening shortly after and told me who would be taking Robert’s place at the manor. It was as if her greatest nightmares had come true. Oh
,
how she grieved for Robert! How she grieved for the
Carlisle
family at having such hardhearted servants in their home as her own children. Still, she held hope that the goodness of LaMont and his family would have influence and soften the hearts of Blythe and Syndle. And all seemed well enough. Blythe and Syndle continued to work at
Carlisle
, happily
,
it appeared.

“Then young Jillian fell in love with a wealthy young man from the next county. Minna came home in a panic one day. ‘
I fear for her
,’ she said of Jillian. ‘
For Blythe wants her. I have seen it in his eyes! He is intent on her, Nanna
,’ she said to me. ‘
He is still his father’s son
,
and I fear for the safety of her virtue. For her well-being
.’ I assured her that her mind was contriving imaginative dangers.” The old woman paused and then whispered, “I was wrong to soothe her. So wrong.” The bright emerald eyes clouded with tears
,
and she reached out, taking Cassidy’s hand in her own. “I meant to keep Katie safe. You must understand that. By this time Katie was working at Carlisle Manor as well, having been introduced to Lord and Lady Carlisle as a friend of the Minson family. I…I…I feared for her life. It’s why I’ve kept silent. It’s the only reason. You must understand.”

Cassidy swallowed hard, for intuition whispered to her of what would come next in the woman’s tale. “Are you…are you saying…that Havroneck and Syndle had something to do with…with Jillian’s accident?”

The old woman raised her head and brushed a tear from her weathered cheek with a gnarled hand. “There was no accident, miss. Blythe Havroneck…my own posterity…charged his horse at Jillian and his mother that rainy day on the cliffs. He drove them to the edge
, t
hen had his horse pound at the ground with its hooves until the ledge upon which they stood
—
screaming and crying out for mercy
,
huddled in each other’s embrace
—
until the rain and the mad pounding of the horse
’
s hooves upon the softened ground…caused the ledge where they stood to give way, sending them to their deaths on the rocky beaches below.”

Cassidy shook her head and let the tears run freely down her face as she sat in astonished disbelief at the revelation. “That…that’s impossible. She was his own mother!”

“His own mother, whom he had been told had abandoned him and his sister in desperation to win the lord of the manor house. His own mother
,
who now coddled and loved the manor house children as her own! He hated her. And he hated Jillian for not seeing him.”