Taking Liberties (58 page)

‘The undercroft, I suggest.'

It was a normal exchange and Diana was grateful for it; everyone else—the servants, Robert, Kempson-Jones—now treated her with the cautious solicitude accorded to the very young, the very old and the witless. Alice would support Robert's intention to make her behave, verbally agree with him that she had lost her mind, and yet, deep down, retain the old resentful admiration for her mother-in-law and know it to be a stratagem.

She thought: I am becoming thankful for being treated as a normal human being.

Run away. Go to de Vaubon, take one of the rowing boats and set off for France. If we die at sea, it cannot be worse than this.

Yes, it would. Survival would be worse. You would have to live with what you had done, the abandonment of your last ditch of honour. Her decision had been right; she
knew
it was right. She just wondered how she had been able to overcome its pain sufficiently to deliver it in reasoned, consecutive sentences.

Kitty had to follow her down to the undercroft when Tinkler and Challenor took the body down there and wait, shivering, while she saw it was properly disposed.

Dawn had hardly deserved the name, being merely a lightening of black into grey; the thaw had brought fog which pressed against the house like a besieging enemy and made the undercroft more eerie than ever.

The body was put on a table, covered with one of Diana's shawls and a candle left burning at its head. Under the low-vaulted ceiling, the impression was of a catafalque and Diana was reminded of her introduction to the late Mr Henry Hobbs.

Kitty saw the smile and widened her eyes; the Dowager's madness was being confirmed by the minute.

T'Gallants was afflicted by unease. The fog gave a vagueness to the candles that had to be lit everywhere; some sounds were intensified, others misdirected so that it was difficult to identify them.

There was no point in staring out of a window into nothingness, nor could she do anything for the prisoners in the shaft room, dogged as she was by Kitty. Diana went to her room in order to try and read, putting her trust in the Missus to see the men fed tonight.

No boat from Thurlestone, from anywhere, could risk the narrow entrance to the cove in fog like this. Bilo and Abel, Totes and Laclos would have to endure each other's company another day.

‘If you wish to be sure of me, Kitty, you may lock me in.' The girl kept fidgeting.

‘No call for that, your ladyship, I'm sure.'

‘Then employ yourself outside the door.'

A bored and anxious Alice joined her. ‘The entire French fleet could be in the bay this minute and we should know nothing of it.'

She hovered over Diana's dressing table, taking bottles and vials out of the
étui cosmétique
, studying them and putting them back again—an exercise that caused a nerve to twitch in her mother-in-law's cheek. ‘Orange flower water, I see . . . hmm . . . when we are back at Chantries you shall have some of my Suave. It is more up to date.'

‘When is it your intention to leave?'

‘Tomorrow, if it clears. Challenor is uneasy about travelling in fog on these out-of-the-way roads. So easy to miss the route completely. I think you would find
pomade à baton
easier to apply than the oil, if I may say so.'

Tomorrow. If I went to Robert, begged him: give me a keeper, set a guard, but allow me to stay. I would at least have the village, Rachel, Zack, people I could talk to about him. Aeneas might sail away but Dido could live on with her memory of him in her draughty, damp, enchanted house.

‘Is Nicholls coming to T'Gallants again today?' She dreaded leaving the place empty for him to conduct a search that must inevitably uncover the shaft and the men in it.

‘Later,' Alice said. ‘He has taken a rowing boat out this morning to examine the cliff below the house. I suppose customs officers have to go out in all weathers.'

Diana's head went up. ‘Why?'

‘It is their duty, Mama.'

‘Why is he examining the cliff below the house?'

‘Apparently, he thinks that when he was on the headland opposite yesterday he saw a cave on this side that he had not seen before. He so concerned me on the subject, I could only peck at dinner. I said, “Would smugglers be using it, Captain?” And he said, “Perhaps.” '

He had found it. She didn't know what had led him to it, but at this minute he was rowing through the tiny gap in the rock that led to the cavern. He was looking up, seeing the shaft . . .

‘Mama!' Alice was concerned that she had gone too far in disseminating alarm. ‘Don't look so frightened. It is unlikely that there are smugglers in the cave this moment . . . I cannot understand why the captain should think there are . . . They are not a threat to us up here. Robert says so. Captain Nicholls walked to the coastguard hut yesterday and signalled to Plymouth to send men. They will be here today, he says. And Robert has called for his fowling pieces to be got ready in case . . .'

She couldn't move.

I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do.

‘Come, Mama, we must be brave. Oh dear, I should not have mentioned it, Robert said I should not tell you in your weakened state. But perhaps now you will see how easily one courts disaster when one steps into the commoners' world. It will be a lesson to you. Mama, I beg you . . .'

The Dowager had stood up suddenly and was looking down at her. If ever Alice had seen a madwoman it was at that moment.

Then she had gone out of the door. Kitty, who had been standing outside it, was flung aside.

She would not give way. The Missus would not give way, nor would she. There was still time. Blast and bugger Nicholls's eyes, he should
not
have them, not Gil, not any of them.

A boat, that was it. Tell Missus and the others. Get them to take a boat to the cave. Be ready. In this fog they can row the men away, anywhere, anywhere, Thurlestone. I shall go to the shaft room and start evacuating them, that's what I shall do. Start evacuating them. The platform will be heard but it doesn't matter, it is all over in any case. That's it, that's it, send the biggest men down first. If Nicholls stops them they can throw him into the sea.

The front door was locked and had no key in it.

She strode into the kitchen. Tinkler was in there with the cook. ‘Where are the keys to the front door?'

‘His lordship said—'

She picked up a bread knife from the table. ‘Give me the damn keys.'

Tinkler handed them to her and she took them to the front door and unlocked it.

Nicholls was coming up the steps, smiling. ‘Your ladyship really should not be venturing out in this weather.' He took her arm and led her back inside.

 
Makepeace was watching the clock. ‘Are we going to live through this day, Andra?'

‘Reckon we will, pet. The Frenchie's the one taking the biggest risk. But tha's not coming. Nor Philippa neither. Lasses stay here.'

He was the best of husbands but there were still things she had to fight for. She said: ‘It started with me and I'm going to see it through.' She kissed his ear. ‘You know I had to get Josh out of Millbay.'

‘Ay, you did. Let's hope the experience comes in handy getting the two of us out of the Tower.'

She'd won.

‘The three of us,' Philippa said.

‘God save us from independent women,' said Andra.

And God save men who let us be independent, Makepeace thought. She looked at Philippa and realized how hard it was to relinquish the power to protect. ‘Just stay in the background, that's all,' she told her.

‘Now then.' If thing did go wrong, she had dispositions to make.

She turned to Dell. ‘There's a letter to Mr Spettigue on my table upstairs—just in case. Maggie Hallewell's selling me the Pomeroy and I'm putting it in your name. Toby'll make a good landlord when he comes out.'

‘Missus . . .'

‘It's a little present,' she said, firmly. ‘A thank you for Philippa. Oh, and Andra and I have decided to go into the free-trade business. We're buying a boat for Jan. Try and recoup our losses; freeing people is a very expensive business.'

Young Jack Gurney put his head round the door. ‘Just beaching the boat he is, the bugger. He's alone. Reckon he's left the other two in the cavern.'

‘Thank you,' she said, ‘and you watch your language.' She went up to Josh who hadn't taken his eyes off her all morning, as if engraving her on his mind for later. ‘Have you got the pasties? It'll be short commons 'til you get to France.'

‘I got 'em, Missus.'

‘He'll press you, you must look scared. Don't smile, whatever you do.'

‘I won't, Missus.'

‘And when you get to Boston, look up Sam Adams. He'll help you get set up. Give him my love. You've got the money belt on?' She couldn't think of anything else and started picking lint off his coat.

‘I love you, Missus.'

‘Don't, don't. I love you, too. Betty would be so proud of you.' She clung to him for a moment, then wiped her eyes to look over his shoulder at the clock. ‘Better be getting ready.'

 
The entire household had to assemble in the Great Hall.

‘Is this necessary, Captain?' Robert disliked drama, especially in front of his servants.

‘It is. Somebody in this house is a traitor and I do not want him'—he looked straight at Diana—‘or her alerting the enemy before I am ready.'

‘Yes.'

He looked at Diana again. She saw total victory in his face and knew there was total defeat in hers. Her legs were giving way. She moved to the throne-chair and sat in it, gripping its arms so that she could sit upright to face what was coming.

‘With your permission, your lordship, I have appropriated Challenor and your other coachmen. For the moment, they must regard themselves as Revenue men. I took them with me in the boat and they are in the cave now awaiting my instructions.'

The rest of the staff had lined up with Macklin against the far wall; Kitty and Eliza scared, but with their hands politely clasped; Mrs Smart cross and protesting that she had bread in the oven; Tinkler hovering, like the good footman he was.

Alice, now genuinely frightened, gripped Robert's cuff in her little plump hand.

‘Did you collect all the arms you have?' Nicholls asked.

Robert pointed to the pile of pistols and fowling pieces stacked by the oriel window.

‘Break them out, if you please. Those two men to be armed.'

‘Captain, I shall do nothing until you explain yourself.' Robert was trying for control but losing ground to Nicholls's command.

‘Very well. I believe there to be men hidden in this house.'

‘
Within
the house?'

‘Yes. They may be smugglers, though I believe it more likely they are escaped prisoners from Millbay.'

‘That is impossible.'

Nicholls strode across to where Diana sat and stood in front of her. Everything had combined for him; his career was to be enhanced; this representative of the family that had tormented his mind all his life was about to be destroyed.

Not
in
control, she thought, looking at his eyes, out of control.

He spoke to Robert but he regarded Diana. ‘There is a negro at the inn who draws with skill,' he said. ‘Her ladyship had her portrait painted by a negro of equal skill. What odds would your lordship give against two artistic black men cropping up within the same ten-mile radius? He is an escaper and I suspect that there are others'—he leaned forward—
‘who have been succoured by a resident of this very house.'

She was the link between T'Gallants and Millbay; he knew it could be nobody else. She looked back at him, expressionless.

He turned round; he was having a lovely time. ‘Yesterday, I saw a cave in the cliff below this house where previously there was no cave. Believe me, your lordship, I have sailed in and out of this cove too many times to have overlooked it.'

Robert inclined his head. ‘I am sure you have, Captain.'

‘This morning I took a boat to examine closer and I found that it had been concealed, cleverly, by a drape of netting woven with gorse, almost impossible to distinguish from any other section of overgrown rock. Yesterday it was out of position, which was how I saw it. Today it was weighted in place and, though I knew it must be there, I had difficulty finding it. You understand me, your lordship? Somebody had put it back.'

‘But it's still just a cave,' Alice pleaded.

‘No, it is not. It is a cavern with a vertical tunnel, a shaft, leading upwards from its roof directly through the foundations of this house.' He was suddenly in a hurry. ‘A measure, I need a measure, Tinkler. And a plumb line.'

Without a glance at Robert, who didn't even notice the
lèse majesté
, Tinkler left the room to do as he was told.

Robert was still challenging evidence he did not want to admit. ‘These ancient houses are often riddled with tunnels and hidden rooms, Captain, priest holes and suchlike. There is no reason to suppose someone is using it to enter T'Gallants, there has been no sign . . .'

‘There is. There are droppings in the cave.'

Robert's nose went higher; this was becoming not only alarming but unpleasant.

Kempson-Jones said, ‘Could it not be birds?'

‘These do not come from birds. These are human, a considerable amount, suggesting many people. And fresh, very fresh.' He looked down at his boot.