Page 18 of Lady for a Season
“Unwell, I know.” He stepped up onto the carriage, taking his place by the impervious driver.
Maggie pulled at the carriage door, but she did not know how it fastened and in the shadows her fingers were clumsy. Edward’s pale face pressed against the window, his eyes wide with fear. He shouted again to her, voice now muffled by the barrier between them.
“Maggie!”
“Let him out!” she screamed at the men. “Help me!” she cried to Eliza and Agnes, but they hung back, scared.
“Move,” said the man and the driver beside him brought down the whip.
Maggie reached up and grabbed at the dark man’s arm as the carriage wheels began to roll, but he tugged sharply away from her, and the button of his sleeve came off in her hand. She stumbled backwards and then the carriage was gaining speed, and even as she ran after it, she knew it was too late. Edward shouted something but she could not make out the words.
The carriage was gone.
Maggie stood shaking in the dim light as the sound of the hooves and Edward’s shouts faded away.
“You’ve got nothing on your feet,” said Agnes at last, her voice cowed.
Maggie stared down at her bare feet, cold and muddy from the lane.
“Come back inside,” said Eliza more practically, putting an arm about Maggie’s trembling shoulders. “There’s nothing we can do for now. The Doctor will tell us what’s what.”
Maggie allowed herself to be led back into the cottage, where Eliza lit candles and lamps and Agnes brought a basin and a rag to clean the soles of her feet, one of which was cut and bleeding.
“I’ll get a clean rag to wrap it,” said Eliza.
Maggie could barely feel the cut. Slowly, she opened her hand and looked down at the silver button lying in it. On its polished surface were an acorn and a bulrush, their stems bound together with a coronet.
“What is it?” asked Agnes, leaning forward to look at it.
Eliza bustled back and knelt to wrap a clean strip of cloth round Maggie’s foot. “That’s a livery button, that is,” she said.
“A livery button?”
“Grand families have their manservants wear livery with their coat of arms on the buttons.”
They all peered at the acorn and the bulrush, the tiny coronet. “Whose livery is it?” asked Maggie.
“Don’t know, never seen that one. There’s the Earl, he’s got a boar on his, and I’ve seen two carriages with coats of arms pass by, one was a stag and one was a spear with waves. Never seen an acorn and a bulrush with a crown.”
“Why would someone kidnap Edward?” Confusion and fear washed over her again. “They took him without his shoes, just grabbed him and forced him into the carriage. What will the Doctor say?”
“We didn’t have no say in the matter,” said Eliza, sitting back on her heels. “Two men against us womenfolk, we couldn’t have fought them, now, could we? The Doctor will have to make enquiries. You can show him that button. We’ll send word at first light with Walter. He’ll drive into town and leave a message for the Doctor to come at once. You can write, can’t you?”
Maggie nodded. The three of them made their way into the parlour where Maggie took down the paper and quill pen and carefully opened the ink, then wrote in the neat script she had been taught:
To Doctor Morrison
Sir,
A carriage and two strong men came for Edward in the middle of the night and did not tell us where he was to be taken and being only women, we were unable to stop them. One of the men wore this button. Please send word of how to proceed.
Yours respectfully,
Maggie, Eliza, Agnes
As soon as it was light, Agnes was dispatched to Walter’s house to deliver the letter, which had been neatly folded up and contained the livery button, with instructions that he should ride into town and take it to Doctor Morrison at once. He was to put the letter only into his hand, for Maggie knew that discretion would be important. The doctor would not want anyone knowing his business and that would surely include his patient being taken away in the dead of night, with no warning or explanation.
But the letter Walter returned with late that morning did not give them much comfort.
