Page 58 of The Secret Word
She was furious.
“How dare you keep me in the dark, Chris? Especially when the topic is my father.”
Her response annoyed Chris. “You have only recently given birth. You are feeding two children and sleeping poorly. Surely, I have a right to protect you?”
“Instead of which, you put me in danger, for if he was planning something that affects us, I needed to be warned. You are not here all the time.”
“I did not want to worry you,” he explained, but she wasn’t having a bar of it.
“Yes, I would have worried, but if I cannot trust you to tell me your concerns, I shall worry the whole time. How would you feel if I said that Will had stopped bleeding, so there was nothing to worry about, if I had not even mentioned he had been hurt?”
Chris, who had been lounging until that moment, sat up straight. “Will has been bleeding?”
“No! But if he ever does, I shall tell you immediately, not when he’s stopped bleeding, and I expect the same from you, Chris. Tell me problems from the start so we can work through them together, not from the end when they are solved.”
He hated to admit it, but she had a point. She hadn’t finished, though.
“As to Father and the roof leak, I do not believe it. What evidence do you have that the builders were there to fix the roof? Father’s word, and we know he lies whenever it suits him, and without a scrap of conscience.”
Which was unfortunately true. “I shall ask Michael to continue to keep an eye on him then,” Chris said, with a sigh. Whatever the man was up to, they would undoubtedly find out, sooner or later.
It was sooner. A week later, Chris received a letter from Billy that asked him to come into London on a matter of importance. An urgent matter.
“What do you think?” he said to Clem. “Should I go? I wonder what he wants?”
“You still don’t trust him,” Clem noted, “but he has been nothing but kind to us.”
“Because it suits him, for some reason,” Chris insisted. “I’d feel better if I knew the reason. Though, to be fair, he does look after his people. He says it is good business, for it ensures loyalty.”
“Which is why you are going, darling,” Clem noted. “You do trust him, deep down. Why else would you have wanted him to be Will’s godfather?”
She was right again. Chris called for his horse, and kissed his wife and his children. “I won’t stay the night,” he said. “Unless this crisis, whatever it is, needs me to do so. I’ll send you a message, if that is the case. Otherwise, expect me before dark.”
“I love you, Chris. Take care. Travel safely.”
“I love you, Clem. Look after our babies, and I shall be home soon.”
*
Clem watched herhusband ride away down the carriageway, and felt a sudden sense of panic. Ridiculous. She lived surrounded by people who owed their livelihoods to her and Chris, and who were—as far as she knew—happy to be working for them. What could possibly go wrong?
Nonetheless, she hurried inside and up to see the children, fast asleep in their cradles. All was, of course, well.
Despite that, the sense of dread would not leave her. When a couple of carriages rumbled up the drive an hour after Chris’s departure, she hurried to the window. Her mind told her she was being silly. Her heart was certain that the threatened danger was there, outside her windows.
Carriages, yes. One of them, her father’s. And outriders—burly men with stern faces. She ignored the common sense thattold her to wait to see whether her father meant trouble, picked up her skirts, and ran upstairs, telling the footman as she passed, “Delay opening the door. Keep them waiting.”
She hurried through her bedchamber and into the nursery. “Hide the babies,” she ordered. “My father is here, and I am afraid he intends no good.”
The nursemaids stared at her.
Martha had followed her into the room and now she said, “Hurry. Ann, you take Master William. I’ll bring Miss Christabel. Flora, take the pram out the back door by the stables and run as fast as you can into the woods, then walk along the other side of the lake. If they catch up with you, say that our lady was worried about the wheels on the rough ground, and you were testing the pram.”
As she spoke, she was stuffing clouts and other baby supplies into a bag.
Distantly, Clem could hear a cascade of knocks on the front door.
“Hurry,” she repeated, wondering if she was doing the right thing in trusting Martha.
