Page 56 of The Remarkable Myth of a Nameless Lady
Chapter 38
Alicia held vigil over her father, though her mind was far from the cottage, and along the road to where the manor lay. She wondered how Jacob fared, confronting his mother for the truth. It could not have been easy for him, she knew, but she hoped he had the courage to discover that with every word she had spoken, she had been honest.
Tom had returned half an hour ago and returned to his post outside the cottage. He had not been able to find the physician, who appeared to be out of the village on some business.
“Alicia?” her father murmured, half-asleep, half-awake.
“What is it, Da?” She turned her attention to him.
“I am sorry, you know. I’m sorry I lost our home. I’m sorry I’ve not treated you as I ought to have done. I’ve no excuse for it.” He blinked slowly. “I should have taken you and Adam far from here, then he might be alive, and you might not have been dragged into all this.”
She smiled sadly. “We can’t change aught now, Da. There is no use in thinking of what could have been, and what might have been.”
“Even so, when you get to my age, pet, you start to think about your life. You look at every turn you took and wonder if you should have gone a different way. You’ll understand when you get older.” He cleared his throat.
“Perhaps I will,” she said softly. “Anyway, you ought to get some rest.”
He snorted. “I’ll rest when I’m dead.”
“I mean it, Da. You could have died tonight, and you need to take to your bed, so you don’t make it worse.”
“For a usurping rogue, that Duke has some nous about him,” her father remarked. “I would be grateful to him, if I didn’t hate everything he stands for.”
Alicia rolled her eyes. “He is not so bad as the others.”
“A woman would say that,” her father muttered. “No doubt you think he’s handsome, too?”
“I did not say that.”
He frowned in disapproval. “You didn’t have to. Don’t you forget what him and his family stole from us, do you hear?”
“I won’t, Da, and I haven’t.”
“Good. Let it stay that way.” Her father sank back into the armchair and closed his eyes.
They shot open a moment later, as a loud bang at the door startled Alicia almost out of her skin. She got up to answer it, wondering who it could be, calling at such an hour. She could not deny it—part of her hoped it might be Jacob, come to speak to her about everything she had told him.
Instead, as she opened the door wide, she saw a cluster of individuals. Most of them were familiar to her—village folk whom she had often seen conversing with her father, about matters concerning the Ribbonmen. Two faces she had not expected to see, however, were those of Mistress Marigold and Meghan. They stared back at her, apparently just as surprised.
“Who is it?” her father called from his chair.
“Men from the village, and… two women,” she replied. She did not want to reveal that those two women had come from the manor, for fear of her father’s reaction. At present, she did not know why they were there, but there was only one way to find out.
“We need to speak to your Da,” the first man said, shoving right past her into the cottage. The others followed his lead, bringing Mistress Marigold and Meghan with them.
“Cormac? What’s going on?” Her father arched a wary eyebrow as he looked to the two women. “Who are these folks?”
Cormac settled the women down on any available seat, taking great care with them. “They’re working for the Master and need a place to hide until it’s safe for them to go back to the manor.”
The Master?Alicia pressed back against the wall, making herself as small as possible so they would not pay attention to her.
“I didn’t receive no letter telling me about this,” her father protested.
The man named Cormac shrugged. “There wasn’t time. I got called upon to get them to safety, and I didn’t ask questions.”
“Did you meet the Master?” Her father gawped.
“No, he wasn’t there when I picked these ladies up,” Cormac replied. “But I know who he is. Meghan here told me. She’s a little upset with him, it seems.”
