Page 4 of The Duke Who Loved a Widow
No looking back. Those days are gone. It’s so dark tonight.
Arabella’s coach waited in readiness close to the stables. Everything was ready for the long drive north to York.
I hope Tabitha has made it to the carriage with no problems.
During the last few days, Arabella and Tabitha, their nursery maid, had gathered together a trunk of specialpossessions, memories of her husband Edward and Henry’s special toys.
Although anxiety was ever-present, she had maintained a calm manner with the household staff.
I have to leave now, or the door will close. Once cousin Christopher moves into Farrington Hall, the possibility of escape becomes almost impossible.
Tabitha had recently become betrothed to Judd Stephenson, Arabella’s chief groom. Let into the secret escape plan and determined not to be separated from Tabitha, Judd was poised to drive them on the long four-day journey to Yorkshire. He planned to remain there with an offer of employment from Arabella’s cousin, Sir Joseph Thraxton.
She sighed, pushing down the anxiety, which kept rising as the moment for departure grew nearer.
The carriage is mine. The horses are mine. I brought a dowry to this marriage, and my parents gifted the carriage and team. I am only taking what’s mine.
The news that Henry’s official guardian, her cousin Christopher, and his wife Violet were expected to arrive at Farrington Hall within the next two weeks had compelled her to put a plan that had been evolving for several months into action. Due to his sudden illness, no will had been left regardingHenry’s guardianship by Arabella’s husband. As Henry’s closest male relative, Mr Christopher Farrington had a legal claim to guardianship over Henry.
Christopher might have a claim on guardianship to Henry, but his heavy-handed approach had been despicable.
I know he will find me. I’m not disappearing without a trace. I can’t do that. But I refuse to remain here, under his domineering control, while he gathers evidence to strengthen his false allegations against me. I lost my husband, and I refuse to lose my child, too.
She held Henry’s hand tightly as they made their way to the stables. There was no need for secrecy, but it would buy time if it took Christopher a little while to track them down.
I believe he has paid spies on my household staff. I can’t trust anyone here anymore.
Tabitha had overheard conversations below stairs strongly suggesting that her cousin had paid informants. He seemed to have inside information in his letters to the solicitor, damning her as an unfit mother.
The list was endless. Henry fell out of a tree. Henry had been out all day unsupervised in the forest. Henry had disappeared, and members of the search party found him in the cemetery close to his father’s grave. These were examples of herlack of oversight. Every right and responsibility as co-guardian must be relinquished.
What made her anger rise and fear creep into her heart was when Christopher’s solicitor wrote to her, alleging that she had placed the child in the path of danger.
A long, legal battle lay ahead, with little chance, as a widow, of her winning the case. She had no money to fight Christopher but fight she must.
Since Edward died 18 months ago, she had made a little money from selling her poetry anonymously to a publisher in London. As Henry would become Viscount Farrington, the household expenses were covered by his inheritance, but Christopher made sure that no money was available to her personally. Without the support of her godfather, Sir Joseph Thraxton, she would be destitute.
Sir Joseph and Lady Thraxton, in faraway Yorkshire, had stepped in to support her and offered her a refuge.
I can fight him from Yorkshire, where I am surrounded by friends.
This was a risky path, but she had no choice. Leave now or live in a house controlled by a man who seemed hell-bent on proving she should lose all rights to custody of her son Henry.
“Tabitha, are you there?” she called into the darkness.
“Over here, My Lady,” came back the calm voice of her maid, who had grown up alongside her at Undershaw Place and moved with her to Farrington Hall when she married.
Arabella saw a lantern light and urged Henry to keep going a little longer.
Breaking with all convention, she fell into Tabitha’s arms and held her close.
“It’s alright, My Lady, we’ll be on our way as soon as you and Master Henry are in the carriage.”
Henry may be Viscount Farrington, but he would not formally inherit the title until his eighteenth birthday, and Arabella did not think it was good for a child to be known as a title, so Henry remained Master Henry to the household at Farrington.
Judd helped them into the carriage, and Henry quickly became distracted by Dash, who climbed onto his lap, licking Henry’s face with his tongue.
The coach creaked and groaned as Judd drove down the lane towards the north road. Arabella’s breathing steadied as they journeyed into the night. This gave her breathing space, aplace to live with people she could trust, and the energy to fight the legal challenges for Henry’s guardianship.
