Page 124 of By the Sword
Kate scarcely heard Henrietta’s prattle.
‘Are you the lady who is going to marry my father?’ My father.
‘He told me the child was dead,’ she blurted out, her voice choked between tears and anger. ‘And all the time she has been here? Why did he lie to me?’
Henrietta patted her arm. ‘He didn’t lie to you, Kate. Tabitha has only been with us since Jonathan brought her here in October last year. He told us that he had only recently discovered the child was alive and he went to look for her in Oxford after he left you. She was in the care of her great-grandmother. The poor child had been ill-used. When he brought her to us she bore the marks of a terrible beating. You should have seen the little mite. He could not have left her.’
‘He could have brought her to me?’
Tears of hurt pricked the back of her eyes. She would have taken the child to her heart, kept her safe and loved until her father came back to them both.
Henrietta shook her head. ‘He felt he had brought enough trouble upon you and to return to Seven Ways presented too much of a danger. We agreed to take care of her until it was safe for her to go to Seven Ways. He intended to write and tell you. Of course, we had thought to hear from him before now so we have waited. When he saw you yesterday, Nathaniel thought you had come to fetch her but then you said he was missing.’ The woman’s face crumpled. ‘Oh dear, I do hope the boy is safe.’
Kate frowned, still trying to understand the enormity of Tabitha’s existence. ‘How? How did he find her? He would not have willingly risked going to Oxford, where he is known unless he knew she was there.’
Henrietta shook her head. ‘He wouldn’t tell me, but for some reason, the knowledge that she existed had come to him only recently.’
A memory, so painful that Kate had willed herself to obliterate it, came flooding back and she saw Long Barn again and the twoshadowy figures circling each other and heard their voices, low and menacing.
‘Prescott told him,’ she whispered more to herself than to Henrietta. ‘All the time the child lived.’
‘Sorry, dear, I didn’t hear that.’ Henrietta leaned towards her. ‘My hearing is not what it was.’
Kate recovered herself. Now she understood. ‘But why didn’t the grandmother send soldiers to Seven Ways? If that had happened, I would have known.’
Henrietta shook her head. ‘Nathaniel made inquiries in Oxford. The old lady took ill with apoplexy shortly after her encounter with Jonathan.’
‘Is she dead?’
‘I don’t believe so, but she deserves no sympathy, Kate. Her treatment of the child was appalling. The child is here now and safe…’ She smiled. ‘And loved.’ Henrietta’s smile faded. ‘Nathaniel and I have grown very fond of her but not a day goes by when she does not remind us of Jonathan’s promise to write to her. It breaks the child’s heart. What can we tell her?’
‘He would not break that promise unless he had to. Unless–’
She couldn’t say it–Unless he was dead.
The two women looked at each other, their fear written in their eyes.
Henrietta grasped Kate’s hands and said urgently, ‘All we can do is pray that Nathaniel can find her father.’
Chapter 44
Asharp jab in the ribs pulled Jonathan from a fitful sleep back to reality. He cursed and pulled his cloak and the rough, threadbare blanket closer around him.
‘You’ve company.’
The turnkey jabbed him again and Jonathan forced himself to straighten up. The mere act of moving caused him to cough. He put a hand to his chest as if the touch would stop the pain but he knew it would not. The cough had been getting steadily worse and the movement of his arm irritated the suppurating sores on his wrists where the manacles had rubbed.
‘In you go,’ the turnkey said.
The wavering light of a lantern appeared at the door. Jonathan blinked, the light obscuring the visitor.
‘Dear God. Is that you, Jonathan?’ His breath caught at the sound of the familiar voice.
‘Nathaniel? Are you a vision?’
‘No, lad, I’m real enough.’
Nathaniel Freeman gave a curt order to the turnkey to leave them. Jonathan swung his legs to the floor as he heard the chink of coins and the door closed leaving them alone together.
