Page 72 of The King's Man
The sound of the key in the door made her flinch and she rose slowly to her feet, her head spinning. When she saw it was not Roger she fell back on the edge of the bed.
‘Oh, Jane!’ Tears of relief filled her eyes at the sight of her sister. Despite her requests to see her sister, she had seen only Roger Knott in her whole incarceration.
‘Sister,’ Jane set the tray of food she carried on the table. ‘I have brought you some sustenance.’
Thamsine pulled herself up from the bed and sat on the stool at the table.
‘Does Roger know you are here?’ Thamsine lifted the cloth covering the tray. A simple meal of soup and bread but to Thamsine it looked like a King’s feast.
‘Roger has business in London. He will be gone all of the day.’
Thamsine looked up at her half-sister. After Thamsine’s mother had died, Jane had provided the much-needed love and affection the small child had sought. Jane’s marriage to Roger Knott had separated the sisters, but the war had torn them apart.
Until the night she had turned up on Jane’s doorstep, hysterical because she thought she had killed a man, Thamsine had not seen her sister for more than ten years. Now, it seemed to her that the months since she had last seen her had wrought even greater changes in her sister. She looked thin and pale and there were dark shadows under her eyes.
‘Ambrose?’ Thamsine could hardly bring herself to say his name.
‘I haven’t seen him since the day he brought you here. It’s just you and I.’ Jane clasped her hands in front of her apron and frowned unhappily. ‘I don’t understand any of this, Thamsine. I remember before the war, you were so much in love with Ambrose Morton. You begged Father for the betrothal.’
‘That was before I knew what he was.’ Thamsine could not hide the bitterness in her voice.
‘Are you going to tell me?’
Ambrose Morton brought a miasma of evil with him wherever he went. Jane deserved the truth about him.
Thamsine began, ‘You were right, Jane. In those months before the war, he flattered me and courted me. Stupid girl that I was, I fell for his charms and, as you say, I begged Father for the betrothal. All through the war, he wrote to me. Wonderful letters, full of professions of love. On the few occasions he couldbe spared he came to visit with presents and blandishments. I adored him.’ She took a breath, fighting back the memory of that childish infatuation. ‘All through those long years, I would visit his mother and sister, Annie at Beverstock Hall. Do you remember Annie?’
‘Oh yes, the poor idiot child,’ Jane said.
Thamsine felt the heat rise to her cheeks. ‘Annie may be a simpleton,’ she said, ‘but unlike her odious mother and vile brother, she has a pure and loving heart.’
Jane lowered her eyes. ‘Of course. I’m sorry, Thamsine. Go on.’
‘Early in ’46, one of the servants told me that Ambrose had returned to Beverstock, so I decided to ride over to see him and surprise him. All I could think about was that he was home, he had survived, and now we could get married. I didn’t wait to be announced. I walked into the parlour and I found him … ’ she swallowed ‘ … in congress with one of the maids.’
Jane’s eyes widened. ‘Oh! That must have been a shock, Thamsine, but these things happen. It was surely not sufficient … ’
‘You don’t understand, Jane.’ Thamsine felt the old anger well in her. ‘It was not consensual. She was not some buxom servant girl having a roll with the squire, it was… ‘ she took a shuddering breath and looked away. ‘I will spare you the details but more than her tears, it was the look on his face, Jane. Such unmerciful cruelty. I fled home and told Father the betrothal was over. I didn’t tell him why. I thought I need never see Ambrose Morton again. The war was over and he went into exile. Then Father married Isabelle Morton.’ Thamsine gave a bitter sigh. ‘That was the blackest day of my life. Isabelle Morton wanted only one thing and that was Hartley Court, but she could never have it while Edward lived. I tried to make Edward stay, Jane, I pleaded with him not to go on the fool’s errand to the King’s cause, buthis blood was up and he went and he died. I will never forgive him for that.’
Jane laid a hand on her sister’s arm. ‘Edward is dead, Thamsine, you must forgive him. He was young and idealistic. He did not die simply to spite you.’
‘I know,’ Thamsine said unhappily, ‘but he left me the heiress to the Granville fortune and the Hartley estate. It was hardly a surprise when Ambrose returned to England and re-established himself at Beverstock Hall. Isabelle began on our father, a ministering angel in his last days. Roger came, the paper was signed, the will was amended, and I was bound to Ambrose Morton again.’
‘But Thamsine,’ Jane frowned. ‘I know enough of the law to know he cannot marry you without your consent.’
‘After Father died in May last year, I tried to postpone the marriage. I claimed mourning as my excuse. For six months I managed to find some excuse or another until Ambrose finally lost patience.’
She took a deep breath. ‘He’d been drinking. He produced a pistol and I saw the look in his eye. I’d seen it before. That day I came upon him with his maid.’ Thamsine felt her voice constrict as the memory of the fear he had instilled in her came back. ‘We struggled – I knew what he was going to do, Jane, and I was powerless to prevent it. But he made one mistake. To subdue me, he set the pistol down on the table while he wrestled with me. Annie walked in on us and in that instant, I was able to break free of him. Annie picked up the pistol and gave it to me. Poor, trusting Annie. When Ambrose came for me again, I fired. There was so much blood. I thought for certes he was dead. I took what few possessions I could carry and fled to you and the rest you know.’
‘Why didn’t you tell us any of this when you came to us?’ Jane stared at her sister with wide, horrified eyes.
‘Would it have made any difference?’ Thamsine said. ‘I was frightened – I had shot a man. I thought I’d killed him. I lived in dread of every knock on the door. Little did I know that the knock on the door would come from the man I thought I had killed. Roger had sent for him. It was just by pure chance that I saw him and was able to make my escape.’
Jane shook her head in disbelief. ‘If only I had known!’
‘What could you have done? Besides, you were not well and you had the girls to consider. I couldn’t bring myself to confide in you.’
Jane took her hand. There were tears in her eyes. ‘I had no idea. That is not the story Ambrose told us.’
