Bought for Revenge(21)

'That was the last straw for Maria. She agreed to leave him. I wanted  her to collect Lucas and fly with me immediately, but she would not. She  said there were matters that must be attended to first. I think she was  afraid that once she had gone Jonas would take out his anger upon his  sister and her boy. She promised to come to Oakenroyd in the morning. I  protested, but she insisted I go. She told me she would lock her door so  Jonas couldn't reach her.' He dropped his head in his hands. 'God  forgive me, I thought she would be safe enough. Blackstone was almost  paralysed with drink, he could barely stand. I thought he would  eventually collapse into a drunken stupor and sleep for hours. I drew  him out of the house, to give Maria time to get to her room. He had  realised by then that I was in love with Maria and he began to rage,  calling her all manner of names and swearing he would never let her go.

'As soon as I was sure Maria was safely upstairs I went back home to put  my house in order and prepare to leave the country. The last time I saw  Jonas his servants were helping him back into the house. There was a  great deal to do at Oakenroyd, for I did not know when I would be in  England again. I was still in my study in the early hours when a servant  came to tell me that Morwood was ablaze.'

'Lucas says he saw you,' Annabelle reminded him.

Samuel shook his head. 'He is wrong. What reason would I have for  burning Morwood? It saddens me to say it, but I think it much more  likely that it was Jonas he saw that night. He was ranting when he  followed me outside. He said, "No one shall have her if I cannot!" I  took no notice of him, thought it was merely his drunken posturing. If I  had known-'

He broke off, his hands covering his face, and Annabelle sat beside him,  not knowing how to comfort him. At last he raised his head.

'Lucas is wrong, also, to think no one believed him. Sir Angus, who was  magistrate at the time, came to see me a few days after the fire to tell  me of his allegations. Of course my servants vouched for me and Sir  Angus admitted that he, too, suspected Jonas of starting the fire. He  was well aware of Blackstone's temper and knew he was capable of  terrible violence when roused, but Jonas was dead by then and the boy  gone away, so we decided to say nothing. We thought it kinder to let  everyone think it had been an accident.'

'Why did you not tell him that today, Papa, why let him think you are to blame?'

He looked at her sadly. 'Nay, my love, he would not have believed me.  And besides, how could I suggest to him that his own father had started  that fire?'

'And for this he would ruin us.' Annabelle drew back, clasping her hands  together. 'You must write to him, Father. You must tell him your side  of the story.'                       
       
           



       

'What good will it do? Sir Angus died several years ago and the young  man is unlikely to believe the word of my servants over what he thinks  he saw with his own eyes.'

'Please, Papa. I cannot bear that anyone should think you guilty of such a crime.'

'Very well.' Samuel stood up. 'I will write to him, in a day or two, when he has had an opportunity to think things over.'

She looked up. 'And do you think then he might change his mind about calling in the loans?'

For a long moment her father stared at her. 'No, my dear,' he said at  last. 'I don't for a moment think that he will change his mind about  that.'

It was the hottest day of the year so far. The June sun shone down from a  cloudless blue sky and there was only the slightest breeze to cool the  air. Usually Annabelle loved the summer, but as she rode Apollo at  breakneck speed across the park she barely noticed the weather. It was  three days since Lucas had called upon them, three days when she had  spent hours with her father, discussing what was to be done, going over  the indentures with Mr Telford and coming back to the same conclusion.  If they could not raise the money to pay off Lucas Blackstone, then they  would have to leave Oakenroyd at Michaelmas. They engaged Mr Telford to  make enquiries on their behalf, but Samuel seemed resigned to his fate.  Belle had never felt so at odds with her father. She felt a mixture of  dismay and anger at his calm acceptance of their situation and when she  had walked into his study after breakfast that morning and learned he  had not yet written to Lucas she gave vent to her exasperation.

'My dear sir, I sometimes think you are glad that this is happening to  us!' As soon as the words were uttered she was sorry for them, appalled  at her outburst. Thankfully there were no servants present to hear her  and she immediately dropped to her knees beside her father's chair and  begged his pardon. Samuel merely shook his head.

'No, no, you are right to feel aggrieved, my love. I am not glad this  has happened, but neither am I surprised. The guilt of poor Maria's  death has weighed heavily upon my soul all these years and I have always  thought I should be called to account for not doing more to help her.'

'My dear sir, what could you have done? Your faith has always been very  strong and you know that to intervene between a man and his wife would  go against everything you hold dear.'

His hands trembled in a futile gesture.

'But I knew that Jonas was becoming more tyrannical. If I had spoken to  Maria more openly, pressed her more urgently to fly with me … she might  well be alive now.'

A tiny blade, small but painful, twisted in Annabelle's heart. She gave a rueful smile. 'But then, I might not.'

Her father turned to her, saying quickly, 'You must not think I was not  truly attached to your mother, Belle. I loved her very much indeed, but  when she died, and then Edwin, I felt, somehow, that I was paying the  price for not saving Maria, and possibly for loving her, too. I bought  Morwood, you see, as a memorial to Maria and because I could not bear to  see anyone else living there. But the memories were too painful for me.  I went there rarely, and after Edwin died, not at all.' He sighed. 'I  have so much to regret.'

'No, no, that is not true,' said Belle vehemently. 'You are a good man,  Papa, you have done nothing wrong, save spend a little too freely and  that is a very common fault.' She took his hands. 'Please, Papa, write  to Mr Blackstone. It may not do any good, but we have to try!'

He regarded her for a long moment, sadness in his gentle eyes, but at last he squeezed her hands.

'I have been very selfish, wallowing in my self-pity, have I not, my  love? Very well, I shall write the letter now, for your sake.'

Annabelle had offered to sit beside him and help him with the letter,  but he had sent her away, saying he was better left alone, so she had  ridden Apollo up on to the moors to work off some of her frustration in  exercise. Keeping the big horse under control took all her concentration  for the first part of her ride, but once Apollo had settled down her  mind returned again to her most pressing problem: the treacherous  behaviour of Lucas Blackstone. She could not come to terms with his  betrayal. She had trusted him, and in her heart she still could not  believe he would really carry out his threat to ruin her father. The  doubt niggled away at her. If she could just see him, talk to him … The  woods that marked the edge of the Morwood estate were ahead of her,  their leaves forming a solid wall in varying shades of green,  contrasting strongly with the rocky brown moorland around her.

Apollo slowed as they galloped towards the edge of the moor. He had  learned that they turned back once they reached the road, but today  Belle kicked him on and guided him on to the carriageway that led to  Morwood Manor. The house was still encased in a web of scaffolding and  the activity was greater than ever, despite the burning sun. Elias  Greenwood was standing before the house and he turned as she trotted up,  one hand raised to shield his eyes.                       
       
           



       

'Miss Belle, we haven't seen you here for some time.'

His smiling greeting surprised her, until she realised that he did not  know of Lucas's visit to Oakenroyd. If Lucas had told anyone in Stanton  about his plans to ruin her father, then word would have spread rapidly.  Perhaps he thought he was doing them a kindness. Again the  contradiction. It did not make sense.

'Good day to you, Elias. Is Mr Blackstone here today?'

'Nay, ma'am, he's gone.' He moved closer, saying confidentially, 'And  I'm glad of it, too, for he's been worrying me, Miss Havenham, and  that's a fact. For the past couple of days he's been here, behaving like  a man possessed. He'd arrive early in the morning, strip off his coat  and involve himself in all the most physical tasks, felling trees,  carrying stone, never seen anything like it.'

'But he has left now?'

'Aye, miss. Rode off a while since.'

'Back to Stanton?' she asked. 'I did not see him on the road.'