Rachel's Story

Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

They took dinner with the locals at the tavern in order to dispel any suspicions about their situation, and Andrew good-naturedly explained in detail how they had strayed from their destination (a village four miles away) due to the treacherous dusk. His tale of running from an infuriated bull in a field and losing his wife’s belongings in the resultant haste, not to mention the facer a branch landed on him on the way, made for much hilarity and tap-room bonhomie.

Rachel, meanwhile, was busy in writing letters in the dark little room set aside as a parlour. After finishing an epistle detailing her safe arrival at London to Diana, she sent off one to her sister Lucy Moreland in London telling her about the sudden trip of the family to Derbyshire for Master Brian’s health. Illness stood her in good stead with both letters – while Brian Herringford’s ‘mumps’ must of necessity keep her busy and restrict contact with her family, a story spun about an outbreak of scarlet fever at the Morelands’ residence and subsequent quarantine would serve as ample reason for pausing correspondence between Carillon Hall and Cresswell Street. Rachel just hoped and prayed that no one would notice the unexpected postmark of the Happy Brothers pub of Marsham-in-the-Vale on the missives. Hopefully, she could spare her family and friends any heartache; not to mention the easing of umpteen questions which she would have had to answer on her return otherwise.

Mrs. Phipps was a kind lady. She met Rachel just after the girl had finished sealing her letters, and immediately frowned upon her muddied apparel. “Ye can’t expect to sleep in that, dearie!” she exclaimed. “What about yer night things?” On hearing about the regrettable loss of the couple’s hand luggage in their rush from the villainous bull, she took it upon herself to outfit this unfortunate girl in decent garb till she reached her destination and had better things to wear. With this mission on hand, Mrs. Phipps rooted around in a moth-eaten hope chest for countless minutes and finally presented Rachel with a frayed but respectable nightgown.

It was voluminous and shapeless, and was the closest thing to a sack the girl had ever seen; but it admirably removed all of Rachel’s inhibitions of appearing in night clothes before her ‘husband’. Now, she mused uneasily, it only remains to be seen whether I get a chance to change into it at all, with my ‘husband’ being present in the room…

Finally, Rachel and Andrew were provided with a candle and a large tattered blanket and ushered into the cramped attic by a curious little girl, who wanted to know everything about the latest novelty in their hamlet but was too shy to ask. She kept on touching a couple of stray locks that had escaped Rachel’s hasty bun and were bouncing on her back, and peeked bashfully at Andrew when she thought that he could not see. It took the two of them all their ingenuity to dismiss her from their room while keeping their amiable images intact.

Considering their eagerness to be rid of the girl, it was almost humorous how strained the atmosphere became once Rachel and Andrew were left alone and the candle lighted up the bed in the centre of the room. Both became extremely interested in their surroundings and, while Rachel kept on contemplating the weave of the bedraggled blanket, Andrew started investigating the sparse furnishings of the attic. Finally when she was sure that he must have resorted to counting the beams lining the ceiling in boredom, Rachel looked at him from under her eyelashes and made up her mind. His nervousness made her fears recede. After all, someone had to open the proceedings.

“Why we are feeling so awkward right now, I really cannot imagine,” she confessed with characteristic forthrightness and, catching his eye at last, smiled reassuringly. “It is as if all the hours we have spent together today have been wiped out of a sudden – and that is utterly silly, isn’t it? I am still me and you are…you. Let us use this privacy intelligently; you know how eager I have been all day for the details behind our kidnapping and escape.