Rachel's Story

Chapter 16

“Just what do you think you were doing forty minutes ago, when you stood on the front step with your bonnet in hand? You were planning to go out, weren’t you, despite all I had told you about the dangers concerned.”

The blood drained from Rachel’s face, only to return with a vengeance in shame at her almost-truancy being caught out. Averting her face, she stuttered, “So you saw me? I’m sorry about that Mr. Fairfax, it was temporary insanity – if I can put it that way. I swear I did not go out after all; I recalled your words and stayed back.”

He looked at her then and spoke conversationally, “It almost was too late, though. There was a man staking the front door, for who knows how long, in expectation of taking your life with a brute of a gun. Your preparations to go out gave the poor man hope and he had got it all cocked and ready when you finally turned around and retreated. Letting me breathe again after what felt like an eternity, may I add.”

Rachel’s hand flew to her mouth as she grasped the enormity of the situation. Momentarily speechless, she could only stare at Andrew as his words sunk in. She had been that close to disaster…

“Ah, I see you understand now,” he continued in the same politely detached tone, which frightened her more than his shouts might have done. It signified how tightly his rage was leashed, as if it would break out of his control if he gave it the slightest freedom. “Somehow the news of our current position has reached the De Manleys earlier than expected. Well, the menace is temporarily at bay. While he was standing there, cursing heartily no doubt at your lack of feminine sympathy with his impatience, I accosted a patrolling policeman and directed his attention towards the suspicious character who had been loitering near respectable residences – possibly with the idea of mischief. He is trying to explain his way out in the police station as we speak. Now, if you would be kind enough, you should pack. We are leaving this instant.”

Rachel felt bewildered. Was he feeling so betrayed by her fleeting insubordination, then, that he was punishing her by being distant? And yet, it wasn’t completely her fault either! This wasn’t supposed to happen, right? Andrew had said that Miss de Manley’s life was not threatened at present! Were they not trying to just capture her? “But why was he trying to kill me so openly?” she wondered aloud. “Wasn’t Miss de Manley’s death supposed to look like an accident…?”

“I don’t know!” he roared, finally losing his tenuous control over anger. His knuckles balled into tight fists at his side as he ground out, “Maybe it is because they have given up hope of doing it inconspicuously. Maybe they hope that this would be considered to be a common mugging incident. I don’t know. All that I do know is that the danger has increased tenfold if they are ready to finish you off. Now, will you commence your packing, or do you wish to tarry some more?”

Rachel looked at him with distress. This was a stranger with unsuspected depths of passion and capable of great destruction; this was the soldier behind the gentleman. Would he never forgive her for her mistake? How will they continue to travel together if he acted so distant and…disappointed in her…all the time…

She resolutely shook off such thoughts and blinked back the tears starting to gather on her lashes. There would be time enough to go into them at leisure. For now, she was sensible enough not to question him further, and started gathering up her meager belongings without a word. The sight of her silent consent calmed him down somewhat and drawing a sharp breath, he spun away on his heel to buy some food from the landlady and to pay for the rooms.

He never got to hear the whispered “I am so sorry” that was left to float disconsolately in the room behind him.

They were out of the boarding-house within twenty minutes, alone with each other in a stagecoach hired up till the neighboring town Portslade prior to starting their long trek in the wilderness. And before anything could be achieved, the mammoth in the coach had to be addressed and laid to rest; otherwise it was going to be one long journey.