‘Your – your grave’s in the churchyard at Ravensfleet. I put flowers on it every week. But father doesn’t know,’ she added swiftly.
‘Well, I don’t know whose grave you’ve been tending all these years, but it isn’t mine, my darling.’
Slowly, Charlotte shook her head, completely mystified. ‘I don’t understand.’
Euphemia and Alice exchanged a glance. ‘No,’ the latter murmured. ‘And neither do we.’
When Charlotte was feeling quite well again, though her mind was still reeling from the shock, they began to talk.
‘What happened?’ she asked. ‘I want to know. Tell me everything. Right from the beginning.’
‘The beginning? You mean, how I met your father and married him?’
‘Yes, everything.’
Alice’s eyes darkened as she was forced to relive her memories, memories that perhaps she would rather forget. ‘I – I don’t know how much you know already.’
‘I know nothing. My only memories of you are fleeting, just vague pictures and – and then the day of your funeral.’ Charlotte shook her head in total bewilderment. ‘I still can’t believe all this. I mean – I know I was only five, but I watched the funeral procession leave the house – my father and all the men walking behind the horse-drawn hearse. I was watching from an upstairs window with Mary—’
‘Mary,’ Alice cried, ‘is she still with you? She promised she would always take care of you. She and Edward – oh my dear, what is it?’
‘Mary,’ Charlotte whispered. ‘Mary – and Edward? They
knew
that you were still alive?’
Alice took hold of her cold hands and held them tightly, chafing them to warm them. ‘Darling, you must believe me, I know nothing of what happened after I left.’
‘Left? You left Father and – and me?’
At this, Alice’s face crumpled. ‘My darling, you don’t know how difficult it was. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my whole life. To leave you – my precious daughter, but I—’ She closed her eyes and swayed slightly. When she opened them again, they were brimming with tears.
‘Your father,’ Euphemia stepped in, ‘my dear brother,’ her tone was hard and bitter, suddenly totally unlike the gregarious, generous-spirited and jolly person Charlotte had come to know, ‘was Cruelty personified. Alice had no choice but to leave him. He’d probably have killed her if she’d stayed.’
Charlotte drew in a sharp breath. ‘He – he hit you?’
Alice bit her lip and nodded. ‘Has he ever hit you?’
Charlotte nodded. ‘A few times, but Mary or Edward stepped in whenever they could. When he got in a temper, I’d lock myself in my bedroom until he’d calmed down. I learned to see when one of his black moods was coming.’ She didn’t tell them about the recent whacks with his stick that, to her shame, everyone knew about.
Alice groaned. ‘I’m so sorry. I never thought he’d beat you. I – I thought it was just me. Because – because I couldn’t bear him a son.’
Charlotte smiled wryly. ‘I expect it was because I’m the daughter he never wanted,’ she said matter-of-factly without self-pity.
Alice was still shaking her head in disbelief, guilt etched on her face.
‘But why?’ Euphemia couldn’t believe what she was hearing either, even though she thought she knew her brother better than anyone. ‘Even I didn’t think he’d stoop so low. I mean, how’s he kept it secret all these years?’
‘Easily,’ Alice said flatly. ‘When I left, he threatened me that if I ever tried to contact Charlotte he’d kill me. I was frightened enough of him by that time to believe him. And besides, I thought it was perhaps best for you, darling, if I went out of your life for good. I thought the dreadful rows would stop and that perhaps he’d be kind to you.’
Euphemia snorted but it was Charlotte who said thoughtfully, ‘To be honest, until recently, I never questioned my life. There were times, of course, when I wondered why I was never allowed to have friends, never allowed to attend school. I had a governess until I was fifteen. The only people I knew were on the farm, but even then I was never allowed to mix socially with them.’ She gave a wry laugh. ‘I only attended my first harvest supper last year because – ’ She paused. She couldn’t explain all that now, so she ended with the words, ‘And
that
caused a lot of trouble.’
Charlotte looked into her mother’s troubled face and said softly, ‘Don’t look like that. I just want to know what happened. I’m not
blaming
you, I promise.’
‘Perhaps you should,’ Alice said quietly. ‘I should have been braver, stood up for myself more, but his cruelty had worn me down. I’d had three miscarriages – all boys. And when I lost the last one, when you were two, it just seemed to tip him over the edge. The mental cruelty was worse – far worse – than the physical abuse. I stayed for three more years, but I could bear no more. I was ill and desperate, but I should have taken you with me. I see that now. I should have run away in the night without him knowing, but I always thought he’d hunt me down and snatch you back.’
‘I’m sure he would have done,’ Charlotte agreed. ‘Not because he wanted me, but out of spite.’ She paused then asked, ‘So where did you go?’
Alice took a deep breath. ‘Let me tell you it all from the beginning. I met your father Osbert through our fathers. We lived in Boston – my father was a potato merchant. He came into contact with the Crawford family through business and I suppose it was what you would call an arranged marriage. My father was very strict – a real Victorian father – and he chose Osbert for me.’
Euphemia snorted and said dryly, ‘Just like my father tried to do for me, only it didn’t work.’ She reached out and took Percy’s hand, glancing up at him. He smiled benignly and patted her hand. Then he sat down beside her, making himself comfortable.
‘Osbert was charming when he was paying court to me, generous and attentive. And – if I’m to be fair and I do want to be – in the first years of our marriage, everything was fine. But after the miscarriages, when I couldn’t give him a boy, he changed. He blamed me and became obsessed with wanting a son.’ Her voice quavered as she gripped Charlotte’s hand tightly. ‘He hardly took any notice of you. He resented you, I could see that. I suggested to him that he should divorce me and marry someone who could give him a son. I promised we – you and I – would live quietly and be no trouble to him. But he was vitriolic. “But you’ll want keeping,” he said. “You’ll want my money. You’ll drain all my future son’s inheritance.”’ Tears ran down Alice’s face and gently Charlotte wiped them away with her handkerchief.
‘Don’t cry, Mama.’ The name she had called her mother in childhood came back to her and, hearing it, Alice cried all the more. She held out her arms and after so many years of separation mother and daughter hugged each other. After a few moments, Alice continued her tale.
‘So – I thought that if I left him, he’d have grounds for divorce and he’d know that I’d make no demands on him, except that he should look after you. I always made sure his solicitor had my address, but no word ever came.’ She looked questioningly at Charlotte, who shrugged and said, ‘As far as I know, there’s never been anyone else. For the first few years, he ran the farm but as soon as I was old enough, I had to work outside. Then as I got older, gradually he handed over more and more of the day-to-day running of the farm to me. Now I do everything.’
‘You run the farm?’ Alice was surprised but then, suddenly, she smiled. ‘So, he’s training you up to take it over one day. He does intend—’ She stopped abruptly as she saw Charlotte shaking her head.
‘Oh no, I’m not to inherit Buckthorn Farm. He’s going to make a will and name Philip Thornton as his heir. He intends to leave me penniless.’
‘Who is Philip Thornton?’
Swiftly, Charlotte explained.
‘Your father intends to leave everything to complete strangers?’ Percy asked. ‘The man’s lost his reason.’
‘And all because I couldn’t give him a son,’ Alice said tremulously.
There was silence between them until Charlotte asked her mother, ‘But where have you been all these years? Did you go home to your family? Your parents?’
Alice smiled wryly and shook her head. ‘My father would have sent me back. No.’ She glanced at Euphemia and Percy. ‘Strange as it may seem, I went to my sister-in-law for help.’
‘She’s been with us ever since. She’s been everywhere with us. My dear, dear friend and confidante all these years.’ Euphemia smiled at Alice. ‘Percy was very ill a few years ago and I don’t think we’d have got through it without your mother’s help.’
‘Strange, isn’t it?’ Alice said. ‘You’d think the one person in the world who wouldn’t want to know me would be the sister of the man I was leaving.’
‘Huh! I knew my brother. I knew what he’s capable of. At least,’ Euphemia hesitated, ‘I thought I did, but this last – leaving Buckthorn Farm to strangers, out of the Crawford family, just because you’re a
girl
. . . well, that shocks even me.’
‘Indeed it does, my dear,’ murmured Percy. ‘And if only we’d known how your father was treating you, well, we’d have come for you too. We’d have taken care of both of you.’ He chuckled. ‘We could have shared in your daughter, Alice.’
Charlotte smiled at the dear man. She believed him. Then she turned back to her mother. ‘I still can’t believe that he would deceive everyone into thinking you were dead. Hold a mock funeral – ’ Then she remembered what her mother had said earlier. She looked into Alice’s eyes as she said softly, still not quite able to believe it, ‘You – you said Mary knew that you hadn’t died.’
Alice nodded. ‘We worked it all out between us. She and Edward would stay and look after you, but even I never thought for one moment that Osbert would stoop so low. I expect poor Mary felt trapped. She and Edward would have to obey him or be turned out. And she’d given her promise to me. Besides, she loved you dearly. They both did.’
‘But she’s deceived me all these years,’ Charlotte murmured. ‘She could have told me when I was old enough to understand.’
‘She was probably too frightened of Osbert,’ Euphemia said tartly. ‘It takes a lot of courage to stand up to him. He’s like our father. A bully. Your poor mother endured years of misery before she dared to walk away. Her only regret is leaving you. But you must understand, my dear, that, at the time, she thought she was doing the right thing for you.’ The two women exchanged a glance. ‘She wasn’t to know,’ Euphemia went on softly, ‘that the old tyrant would wreak his bitterness on an innocent child.’
With a supreme effort, Charlotte summoned a smile. Whilst she truly understood the nightmare her mother’s life must have been, whilst, rationally, she couldn’t blame her for going, there was still a tiny corner of her heart that questioned it. Why didn’t she take her daughter with her? Why did she leave her?
But she buried her thoughts and said gently, ‘Well, we’ve found each other now. That’s all that matters.’ Then she turned to Euphemia, ‘But, Aunt, there’s just one thing. I have to break my promise to you. I intend to have this out with my father.’
Euphemia laughed. ‘Well, after what you’ve just told us, Charlotte dear, I release you from that promise with the greatest of pleasure. My word, Alice, what a girl to be proud of. What spirit she has.’
Now Charlotte threw back her head and laughed. ‘And if the folks who know me back home heard you say that, Aunt, they’d laugh. They think I’m this downtrodden, good little daughter. But they’re all about to find out that the worm has turned.’
At the end of the week – a week in which she had got to know her mother and her aunt and uncle so much better – Charlotte returned home. Her uncle had been generous in the extreme. He insisted on opening a bank account for her and pressed more cash upon her than she’d ever had for her personal use in her life before this moment.
‘My dear girl, you’ll be coming to live with us soon, now, won’t you?’
‘Uncle Percy, you’re a dear and you don’t know what it means for me to know I have somewhere to run to. But—’
He patted her hand understandingly. ‘You still have responsibilities at home and I can see that you’re not the sort of person to walk away from them. Not that I blame your poor mother,’ he added swiftly, lest it should sound as if he was criticizing Alice. ‘The poor woman had no choice. Things are very different now for women than they were in ’05. Very soon, all women will have the vote. You can have careers and – thank God – you can marry whomsoever you choose. It’s a very different world now compared with then. And in most ways, a better one.’
Charlotte smiled as she said softly, ‘I certainly mean to change my world. Whether or not it means leaving home, I don’t know yet. But I thank you from the bottom of my heart, Uncle, for your generosity, because it means I can decide for myself exactly what I do. You have given me my freedom.’ She kissed him on both cheeks and then boarded the train. Her goodbyes to her mother and her aunt had been said at the hotel. Only her uncle had come with her to the station to wave her off. She could have stayed with them longer, but she needed – and wanted – to go home.
There was so much she must do. And there was one person she wanted to see and to talk to before anyone else.
Miles Thornton.
‘Miss Charlotte, Miss—’ Georgie was running down the drive to meet her, but he stopped suddenly and stood quite still, staring at her. ‘Oh – I thought it was Miss Charlotte.’ Then he squealed with delight. ‘It
is
you.’