The Devil's Surrogate (28 page)

'Didn't think
it was my place, Sean lad,' Paddy muttered. 'We're off duty now,
you know, else we'd be in dead trouble for drinking like this,
wouldn't we?'

'Yes, I
suppose,' Sean agreed. He hesitated, sipped his ale and looked at
his own pipe, which had gone out. 'You think they'll catch
her?'

'Maybe,' Paddy
said. 'Depends how hard they look, I suppose.'

'The poor
innkeeper fellow looked pretty sick at the whole thing.'

'Aye, well, he
would.'

'There's talk
in there of the dragoons going up to the Grayling place at first
light.'

'There's
always talk, Sean Kelly.'

'You don't
think they will, then?'

'Oh, I'm sure
they will.'

'Ah.' There
was a long pause. 'You don't think it'll come to anything.'

'Maybe it
will, maybe it won't.' Paddy sighed. 'All I know is, those Grayling
people are money and nobility, and even though we were supposed to
be fighting for democracy and the common man's rights, it'll not be
in our lifetime we ever see that happen, if it ever happens at all.
The Graylings of this world get away with murder because they're
rich, the Crawleys get away with it because they're clever and
because the Church protects its own, no matter how evil they might
be. As for the innkeeper's girl, her friends at the Hall will
probably help her disappear if they don't kill her. Wouldn't do for
her to be standing before no court and telling what she knows now,
would it?'

'And so they
all get away with it?'

'Maybe,' Paddy
said, 'and maybe not. As me mammy used to be so fond of telling us,
God pays his debts without money.' He lifted his flagon and drained
the remaining contents in one huge gulp. 'Now, what say we get
ourselves back inside and take advantage of Master Handiwell's
generous hospitality? This night air is growing a mite chill for my
poor bones and I'm determined not to greet the dawn sober.'

With so many
soldiers about, it had been impossible to get into the stable
unseen and Jane had been forced to flee into the night on foot.
Beth would wait until the following morning, when the dragoons left
for Grayling Hall, and then bring horses and some fresh clothes to
the crossroads at Petersfield, a few miles to the south west. The
pair would then travel further east into Sussex and find an inn
where they could lie low for a few weeks while they sent word to
Grayling Hall.

Jane trudged
on for nearly an hour. Finally, when she was sure she was well
clear of the village, she left the road and found a grassy hollow
where she could rest for a while. Her legs and feet ached and her
eyes felt raw and heavy, for it had been a long day and her recent
lack of sleep was beginning to exact its toll.

She unfolded
the blanket Beth had given her, laid the bundle containing food and
a water bottle on the ground beneath her head, and almost
immediately fell into a deep sleep, a sleep undisturbed by any
dreams, let alone the nightmares she undoubtedly deserved. The
nightmare was waiting for her, however, and when she opened her
eyes it was there before her, straddling her thighs, its claws
resting upon the thin black leather covering her breasts.

'You,' hissed
Oona, 'will now be Oona's bitch.' The claws raked down, scoring the
leather of Jane's britches. 'Take off,' the dog-girl growled. 'Take
off, or Oona take off!'

A few minutes
later, crouched on all fours, with those terrible talons closed
about her tight little breasts, Jane Handiwell was given her first
experience of a flesh-and-blood penis. Howling quietly in the back
of her throat, Oona drove the instrument of her fall deep into her
virgin pussy with a steady, unhurried rhythm. And as the
razor-sharp claws moved up to encircle Jane's slender throat, it
seemed her first experience was also about to become her
last...

And so we
leave our tale, dear reader, still with a few untied ends to
consider. Harriet, Matilda, Kitty and Sarah, we know they all
survived, but what of their future in our past, and what of
Crawley, Jane, Oona, and the Graylings?

Well...

Harriet
recovered from her ordeal and accepted Thomas Handiwell's proposal
of marriage. With his money to pay for medicines and doctors, her
father survived another twenty years, even leaving his bed to
become a member of Charles II's parliament.

Her cousin,
Sarah, much changed by her experiences, went back to London and
became a popular actress at Drury Lane and other theatres of the
time. She was even more popular amongst a certain element of the
aristocracy, but over that side of her career we draw a discreet
veil.

Jacob Crawley,
a.k.a. Matthew Hopkins, disappeared again from the pages of
history, and as we discussed earlier, faded into that obscure
section of the past that is marked 'Rumour and Hearsay'. Let's hope
his end, when it finally came, was not too pleasant.

And what of Jane Handiwell and Oona? Well, it is certain Jane
never did inherit the
Black
Drum
, for that passed down to Thomas and
Sarah's eldest son, Richard, and from Richard to his son Thomas,
and from Thomas to his son Richard, etc. etc. until it was
eventually sold to a developer. Upon the site now stand a motorway
roundabout and the branch of a popular supermarket.

There were
stories in the 1660s (and for a good few decades afterwards) about
two strange women who roamed the Hampshire countryside acting more
like dogs than humans, killing sheep occasionally and...

Roderick
Grayling became a member of the government (as Paddy Riley
observed, democracy and true justice would be a long time coming,
and we're probably still waiting for it now, to be honest).

Ellen married
a Scottish nobleman and happily seduced each and every one of his
nine sisters.

Paddy and Sean
eventually went back to Ireland, although Paddy returned later to
run the inn for Thomas Handiwell, and joined him in an ill-fated
venture to open the first Irish theme pub in Portsmouth. Rumour has
it the pub failed because there were too many genuine Irish patrons
in it every night.

Jane's
faithful maid, Beth, having waited in vain for her mistress at the
crossroads at Petersfield for three nights, returned to the
village. She spent a week getting drunk on Thomas's best wines, and
then tiring of the idea of Sapphic love, she pounced upon young
Toby Blaine on the evening of his sixteenth birthday. They married
a few months later and lived together for over fifty years, raising
five strapping sons and four daughters, one of whom went on to
become the personal maid of a rather notorious duchess in
London.

And that just
about takes care of everyone except Ross, of the most ingenious
mind. It's only a rumour, but it was reputed that his grandson
sired a bastard child who went on to design a variety of intricate
bridges, engines and ships that would have much pleased his great
grandfather, had he lived to see them. Unfortunately, Ross met an
untimely end when one of his own inventions collapsed at an
inappropriate moment. His injury was only a splinter wound, but
then this was before an even more ingenious mind discovered
penicillin.

Who says there
is no such thing as justice?

Well me,
actually, but I'm just an old cynic.

(
Who's who and doing what to whom and
with what!
)

BILLINGS, Anne - Wife of George Billings, local shoemaker.
Anne works at the
Black Drum
and is recruited by Harriet to help her try to
find out who and what is behind the kidnapping of her cousin,
Sarah.

BLAINE, Ned - Small-time farmer and customer at the
Black Drum
.

BLAINE, Toby -
Ned's teenage son. Toby poaches and knows every inch of the local
countryside, and despite a lack of education is really a very
intelligent young man. His friends, who help him in his quest to
assist Hannah, are Matt Cornwell and Billy Dodds.

BROTHERWOOD -
Senior Garrison Officer at Portsmouth, agrees to 'lend' Colonel
Robert Thomas Handiwell the services of Captain Timothy Hart, a
young officer who is supposed to be on convalescent leave, together
with a small escort party of troopers.

CALTHORPE,
Francis - Local miller and businessman.

CALTHORPE,
James - Son of Francis; a scholar and would-be beau of Matilda
Pennywise.

CRAWLEY, Jacob
- Witchfinder. Quite possibly really Matthew Hopkins, the notorious
witchfinder general from some fifteen years earlier, whose actual
fate still remains shrouded in mystery. His chief assistants are
Silas Grout and Jed Mardley, but he buys further help and loyalty
wherever and whenever the need arises.

DIGWELL-SHORT
- Ineffectual constable of the local militia, whose numbers have
become depleted by the needs of the main military.

GRAYLING,
Roderick - Heir to Grayling Hall and to the fortunes of his
dissipate father, Earl Grayling. During his father's absence in the
New World, Roderick has established a lucrative centre for slave
trading at the Hall, where he enjoys the attentions of his two
diminutive black slave girls, Popsy and Topsy.

GROUT, Silas -
Assistant to Jacob Crawley.

HANDIWELL,
Jane - Thomas's daughter. A lesbian who hates Hannah for her beauty
and for the fact that her father wishes to marry her, Jane is the
leader of a small band of highwaywomen and a would-be witch. Her
maid, Beth, is her devoted body slave. Jane's accomplices are Kate
Dawson, Mary Watling (a strapping wench built more like a man) and
Ellen Grayling, Roderick's teenage sister.

HANDIWELL, Thomas - Landlord of the
Black Drum
; a widower in his early
forties, Thomas has proposed to Harriet several times.

HART, Captain
Timothy - Young officer on convalescent leave who is sent with a
small escort party to assist Handiwell in trying to find and rescue
the abducted Sarah.

HAWKIN, George
- Senior overseer at Grayling Hall and steward to Sir Roderick
Grayling. Among his younger staff are Young Pip (possibly his
illegitimate son), William, and Ross, a tall, thin sandy- haired
young man who takes Sarah's virginity shortly after her
arrival.

HORROCKS, Paul
- Local labourer, now deceased, he signed a testimony against
Matilda accusing her of heretic practices.

MARDLEY, Jed -
Assistant to Jacob Crawley and former itinerant mercenary and
executioner.

MERRIDEW,
Harriet - Heiress to the small farm estate of Barten Meade.

MERRIDEW,
Oliver - Harriet's father and owner of Barten Meade, a former army
major wounded in battle and now virtually bedridden.

MERRIDEW,
Sarah - Harriet's cousin, orphaned by a plague outbreak, she
travelled to Leddingham to join her only remaining family, but is
kidnapped by the highwaywomen and sold to Roderick Grayling to be
trained at his slave farm at Grayling Hall, a few miles from Barten
Meade and Leddingham village.

PARKES,
Miranda - Young girl who has fallen foul of the Grayling slave
operation. Now being trained at Grayling Hall, she has been
nicknamed Titty Kitty by the overseers on account of her
inordinately large bosom.

PENNYWISE,
Hannah - Grandmother of Matilda and reputed witch. Her late father,
Nathan, was a small businessman who built up a small fortune people
think Hannah must still have.

PENNYWISE,
Matilda - Attractive village girl born in London and now living
with her grandmother after an outbreak of Plague in the city.

PERKINS, Sam -
Wagon driver who transports slaves from London and other cities to
Grayling Hall.

PORTFIELD,
Adam - A senior overseer at Grayling Hall.

PORTFIELD,
Daniel - Adam's younger cousin, a groom/trainer at the Hall.

SLANE, John -
Blacksmith in Leddingham village.

WICKSTANNER,
Simon - Minister of the Church for the parish of Leddingham.

WILLETT, Dick
- Coach driver on the London to Portsmouth route, wounded when Jane
Handiwell's highwaywomen abducted Sarah; his assistant is Francis,
a young lad of uncertain origins.

1645 - Or thereabouts, because documentation is not exactly
overflowing on the subject, Matthew Hopkins, former Witchfinder
General, disappears from public life. One story is that he is tried
and executed by an obscure rural court, another that he flees the
country with his ill-gotten gains, but
we
know the truth...

1649, January
30 - Execution of Charles I - The Protectorate, under Oliver
Cromwell, gets a head start.

1660, May 29 -
On his thirtieth birthday, thanks largely to the machinations of
General George Moncke, and the fact that Oliver Cromwell's son,
Richard, has made such a miss of trying to run the country after
his father's death, Charles Stuart rides in triumph into London and
the monarchy is restored under Charles II. Nell Gwynne (among many
others) is later also restored under him, but that is another
story.

1665 - The
Bubonic Plague finally reaches epidemic proportions with thousands
dying daily, especially in the larger cities.

1666 - The
Great Fire of London starts in a bakery in London's Pudding Lane.
Sir Isaac Newton discovers the Laws of Gravity.

-oOo-

If you've not
already read it, enjoy the prequel to The Devil's Surrogate, also
published as an eBook by us and available to download from many
online bookstores now...