“Well now, Miss Tess, we really shouldn’t. Not now you have to marry a gentleman.”
“Nonsense!” She pushed him onto the nearest chair and settled herself firmly on his lap. “I shall marry where I please, once I have my fortune in my hand.”
His arms crept round her waist, but he said, “It’ll be in your husband’s hand, not yours.”
“Not if I get to it before the lawyers do. Can you not see? All those gold bars are like coins — very expensive coins. Once a coin is in your pocket, no one knows where it came from or who owned it before. It belongs to whoever has it. Once I have those gold bars, which aremine, may I remind you, no one can take them away from me, and I shall be free to do whatever I like.”
She pressed her lips against his, and for a moment he allowed it, but then he drew back. “Do you know where they are, these gold bars of yours?”
She giggled. “I do! They are at my Pickering house. That widow, Mrs Mayberry, she told everyone my father had never been there, but she lied. He had an office there, well hidden, but I found it, with bills and account books — and a safe! I could not find the key to the safe, but the gold is inside it, I am certain.”
Again she leant towards him, but he held her away from him. “You’ve been there? Inside?”
“Yes! Betty and I worked there as housemaids.”
“Housemaids! You, a proper lady, working as a housemaid? That’s not right, not right at all.”
“No, and it was hard work, I can tell you. You cannot imagine how much needs to be done just to keep one small house clean. I am quite worn to the bone. But I found the office and the safe, although I was caught before I could get the safe open. So now I have to find a different plan to get my money.”
He picked her up and set her bodily on her feet, rising himself. “You and your schemes! You’re such a clever little thing,Miss Tess. But I might be able to help. I know how to get into a safe — some safes, that is. If there’s just the one key to it, Imightbe able to pick the lock.”
“How good you are, Tom, but there will be no need for lock-picking. I shall find the key, never fear, just as soon as I can take possession of the house. But until then, my fortune is quite safe. My trustees will not go there, and the lying Mrs Mayberry will keep thieves away from it. She is as good as a watchdog! But I must find a way to get her and her nieces out of the house, and get into it myself, without the trustees elbowing their way in.”
“Because they would take control of your fortune?”
“Exactly so! The only way for me to be free is to have those gold bars in my possession, and no one else knowing anything about them. If the trustees find them first, that is the end of that. They will be taken to the bank to await the pleasure of my gentleman husband, and I shall never see them again. But if I get to them first…”
“You’ll be free,” Tom parroted with a smile. “I’m sure you’re clever enough to do it, too, and I’ll help if I can, you know that. I want you to have whatever makes you happy.”
“And then we can be married, and no one can stop us,” she said with a beaming smile.
5: A Visit To Harfield Priory
After leaving Tom to his work, Tess’s post chaise wound its way further into the hills, passing Corland Castle and the small village surrounding it without stopping. Some while later, they passed Eustace’s house at Welwood-on-the-Hill, making Tess wonder all over again about his connection to Miss Rochester. Another thought occurred to her, as they rattled past the gates of the estate. Given the time she had left Pickering, it was perfectly possible for the girl to have reached Welwood in time for dinner. Had she, then, come here for her evening engagement? But Eustace was a single man who had never been known to host parties for ladies as well as gentlemen. He would have needed his mother or one of his sisters to act as hostess, and that seemed unlikely. He had never done so before, and with the family in its present disarray, it was surely impossible. It was a mystery.
It was late the following day when they arrived at Harfield Priory. Tess had often stayed there, for her mother had liked to send her to visit relations —‘It will broaden your horizons,dear,’she had always said, but Tess suspected it removed her from her mother’s presence. She had not expected to have children at all, and had never quite known what to do with Tess. It was easier, therefore, to dispatch her here and there, and leave her to be raised by others.
The Priory was one of Tess’s favourite places. Unlike Corland, which looked medieval but was actually modern, Harfield was truly ancient, with a great hall dating back to the original manor house, a chapel that had been part of the abbey, and a multitude of odd, mismatched wings with long, dark passages and unexpected stairs. Best of all, it was tucked into a narrow valley, so even the garden was all changing levels and tightly winding paths. It was a place where a secretive girl could hide away indefinitely.
The butler, who seemed as ancient as the house, emerged wreathed in smiles. “Miss Tess! What a delightful surprise! We were not expecting you, I think?”
“No time to write, Jeffries. Is all well here?”
“Very lively, at the moment. Lady Rennington is here, and also Lady Woodridge, and we’ve had both Lord and Lady Farramont visiting, but they’ve both left now. I expect the ladies will tell you all about it. Good day, Betty, Harold. You know your way, of course. I’ll have your usual room made up, Miss Tess. Come inside, do.”
The great hall was pleasantly cool. The Priory was a nightmare of draughts and perpetually chilled rooms in winter, but in summer it was a relief to be inside after the heat and dust of the road.
“The ladies are in the Blue Parlour, Miss Tess,” Jeffries said. “Will you see them first, or go to your room?”
“I had better see them at once,” Tess said. “Just in case they decide to throw me out.”
Jeffries laughed at this little jest, but Tess was not entirely joking. Lady Tarvin was Aunt Caroline’s sister, and a kindly soul, who treated Tess as if she were her own niece, but Mrs Edward Harfield, the mother of the present Lord Tarvin, was not quite so tolerant. It was not clear to Tess which of the two was in fact the mistress of Harfield, the widow of the former Lord Tarvin or the mother of the present one, but it would never do to be backward in any attention, or to take her welcome for granted.
She followed Jeffries along a multitude of passageways to the Blue Parlour. Three ladies sat there, looking up with surprise as the door opened.
“Miss Nicholson, my lady,” Jeffries said, leaving Tess in no doubt as to who he regarded as the mistress of Harfield.
Aunt Caroline rushed across the room to wrap her in a perfumed embrace. “Tess! Dear girl, what a delightful surprise! I thought you were staying with a friend somewhere.”
