Suddenly, there came a tremendous banging upon the outer door. Lady Elizabeth cried out in alarm.
“Who can that be, at this hour?” said Sir Matthew, frowning. “I know of no other expected guests.”
“Nor do I,” added Sir Richard quickly. “Hardly anyone knows of our arrival here. Who can it be?”
Rafe’s eyes turned gently to Thomasin, as if he could feel the fluttering sensation in her chest. Some presentiment seemed to darken the room, as if she knew the intrusion would disrupt her dreams.
The knocking came again, and they heard one of the servants hastening down the hallway, followed by the creak of the bolt being drawn. Locked in the back of the building, Sir Matthew’s two dogs began to bark.
“Just as we sit down to dinner,” said Lady Elizabeth. “Is there no peace to be found?”
Now heavy footsteps were approaching. The door was flung open, with the nervous servant consigned to the shadows, unable to intervene. Into the room stepped a tall, hooded figure, dressed for travelling, in a long cloak, boots and gloves, with the night air still clinging to him. Drawing back his hood, the intruder revealed a head of copper-coloured hair and a pair of matching eyes, afire with indignation. Thomasin recognised him at once, but she had never previously seen her mild brother-in-law looking so angry.
“My lords, ladies, please forgive this sudden rude intrusion.” Sir Hugh Truegood turned to Sir Richard. “Sir, I would speak a word with you on some urgent matter.”
Thomasin’s father looked troubled. “Goodness, Sir Hugh, what can be the meaning of this? As you can see, we are in the process of dining.”
“Sir, I have just ridden up straight from Sussex on the most pressing business. May I speak with you?”
“This is family business?” Sir Matthew enquired.
“Indeed, sir.”
“Is all well?” asked Lady Elizabeth. “Is something the matter with Cecilia?”
Sir Hugh’s marriage to Thomasin’s elder sister Cecilia had been arranged the previous autumn, and they now resided down at the magnificent Raycroft Hall, which sat in extensive grounds on the border of Sussex and Kent.
“The matter indeed! Sir, I must speak with you in private.”
“If this is a family matter, you will observe that we are all family gathered here today.”
Sir Hugh shot a brief look at Rafe, who was trying to go unnoticed.
“For the last time, sir, I urge you to hear me in private, or else I must speak aloud that which you may not wish to hear.”
But the manner of Sir Hugh’s entrance had irritated Sir Richard to the point that he would make no concession. He did not rise from his chair. Thomasin twitched awkwardly, wishing he would depart, given the warning that it was not good news.
“You have interrupted everyone’s dinner, sir, so you may tell everyone the reason for it.”
Sir Hugh’s eyes blazed. “Very well, since you request it. I have returned from the Netherlands to discover that your daughter is with child, sir! With child!”
“Oh, that is good news, is it not?” asked Lady Elizabeth feebly, a blush rising to her pale cheeks. Thomasin wondered at once whether she already knew something of this, from one of the many letters she exchanged with her elder daughter.
“Not when the child is not mine, madam.” Sir Hugh turned to her. “A child which has quickened in the womb already, and can only have been conceived when I was in Antwerp, with the North Sea between us! A firstborn child which will bear my good name, raised as a cuckoo in the nest to inherit Raycroft and everything in it! This is anything but good news.”
A stunned silence descended upon the room. Thomasin dared not meet the eyes of her parents or uncle, knowing full well that Cecilia had been discovered in bed with her lover five months earlier, at Christmas time. They had packed her off home to Sussex and not spoken a word about it since. It was misfortune indeed that she had conceived after one interrupted encounter. Unless, of course, there had been other occasions?
It was at that moment that Ellen quietly rose to her feet and slipped out of the room. Thomasin could not blame her. There had been a time, before Hugh’s marriage to Cecilia, that Ellen had believed him to be in love with her, and on the verge of proposing. Deeply in love with him, she had pictured herself as the mistress of Raycroft, bound to Hugh forever by ties of affection. It had broken her heart when he’d submitted to court pressure to accept Cecilia as his wife.
“Are you sure?” asked Lady Elizabeth after a while. “There can be no question of mistiming? These things can occur with a first child.”
“No question at all, madam. My wife is carrying another man’s bastard. What do you propose that I do about it?”
Lady Elizabeth sank into her chair and put her head in her hands.
Hugh readdressed himself to the aghast-looking Sir Richard. “I come here to ask you, sir, whether you have any inkling of whom the father might be, so that I may demand satisfaction?”
“Oh no,” said Thomasin, unable to stop herself. “You must not do that. It is not worth risking your own life over.”
