***
As soon as she had awoken, I had told Jane of Lucinda’s request to leave the castle. Jane, like me, thought her change of tune rather queer but agreed with me that at least Lucinda would get into the mail coach without making a fuss.
But the more I thought about it, the chance of us making it onto the mail coach without Mr Hart hindering us in some way seemed slim.
‘Jane’, I said urgently, ‘I think we need to be cleverer about this if we want to escape. Mr Hart ... He may try to stop us from leaving.’
‘He cannot,’ said Jane staunchly. ‘We are grown women, for goodness’ sake!’
‘But we know about his plan to inherit the castle,’ I said soberly. ‘He might keep us here to stop us from telling anyone, and he may never let us go. Remember, there is a dungeon with thick walls. He and Mr Mr Smith-Withers could tie us up down there, and no one would hear us screaming. And I did not mention it to Max in my letter so he would not know to look for us down there if he came searching.’
Jane looked horrified. ‘I did not think of that. Oh, Flissy, what should we do?’
‘I am not sure ...’ But as soon as I said that, it became all too clear what had to happen, and my heart sank. I was going to have to sacrifice myself to enable Janeand Lucy to get away ...
***
Mr Hart wanted to go on the raspberry-picking excursion immediately after breakfast, but it was too soon for the mail coach. I managed to delay him for another hour by saying I needed to write a letter to Max. He grumbled at that, but I remained firm, and he acquiesced. No doubt my agreeing to go had softened him up to some extent, and as he probably had some plan up his sleeve to try to compromise me, I knew I was going to have to keep my wits about me. With that in mind, I tucked my letter opener into my dress pocket. Having a weapon of some sort made me feel more confident about being alone with him.
Jane and Lucinda were packed and ready to go with their carpet bags and mine too. While Mr Hart and I were raspberry picking, they would hitch a lift on the mail coach when it arrived promptly at eleven o’clock. Maurice had said this was how Mrs Webber had arrived, so I did not think there would be an issue, and I had given Jane some money to pay the driver handsomely for his trouble.
Lucinda stayed quiet, listening to us talk over our plan, and only nodded occasionally. I was somewhat surprised that she did not question why she and Jane were leaving the castle in secrecy. I thought that she would demand to say goodbye to Mr Hart. But she seemed in very dull spirits indeed, and I assumed she was feeling the effects of homesickness.
The next part of the plan was a little more precarious. I had to make Mr Hart believe that Lucinda was still poorly and that Jane was attending to her, but that she would come down for supper. I would pretend to finish my letter in my room, but really, I would wait in readiness for the afternoon mail coach. Before it arrived, I would slip Maurice the explanatory note I had written for him and say that, as I had a letter, I would take it out to the driver myself. Instead of returning to the castle, I would hop into the coach and request the driver to take me with him to the inn. I would be away before Mr Hart had even noticed I was gone.
‘I do not like leaving you here with him,’ said Jane worriedly when Lucinda had gone back to her room to wait for Jane’s signal.
‘It is the only way,’ I replied. ‘You know how he likes to control things. It is too much of a risk to think he would let all of us waltz out of here freely. We have to be smarter.’
She did not look convinced, and I took her hands in mine. ‘Do not worry, Jane. We will be eating supper together at the inn tonight and congratulating ourselves at having escaped the clutches of those two men unscathed.’
‘And if they come looking for us?’
‘I will tell the innkeeper we are being pursued by a couple of rogues and pay him well if he has some burly friends who can protect us in case they decide to call.’
‘All right. But if you do not appear at the inn on the afternoon coach, then I am sending those same burly men to the castle to search for you.’
I swallowed nervously, praying that if she did so, I would be in a fit state to rescue. ‘I should go. I cannot keep him waiting any longer. Otherwise, he’ll get suspicious, and the mail coach is due shortly.’
‘Goodbye. Good luck!’ We exchanged cheek kisses, and I left her with a strange mix of nervous excitement bubbling inside of me. For I was eager for our plan to work and to defeat Mr Hart and his friend. In my mind, it had become more than a trio of ladies escaping ‘a couple of rogues’—it was now a fight of good versus evil.
I exited the castle with Mr Hart, and we made our way down the path to the orchard. He was clutching a wicker basket and was wearing old breeches and a black linen shirt—his berry-picking outfit, I presumed, so he did not stain his good clothing. Maurice had given me one of his aprons to wear over my dress when we stopped off at the kitchen to collect the basket.
The raspberries were down the back of the orchard, a long hedge full of globules of ripe red fruit. Mr Hart was unusually quiet, but when we had been picking the berries for a few minutes with the basket on the ground between us,he said, ‘I am surprised that you agreed to be alone with me after last night, Felicity.’
I shrugged nonchalantly as I detached a raspberry from its stalk and placed it carefully in the basket. I was picking as slowly as possible to give Jane and Lucinda enough time to get away.
‘Despite what you might think, I am not affected by you,’ I said.
‘Is that so?’
I glanced over to find Mr Hart watching my shaking hand with amusement. It was worry that was making my fingers shake and squish the raspberries, not being close to him! Taking a deep breath, I wiped crushed berries and juice onto my apron.
‘That one was overripe,’ I explained. I had to calm down. He was sharp and observant and liable to suspect something if I did not control myself.
‘Mmm, those ones are the best,’ said Mr Hart, picking off a couple of fat, juicy raspberries and popping one in his mouth. ‘Here.’ He offered me the other on his outstretched palm like a peace offering.
‘Ah, if we eat them, there will be less to put in the basket,’ I said, reluctant to take anything from him.
