With fingers that were suddenly shaking, Abi fumbled with the wrappings to reveal a small box. She snapped open the lid and a lump formed in her throat as she stared down at a small gold heart-shaped brooch. Upstairs she had a selection of expensive jewellery given to her by the gentlemen admirers back at the Black Cat club. She had been meaning to pawn them when she could get into town, but she knew that she would treasure this trinket forever.
Seeing the tears that had sprung to her eyes, Bertie looked dismayed. ‘Er .?.?. if you don’t like it, I could always take it back and change it,’ he volunteered but she shook her head as she fastened it to the bodice of her gown.
‘Oh no, I love it.’ Without thinking she stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek and much to his mother’s amusement, his face turned as red as a beetroot.
‘And you’ll find another present from me on the table.’ Mrs M nodded towards another package. ‘But you’ll have to get it yourself. My hands are greasy.’
Inside this one was a beautiful silk shawl in soft autumn colours and again Abi was so touched that she could barely speak. These dear people had been instructed to take care of her by her aunt, their employer, but in the months that she had been there they had done so much more. They had taken her into their hearts and made her feel a part of the family and she didn’t know how she could ever repay them.
‘A-as soon as this is out of the way I’ll make it up to both of you,’ she mumbled in a choky voice as she patted her stomach but they both shook their heads and Mrs M frowned at her.
‘There’ll be no need for that, lass. And please don’t refer to the baby as “this”! It’s a real little person and doesn’t deserve to be spoken of like that. Come along now, the dinner’s all prepared so we’ll go to the Christmas morning service at the church then we’ll come back and have a lovely day.’
Abi looked hesitant but Bertie patted the ring on her finger. ‘No one will turn a hair,’ he promised her and so Abi went to fetch her cloak and they set off with her arm tucked in Bertie’s. The day before Christmas Eve she had received a letter from her aunt telling her that her parents were reconciled and while it had surprised her, she was pleased. All in all, it wasn’t turning out to be such a bad Christmas after all.
The atmosphere was also light at Imogen’s house in London, for the evening before Emmy had answered the door to find her parents standing there laden down with presents.
‘Let me in,’ her father said, his eyes twinkling. ‘I’ve carted these all the way from Nuneaton and I feel like a packhorse.’
‘B-but I had no idea you were coming,’ Emmy breathed as her father discarded the packages and wrapped her tightly in his arms while her mother looked on beaming.
‘Imogen wrote and invited us but we wanted to surprise you,’ her mother laughed.
Emmy’s heart swelled. Her mother looked at least ten years younger and her face was radiant as she looked at her husband.
‘Oh, this is going to be one of thebestChristmases ever! And Jake is joining us for dinner too,’ Emmy said ecstatically as she led them into the drawing room where a cheery fire was roaring up the chimney. ‘I just wish .?.?.’ Her voice became sombre as she thought of her sister. ‘Abi could be here with us too.’
‘Imogen assures me that she’s doing just fine,’ Dorcas told her as she undid the ribbons on her bonnet. ‘She keeps in close touch with Mrs Merryweather by letter, and apparently Abi is coping much better now. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she didn’t come home soon.’
Emmy instructed Aggie to fetch them a hot drink and they settled down to catch up on all that they’d been doing.
Chapter Forty
At Crossroads Farm, the atmosphere was strained. Bernard had left early that morning to join the traditional Christmas morning shoot at a neighbouring hall and Sybil was barking orders at the servants as they prepared the dining room for the Christmas dinner.
Jasper, meanwhile, was pacing up and down his room with his hands clasped behind his back, scowling with frustration. He had hoped to be back in London with Emmy by Christmas but both his mother and father had refused to give him so much as a penny piece, so now he was simmering with resentment. Then an idea occurred to him. If he could get into the safe in his father’s study, he could take whatever was in there and disappear. He knew there would be plenty of cash as his father’s agent had recently collected all the rents from the tenant farmers on his estate, so all he had to do was work out the combination on the padlock – unless his father had been lax and forgotten to lock it, which he had been known to do in the past.
Deciding there was no time like the present, Jasper quietly made his way downstairs, keeping a cautious ear open for his mother. He could hear her shouting at the servants from the direction of the dining room and slipping silently along the hallway he let himself into his father’s study. He knew that time was not on his side; his father could return at any minute – even he didn’t dare to be late for his Christmas dinner – so crossing to the safe he tried the door and sighed with vexation when he found that it was securely locked. Ever since returning home he had racked his brains to think of a way to cause his father to have an accident that would confine him to bed, but so far he had come up with nothing and even if he had, he wondered if he would have had the guts to see it through, so this was the only option left.
Cursing softly, he fiddled with a combination of numbers but the padlock remained obstinately shut and he thumped the door in his frustration. In the hallway he could hear the servants bustling past like busy little ants as they went to and from the dining room to the kitchen, but he tried to remain focused on what he was doing. Suddenly, he had an idea, and he tried the numbers of his father’s birth date and the lock snapped open. Turning the handle on the safe, he pulled it wide, to reveal piles of pound notes.
He had to stifle his cry of glee as he reached hungrily inside. There was a fortune there if he wasn’t very much mistaken. Certainly enough to get him and Emmy somewhere far enough away where they could begin a new life, if he could only persuade her to go with him. And how could she refuse him, he wondered, when he showed her his fortune?
He began to cram the money into his pockets, not even bothering to count it. There had to be at least two to three hundred pounds in there he reckoned and that would keep them happy for some time. Admittedly, he had realised that he wouldn’t be able to go to her today as there would be no trains running but with this amount of money at his disposal he was sure that he would have no trouble finding somewhere to hole up until they started to run again and then the world would be his oyster.
His smile stretched from ear to ear as he rammed the last of the notes into the pocket of his waistcoat and he turned to leave, only to stop dead in his tracks when he saw his father standing in the open doorway with his gun in his hand glaring at him. Bernard had just dropped two hares, a rabbit, three partridges, a pheasant and two woodcocks off to the kitchen following a very successful morning’s shooting but now his happy mood dispersed as he saw his son in the process of trying to rob him.
Striding into the room he slammed his gun down on the large mahogany desk that stood in pride of place in the centre of the room and glared at Jasper. ‘Justwhatthe bloody hell do you think you are doing? Surely to God you haven’t sunk so low that you would steal from your own family?’
‘Whyshouldn’tI?’ Jasper’s face was red with humiliation at being caught red-handed and rage that he hadn’t managed to get away with it. ‘You treat me like a child, doling out bits of pocket money here and there so I thought I’d help myself to what I’m entitled to! I’m a grown man now and deserve more than you give me!’
‘Then perhaps it’s time youbehavedlike a grown man and stopped acting like a spoilt child!’ Bernard’s voice had risen now and his hands were clenched into fists of rage. ‘Now put that money on the table and get out. Until you learn to buckle down and behave, I don’t want to set eyes on you again – do you hear me?’
Jasper stared back at him in horror. ‘What!You mean you would throw your own son out into the cold on Christmas Day? What sort of a father are you?’
‘A very tired, fed up one,’ Bernard grated, his eyes flashing fire. ‘Now put the money down or I swear I shall strike you.’ He took a menacing step towards him but stopped in his tracks when Jasper shot forward and snatched up the gun.
He pointed it at his father’s chest as he warned menacingly, ‘Step away, Father. Or as God is my witness .?.?. I’ll shoot you.’
