‘You and Jake – you’re in love!’
Emmy lowered her eyes. ‘I-I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Huh! You’d have to be a blind man on a galloping donkey not to see what’s between you,’ Imogen retorted. ‘I’ve suspected it for months but tonight just confirmed it.’
Emmy wanted to deny it but her aunt seemed to be able to see into her very soul so she merely shrugged.
‘I do have feelings for him,’ she admitted miserably. ‘Very deep feelings as it happens. But don’t worry, I know that nothing can ever come of it so I’ve never told him. I-I’m sorry.’
Imogen shook her head. ‘Don’t be,’ she said abruptly. ‘We can’t help who we fall in love with, but perhaps your position isn’t quite as bad as you think.’
‘And what is that supposed to mean?’
Imogen shrugged. ‘Let’s just say when I first met my Marcel things weren’t straightforward. He was trapped in a loveless marriage but we shamed the devil and moved in together. We were only able to marry when his legal wife died but I wouldn’t have cared if we’d lived in sin for the whole of our time together.’
Emmy sighed. ‘But you had cut ties with your family by then. Can you imagine what my parents and Aunt Sybil would say if Jake and I were to do that? They would disown us!’
Aggie bustled back in with tea and sandwiches and the conversation was brought to an abrupt end as Emmy tucked into them, ravenous. Once she’d eaten her fill, Aggie took her upstairs and helped her to bathe and get into clean nightclothes, and shortly after Jake returned with the doctor who dressed her wrists and ankles and gave her a thorough examination.
‘Apart from the chafing on your ankles and wrists you seem to be fine, young lady,’ he assured her. ‘Rather shaken up admittedly, but that’s nothing that a couple of days’ rest won’t cure.’
He left as the two young constables returned to tell her that they’d managed to find the warehouse but that there had been no sign of Jasper.
‘Are you sure you went to the right one?’ Emmy asked.
The younger of the two nodded as he handed her a bonnet. ‘We are if this is yours, miss. We found it in the cellar you described. You must have just stunned him and once he came round, he managed to escape. But don’t worry, I’m sure he won’t try to come near you again. We’ll be watching the house and we have officers out scouring the streets for him.’
‘Thank you, Constable.’ Emmy wasn’t sure if she was upset or relieved. After all, as her aunt had pointed out, you couldn’t help who you fell in love with and wasn’t she as guilty for loving Jake as Jasper was for loving her? Not only that, should the police find him he might well end up dangling at the end of a rope for the murder of his father, and somehow, no matter what he had done, she couldn’t wish that on him. She had no doubt that he would leave the country on the first ship that left the dock and she hoped he made it.
The next lot of visitors arrived as the doctor was leaving and when her mother, father and Aunt Sybil were shown into her room, Emmy’s eyes almost popped out of her head.
‘We got your aunt’s letter this morning to say that you were missing and we caught the first train here,’ her mother told her with tears in her eyes. ‘Jake just told us what happened. Thank God you’re safe.’
‘I’m fine, Mama, don’t get upset.’ As her mother cradled her in her arms, she looked over at Jake who was standing in the doorway. Their eyes met and he inclined his head, then quietly left the family to their reunion.
Chapter Forty-Seven
The next unexpected visitor to arrive was Abi the following morning. She had been unaware of what had happened to Emmy and listened aghast as her aunt and mother filled her in.
‘But that’s quite awful,’ she said sadly. ‘Is Emmy all right?’
‘She will be now,’ her mother answered with relief. ‘The police called by early this morning to say that they’d still not been able to find Jasper. It seems that three ships sailed from the dock last night, one bound for China, one for Spain and one for France. He could have been on any one of them and I think it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever see him again. But now tell us all about what you’ve been up to. We’ve missed you so much.’
Abi took a deep breath. It was time for the truth; she didn’t want to spend the rest of their lives with secrets between them, so slowly and painfully she told her story from the very beginning to the bitter end, omitting nothing.
‘S-so I had a granddaughter.’ Dorcas looked shocked.
Abi nodded, her eyes bright with unshed tears. ‘You certainly did. Her name was Grace Rebecca and she was the most beautiful baby I ever saw.’ She waited for the explosion then but it never came.
‘But why didn’t you tell us? You could have come home to us instead of hiding away at Aunt Imogen’s house at the coast.’
‘I thought you’d be angry and ashamed of me and I was planning on having the baby adopted when she arrived,’ Abi admitted. ‘But once she was born and I saw her and held her I knew I couldn’t part with her. I didn’t know then how poorly she was. Her little heart wasn’t strong enough to keep beating.’ As tears slid down her cheeks unchecked her mother took her in her arms and clucked sympathetically. This wasn’t the reaction Abi had expected at all and she stared at her in confusion.
‘I-I thought you wouldn’t want anything to do with me once you knew, because I’d let you down,’ she gasped between sobs.
Dorcas gave her a wry smile. ‘I probably would have disowned you before we lost our home,’ she admitted. ‘I was such a snob back then. But now I know what’s important.’ She looked towards Gerald, her eyes shining with love. ‘And I suppose now is as good a time as any to share our little secret with you. You see, although I’m in my early forties, your father and I have just discovered that in a few months’ time you and Emerald are going to have a little brother or sister. It’s ridiculous, I know, at our age, but I hope you won’t be too embarrassed about it.’
‘Embarrassed! Why, that’s lovely news.’ Abi looked genuinely pleased as her father flushed like a schoolboy.
