The Folly (27 page)

Chapter
53

Elizabeth snuggled closer to Jeremy, feeling warm for the first time in twenty-four hours.  A merry fired crackled in the hearth, throwing strange shadows onto the sloped ceiling of the
small
room.  Simon was still downstairs, drinking with Angus McTavish, but Jeremy and Elizabeth had chosen to go to bed.  Angus’s wife, Neimh
,
had shared their meager supper with them, leaving them wanting more, but the people were poor and that’s all they had.  The big, redheaded Scot was not thrilled to have two more people than agreed, but their money would go a long way toward making their winter more
comfortable
. 

The McTavishes would keep their presence a secret
,
and help them leave in the spring.  Elizabeth couldn’t imagine spending the next four months in this tiny cottage, but she was in no position to
be choosy
.  She heard Robbie McTavish calling his mother from the next room
,
then the sound of her voice as she began to sing quietly, lulling the child to sleep.  Neimh was hugely pregnant and would no doubt have another baby
before the year was out
.

“Jeremy, I need to know what happened.  Please, tell me.” 

“Are you sure you want to know, Lizzie?”  Jeremy seemed apprehensive, but she was adamant.

“Yes.  I want to know.”  She was tired and sleepy, but she wanted to hear it first.

“Go to sleep, love.  Simon and I will tell you everything tomorrow when the McTavishes go to church.  You need your rest and so do I.”  Elizabeth laid her head on Jeremy’s chest. 

“All right.  Tomorrow.”

The McTavishes left for church
shortly
after a breakfast of parritch and ale, leaving their guests alone in the cottage. 
Elizabeth
would have liked a cup of tea, but there didn’t seem
to be any
.  The
parritch
she had eaten sat
like a lump of clay in her stomach.  She wasn’t used to such coarse food, but she would have to get used to that
,
and worse
,
in the coming months.  Neimh had no help around the house
, so
Elizabeth would have to pitch in, especially once the new baby arrived.  Robbie wasn’t even two
,
and the poor woman would have her hands full.  Elizabeth had never had to do housework, but she wasn’t averse to learning.  It would be a long winter
,
and sitting around in this small cottage with nothing to do would be very difficult.  Jeremy would help Angus on the farm, tending to the animals and hunting for food.  Any meat he could bring to the table would be more than welcome.  These people were as poor as church mice
,
and winter was a perilous time for them. 

**

Elizabeth sat closer to the fire, drawing a shawl borrowed from Neimh around her shoulders.  Even with the
smelly
, peat fire, it was still cold
and draughty
.  Jeremy pulled up a chair
,
and beckoned Simon to come over.  Simon sat down, lighting his pipe and drawing on it with pleasure.  He wasn’t bothered by the
conditions
he found himself in.  He was free
,
and that’s all that mattered.

“Simon, Elizabeth wishes to know what happened.  Now is a good time to tell her, while the McTavishes are not here.” 

Simon sat down and smiled sadly at Elizabeth.  “I
fear
once you know the truth, you will think me
despicable
, but I suppose you need to know.  God
Almighty
, where do I begin?”  He sucked on his pipe thoughtfully, trying to organize his thoughts.

“
It was after coming ashore from my ship that I found myself in a dockside tavern, having a tankard of ale and enjoying the charms of a certain well-endowed doxie,
” Simon
began.

“Simon, you can leave out the more colorful details,” Jeremy warned him. “
Go on
.”

“Begging your pardon, Elizabeth.  As I was saying, I was having a drink with me mates when this bloody idiot, Alfie Nooks, who
was so
soused
with drink
that
he could
barely stand up, crashed into me and spilled his ale all over
me
.  Well, I
was in
no mood to be trifled with, so I had a mind to teach the stupid bugger a lesson
.  I didn’t mean to stab him, but in the heat of the moment, I drove a blade into his gut.  Someone called the constable
,
and I was arrested then and there
and
taken to Newgate to await trial. 

Alfie didn’t die right away.  He hung on for weeks, making me hope against hope that he might live
.  I begged God to spare him and swore that I would be a
n honorable man
, swear off all strong drink
,
and marry Millie.  I left her with a full belly and no money for the coming babe.  Alfie
died in September
,
and
I was tried for murder and sentenced to hang on October 3
rd
.  I was truly remorseful about killing the man, and not only because I was to hang.  I had taken a man’s life in a fit of anger and I prayed for forgiveness. 
I would go to my grave without ever seeing my child or saying goodbye to my father.

It was the night before I was to be executed
,
and I was praying and trying to make my peace with God. 
Two men
unknown to me
came and got me from my cell. 
They
shoved me into a carriage and drove to the outskirts of town
,
where Sir Henry Flynn himself was awaiting me at an inn.  He gave me two choices.  I could go back to prison and face the hangman come morning
,
or I could do him a kindness
,
and he would bribe the guards and executioner to swear that the man who went to the gallows was Simon Manson. 
I knew it was wrong to let someone die in my stead, but of course,
I agreed.  I never asked who took my place when morning came, but Sir Henry sent the
men
to make the arrangements while he filled me in on the details of what he wanted done.  As I listened to him, I began to doubt the wisdom of my choice, but the desire to live will make a man do terrible things. 

Sir Henry wanted to send me to Marshalsea prison with a bag of coin
,
to find a man and woman who
resembled
yourself
and Jeremy in build and
height
.  I had never clapped eyes on your ladyship
,
and I hadn’t seen Jeremy since I was
fifteen
, so my
father
was to accompany me.  We would offer to pay off the couple’s debt in return for a favor.  They had to impersonate someone as a joke.  Now, not many people would turn down having their debt paid for a night’s work, so it wasn’t hard to find a tall, dark-
haired
man and a thin, auburn-haired woman
.  Sir
Henry didn
’
t care about facial resemblance, only size
and coloring
. 

I paid the turnkey
,
and took the couple with me to the inn where Sir Henry waited.  He approved my choice and gave them clothes to change into
,
and
even jewelry.  They were to change later, he said.  No one was to see them in their finery.  He had a hot meal brought to the room and plenty of gin, telling them all about the joke he planned to play on his good friend, Magistrate
Buxton
.  He never even asked
them
their names.  Sir Henry bid us a good evening and left,
bidding
them to follow my instructions
,
and promising them that they would be handsomely paid the next day. 
They were so thrilled by their unexpected good fortune
,
that
I nearly left there and then, but I knew what was at stake.  Henry would make sure I went back to prison
,
and make my father’s life a living
h
ell. 

Once night fell,
my father and
I escorted
our
charges to the carriage Henry left
,
and set out for
Flynn Manor
. 
We didn’t stop until close to
midnight
.  The stretch of road ran through the forest and was deserted and dark.  I asked them to go into the woods and change into the borrow
ed
clothes as we would be reaching our destination soon. 
They had been practicing their lines all day, preparing to pose as Lady Elizabeth and Captain Jeremy.  

The
couple
went into the woods to change
,
and I loaded my pistol, ready to do the deed. 
I never looked at my father
,
because the
anguish
in his eyes was enough to make me change my mind and set them free. 
I followed them into the woods
,
and shot them once they were dressed and ready.  They didn’t even see me coming.  I let them bleed out for a while
,
then carried them back to the carriage which I
’d
already lined with straw and old horse blankets.  Sir Henry didn
’
t want any traces of blood.  I bundled my victims into the carriage
,
and drove all the way to
the wood behind Flynn Manor
without ever stopping to rest.  I just wanted the whole thing to be
over and done with
.  I brought the carriage to my father’s cottage
,
and we took them out
one by one and carried them
to the lake, throwing them in as far as we could.  They would wash up soon enough.  Floaters always do. 

I went back to my father’s house and slept like the dead, exhausted and sick to my stomach with what I’
d
done.  Sir Henry
would pay me in the morning and I would be a free man, able to leave England and start a new life someplace else, but Henry was not finished with me yet. 
It seems that heh
’
d received a letter from one Colonel Brand, informing him that Captain Flynn and Lady Elizabeth were currently staying with him under the assumed name of Sutton.  The Colonel had his own reasons for
wanting
to be rid of the pair of you
,
and thought Sir Henry might be able to assist him.  I don’t think he wanted you dead, just gone.  Well, Sir Henry couldn
’
t afford to have you
turn
up somewhere after he went through the trouble of filling the lake with corpses, so he withheld the money from me
;
demanding one more favor.  I was to travel to Newcastle and dispose of you two, in any way I saw fit, as long as there was no evidence. 

Sir Henry gave me
some money to travel to Newcastle
,
and I was gone by the next morning
before anyone
at the manor or the village could
clap eyes on me
.  I was a dead man
after all
.
 
Sir
Henry
had already written
to the Colonel
to
tell him to bide his time until he heard from me.  Henry had given me part of the money he owed me
,
with the rest to be paid by Colonel Brand
.
 
He
wasn’t about to help
Brand
rid himself of your presence for free.
   

The hardest part was saying goodbye to my father
.
  I knew I’d never see him again.  Da aged a decade in that one night
,
and I saw the unbearable pain in his eyes.  He agreed to the murder of two people to save me from the noose
,
and although he was overjoyed to see me alive, he
wouldn’t be able to
live with what he’d done.  He asked me what Sir Henry wanted of me, but I didn’t tell him.  If he knew that I was on my way to Newcastle to kill my only friend and his lady
,
he
’
d have killed me himself.  I only told him that I was going to Scotland to an old friend to escape the law.