The Rebel’s Daughter (27 page)

“
And how
many coachmen have you sent off with burning ears today, Master
Ffoyle?” Helena teased, throwing her arms around him. Though it was
still mid-afternoon, the sky hung low and dark over a street where
the only light was from the yellow glow of the inn lamps through
the leaded windows.

A
second figure in a wide brimmed hat
emerged from the coach.

“
Elias!”
Helena gasped. “I had no idea you were coming to
London.”

Tiny white flakes drifted from the black
sky and settled onto Elias’s bare head as he bowed over her hand.
“It is good to see you, Mistress Woulfe.” His voice sounded forced,
his gaze shifting to his father, who seemed reluctant to look at
him.

Helena frowned.
What was going on
between these two
?

Elias reached back into the carriage, and
as Helena blinked snowflakes from her lashes, long, feminine
fingers grasped his outstretched hand, followed by the arm and then
the head of girl with large light eyes and high delicate cheekbones
in an oval face.

Her presence provoked very different
reactions in the two men. Elias solicitously helped her navigate
the narrow step, while Samuel set his lips in a firm line and
turned away.

Enveloped in a voluminous traveling cape,
the girl’s white cap beneath the turned-back hood lay askew.
Strands of pale hair blew across her face in the cold wind, but she
held her chin high, her light eyes glittering with defiance, and
not a little fear.

“
Th-this is my wife Amy.” Elias stammered
an introduction.

Amy inclined her head in shy acknowledgment,
her gaze flickering to her father-in-law, who still avoided her
eye.

“
Your
wife?” Helena asked, open-mouthed in shock.

Several unspoken questions invaded her
head. Samuel gave a dismissive snort and stomped past them to where
Robert waited at the inn door. After a brief exchange, in which
Helena heard Samuel ask, “Is he here yet?” the pair disappeared
inside.

“
Father
is…displeased with us.” Elias addressed the closed door, his jaw
set. “Our marriage was something of a surprise.” He gave a tense
half smile towards Amy, who stared at the ground.

“
As it
is to me, Elias.” Helena took his arm and pulled him toward the
inn. “Let us go in,” she urged. “I am freezing out
here.”

Neither he nor Amy moved.

“
Er, we
shall not be staying here, Helena.” Elias glanced self-consciously
at the footman who held open the carriage door. “Father has
insisted we go to the Red Lion in Holborn.”

“
Oh, I
see,” Helena mumbled, not at all sure she did. “Then we shall talk
here.” She clambered into the carriage and settled herself under
the fur rug lying on the seat. Amy climbed in after her and with a
last glance back at the inn, Elias followed, slamming the door on
the surprised footman.

“
I’m
delighted to make your acquaintance, Mistress Woulfe. I’ve heard so
much about you from Elias and my sisters-in-law.”

“
I wish
I could express the same sentiments, Amy.” Helena felt awkward.
“However, I’m delighted to meet you too.”

“
Father
does not approve of our marriage,” Elias said, his voice dull with
resentment. “As his firstborn, he thought to choose a wife for me
who would bring the greatest benefit to himself.”

“
Elias!”
Helena gasped. “That’s unfair, your father-” she paused at the
sight of his tense face, thrown into relief from the lights of the
inn opposite. Bitterness clouded his eyes and his jaw clenched.
“Yet you are married, Elias, so he must have given his
consent.”

“
We gave
him little choice.” Elias’s bark of laughter sounded
hollow.

“
Let
me
explain, Elias.” Amy covered his hand with hers, silencing
him. “I was betrothed to someone else. An arrangement I consented
to at the time.”

“
Go on…”
Helena nodded in understanding. Hadn’t she faced a similar
predicament with Martyn Blanden?

“
Well.”
She licked her lips, revealing small even white teeth. “When I met
Elias, I realised I could not in all honesty go through with the
marriage. My heart would not have been with the other man, and I
could never have made him happy.”

“
You do
not need to convince me, Amy.” Helena said, discomfited by the
emotion in their shared glances, knowing she witnessed something
too intimate to be shared.

When she looked back at Helena, Amy’s eyes
were soft. “Elias felt the same about me, so we approached my
parents to have the betrothal dissolved.”

“
They
refused.” Elias’s voice choked with remembered anger. “When we
asked Father to intervene, he would not help us. He said a
betrothal is as binding as a marriage.”

“
I don’t
understand. You must have persuaded him eventually? Or you wouldn’t
be here, and married.” Helena studied each of their faces,
confused.

“
Not at
first, no.” Elias’s voice held derision. “Father decided Amy would
be married as arranged, and I would accompany him here to manage
his new warehouses. He planned to send me far enough away not to
create, well, difficulties. So we did what was necessary to ensure
we could be together.”

“
How?”
Helena broke off as Amy performed a gesture universally understood,
laying a hand gently on her stomach.

Helena closed her eyes briefly, sighing.
“Oh, Elias.”

His features partly in shadow, Helena
could not see his expression, though his sharp exhalation spoke
volumes. “What else could we do?”

“
Samuel
is a proud man, Elias.” Helena said, aware nothing she could say
would make any difference now. “He must have been deeply
hurt.”

“
I know
that.” Elias’s fist clenched beneath Amy’s delicate hand. “I was
angry with him for dismissing us. He treated me like a
child.”

“
How can
you say that? He did what he had to. Amy was betrothed.”

“
I
didn’t think how it would make us look. I could only think of
Amy.”

“
Or…you
didn’t think of her.” Helena instantly regretted her sharpness.
This affair was none of her concern.

“
I
should have behaved better.” Amy tucked her arm beneath his. “But
the damage was done.”

Hasty marriages and babies born without
benefit of clergy were an accepted part of rural life, of any life.
And yet Samuel was the Worshipful Master of Clothmakers, and there
was bound to be scandal attached to this union.

Elias tenderly arranged the fur rug over
Amy’s knees, the gesture making Helena feel unaccountably lonely.
“Thus, I am still to be banished from Ideswell,” he said. “The
consolation being that Amy is here with me as my wife.”

“
He
won’t forgive you easily Elias,” Helena said. “Or you,
Amy.”

Amy sighed. “Four days confined in a coach
and sharing lodgings has been more punishment than you can know.”
She closed her eyes, as if at remembered ignominies endured at the
hands of her father-in-law. “No matter, it is over now, and when
Master Ffoyle returns to Ideswell, we will be alone.”

“
You
appear to view your banishment as a wonderful
opportunity.”

“
How
else should we view it?” Elias shrugged. “I’m to be in sole charge
of Father’s serge distribution, its storage and sales in the
capital. Yours too, Helena.” he added.

“
Where
shall you live?” His enthusiasm was infectious, and the notion of
having a friend in London began to appeal.

“
The
warehouse is in Freemans Yard, where Father has also purchased a
house for us.” His involuntary grimace betrayed his
disappointment.

“
Isn’t
it a nice house?” Helena imagined he could show more gratitude.
“Samuel could have made you live in cramped lodgings near the meat
market instead.”

Elias winced and Amy giggled.

“
It’s
near Cornhill and the warehouse district.” Elias went on. “Father
made a point of informing me that it’s convenient, but neither
elegant nor fashionable. Merchants who deal in woollen goods,
millinery, hosiery and the like are located there. Drapers Hall has
a garden where Amy can take exercise, which is good for her
condition.” He gave Amy another adoring gaze. “And Freemans Yard is
almost wholly Dissenter.” Elias laughed. “To plague Father, we
could always threaten to attend the Presbyterian Church.” He
sniggered at his own joke while Amy flapped her hand.

“
Elias,
you know he is determined to shake off his Puritan
origins.”

“
Exactly!” Elias said. “Give him some time. He’ll accept us
eventually.” He dropped his voice. “He’ll have to.”

Helena hoped his optimism was not
misplaced.

“
Father
is not a cruel man.” Elias seemed to read her thoughts. “If I do
well here in London, the whole family will benefit, and Mother will
be working on him at home.”

“
Your
mother approves?” Helena felt the first spark of hope.

“
Oh
yes.” Amy’s face lightened. “Mother Ffoyle has always liked me, but
she dared not speak up for me.”

Helena remembered the loaded looks Samuel
and Meghan exchanged during her stay at Ideswell, which told of
lively disagreements between them about offering shelter to the
Woulfes after the rebellion. Helena suspected those heavy glances
had been resurrected when they discovered what Elias and Amy had
done.

“
But you
are married, and there is to be a child.” Helena tried to sound
encouraging.

Two enraptured faces greeted her words,
but then Amy looked crestfallen again. “I have yet to buy
childbirth linens in preparation; there was no time at Exeter. And
of course I should have a winding sheet…”

Elias gripped both her hands in his. “You
are young and strong Amy, do not speak of dying. This child will be
born healthy and you shall be safe, I am sure of it.”

Helena suppressed a shiver. Childbirth was a
perilous business for both infant and mother. It was common for
even the healthiest women to greet news of a new life with the
chance it might end her own.

“
I am
well prepared,” Amy said. “I have some saffron in my
baggage.”

“
Saffron?” Helena frowned, confused.

“
An
infusion taken moderately during the pregnancy that facilitates
birth.” Amy smiled. “Mistress Hannah Woolley recommends it in her
household manual. Her advice is invaluable.”

Helena would have liked to question Amy
more on the subject of Mistress Woolley, but at that moment the
carriage door flew open and a flurry of icy snowflakes swirled into
the cosy interior.

“
What is
going on out here?” Samuel stood glowering at them from under his
black wig. Without waiting for a response, he grabbed Helena’s
hand, pulling her bodily onto the road. “Come inside, Helena.
You’ll catch a chill from this foul air.”

Without a word to his son or
daughter-in-law, he slammed the door shut again, ordering the
coachman huddling on the box to drive off. “Be at the warehouse at
eight tomorrow,” he called.

Helena
’s last glimpse of Amy was a white
face peering out from under the leather flap before the carriage
turned the corner, the wheels cutting lines in the fresh
snow.

* * *

Chilled to the bone in just her
woolen day gown below a thin shawl, Helena offered no resistance as
Samuel propelled her into the
Devereux’s private salon, where a fire crackled
and hissed in the hearth. Helena hurried toward the welcoming
flames, rubbing her stiff hands together to get the blood
flowing.

Samuel had discarded his cloak in the hall
and sat on the chaise, his feet splayed out in front of him, both
elbows resting on his knees.

Tense seconds stretched, while Helena
prayed he was not about to attempt to ally her against Elias. She
turned and faced him, her chin lifted in defiance. “Elias told me
what he has done, Master Ffoyle. However, I’m sure he intends to
atone for his disobedience.” His jaws clenched as he ground his
teeth. A bad sign for him.

“
Huh, I
cannot help feeling he has taken this action to repay me for
forbidding him from joining Monmouth.”

“
You
were proved right about the rebellion, Samuel,” she said, though it
cost her to admit. “But for him to marry purely to spite you isn’t
in his character. From what I have seen he truly loves Amy,
and…”

He silenced her with an upheld hand.
“Helena, I will not discuss Elias with you. He is my problem, and I
will deal with him. Nor is he the sole reason I am here.” He paused
and inhaled slowly. “There is someone else who wishes to see you.”
He rose, strode to the door and swung it open. “He arrived on the
post coach this afternoon, but agreed to wait until my arrival
before speaking with you.”