‘She stored cargo at the cottage until my contacts could come and get it, yes,’ William said, slowly. ‘Why are you asking me all these questions? You knew I was a smuggler. You must know that I did it for the good of the people. They couldn’t afford so many basic items, otherwise. And, yes, I had little choice.The Trevarron finances were almost stripped bare because of Charles: his travels, his unwise investments,’ William growled.
‘Yes, I knew,’ I said. ‘What I’m trying to understand is, who knew about the tunnels and when. Because if someone knows about the tunnels – or has been in them – then they know that the tunnels weren’t just used for smuggling.’
‘That is correct.’ William shrugged. ‘Annie knew. She knew the history of the Trevarrons. She knew, of course, that they were not used in that way under my lordship.’
‘She knew about the time travel, too. She gave me the book that had belonged to her ancestor, Evelyn,’ I said. ‘She knew about the ley lines. And she knew about you and me.’ I looked up, remembering. ‘She read my cards and she said that you and I were supposed to be together, but that we were lost, looking for each other. That when I found you, it was up to me to hold on to you. That I would lead, and you follow.’
William paused for a moment. ‘It seems that the pellars of St Nantes have known far more than the Lords of Trevarron,’ he said. ‘There has been a strange relationship there, for many generations, it would seem. My father taught me to consult the pellars in St Nantes. He was an awful man, but he was superstitious, and he remained respectful and friendly with Annie’s mother, and then, I with Annie. I agreed to take on her daughter in the household staff when Annie asked. I made sure that the cottage was always repaired; I paid Annie a decent sum to help me with the smuggling. My father did the same. In fact, Yew Tree Cottage was built by one of my ancestors. I suspect it was the one that dug the tunnels.’
‘So it wasn’t just you being a sailor once that made you superstitious,’ I said. ‘You knew that the Willcock family had been placed in that cottage to help the Lords of Trevarron, should they need it.’
‘Indeed. I couldn’t have run my business without Annie Willcock,’ William said. ‘I knew well how powerful she was, both as a pellar and in her standing in the village and beyond. A surprisingnumber of people in high places knew the Willcock family. Magistrates. Lawmakers. Constables. Lords and ladies.’
‘Fascinatin’.’ Aunt Bill shook her head. ‘I always suspected there was some kind o’ symbiotic relationship between the Willcock family an’ the Trevarrons, but I wasn’t aware that the Trevarrons built my cottage an’ then installed the Willcock family in it. To ’elp wi’ the smugglin’, of course, but it makes you wonder. Was there another reason, connected to the time portal? In all my travels, I’ve never found a member of the Trevarron family what’s known about the time slippage there. Until you, William.’ Aunt Bill regarded him thoughtfully. ‘I wonder what that means, eh?’
TWENTY-ONE
When we returned to the gatehouse for the night, having successfully snuck back out of the main house, William closed the door behind us and, then, wordlessly, caught me in his arms and held me tight. Surprised, I leaned against him and let out a long breath.
‘Another situation that requires us to be brave, dear Tegan.’ He sighed. ‘I find I am tired of bravery. I wish…’ He trailed off. ‘I don’t know what I wish.’
I knew what I wished: to be safely home, back in my own time. And if I could have taken William with me, and he would have been happy, then I would do that, too. But, I didn’t say that. I knew it was fraught with too many problems.
We were about to do something very risky, and I knew that there were many chinks in the armour of the plan that we had hatched with Aunt Bill. Yet, there was no choice. We had to get Lady Hermione and Violet away from Trevarron House before Lord Albert returned from London, and that meant the next evening.
Neither of us had forgotten about William’s desire to somehow save Edith. That required one or both of us to travel back to 1755 through the portal. I wasn’t sure about how to achieve that or evenwhether it would be doable, and I didn’t know how to broach the subject with him right now. For the moment, though, we had a small window of time to save Hermione and Violet, and we had to focus on that.
Lady Hermione and Miss Violet were guarded closely all day by butlers and footmen. In the evenings, when Lord Albert was away, they were confined to their rooms, with a man standing guard at the door. However, we had a secret weapon: Aunt Bill. As Violet’s governess, she was allowed into her charge’s rooms as well as Lady Hermione’s, and was, she said, seen as a harmless middle-aged woman by the staff.
‘Since I found out about Violet, I’ve worked hard at makin’ myself seem as doddery an’ useless as possible,’ my aunt had said, earlier. ‘I knew that I’d ’ave to make a plan to get Violet out, an’ that’d mean gettin’ past the guards. Much easier to get past them if they don’t suspect you.’
William had shown us on the map that the door into the tunnel from Trevarron House was in the scullery. I had been there before; it was kind of a second kitchen off the main room where the pots and dishes were washed. The unfortunate maids whose job this was spent hours standing on slatted wooden platforms because the floor itself ran with water. Their hands were red and ruined from being in hot water all day, but there was at least a door to the outside where they could take a break and, when there was sunlight, stand in it for a while.
The plan was that I would sneak into the house tomorrow evening. Aunt Bill would then create a diversion. When the men guarding Hermione and Violet went to investigate, Aunt Bill and I would get them from their rooms and take them down to the scullery and into the tunnel. William would wait for us in the tunnels and make sure we weren’t followed.
We hadn’t specifically said the words, but I had the understanding that, if things got rough, William would nonetheless be there to deal with it. I had no doubt that he could make mincemeat of anyone who wanted to fight him, but our aim wasto get away quietly, if we could. Aunt Bill was confident we could get Hermione and Violet down to the scullery safely and without a fuss – it was after that that she thought there might be trouble. Or, we might need William in the tunnels, where there would be fallen rock and rubble. We couldn’t risk losing him in a fight before then.
Since I had lived as a lady’s maid in Trevarron House, I knew the layout of ‘upstairs’ – the rooms used by William and his brother and sister – and ‘downstairs’ – the kitchens, storerooms, scullery and laundry rooms, among other functional spaces manned by a number of maids, all beavering away to ensure the smooth running of a luxurious manor house. I’d often reflected, while doing whatever my mistress Edith Trevarron required of me, that it was totally remarkable that such a hive of activity continued daily, just to support three wealthy individuals.
What this meant was that I was best suited to work out the most secret and quickest route from Lady Hermione and Miss Violet’s chambers – they were on the second floor, and, fortunately, connected to the scullery.
I had the route set in my mind. I knew what to do. Once we were in the tunnel, we would follow it along for about a mile until we got to the steps that led up into the kitchen at Yew Tree Cottage. We had to trust that the tunnels were still passable; William had used them in 1755, but this was over a hundred years later. Neither of us had any idea if they were still in use. They might have collapsed already, and then we would have no choice but to try and get Lady Hermione and Miss Violet away from Trevarron House another way.
My nerves were jagged at the thought of what would happen if we were caught. And, completely apart from this sudden mission of mercy that we had committed to, William and I had no idea how we could get back to either of our timelines – 1755 or the twenty-first century. We hadn’t discussed it yet, and yet it dominated my thoughts.
I couldn’t bear to be parted from William again, but I also desperately wanted to return home. I knew neither of us wanted totalk about it, because we didn’t want to upset the other. I also knew that we had to.
‘Tegan. You are trembling.’ William frowned, holding me closer to him. ‘Please, try not to worry. I have faith we can do this.’
‘William…’ I breathed him in; his scent was calming and arousing to me in equal measure. The arousal came from the manliness of him; he smelt of woodsmoke and a light sweat, a kind of honest masculinity that spoke of strength and constancy.
But there was also just the natural smell of William: that was the calm. That was the centre of all things, where I could be safe and protected from everything – from the daily terror and insecurity of being stuck in the wrong time. From the doubt that I might ever get home, which I sometimes worried would rip me in two.
When I nestled my head in his chest, or laid it on his shoulder, listening to his breath coming back to normal after we had made love, it was the only time in my life that I had ever truly felt at peace.
I was so grateful he had drawn me to him; that he seemed to be thawing towards me. The thought that he would withdraw his affection from me had been terrible.
I started to cry. The upheaval and pain of the past few days was more than I could bear, and I felt the stress I’d been carrying implode in my heart, balling its way up my throat like a fist.
