‘And we appreciate you taking it.’ I took her hands. ‘But you have a choice. You could come with us, if we go through the time portal.’
‘My love. I cannot leave. This is my time,’ Nancy said, slowly. ‘No. I ’ave to stay, an’ take what’s comin’.’
‘I… I’m sorry, about … I almost went back with him,’ Hermione stammered. ‘I appreciate what you have all been doing for us. It was just that… when he was there, so angry…’ She trailed off. I pressed her hand in mine.
‘Hermione, please don’t apologise to us. We know you’re terrified of Albert.’ I paused. ‘We know… we know what he did to Mary Elizabeth.’
Hermione started, as if she had been slapped.
‘She was ill. She passed away,’ she said, in a low voice.
‘You know what he did, Hermione,’ I said, as kindly as I could. Even though Nancy had told me that the story about Mary Elizabeth was just a rumour, I knew it was true. I knew it in my bones, and I knew that Mary Elizabeth had shown me, in my dream. ‘You must have heard the rumours, at least, if you didn’t.’
I didn’t believe for a moment that Lady Hermione hadn’t known what her husband was doing with her older daughter, but I also believed that Hermione could have willed herself not to know. She could have pushed the knowledge down into her subconscious, put it into a box and shut the lid down tight.
‘You mean…?’ Aunt Bill breathed, and a look of horror crossed her face. ‘Oh, no.’
‘I think the rumours were correct,’ I said, as calmly as I could. ‘I can’t prove it, but… I have reasons to believe that it’s true. Either way, we know that Lord Albert was…’ I trailed off. ‘We all know what I am not saying.’ I didn’t want to say the words in front of Violet. She was too young to hear it; she had already suffered way too much.
‘God be merciful.’ Aunt Bill crossed herself. ‘That poor, poor girl.’
‘If you stay in St Nantes, Albert will find you.’ William addressed Hermione directly. ‘I do not say that to be cruel, Lady Trevarron. But it is the truth.’
‘You need to get to York. To your family,’ I said.
‘Yes.’ Hermione nodded. ‘I think that I won’t feel safe until we do.’
‘I could take them,’ Nancy said. ‘I could take the ’orse an’ carriage. We could be there in a few days. Would be good for me to get out o’ the village for a bit. Lie low. That means that you an’ William can take your chances wi’ the portal.’ She eyed it with suspicion. ‘It’s not for me, maid, but it’s different for you.’
‘What do you think?’ I looked at William.
‘ I worry about their safety. I do trust you, of course, Nancy.’ He nodded slowly. ‘Nancy, do you think you can protect them,alone? I would rather go with them, Tegan.’ He turned to me. ‘The thought of Violet or Lady Hermione being set upon by vagabonds, without sufficient protection… I don’t think I would forgive myself. After all that has happened.’
Violet clung onto Aunt Bill’s hand, gazing with a look of sheer terror up at William. He must have seemed like a giant to her, and it can’t have helped matters that she’d seen him fighting with her father. Although I could guess that Violet didn’t like her father, the violence would still have been difficult for a little girl to see.
‘I want Miss Penrose,’ she said, stubbornly.
‘Poor love. Terrified, she is.’ Aunt Bill shook her head. ‘She’s bonded to me, since I been ’er governess.’ She hunkered down in front of Violet, who regarded her seriously.
‘Now then, Miss Violet,’ Aunt Bill began. ‘What if I takes you ’ome, up to your mother’s folks? You’d be safe there. Would you go with me?’ She watched Violet’s face carefully.
Violet chewed her bread for a moment, thinking. Then, she nodded.
‘All right, then.’ Aunt Bill rested her hand on Violet’s head. ‘No offence, William, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Miss Violet’s just scared of all men, now. If she wants me to go with her, then that’s what I’m going to do.’
‘But we got to go now, then. Through the woods,’ Nancy interrupted. ‘If there’s the four of us, William, we’ll be safe. Bill an’ I are no strangers to travellin’. We’re canny, an’ we can protect ourselves.’ She reached into her stocking and pulled out a savage-looking knife. ‘I carries this, an array o’ poisons, an’ there’s a shotgun in the carriage. We’ll stay to the back roads an’ the lanes. I knows my way.’
‘I would prefer to accompany you, ladies,’ William said. He turned his gaze to me. ‘Tegan…’
I knew what he wanted to say to me. I could see it in his face.
All of me wanted to screamno, no, no, please don’t leave me. Not again.
But I knew why he had to go with them.
William had to protect Violet and Hermione. He felt that he’d failed to protect Edith and Elspeth, and, rightly or wrongly, he felt that it was Trevarron blood that was to blame for everything that had happened – therefore, he was to blame. I knew that he desperately needed to feel that he could redeem himself; that he wasn’t a monster. No amount of me telling him would convince him.
He had to go with them, and that meant that he would leave me alone with the portal.
