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He was adamant and she could see he had made up his mind. She decided to let it go for a bit longer. Sooner or later, his thirst and hunger would ease his resolve.
She waited another twenty minutes as they sat in silence and listened to the seamen above them rattle off in French. They seemed a jolly crew and she tried again. “Bunky…I think these sailors will be kind, and you must be hungry by now. I know I could eat an entire table full of food.”
“The sharks are hungrier…and that is all we’ll end up as, food for the sharks,” Bunky insisted.
Heather sighed and gave it up. She would not go against his will. If he was right, it would mean that she would be the cause of whatever harm was done to them. “Very well. We will try it your way.”
Soon, for the lack of better activity, they both drifted off again and when they next woke, no more light showed through the cracks of the hatch door.
* * * * *
Chaos reigned at Ravensbury Castle. Godwin couldn’t get himself together. Sara wasn’t feigning her injury. She couldn’t walk. Her fall had crippled her.
The doctor came and went, but in the end, he gave it as his considered opinion that her ladyship would probably never walk again.
Godwin’s hate for Sara permeated every ounce of his being, but he was a compassionate man, and this news was a terrible blow.
His plans, his life was over.
He could not divorce Sara now. He could not do that to a disabled woman, no matter how much she deserved it, no matter how much he hated her.
Still, he would find Heather and he would bring her back, and if they had to live in sin, providing Heather did not object, so be it.
As soon as he was able, he made his way to the vicar and discovered not from Heather’s uncle, but from Mabe the cook that Heather had been sent out alone and without very much money.
She would go to the cottage, he thought immediately. Hope rose in him. All he could think was let her be safely at the cottage, waiting for me.
She simply had to be at the cottage. It was with joy that he galloped his horse across the downs to the small creamy colored stone building with its thatched roof.
He jumped off his horse while the animal was still moving and hurried to open the door, but Heather was not there.
Sara, however, had made an error. She had forgotten to dispose of Heather’s portmanteau. Her baggage sat still where she had left it, unpacked and untouched.
He ran his hand through his hair and his thoughts were frenzied. Where was she? Had someone taken her? Footprints in the dust told him that was indeed the case. Who had done this? Where had they taken her?
He went outside and found tracks in the soft earth. A woman’s boot…Sara no doubt, and two men had been here. His beloved had been abducted.
He took to horse, slowly making his paces this time, and was hailed by Farmer Burns, so he stopped for the man, though he was impatient with distress.
“Well, now, yer lordship. ‘Tis that glad I am to see ye.”
“Yes, thank you, how is the family, Burns?” Godwin returned absently.
“Well, they be well, aye, that they be. Wanted to let ye know, I saw her ladyship the other afternoon, riding over the downs toward Land’s End, but she didn’t note me as she passed,” he mused out loud, and scratched his weathered beard.
Godwin turned his head sharply. “You say you saw her ladyship…here…?”
“Aye, going in the very direction ye jest came from…where that pretty little cottage sits. She had two sailors with her,” the farmer answered, and gave him a very direct look. “I had an uncomfortable feeling about it, that I did.”
Godwin’s heart sank in his chest. This confirmed it. Sara had abducted Heather. The information that two seamen had been with her was unwelcome. Had they taken Heather to the port, and if so, what had they done with her?
“Thank you, Burns, thank you,” he said as he turned his steed sharply for home. The port was too large to offer answers without more information. He had to see Sara and get to the bottom of this before he could hope to find Heather.
He was burning with anger, but this time, he was in control. He had no choice. If he was to find his Heather, he needed to think clearly. He made his way up the main staircase to his wife’s room, and there he entered.
Sara was sitting up in bed, reading. She put down the book at his entrance and demanded harshly, “What do you want?”
“Where did they take her, Sara? I know most of it now. You were seen. You might as well tell me the rest.”
