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Charlie grasped his friend’s hand and clapped him on the back. “It was a close call a time or two there, I can tell you.”
“You managed to evade them though?” His eyes met and held Charlie’s meaningfully for several moments.
“Of course,” Charlie replied. He turned to Hetty. “I don’t know about you, darling, but I am starved.”
“I’ll see to the horses,” Joshua called, and took the reins off Charlie.
Hetty stepped into the kitchen and heaved a sigh of relief. Thankfully it was not much different to the kitchen back at home. She looked longingly at the chair in front of the fireplace for several moments. However, before she could say anything, Simon appeared beside her.
“I’ll show you to the room we have set aside for you,” he muttered. “You look exhausted.”
He frowned as he looked at her, but Hetty refused to meet his gaze. She rather suspected that the intimacies she had shared with Charlie were written on her face somewhere. At the moment though, she didn’t want to answer any of his inevitable questions until she had some answers for herself.
“Where is Mabel?” she asked to the room at large.
Wally closed the door behind him, and looked at her.
“Marcus and Barnaby took her to her sister’s house yesterday. She will be safe there, and will stay there until this is all over. We will go and fetch her once it is safe for her to return.”
Hetty opened her mouth to speak only for her stomach to rumble – loudly.
“Sorry,” she muttered.
“Come on, let’s eat,” Charlie urged.
He quickly poured them both a drink, and served up huge slices of pie, and large helpings of meat, cheese and bread, while Wally added ham and apples.
Hetty ate hungrily and barely even glanced at Charlie when he took a seat beside her. In the end, she wasn’t sure whether she was tired, or just too hungry, but she didn’t eat as much as she thought she would. So sat back and sipped at her drink while she waited for Charlie to finish.
“What happened?” Wally asked, almost too quietly.
Hetty shared a look with Charlie. While he finished his meal, she slowly recounted what had happened, minus the rather intimate moments.
“When was the last time you saw any of the jailers?”
“Just after sunrise,” Cha
rlie replied as he wiped his mouth, and sat back to drink his wine. “We think they are going in the opposite direction. I don’t think anyone followed us.”
“Where are the others?” Hetty asked cautiously.
“They have gone into town to look for Sir Hugo. They were going to call by the mill house to make sure that everything was alright; then see if they could find you,” Joshua added.
“Well, you are here now,” Wally sighed. “Now we can wait for Sir Hugo, and then put all of this to bed.”
Hetty mentally winced at his analogy, and tried desperately to stop her cheeks from flooding with guilty colour. She wasn’t sure she succeeded though because she felt, rather than saw, Charlie look at her closely for a moment before he shifted in his seat.
“Why don’t you two go and get cleaned up while we wait for the others to come back. Then we can all discuss what we are going to do next,” Joshua suggested.
It was something of a relief to Hetty to be able to push her chair away and leave the room, but had to wait for Simon to show her the way.
“Marcus went to the mill yesterday, and brought us all a change of clothing, and your personal belongings Charlie. I have put yours in here, Hetty,” Simon explained as he led the way up a huge flight of stairs and drew to a stop outside one of the bedrooms.
“Where are my things?” Charlie asked quietly.
Simon looked at him for several moments before he reluctantly nodded to a door further down the hallway.
“It’s down there.”
