Feral Park (35 page)

It is not a difficult task to explain how Anna and Colin and Tripp found themselves hiding beneath the bed in the small cabin within Tatter Wood which had formerly been occupied by the Turnington Lodge gamekeeper (until it became necessary to build him a larger house with space, as well, for his new wife, the poultry-maid, and their love-begotten child). It happened this way: Tripp had delivered his two injured charges to the cottage where they were to wait whilst he went to get a horse to transport the both of them to where they needed to be (Anna wishing to herself that Mr. Alford was dropt first so that she may see if Mr. Perry Alford was still labouring over the poem which he was to dedicate to her. To see him so fully occupied and thinking about her after so many hours of having
already
thought about her would be an agreeable conclusion to a day that was not otherwise turning out as she had wished.) Tripp was well-nigh out of the door and off upon his errand when he espied through the trees none other than Sir Thomas and his new young governess Miss Younge striding quickly in his direction—indeed, coming toward the gamekeeper’s cabin itself!

“Damn it!” said Tripp, the oath then being followed by a hasty apology to Anna for the sudden salt upon his tongue. “We must flee, but
cannot
for two of us three be cripples.”

“Then we must hide!” urged Anna, and it was she who pointed to the bed, which was the logical place, as the cabin was small and held no other furniture but two chairs and a rude table that would hardly have concealed the three, for there was no cloth upon it. So each member of the trio scrambled beneath the narrow bed and bunched together so that no part of them be exposed, and each, no doubt, hoped that the visit by Sir Thomas and Miss Younge to the wood house would be a mercifully short one for it was tight within their impromptu hiding place.

Quietly they lay, all three upon their bellies, and listened to the following exchange:

“Ah,” said he, “it is nearly as we left it yesterday. Although that blanket was not upon the floor. I should have Hedges put a lock upon the place if you and I are to continue to come hither, for the gipsies use it themselves I wager, and it is vexing to think that they enter
my
own lodge to make their dirty babies upon
my
blanket!”

“We have no need of the blanket at all events, Sir Thomas, for we did not come hither to make babies. We came hither so that I should administer discipline through the cruel ferule.”

“Yes and, well,
no.
”

“No?”

“Discipline
will
be administered to-day but not with a correcting ferule. I have brought within this sack, instead, a whip, so that a full lashing may be given in this particular interview.”

Anna restrained herself from emitting a gasp by putting her hand over her mouth. Colin kept it in place by laying his own hand over it.

Miss Younge’s voice was heard next: “Sir Thomas, I do not know how to deliver a full lashing with such a whip, for I have never done it.”

“Yet
I
do,” said Sir Thomas. “And did I neglect to tell you that to-day our roles are to be reversed?”

“No, sir, you did
not
tell me that!” responded Miss Younge in a most surprized and unsettled voice.

“Since your arrival, I have twice taken my corporal punishment like a good little soldier but in all fairness it should now be
your
turn for correction. I must tell you, though, that I am a harder master at the game than you, and I shall not spare you.”

“Sir Thomas, you are being ridiculous, and what’s more, you are frightening me.”

“All the better. Did you think that you came to work for me simply to educate my daughters? My dear foolish girl. You are, no doubt, a terrible governess, and your mediocre credentials discommended you in this area from the moment Miss Peppercorn presented you to me. That I should employ a woman for no other purpose than as governess—you who has heretofore taught only a tanner’s lowly brood and the diseased of the East End—it is preposterous! No, my dear, you were brought into my service for two reasons which have nothing to do with your meager abilities as teacher and shepherdess of children: to lash me upon my behind whenever I feel the need for it, and to submit to whatever
I
wished to do to
you
which will give me pleasure. In this arrangement you are to be paid a comfortable wage and I promise that I shall not kill you.”

“But I should never consent to such a lopsided scheme!”

“Consent you will, Miss Younge, for I am afraid that you have no other choice. I am the one with the whip and not you. Moreover, I am the stronger of the two of us, and a struggle would be fruitless. I should not mind to
see
you struggle if you chuse, and be a bit frightened if it suits you, for that generally serves to heighten my interest, but all of the cards are in my hand. Shall we begin the game?”

At this moment Anna could hear a woman’s scream and then the first moment of a tussle, but it was all over before she realised that both of her companions beneath the bed had rolled out from under it—even Colin Alford with his injured leg—and had sprung to their feet and now must be facing Sir Thomas eye to eye. For her part Anna felt it best to keep her whereabouts hidden from the baronet so that her presence would not add a complication to the proceedings.

“And what have we here!” exclaimed Sir Thomas with more than a little astonishment to his address.

“My dear landlord,” Colin began, “you have neither cause nor right to harm this woman, and I will not allow it.”

“Nor I,” said Tripp.

“You intend to stop me, do you—two men dressed in ridiculous blouse kilts?”

“We do indeed, sir, or we should be possessed of a cowardly character as equally bankrupt as your own,” answered Colin.

“You say this to me even though I intend now to lash all three of you together in an orgy of whipping and striping and flaying of flesh that should put each of you upon the mending couch for several days?”

“I would not permit you even the first swing, sir,” said Tripp frankly, “for once you raise the whip I intend to pound the shite out of you with my fists— begging your pardon, miss.”

“No, no, I should like to see you do it,” said Miss Younge, her voice moving across the room,
and
, Anna surmised,
away
from her thwarted assailant.

“Then what if I were to make an offer to each of you gentlemen of a sizeable sum in exchange for your walking away from this cabin and thinking nothing more of what you have heard or seen here to-day?”

The reply came from Colin Alford: “Do I understand, sir, that you wish to make us complicit by purchasing our silence?”

“I do indeed. And I would pay most handsomely for it.”

“But I would never accept such an offer at any price, would
you,
Mr. Groom?”

“I would not, sir.”

“Then I believe this puts us all in the way of an impasse,” said Sir Thomas. Anna saw the man’s whip strike the floor where he had apparently and purposefully dropt it. “For I haven’t the strength or sinew myself to go to fisticuffs with the likes of you. I am out-muscled and out-thewed, I am afraid.” There was a brief silence and then the baronet continued in a more cheerful and hopeful voice: “But you have not by any means defeated me in this engagement, for I know what has brought the two of
you
to this place. I know your purpose, for I have seen you together behind the stable at the Taptoe cottage—one standing, the other kneeling close before him. I do not tolerate such behaviour at Turnington Lodge and was considering, in fact, filing the necessary papers to have the both of you evicted for engaging in acts of carnal turpitude upon my very premises. I had even thought to discuss with Constable Whitaker the bringing of statutable charges against you.”

Colin’s reply came quickly: “No such charge would be sustainable, Sir Thomas, for to be quite candid I am not an epicene Miss Molly nor navigator of the windward passage and never have I been one, for I am not so stupid as to engage in activity that would put a noose round my neck. What you saw, as odious as it may have appeared to you, is legal under the law—as legal, I suspect, as having a ferule laid upon one’s fundament for the purpose of gratification. But I will tell you what is
not
legal—and in doing so, I will tell you what you must surely know already—and it is that which you were about to do to this young woman who now sits terrified upon the bed…”

The legs dangled next to Anna. She was tempted to touch them to give comfort to the frightened Miss Younge, but feared that the girl might start or scream, not knowing that there was a friend beneath her, and thus disclose Anna’s presence, and so Anna kept her hands to herself and noted how nicely polished were Miss Younge’s shoes.

“…Such activity is clearly outside of the law, even for a man of your station. Moreover, Sir Thomas, I have suspicions that you have harmed your former governess in a similar fashion and perhaps even the ones who preceded her in ways which also were clearly outside of the boundary of the law, and so you may not do any thing to me or to my friend Mr. Tripp that will not turn itself against you, especially with Miss Younge as willing and able witness.”

“You perhaps have me there as well, Alford. But I must say that I still win this particular day, for now I shall not only evict you and your partner as a consequence of your man-upon-man depravity, but I intend to evict the entire rest of your lot as well—both those who reside within the dwarf cottage
and
your two brothers at the other house. You are all to be gone by Sunday night. If you remain upon my property come Monday morning, I shall have each of you, including the anile Mrs. Taptoe, arrested for trespassing, and as you are all within a few guineas of pecuniary destitution, I shall have you promptly escorted out of the parish and dropt unceremoniously upon the turnpike. Miss Younge, your services are no longer required at Turnington Lodge. Gather your things and be gone by this evening.”

With that, Sir Thomas himself was gone.

Feeling that it was now appropriate to remove herself from beneath the bed, Anna slid across the rough, splintery boards and accidentally brushed against one leg of Miss Younge, who did indeed scream, but then stopt when she saw that it was not a rat or some woodland creature inhabiting the house which met her ankle but none other than the harmless Anna Peppercorn. All remained still and listened to discern if the noise would bring Sir Thomas back to the gamekeeper’s cottage to investigate the peculiarity of a woman’s scream for which he had not been personally and proudly responsible.

When he did not come, Anna pulled herself up onto the bed and sat down next to Miss Younge and took her hand to calm her with gentle pats upon the knuckles. The object of her concern was trembling, her eyes moist with tears.

“I am so sorry to have placed you in this position,” said Anna. “I did not know that Sir Thomas was the evil man that he has turned out to be.”

“Nor did I know it,” said Colin Alford, “for since we moved hither he has treated my brothers and me with only the utmost courtesy and civility. He even brings our letters.”

“I did not know it myself until this very moment,” sniffled Miss Younge. “How easy it is for a man to hide his malevolent nature from others.” Now collecting herself, Miss Younge remarked upon how strange it was that they should all be within the cabin together and that the men should be all but totally undresst and this and that, and some time was taken to explain things to her, and when told that Alford and Tripp were moderately fond of one another in a way not generally smiled upon by those without such proclivities, Miss Younge nodded and said that she was aware of such tendencies from her work amongst the unfortunates in London and it was not a great thing with which to concern herself, given the more pressing matter of how she was now to be employed and where she was now to live. She appended that she did not think a man should be hanged for what he did with his pego, for she knew ladies of easy virtue in town who did all manner of things with their tuzzy-muzzies, none of which ever mandated a trip to the gallows, and, after all, did not her savior Jesus Christ preach more upon the need for peace and administering to the poor than what a man could or could not do with his sugar stick?

“Do not despair, Miss Younge,” said Anna in a soothing voice. “For the time being you are to be a guest of my father and myself at Feral Park.”

“I should like that and am, oh, so very grateful.” Miss Younge kissed Anna upon the cheek and then kissed her again, for apparently a second kiss was needed to strengthen the point.

Now Anna turned to Colin and Tripp: “I fear that Mrs. Taptoe will be shattered to learn that she must leave her new home, even though the eviction was the consequence of an act of chivalry on the part of one of her employees which she would otherwise fully commend. I fear, as well, that the Mallards may not take her back in, nor would she even be willing to return to lodgings there, but let us hear what
she
would say about it. As for you and your brothers, Mr. Alford, you are also welcome to reside for a time in Feral Park; I am certain that my father would extend the invitation himself especially since it was Miss Younge whom you rescued, as he is most attached to her and most desirous for her well-being. It would be best, though, whilst there will be so many in the main house, for you to place yourselves within the Super House instead.”