Netherby Halls (9 page)

“Did she leave a note for the headmistress?”

“Note? No—and that is the other thing. You see, she
was terrified of the headmistress, and although she might have
found another position, she would have left
me
a note, if
only to set my mind at ease.” Again Miss Graves shrugged and
frowned over the situation.

Once again, Sassy had been left to speculate about
her predecessor. Every magic nerve in her witch’s body was on edge.
Something was off at Netherby—something sinister hung in the air
and in the walls. She excused herself and headed for her room to
fetch her cloak and purse.

* * *

Gray was the color of the day, but Sassy didn’t think
it would rain as she made her way to the school’s carriage
house.

During the week, teachers were asked not to leave
school. Being under constant constraints was trying for Sassy, as
it was all so new. She had never been so hampered in her life, and
it was taking all her patience to deal with all the rules. In
addition to the loneliness she was experiencing, she felt a bit of
a prisoner. If it weren’t for the deep affection she now felt for
most of her students, she would count her days as dreary.

She arrived at the large wood and stone barn and
peered inside to find the face of a tall, thin man wearing a dark
wool coat and cap. He nodded at her with something of a grin. “I
was wondering when ye would be looking for a ride into town.”

“Hallo,” she said with a smile. “I am Miss Winthrop,
and you must be Mr. Wilkes, Molly’s father?”

“Aye, though you can call me Gunther, and I know who
ye be.” He tipped the peak of his cap to her and gave her an
apologetic smile. “I can take ye into town, but I won’t be able to
wait on ye to take ye back, Miss Winthrop.”

“Oh, I quite understand and do not mind the walk
back. I am told it is only three miles from the center of town,
yes?”

“Aye, three miles, maybe a pinch less, and sorry I am
that I can’t wait for ye.”

“It doesn’t matter, and the ride into town will be a
great help.” Sassy smiled brightly and added, “I have seen you in
the rose gardens, and they are simply beautiful. I suppose you have
double duty, here and the gardens?”

He glanced over her approvingly. “Aye, though I get
help from town with the gardens and sech.” He nodded to her and
said authoritatively, “Up wit ye then, for I ’ave no time to spend
wasting it jabbering wit ye here.”

Silence reigned as he tooled the pair of chestnut
cobs down the driveway. At their back was a large wagon, presently
empty but about to be filled with supplies in town, Sassy thought
with a smile.

Suddenly, Gunther startled Sassy out of her
daydreaming by saying, “I been at Netherby nearly all m’life. It
has seen better days, when the school was looked after by ’is
lordship.”

“His lordship?” Sassy encouraged him. “Lord
Devine?”

“No, no, it was Lord DeWitts, before it was inherited
by the Devines’ end of the family branch.” He sighed heavily. “Not
saying Lady Devine, well, not saying she doesn’t care, but she
isn’t here long enough when she visits to do more than look about.
That’s the pity of it, for if she cared a bit more, well, maybe
things wouldn’t have gone the way they have.”

“Whatever do you mean, Gunther?” Sassy sensed now,
more than ever, that what she suspected was in fact a truth. Things
were not what they seemed at Netherby.

“Nuthin’,” he answered. “Said more than I should have
already.”

She pressed by disagreeing. “I haven’t noticed
anything—the girls don’t seem neglected, and the food is quite
good.”

“Course the food is good,” he cut in to scoff. “My
missus sees to that.”

“Yes, that’s right, Cook is your wife.”

“Aye, and Molly and m’wife, well, they both be pretty
special. Need this position. Had it for too long to lose it
now.”

“Gunther,” Sassy said hopefully, “I have had a notion
since I got here that something, I am not certain what, is not
quite right at Netherby.”

He gave her a sideways glance, and when he spoke, it
was conspiratorially. “Lookee ’ere, Miss, as I told ye, I love this
place. His lordship even allowed me and the wife to be married on
the grounds.” He shook his head. “In fact, we live in the stone
cottage near the far end of the stables, and I don’t know where we
would go if we got turned off, so what I am telling ye,”—he paused
and eyed her grimly—“is not to be repeated.”

“I would never—”

“My Molly has been fretting over Miss Saunders, and
m’girl is too smart by half. She loved her, ye see. Miss Saunders
was teaching her on her own time, everything she taught the other
girls.”

“Oh, how lovely.” Sassy’s hands came together as she
smiled. “Someone like that wouldn’t just up and leave.”
It
sounds like Miss Graves was correct
.

“Right ye be on that. Someone that dear doesn’t run
off and leave, now does she?”

Sassy was chilled for a moment looking at his stern
face. “What did the headmistress say about the matter?”

“I told her that I didn’t think that Miss Saunders
ran off, and she told me to mind my work.”

“Could Miss Saunders have had a beau?”

“Just a poor lass like that? No, no beau. She never
went anywhere, never had anyone call, and spent her spare time with
us at the cottage, teaching Molly her lessons.”

“I see. What do you think happened, Gunther?”

“Nuthin’ good,” was his answer.

The rest of the ride into Bristol was spent in
thoughtful silence. A strange mystery, indeed.

She shook her head to herself over the thought that
someone at Netherby was up to no good—but what? Just what was going
on at Netherby?
Faith!

Finally, just as they were arriving on the outskirts
of town, Sassy asked, “Did no one ever come inquiring about Miss
Saunders? Was she all alone in the world?”

“An uncle came by, which is why m’Molly suspects foul
play. Her uncle, a colonel, you see, received a letter from her
just before she vanished. He wouldn’t tell us what was in it,
though we told him we had become close. Upset he was. He came up
because she asked him to. Now, that don’t make sense—why ask him to
visit her and then leave before he gets here?”

“Odd. You are right, Gunther. This worries me,” Sassy
said, now thoroughly convinced that Miss Saunders had come to
harm.

They had by then arrived in the busier section of
Bristol. As he maneuvered over cobbled streets, Sassy had a good
look at the port town. Bristol was one of England’s thriving
seaports, and many ships were in the harbor.

Sailors were everywhere, smiling at the ladies in the
streets. The town pulsated with life and energy, merchants and
servants all going about their business. She saw seamen dressed in
well-worn navy wools and merchants with striped waistcoats.

The abolishment of the slave trade with the United
States had been a favorite topic of her father’s and was a heated
debate in Parliament. Bristol’s triangular trade—exporting to West
Africa, picking up cargoes of black slaves there, and selling them
to Americans—had made Bristol a thriving port, and its citizens
were loathe to implement this new law. It remained for economic
reasons a debate, and slave trading still flourished. Like her
father, Sassy found the taking of slaves outrageously evil.

As they passed harbor streets filled with merchant
ships loading their wares and making ready for their voyages to
West Africa, Sassy remarked on the beauty of the great sailing
ships.

“Aye, on the outside, but the devil’s tools, the lot
of ’em,” Gunther remarked disgustedly.

He waved his arm at one ship in particular. “See
that? They call her the
Sea Winds.
She carries slaves, she
does. They bring her in from Africa, they do, and then ship her out
to the colonies. My Molly, she ain’t wrong when she says slavery
ain’t right, seeing as we’re all God’s children.”

“Oh no. I have never seen it firsthand. It is
unthinkable what we humans do to one another. Horrible,” Sassy
said, much distressed.

“That’s how this town goes on with such trade, and
other things,” he said darkly.

“What other things?”

“That is not for your young ears—nor my Molly’s, so
don’t be asking her, for she’ll never rest till she knows. Ye both
be too danged curious for yer own good.” He halted his horses and
said, “If it is some shopping ye need, this is the street to do it
on.”

Sassy picked up her skirts and nimbly made her way
off the short steps of the wagon’s seat to the cobblestone.
However, she then twisted her ankle slightly as she took her first
step.

She held the carriage a moment as she shook out her
foot and smiled up to thank him, but he stayed her. “Hold on, Miss,
’tis a goodly walk back to the school, every bit of an hour’s walk.
Best head back well before dark sets in,” he said gruffly. Without
waiting for an answer he set his horses back in motion.

Smiling over the man’s odd manners, Sassy made her
way down the avenue to a fabric shop, quickly chose a length of
pretty, pale green cotton, had it wrapped in a brown paper bundle,
and left the shop.

The scent of freshly baked pastries took strong hold
of her, and before long she had purchased a tiny cake and began the
happy process of devouring the delectable as she walked and looked
into storefront windows.

By the time she neared the edge of town and the main
road back to Netherby, she was sure her little package had
mysteriously gained weight. Her arm ached as she stopped and
shifted her package to the other hand.

The sound of approaching wheels and horses’ hooves
brought Sassy’s head around. She was quick to recognize the
gentlemen she had encountered on her way to Netherby, and her heart
began to race when the coach slowed to a stop near her.

One of these gentlemen she would, she believed, never
forget, for although she had not had that erotic dream since that
first time she saw him in person in Sutton Village, she had been
thinking of him frequently, especially after their meeting in the
road.

Sitting beside Percy Lutterel was a young, pretty,
and fashionable young woman in a haze of pink from top to
bottom.

“Hallo, Miss Winthrop,” Mr. Lutterel said as he
jumped nimbly down from the coach. He tipped his hat as he walked
towards her.

The Marquis of Dartmour moved closer to the window,
and just at that moment Sassy’s gaze met with his bright blue
eyes.

She nearly gasped at the rush of sensation that
flooded her. It felt as though her blood was on fire with a fever.
Why did this happen whenever he was near?
Apparently I am
forever destined to meet him on the road.

No sooner did this thought enter her mind than she
saw a look of surprise click into his glittering blue eyes and
heard words that never came from his lips as he answered her,
And
apparently destiny just might be the answer.

Sassy tried to recoup from this startling event. She
had only been able to exchange thoughts with her mother and now and
then with her father. Never before had it occurred with anyone
else!
What was happening to her?
Had he answered her? Or had
she imagined it? Had she read his thoughts? Was that it?

Her magic, she knew, had increased with her ‘coming
of age’. Her mother had explained that this would happen as soon as
she reached her majority, which she’d described as the beginning of
a special time of transition when Sassy would have to learn to
control some very startling
realizations.

She had asked her mother to explain what this meant,
but all she would say was that it was different for each woman
blessed with the power of white magic.

“What …?” she asked, feeling foolish, for she’d
heard Mr. Lutterel speaking but had not been able to concentrate on
what he said.

“I asked if it was Miss Winthrop,” Mr. Lutterel
repeated. “Do I have that right?”

“Yes, sir, it is. You have a commendable memory,”
Sassy answered, giving the young woman inside the coach a sweeping
smile. The pert blonde inside the carriage did not look
pleased.

Mr. Lutterel, it appeared, noted the same
circumstance just at that moment and hastened to right his
oversight. “Thank you, you know already my friend here, the Marquis
of Dartmour, and this is my cousin, once removed, Miss Sophia
Delleson.”

Sassy observed the look on Mr. Lutterel’s face; it
appeared to her he worshipped the young lady.

Miss Delleson regarded Sassy with a cool smile as she
took her measure and inclined her head. Sassy could see a
calculating look in her glance. When her voice came, it purred.
“Percy, however did you find time to make acquaintances in Bristol?
I have lived here all my life and have never come across Miss
Winthrop, or any of her family—
anywhere
.”

“Miss Winthrop has only just arrived in Bristol,” the
marquis said smoothly, his face giving away nothing of what he
felt. His thoughts were once again cut off from Sassy.

“Oh well, that would explain why I did not recognize
the name.
S
till
, one would think…?”

Though the marquis’s expression didn’t change, Mr.
Lutterel blushed at his beloved’s cattish manners. “The marquis and
I were fortunate enough to be on hand when Miss Winthrop’s carriage
broke down,” he said, “though I am sorry to state that we were
unable to be of any meaningful assistance.”

“I see,” said Sophy, still cool.

Sassy did not appreciate Miss Delleson’s superior
attitude or the fact that her position on the road forced her to
strain her neck to carry on a conversation. She felt her temper on
the rise but controlled herself as she said, “Please, Mr. Lutterel,
there is no need for such explanations. I believe Miss Delleson has
a very good understanding of my situation. Your cousin obviously
and quite correctly assumes that she and I have not met because I
lack the necessary credentials that would enable me to travel in
what she has been taught are the ‘first circles’. And I doubt that
the fact that I am a teacher at Netherby Halls will alter her
opinion of my status.” She inclined her head. “Good day.” She began
to move off, but the marquis jumped from the coach and came to
stand in front of her.