Old Sins Long Shadows (15 page)

Janey breathed in the fresh clean air of the countryside. She felt free for the first time in weeks, like a bird let out of an iron cage. She knew this feeling would not last because after walking her ladyship’s dog she would have to return to the manor. Despite its size it had become claustrophobic. She had not walked in this part of the countryside before, usually she skirted the moors but today she wanted to explore the nearby wood. She tried to kid herself that the choice of walk was just that, exploring, but over recent weeks her behaviour was slowly changing.

Since speaking to the r
everend all those weeks ago she had had the confidence not to be rushed by James and enter into a relationship with him that could be a path to her destruction. Her reputation, her job, where she lived would all be at risk. She did not feel right about what he was asking of her but how could she rebuff a man that was the son of her employer. He was from a class so far above her own that she was at a disadvantage in all respects. He had so much more experience and power.

He asked too much of her yet she felt emotionally torn to succumb to his charms and devour the scraps of affection he promised her. She was under no illusion that he would soon tire of the servant girl who was conveniently under his roof and yet it was so easy to believe him when he spoke the words of love and waited to see her. To save her self she had tried to distance herself from him.  This only seemed to
make James more determined to pursue her.

Whenever she was in her
ladyship’s sitting room reading to her, James would enter and watch her, touching her neck as he passed behind her chair. His mother, of course, was unaware and he took full advantage of her visual disability. Janey felt under his constant scrutiny but because of the imbalance of power she could not be rude to him. Uncomfortably she would tolerate his touch, or pretend to fetch something so she could move away. She was at a loss on how to react and what to do. If he was her peer she would have no qualms about telling him not to rush her, but he was not and she could not. So she had taken to avoiding him as much as possible. If she heard him in a room that she was about to enter, she would not and return later. If he came into a room whilst she was in it, she would make an excuse to leave. If he watched her, she averted her eyes and today she avoided the moor as she had seen him ride out on his horse and knew he may wait for her as he had done several times before.

She wa
s beginning to feel like the prey in a dangerous cat and mouse game. His coercive behaviour was verging on predatory and it made her feel ill at ease.

So today, for this hour, on this unusually mild day
, Janey felt free. Free of the manor, free of her duties and for a brief time, free of James. A carpet of crisp, golden leaves lay thick on the ground of the ancient wood, which crunched beneath her feet. Tangled roots spread out like tentacles from the trunks of trees that had existed in the wood for hundreds of years and would still be here long after Janey had left this Earth. How much they must have seen, mused Janey as she strolled along, feeling at the same time humbled by nature’s beauty and grace. The woodland sloped down to a river that meandered through the valley. Its flow gurgled over stony falls, became still in deep waters or surged with purpose forming fast flowing currents that could sweep you off your feet. The beauty of the river belied its strength as it insidiously cut at its boundaries eroding the bank to form deeper channels,’ new embankments and treacherous unsafe edges. How precarious the undercut earthy banks were, Janey soon discovered as she watched with horror Charlie disappear off the edge of one in his excitement and fall with a splash in the water below. Janey screamed.

Rushing to the river’s edge she tried to grab Charlie’s collar but the current swept the little dog away from her and further down the river. Running along the river bank she shouted for help and tried to encourage the dog to swim to her
. Her panic was matched by her ladyship’s dog, as pleading eyes, a wet head and furiously paddling front paws were all she could see of him. The water carried him away from her until he finally stopped in a deep pool, edged by crumbling banks. Janey tried to reach him again but the earth started to give way and she clutched at the tufts of grass to regain her balance.

‘
You can make it, Charlie, come on, swim to me,’ she encouraged the forlorn and increasingly tiring dog.

From the shadows of the trees, and in answer to her panicky screams and cries, a man came half jogging, half sliding, down the steep embankment on the other side of the  river
. He slid to a stop near the bottom, the earth that had avalanched with him on his descent settled around his feet. His face, initially obscured by his cap, could now be seen as he looked across and recognised the woman who had been calling for help. Not a word was spoken but Daniel and Janey’s thoughts on seeing one another after all this time was the same, which was - oh no, not you.

He hadn’t seen her since the dance and had resolved, for the second time, to forget about her
. He had spent the winter months trying to do just that, working hard and avoiding any visits that might take him to the manor. Yet here she was, on the verge of hysteria, with terror on her face, waving her arms about like a mad woman. It wasn’t quite how he had imagined her, which to his annoyance had been often despite his best efforts.

‘
It’s Charlie!’ she screamed, ‘He’s in the river!’

‘
Where’s the boy?’ Daniel looked around but could see no child in need of rescue.

‘
It’s not a boy, it’s her ladyship’s dog,’ she bent down, resting on her hands and knees, ‘Here boy, here boy. You can make it, swim to me.’

For the first time Daniel saw the wet
, sleek head of a dog paddling furiously towards Janey. The water in this area had a gentle current that resulted in Charlie paddling with all his might just to remain still and not be carried further away, but the water was deep there and he would soon tire.

‘Stop calling him,’ Daniel stated casually. ‘You are encouraging him to stay in the deep water, just let the river take him and the current will bring him here to the shallow side.’

Janey was furious,
‘Are you mad?  He will drown. Get him before he dies!’

‘
He will save himself if you stop interfering!’

‘
No he wont, he doesn’t have any sense. It’s alright Charlie, you poor little thing!’ She squared up to Daniel and pointed at the dog. ‘Get in that river now and save my dog!’

Since
Zachariah and Amy had died no one had dared tell Daniel Kellow what to do. Yet here was a chit of a girl ordering him to save a dog that was quite capable of saving himself if she would just shut her mouth for a few moments. He glared back at her, swearing under his breath. Janey did not flinch. Furious Daniel shook his head and took off his cap. With a flick of his wrist it spun to the ground. His boots and jacket soon followed and he waded into the river, the water soaking him to mid thigh. Janey clasped her hands as if offering up a prayer with a smile of relief on her face and although Daniel would normally have taken pleasure in being the cause of placing it there today pleasure wasn’t what he was feeling. Grudgingly he picked up the dog, which resembled a wet otter rather than a canine, turned abruptly and carried him back to his side of the river. Janey’s smile fell from her face.

Oblivious to the tension in the air
, Charlie, on release from Daniel’s arms, shook himself and settled down on a slab of stone to dry off in the afternoon sun. His rescuer turned around with his hands on his hips, a frown on his brow and a smug smile in his heart.

‘
Why have you taken him to that side of the river?  I’m over here. I want him over here.’

‘
You should have said. It’s too late now.’

‘
No it’s not. Bring him back.’

Daniel looked over at the dog with a mock look of sympathy,
‘I couldn’t do that. He’s been traumatized enough.’

‘
But…but I’m here. What am I to do?’

Daniel made a show of beat
ing the leaves out of his coat, ‘There’s a bridge further down. I’m off.’

‘
No!’ Janey screamed. ‘Don’t go!  Charlie may wander off. What if he gets lost?’

‘
Not my problem.’ Daniel was beginning to enjoy himself.

‘
Please, Mr Kellow!’ Good, thought Daniel, a little respect at last, he looked up and waited. ‘Mr Kellow, I shall be in awful trouble if anything happens to him.’ 

Daniel rubbed his chin, pretending to think
. ‘Have you a lead?’ she nodded enthusiastically, ‘Give me the lead and I will tie him up.’ 

Without waiting for an answer he waded back into the water and was soon standing looking up at her
. She leaned down from the bank to pass him Charlie’s lead but instead of grabbing the lead he grabbed her wrist. She instinctively braced herself.

‘
What are you doing?’ she asked, suddenly suspicious of his intentions. His hand enveloped her wrist with ease and although he did not hurt her, his grip was as strong as any shackle. He ignored her question and raised an eyebrow.

‘
You look worried, Miss Carhart. Do you not trust me?’

She tilted her chin,
‘I have no reason to trust you. You took my dog to the wrong side of the river.’

‘
And you
ordered
me. No one, Miss Carhart, tells me what to do.’

‘
If, Mr Kellow,’ she replied haughtily, ‘you had saved my dog straight away, I wouldn’t have had to tell you to save him.’

She looked down at him from her advantage of height on the river bank, her chin
still tilted in defiance. He wanted nothing more than to wipe the haughtiness off her face, yet he saw fear in her eyes and his more basic instinct was to wrap her in his arms. In the next instance he had done both as his body reacted and he yanked her into the river.

One minute she was on dry land
, the next minute the river surface was hurtling towards her face. Her whole body submerged in its bitter depths and then she was being lifted to her feet by a pair of strong hands. Janey came spluttering to the surface in a very unladylike manner, but eventually, with Daniel’s support, found her feet and stood up. She was hip deep and very angry. She shook off a smiling Daniel and pushed him out of her way as she attempted to wade to the other side of the river and a sleeping Charlie.

The skirts of her dress were sodden and heavy
. As she drunkenly made her way to the edge, time and time again they pulled her over with their weight and clinginess. Each time Daniel, barely concealing his laughter, came to her aide. Each time she angrily smacked his help away. She eventually made it to dry ground and swung around to face him.  He stood on the river bank a few yards away, laughing.

‘
Look at me!’ she spread her arms out, ‘I’m soaked through!’ Daniel turned to face her but the smile on his lips slipped away. ‘How on earth am I going to dry my dress in this weather?  How am I going to get home? Look what you’ve done to me.’

Daniel was looking
. He had often wondered what she would look like undressed. The image often came between him and his sleep. When women wore full length dresses, the only time a man saw the shape of a woman’s thighs was when he bedded her. Yet here was Janey standing before him in the sunlight, her wet clothes forming a second skin on her body. Her shapely legs silhouetted against the wet fabric, the pink skin of her breasts showing through the transparent wet fabric of her bodice, and her nipples, Daniel inwardly groaned, strained against her undergarments.

‘Look at me!’ the woman cried.

His gaze meandered downwards again, drinking in every
curve to lock away in his mind, ‘I am,’ he whispered hoarsely.

Janey
became wary and looked down at herself, realising for the first time what he was seeing. With a shout of disgust she picked up a clod of earth and threw it at him. Charlie opened an eye and lifted his head lazily to watch. The clod of earth easily missed its target and, annoyingly for Janey, Daniel burst out laughing again. She would have found his laugh endearing and contagious if she wasn’t so angry and in her rage she picked up another. It was only as it left her fingers did she realise that the weight gave a hint of the stone concealed in the earth, this was soon confirmed as it found its target. The muddy stone hit Daniel in the middle of his forehead, his laughter abruptly stopped and he toppled like a felled tree backwards. His arms and legs spread out like a starfish from his apparently lifeless body.

‘
Oh Lord have mercy!’ Janey gasped watching from a safe distance for any signs of life. Daniel did not move. ‘Daniel?’ No answer came while Charlie, ears pricked, sat up expectantly. ‘Daniel?’ Janey was getting worried. Picking up her wet skirts she walked, then broke into a run to fall at her knees by his side. She roughly prodded him. ‘Daniel?  Say something!’ Nothing. She prodded again. With a sickening thumping of her heart she put one ear to his chest to listen. To her relief she heard a heart beat but it was short lived. In a flash Daniel had grabbed her wrists, flicked her over onto her back and pinned her hips with a thigh as he held her wrists at the level of her head.