Hope - Lesley Pearse [251]
She heard the sound of footsteps on the stones outside. ‘You were quick!’ she called out.
All at once there was a rank smell, and she spun round to see a man in the doorway. He was a vagrant, with filthy, ragged clothes. He was so big he blocked out the light, so she couldn’t see his face clearly.
‘Are you looking for someone?’ she said nervously for his stance was distinctly threatening and she was afraid he’d come here looking for food. ‘Sir Rufus will be back in a moment.’
‘I thought I told you never to come back here?’ he growled at her.
She knew who he was immediately and her blood turned to iced water.
‘Albert!’ she gasped. This man didn’t look or sound like him. But only Albert would say such a thing, and no other man could ever have such power to frighten her.
In a flash of intuition she realized this was why Lady Harvey had rung the bell. She must have seen him, perhaps crossing the field or coming out of the woods.
‘Cat got yer tongue?’ he snarled.
‘I’m just surprised to see you,’ she managed to get out. ‘I heard you’d joined the army.’
Her heart was hammering with fright for it was obvious the man wouldn’t risk coming back here unless he had some evil purpose. It was more likely he intended to hurt Rufus or Lady Harvey – after all, he couldn’t have known she would be here. In fact, unless he’d been hanging around all day watching the gatehouse, he could well be as shocked as she was to come face to face with her again.
‘Shut yer mouth,’ he snapped at her. ‘Get over in that corner.’
He came towards her, and she could see him clearly now. His good looks had gone, his once fine features bloated and ingrained with dirt. His hair, which had always been black and shiny, was now long, matted and grey. A thick greying beard covered all of his lower face, and he had several teeth missing. He looked like many of the brutalized men she’d seen in her time in Lewins Mead.
She backed away, hardly able to breathe for fear. If he’d been on the run constantly since burning Briargate down, he wouldn’t be troubled by killing more people, and Betsy was out in the buggy. If she should wake and cry out, Hope knew he wouldn’t spare her.
‘Go away now, Albert,’ she said as calmly as she could, even though her legs were almost giving way. ‘There’s nothing for you here but further trouble. I have a little money I can give you.’
‘I don’t want yer blasted money,’ he hissed. ‘I gave this place the best years of my life, and it’s all been destroyed. I want vengeance.’
His dark eyes glowed like hot coals and she instinctively knew he’d lost his mind. He hadn’t ever been a man of reason, so she knew that any attempt to cajole or plead would have no effect. She had to either fight him or outwit him – if she didn’t, he would kill her and anyone else who got in his way.
‘I didn’t destroy anything,’ she said, desperately trying to play for time while she thought of a plan. ‘I was just a child caught up in something I didn’t understand. I kept to my word. I never came back here until a few weeks ago. I didn’t tell anyone what I saw that day in the gatehouse.’
Out of the corner of her eye she sawa pitchfork leaning against the wall to her right.
‘You think I give a tinker’s cuss about you or what you said to anyone?’ he said with menace. ‘I never cared about anything but my garden, and it’s all gone now, trees cut down, my flowerbeds laid to waste. But you helped destroy what I had, and for that you’ll pay. Now, get back in that corner so I can tie you up, then we’ll wait till his bloody lordship comes back.’
She knew then it was Rufus he planned to kill, but now he’d found her here he was going to force her to watch Rufus die before killing her too.
He fumbled beneath his ragged coat, pulling out first a length of twine, then a knife. ‘Get back and turn round,’ he ordered her.
The sight of the long, shiny blade had her transfixed with horror for in the past she’d often seen him slitting a rabbit open with such a knife.
‘It’s good and sharp,’ he said, running the blade