Betrayal: Regency ~ Friends and Foes 1 by Valerie Holmes

Author:Valerie Holmes [Holmes, Valerie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2021-05-05T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

Lydia was sleeping in the next attic room to Georgina. These narrow loft rooms were once filled with maids who had to get up at 5 a.m. to set fires and warm the house through for the Hall’s previous owners.

Since the Bagbys came, renaming the Hall after his lordship, fewer servants seemed to do more tasks. This whole row of six rooms were standing empty now, except for Georgina and often Lydia.

Lydia had fallen asleep still wearing her dress. When a frantic knocking woke her, she slipped her feet into her boots and opened the door gingerly to see a very anxious-looking Jeremiah, eyes darting from one side to another.

Lydia had checked on Georgina earlier and seen both were sleeping soundly. She was not supposed to be staying in the Hall but had decided that Georgina may well need her.

“Kell’s gone for the wagon, Miss Fletcher.” Jeremiah’s words were spoken irrationally, without further explanation.

“And... why?” she asked. A shiver ran down her spine as she laced up her boots.

“For Georgina and the babe, miss,” he said, wringing his hands. They are moving her tonight. I’m to fetch the babe down, and he is coming for Georgina.”

“Why? It is night and what a night to be moved anywhere.” Lydia thought of all the days, why Halloween? This was a bothersome eve, whether you believed in ghosts or not.

“I don’t know, miss, but I have to take the babe, thought you should know, best not get in Amos Kell’s way,” Jeremiah explained. He turned to enter Georgina’s room.

“Wait, I’ll go with her, she will panic when roused,” she said. Lydia pulled on her coat and hat and wondered what madness she was now being drawn into. If only she had Samuel there to sort all of this out – who would argue with him? She should have trusted him and chanced the consequences. Yes, madness was right, the events that were occurring were totally insane.

“Miss, you must come down now, watch the wagon but stay out of sight. Get help if you must, but you cannot be seen. She will not wake, for her sleep is not natural; they are both sound.”

Together they entered the room.

“This is wrong!” she snapped as she manoeuvred Georgina into her coat, rolling her carefully on the bed.

Jeremiah wrapped the sleeping baby up tightly in a small piece of blanketing. “Come, miss, she will be carried down the backstairs by Kell.”

Lydia was torn inside with worry and fear. Quickly she grabbed Georgina’s bag and threw her few personal effects into it. “Very well, but if I need to, I will shout out and stir the whole household.”

“Then you will be carted off to the asylum too!” he said.

“Is that where he’s taking them?” she asked, gripping the bag tightly.

“I don’t know, miss, but the wagon has to travel down the drive. If you cut through the forest path, you could see which way it turns. Please, miss, go. You cannot do anything here for they would say you hid her.

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