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Tellman a fierce look.  Well, don t just stand there! Yer look as
starved as an alley cat! Come  ave a slice o bread an jam while I pack
up wot we got. No sense leaving it  ere! An yer can carry it out ter
wotever kind o cart yer got out there. Wot  ave yer got, anyway?
 It ll do, he answered.  Make me a slice, and I ll eat it on the
way.
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SOUTHAMPTON ROW
She shivered, and he noticed that her hands were clenched,
knuckles white.
 I m sorry! he said with a wave of feeling so intense his voice
was husky.  There s no need to be afraid, Gracie. I ll look after
you! He reached out to touch her, a stab of physical memory bring-
ing back the moment he had kissed her when they were following
after Remus in the Whitechapel affair.  I will!
She looked away from him and sniffed.  I know yer will, yer
daft  aporth, she said savagely.  An all of us! One-man army, y are.
Now do summink useful an get these things inter a box an take
 em out to yer cart, or wotever it is. An wait! Put that light out
 afore yer open the door!
He froze.  Is someone watching you?
 I dunno! But they could be, couldn t they? She started to take
things out of the cupboards and put them into a wicker laundry bas-
ket. In the dim candlelight he saw two loaves of bread, a large pot
of butter, a leg of ham, biscuits, half a cake, two jars of jam, and
other tins and boxes he couldn t name.
When the basket was full enough he shaded the candle with his
hand, opened the door, and then, blowing out the flame and pick-
ing up the basket, he stumbled his way to the cart, several times
barely missing tripping over the uneven path.
Fifteen minutes later they were all sitting wedged in, Edward
shivering, Daniel half asleep, Jemima sitting awkwardly between
Gracie and Charlotte, her arms gripped tightly around herself. Tell-
man urged the horse forward and they began to move, but the feel-
ing was extremely different from when he had driven in. Now the
cart was heavily laden and the night was so black it was hard to
know how even the horse could find its way. He also had very little
idea where they were going. Paignton was the obvious place, the
first that anyone Voisey employed would think to look. Perhaps the
opposite direction was equally obvious? Maybe there was some-
where off to the side? Where else was there a station? By train they
could go anywhere! How much money had he left? They had to pay
for lodgings and food as well as tickets.
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ANNE PERRY
Pitt had said a town, somewhere with lots of people. That
meant Paignton or Torquay. But back at the Ivybridge station they
would be remembered all standing together waiting for the first
train. The stationmaster would be able to tell anyone who asked
exactly where they went.
As if reading his thoughts, even in the dark, Gracie spoke.
 Where are we goin , then?
 Exeter, he said without hesitation.
 Why? she asked.
 Because it isn t really a holiday place, he replied. It seemed as
good an answer as any other.
They drove in silence for a quarter of an hour. The darkness
and the weight of the cart made them slow, but he could not urge
the horse any more. If it slipped, or went lame, they were lost. They
must be over a mile from Harford and the cottage by now. The road
was not bad and the horse was finding its way with more ease. Tell-
man began to relax a little. None of the difficulties he had feared
had come to pass.
The horse pulled up abruptly. Tellman nearly fell off the seat,
and saved himself only by grabbing hold of it at the last moment.
Gracie stifled a shriek.
 What is it? Charlotte said sharply.
There was someone on the road ahead of them. Peering for-
ward, Tellman could just make out the dark shape in the gloom.
Then a voice spoke quite clearly, only a yard or so away.
 Now, where are you going at this time o the night? Mistress
Pitt, isn t it? From Harford way? You shouldn t be out at this hour.
Get lost, you will. Or have an accident. It was a man s voice, deep
and with a lift of sarcasm to it.
Tellman heard Gracie gasp with fear. The fact that the man had
used Charlotte s name meant that he knew them. Was it intended as
a threat? Was he the watcher who had told Voisey where they were?
The horse shook its head as if someone were holding its bridle.
The darkness prevented Tellman from seeing. He hoped it also pre-
vented the man from seeing him. How did he know who they were?
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SOUTHAMPTON ROW
He must have been watching and ridden ahead, knowing they would
come this way. If he had seen Tellman go to the cottage door and
then carry the boxes out, then it meant he had been there all the
time. He had to be Voisey s man. He had come ahead of them here
into this lonely stretch of road between Harford and Ivybridge to
catch them where there was no one to see, or to help. And there was
no one except Tellman. Everything rested with him.
What could he use for a weapon? He remembered packing a bot-
tle of vinegar. It was half empty, but there was enough in it still to
give it weight. But he daren t ask Gracie for it aloud. The man would
hear him. And he did not know how she had stacked the basket!
He leaned over and whispered in her ear.  Vinegar!
 Wha . . . oh. She understood. She slid back a little and started
feeling for the bottle. Tellman made some move himself to cover
the sounds, climbing off the box and slithering down the side of the
cart until his feet touched the ground. He felt his way around to the
back, hand over hand on the rough wood, and was coming around
on the other side when he made out in the gloom the figure of a
man ahead of him. Then he felt a smooth weight against his fore-
arm and Gracie s breath on his cheek. He took the vinegar bottle
from her hand. He could see the dark shape of Charlotte, with her
arms around the children.
 It s you again! Gracie s voice came clearly from just beside
him, but she was speaking to the man at the horse s head, drawing
his attention.  Wot yer doin out  ere in the middle o the night,
then? We re goin  cos we got a family emergency. Yer got one, too,
 ave yer?
 That s a shame, the man replied, the expression in his voice
impossible to read.  Going back to London, then?
 We never said we come from London! Gracie challenged him, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]