They tiptoed quietly out of my room and went to their own. I could not sleep. I doubted whether any of them would. Leigh was right when he said we were involved in a serious matter. I kept thinking of that young man. There was something noble about him, something which had made me want to help him more than anything else.
My thoughts stayed with him in White Cliffs Cave.
We all rode out together the following morning. I had told them in the kitchens that we were going into the woods and wished to take food with us as we did not want to go to the inn. This was reasonable enough but not something we could do every day. I supervised the packing of a basket and was a little shaken when Ellen said: “You’ve got enough food there to feed a regiment.”
“There’ll be three hungry men to provide for,” I reminded her, “for when it comes to eating Carl can do as well as any grown man. One gets an appetite riding you know, Ellen.”
Sally Nullens, who was there because Carl was going with us and she still thought of him as her charge, said: “He’s eating too much of that pastry. More good red meat is what he wants.”
She was going over the provisions with a sharp eye and I felt uneasy. I was afraid of Sally Nullens—and Emily Philpots, too. She was more sullen than ever because Christabel was being treated as a member of the family—something which she had never achieved. “After all I did for those children!” was her continual plaint; and I knew she spied on Christabel, longing to catch her out in some misdemeanour, and was, in any case, critical of everything she did. It might be a joke in normal times but we could not afford such spying now.
However, we got away all right, and I was wondering whether it would be wiser to warn Carl to be careful or to let it alone. He was heart and soul in the adventure, but it was true that he might be overzealous.
I shall never forget that late November day with the mist hanging in the air and the gulls shrieking overhead and the strong smell of seaweed in the air. We dismounted and managed to tether our horses to a rock and went down towards the cave, our footsteps loud on the shingle.
I imagined Jocelyn cowering in the cave, wondering who was coming.
Leigh went to the mouth of the cave. “All’s well,” he cried.
Jocelyn came out then and I saw him more clearly than I had the previous night. He was tall and slender with very fair skin, faintly freckled, and light blue eyes. He had very white teeth and was indeed handsome. His breeches were light brown velvet and of the fashionable Spanish cut, and his leather buskins were of the same colour. His coat, also of velvet, came to his knees. It was rumpled from the night spent lying in the cave, but he was clearly a very fashionable gentleman who had obviously ridden off in a hurry before he had been able to attire himself for a journey.
Leigh said: “Come out into the open. We’re a party of picnickers. We shall hear anyone approach and in any case we can see for a long way. If necessary you can go back into the cave, but it won’t be necessary.”
We settled down and I opened the hamper.
“I don’t know how to thank you all,” said Jocelyn. “Thank God I remembered your place, Eversleigh. I guessed you would help.”
“Of course,” said Edwin. “You were right to come. It was luck that Priscilla happened to be in the garden.”
Jocelyn turned to me, smiling. “I’m afraid I scared you.”
“I thought you were a ghost,” I admitted. “In any case I always wanted to see a ghost. I’m glad I was the one and not our old gardener.”
“You had come all the way from your home?” Leigh asked.
“Not from the country. From London. It was to the Piccadilly house that they came for me. There is something almost obscene about Oates and his men.”
“I know it well,” replied Edwin.
“Where is this going to end?” asked Jocelyn. “I cannot understand why he is not seen as the villain he is.”
“It is terrible to realize how easily people can be roused to violence,” said Edwin sadly. “One observes it often. Individually they would never be capable of such actions as they will take when they become a mob.”
“I am sure that philosophizing can at times be a useful occupation,” Leigh put in, “but this is the time for practical suggestions. Now, Frinton, this place is all right as a temporary haven, but we have to think of something better. You can’t stay here. You could be discovered.”
“I’ll come out and guard you,” cried Carl. “I’ll bring the dogs with me. I’ll teach them to fight anyone who tries to get into the cave.”
“There is one thing I want you to do, Carl,” said Leigh.
“What is it? What is it? You only have to say.”
“It’s quite simple,” replied Leigh. “You just obey orders.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” said Carl. “You’re a sort of captain, Leigh. We have to do what you say. Does Edwin have to, too? Will you, Edwin? Perhaps you wouldn’t like to, being a lord and all that.”
“We are here to help Jocelyn escape,” said Edwin. “That’s all we have to think about.”
“It’s all I am thinking about,” retorted Carl.
“Carl,” I reminded him, “it will be necessary to say nothing of this to anyone … anyone, remember!”
“Of course I remember. It’s a great secret. Nobody must know.”
I looked at Leigh. “We’ve got to think of something quickly. I wonder if Jocelyn could come to the house as a traveller who has lost his way.”
“We would be expected to put him on the right road immediately,” put in Christabel.
“I wonder if he could come as someone to work in the house.”
“As what?” asked Leigh. “A gardener? Can you garden, Frinton?”
“As my tutor!” cried Carl. “They’re always saying that I don’t learn anything with the Reverend Helling.”
“That’s a reflection on you, dear brother,” I retorted, “not on the Reverend Helling. If we want a scholar in the family we shall have to get a new brother … not a new tutor. I think it’s dangerous for Jocelyn to come to the house. How could he possibly do that? My father and mother must have met you somewhere.”
“Yes,” said Jocelyn, “I have met them.”
Leigh, who had been rather thoughtful, sat there with a smile on his face. Something was brewing in his mind, I could see. I knew him so well that I realized he wanted to think about it before telling the rest of us and however I urged him he would say nothing until he had decided to.
Edwin was saying: “Well, that’s no good.”
“At least,” said Leigh, “you are safe here for the time being.”
We made all sorts of plans as we sat there on the beach but Leigh still said nothing of what I believed was brewing in his mind.
We would get a change of clothes for Jocelyn—something which would be more suitable for travelling if he had to go off in a hurry. One of us would come every day with food until we made up our minds what we were going to do. There must be no more picnics, as they would arouse suspicion. Emily Philpots would already be saying that we must be mad to think of such a thing at this time of the year, and Sally might even get someone to follow us to make sure that Carl kept his leather jerkin on.
No. We should come singly, or perhaps two of us together. We should have to be very wary.
We all looked to Leigh. He was the natural leader. He was more bold and ruthless than Edwin. Edwin was always too much afraid of hurting people’s feelings. It made him act overcautiously.