Page 98 of An Inconvenient Vow

When she informed them that Sir Jeffree was spending the night at Ganford Chase, her parents were disappointed, but accepted her invitation to sup and made an excellent meal of the various food stuffs donated to Sabina’s cupboards by the duke.

As for Isemay, Sabina did not have the chance to get to the bottom of it, for their parents never left them alone together, and when Sabina tried to take her aside, her sister was evasive and hard to pin down. In the end, she had to accept at face value her sister’s assertions that naught was wrong.

Once everyone had gone, Sabina felt weary and partook of a bathtub in the back bedroom. Once she had washed her hair and scrubbed her body, she crawled once more into the narrow bed and fell into a light and troubled sleep. It was strange, for again, she felt tired. Her eyes burned, yet sleep continued to elude her.

All too soon, early light was breaking through the window and Sabina watched it creep across the room, dispelling shadow. She lay as long as she could abed, until she could stand her own clamoring thoughts no longer and climbed out, washing in the leftover cold water from the night before. Dressing and donning her wimple, she made her way downstairs, resolving to help herself to some of Penny’s excellent bread. She doubted the Lancers would be up and about this early.

She was just reaching for a loaf when she noticed the two cloaked figures hurrying down her lane. Instead of coming right up to the house, they left the track a few yards away and furtively entered the wood. Sabina caught her breath for she fancied she recognized the light step of the first figure and the heavy plodding of the second.

If she was not mistaken, it was her sister Isemay, followed by faithful Samuel, their father’s manservant. But where were they off to? Without even consciously deciding to follow, Sabina found she was helping herself to Penny’s brown cloak and slipping out of the side door along the garden path. Her heart hammering against her ribs, Sabina entered Langley Woods and made her way tentatively through the trees.

It did not take her long to catch sight of Samuel’s bulky figure, though she caught only glimpses of Isemay who was far nimbler. They moved with purpose and Sabina followed at a distance, her mystification growing. Samuel was carrying a sack over his shoulder, and it looked like Isemay had a basket under her cloak.

Sabina was just pondering if they could be on some harmless quest to gather herbs or mushrooms when they stopped abruptly outside an abandoned shack. Sabina frowned, for she knew it of old. No one had lived in it for years. Indeed as children, she and Isemay had sometimes played there, creeping into its empty tumbledown shell.

There had been a rumor a wicked wizard had once lived there and that kept most trespassers away, though whether this was fact or just story, Sabina did not know. She crept closer now, taking care to avoid any snapping branches or twigs as she made cautiously for the window.

Peering in, she heard Isemay’s voice before she could make out the murky interior of the shack. Her sister was speaking in low, sweet tones, though Sabina could not make out the words. Samuel, she thought, was not in there. He must be posted outside the door on the other side. It was a shock then when she heard a male voice within respond to her sister.

“Yes, my love,” he murmured. “I am well. All the better for seeing you.”

Isemay stooped to stroke his brow, making small crooning noises over him. He caught her hand and pressed it to his lips.

Sabina reeled as her eyes picked over the long, recumbent figure lying on the makeshift palette in the middle of the shack. He was very pale and covered in a gray woolen blanket, his head swathed in bandages. Even so, Sabina could make out those lean, hawk-like features.

It was Leland Ellis.

*

Stifling a gasp, Sabina had stepped aside from the window and plastered herself against the mossy stone wall for the duration of her sister’s visit. She could scarcely believe her eyes, but the buzz of low conversation in the hut convinced her that her sister was indeed involved in Sir Leland’s disappearance. She could scarcely fathom it! Why? How had Leland Ellis ended up in this hovel being tended to by her sister of all people?

She was not sure how long she crouched there, but when she recognized a fond farewell was being made, she straightened up, stretching her cramped legs. She gave it a couple of minutes to give Isemay and Samuel time to leave the building and then skirted her way around to the other side before setting off in pursuit through the wood.

Only when Isemay and Samuel exited the wood to join the lane again did Sabina raise her voice to hail them and stop them in their tracks. “Halt!” she cried, and Samuel wheeled about as Isemay let out a startled cry.

“Sister!” Isemay recovered fast, plastering a bright smile to her face. “Well met! We were just coming to visit with you this fine morn, is that not so Samuel?”

Her henchman was slower to recover. He gulped audibly before stammering. “Th-that’s right, Miss Isemay, Miss Sabina.”

Sabina folded her arms. “I saw you from my kitchen window and I followed you. I know what you have been up to!”

Isemay’s color drained, then flooded her face in a hectic rush. “You sly thing!” she cried before a thought seemed to occur to her. She cast a rallying look at Samuel before fixing her sister with a searching look. “Did you really or are you simply bluffing? Do not try to deceive me, sister, for you know I know you better than anyone.”

“Have you run quite mad, Isemay?” Sabina demanded, her patience running out. “How long have you been concealing Ellis there? Are you aware his father is searching for him most assiduously?”

Samuel gave a low moan and covered his face with one hand. “Your father will throw me out on my ear for this!”

“Nonsense!” Isemay stamped her foot. “He will do no such thing. Pull yourself together, Samuel! My sister will not betray us.”

The two sisters glared at each other before Sabina made a frustrated sound and started back toward her home. “Follow me!” she flung back over her shoulder, not stopping to check that they obeyed her summons.

On reaching the Great Chamber, Sabina cast off Penny’s cloak and sat down at the oak table, steepling her hands before her. Isemay and Samuel followed on behind, Isemay’s nose in the air, Samuel looking rather like a chastised dog. “Take a seat,” Sabina ordered.

Samuel dragged out the bench and plumped himself down at once, while Isemay made a great show of untying her cloak strings and then setting it neatly over a chair back before joining Samuel on his bench.

“Now tell me what you have been about,” Sabina said in a low stern tone, “and be sure you start at the beginning.”

Isemay darted a quick glance at Samuel. “Well, you were there at the beginning, sister. Samuel did not join until later, so I must relate this part.” Samuel looked relieved and Isemay cleared her throat. “We shall skip over Leland Ellis’s wicked actions at Ganford Chase and how he became my mortal enemy, for you already know that much.”