‘Are you alright, Mr Bancroft?’ Ted Briggs yelled across to his boss and the owner of the yard.
‘Aye, lad, but we will be better off without the likes of him, now that I’ve seen what he’s about. I’d have killed the bastard myself, if I’d have known how his mind was working.’ Bill looked at all his workers – who had always shunned Thomas Farrington, and now he knew why – before glancing at the lime pit where his secret lay buried.
Lucy stopped halfway up the moorland path to Black Moss. She leaned over a gate at the side of the path and looked down to the valley below. She could just make out Providence Row and the flay-pits as she wiped a tear away from her eyes. ‘Please let the secret be buried along with Thomas Farrington,’ she whispered. She could never have married him and would never have agreed, if it hadn’t have been for his threat of blackmail. Yet even when he was dead, he’d brought the police to their door, and perhaps the danger of them knowing the truth.
Her heart pounded and Lucy felt sick as she started out on the latter half of her walk to work. She’d have to lie to Adam Brooksbank, if he questioned her about the so-called marriage to Thomas – something she didn’t like doing, seeing as she respected him and enjoyed his employment. Hopefully not a lot would be said about the matter, and she could make light of it. It would soon be forgotten and then life could return to normal. And although Thomas had died, she could not feel an ounce of grief; only relief at being saved from a life that would have caused her sorrow and pain.
She knew instantly, on arriving in the farmyard, that Adam was up and about, for the farmhouse door was wide open and the chickens and hen were busy eating their morning ration of meal mixed with hot water. She glanced at them before entering the house.
‘Ah, Lucy, so you are with us then, this morning. Have you heard the news?’ Adam looked suspiciously at her and noticed that she looked as if she had been crying. He started to regret his bluster over Thomas’s death. Perhaps after all there had been something in what Thomas had said.
‘I have, sir, and it’s good riddance to bad rubbish. Nobody’s going to miss Thomas, except happen my father, for his work. He was a bad lot. I’m only sorry that I heard you had to get involved in it. I suppose Thomas was the worse for drink, like he always was, and coming out with a load of rubbish about me marrying him. I hated him – that’s more like it.’ Lucy recalled Thomas’s threat to her, and how he had pushed her into the thorn hedge and felt her breasts, and knew she could never have walked out with him on Saturday.
‘And there was I, thinking you’d be heartbroken and grieving at the loss of your beau!’ Adam grinned. ‘Still, I shouldn’t make light of it. He lost his life and your name was upon his lips when he died. He must have felt something for you.’ Adam looked seriously at Lucy. ‘Perhaps you had flirted with him in the past? Alex Braithwaite thinks that you are a tease, so perhaps it would be better if you weren’t quite so open with your attentions.’ Adam put his head to one side and noticed his maid blushing.
‘I never flirted with Thomas Farrington – not once. And as for Alex Braithwaite, he thinks all the girls in the Worth valley are after him. I bet he was saying all sorts to his little crowd of followers. If his John Thomas was as big as his mouth, he’d be worth flirting with.’ Lucy’s dander rose; she knew she was a flirt, but not to that extent.
Adam laughed. ‘How do you know his John Thomas – as you call it – isn’t as big as his mouth, if he’s not had the liberty?’ He smiled at the blushes on Lucy’s cheeks.
‘I beg your pardon, sir. I don’t. Nor will I ever, but from what I’ve seen, I’m better off without any man about me. Of late they’ve only caused me trouble. Now if you don’t mind, sir, I’ll get on with your breakfast and milk the cow. I get more sense out of it than out of any man I’ve talked to.’ Lucy walked into the pantry and brought out the milk and butter.
‘Aye, well, the man’s dead now. Perhaps for the best, from what I saw of him. He’d a hell of a temper and looked bewitched.’ Adam pulled up his chair as Lucy sliced the bread.
‘That’s what he was, sir – bewitched. Evil as they come, and hopefully the devil has dragged him down to hell with him,’ Lucy said and then looked out of the window. ‘Archie is late this morning. He’s usually here by now.’
‘He’s here already. He was here at first light, and he’s on top of the moor repairing the walls. I met him when I fed the hen and her chicks. I told him the news about Thomas. Archie didn’t believe for one minute that you were about to wed him. But he did tell me that you had been especially frightened of Thomas last night, and that is why you asked him to walk home with you. Are you sure nothing had happened between the pair of you, Lucy? It seems
