Just as soon as he opened Dr. Albert’s report. One little peek before he got back to his correspondence. His colleague’s last letter had finished in a most suspenseful manner, after the discovery of a cache of stone tablets.
With a decisive gesture, Dr. Black sealed the letter to Joss and rose to put it on the table near the door, ready for his scout to collect and post this evening.
One glance to see what the report contained, then he’d write the other letters. He tore open the package from Dr. Albert and settled back at his desk, immediately engrossed in an ancient world that seemed so much more alive to him than the trivial matters filling the present.
The late autumn day closed in, and it was time to go to hall for dinner. Dr. Black’s longsuffering scout collected the first letter, but there were no letters to follow.
Dr. Black disappeared back into his concerns and never answered Kitty’s letter or wrote to Thorncroft Hall to let Margaret know company was on the way.
Chapter 1
Thorncroft Hall, Fraedale, Yorkshire, 19th December 1821
“I hate to leave you on your own, Maggie. And at Christmas, too.”
Maggie Carr mustered a smile for her friend and colleague Jane Parker. They’d been through this a hundred times already. She passed Jane her bag and opened the massive door leading out from the hall to the drive.
“Jane, your daught
er’s baby is due. Your place is in Goathland with the family.”
“But you’ll be all alone. What if someone comes?”
“Nobody’s going to come. Nobody ever does.”
Her employer, an eccentric and aging Oxford don, never traveled north to visit his small manor house in this isolated valley. And there were no passing travelers. They were miles away from a main route.
Jane must have picked up the wistful note Maggie tried so hard to suppress. With a decisive bang, she put down her bag. Her lined face set in a mulish expression. “That’s it, then. I’m not leaving you alone in this great barn of a place. You’re coming with me.”
Maggie summoned another smile and picked up the bag. “You know your daughter’s cottage will be bulging at the seams with you there, as well as her husband and the other two children. You’re lovely to worry about me, Jane. But I’ll be fine here. I’ve been on my own before.”
“But not at Christmas.” Jane looked torn. “How I wish you had some family to go to.”
So did she. But she’d long ago learned the futility of wishes.
“I can’t leave the house. You know Dr. Black wants someone in residence all the time.” It was one of her employer’s few demands.
“I’d feel better if Welby was here.”
Welby was the outdoor man who looked after the garden and the pony, and did the heavy work in the house. In the depths of winter, with only two women living in, there was little for him to do.
“He’ll come if there’s an emergency.”
“If he knows about it.”
“He’s still only five miles away.” Welby always spent December with his family in Little Flitwick, the nearest village. Maggie’s lips twisted in a wry smile. “And it’s not like he’s marvelous company.”
If Welby spoke ten words a year, she’d be surprised. Jane, on the other hand, was a great talker. Maggie often wondered why the warmhearted woman had taken this situation such a long way from society. Although the pay was good and the work light. And Jane had a large family in the county who made sure she visited regularly.
Lucky Jane.
“Are you coming, missus?” the wagoner called from outside. “There be snow on the way, and I got other folk to collect.”
“Snow on the way? Maggie, you can’t stay here.”
Maggie shook her head fondly and bundled Jane out of the door. “There’s plenty of wood and food. If the snow traps me here, I’ll just miss the Christmas service in the village. I’m sure God won’t mind.”
“Missus?”