The Duke’s Guests Laughed as the Maid Fell Into the Lake — She Said, “I’ll Remember Every Face”
Chapter 21
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The night before the wedding, Annie went to her sister's house in the next village. The sister had a new baby, and Annie had promised weeks ago."I don't like leaving you two alone," she said at the door."Go on," Ned said, kissing her cheek. "What could happen?"Clara and Ned sat by the fire after supper. Ned was cleaning the old leather strap with oil so it would not crack any further. Tomorrow, while the whole county was at the church, they would take it to the magistrate in the next town—a different magistrate, an honest one, Ned hoped."It's not enough, Ned," Clara said quietly. "Not without the letter. You know it isn't.""It'll have to be, lass. It's all we've got."Outside, a dog barked, then stopped very suddenly. Ned lifted his head. "That's odd."The door burst open. Three men came in out of the darkness. Two of them were big and rough, with scarves tied over their faces. The third was thin, with gray hair and a white scar through his left eyebrow.Ned roared and threw himself at the first man. He was still strong, even at 60, and he knocked the man flat against the wall. But the second man swung a heavy club, and it caught Ned across the side of the head. The big blacksmith fell to the floor like a tree and lay still."Ned!" Clara screamed.She grabbed the poker from the fire and swung it with all her strength. It struck the masked man's arm, and he howled. But then rough hands caught her from behind. A sack came down over her head. Everything went dark.She heard footsteps across the room. She heard Silas Crane's quiet, flat voice: "Is that the strap?""Aye. On the table."There was a pause, then a soft hiss and a crackle, and the sharp smell of burning leather filled the little room."No!" Clara screamed through the sack. "No, please!"Nobody answered her. They tied her hands. They carried her out into the cold night and threw her into the back of a cart like a sack of grain.The cart rattled away down the dark road for what felt like hours. When at last they pulled the sack off her head, she was lying on a damp stone floor. There was a sound of rushing water very close. Moonlight came through a broken window high above, and she could see the shape of a huge, rotting wooden wheel: the old mill down by the river, three miles from anywhere. Nobody had used it in 20 years.Silas Crane locked the heavy door and put the key in his pocket. He left one of the masked men outside to guard it. Then he rode back to Ravensworth Hall through the dark.Lord Edmund Vane was waiting for him in the guest wing by the fire, with a glass of brandy in his hand."Well?""The strap is burned, my lord. The blacksmith won't be getting up for a while, and the girl is in the mill."