Page 5 of A Life Diverted
B y Saturday, the first day of February, there was still no trace of her daughter’s whereabouts. Priscilla Wendell was beside herself with worry and grief. No matter who attempted to soothe her, nothing helped.
Wendell, who was fighting his own urge to allow the sorrow at his missing darling girl to take over his every waking moment, was directing the search for his beloved daughter.
It would be so easy to ensconce himself with his wife and allow the concern to rule, but he had a purpose which overrode any selfish feelings.
With the help of tenants from both his estate and those neighbouring, every conceivable location at Willowmere had been searched.
They even looked at the lake; with the unseasonably warm weather, the ice had become thin and brittle, and even one of Ellie’s slight weight would have caused it to crack and break.
However, there was no evidence of a break in the ice from someone falling through it into the water below.
His brothers and their sons had ridden to all of the surrounding towns from Lambton in the north to Matlock in the south. Not a single person had seen Ellie. A small girl in night attire would be noticeable. But there had not been a sighting of her anywhere.
With the support of Matlock, Granger, and Darcy, Wendell would not give up on their girl. Surely if she were no longer alive, he would feel it in his heart.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~ ~
“Wicky, we appreciate you assisting us with the search the previous days as well as today, but this is a time for family, so it is time for you to ride back to your father’s house at Pemberley,” Andrew, as the eldest of the cousins, and less than six months younger than the steward’s son, told him.
“Is it not your uncle’s estate, Hilldale?” Wickham replied insouciantly. “I am helping like everyone else, so why would I be sent away?”
“I have my uncle’s permission to send you home.
He agrees it is time for family now.” Andrew did not like Wicky’s attitude.
He seemed to be doing his part, but when he thought he was unobserved, it was easy to see he was not trying very hard.
Seeing that he did not like Ellie very much, it was understandable his efforts were tempered.
That was why Uncle Joseph agreed that it was time to send Wicky away.
“Do we need to get my uncle to tell you himself?” Richard challenged. “Uncle Robert would not be impressed if you tried to make yourself the centre of attention with Ellie missing.”
Hearing that, George Wickham could see the truth in the younger Fitzwilliam’s statement. He could not afford to lose Mr Darcy’s ear. “I will leave,” he stated.
When he rode away, his valise attached to the back of the saddle, George Wickham was not well pleased that none of his friends had come to see him off. Thankfully there was good light left in the day, and the ride would be less than an hour.
The cousins watched Wicky ride away from one of the windows in the sitting room attached to David’s suite, which was on the second floor and had an unobstructed view of the drive. They were sitting and speculating about where Ellie was, as boys of their age were wont to do.
“I know Wicky did not like Ellie very much, but I have never seen him do anything hurtful to her, have you?” David enquired of the other boys .
“No, I have never seen him do or say anything to harm Ellie,” William responded. “And do not forget I spend more time with Wicky than any of you. He likes causing mischief now and again, but I do not believe he would ever do anything to harm another.”
“Do not forget there was an encampment of Gypsies nearby who are gone now,” Barnabus noted.
“Ellie is very inquisitive. I could see her being attracted by all of the bright colours they have on their wagons,” Richard opined.
“But then the question is why would she have been outside in the night, unless someone thinks one of them was stealing from Uncle Joseph and Ellie was wandering about the house?”
“What of Aunt Catty and her desire that Anne be the only daughter in the family?” Andrew suggested. “Do not forget Ellie is not related by blood to William, so they could marry one day.”
“Andy, I am not ready to think about that for many years,” William objected.
“I know that, little cousin; I was simply guessing about possible reasons for Ellie’s disappearance.
“You know Aunt Catty has softened and has not raised the question of Anne marrying either you or William for some years now,” Richard pointed out. “Did you not hear Mother say that if our aunt met Ellie, she would more likely than not love her like the rest of us do?”
“That is true,” Andrew acknowledged. “Then I suppose we cannot think our Aunt had anything to do with Ellie not being here.”
“You know it could have been another robber, not a gypsy who Ellie discovered, and they took her,” William surmised. “We should suggest to Uncle Joseph and Aunt Cilla that they see if anything is missing.”
The others agreed it was a good plan and made their way down to the study.
Wendell was pouring a measure of port for his two brothers-in-law and Darcy when his sons and nephews entered the study.
His first instinct was to dismiss the boys suggestion.
However, he thought better of it and looked in the places he kept valuables in the study.
The first thing Wendell noticed was the key to the safe in the wall behind his desk had been moved.
He was in the habit of placing it in a very particular position in the drawer where it was kept.
He unlocked the safe. The banknotes and coins, worth about five hundred pounds, were gone as was the gold fob watch he had received from his father, the one he intended to give to David when his son reached his majority.
“My goodness, the boys were right. We have been robbed!” Wendell exclaimed.
He felt a cold shiver travel up and down his backbone.
If Ellie had been wandering the house and witnessed the criminal or criminals in the act, and they took her, would they ransom her or end his beautiful girl’s life?
“We need to summon Sir Albus. I am not sure what the magistrate can do after the fact, but it seems there was a crime committed here, and Ellie may or may not have been a witness and a victim of the miscreant who thieved from us.” Wendell had not employed footmen to patrol the house at night like Matlock and Darcy had at their much larger estates, but that would have to change.
If he had had men on duty overnight, would Ellie be safe now?
While waiting for Sir Albus to arrive, Wendell shared what had occurred with his wife and the surmise that Ellie had come upon the thief. The knowledge sent Cilla into a deeper melancholy than she had been in before.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
By the end of the second full day of travel, the Bennets and their governess reached an inn in the southern part of the small shire of Huntingdonshire.
On the morrow they would enter Bedfordshire, before reaching Hertfordshire.
Unless there was an emergency which impeded their travel, they would reach Longbourn before dusk.
The coachman drove the carriage to the side of the inn nearest the stables.
He unhitched the horses and made sure they would be well cared for overnight and returned to the conveyance to get his valise from the small storage area near where his feet would rest when he sat on the driver’s bench.
As he extracted his valise, he could have sworn he heard the sound of a whimper coming from somewhere.
He dismissed it as his imagination and climbed down.
The one door to the cabin was open, so he went to close it when he heard the same sound again, much louder this time, along with the sound of movement below the forward-facing bench, the one where the spare blankets were stored.
He put his valise down and climbed into the carriage. He lifted the forward-facing bench seat very gingerly. He could now hear the sound of muffled crying.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
During that day of travel
Ellie was waking up and remaining awake for longer than before. Eventually she remained awake all of the time. She felt like she was being jostled around but could not understand where she was in the dark space she was in.
Why had Mama, Papa, Dawy, or Bawny not come to find her?
Why was she so hungry and thirsty? Had she hidden so well that no one had found her before they broke their fasts?
She tried her best to call out, but there was something in her mouth; when she tried to kick, her legs would not move, and she could not climb out of where she was because her arms would not move either.
She was about to try and call out for her family even with the thing in her mouth when she heard voices, ones she had never before heard.
Ellie could not understand how this could be.
Had Mama and Papa given her away to the colourful people because she always hid away and did not always listen?
She seemed to remember a voice telling her she was bad, and her family no longer wanted her. That could not be true, could it?
There were times when the jostling stopped, and she could not hear any voices. Then after a time the movement would begin again, and so would the voices.
As time went on she felt more and more thirsty, so much so that her throat hurt, and her belly was screaming for food.
The movement ceased again; the voices stopped as well.
Briefly, she heard some men speaking, and then she knew not how much longer she was being shaken about again, but only for a very short time.
She was crying in earnest now, not knowing what was happening to her and, more importantly, why. She tried to move her arms and legs, but they refused to move very much at all. The thirst was getting worse and worse.