The Viscount Visits

Chapter 9: The Viscount Visits

2 long days Thomas endured the visits of the doctor and his servant. The former bored him to **** and she avoided eye contact. He smacked her more generous rear which almost caused her to about face and look directly at him, but she stopped herself mid turn.

2 long days Caroline was unable to escape from the watch of her father and his maid who it seemed had switched sides. She could only explore her new feelings once Fanny, who now insisted they both slept in their underwear, was properly asleep.

2 long days Fanny had to endure endless pleadings and questions from the newly awakened obsessive. Any thoughts of educating the young woman further were ended when she found her toy under Caroline’s pillow. She clearly did not require Fanny’s help and appeared to be besotted in a way that could only end badly, so futile discouragement was now all the maid could offer. There would be no repeat ‘accident’.

Then the men came. They beat on the door. At first Nathaniel told Fanny to ignore them then, when they persisted and yelled, to lock the girls in their bedrooms, while he dealt with them. As there was more than one man at the door he pulled out both of his pistols. The men stopped banging when they heard the locks move. The owner of the house opened the door, pointed pistols forward and yelled “You have no business here. Be gone or I will shoot and I warn you I never miss.”

A couple fled in terror at the wild blonde eccentric but one remained and quickly gave his reason “We are looking for our friend, Sir Thomas Squires. Shoot me if you must but have you seen him?”

“What does he look like?”

“He’s Sir Thomas Squires.”

“Never met him. Three … Two …

“Dark hair, medium build, medium height, disappeared last Thursday. We found Sir Hugh Horton dead on the moor.” The man had never spoken with such haste in his life.

“Tell your cowardly friends to leave. You may enter.”

The visitor shouted at his companions to leave and they got up from behind their rock shield and hurried downhill towards Stockdale Beck.

Once the new stranger was inside, Nathaniel locked the front door and led the way up the stairs to the servants’ room and opened the door. Recognition was instant.

“Sir Thomas, thank God you’re alive!”

“Who are you?”

“You know me” as he approached the patient. “Michael … Michael Mallory … Thirsky!”

“Your friend has lost his memory.” the doctor explained “How did you know he was here?”

“We didn’t? If I may talk to you in private, now you have your weapons down.”

Much to Thomas’s frustration Nathaniel imprisoned him once more as he took Viscount Thirsk to his study. The noble told him that they had found Sir Hugh’s broken body on the slopes of Round Hill on Monday after a long search. They had been asking around the villages but no-one had seen Thomas, then at Westerdale someone mentioned the house on the hill.

“Didn’t you think to let people know you had found somebody?” asked Michael.

“He was in the best hands here. I was … am a doctor. Move him too quickly and he may not have survived. I am sure I would have got around to it. He seems to talk about Ancient Greece a lot.”

“Oh” sighed the viscount “He did classics at Oxford. That’s where I met him.”

“But he knows nothing of his life. The lightning really knocked it out of him.”

“Ah, that explains it. They must have been thrown apart. They were touring the stones - completely mad, if you ask me. Who cares about a bunch of silly rocks? Now Hugh’s dead and now poor Tom has lost his marbles.”

“Not necessarily. I’ve seen amnesiacs recover. However his back needs healing. The strange thing is that it was doing well until Monday. It is though he overstretched on that day”

Lord Michael insisted on spending time with his friend during which all the females remained closeted in their rooms. Nathaniel suggested that the following Monday morning Francis could deliver doctor and patient to the nearby town of Castleton. There they would transfer to Sir Thomas’s own carriage accompanied by the viscount and another doctor to travel the 13 miles on top of Blakely Ridge back to Gillamoor Court. Michael was upset that he would have to wait so long but the male Hawksby seemed very authoritative and not to be argued with.

Before Thomas left, Caroline would see him one more time.