Chapter
Sixteen
Escape
– Present Day
‘Breakfast!’ Greta called to the inhabitant
upstairs. Heath was hurriedly dressing and came bounding down the stairs
looking like a much younger man with his riding boots in hand, ready to go out.
‘Not going to the office this morning?’
Greta asked as she handed Heath his coffee which he hurriedly gulped down.
‘I’m going riding, if the stables are still
standing.’
‘Well, the storm stopped about a week ago,
but it’s been raining ever since so I’m not sure it’s the best weather for
riding. Mud everywhere.’
‘It’ll be fine,’ Heath assured her. ‘Oh, I
see we have a visitor.’
‘Yes…your, er… niece, Katarina. She seems to
have become quite fond of her cousins.’
Heath looked at Greta blankly. ‘Where are
they?’
‘They’ve left already. Katarina and Linus
went out to find props and attend a dress rehearsal for the play. What are you
getting yourself into Heath?’
‘Nothing I can’t get out of. She has a right
to know her cousins. They have a right to know her.’
Greta raised an eyebrow. ‘This isn’t
more…vengeance, is it Heath? Because, you know, you already fought that war.’
‘Did I Greta? I’m not so sure.’ Heath, in a
rare show of affection (he was in a surprisingly good mood this morning), leant
over and pecked Greta on the cheek.
‘Don’t worry so much Greta. It’s time I had
some more young people about me. The place seems a lot sunnier this morning.’
‘Oh, you and your “young people”, Greta smiled.
‘You don’t look a day over twenty-six. I wish you could give me the secret to
your eternal youth.’
‘You don’t know the half,’ It was a strange
comment, Greta thought, since Heath had shared his secret with her long ago.
The wind had flattened the heather outside.
A slight trick of sunlight shone across the park turning the other side of the
field gold.
Greta shrugged. ‘Trying to stop Heath
getting involved in something he wanted had been almost pointless, from the
time he was a little boy.’ She wrote in her journal. ‘I knew I could do nothing to persuade him against his plan…’
Twenty Years Ago
Kate crept into Hareton Hall when it was
way past dinner the night Heath had proposed to her. There was lightness in her
step as she moved upstairs to pack her things. In the dark, she heard breathing.
At first she thought it was just Frances, who had fallen asleep soundly on the
couch but it was also her older brother, Harrison. He flicked the switch on
above the couch and all of the chandeliers shone at once, creating a halo above
Kate’s head. Her brother stared at her menacingly from the corner of the
drawing room.
Meanwhile, Heath was delayed. He’d taken
the horses to the stables to wash them down.
Kate dodged Harrison and wandered over to pat Hinton’s head and carry
him to his room. He was curled up asleep in a lounge chair with his puppy and
she hesitated to wake him. Hinton was always content to play with his animals.
Today it was a new pet, but as often he picked up a lost kitten outside in the
garden and took it inside to feed. There were always small creatures that found
their way into Hareton Hall and Hinton’s menagerie.
Hinton stirred awake just as Franny,
snuggled into Harrison’s shoulder, opened her eyes. Kate realised her
sister-in-law must still be delusional about Harrison’s true nature.
Harrison had, these past few days, mostly
ignored Heath and tried to curry favour with Kate. Greta wrote in her diary
that she wondered what new scheme he was planning.
‘Kate,’ he said out of the blue. ‘Welcome
home. You’ve returned.’ He nudged Frances. ‘Franny wondered if you’d like to go
on a shopping trip with her…to Paris.’
Kate tried to ignore Harrison’s bribe.
‘Dearest Kate, I want you and Frances to be
friends. Paris is close to Switzerland where Franny and I will be skiing. The
trip is on me.’ Harrison had decided it would help to have Kate on side, less
hassle when he needed her to sign legal documents.
‘When?’
‘Next week.’
Kate nodded, although she and Heath would
be far away by then.
Since Oxford, Harrison had worked at the
family firm and in the weeks since her father had died, Harrison had taken over
not just her finances, but control of the entire estate. Until she was
eighteen, he had all the power.
‘I’ve been thinking, Kate… and your mother
agrees, it’s time for you to go back to school.
Father would have wanted you to complete your education.’
‘And Heath?’ Kate added.
‘Oh, well, that’s up to him.’
Harrison basically ignored the question.
‘That boarding school in Scotland was always useless. It’s where I went after
all and I doubt things have improved and…I’m concerned that you spend too much
time doing nothing meaningful there. You can finish your studies in
Switzerland, visit your mother and also learn something useful at the same
time.’ Harrison looked at the kitchen disdainfully, ‘like how to cook for your
future husband.’
Frances smiled as Harrison sniggered.
Kate knew without asking that he did not
factor Heath into his statement and their plan would have to go into full
swing. Kate was angry, however, and she couldn’t resist a retort.
‘You went to university. Why shouldn’t I
have that opportunity?’
‘Dear Kate, you will be rich. What do you
need university for? You’ll only marry and have children like all the women
before you. Oh, and let me give you some advice, no man wants a wife who… talks
back.’
Kate couldn’t believe Harrison’s disturbing
psychological argument. It was the 1990s after all. Harrison had always been
poison; she should never have even bothered trying to reason with him.
‘And to be honest, Kate, father’s contacts
helped me achieve, not my marks at school. We don’t have him to help us
anymore,’ Harrison said, just to rub it in.
Meanwhile, Greta stirred the pot in the
kitchen, going over her written instructions to the cook regarding the lunch
for the meeting of twelve Board members that Harrison had called. Heath was
still in the stables grooming the horses. Greta raised an eyebrow.
Harrison continued. ‘As you know, you are
not yet eighteen, so you are still legally under my care. The truth is Kate,
unless you want to be out on the street, you have no choice but to comply with
my wishes or…’
‘Or?’
‘If you run off with Heath, I’ll call the
police and have you both brought back and the “charity case” arrested.’
‘On what grounds?’
‘Oh, I’ll make something up. I’m far more
creative than you realize. I have friends in high places. I’m sure we can
accuse him of something…freakish or financial. Dipping into charitable funds?
Being a vampire? That could keep him detained… for a while.’
‘You have no proof.’
‘My suspicions are enough to make an awful
lot of trouble for you both…besides, you are under age…’
‘By three months…’
Harrison’s wife, who had been curled up
in the corner of the couch, stretched and went upstairs. Before she left she
kissed her husband’s cheek, oblivious to the shouting or his true nature. After
all, she had a family fortune to protect as well and the merging of both family
companies could only be profitable for both families. As Frances left, she
smiled at Kate with an almost pitying look. In that moment, Kate realised she
was all but alone. If she ran to the stables where Heath was washing the horses
and they went away somewhere with what little funds they had, they would be
running forever if Harrison had his way.
Well, they’d just have to take that risk.
‘I don’t want to go to Switzerland,
Harrison.’
‘It’s all arranged Kate. The driver will
take you to the airport in about ten minutes. Don’t worry, Franny will meet you
in Paris the first weekend. Mmm…I sense your hesitation. I feel Heath has
brought you quite low in the world. You are to leave this afternoon. Go
upstairs and pack your things. Oh, and don’t fret. The Hunts have a chalet for
the holidays. You are invited to stay for the season. You should be happy. Six
months will go in six weeks. Then, when you’ve finished school, if you want to
throw your life away on the charity case, who am I to stop you?’
‘No. Father would have wanted us to stay
together.’
‘Father isn’t here now. I’m the head of this
household and you have nothing unless I give it to you. Learn to obey me Kate,
at least until you can earn your own living.’ Harrison looked around him and
added as an afterthought, ‘although the women in this household have never been
very good at doing that.’
‘Maybe that’s because the men in the family
refuse to educate them.’
‘Excuse me?’ Harrison said.
‘And Heath?’
‘Heath is eighteen at midnight Kate. What he
does is no business of ours. I have sent a messenger to encourage him to leave
the property at once. I shall send him packing with plenty of cash, Kate. No
need to worry.’
‘That’s a lie! You’ve always been jealous of
him!’ Kate yelled at her older brother from the top of the stairs.
‘Even so,’ Harrison said coolly. ‘We’ll see
who has the last laugh now.’
‘Where is he?’
‘I have a police officer outside in the
stables waiting to explain his rights to him. I expect he will choose to leave
sooner rather than…later. He should have turned eighteen by the time he…chooses
to go.’
‘Another lie…he’d never leave without
telling me…’
‘Well, after he’s been told about your
decision, he’s sure to want to leave. It’s almost midnight after all. What were
you both doing out in the park so late? Never mind, don’t answer that.’
Harrison said smugly.
‘Heath knows it would not be my
decision…that I didn’t have a choice.’
‘Mmm…’ Harrison said with a smile. ‘Well,
we didn’t really explain it to him like that.’
‘I will not leave without seeing him.’
‘Heath took his bags and left a few
minutes ago. He’d be half way down the road by now.’ Kate moved to the front door but Harrison
warned her with his words. ‘If he wants you, I’m sure he’ll write. I must tell
you Kate, this teenage passion you have for him seems to me to be very
one-sided.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, I have it on good authority…’
‘Whose?’
‘Edmund Hunt’s since you’re so interested.’
‘What has he been telling you?’
‘Well, he happened to mention to the son of
a colleague of mine, that Heath and his sister had been quite close…’
‘Another lie.’
‘Is it?’
‘You know Heath can’t stand her.’
‘Really? Well in my experience where there’s
smoke, there’s fire. Go and pack your bags and stop behaving like a moron. A
few months in Switzerland will do you the world of good. You can leave in the
morning. And I’m warning you, Kate, you don’t actually have a choice.’
Kate turned to go up the stairs, holding
back tears.
‘Haven’t you forgotten something?’
‘What?’
‘Say thank you.’
Kate ignored him. She ran up the staircase.
When she reached her bedroom Kate looked through the windows. The stables were
quiet, the horses almost silently eating hay. Heath was nowhere to be seen. He
must have been dragged off the property. Kate moved through the connecting door
to the playroom, the place in which she once gained many hours of solace. The
door slammed shut and Harrison locked it behind her.
Screaming was useless. Instead, she leaned
against the door, slumped to the carpet and cried.
After a few minutes, Kate sighed. Harrison
had not barred the windows. She was wrong to try to reason with her brother.
This was all her fault for not running away sooner.
The girl picked herself up, went to her
secret hiding place under the floorboards and found the documents she needed.
Quickly, she threw her passport and some belongings into a bag and crawled out
of the window like she used to when she was a child. She scraped her arm
sliding down the scaffolding outside the building, flung her things into the
car (she’d hidden a spare set of keys in the stables), and sped down the road
towards the intersection. She was sure Heath could not have gone too far; then
she remembered how fast he could run. The car shuddered and ground to a halt.
The petrol gauge came up empty. Harrison must have emptied most of the tank, suspecting
she’d try to escape. She would have to go by foot across the heath.
