The Silent Woman by Edward Marston Read Free Book Online Page B

Nicholas Bracewell, of a man with whom I have never been acquainted, of a hunted creature who has been using my house as a hiding place.’
    ‘That is not so!’ he insisted.
    ‘Then why have you lied to me?’
    ‘I have always told you the truth.’
    ‘No, Nick,’ she said, rising to confront him, ‘you have told me only enough to content me and held back the rest. The face that you wear in London is only a mask and I took it for the real man. It is a cruel deception. Who
are
you!’
    ‘I am yours, my love.’
    He reached out for her but her eyes flashed so angrily that he retracted his arms at once. Her rejection of him was doubly painful. Westfield’s Men were due to leave London the next day on a lengthy tour. On the eve of previous departures, Nicholas invariably took a fond farewell in the comfort of her bed but this custom was also being breached.
    ‘You do me wrong,’ he said softly.
    ‘Then I repay you in kind, Nick.’
    ‘The situation is not as it may seem.’
    ‘Enlighten me.’
    An awkward pause. ‘I may not do that.’
    ‘Because you do not care enough about me.’
    ‘I care too much, Anne, and would not wish to hurt.’
    ‘Is that your ruse, sir?’ she said tartly. ‘You beguile me freely until your past begins to overtake you, then you pretend it was all done in order to protect my feelings. I have been misled here. I have been abused. Why?’
    ‘I do not know the bottom of it myself.’
    ‘Go back to the beginning,’ she suggested. ‘Why did you flee from Devon?’
    ‘I have told you before, Anne,’ he argued. ‘I sought adventure. I did what thousands of young men do when they hear the call of the sea. Drake was leaving on his voyage around the world and it was too great a temptation for my questing spirit. I left Plymouth in the
Pelican
. When we sailed back into the same harbour three years later, our ship had been renamed
The Golden Hind.
’
    ‘That was not the only change you suffered,’ she said levelly. ‘It was Nicholas Bracewell, the son of a Barnstaple merchant, who set sail. He came back to be the book holder with a theatre company in London.’
    He nodded soulfully. ‘You are right, Anne. The voyage wrought many alterations. I saw and endured things I do not care even to think upon now. Anybody would have been changed by such an experience.’
    ‘Why did you never go back home?’
    ‘I chose to remain here.’
    ‘Who is now sending for you from Barnstaple?’
    ‘I do not know.’
    ‘Is it a man or a woman?’ His hesitation was all the proof that she required. ‘Even so! It is a woman and one who still has much power over you that you race to obey, even though her call has brought murder in its wake.’ Anne was now glowing with indignation. ‘And this is the man I have allowed to share my house and – God pardon me! – my bed! Well, ride out of London tomorrow but do not expect to lay your head here when you return.’
    ‘Anne, wait!’ he implored as she turned on her heel.‘We must not part like this. You judge me too harshly.’
    ‘Then where is your denial?’ she said, rounding on him once more. ‘Tell me all and put my mind at rest.’
    ‘That is beyond my power,’ he admitted sadly, ‘but I will not have you believe that all that has passed between us has been a pretence on my part. It is not so! Some of the happiest moments of my life have been with you. And if you wish to know the true reason I prefer to stay in London rather than return to Barnstaple, then it stands before me.’
    His plea was so heartfelt and genuine that her anger cooled for a second and she saw once more the man to whom she had ineluctably been drawn. Nicholas Bracewell was indeed a loving friend to whom she had willingly yielded herself. He had many sterling qualities but contemplation of them only served to embitter her again. As a result of an undelivered message from Devon, she lost an honest man and gained a duplicitous one. While enjoying her favours, he always had