The Mystery Of Macgregor’s Cove – Episode 40
The Mystery Of Macgregor's Cove by June Davies
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“It’ll be a grand match.” Ethel was saying, her face red from the exertion of turning the handle of the mangle. “It was a shock at breakfast when you told your pa and me the news, but now I’ve had a few hours to get used to it, I’m happy for Dorcas.”
Daylight came late on these winter mornings, and she and Amaryllis were in the wash-house, their work lit by the dull gleam of stubby candles in glass jars to magnify their brightness.
“I can’t deny I would have loved to see Dorcas walk down the aisle in our own church,” Ethel finished wistfully. “But I’m sure they eloped because Dorcas knew your pa wouldn’t consent to her marrying Mr Adam.”
“It’s time we swapped over, Ma,” Amaryllis said.
She’d been folding wet laundry and feeding it between the rollers, but now she stepped aside and took her mother’s place.
“I wonder where she is?”
“I have heard of Gretna Green,” Ethel remarked, hefting a sheet from the heap of dripping laundry. “I read about the daughter of some lord or other who eloped with the family’s butler to Gretna Green. But her father’s men caught up with the couple before they got wed.”
“Do you suppose Kit and Miss Whitlock have caught up with Dorcas?”
“I don’t know. They’ll catch up sooner or later,” she replied confidently. “I’m glad Kit and Miss Whitlock went after them. It’ll look better this way.
“Not that I doubt Mr Adam. He’s a gentleman, and he’ll do right by Dorcas,” Ethel went on. “But having Kit and Miss Whitlock travelling with the couple to their wedding makes it more proper.”
Stooping to haul another bundle of wet washing, she suddenly paused.
“Mrs Adam Whitlock of Haddonsell Grange,” Ethel murmured, her eyes shining with pride. “Our Dorcas has turned her last mangle, Am.”
* * * *
Several hours after Kit and Penelope started upon the road north, they reached the King’s Head inn.
While Penelope tended and watered their horses, Kit stepped inside to ask after the eloping lovers.
“Dorcas and Adam were here early this morning,” he related, joining Penelope at the trough. “Adam gave instructions for the two horses to be taken back to the Grange, and made arrangements to hire a coach and driver for the rest of their journey.
“Dorcas asked the landlord’s wife about places of interest along the route, where items of fashion might be purchased,” Kit went on, swinging up into Patch’s saddle. “They took breakfast before going on their way in the coach.”
“I’d assumed eloping couples travelled at breakneck speed to reach Gretna Green,” Penelope mused, following Kit from the yard out on to the north road. “Dorcas and Adam appear to be taking their time.”
“They aren’t in any hurry to be married, are they?” Kit frowned, adding, “Then again, the slower their progress, the sooner we’ll catch them up.”
It was late that evening when Kit and Penelope rode up a broad, elm-lined drive and around a lake to the Tarleton Hall Hotel, where they found Dorcas and Adam enjoying an intimate dinner.
“If it isn’t my older sister and her engineer friend!” Adam exclaimed genially, raising his glass when Kit and Penelope were shown into the private dining-room.
“I regret you’re too late for dinner, but you’ll join us for brandy, perhaps?”
“I think not,” Kit replied, his focus upon Dorcas. “Are you well, Dorcas?”
“How dare you follow me,” she hissed, glowering across the dining table at him, eyes bright with anger and indignation. “I’m not going home with you. I’m staying with Adam.”
“What brings you and my sister here, Chesterton?” Adam enquired, taking Dorcas’s hand and raising it to his lips. “The lady is at my side of her own choosing. You have no business interfering.”
“You’re mistaken, Whitlock,” Kit responded, lowering his voice. “I’m Dorcas’s only brother, and I have responsibility for her wellbeing.
“Why don’t we leave the ladies to their coffee,” he concluded, “while you and I repair to the gentlemen’s smoking-room and discuss your precise intentions?”
