SERGEANT GRUBB AND a constable from London’s Metropolitan Police Force called at Trethevy again early the next morning, soon after David had left to take an early morning communion service at Tintagel. Eliza opened the door to them and realised straightway that their visit had nothing to do with the pick-pocketing incident at Camelford fair.
Both men were wearing the top hats and high-buttoned jackets adopted as uniform by the London police and, to her utter dismay, Eliza recognised the constable accompanying the sergeant immediately. It was the policeman who had arrested her on the charge of stealing three guineas from Sir Robert Calnan, and who had been in court to see her sentenced to transportation for a period of seven years. It was this man who spoke to her now.
‘Hello, Eliza, I never expected to see you again, especially when it was reported you’d died in a shipwreck on your way to Australia. I thought at the time it had probably been a merciful release for you, but here you are again, large as life and you’ve hardly changed at all. I’d know you anywhere, for all that you’re more than three years older and a lot prettier.’
The leer he gave her was lost on Eliza. She felt as though everything about her was revolving and would have fallen had not Sergeant Grubb stepped forward and caught her. She recovered quickly, but the whole of her body was shaking uncontrollably and he continued to support her.
He was still holding her when Alice came from inside the house to see who was at the door. At the same time Tristram appeared from the stables, where he had been cleaning out the stall recently vacated by the Kilpeck’s pony.
‘What do you think you are doing with my maid?’
Alice’s question was interrupted by a distraught Tristram, who cried, ‘Leave her alone, she’s done nothing wrong.’ He would have pushed past the constable to go to Eliza, but the policeman barred his way, saying, ‘No you don’t. Who are you, anyway?’
‘I work here at the rectory – and I’m going to marry Eliza.’
‘Then you’re going to have to wait a long time for her. She was sentenced to seven years transportation three years ago and still has the full sentence to serve.’
Alice listened to the exchange in speechless disbelief, and Tristram repeated, ‘I tell you she’s done nothing wrong.’
‘The judge thought otherwise,’ the London constable retorted, ‘and I should know, I was the one who arrested her and was in the Old Bailey when she was sentenced.’
‘Then you’re the one who “forgot” to tell the judge that the only money she took was what was owed her for wages, and that she left behind much more money than she’d taken, as proof she weren’t no thief. You knew full well why she needed to take the money and run away but you didn’t bother to tell the judge that either.’
The sergeant looked sharply at the constable, but it was to Tristram he spoke, ‘None of them things matter any more, young man, she’s an escaped felon and will be taken before a judge in London. The best you can hope for is that she’s not given a longer sentence for escaping – although in view of the circumstances of her escape I’d say she’ll most likely be treated mercifully.’
‘Mercifully? To serve a sentence for something she hasn’t done?’
Tristram was very close to tears and a desperately confused Alice said, ‘Tell them they have made a mistake, Eliza. Tell them they must have confused you with someone else.’
Still shaking and tearful now, because of Tristram’s distress, Eliza shook her head, ‘It is true, Miss Alice … at least, what they’re saying about me going to court and being sent away for seven years, but I didn’t steal any money. I only took what was owed me in wages from Sir Robert’s bedside cabinet, I left behind all the other money he had on there. Lady Calnan knew that.’
Pointing to the constable who had admitted having arrested her at that time, she cried, ‘He knew it too, but he never told it to the judge. He knew I wasn’t no thief, and I’m not, Miss Alice.’
‘I know that, Eliza. Try not to be too upset and we’ll have all this settled in no time.’
Gathering her wits about her with some difficulty, she said to the sergeant, ‘Can you leave Eliza here at the rectory while everything is sorted out – and it will be, you know?’
‘I’m sorry, Miss, I’ve travelled all the way here with Constable Wicks to identify her as Eliza Brooks – although you know her as Eliza Smith. She’s a prisoner who was sentenced to seven years transportation, and who is unlawfully at large. She’ll be taken to Bow Street police station in London to appear before a magistrate, then lodged in Newgate prison until arrangements can be made to take her before a judge. He’ll no doubt confirm her conviction and order that her sentence be carried out.’
‘But you heard what she had to say about it, Sergeant, she is no thief, as I will testify. She has worked here at the rectory for more than three years, ever since I found her half-dead down at the cove when she was no more than a child, having miraculously survived a horrific shipwreck. Surely you can show some compassion for her.’
‘I can feel compassion for her, Miss, and I do, but she is a convicted felon and as such my duty is to arrest her and let the law take its course.’
‘Please! Will you wait until I contact my brother, Reverend Kilpeck? He is taking a Communion service at Tintagel church but will be home before too long. He will tell you …’
Alice was distraught, but Grubb interrupted her, ‘He’ll be able to say nothing to prevent me performing my duty, Miss Kilpeck. Brooks – or Smith, as you know her, will be taken by Constable Wicks and myself to Padstow to catch the steamer to Bristol. From there we’ll be travelling on a train to London.’
His face showing the anguish he felt, Tristram said, ‘I’ll come to London to see you in prison, Eliza, I promise you, and I’ll do everything I can to stop them sending you away.’
Remembering the degradation of Newgate, Eliza said tearfully, ‘I don’t want you to come and see me there, Tristram. I want you to remember me as you know me here. That’s how I want you both to remember me.’
‘We won’t need to remember you, Eliza, we’ll have you here with us,’ Alice said, determinedly. ‘Don’t give up hope. Reverend David and I will do absolutely everything in our power to have you released. You’ll be back here with us at Trethevy and this nightmare will be over before you know it.’
Recovering from the initial shock of the arrest of the maid she trusted implicitly and for whom she had great affection, Alice was being positive for her sake, but she felt entirely helpless in the present situation and at the moment had no idea how she or David were going to be able to do anything at all about it.
The two London policemen drove off in the hired light carriage with their handcuffed prisoner squatting on the floor of the vehicle behind them, and the constable roughly warding off Tristram who ran beside the carriage as it set off, trying to reach in and grasp one of Eliza’s fettered hands.
Standing at the garden gate and watching Tristram’s touching but impotent actions, Alice saw Eval Moyle farther along the lane, watching what was going on. There was no apparent reason for him to be there and remembering his manner when he had stopped the carriage in which she and Eliza were returning to the rectory from their visit to Pendower, Alice thought he had undoubtedly been far more helpful to the London policemen in their enquiries than was absolutely necessary.
When a thoroughly dejected Tristram returned to the rectory, Alice gave him no time to dwell upon the misery he was so obviously feeling about the arrest of Eliza.
Giving him one of her sternest looks, she said, ‘You quite obviously knew all about the problems Eliza had before she came to Trethevy, so I think you owe Reverend David and me an explanation. I will not dwell upon the disappointment I feel that neither you nor Eliza had enough trust in us to tell us about them, instead I want you to come into the rectory and tell me everything Eliza has said to you about her arrest, trial and the shipwreck which brought her to us, and how it is that the police have caught up with her after all this time. I want to know everything, you understand? We are going to have to act with great speed if we are to help her.’