‘I can’t believe that you are here, after all this time. I must be dreaming again.’
Matt kissed her lips again and again. ‘I’m here,’ he whispered. ‘Though it seems like a dream to me too. And yet it’s as if we have never been apart. You look just the same – your hair hanging down your back – your feet bare. You’re just as I have imagined you to be every time I’ve thought of you.’
She laughed and rolled over in the grass to hold him close again. ‘What a blessing I came out here to watch the dawn. You might have arrived back at the house and not known me dressed in my finery!’
The sun was warm on them as they lay on the hillside. The smell of the disturbed grass was rich and fragrant and the tracery of new leaves on the tree branches above them etched a dappled pattern across their faces.
‘You haven’t become a lady, Annie? Don’t tell me that father has been trying to convert you?’
‘I told him that he would be wasting his time. I can’t change. I am what I am, though I do try. I don’t want to embarrass him in front of his friends – or yours,’ she added anxiously. ‘I don’t want you to be ashamed of me.’
‘I’d never be that.’ He got up and pulled her to her feet and held her close. ‘Never. Those who want my friendship must accept me for what I am, and my wife.’
He reached for his shirt which was lying on the grass and she saw his weather-brown back and the scars running across it. She touched his back gently and he flinched. ‘What are these, Matt? Who did this?’
‘Practically every seaman has a scar to show for his life at sea!’ He shrugged off her questions as he tucked his shirt into his breeches.
‘Tell me!’
He looked down the peaceful green valley towards the direction of the Humber. ‘It started when we were put in the tender at the quayside. There must have been a hundred men, maybe more, packed into that stinking hell hole. There was a grating across the hold and it was padlocked, and some of the men had been there for days. We couldn’t see daylight, there was no air and no room to exercise. So I complained! Loud and long, and then others did too, and I was brought out and accused of causing an affray and endangering the ship.’
She saw a sudden anger on his face. ‘Me!’ His voice was harsh and bitter. ‘Endangering the ship! When I only ever took true seamen on the Breeze, and here were these men telling me! Men who had hardly ever tasted water, let alone sailed on it!’
‘Ssh.’ Gently she calmed him.
‘Twelve strokes of the cat!’ He grimaced. ‘I could have borne the pain, but the injustice will always rankle.’
They started to walk up the hill to collect the grazing horses. ‘And of course my reputation preceded me. I was marked down as a trouble-maker. It seemed that everything that went wrong on that first voyage was of my doing, and if I objected, which I usually did, I was given the lash. I would have jumped ship if I could but I was confined to the hold whenever we were in port.’
His face suddenly brightened. ‘Then I was transferred to another man-o’-war, the Glory, and found my old friend Greg Sheppard in command. He’d volunteered and been given a commission. I persuaded him to apply for Parson White to be transferred and then the three of us took an oath that we’d fight the French and their allies instead of our own navy, and we’d scuttle old Boney’s ships.’
‘I used to dream,’ Annie said slowly. ‘I dreamt that you were on board a burning ship and that Harry and Toby were with you. I was so frightened.’
‘The ship did burn. On this last voyage we ran into a major sea battle, which made all the others seem like skirmishes. The British ships were surrounded by the big French gunships and we sailed up right behind them. They must have felt like bears with a snapping dog at their heels, but our gunner crew were magnificent and raked several of the French ships. Then it seemed as if all hell broke loose, even the sea and the sky seemed to be alight, and we were hit several times.’
He gave a deep sigh and his face was etched with pain.
‘Don’t say any more, Matt,’ she pleaded. ‘Not now. Leave it.’
‘No. It’s best if it’s out, then I can forget it.’ As they reached the horses he put his hand on Sorrel’s neck and gently stroked him. ‘Cannon shot brought down a blazing mast. I was beneath it, but Parson White pushed me away. It hit him and knocked him clean into the water.’ He closed his eyes for a second as if remembering. ‘He was a brave man, Annie, as was Greg Sheppard. The country should be proud of such men. I’ll never forget them.’
Annie felt her eyes fill with tears at the sadness Matt must feel for the loss of his friends, they had paid back tenfold for their previous misdemeanours, and she gave thanks that Matt at least had come safely home.
He turned and reached out to take her once more in his arms. He smoothed her hair and smiled and she saw the creases of pain that only time would eradicate. ‘I love you so much Annie. It has been so long since I held you like this – kissed you,’ he kissed her on each wet cheek, ‘made love to you. I was beginning to feel that you were lost to me forever.’
He looked up beyond the hillside, beyond the woods, towards Staveley Park. ‘And now I want to see my son. He will have forgotten me, won’t he?’ he asked with anguish written in his eyes. ‘He met me only once. He won’t know this stranger.’
She shook her head. ‘Your father and I speak of you every day, and I remind him constantly of the day we saw you at the quayside; the day we were married.’
Jed had been sent out to look for her. They’d been anxious when they couldn’t find her, he said, as he rode towards them. He touched his hat to Matt and said. ‘Good day, Mayster Matt. Tha’s back, I see.’
Matt laughed and put out his hand to shake the servant’s. ‘Yes, Jed. I’m back, as long ago you said I would be.’
The old man nodded, his voice was gruff. ‘Aye. I was reet about thee, but wrong about Mayster Toby.’ He blinked his watery eyes, then raised his whip and pointed. ‘They’re sending out another search party, ma’am. Here’s Squire and Mayster Harry come looking.’
At the top of the dale Henry Linton on his horse with Harry by his side on his pony, were riding towards them.
‘He’s old enough to ride?’ Matt gasped. ‘My son!’
Annie wiped her eyes on her shawl. ‘He’s seven, Matt. Go on, go on. You’ve a lot of catching up to do.’
She watched from Sorrel’s back, as Matt cantered towards the two riders and then saw Henry Linton as he recognized his son, suddenly goad his horse forward. They both leapt from their mounts as they reached the other and with swift steps flung their arms around each other.
Harry watched the two men and then pulling on Whisper cantered towards Annie who was riding to meet him. ‘Mamma. Who—? Is that—? Is that my father come home at last?’
Annie jumped down from Sorrel and lifted him down. ‘Yes, my darling. It is.’