As Richard let himself out of the side gate, Lucy at his side, he reflected on how different his mood was to that of just a few weeks ago. He’d purposely not asked Caroline to accompany him, ignoring as best he could her hurt look when he said, ‘I’ll just take Lucy out. I won’t be gone long.’ Noticing his mother open her mouth to speak, he made a fuss of shooing Lucy from the room, to create a diversion, and slipped through the sitting-room door before anyone had prevailed upon his better nature. He desperately needed some time to himself, to try to work out how to manage the situation. He’d married someone he no longer loved – perhaps never had – to please his family, and in so doing he’d lost not only his one true love, but their daughter too. He’d waited as long as he dared for Alice at the deer pool, but she hadn’t come, which meant she wanted nothing more to do with him. She’d be married within the week and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. He didn’t deserve her. He’d been spineless to give in to family and propriety and to marry Caroline. Spineless …
Richard realised that he’d spoken aloud; Lucy, by his side, looked up at him, head cocked enquiringly. Richard groaned, and bent to fondle her ears. ‘Oh Lucy, what’s to be done? How am I to free myself from this situation?’ As he straightened up, a glow amongst the trees below caught his eye. Puzzled, he strained to see where it might be coming from. Had someone lit a fire down on the bank of the stream? It seemed unlikely. Poachers were the only ones likely to be out and about of an evening, and they would never risk drawing attention to themselves. Richard’s heart lurched as the increasing glow now identified itself as flickering, leaping flames. The light they cast offered the briefest glimpse of a tall chimney, throwing the brickwork into relief. The fire was at the mill.
In desperation, Richard cast around for one of the tracks that he knew led downwards off this path; the steep trails that the mill workers used as shortcuts every day. The packhorse steps must be close by – he broke into a run, and at first Lucy bounded along beside him, made joyful by this new game. But she must have begun to sense something was amiss. When he reached the path that he sought and turned sharply to begin a headlong descent, she hesitated, barking a couple of times, torn between keeping him faithful company or turning back. She chose the former, but within the half-hour she was scrabbling back up the path, whimpering, tail and ears down as she headed for home, alone.