Bruar's Rest

something or nothing, but I happen to know that in Sussex there’s a home for shell-shocked soldiers, called “Kingsland House”.’
    Megan’s eyes nearly popped from their sockets. ‘He may well be there, then!’
    ‘Don’t get your hopes up, my dear. He might be in any one of the homes, and believe me there are plenty, but if I have given you some clearer hope, then this night we have helped each other, don’t you think?’
    ‘Oh missus, little do you know how much of a misty veil your words have lifted from my eyes. Thank you so very, very much.’
    Her road ahead looked so much clearer, her heart was freed of a heavy load. However, standing on the doorstep saying farewell, she just had to ask the lady what she had really thought about Mr Newton going off with Lucy.
    ‘My dear girl, my husband, wonderful man though he was, did, like a lot of men have a weakness, and for him that was pretty young girls—mainly gypsy girls. I think it was their air of wild freedom; their windswept beauty drew him like a moth to a flame. Lucy wasn’t his first, and if it hadn’t been for that awful man, she certainly wouldn’t have been the last.’
    ‘But they were going off together.’
    ‘Just as he had done before with the others. My dear, I knew his failings but loved him in spite of them. I think he paid the blackmailer, because the last time he ran off he promised me faithfully that it would never happen again.’ It pained her to continue talking of him, that was becoming obvious. ‘I’ll ask Mrs Simms to call on Sam, he’ll walk you back to the camp. Goodbye, and thank you so much.’
    Before she slammed shut the massive oak door behind her, Megan stared into the beady eyes of Mrs Simms and whispered, ‘I feel you don’t care for me.’
    Keeping an inch of open space between them she answered, ‘I hate you. If not for your kind, my master would be alive and well and sharing supper with those broken-hearted children.’
    As the door was bolted and noisily locked, Megan, although totally innocent, felt pangs of guilt at having been part of Lucy’s secret, contributing to a heartbroken family’s pain. But her new-found knowledge sent a wave of energy surging through her body. Looking for Bruar would be a lot easier now, and that was her only reason for existence.
    Sam smiled and offered an arm, which she refused, saying there was none more capable than she on the moor. ‘I have the eyes of a cat and can see for miles in pitch darkness.’ Having just uttered those words, they both laughed as she stumbled and fell over a water barrel at the far end of the stables. ‘Well, even a cat has its moments,’ she said as he helped her up from the cobbled courtyard.
    Sam had none of the other servant’s disgust at gypsies, and said he knew and liked most of her quarry friends. He faced a problem, though, because Mrs Newton had informed her staff that she planned to sell Burnstall Hall and move away from the Dales.
    ‘Surely whoever buys the place will need staff to run it,’ Megan asked.
    ‘Might do, but who can say? Sometimes property in these parts changes hands and new owners bring their own workers. Some even get shot of horses, don’t use stables, and leave them empty. I have a big problem, lass, ’cause me Mam, ye see, she’s real sick. Takes all me wages to pay for her medicine. What’ll I do?’
    ‘Get another job—say with a blacksmith or horse breeder. Surely someone will employ you. Mrs Newton told me you’re a dab hand with her mares.’
    ‘Aye, she’s good to me. Hell, listen to me rambling on. I hear the quarry will see the burning of the gypsy girl tomorrow.’
    ‘Burn! No, she’s to be buried. After her funeral the gypsies are breaking up, after all that’s happened.’
    ‘Well, unless my knowledge of local gyppos is wrong, a funeral means the body and all it owns is to be burned.’
    Megan felt her flesh crawl at the very idea of Lucy burning, and was certain Sam was pulling her leg. She spoke no more on the subject, opting instead to listen to the night creatures calling all across Bleak Fell as she walked back with the stable boy. In a short while, fire smoke drifted into their nostrils, telling them the quarry was near.
    Ruth, who’d been watching for her return, came running up to meet them. ‘Hello Sam, how be your mother these days?’
    ‘Oh, you know, some days are worse than others. I’ll get off home now, Megan. It was nice meeting you.’
    She wished there was