Ebenezer smiled at Samuel Scammell. “Do your duty, brother.” He took the key from the door that opened on to the long gallery, gestured Scammell inside, and then shut the door on both of them.

Campion was delivered to her enemies.

Eighteen

This was the moment she had feared, yet somehow it was impossible to be scared of Samuel Scammell. He shambled into the room behind her, blinked as the door was closed on them, and then stood helplessly as Campion went into the recess of the bow window. She clutched the cat to her. “You’re not going to touch me.”

He moved to a chair. That morning, in fear of the assault and remembering how the musket bullets had flayed around him, Samuel Scammell had dressed in full lobster armor, his arms and thighs protected by the overlapping plates which Campion could hear scraping on each other as he moved. He sat heavily in Lady Margaret’s chair. “I won’t touch you.” He sounded miserable. He put his head back, staring at the plaster pattern that criss-crossed the ceiling. He wiped his fleshy lips, blinked again, then shook his head.

“I didn’t want this. Your father didn’t tell me about this.”

There were shouts from the garden behind Campion. The Roundheads were dragging away one of the big sakers, but she took no notice. She still held Mildred tight. She was confused. “You came after me! You forced that wedding on me!”

He shook his head, leaning forward now, his cavernous, dark nostrils repelling her even as his eyes pleaded with her. “You don’t understand. Sir Grenville Cony. Your brother.”

“My brother!”

“He forced this!” Scammell was strangely indignant. “He does what he wants now. It’s the seal. Always the seal. I hope you haven’t got the seal!” he added petulantly.

“Why?” She shook her head. “Why?”

“Don’t you understand? They don’t care about you, they don’t care about me, they only care about the Covenant! If we’d married, if we’d lived at Werlatton, we’d have been left in peace. But you had to run away!”

She ignored the complaint. She had run because she had no wish to marry this weak man, a man who she saw now was in the same state as herself. He was beaten, victimized, manipulated into this room that looked on to the morning light in the Lazen valley. She felt an anger in herself. “You wanted the money!”

He nodded heavily. “But it was always for you. It has to be for you. That’s what the Covenant says. The money must be spent on you. Your father bought Werlatton with the money, but it was a house for you to live in.” He looked wearily at her. “Do you have the seal?”

She did not answer. He saw the scorn in her face. He seemed almost on the point of tears. “I don’t care, Dorcas, I don’t care any more. Give him the seal. Give it to him! I’ll say we’re married properly. That’s what they want, and you can go. Truly! In God’s name I promise it. You can go. Sir Grenville will go on stealing half the money, more than half, and you can have the rest. I just want peace.”