Condemned, R.C. Bridgestock [most romantic novels TXT] 📗

‘I can’t, because you’re not them,’ she said, angrily.

‘I’m not who? Who is it that you’re referring to as “them”?’

‘Those whom God didn’t lift a finger against to help prevent it from happening. My faith has been put to the test. It was the least I could do to find them, and tell them the truth, but I didn’t.’ Lily’s gaze lingered on Charley’s face for a moment or two. Suddenly, she took a deep intake of breath, and leaned forward conspiratorially. ‘One thing I can tell you is that Catherine did go to Australia, and she had a daughter. I don’t know what happened to her daughter, but Agnes believed that when Catherine died, the girl was brought back to England, to be looked after by Catherine’s husband’s parents. I should have gone looking for her, and I didn’t. God let her down, and I let her down, and I can’t forgive myself.’

Charley could see how distressed Lily was, but she needed to carry on in her questioning. ‘What happened in the past is not your fault, nor is it God’s. Can’t you see that His love saved you for a much greater purpose, Lily, to do these things now if you can, and also find a proper resting place for the poor woman who was killed and buried in the cellar? You were young, it was wrong for the elders to put this on you. Is it true that Seth sent his sister, Catherine away?’ asked Charley.

Lily nodded, through her sobs. ‘Yes, according to my mother, Agnes, Lucinda looked up to Catherine as an older friend and confidante, and chose to continue to confide in her after she married Seth. Seth didn’t approve of his sister interfering in the couple’s marital affairs.’

‘There must have been a trigger though, for such drastic action?’ said Charley.

‘You are very perceptive,’ Lily gave Charley a watery smile. ‘Lucinda, I was told, became pregnant quite quickly after the couple married, and as Seth’s dependency on drugs and drink continued to grow throughout her pregnancy, it brought with it dark, low moods and violent rages, which he took out on his wife and sister. Catherine witnessed the shouting and some of the abuse endured by his young, pregnant wife, until apparently one day, fearing for Lucinda’s and the baby’s life, she decided it could not continue any longer. In one of Seth’s more lucid moments, Agnes told me he had agreed to Catherine’s suggestion that the tunnel between the house and the church be bricked up, and the gates to the house locked, to stop his visiting the church where Lucinda was taken for her safety, to be looked after by her parents. Lucinda pined for Seth, and he did for her, but she knew she had to stay away, at least until the baby was born. It was said that she would sit at the bricked-up doorway, on the cold stone slabs, talking to her husband long into the night. He could be heard by others, wailing like an animal in pain, begging her to come to him, but she resisted. Most nights Catherine would cover her brother’s sleeping body on the dirt floor in the tunnel, as he was too heavy for her to lift back into the house.

‘In his poor state of mind, Seth is said to have blamed everyone else for the situation he had found himself in, and grew to believe that if Catherine, whom he believed was Lucinda’s captor, was not around, then his wife would come back to him. Unknown to anyone, he arranged for his sister to be kidnapped and sent as far away as possible, and whilst waiting for his plan to come to fruition he began digging an alternative secret tunnel, for in his deranged state, he thought that Lucinda was being kept prisoner and he need to rescue her. Once he started, Seth became as obsessed about the tunnel as he was about everything else. He bragged to the couple of servants left about it, claiming that the speed with which it was being dug was down to help from the Hobgoblin. He was, as you can imagine, a laughing stock, but they egged him on because he paid them well, for the privilege of their company. Relentlessly, he carried on digging until he was nothing more than a skeleton himself. He didn’t eat, neither did he sleep much, because the compulsion forced him to continue digging, day after day, night after night, until he had built a lengthy underground tunnel which led into the graveyard… to his elected burial plot. He worked mostly by candlelight. When Catherine went away, he supposedly continued to beg Lucinda to see him, Agnes told me. However, she did not dare, not because she didn’t want to, but because of the threat to her unborn baby, whom she loved above all. Then rumour has it, that Lucinda fled the church one night after the baby was born, and never returned. Agnes believed that Lucinda finally gave in and went to be with him. Not long afterwards, Seth was found dead, it is said by young Adam. There is no mention of his burial in the church records; it was thought that the exit of the tunnel must have been turned into his grave by the people who worked for him, such was their commitment to Adam. So disliked was he by those at the church that he wasn’t bestowed the proper burial, in the ground that was rightfully bought for his final resting place, and as you know, his body has never been found.’

‘And Lucinda was never seen again either, you said?’ asked Charley.

Lily was quiet. Head down, she dabbed her cheeks. The interview room took on a feeling of peace and serenity. Charley did not know what had just happened, but something had.

‘What became of the baby?’ asked Charley.

‘I can’t… I really can’t tell you any more,’