Twins of Tenby Hall

Chapter 29

Miranda had brought two of her lady's maids with her and lent one of the girls to Isabel for the duration of her stay. The young girl helped Isabel Riley undress, laid out her clothing for the next day, and waited for Isabel to enter the bed that she might blow out the candles."I will blow them out myself, Ruth, I wish to watch the snow fall before I go to sleep." Ruth nodded and left, shutting the door behind her with a faint click.

Isabel blew out the flickering candles to let the silvery-blue moonlight wash through the room. She watched scattered bits of fluffy white float gently past her window, until after a few minutes it stopped snowing altogether and the air glistened. To her delight she could just barely see the pond from her third-floor bedroom, and it mirrored the moon splendidly, a sheen of ice, like crystal, coating it's surface. She sighed in happy satisfaction.

Something at the bottom of her vision caused her to move her gaze to the small garden clearing at the back of the house. A figure in black, stark against the white snow, stood staring up at her window. Isabel remained frozen in fear, her vision tunneled in on this dark, unmoving visitant!

Stars blinked in and out of her line of sight and she realized she had ceased breathing! Taking two great, shaky breaths, her brain awakened and she fled the room! 

"Goodness heavens you gave me a fright!" Miranda whispered laughingly as Isabel dove beneath her twin's blankets. 

"Miranda, I am absolutely certain I just saw Lord Miles out behind the house, in the gardens." 

"Dear Lord and Savior! I pray you are mistaken! What on earth was he doing??" 

"Nothing. Just standing there still as death, fixed on my window!" 

The girls clutched each other in terror. "We must tell Papa and Matthew, and Mr Dunsworth, and perhaps Mr Eugene Dusworth. If he is there now then they may be able to catch him." 

"Oh no, Oh must we?? Never-mind that is a silly question I know we must." They quickly rose, donned thin house-coats, and rushed to their Father's room. After a quick account of what Isabel witnessed, Lord Riley rushed to rouse the other men. There was a rapid and silent scurry for pants and coats and horses they the four men shot off to the back of Blackstone to chase down the skulking stranger.

The four women huddled tightly together by the front parlor fire, waiting for their return. Ten minutes passed.

A noise at the front door caused their hearts to race, it was creaking open slowly. Four pairs of eyes widened and breaths stilled. 

"Hullo! Back already?" Mrs Dunsworth called loudly, not letting her nerves weaken her voice. 

"That certainly didn't take you long!" Miss Dunsworth added, putting a finger to her lips lest the twins endeavor to speak and potentially encourage the trespasser by hearing Miss Riley's voice. 

The door creaked closed and faint footsteps jogged down the front steps. The ladies rushed to the large bay window to peak through the curtains, a lone figure of a man, hair pulled back in a thick stallion tail, was racing across the courtyard towards the woods. Mrs Dunsworth expelled an unladylike word and ran to the back of the house to yell for the men. The other three let loose their held breaths and began expressing desperate wishes that the four who had journeyed out to catch the unwanted visitor would turn about and chase him down; but alas, they remained on the opposite side of the house, out of sight and, apparently, out of hearing! 

It was an hour and a half before they returned, saying they had tracked fresh prints through the back woods on a wide and meandering path to the front where they had found horse prints, and then the trail was lost. At hearing Lord Miles (whom they assumed the stranger to be) had nearly entered the house, Lord Riley, especially, was fraught with anxiety and frustration.