carried me smacked my backside. “That’s better. You can’t get away. We won’t hurt you if you behave yourself.” He sounded almost cheerful. I could have spat in his face. I still would, given half a chance.

They carried us to the edge of the wood, to a farm track. There, a cart waited, and Tom and I were thrown unceremoniously into it, while the four men who had taken us jumped up behind. We started off.

I lay quietly and studied the men I could see. I didn’t recognise any of them. They must come from outside our area, although their accent was distinctively Devonshire. One of them saw me staring and reached for a sack. He lifted my shoulders and pulled the sack over my head. I saw no more. I started to count as a desperate way of marking our progress.

I reached seven thousand five hundred and six when we stopped. By now the initial shock had worn off, and fear had me in its claws. I’d thought at first they were footpads, but they’d made no effort to search us or steal anything. I still wore my ruby ring, the first thing they would have taken if they’d been common thieves.

That only left one thing. These men were smugglers and this must be some sort of reprisal for Tom’s actions. My fear escalated to terror, but I swallowed it down. It was a luxury I couldn’t afford to indulge. I couldn’t hear a sound from where Tom lay, still as death.

We were lifted off the cart and into a building, up some wooden stairs and into a small space. The difference in the sounds of shuffling feet told me that. I had no idea where we could be but I guessed at an outlying barn of some kind. I remained as quiet as I could, aware my struggles would be useless against four large men. We were laid down and then a door closed.

 

I lay quietly until sure we were alone, and then I managed to shrug the stinking sack from over my head. I lay for a while, breathing deeply. I felt sick, and I knew that with such a tight gag around my mouth if I actually vomited I could choke and suffocate. I lay still, the taste of filth in my mouth from that rag, until I’d settled my wayward stomach.

I sprawled on floorboards in a room without windows, but light filtered in thinly from somewhere, because I could see Tom’s leaden body on the floor in the dim light. By squirming like a snake, I made my way slowly across the floor, inched over to him, and laid my forehead against his in an effort to see if he was still alive. It was a travesty of the friendly gesture of so short a time before.

His forehead was warm, and now I was closer I heard his uneven breathing. I closed my eyes in a short prayer of thanks that he was alive. I rolled over on my side and looked around.

We were in a small room with bare floorboards, and no furniture. A thin stream of light came from several points high up on the wall, dazzling my eyes at the pinpoints where they entered, diffusing into fitful gleams and a dull, all over light below, where we lay. The walls were rough plastered, but the ceiling was a wooden one, and seemed too high in proportion to the walls.

I assumed we lay in a barn or cottage somewhere, not too far away from the wood where we had been taken, perhaps even Darkwater itself, although I doubted that. It would be far safer to take us somewhere more remote. Besides, once Richard knew I was gone he would tear Darkwater apart in an effort to find me and they would know that.

I couldn’t think what they meant to do with us, or why they had taken us. I’d assumed they would give Tom a beating for his part in the unfortunate death the other day, but apart from that blow to the head, they didn’t seem to have touched him. Did they mean to hurt us? Why would they want to take us otherwise? My head began to ache.

I don’t know how long I lay there, stifled by that loathsome gag. My hands tingled, and then went numb under the tight bonds. Then I heard a sound, a groan from Tom.

He opened his eyes and saw me, then instinctively tried to lift his hands to his head, groaning again when he found they were bound behind him. “Rose?”

I made a sound and his eyes widened when he saw I was gagged.

I realised that the fact they had not gagged him meant they were not afraid anyone would overhear us. Perhaps an isolated cottage, then. “God, my head hurts.” He tried to flex his arms, but they had tied them just above the elbow. He blinked and turned his head from side to side gingerly, cried out when he felt the spot where they had hit him. “We’ve been taken?” I nodded.

“Rose, turn around and get really close. I’ll see if I can’t loosen that filthy thing with my teeth.”

I did as I was told. “The knot is only a simple one, I can manage this.”

Tom tugged as he tried to loosen my gag and I felt pressure at the back of my head. He worked at it for some time. I lay passive, waiting. I might even have let a tear or two drop, but I was determined not to give way to them. I blinked them back.

Eventually, the tight pressure around my mouth loosened, and I could spit away