Page 39 of Beatrix

Ben was quiet for a moment, turning the question over in his head. ‘In truth I’m unsure,’ he admitted at length. ‘A smaller party would be able to move more quietly through the breach in the dark, but since we’re looking to move all the children at once …’ He left the rest of the sentence hanging.

‘Don’t forget we have to secure somewhere to take them,’ added Beatrix, feeling the first stirrings of overwhelm. A look around the table showed her similar expressions.

‘Simply bundling all thirty-eight of them past a watched gate while hoping nobody along four miles of open lane happens to notice a procession of orphans in their night shirts is not going to work,’ Henry growled.

‘Then, we don’t move them at all,’ Rob stated quietly. ‘Not that night.’

CHAPTER 17

Everyone stared at the Australian as though he’d lost his wits. It was Henry who first understood what he was saying.

‘The Viscount’s currently in London, and there’s no reason to suppose that Jacob White will come anywhere near until the last minute. At this point we still don’t know if the Grange is where they intend to actually hold the auction. If we can hold the folly itself, rid ourselves of everyone minding the prisoners, quickly and quietly, we can lock the gates from the inside and let the place go on looking exactly as quiet and undisturbed as it’s looked every day since we’ve watched it. The children stay where they are, fed properly for the first time in heaven knows how long and kept safe behind walls that are, for once, working in our favour rather than White’s.

‘For how long?’ Henry asked.

‘A few days if it comes to that,’ Rob replied. ‘Long enough for us to arrange something better than a desperate dash down a public lane in the dark. Long enough to think properly about where thirty-eight children actually go once they’re safe, rather than deciding it while standing in the dark with dogs barking and the clock against us.’

‘There are a lot of bloody ifs in that plan,’ Charlotte observed, not bothering to hold back her expletive.

‘In essence, the whole strategy depends on how many men we’re up against,’ Ben suggested, ‘and how many of us we can round up.’

‘The us you’re referring to includes young ladies and children,’ Charlotte argued.

‘I can ‘old me own,’ Billy piped up.

‘We’ll obviously need the element of surprise,’ Rob acknowledged.

‘What kind of surprise are you hoping for?’ Charlotte quizzed him tartly, ‘the apocalypse perhaps?’

‘We’ll need someone on the inside for us to have any chance of finding out exactly how many they have doing the minding,’ Beatrix said.

A sudden silence greeted her words with the abrupt realisation that Bea was right. The only way they could be sure was to have someone on the inside to tell them how many.

‘As far as we can tell, the auction’s mere weeks away,’ Ben declared. ‘We’ll need to be long gone and the children well hidden by the middle of May at the latest.’

‘I don’t believe we can remain there for more than a few days,’ Rob affirmed. ‘Any longer and we risk the possibility that White or one of his cronies might turn up. But I think we’re better managing that risk from inside a house we hold rather than run the greater one of losing a child on the lane or leaving half of them behind because we couldn’t move fast enough.’

Henry was quiet for a long moment, turning the proposal over in his head. ‘It’s audacious,’ he said at last.

‘It also doesn’t rely on thirty-eight children behaving like a well-drilled regiment in the pitch dark,’ Charlotte interjected briskly. ‘I find I prefer it.’

‘But as Ben said, this all hinges on us being able to discover how many gonys there are minding the folly and grounds,’ Arabella countered. ‘I would suggest if there are more than five, we’ll have little chance of subduing them. There’s also the question of how many kitchen staff there are, though I highly doubt there are more than a couple. Not to mention the question of what role our spy will actually play.’

‘Possibly that of a domestic. They’ll likely come under a little less scrutiny if they ask for a job,’ Ben suggested.

‘They might also be sent off with a flea in their ear,’ Charlotte countered.

‘That’s a risk we have to take,’ Henry declared. ‘At the very least, whoever we send might get to have a look round.’ He paused before adding, ‘Naturally, the entire plan would need to be effected without alerting anyone from the main house.’

‘Which brings us to the subject of weapons,’ Ben added grimly. ‘I’ve deliberately not mentioned the use of firearms. In truth, I don’t think we dare risk them. The noise alone will alert the main house, and a pistol in the hands of someone who doesn’t know how to use it is a recipe for disaster.’

‘I assume there’s a good chance the guards will have them,’ Rob countered.

‘There’s a chance, yes,’ Ben answered. ‘But they’re lying low without any expectation of trouble. The last thing White will want is to draw any attention to the goings-on in the Grange, and at the end of the day they’re guarding children.’

Another silence, this time filled with unanswered questions. It was Charlotte who spoke first. ‘Well, I can’t deny that the thought of stealing all thirty-eight orphans from under White’s nose with such an impudent plan is more than a little appealing, but I’m not entirely sure any of us have got what it takes carry off the whopping tarradiddle you’re proposing.’

‘Nonsense,’ Henry retorted with far more confidence than he was feeling. ‘We’ve already run rings round the varmint…’