Penelope Goes to Portsmouth Read Online Free PDF

Augustus meant to do, but she doubted it. She wondered if Lord Augustus had ever thought seriously about anyone or anything in the whole of his life.
    ‘We can go and see our prisoner, however,’ said Hannah, ‘and take him some food.’
    Penelope brightened. Then her face fell. ‘But we cannot offer him any hope, and with the prospect of the gallows before him, he may not feel like eating anything.’
    They returned to the inn and found out the whereabouts of the prison, packed a basket with eatables and a bottle of wine, and made their way out again. The day had turned cold and the sky was dark. Birds piped miserably in the bare branches of the trees. Outside the prison, they were erecting the gallows, the workmen whistling cheerfully.
    Hannah had found out that the prisoner was called Benjamin Stubbs. She bribed the turnkey to obtain permission to talk to the prisoner for half an hour.
    They were shown into a miserable cell. Benjamin was chained to the floor. Penelope gave a childish little gulp and Hannah knew the girl was trying hard not to cry. She held out a piece of paper on which she had already written: ‘We have brought you some food.’
    The prisoner gave her a wan smile and it went straight to Hannah’s heart. The footman had a face that Hannah was sure was normally bright and cheeky and alert. She took out another piece of paper and wrote, ‘How did you come to be in Lady Carsey’s employ?’
    He sat down at a plain deal table in the cell and awkwardly took the paper and pencil from her, the long chains locked to the floor rattling and clanking as he moved.
    He began to write busily while Hannah and Penelope sat in silence. At last he handed the paperover. Hannah and Penelope put their heads together and read, ‘I had never been in Service and had a mind to be a Footman. I had been on the Rode for a Long Time, working in the Fields when I could. I had no References but heard Lady Carsey liked Freaks and had once taken a Dwarf in her employ as a page. Me being Deaf and Dumb might interest her and so it did, and so she hired me. But she wanted me in her Bed and I could not, for she was not to my Taste, and so she got Mad and said I had stole the Broach which I did not as sure as my name is Benjamin Stubbs.’
    ‘Decadence,’ said Hannah fiercely. She wrote, ‘Describe the brooch.’
    Again the prisoner wrote and again they read. ‘It was an oblong brooch of Dymonds set in gold with little saffires around the Edge.’
    Hannah wrote, ‘Be of good cheer. We will do what we can to help.’
    Tears formed in the prisoner’s eyes and he turned his head away.
    ‘How terrible,’ sobbed Penelope when they were once more outside the prison. ‘B-but how odd that Lady Carsey should collect freaks.’
    ‘Painted harpy,’ said Hannah with a sniff. ‘If such is to Lord Augustus’s taste, I want nothing more to do with him.’
    When they returned to the inn, it was to learn that the stage-coach would be repaired the following morning. There was no sign of Lord Augustus. The day wore on and then he appeared. He requested a bedchamber, went upstairs, and came down ahalf-hour later, very grand in evening dress, cool and tailored and barbered. Hannah asked him eagerly if there was any hope of finding the brooch, but he looked at her vaguely and said he was going to the Manor for dinner. Still hopeful, Hannah gave him a description of the brooch. He did not appear to pay any great attention. He had become haughty and remote. Even Miss Trenton voiced as soon as he had gone that she was disappointed in such a man who did not know the proper respect due to a lady such as herself who owned a carriage.
    After dinner, Mr Cato and Miss Trenton retired to the bedchambers they had been forced to reserve, neither wanting to sit up all night. But Hannah and Penelope sat on in the dining-room, looking from time to time out of the bay window, hoping for a glimpse of Lord Augustus coming back with some good news. Neither of the