CHAINS TO FREEDOM.✔

Chapter Eighty-Nine

Adam knelt beside Hannah. She lay at the bottom of the main internal stairs. Her body was twisted and her head lay at an odd angle. "What happened?" he asked Carson the butler.

"I'm sorry, sir, I don't know. I heard her scream. When I arrived, she was laying here, sir."

Adam pulled Hannah into his arms. Pain squeezed his chest and wedged in his heart. She had been very dear to him; had given him so much joy and was the only person who really knew him. He kissed her forehead and looked up at Carson with tears in his eyes. "You had better send for the doctor and inform the peelers."

"Yes, My Lord." Carson hesitated before he walked away and said, "I think she may have slipped, sir."

Adam lifted his head and stared blankly at Carson. Slip, he thought. How could she have slipped? He closed his eyes, took a breath to steady his emotions and nodded. "Thank you, Carson." Adam lifted Hannah and looked over at the weeping housemaid. "Jane," he said. "Open the door of the guestroom for me and I shall lay her there until the authorities come."

*****

Jessica waited at the gatehouse with Samuel and Jack. She cried for their loss and for hers. She understood the hardship of growing up without a mother. Hannah and she had become good friends. Hannah was her security, her only friend in a place that was once her home.

She had wanted to go to the Hall to see Hannah and find out what had happened but Adam had told her to stay in the gatehouse. She had no idea what Hannah's death would mean to him. She didn't know how much he loved her, or if he had loved her at all.

It was dark when he opened the door into the kitchen. Jessica had already put the two boys to bed and was washing dishes when he came inside. He said nothing to her, but took off his coat and hung it on the wall hook. Adam stumbled past her and into the sitting room. Jessica hesitated. She didn't know what to do, but felt she must let him know how grieved she was.

She stood in the doorway and watched as he sat with his head in his hands. His behaviour told her that Hannah must have meant something to him. She couldn't leave him as he was so she stepped in beside him and put her hand on the back of his bowed head. "I am so sorry, Adam." When his body heaved, Jessica couldn't help but want to comfort him. She knelt before him and took his face in her hands. Loss and pain raked his rich brown eyes. Adam clung to her and cried in her arms. Jessica was overwhelmed by his grief. She held him close and cried too.

*****

Samuel woke early the next morning. He made his way down the stairs to find Jessica in the kitchen. She'd been to the dairy early to get milk for Jack. Adam stayed the night in Hannah's room. Jessica had left him in the sitting room the night before to nurse his grief with a bottle of whiskey.

"Jess, where my ma?" Samuel rubbed his eyes as he walked into the room.

Jessica took a deep breath. She knelt down and hugged him. She didn't know what to say, or even that she should tell him anything. Perhaps Adam should be the one.

Samuel asked again. "I want my mama!"

He was only three. Jessica didn't think he would understand. She fought to hold back her own tears as she looked at this beautiful little boy. He was very much like his mother. She touched his light brown hair and looked into his hazel eyes that were wide with anticipation.

"Mama is not here, Samuel. She has gone to heaven."

He smiled at her and held out his small hand. "You take me?" he asked.

"No, Samuel, I can't take you." Jessica felt a sting in her nostrils as her own emotions affected her physically.

His little face puckered and his lip quivered. "Da take me?"