He put his arm around her shoulders and lightly hugged her. “Something still troubles you.”
“My own cowardice,” she muttered. “Who but a coward hides from the truth even from herself just because each time she tries to think on it, it brings bad feelings to life along with the memory. I understand the child doing it but not the adult continuing to do it.”
“Your mind protected the child.”
“My mind did it?”
“Why not? Minds can do wondrous things. Look at my own family, at the gifts given to us. There are several of us who can know an enemy is near like I can or can have visions of what is about to happen or know danger lies just around the corner. Your mind saw danger in how terrified you had become and decided the best thing to do was to bury that memory so deep it could not slip out and terrify you again unless you actually reached out for it. It protects itself from breaking that way, too, I think. I have been to war and seen similar things. Battle is a bloody, gruesome, noisy business and it can break a man, or woman, even a child caught up in the viciousness of it. But, at times, the mind takes another turn and just tries to protect itself by burying any memory of the event that tried to break it.”
“You have given this a lot of thought.”
“As I said, I have been to battle. I have held the ones whose minds broke and studied very carefully the ones who got some, well, shield, something that pushes away memories and thoughts of some horror they have seen and so they can keep doing as ordered.”
“Ah, you studied them. It was an intriguing puzzle to you.” She smiled faintly. “I think Papa would have liked you.”
“Thank you, Miss Wootten. That was a fine compliment. Now, I believe food is required.” When the little dog lifted her head at the mention of food, Bened laughed along with Primrose.
Augusta scowled at Jenson. She did not completely trust the man but she did trust in his love of his family and believed she could accomplish what she had threatened if he betrayed her. He was needed to do the various chores that made travel more comfortable but he was beginning to know far too much about what she was doing and he was not good enough to completely hide his distaste. She did not think she would allow him to go back to Willow Hill where he would be within reach of too many who would listen to him.
“Carl has told me that my niece and her companion are in the inn at the other end of the village,” she said, idly wondering how her fool of a husband was managing without his valet. “I have told them to make her a little visit. Now I just need to find that damned boy.”
“You know where he is going.”
“No, I have assumed he is going to seek shelter with that perverted uncle of his. What I was about to ask you is if you have seen my niece’s lover? Everyone keeps calling him that big feller but I cannot see Primrose taking up with some brute.”
“He is no brute. He is a knight of the realm and a baronet. A Vaughn.”
“So you recognize the name, too, but do you recall if anything is said about the family?”
“A great deal is said about them and the other half of the family tree,” Jenson answered as he brushed the travel dust from her clothes. “They all descend from the Duke of Elderwood. Welsh by blood, although they are spread far and wide now. The Vaughns and the Wherlockes. I do not know much about this one except why he was knighted, actually given the hereditary title of baronet as well, and the man who saw to him getting those honors also gave him a piece of property. So he has gone from a prosperous farmer’s son with good blood to landed gentry and a knight.”
“What did he do to be elevated so?”
“Saved the only son and heir of an earl, a wealthy, powerful one. Heard that he actually took a bullet for the son. If rumor is correct, that appears to be his particular skill.”
“Getting shot?”
“Protecting family members of the gentry. He watched over the Earl of Collinsmoor’s younger brother when the lad joined the military and ended up in Canada. There have been others and would be a lot more if he did not seem to be very particular about whom he worked for. Now that he is landed gentry, he may cease to do that although I hear it pays very well.”
“So he could be a very good shield for my niece.”
“Indeed he could be but I suspect the men you have hired have judged his skill by now.”