Free The Adventures of Allegra Fullerton by Robert J. Begiebing Page B

security, for I may yet prove your friend, even as in this instance I am but your enlightening messenger. I report only the words of others.” He reached for his hat and overcoat. “The constabulary are already involved; your uncle alerted the sheriff, and his men pursued your path to the very border. Further, your uncle has hired two stalwarts from Massachusetts to search you out wherever you may be, in order to return you and your brother to justice.
    â€œNo, hear me out but a moment longer.” He held up a thin, white-gloved hand before his face, his hat and coat adjusted in his other arm. “These two have come to my attention in their searchings for you, but I have told them only that father and mother sat for portraits last July; that completing your commissions, you and your brother Tom left together. And this last: I come to offer you not only my continued discretion as to your whereabouts … and any subsequent movements, but to offer protection, and even solicitude.”
    â€œI need no protection or solicitude from you, Mr. Dudley… .”
    He cut me off: “Don’t answer, please, at this moment, Madam; such sudden news, I realize, needs to be contemplated. I extend my hand to help you,” he continued immediately, “and have no intentions of interfering with your brother in any way. He must decide his fate for himself. But it is for you I fear the worst.”
    He held up his hand once more to silence me. “Therefore, I will return for your answer on the ’morrow at four o’clock, so as not to interrupt your work while the light lasts. Either you wish to accept my offer of friendship and protection, or you do not. Yet at the least you see that I have warned you of dangers you did not suspect or know … when I might have remained silent.” He made a little bow. “Good day to you, Mrs. Fullerton.”
    Before I could utter another word, he turned on his heel and walked swiftly out. My uncle’s long-festering vengeance soon unsettled my thoughts even more than Mr. Dudley’s insolence. Over time, it was now all too clear, Uncle Simeon had enlarged our offenses against him. Our success in eluding him only fanned his passion. And although I was not the worldly creature Mr. Dudley insinuated in his little speech, I was not so innocent as to remain blind to the bargain he wished to strike with me.
    T OM APPEARED CRESTFALLEN when I broke the news. Yet as always he soon rallied, for we had concluded already that spending the winter here would lead to impoverishment. He asked me what plans I was considering. I said that only one removal had taken tangible shape in my mind—surreptitious flight to Boston, to the anonymity of the city and the salutary milieu of artists, galleries, and patrons in the middling station.
    He thought a moment and agreed: “But we shall need a day or so to pack and close down our affairs properly here.”
    We then concocted the following ruse: I was to meet Mr. Dudley at his appointed hour and hold him at bay by pretending to have come to an understanding of my vulnerability and so thought better of his offer. I would require only two days further to help Tom get away and arrange my affairs.
    I must have played my role competently, for my proposal pleased him. He had already begun to plan for my removal “to a private establishment in the town of Sutton,” a little to the south, where I would be well hidden until he could throw my pursuers off for good.
    I suspected that my uncle’s ruffians might well be under Joseph Dudley’s control by now, but I feigned relief and asked, as I say, only for a little more time.
    Sadly, Tom and I sold poor old Rachel and our cart; then we arranged for a baggage wagon to ship the more cumbersome of my paraphernalia to a storage concern in Boston. I bundled my most essential clothing and materials into a single traveling bag. Tom threw a few of his own essentials into a