The Devil's Surrogate Read Free

the same fine looks.
    A would-be
witch, Jane has recruited a small band of highwaywomen, including
Roderick Grayling's younger sister Ellen, and this foursome have
terrified the night roads, robbing coaches and abducting any
suitable young females to sell to Roderick. Into this trap comes
Sarah Merridew, Harriet's cousin, recently orphaned in London after
a local plague outbreak and now seeking the sanctuary of her only
remaining relatives.
    Meanwhile, Jacob Crawley has arrived in the village, a
brooding, menacing figure who carries with him a written authority
appointing him as a witchfinder , even though the church
supposedly abandoned such practices more than a decade earlier.
Crawley has been summoned by the local minister, Simon Wickstanner,
whose spurned advances toward a young local girl, Matilda
Pennywise, have turned to thoughts of revenge spurred on by the
rumours that Matilda's grandmother, Hannah, is hoarding a small
fortune amassed by her own father, Nathan, now dead many long
years.
    With a dubious
signed testimony by a local labourer, who has since mysteriously
died, Crawley arrests Matilda and subjects her to a horrifying
ordeal whose purpose he alleges is to draw a confession from her as
well as to purge her of her sins. However, when he attempts to
persuade Hannah to pay penance in gold to save Matilda from the
scaffold, he is astonished to be met with outright refusal.
    Thomas
Handiwell has meantime set off for London in an attempt to persuade
the army to send men to help him search for the abducted Sarah,
while the resourceful Harriet has recruited the assistance of young
Toby Blaine and his friends to try to help her discover who is
behind the kidnapping. Unfortunately, although she succeeds in
uncovering some of the identities of the perpetrators, she herself
is captured when she attempts to pay a ransom, and is substituted
by the vengeful Jane for Matilda and left in the crypt of the
church, naked, hooded and gagged, and surely soon to be hanged
before Crawley or his assistants have the chance to discover her
true identity.
    Thomas
Handiwell has meantime returned to Leddingham, completely unaware
that the hand behind the now double abduction is that of his own
daughter, Jane.
     
    'Our methods
are now well and truly tried and tested, Sir Peregrine,' Adam
Portfield said smugly. He always enjoyed escorting prospective
clients around the estate; delighted in showing off the training
techniques he and his fellow overseers utilised, secure in the
knowledge that his employer, Sir Roderick Grayling, would have
vetted these visitors most thoroughly before permitting them access
to this, his most closely guarded citadel.
    Today's
visitor, Sir Peregrine Wellthorne, was younger than most. The sort
of money the Grayling enterprise commanded for its human products
tended to be beyond the reach of all but the most wealthy and such
wealth usually took time to accumulate. Sir Wellthorne looked to be
in his early thirties, although his flushed countenance suggested a
lifestyle not conducive to longevity. Wellthorne had inherited his
father's shipping fortunes when the old man had, unfortunately,
gone down aboard one of his merchantmen during an unseasonable
storm in the Channel. Peregrine had since proceeded to employ much
of his wealth in ways that would have had his father turning in his
grave, had they ever been able to recover his body and give it the
luxury of one, that is.
    'Yes, I'm sure
you know what you're doing, Mister Portfield,' Sir Wellthorne
drawled, his eyes bulging slightly as two buxom females appeared in
the doorway at the end of the long barn, naked except for stringent
leather harnesses and matching leather hoods that completely
obscured their features. Behind them, a young and lanky
sandy-haired fellow cracked a heavy whip. The wicked thong missed
the girls' defenceless shoulders by mere fractions of an inch, but
the sharp report made them flinch nonetheless.
    'Tell me,
though,' he continued,