'It is no dream and you are free of him, while I have avenged my poor brother, and recovered some at least of what he stole from poor James.'
'The stocks are valuable,' Sarah said thoughtfully. 'He had a vast amount.'
'Indeed, unless there is a sudden panic and people no longer wish to buy. It is not possible to sustain such rises. They more than doubled between January and March, and now in August they have trebled again.'
He began to talk of other matters, until they reached The Hermitage late at night. Aunt Nell cried and scolded and laughed and hugged Sarah, while Clarinda and her parents, who were staying at The Hermitage, they explained, until they knew of Sarah's safety, listened to the account of what had happened. Then, seeing Sarah was almost falling asleep in her chair, Aunt Nell firmly took her off to bed, saying further explanations could wait.
*
She awoke late on the following day, and found on coming down to the breakfast parlour that Sir Charles was about to depart, having waited only to bid her farewell.
'I have urgent business in London,' he explained as he bowed over her hand. 'I hope you will be fully recovered from your ordeal after a few days of rest.'
Astonished, Sarah was about to protest and beg him to stay longer, then she snapped shut her mouth. She had made a sufficient fool of herself, weeping in his arms, and no doubt he was anxious to escape from the memory of that episode. She bade him a cool farewell, and with great difficulty refrained from any question as to whether he would return to The Hermitage. Then, as he rode away she stonily informed Aunt Nell, hovering solicitously about her, that she felt exhausted still and would prefer to remain in her room for the remainder of the day.
'I should not have risen. I can scarce keep my eyes open,' she declared, and retreated to her room where she indulged in the luxury of a hearty bout of weeping. She had lost him. Although he had not left Harrogate as she had thought, disgusted with her after learning of her deception, he could have pursued her and Sir Gilbert only because he wished for revenge against the man who had defrauded his brother. There might, she conceded, have been some wish to rescue her, but it was no more than any man would have done, knowing she was in the power of a rogue. Once his task had been completed he had shown no desire to linger, but had left as soon as he possibly could. There had been no encouragement to her, no opportunity of telling him she would willingly give up her own fortune to share his cottage with him.
She kept to her room for two days, and then for two more sat listlessly about the house. She did not even have Robert's company, for he had escorted Clarinda home and rode across to Forleys every day. Aunt Nell, while slightly disappointed her adored Robert would not, it seemed, become master of The Hermitage after all, was perfectly willing to accept another heiress in Sarah's place, so long as it was what Robert wished. She began to hint at tentative plans of more visits and entertaining now Robert was at home to play the host.
Partly to escape from talk of these plans, which interested her not at all, and partly because she had determined to shake off her most uncharacteristic mood of despondency, Sarah declared on the following morning she felt the need for air.
'Walk in the garden, dear,' Aunt Nell said quickly. 'What a shame Robert rode out early, or you could have gone with him to visit Clarinda.'
Sarah shook her head, saying she did not feel like such a long ride yet, and escaped. The formal gardens, the neat beds of herbs and the restrained rose arbour, soon palled and feeling the need of a wilder, freer atmosphere, she wandered into the woods which surrounded the house.
*
Her steps led her to one of her favourite spots, a massive fallen oak tree. Careless of her white gown she scrambled onto the trunk, finding a place where she could curl up between the trunk and one of the branches. Many times she had waited there for Robert when he had ridden out on his own, and now she faced the lane which wound through the woods towards the house, but with her head leaning back against the branch and her eyes closed.
Now he was lost to her, she was thinking, it was incredible she had not recognised from the very beginning that Sir Charles was the only man she could ever love. His company had always been exciting, but she was so little used to masculine companionship since Robert had been away from home she had not realised how, with Charles, it was different from with anyone else.
Although she intended no deception he despised her for what had appeared a romantic search for love rather than a marriage which would benefit the estates of both families, and he had been insulted at the very idea of using her money. He was proud, honourable.
'And it is so ridiculous!' she exclaimed aloud.
A soft chuckle came from just behind her and she sat up swiftly, overbalancing from her insecure perch and falling off the trunk.
'What is ridiculous?' Sir Charles asked as, having caught her to him as she fell, he held her tightly in his arms.
Sarah gulped, and stared at him in amazement.
'Why – what are you doing here?' she demanded. 'I thought you were never coming back.'
'Did you wish me to return?' he asked, and she trembled at his nearness. 'I hoped you would, but I did not expect you to fall into my arms,' he said with a faint laugh.
'You startled me,' Sarah retorted, evading the direct question.
'Then what were you thinking was so ridiculous?' he asked again.
'Oh, nothing important,' she said hurriedly. 'Why have you come back?'
'I sold the South Sea stocks,' he explained. 'There is still a mad scramble for them, and another issue out within days which shows all the signs of selling at a high price.'
'Then why did you sell if the price is rising?' Sarah asked, tinglingly aware of the strange fact she was still tightly clasped in his arms.
'I do not trust such wild speculation. Unscrupulous folk are setting up the most improbable companies, and sense must return soon. I prefer to hold what I won in more solid wealth. While I was in London I also saw the man who had bought my father's estate in Yorkshire, and when I told him the full story, knowing he never spent more than a few weeks each year there, he agreed to sell it back to me. I now have a home to offer my wife, and an income from the other land I propose to buy to keep her in comfort. She would lack for nothing.'
'Oh,' was all the response Sarah could find to his information. Sir Charles laughed, and took one hand away from her back in order to tilt her chin and force her to look up into his face.
'Have you forgiven me?' he queried. 'I was harsh when I thought you had been masquerading as Clarinda's poorer cousin, but I was too concerned my hopes of winning you had been destroyed to accept you had intended no deceit. Sarah, my dearest love, I could not have lived on your money, you must see that.'
'But I would have given it to Robert!' she exclaimed. 'I would have been content in your cottage, living on what you could win as a highwayman or a gambler,' she added. 'Of what use is The Hermitage and everything else to me without you? Oh, Charles, I do not wish to live alone in luxury!'
'But we may live together in comfort? You will not hold my disreputable past against me?'
'You held people up only to search for your brother's enemy,' she protested.
'True, but I have lived from my skill at cards when there was no other way.'
'You did not cheat,' she answered swiftly. 'How marvellous you have been able to buy your old home back. Would you wish to buy Forleys too? I doubt if Mr Middlewick would be prepared to sell, especially since he has planned such grand alterations.'
'It was never my home. He is welcome to it. Besides, if we wish to visit Clarinda there is The Hermitage. You will want to spend part of the year there, I expect.'
'Yes, and no doubt Aunt Nell will be happy to live here. Oh, Charles, Clarinda and Robert can live here. I am certain he means to offer for her.'
'Good, and now that is all satisfactorily arranged, my dearest lovely Sarah, may I formally, in the correct approved manner, ask for your hand? Should I apply to your cousin or yo
ur aunt?'
Sarah giggled. 'Surely, Sir Charles, you should be kneeling at my feet, not crushing the breath out of me,' she asked demurely. 'Nor trying to smother me,' she added, evading his mouth for a moment before it descended on hers. Then her arms crept round his neck, and she lost all sense of time in the rapture of his embrace.
'There is just one small condition, my adorable beautiful darling,' he said some time later.
Starry eyed, she glanced up at him and nodded.
'Of course. You want me to give away all I possess, no doubt.'
He laughed. 'No, I have no objection to your money if I also am wealthy. I do object to being shot, though. I must insist on confiscating any pistols I discover about you!'
'But if I had not shot you we should never have known one another,' she exclaimed in dismay. 'Truly I am sorry you were hurt, but – was it not worth it?'
'Wretch! Once I had seen you were not the man I was expecting I would have carried you off anyway,' he retorted, 'so that will not serve as an excuse!'
'Oh, Charles, I might have killed you,' she was suddenly sober at the thought. 'How dreadful that would have been! I tremble at the very thought.'
'You did not, and I forbid you ever to think of it again. Now, my love, do you not think we ought to devise some explanation of our reprehensible behaviour for your aunt?'
'If she disapproves I could steal some more of Robert's clothes and we could ride off together and hide in your cottage,' Sarah suggested, dimpling. 'Then they would have to grant permission!'
'I suspect your poor aunt will be only too glad to be rid of the responsibility for you if you are in the habit of making such proposals,' he replied, and when she tried to protest she was an excellently behaved young lady he demonstrated in the only way possible that no properly conducted young female would cling in so abandoned a fashion to a suitor as yet unapproved by her guardians.
'You will never be dull,' he said when he at last released her, 'and I will never cease to bless the day when our mutually reprehensible conduct brought us together!'
###
THE END
Marina Oliver has written over 75 novels, all are available as ebooks.
For the latest information please see Marina's web site:
http://www.marina-oliver.net.
You might also enjoy more historical novels by Marina:
Convict Queen
Few convicts returned to England, but Molly Morgan was one who did.
She lived in a Shropshire village, first as a maid to a wealthy farmer, then with her husband William, who was somewhat light-fingered.
He escaped when they were accused of the theft of flax from a drying field, but Molly was tried and sentenced to transportation.
She went with the Second Fleet, and survived being on the Neptune, the worst ever ship to carry convicts to New South Wales.
Many of the convicts died or were too weak on arrival to walk.
Molly found a protector on the ship, and another for whom she worked on land.
After a few years she persuaded an American Whaling ship captain to hide her and take her back to England, where she lived in London and worked as a seamstress until she married a Plymouth whitesmith.
They quarrelled and she went back to London, where she was accused of more theft and again transported.
After a while, and the accusation of stealing Government cattle, she began farming in the Hunter Valley, and opened taverns.
She became wealthy, known for giving help to convicts, and support for charities.
At the age of sixty she married a man of one and thirty.
She was named the Queen of Hunter Valley.
*
Rebel Heart
Elinor is bored with her quiet life in Norfolk with her aunt and uncle, waiting until she can marry Francis, a captain in George I's army.
Though she looks forward to the marriage she worries about the probable disapproval of her brother Kit.
If, that is, he is still alive. He has been fighting for the Jacobites, now defeated and driven from the country. Kit, however, has not been heard of and could be dead, perished on the battlefield. Either that or he is now a fugitive.
When a mysterious stranger arrives claiming he carries messages from Kit she dare not believe him, especially as he says Kit wants her to go with him to France.
Saying he has promised Kit to bring her, Sir Talbot Carr carries her off, and they find the journey far from easy.
*
Wild Catriona
Catriona's father is lost at sea, and her mother loses the will to live, leaving her with her Uncle, who wants to marry her to a much older, stern newcomer.
Cat is determined to escape, and does so with the help of her cousin. But she needs to hide from them all, until she can go to her father's Dutch family in Amsterdam.
Expert in fabric printing and making her own dyes, she persuades Rory Napier, struggling to manage his uncle's linen manufacturing in Glasgow, to employ her to supervise the new processes.
Though she is successful, their relationship is stormy. Can they succeed despite the problems and the rivalries?
*
The Baron's Bride
It is the turbulent thirteenth century and Henry III is facing rebellion by Simon de Montfort.
Eva, more concerned with her own fate, is plotting how to make her father agree to her marriage with her cousin Gilbert, when she is told she is to marry the rich and influential Sir Piers de Granfort.
Gilbert is poor, but they try to escape. These attempts all fail, to Eva's fury and despair, and she finally meets Sir Piers, who is not so old as she expected.
She also meets the lovely widow whose eldest son is named Piers, and who looks remarkably like Sir Piers.
What are they to one another? And why, if they are in love, do they not marry?
Taken to her new home Eva tries to solve these puzzles.
***
Highwayman's Hazard Page 14
