“There were lights,” Gus prompted.
“Yes, well. Your Mama, she went up to bed and was pulling the drapes and looked out towards the river. She saw all these little lights, bobbing about and she called out to me.”
“Mama, you must have been so scared,” Anna said, stroking the Countess’s hand.
“It was a little unsettling, but your Papa was with me, and I knew the soldiers were outside the house,” Lady Havering said.
“Yes, so I ran down to find the captain, to let him know what we had seen. He issued some orders. You arrived as we decided upon the final details. And now we must wait,” the Earl said.
Half an hour passed, slowly.
Gus paced from time to time, as did Duncan. Georgina chattered, trying to lighten the mood, but nobody was listening. Anna simply sat, in silence, her face pale and frightened. Gus moved to sit beside her.
“It will be all right,” he assured her.
“How can it be?” she said. “It is all my fault. I keep thinking it over and over again, Crispin was the only person who knew about the east wing being empty. It has to be him, and now he will be arrested, or worse, because of me.”
“No, Anna. He will be arrested because he has broken the law. None of this is your fault. All you ever wanted to do was to protect your family. You cannot be blamed for that.”
They all jumped as shots sounded in the distance.
“They must have found the smugglers,” the Earl said.
“Let us hope so,” Duncan said. “I am sure that we will look back upon this night as being terribly exciting, but right now I simply wish it was over.”
They all agreed with him, but said nothing. A door somewhere creaked. Anna almost leapt out of her skin. Gus placed a hand over hers, wishing he could do more to soothe her nerves.
“Do you hear that?” the Earl asked, cocking his head to the right.
“Hear what?” Duncan asked, moving to stand by the older man’s side. “Oh, my! Footsteps.”
“Someone has come into my house and is using the back stairs,” the Earl said.
“However, do you know which stairs they are using?” Georgina asked.
“Because all of the other stairs are carpeted,” Anna said, her voice flat.
“Where is the captain?” Duncan asked.
“Out with his men,” the Earl said.
“So, we must take matters into our own hands,” Gus said, leaping to his feet.
“Not so fast, young Smithwood,” the Earl said calmly. “You don’t just rush into something like this. We need to be calm and have a plan. There is another stairway, just off the study that will take us up to the attics. We can enter the east wing without our guests knowing a thing. But, we also need to ensure that we cut them off from the only way up that they know of.”
“But, there are only three of us,” Duncan said.
“There are four of us,” the Earl said. “Daniels was a soldier, and is still a crack shot.”
“Excuse me,” Georgina interrupted them. “There are six of us. Anna and I aren’t going to sit around waiting.”
“No, you are not,” all three men said together.
“You are going to go up to your mother’s rooms and lock yourselves in,” the Earl said to Anna.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Georgina protested.
“Georgie is right,” Anna said firmly. “We are both more than capable with a pistol, we will be more help to you here. And while we stand here arguing, the smugglers – if it is they who have just entered our home – are gaining valuable time on us.”
“Gus, I need you and Duncan to block off the stairs. Daniels and I will go up into the attics,” the Earl said. He looked at his daughter, and her best friend and sighed heavily. “Anna, you should come with me, Georgina, go with your brother.”
Anna crept up the stairs behind her father. Daniels was behind her. Her heart was pounding, and she could hardly breathe. Papa eased open the door to the attic slowly. It creaked a little, sounding far louder than it was in the tense atmosphere. They tip-toed through the main attic to the door to the east wing. Anna held her breath as Papa cautiously turned the handle and inched it slowly open. She could see four men, each one was bending down to lift one of the crates.
“Quiet,” one of them said as one of the men dragged a crate along the floor. “There’s militia everywhere, and the lights were still on down there. Anyone might hear us.”
Anna clasped her hand over her mouth, to stop herself from exclaiming out loud as she recognized Crispin’s cold voice.
“This is madness,” a burly looking man said. “We’ll never get out of here, we should wait.”
“Until when?” Crispin asked. “This rum has to be in London next week. If it is not, then we will all face the consequences.”
Papa moved out of the shadows, and looked Crispin up and down with a disdainful stare.
“And what consequences might they be?” he asked.
Crispin chuckled, the sound sent shivers of fear up Anna’s spine.
“Shoot him,” he ordered the burly man.
“I don’t think so,” Daniels said, moving into the light of the smugglers lanterns so that they could see he had pistols trained on Crispin and the burly stranger. Anna emerged, too, levelling her own pistol at one of the men behind them. The fourth man dropped his crate and ran down the stairwell. Anna heard a crash, and a grunt of pain and hoped that it was not one of her friends who had been hurt.
“So, it was you,” Anna said. “You used me, so you could use my home to smuggle rum.”
“Indeed, my dear. When you told me that this wing was never used it seemed the perfect hideaway. Nobody would ever dream of looking for smuggled liquor in Clifton,” Crispin said smugly.
“Did you ever mean to marry me?”
“Oh, indeed. I rather liked the idea of gaining a safe place to store goods where nobody would ever suspect. The trade is worth a fortune.”
“But, you already have a fortune,” she said, puzzled.
“Not until my majority, and Father and Duncan treat me like a fool. They do not give me enough to live on.”
Suddenly it all made sense to Anna – why he had wanted the estate that was her dowry.
“So you decided to become a criminal to augment your allowance,” Duncan said, as he and Gus appeared in the doorway behind Crispin and the other smugglers.
“Well, he can tell it all to your father,” Papa said, nodding to Gus. “And face the full force of the law.”
“Where is Georgie?” Anna asked anxiously.
Duncan laughed.
“She knocked out the smuggler that ran with the butt of her pistol, and then insisted that she be the one to go and fetch the militia. She will be back soon.”
Anna smiled, not surprised that her friend was showing such courage. She doubted that there was anything in the world that scared Georgina Smithwood.
Georgina appeared in the doorway just five minutes later, the captain of the militia hot on her heels.
“I do hope I didn’t miss anything,” she said, with a smile. Crispin glared at her. Duncan couldn’t help but admire her. She truly was rather spectacular.
In moments, Crispin and his smuggler friends were clapped in irons and led away. The house felt strangely quiet once the militia had marched back towards their barracks in Bristol.
Chapter Thirteen
“Father will not pay for a lawyer for him,” Duncan said quietly, to Georgina as they sat in a window seat, thinking over what had just occurred.
“I am sorry for him, then,” Georgina said thoughtfully. “Nobody should be abandoned by their family; however bad they may be. I would never desert mine – even if they were utterly evil.”
“I hope you mean that, because I intend to pay for a lawyer for him,” Duncan said.
“You are a good man, of course you will,” Georgina said, as if his revelation was not a surprise at all. “I am glad to see your loyalty, and your strength of character.”
“So, you can forgive me for loving my brother?”
“I can. I doubt that I would ever be able to love anyone in your family, but I understand that you do.”
“You could not love anyone at all in my family?” Duncan asked her, his eyes probing hers gently.
She blushed and dipped her head. “I suppose there might be one Crawford who might just squeeze his way into my heart,” she admitted, looking up at him through her impossibly long lashes.
“Georgina Smithwood, after everything we have gone through, after everything we have learned, can you truly say that love is not worth a few sacrifices? I know that you despise my family, but we do not have to live with them. We can simply visit only once a year if that would suit you. But, I know I love you, and I do not wish to live without you by my side, for even a moment longer. Will you please consent to be my wife?”
Georgina looked at him and grinned.
“I think that it is about time I swallowed my pride. I love you, more than anything in the world. Of course, I will be your wife. The sooner the better.”
Duncan could not resist any longer, he pulled her towards him and kissed her full raspberry-red lips.
“You will never regret it,” he assured her.
~~~~~
Gus stood anxiously in the drawing room.
“Sir, I know it is probably too soon, and that she may well reject me – but might I please have your permission to court your daughter?” he asked.
The Earl of Havering smiled. “I think that Anna will make up her own mind in that regard, don’t you?” he said. “She’s never needed my permission to do anything, though I do wish she had confided her plans with that toe-rag to her mother and me.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Gus said, shaking the Earl’s hand vigorously. “I shall go and find her now, immediately.”
“You can marry her if she wants to,” the Earl called, chuckling to himself as Gus crossed the hallway.
Anna was in the stableyard, looking sadly at the empty stalls, stroking an old saddle which was so worn that you could see bits of the coarse stuffing peeking out from the seams. She smiled as he approached her. She was so lovely, with her pale oval face, and her bright shock of auburn hair. He wanted to kiss every single one of the freckles upon her nose, and hold her so tightly and never let her.
His heart had been in his throat when he had entered the attic and seen her, a gun trained upon a man double her size, and more than a hundred times more dangerous.”
“So, we have uncovered the mystery, and now you are free once more?” he asked.
“I am. And my family is still poor, and my home is still falling down around me, and I still have no idea how to change that.”
“Anna, it is not your responsibility to fix those things,” Gus said tenderly.
“I know it is not, but I would if I could,” she said earnestly.
“You are the sweetest, kindest girl I have ever known,” Gus said. “You care so much about everyone, and always put yourself last. Will you ever let yourself be happy?”
“I would like to hope so,” Anna said. “But, that rather depends on you.”
“On me?” Gus said, surprised.
“I know that you may think it too soon, that you might want to wait until all of this business with Crispin is truly over, but Gus, I am not prepared to keep putting myself last. You may even think me forward and highly improper, but I am not in a position to worry about any of that right now.” She took a deep breath and looked him in the eyes. “I love you, and I think you care for me, even after what I have done to you, and so I need to know if there is any hope that you might want to, maybe, one day, marry me?”
Gus stared at Anna, open-mouthed. He had come here expecting to have to convince Anna that he would be a better match for her, that he would wait as long as it took for her. And, now, here she was, proposing marriage to him.
It was unorthodox, and such behaviour would probably have been deemed as too forward in a young woman by all of Society. But, it made him smile. His feisty, funny, clever friend had managed to surprise him yet again.
“Yes,” he said softly, moving to take her into his arms. “Yes, I would be delighted to marry you.”
Footsteps in the courtyard made them break apart, guilty smiles upon their faces. Duncan and Georgina were walking arm-in arm towards them.
“Oh, Anna, we have such good news,” Georgina cried as she ran to embrace Anna.
“Let me guess,” Anna said.
“You are finally going to marry Duncan,” Gus added.
Georgina’s face fell momentarily, then she beamed at them once more.
“Oh, I thought you would be surprised! But, well, I suppose it wasn’t entirely unexpected,” she admitted smiling up at her betrothed.
“Georgina,” Duncan said, as he moved to put an arm around her shoulders. “I think that we may not be the only ones with good news. These two broke apart very suddenly as we arrived.”
Anna blushed, and Gus looked down at his feet, scuffing his boots against the cobbles. “Well…” Gus said.
“I asked him to marry me,” Anna said.
“And of course he agreed,” Georgina said, clapping her hands with delight. “Oh, Anna, I knew everything would work out for us. And Gus has pots of money and can fix Havering House up for you in no time!”
Anna looked at Gus in surprise.
“You have pots of money? I had no idea.”
“I do. I just do not happen to brag about it. But let us not worry about that tonight. We should be celebrating.”
“Indeed. Hot chocolate, anyone?” Anna took the first few steps toward the house and the others followed.
Chapter Fourteen
The night of the Bonfire Ball had arrived and Anna was excited to be attending. Her plans had changed drastically, but for the better. When Gus had insisted on buying Anna a new dress, she had given in, and had Nan make her the most lovely dark teal velvet and silk gown. She felt like a queen when she put it on as she dressed for the Ball.
Gus arrived at Havering House to drive Anna and her parents to the Ball. Before he reached the front door, it opened, and Daniels greeted him warmly.
“Welcome to Havering House, sir. We have been expecting you.”
“Why, thank you, Daniels.” Gus followed him into the drawing room where the Earl and Countess sat with a cup of tea.
“Good evening, my Lord. My Lady. It is a pleasure to see you tonight. And a lovely night it is.”
“Wonderful to see you, too, Gus. As you can see, we decided on tea to pass the time. Care for a cup?”
The Earl was in a jolly mood now that the smugglers had been apprehended and their loot had been removed from his house.
“Pass the time, sir? We should be leaving soon for the Ball.” Gus looked confused, though the couple was indeed dressed for a night out.
“We have been waiting on Anna, but she seems to be delayed.” The Earl looked pointedly at his wife.
“I will go and see what is keeping—” Lady Havering stopped in mid-sentence when Anna entered the room. “My dear, Anna. You look lovely. The dress is stunning on you.”
Gus was momentarily speechless. His eyes were pinned to his betrothed and his feelings for her overflowed.
“You are the picture of beauty. I will be the luckiest man at the Bonfire Ball tonight. I am more than thrilled that the cheeky Guy Fawkes tried to kill the king with explosives. If he had not, I would not be spending this splendid evening with you on my arm.”
Anna’s parents chuckled and looked at each other with happiness and a bit of relief. Anna blushed deeply and could not hide her smile of pure joy.
“You flatter me, Gus. But I do love it. Now, we should be going, yes? I do not want to miss the part where they light the fire.”
“All right, then. Let us be on our way.”
The women went first and Daniels helped them into the carriage as the men followed. The drive was only a short distance and the group spoke bri
efly of the unseasonably warm weather for November and the coming charity event to be hosted by the church.
Once they arrived, the younger couple went to find their friends. Georgina and Duncan were waiting for them in the courtyard where the bonfire would soon be ablaze. The logs and kindling had been laid and all that remained was to set it on fire.
“I can hardly wait for the fire to start!” Anna clapped her hands lightly looking at Georgie with a big smile.
“I know, but I have no idea why you like that part so much.” Georgie smiled and shook her head in mock disapproval.
“When the small flame starts and it slowly moves all the way through the stack of logs it reminds me of falling in love.” Anna looked at Gus and smiled lovingly at him. “Do you see how it makes sense?”
“Well, um, no. Not really. You may need to explain.” Gus couldn’t take his eyes off of her and waited patiently for her answer.
“I am happy to share my thoughts on this to all three of you. The fuel is laid in place and all it needs is a spark to ignite. When the fire starts, it could burst into flames and burn hot right away. If that happens the heat will be intense but it will not last all night.” Anna stopped to take a breath as she looked at her friends.
“I believe I see what you are getting at, Anna.” Georgina piped up. “May I continue?”
“Of course. But you know I will correct you if you go in a different direction than my theory.”
“I am aware,” Georgie laughed. “Fast and intense heat may not always be best. If the fire starts slowly and builds up as time goes on, the wood will burn slower and last longer. The flames will continue well into the night until they are finally embers. The embers will stay warm until tomorrow. Am I on the right track, Anna?”
“You are, indeed, Georgie. So love is better when it starts slow and grows over time. That is the very way it will last a lifetime. Who agrees with me?”
“You are a clever man, Gus. You have chosen a woman who knows what life is all about.”
Duncan reached out to shake his hand in a formal gesture that was rooted in true friendship.
“You know, I think that this will be a night which we will all remember. Standing together in front of the fire, with the people who mean the most to us. This bonfire will be the best one ever. I am certain of it.”
Love in the Moonlight: A Regency Romance All Hallows' Eve Collection: 7 Delightful Regency Romance All Hallows' Eve Stories (Regency Collections Book 6) Page 33
