“Lock her in; and give her time to contemplate that you will test her” said de Vries.
Sir Richard nodded; and seized Jane’s left hand, withdrawing a needle pinned to his lapel.
He pushed it a little way under her middle fingernail.
Jane cried out; the pain was considerable.
“It can go a lot further than that,” said Sir Richard, “and it will. Because in an hour I shall come back and test whether you still tell the same story. And if you wish to change it either speak now, or the minute I return; because that wasn’t even starting.”
“I don’t understand,” Jane nursed the abused hand, “how can I change what I have told you? You asked questions and I have answered them. Do you want me to lie?”
“I just want to make sure that you do not, you little gabbster” said Sir Richard.
He and de Vries exited the room and she heard the lock turn and Sir Richard’s peremptory command to the coachman to keep guard.
Jane heaved a sigh of relief; that bought more time.
And then she might, on their return, spin some fictional tale and let them realise it was fictional with false details; and then sob that she did not want them to hurt her so had made up another story as they seemed to want one. They would still hurt her but the longer she spent talking rubbish the less time they would have to hurt her before Caleb arrived.
And besides she would also spend the time seeing if she might escape.
The window opened inwards; but when she opened the casement she found that the poor quality glass in the narrow leads concealed bars. They had already thought of that.
She turned her attention to the chimney; they would never suspect a lady of quality trying to climb a chimney. In truth, Jane was not too sanguine about her chances of succeeding herself; but where needs must she might make some shift to try. The trouble was, deciding which flue to take if she did get up the chimney; coming down ignominiously in a pile of soot in the room where her enemies were would not be a good idea. And when they returned to this room they would see a soot fall and guess; and a fire lit under her would be as bad as any other torture. Jane sighed; she must pin all her hopes on Caleb; but then Caleb was a man on whom one might pin one’s hopes.
And Caleb might be helped by having some clew to follow like the thread of Ariadne….
Chapter 31
Caleb, Will, Jackie, Daniel and Fowler were ruffianly looking enough to frighten any villain, as Miss Bates said with half admiration and half trepidation.
“Are you sure your arm will take not hurt, Mr Armitage?” she asked anxiously.
“Miss Bates, if I knew it would cost me the use of it for the rest of my life you know I must still go to rescue Mrs Jane” said Caleb gruffly.
“You DEAR man!” said Miss Bates. “I have my salves if we are ready.”
“Beg pardon ma’am? I was not expecting you to be coming…..”
“And who else will see to my dear Jane if I do not come?” said Miss Bates, “she may need a woman’s hand; you and she might very well be smelling of April and May but there are some things that are not seemly. I shall not get in the way.”
“Why Miss Bates, I believe I see where Jane gets her indomitable spirit!” cried Caleb in admiration. “You will do well though to stay back; we shall not be playing a gentlemanly game of cricket.”
“Mr Armitage, if you plan to save parliament the price of rope by killing them not saving them to be hanged I shall not grieve; these monsters are ready to harm poor helpless women!”
“Ar, and half-women too like Mr Churchill was” Fowler muttered, fortunately too low for Miss Bates to hear.
Caleb agreed with Fowler; he strongly suspected that the villains would find that Jane was a far less helpless proposition than her husband!
The drive was not accomplished as fast as the berlin and its two fine horses might have managed; but it was done with as much despatch as the driver was able to manage for the promise of gold if he might do so. The horse, poor creature, was sweating profusely; but it might rest once they got to ‘The Spaniard Inn’; where the Jarvis would rub it down and see it fed.
Miss Bates was to wait in the Hackney until called; the three soldiers and Caleb stood as though arguing about something, and pointing much at the tollbooth built on the other side of the road, a gate barring any further progress north without payment of the required toll.
Will walked around the inn towards the back, supposedly to relieve himself and came back ginning.
“Single blue strand o’ wool danglin’ from a winder” he said; and proceeded to describe in detail where the window was and exactly how far along the back of the inn, and up on the second floor under the eaves.
Caleb grinned. She would not have got away with using the whole muffler again; his clever Jane.
They walked into the tap room; still apparently quarrelling.
It did not take much in the way of contentious comments about Government and taxation – leading from tolls to the Corn Laws – with one supposed apologist for the government, before a full scale brawl was in progress with other interested parties joining in. Dealing with incidental locals was going to be something that needed to be done first and hard fists and the butts of pistols soon saw these possible reinforcements laid low, while Caleb went up to mine host, smiled, put his pistol to the man’s ribs and required him to turn around.
A heavy pewter tankard knocked scientifically against his head ensured that the man lost all further interest in the proceedings; and Caleb tied him up expertly. The soldiers, having subdued the half dozen or so locals, kicked, dragged or persuaded them to sit in a circle, and proceeded to cross their hands behind them to tie in a ring one hand to the hand of the fellow next to him. It had been a method they had used to deal with French prisoners requiring a minimum of twine to keep a relatively large number of prisoners immobilised.
They were then ready to proceed upstairs.
And there would be little notice taken of a bar room brawl in so rowdy an inn.
“Beg pardon I’m sure, ma’am” said Caleb, lifting his beaver to the almost naked prostitute whose door he had just kicked in.
“Strewth! Charmed I’m sure” said the lightskirt half ironically, wriggling provocatively as a matter of course.
“And sorry about this too, ma’am” said Caleb, whipping the key from her side of the lock, pulling the door too and locking it.
He hastened away; the language was indescribable. He had a grim look on his face; this, the second floor, was where Jane was apparently held; and seemed to be given over to prostitutes. They had ignored the first floor as well as the ground floor to get Jane out first; and hope that she had not been taken to some other chamber. Well, he had miscounted; and yet….. there was no other room further along…..
Caleb peered at the panelled wall at the end of this passage; and pounced on what appeared to be a knothole.
There was a click of a latch; and then the concealed door swung open, revealing a villainous looking fellow in the livery of a coachman standing outside another door. He went for a pistol; and Caleb shot him without compunction., thrusting the discharged weapon back in his belt and pulling the second as he turned the key, still in the lock, and kicked the door in.
“Good morning Mr Armitage; I am afraid I cannot offer you any refreshment” said Jane.
Her face was white and strained; and much bruised; and Caleb jerked her into his arms.
“Oh yes you can” he said and kissed her hard.
Jane had never been kissed like this, with this longing need and passion; and her legs felt quite weak as she surrendered to the embrace of her wonderful Caleb who had no sense of propriety at all to kiss a widow with quite such ruthless abandon.
And since he was irredeemably abandoned in any case, Jane kissed him back with equal fervour since he had plainly run mad and one should always humour a madman.
He lifted his lips from hers.
“Jane-girl, they have hurt you….WHERE E
LSE?” he demanded terribly.
“Only a demonstration with a needle under one nail,” said Jane in a whisper, “you are come in the nick of time; I have heard a church clock strike the quarters from somewhere; and I was to be left an hour to contemplate. Oh Caleb! I fear I am close to swooning!”
“Here, Jane-girl, you can’t do that yet awhile,” said Caleb firmly, “you keep behind me, see; and we’ll take in the precious villain what took you – Sir Richard Malodorous as I do believe.”
“Yes; and oh Caleb! I believe that he may be Sparkler Jack; for knowing this inn near Hampstead Heath; I recalled why it was familiar, because of the highwayman attack.”
“Yes and that tallies with what an informant has told me too” said Caleb “And what’s more I am hoping to find some of the baubles here that may even convict him of that; I want that …..man……to go to bed with a hempen collar!”
“De Vries is here too” said Jane.
“Is he begawd!” said Caleb, “well he ain’t stirred out since the robbery on the heath…. And I must say, with losing you I weren’t about to be ready for reports if they’d come in of him stirring today; so there’s a good chance of finding all that got took. And if I’m not mistook that’s them a-comin’ t’see why a shot was fired.”
Sir Richard was in the fore and De Vries’s voice was to be heard behind him yelling hysterically, “If dot dombo coachman of yours has shot the wench he vill be in trouble isn’t it!”
Sir Richard came face to face with Caleb as he came round the top of the stairs.
“Mornin’,” said Caleb, “I am an officer of the law and you are under arrest. Are y’comin’ quiet-like or do I get the pleasure of hurting you?”
Sir Richard recovered quickly.
“Why – what can you mean?” he said, “an officer of the law? Why should you arrest me? I have committed no crime. I am Sir Richard Marjoram; you are making a big mistake my man.”
“Well abduction in itself may not be a crime, cully, but torture now, that’s a different matter” said Caleb “’Old out yer fambles; I got darbies yere for them.”
“Why, a hysterical woman of good family but hardly high degree is scarcely going to have her word believed over mine,” said Sir Richard, “now do yourself a favour, fellow, and accept a gift to make it worth your while to just forget this nonsense.”
He reached towards a pocket.
“Sparkler Jack is going for a pistol!” shouted Jane from behind Caleb.
The shock of the use of his soubriquet made Sir Richard freeze momentarily; and in a stride Caleb was beside him, kicking his feet out from under him so he fell down the steep, narrow stair, taking the Dutchman with him.
“Take them, lads!” shouted Caleb.
There were brief sounds of a scuffle and a yell from Jackie
“Gottem!”
“Good; tie them securely then search their rooms thoroughly. Daniel, fetch in Miss Bates and see about making tea for her and Mrs Jane” Caleb called back, turning just in time to catch Jane as she swayed and would have fallen had not his strong arms been there to catch her.
Chapter 32
Jane came to with the awful smell of burning feathers in her nostrils; Miss Bates’ kind, anxious face swam into her vision, waving the smouldering feathers.
“Oh Aunt Hetty!” whispered Jane, “Caleb did not bring you surely?”
“Only after I insisted that he did so, my dear Jane,” said Miss Bates, “now if you feel ready to sit up there is a cup of tea here for you; the tea is stale but Daniel at least knows how to make a tolerable brew.”
Jane sat up – no easy task for the sofa on which she found herself was an overstuffed thing of too many curves that appeared to attempt to frustrate any move save rolling off it – and took the cup of tea that Miss Bates held out to her.
“They are taken then?” she said. “Is Caleb certain he can get a conviction?”
Caleb’s own cheerful voice answered her.
“I am now I am able to make deposition that I found the baubles that bridle-cull prigged last Sunday in the room which also has items in it provable to belong to Sir Richard Marjoram; and his change of duds in which he plays at being on the High Toby. You knocked him all of a piece calling out about him being Sparkler Jack; I had been going to shoot him and deprive the nubbing-cheat of some ripe fruit. But that will be a fine prize award to you for Sparkler Jack as well as De Vries. And I’ll get my reward too; he sang like a canary. I only had to hint that Frank had already informed and that you were a furious virago out for revenge and that you knew his doxy – I presume he must have one – and he caved in, cursing and blaming the Dutchman for bringing in Frank in the first place. It turns out that someone Sir Richard robbed had vowels from Frank, among others, in with his money; and De Vries hit on the idea of using forged provenance just as you guessed to pass off jewellery changed enough to disguise it. There should be a nice haul of the same, partly broken up, at his workshop; which is where I shall be going next. It’s done, Jane-girl; no more danger! And you have found out who killed Frank; you wanted to do that, didn’t you?”
Jane nodded and she laid aside the tea cup.
“I did,” she said, “oh! Does it always feel so flat when you have succeeded?”
Caleb came and knelt by the sofa and took her hands. Miss Bates tiptoed tactfully out of the room to leave them together.
“Jane, Jane! It only feels flat because you have swooned!” he said, “tomorrow you will be elated!”
“No I shall not” said Jane sadly “For you have no more excuse to stay with us.”
Caleb paled slightly.
“No, Mrs Churchill, I do not; and now of course what happens depends on whether you will receive a low creature like me socially or whether the excitement of the chase has brought about feelings you prefer to forget and all who are associated with it” he said.
“If you mean to abandon me without coming to court me properly when the time is right after kissing me so hard upstairs, Caleb Armitage, then you are nothing but a flirt!” said Jane.
Caleb grinned.
“Why Mrs Churchill, if it is your wish, then I shall most certainly visit you…..every day if my duty permits. But I shall remove from your house so that nobody might say anything improper is afoot. And you and Miss Bates shall visit my more humble abode, that Sir Henry Wilton arranged for me; nothin’ fancy you know, but snug.”
“Why if it is not too snug to rear children in then I fancy it may do well enough,” said Jane, “and you must take Simmy into your home right away!”
“Yes, bless the brat; he found us the one beggar in all London Town as knew where Sir Richard was a-takin’ you; and that he stables a horse there that some might say was similar to the one Sparkler Jack rides. So I had my information too. How did you come by the conclusion?”
“I fear merely by that uncertain route of female intuition,” said Jane, “for he is known to have excellent horses and to ride and drive; and to visit this inn that was famous for having once harboured Dick Turpin; which is close by Hampstead Heath where Sparkler Jack was known to operate. That a horseman should be associated with jewellery thieves made a connection in my thoughts and I took a leap of faith in the matter. That is all.”
“Well it is to my mind an astute assimilation of what little we knew – and a good working guess,” said Caleb, “and on that information I’d have felt safe to raid this inn I have to say, even if I might not arrest Sir Richard or search his town house. Which now I might do” he added in satisfaction. “And take this precious pair to lie right-and-tight in the lock up; and once it is known that they are caught, then their confederates might be induced to talk to get transportation instead of hanging” he grinned suddenly, a savage grin, “and the queer-cuffin – magistrate to you, Mrs Churchill! – might have been unwilling to give credence to arraigning a noble knight without the overwhelming evidence we have here; but once one of their own class turn bad, they get might peevy about it. There’ll be no mercy fo
r Sir Richard; and as he’s entitled to a jury of his peers, he won’t be able to browbeat no low class types with his rank neither” he winked at her “They’ll only be impressed, and not favourably either, at how rank he is!”
“Oh Caleb you are so very handy with words!” said Jane. “And I should put aside my mourning and marry you tomorrow but for one thing.”
“Indeed; you must not do Frank’s brat out of his property if it is a boy,” said Caleb, “and I support you in that with all my heart; and I shall fight for my stepson’s rights too.”
Jane gave a sigh of contentment.
This time she had made a good choice in a future husband!
She put up her mouth for a kiss; and Caleb obliged her with a heady and passionate embrace that almost caused Jane to swoon again from the sheer excess of emotion and anticipation of what was yet to come!
179
Death of a Fop (Bow Street Consultant series Book 1) Page 21
