"No!" Louisa gasped aloud, startling the people who stood beside her. "It cannot be."
She took one step toward him, but he vanished.
And someone grabbed her shoulder from behind, pulling her away from the crowd. She twisted around to look, half-hoping, half-fearing...
It was not him, though. It was Mr. Bates. He wore a hooded domino, yet it was still easy to see who it was. His eyes burned through the eyeholes of his mask, and his grip on her was strong and angry.
Louisa longed to bash him on the head with her crook, but then she remembered she was meant to be Cassie, who had no idea about this plan. She put a look of confusion on her face and hoped her old skills at amateur theatricals had not left her.
"What is this?" she said softly, with a quiver of fear in her voice. She remembered to keep it pitched low and soft to disguise it. She made her shoulders shake beneath his hands. It should be easy to lull this thickheaded man into thinking he had a poor, weak female in his grasp. He was the sort who always underestimated women. "Who are you?"
"What, Miss Richards? You do not recognize me?" He sneered at her. "I suppose you thought you would never see me again."
"Mr. Bates?" she gasped. "Lord Royce told you never to come back here!"
"That scholar? He couldn't stop me, now, could he? Here I am." He laughed, a soft, humorless, chilling sound. Even Louisa, who had nothing to fear from him, shivered. "I see he has abandoned you to waltz with someone else. How ungallant."
"That is a friend of mine he is dancing with! And if you think..."
"Hush!" Mr. Bates squeezed her shoulder cruelly, and showed her a glimpse of a gleaming dagger hidden beneath his domino. "Stop chattering, woman. I do not have all night to stand here listening to you. Come along." He slid a hard arm around her waist, and tugged her along the short distance to the French doors leading to the terrace.
Louisa pretended to dig her heels in, while waving her crook in a signal to Lady Lettice and Sir Belvedere. "Where are you going? Do not do this, Mr. Bates, I beg you!"
"Be quiet!" he hissed, pulling her across the terrace and down the stone steps. "You will see soon enough."
Louisa feigned sobbing and protestations, but behind her mask she was secretly smiling. This was all turning out even better than she had hoped!
In all the excitement of her abduction, she quite forgot the Cavalier she had glimpsed so briefly in the ballroom.
Chapter 24
Mr. Bates pulled Louisa inexorably along the dark drive, leaving the lights and noise of the ball farther behind with every step. Louisa, though inwardly highly amused by the proceedings, did her very best to appear frightened and unsure. It was not hard to do; in her life, Louisa had been fond of amateur theatricals and had often acted in plays during house parties at Royce Castle. She was just happy to try the skill again.
In that vein, she gave a little whimper and said, "Why are you doing this? I do not understand! I thought we were friends."
His arm tightened on her waist as he half dragged, half carried her across the gravel. "Friends? A friend would have sold me the land. A friend would not have been so stubborn and unkind."
"Why do you need the land, anyway?" Louisa said, feigning confusion. "It is all I have left in Jamaica, while you possess so very much."
"So you think," he muttered.
"What do you mean?"
"Never mind. Just come along and quit chattering at me. There is the carriage just ahead."
The black, closed vehicle was half-hidden in the shadows at the edge of the drive, just outside the tall gates. A coachman, muffled in a dark cloak and a hat pulled low over his brow, sat on the box.
As they moved closer, the door opened, and Mr. Bates' cousin stuck his head out. "There you are at last! I thought I was going to have to come fetch you. Did you stop to indulge in some of the champagne?" He snickered.
"Very funny indeed. Our little guest here was late coming to the party." Mr. Bates lifted her off her feet and pushed her toward the carriage door.
As he did so, a voice called, "Here! What do you think you're doing?"
Louisa looked over Mr. Bates' shoulder to see a footman running down the drive in their direction. Oh, how tiresome, she thought. A rescue attempt would simply ruin everything.
Apparently, Mr. Bates felt the same way. He stuffed her unceremoniously into the carriage, causing her to lose her crook, and climbed in after her. "Drive, blast it!" he shouted at the coachman, and they took off down the lane with a jarring lurch.
Louisa landed atop Mr. Morland, who set her aright with more wandering hands and leering glances than the act strictly required.
Louisa snatched the bonnet off her head and glared at him from behind her mask. He just smirked back at her. She slid into the corner, as far away from him as she could get. Really, he was even more unpleasant than his cabbage-headed cousin.
"So, now that you have me here, what are you going to do with me?" she asked, smoothing her disarranged skirts.
"We are going to Gretna Green, my dear Miss Richards, where we will be married," Mr. Bates answered.
Admittedly, Louisa's geography was a bit rusty, but... "Isn't that rather far away?"
"You will be so hopelessly compromised by the time we reach there, that you will be glad to marry me," he said. He was obviously trying for an air of confidence, but Louisa sensed the uncertainty in him.
Really, she thought, it was just too easy. If he had succeeded in making off with the real Cassie, there would have been a thousand opportunities for her to escape between here and Scotland. This was not a very well-thought-out plan on Mr. Bates' part.
If there was anything worse than a villain, in Louisa's estimation, it was a stupid villain. It was just a good thing that soon he would be gone from England forever, and would bother no one with his nuisances again.
Except for the poor people of Jamaica, of course.
Louisa peered out the window, wondering idly when Sir Belvedere and Lady Lettice were going to make their appearances. Suddenly, much to her shock, Mr. Bates grabbed her arm and pulled her onto his lap.
"What are you doing?" she screamed as his wet lips found her bare neck. "Let go of me at once!"
"We might as well start the compromising now," he said, reaching for her skirt while his cousin laughed. "Just in case you have any idea of leaving us soon."
Louisa beat him over the head and shoulders with her bonnet. "Release me, you ridiculous looby!"
"Not just yet," he answered.
Absolutely furious, Louisa squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated very, very hard on her hair, and then on her entire body. Gradually, she felt the faint tingling sensation that meant she was moving from her temporary solid form back to her usual insubstantial state.
When Mr. Bates reached one of his meaty hands to her breast, he found no warm, yielding flesh. Only cold air.
He fell forward, his face turning from scarlet with lust to chalk-white with fear. His mouth opened, but no sound emerged. He just sat there, frozen, staring at her.
Mr. Morland edged back along the seat. "What is happening?"
Louisa took off her mask, sending her now-blond curls tumbling about her shoulders, and turned to look at him.
He gasped for air. "You—you are not Miss Richards!"
"Of course I am not. You stupid men snatched the wrong woman. My name is Louisa, but you may call me Lady Royce. You can find my actual self in the family crypt at St. Anne's Church, but I occasionally come back to pay calls on very special people. Like yourselves."
"As do I," said Lady Lettice, appearing on the seat next to Mr. Morland. "How do you do? I am Lady Lettice Leighton. And that is Angelo down there, beneath the seat. The one who is tying your ankles together."
Mr. Morland looked down, and saw that small hands were indeed busily engaged in tying his ankles. A wizened little face peeked up at him.
"Hello!" Angelo said merrily.
Mr. Morland screamed and fumbled at the door latch. "Sto
p the carriage right now! This moment!"
"Certainly, sir," Sir Belvedere's voice answered. "Your order is my command."
The carriage ground to a halt, and Mr. Morland finally got the door open and fell out onto the road. He pulled his still-speechless cousin with him, and the two of them ran as fast as they could into the darkness at the side of the road. Mr. Morland was forced to hop rather than strictly run, thanks to Angelo, but he was very fast nonetheless.
It was just as Louisa, Lady Lettice, and Sir Belvedere had planned.
Louisa laughed and laughed as she watched them fade away, the underbrush rustling until finally there was only silence. "Oh, I did enjoy that!" she said happily. "It was over much too quickly, though."
"Are you quite all right?" Lady Lettice asked. "We followed as quickly as we could, but we were not certain which direction you went in."
"I am perfectly well, even though that idiot tried to compromise me." Louisa put her head out to see Sir Belvedere sitting atop the box. "What happened to the coachman, Sir Belvedere?"
"Oh, we set him down about a mile past. He is sure to be at the village by now. He was so foxed I am sure he thought we were a hallucination. I am becoming an excellent driver, don't you think?"
"Superb," said Lady Lettice. "But if we sit about here all night, we shall miss the entire ball. I want to dance at least once."
"And so do I!" Louisa agreed heartily. She looked out the window as Sir Belvedere turned the carriage and set off toward the castle. "You do not think they will try to come back, do you?"
"Of course not. Didn't you see their expressions? They were frightened out of their wits. What little wits they possess, that is." Lady Lettice lifted up the little mirror at her belt and examined her coiffure. "I think, my dear Louisa, that we should resolidify before we reach the castle, if we want to dance without frightening all the guests."
* * *
"Forgive me, my lord, but I must speak with you," a footman said in a breathless voice, as if he had just run a great distance.
Phillip and Cassie were talking to Lady Royce, but their conversation ceased at this quiet interruption.
"Of course," said Phillip. "Is there some sort of trouble?"
"Trouble?" Cassie echoed. The only "trouble" she could think of was Mr. Bates. Could he have returned to ruin the ball?
"I think—I fear a lady may have been abducted," the footman gasped. "I saw her being carried away from the ball, down the drive. She dropped this before the man put her in a carriage, and they drove away." He held up a shepherd's crook, trimmed in now-bedraggled blue and yellow ribbons.
"That is my crook!" Cassie cried.
Phillip looked down at her, puzzled. "Your crook, my dear?"
"The one that went with my other costume. The costume I thought I saw someone wearing earlier." She turned to the footman. "Was the lady wearing a blue-and-yellow shepherdess gown?"
He shrugged helplessly. "I fear it was too dark to be sure, Miss Richards. She was wearing a light-colored bonnet."
"And the man with her?" Phillip asked.
"He was wearing a sort of hooded cloak, my lord. But I think there may have been two men there."
"Two men?" Cassie caught at Phillip's arm. "Mr. Bates and Mr. Morland, it has to be! They have come back."
"Why would you think that?" Phillip asked quietly. "Have you heard something from them?"
Cassie shook her head. "Not at all. But it sounds exactly like something they would do. Mr. Bates was not at all happy to be thwarted in the matter of my land. Oh, poor Louisa!"
"Louisa?" Aunt Chat said, coming up to their small group just in time to hear these last words. "Has something happened to Louisa?"
"I saw someone earlier, walking about dressed in my shepherdess costume," Cassie explained. "I am sure it was her. She left me this gown and took mine. Now Mr. Bates has snatched her, thinking it was me."
"How terrible!" Lady Royce said. "What if he does her harm?"
"Mother, Cassandra," said Phillip. "I do not wish to appear unconcerned about your friend, but how exactly can Mr. Bates hurt her? She is, er, no longer alive."
"I still do not like this," Cassie murmured.
"Let us go find them," said Phillip. "I'm not certain how long they have been gone, but they can't have gone far. I don't imagine Mr. Bates will care to keep traveling when he realizes his mistake! But I do not like the idea of Mr. Bates coming back to the castle to hurt you." His expression darkened. "I do not like it at all."
Cassie couldn't help a small shiver at the thought of being carried off by Mr. Bates. If Louisa had in fact taken her place, she owed her a great debt of gratitude. "Shall we go look for them, then?"
Phillip nodded. "Very well, but we will not go far. Mother, you and Lady Willowby stay here and make certain the ball goes on smoothly."
Lady Royce nodded. "What about your—important announcement?"
"We will make it when we return, with Louisa safely in tow."
So it was that Phillip, Cassie, and Antoinette set off down the drive, still clad in their costumes and armed only with torches and Antoinette's ankh-topped staff. But they did not have to go a great distance. A black, closed carriage, drawn by a coachman in clattering armor, turned in the gates just as they reached the end of the drive.
"Good eve to you!" Sir Belvedere cried, drawing up on the reins.
Louisa and Lady Lettice appeared at the window. "What are you all doing out here?" Lady Lettice said. "Is the ball over already?"
"Oh, it cannot be!" Louisa complained. "I have not had one dance yet."
"Are you all right, Louisa?" Cassie cried, running up to the carriage, her blue satin skirts held up above the gravel and dust. "Was it Mr. Bates who took you away?"
"Indeed it was," Louisa said. She opened the carriage door and stepped down onto the drive, shaking out her gown. "The cabbage-head. He tried to take some most indecent liberties." Then she laughed merrily. "Oh, but you should have seen his face when I revealed my identity! I do not think we will ever see him or his odious cousin again."
"Liberties?" Cassie said, dismayed. "Louisa! How terrible. I am so sorry."
Louisa gave her a puzzled look. "Why are you sorry, Cassie? You did not kidnap me."
"But I was the one he meant to take. If not for me, you would not have been put in such an unpleasant position."
Louisa shrugged. "What could he do to me? I am already dead! We were just happy there was something we could do for you, after all your kindness to us. Besides, it was vastly amusing."
Phillip stepped up to her and gave her a deep bow. "I can never thank you enough, my lady," he said softly, seriously. "I owe you a great debt of gratitude for saving the woman I love."
Louisa looked at him steadily. "I fear I always thought you were rather stuffy. Even as a child, you were so solitary, so intent on your purpose—like my husband. But now I know what a true and gallant heart you have. I am very sorry for all the silly tricks we have played on you over the years, like spilling your ink and disarranging your papers."
"And I, too, apologize, my lord," Sir Belvedere said, climbing down from the carriage box.
"I have nothing to apologize for," Lady Lettice said. "Do you, Angelo?"
"Not I!" Angelo's voice piped from the depths of the carriage.
"Then we should go back to the ball, before it is all over and done with," said Lady Lettice.
"I quite agree," answered Phillip. Then he put his arm around Cassie and smiled down at her. "We have a very important announcement to make."
Chapter 25
Phillip stood in the center of a group of well-wishers, watching across the room as Cassie was enveloped and carried away by just another such group. Her cheeks were flushed and glowing from the excitement of the evening and the emotion of the announcement of their betrothal, and her eyes were shining like dark stars. She laughed at something Mr. Lewisham said to her, and the sweet sound seemed to hover over the chatter like a silvery cloud.
What a
fortunate man he was, he thought, as all the crowd and noise seemed to fade away, leaving only her in his sight and senses. Only weeks before, he had been so solitary, concerned only with his work. Now a whole new life stretched out before him, beckoning him down a new road. A road of love and marriage, a place in a community, and, one day, a family. Children with Cassie's sparkling brown eyes and mischievous ways.
He was not certain he was exactly prepared for it, but he was looking forward to it. Very much.
"Congratulations, Lord Royce," someone beside him said. "You are so fortunate to have gained the hand of such a fine lady."
Peter looked over to see Sir Belvedere standing there in his armor. "Thank you," he said. "She is indeed a very fine lady."
"She rather reminds me of—of someone I knew once, long ago," Sir Belvedere said.
They both watched for a moment as Cassie moved through the crowd, with Antoinette on one side of her and Lady Lettice on the other. Angelo trailed behind them, holding a bowl of marzipan candies in his hands and smiling down at them blissfully.
"I also wanted to thank you again for your actions tonight," Phillip said. "You and Louisa and Lady Lettice. It was very brave of you."
If Sir Belvedere had had the capability, Phillip was certain he would have blushed. As it was, he shuffled a bit in his armor, causing a great racket. " 'Twas nothing at all, my lord. Why, what could such a knave as Mr. Bates do to us!" He lowered his voice and said confidentially, "We are already dead, y'know."
"I know. That does not make it any less brave. When Louisa allowed herself to be carried off in Cassandra's place, she saved her a great deal of fear and pain. I will always be grateful for that."
"I know Louisa did not mind doing it at all. Truth to tell, I think she found it rather exciting."
"I do wish you had let me know what was going to happen. I could have assisted you."
Sir Belvedere shook his head. "We did not want to trouble you, my lord. Especially on such an important night as this, with the announcement of your betrothal."
"Nevertheless..." Phillip was interrupted when his mother announced the last dance before supper, the "Sir Roger de Coverley," which Phillip was meant to lead off with his new fiancée. Sir Belvedere melted into the crowd, and Phillip went to claim Cassie for the dance.
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