Sir Ashley's Mettlesome Match

by Mary Nichols

  ‘You have only postponed the decision.’ Her aunt turned from him back to her niece. ‘You heard Sir Felix, he is coming calling tomorrow.’

  ‘Much can happen in a few hours,’ she said, which made Ash look sharply at her and wonder what she was planning.

  When they arrived back at Windward House, Pippa said she was going to work on her book for a while before retiring. ‘I was stuck, but now I have suddenly thought of a way to go forwards,’ she said. ‘I must write it down while it is still fresh in my mind.’

  ‘And I shall retire,’ Augusta said.

  ‘In that case, I will go back to the dance,’ Ash said. He had noticed no activity on the beach as they drove up to the house, which had surprised him. Perhaps he had been wrong about there being an imminent landing. ‘It will allay Sir Felix’s suspicions about me. I shall tell him you have been put to bed with a strong sedative and are unlikely to wake again before morning.’

  He had no intention of going back to the Manor, but he could not go wandering about on the beach in his evening finery. Although he had, at the time, no idea how he would leave the dance, he had taken the precaution of putting his broadcloth suit, plain shirt and brown stockings in a bag and leaving it in the corner of the stable. He hurried to change, listening out for Joe, but that young lad was either down on the beach or asleep in his rooms.

  The ship he had seen was closer in and even as he watched he saw a lantern being swung to and fro and an answering light from the darkened ship. And suddenly from holes in the sand, behind dunes and out of the marshes figures began to appear. Carts rumbled down the only road to the beach, while out at sea two boats had been lowered and were pulling towards the shore. Ash concealed himself in one of the channels of water that ran down from the marshes and watched. He was not intent on apprehending anyone—he could not succeed without substantial help from the military—but looking for Nathaniel Kingslake. Unless he had misjudged her, Pippa would also be on that errand and she really had no comprehension of how dangerous that could be. He was there as much to protect her as for any other reason.

  He could hear voices coming close and ducked down lower into the water. ‘We gotta get him afore he gets us,’ one was saying. ‘According to Sir Felix, he’s fixed on hangin’ the lot on us. Tha’s why he’s at Windward House.’

  ‘I can’t mek that out,’ his companion said. They had stopped close to where Ash was hidden and seemed in no hurry to go forwards to the water’s edge as everyone else was doing. ‘Why would Miss Kingslake have him there, if that be the case? She wouldn’t betray us, would she?’

  ‘Who knows, but I reckon tha’s why Nat cut and run. He won’t come back while that cove live and breathe, but he hen’t got the stomach to do away with him.’ Ash was not sure, but he thought he recognised the blacksmith’s voice.

  ‘It’d save us a job if he did.’

  ‘Hev you ever, you know, done away with anyone afore?’

  ‘No, but I seen it done. Tha’s why I hatta do it now, if it mean my wife and little ’uns be safe. I got no choice.’

  Ash was wet and shivering and wished they would move away. He wanted to see what was going on down by the water’s edge. While he was pinned down where he was, he might miss Nat coming ashore. He risked taking a peep at them. They had their backs to him and were apparently watching what was going happening on the beach. One had a pistol in his hand, the other a heavy wooden stave. He moved carefully backwards, hoping to get out of the ditch behind them.

  He was almost out when he thought he saw Nat coming along the sand. Exposed as he was, he could not retreat and dare not go forwards. And then he realised it was not Nat, but Pippa in her brother’s clothes again. He held his breath.

  ‘There’s Nat,’ one of the men said, spotting her. ‘I didn’t see him get out o’ the boat.’

  ‘No more you did.’ This was accompanied by a laugh. ‘That ain’t Nat, that’s his sister. Miss Kingslake, go you on home,’ he called out. ‘This i’n’t no place for you.’

  She moved closer to them and Ash slid back into the ditch. The splash he made sounded loud in his ears. ‘I go where I please, John Bristow, you know that,’ she said. ‘I came to meet my brother. It is not safe for him to come home yet.’

  ‘Ah, you mean on account of that man you’ve got stayin’ with you.’

  ‘Yes. I must find Nat and warn him.’

  ‘Don’ you worry, miss,’ the second man said. ‘We’ll tek care on him for you.’

  ‘Nat? Have you see him? Where is he?’

  ‘Not Nat. He kin look arter hisself. The other.’ He held the gun up to show her. ‘I ain’t got this for show, you know.’

  She gasped and ran forwards. ‘No, no! Joseph Fletcher, how could you even think of doing such a thing? It’s wicked. You will hang for it.’

  ‘We stand to hang anyhow if we’re caught smuggling, you know that. Might as well hang for a sheep as a lamb.’

  ‘Give yourselves up, turn King’s evidence against those who give you your orders and you will be pardoned.’

  ‘Hev you any idea who give us our orders?’ John Bristow asked, laughing.

  ‘I believe it is Sir Felix.’

  ‘But ain’t you about to marry him?’

  ‘Not if I can extricate Nat and the rest of you first.’

  ‘And how do you propose to do that, eh?’ John Bristow asked.

  ‘Go home,’ Fletcher put in before she could answer. ‘Leave us to do what we have to do.’

  ‘No. I cannot let you.’ She stepped forwards and tried to take the gun from him.

  Ash could stand by no longer and scrambled from the ditch to fall on the man from behind. He was cold and shivering and not at full strength and there were two of them and more likely to come to help them if they shouted. It was lucky for him that silence was the order of the day during a landing and so they struggled for possession of the gun without speaking. Pippa was pushed to one side and fell in the sand. Her tricorne hat fell off and her hair cascaded about her shoulders.

  ‘If you fire that gun, you will have a platoon of dragoons down here in no time,’ Ash said, wishing he could go to Pippa, who was kneeling in the sand, sobbing.

  ‘The dragoons are on the other side of the bay,’ Bristow said and landed a blow to Ash’s ribs, which winded him for a moment. ‘Sir Felix ha’ seen to that.’

  ‘I do not think so,’ Ash was gasping for breath. ‘They were warned they were being sent on a wild goose chase.’

  ‘Traitor!’ Fletcher attempted to point the gun at Ash. ‘You deserve to die.’

  Pippa could not let that happen. She scrambled up and grabbed the barrel of the pistol and in doing so, it went off, luckily into the air. Immediately the men on the beach took it as the usual warning signal and set about concealing their goods and themselves. John Bristow and his companion jumped into the ditch in which Ash had been hiding and waded upstream as fast as they could. Ash ran to Pippa, who had flung the pistol down and subsided onto the sand. ‘Are you hurt?’ he asked, kneeling beside her.

  ‘No.’ She was shaking at the thought of what might have happened, but her fear manifested itself in anger. ‘Why did you have to come onto the beach? Couldn’t you have let well alone for once? The men have all disappeared just as they did before, and I still do not know where Nat is. And Sir Felix will come tomorrow and crow and… Oh, I could almost hate you for it.’

  ‘Almost?’ he queried with a quirky smile.

  She answered by kneeling up and pummelling his chest with her clenched fists, but he gave no sign that it was hurting. ‘You…you…’

  ‘Come, my dear,’ he said calmly, rising and holding out his hand to her. ‘Let me take you home before the dragoons come and arrest you for your brother.’

  She got to her feet without taking his hand. She knew that if she did, she would soften and for the moment she wanted to savour her anger and bitterness.

  ‘You know,’ he said, as he walked beside her. ‘It was a foolish thing to do to try
to take a gun from a desperate man. You could have been killed.’

  ‘And so could you. They were going to shoot you.’

  ‘I know.’ He paused, smiling in the darkness. ‘I was hiding in the ditch and listening to their plans for my demise. Sir Felix is prodigiously anxious to have me put out of the way.’

  ‘Of course he is. He knows you are one of the Piccadilly Gentleman and intent on putting an end to his smuggling game.’

  ‘How does he know? You did not tell him, did you?’

  ‘No, Mrs Thornley did. He told me so. I imagine he thought to surprise me. He said your one aim was to arrest Nat and he was the only one who could save him.’

  ‘Damn the woman. I beg your pardon,’ he added hastily. ‘No wonder he sent those men to dispatch me. You saved my life.’

  ‘Then we are quits,’ she said sharply.

  ‘Oh, there is more to it than that.’

  ‘Yes, not only your life. If you had seen Nat, would you have had him arrested?’

  ‘No. How could I? There must have been a hundred men on the beach, every one of them against me.’

  ‘Then why…?’

  ‘As soon as you pretended to faint I knew you were up to something and it was easy to guess what. I couldn’t let you go out alone, could I?’

  ‘Oh.’ They were approaching the house and heard horses being ridden along the road behind them. ‘There go the dragoons,’ she said. ‘And as usual, they will find an empty beach and no sign of contraband.’

  ‘Isn’t that what you wanted?’ He opened the door and ushered her inside, shutting it behind them. A small lamp glowed on a table, otherwise they were in darkness.

  ‘I don’t know what I want. My head is in such a muddle.’

  He followed her up the stairs. Outside her bedchamber door, he turned to take her shoulders in his hands. ‘Have you forgiven me?’ he asked softly.

  ‘What for?’

  ‘For spoiling your little adventure.’

  ‘Oh, I suppose so. No doubt you thought you were acting for the best, but Nat is still missing.’

  ‘Yes. Go to bed, Pippa, and try to sleep. We will discuss this again in the morning.’

  ‘And in the morning Sir Felix will come and I have no answer for him.’

  He took her face in his hands and tilted it up so that he could look at it. ‘Then you, my love, will be too ill to receive him.’ Then he gently lowered his mouth to hers.

  She did not struggle. She felt the warmth of his lips on hers and let it spread all over her body. She had no defence against this gentle onslaught. If he had carried her off to bed there and then, she would have made not a single protest. In spite of everything, in spite of what he was, who he was, she was in his thrall, a helpless mass of boneless flesh. A low moan in the base of her throat alerted him to what he was doing. He lifted his head, tilted hers downwards and kissed the top of her head. Then he gave her a little push towards her bedchamber door. ‘Go to bed, my red-haired witch, or I will not answer for the consequences.’

  Without speaking, she went into her room and shut the door behind her. Then she collapsed onto the bed, her emotions and brain so confused, she did not know what to think. Did he love her? Or was her red hair more compelling than she thought and she had unwittingly bewitched him? After all, he had called her his red-haired witch. That was nonsense, she told herself. He knew perfectly well what he was doing, he was a practised seducer, so he must have been trying to lull her into trusting him. The trouble was it had worked. While he was with her, talking to her, touching her, kissing her, being gentle and understanding, she trusted him implicitly. It was only after they parted that her brain took over and remembered his motives as a thieftaker and his reputation as a rake and she began to have doubts. She did not want to doubt him. Oh, what a mull she was in!

  In spite of being up half the night and his back and ribs aching, not only from his injury but the pummelling he had been given on the beach, Ash rose early next morning and walked into the village. He wanted to find out if anyone had been arrested the previous night and was shocked to discover John Bristow and Joseph Fletcher had been taken into custody and were being held in the Customs House until they could come before the magistrate. The Customs men on duty were the same two he had spoken to after the riot and they willingly answered his questions.

  ‘We were tipped off by Sir Felix’s coachman,’ one of them told him. ‘So we went to their homes and found contraband goods in their sheds. A barrel of Geneva and a quarter of tobacco in each. They swore they didn’t know how they got there.’

  ‘I am not surprised. I was with them last night and they were nowhere near the contraband. Someone wants them out of the way.’

  ‘We can’t let them go just because you say so.’

  ‘No, but will you let me talk to them?’

  He was shown into a tiny room, where the only light and air was through a grating high up in the wall. Fletcher was half-lying on a truckle bed against the wall, Bristow was sitting on a stool, his empty hands dangling between his knees ‘Come to crow, hev you?’ Bristow growled, when he saw who their visitor was.

  ‘Not at all. I know you didn’t take the spirits and tobacco off the beach last night. You would not have had time.’

  ‘No, so you had someone put them in our sheds.’

  ‘If I had it would have served you well, for you were bent on killing me, but I did not. Someone else wants you out of the way.’

  ‘Who?’ Fletcher queried. ‘Miss Kingslake?’

  ‘Good heavens, no! She would never do such a thing.’ He looked from one to the other. Both looked truculent. ‘You were sent on an errand last night and you failed to carry it out. This is your punishment.’

  ‘Sir Felix?’

  ‘Why not? You do not think he would hesitate to have you arrested and sent to the Assizes if you displeased him, do you?’ They still looked doubtful, but they were listening. ‘With you out of the way, he has no one to testify against him. Or so he thinks.’

  ‘You want us to turn ag’in our mates, do you?’ Bristow asked. ‘People may do that where you come from, but not round here, they don’t.’

  ‘Not against the other villagers. After all, in the dark, all cats are black. Would you know who was on the beach with you?’

  ‘Course I know them.’

  ‘Would you swear to it?’

  ‘No, what do you take us for?’ This from Fletcher.

  ‘I reckon I know what you’re drivin’ at,’ Bristow said. ‘’Tis only Sir Felix you’ve a grudge ag’in. It’s personal, i’n’t it?’

  Ash smiled wryly. ‘It was Sir Felix made it so, sending you after me.’ He banged on the door and one of the Customs men came to let him out. ‘You might like to think about why that should be and let me know what conclusion you reach.’

  He walked back to Windward House by way of the beach, but there was no evidence of any contraband, yet he knew in the next day or two it would have to be moved. If only Nathaniel Kingslake had come to him as he had said he would, he could organise troops and excise men to intercept it. Where was the man? Sir Felix would not have had him done away with while he hoped Pippa would agree to marry him. Pippa. Oh, how he loved every obstinate, loyal, contrary inch of her! And how he longed to tell her so. ‘Nat Kingslake, if you do not put in an appearance by this evening, I shall tell her anyway,’ he murmured. ‘We cannot go on like this.’

  He arrived back at Windward House at the same time as Sir Felix rolled up in his carriage, accompanied by Mrs Thornley. He growled a reluctant good morning to them and they went into the house together.

  Mrs Whitehouse hurried forwards to greet them. ‘Sir Felix, good morning.’

  Sir Felix gave her an elaborate bow. ‘Mrs Whitehouse, good day to you. You were not long at my little entertainment last night, so I do not think you met Mrs Thornley.’

  ‘No, how do you do? Won’t you come into the drawing room?’ She curtsied and led the way, followed by Ash.

  ‘How is
Miss Kingslake this morning?’ Sir Felix said. ‘Her sudden indisposition upset us all and quite put a damper on the evening. I hope she has recovered.’

  ‘She is still not herself,’ Augusta said, while Ash hoped Pippa would not choose that moment to appear. ‘I have advised her to stay in bed today.’

  ‘I am sorry to hear that.’ Sir Felix said. ‘I had hoped we could take her for a drive.’

  ‘Another day, perhaps.’

  ‘You did not return to the dance, Sir Ashley,’ Arabella said. ‘I expected you back in time to join us in the country dances at the end.’

  ‘I did not feel like dancing,’ he said curtly. ‘I went for a walk instead.’

  ‘Dangerous at night,’ Sir Felix commented. ‘You never know whom you might meet.’

  ‘That is true. I saw a great many people on the beach, but unfortunately, being alone, I could do nothing about them.’

  Sir Felix laughed. ‘No matter. Another time, eh?’

  ‘Ash, do watch your step,’ Arabella said. ‘I should hate it if you came to harm.’

  ‘Thank you for your timely warning,’ he said and bowed.

  ‘You would do better to finish your recuperation in your own home,’ Sir Felix added. ‘I fear the people here are all against you.’

  ‘Yes, do, Ash,’ Arabella said. ‘You can take me with you. I should like to visit Fairfields. You have told me so much about it.’

  ‘I am perfectly comfortable here.’

  ‘Miss Kingslake will marry me, you know,’ Sir Felix said. ‘We have so much in common and it is the wish of her brother.’

  Augusta gasped. ‘You have spoken to him?’

  ‘Of course. He is the head of the house, is he not?’

  ‘Where is he now?’

  ‘Best I do not know. I would not like to be obliged, as a magistrate, to have him taken into custody.’

  Arabella laughed. ‘He won’t come home while you are here, Ash. Miss Kingslake knows that, but she is too polite to ask you to leave. Why not save her the trouble?’

  ‘If Miss Kingslake requests me to go, I will go,’ Ash said slowly.