by Jo Beverley
Chastity gave him a wide smile and ran out the door. A coach stood in the yard, about to pull out, but presented no sign of trouble for her. She sauntered over to the stables.
As soon as she entered, she was grabbed from behind. A hand covered her mouth, and another grabbed her crotch. It jerked away as if stung and she was released. She wanted to run but knew her only chance was to face them.
“What the hell…?” she shouted, whirling around.
The two skinny men looked uneasily at one another. They were both complete strangers, thank heavens.
“Sorry, lad. We’re on the lookout for a young lady, run away from home. Thought you was her.”
Chastity took a wide-legged stance, hands on hips, trying to look like a cocky stable lad. “A young lady? Plague take it, do I look like a young lady?”
“No, lad. And keep your voice down. You’ll scare the young miss off.”‘
Chastity looked them over. “I’m not sure you’re up to any good.” She picked a horse at random and tried to look purposeful by topping up its hay and water bucket. Her heart raced with fear. Thank God she’d padded her breeches. Yesterday, they would have had her. It was so hard not to hurry. Eventually, she strolled back and passed the two men with a sullen, suspicious look, then continued into the busy inn yard. She had no idea what to do now, but knew she had to stay clear of Cyn. She headed for the street.
It was a little quieter than it had been earlier, for many people were at their dinner. She felt more exposed. Where could she go? The church. She headed toward the spire, trying to match the pace of the other people on the pavement, stopping occasionally to glance in a shop window and check for pursuit. She was looking blankly at a selection of china when a hand grabbed her neckcloth.
“God damn you to hell. I didn’t believe it when Father told me!”
Reflected in the window, Chastity saw her brother, Fort.
Chapter 13
Her cravat was pulled so tight that Chastity could hardly breathe, but then Fort clearly decided not to cause a scene and released his hold. She had no chance to escape, for he grabbed her arm in a brutal grip. “Come on.”
Chastity thought of resisting, of seeking help from the curious onlookers, but knew it was pointless. Fort would tell any intervener that it was a case of a runaway schoolboy or servant, and they’d believe him.
She glanced around for Cyn, but then forced herself to put the idea out of her head. For Verity’s sake she must keep her family in ignorance of the plan and Cyn’s involvement. Even though she felt sick at the thought of facing her father, she allowed her brother to tow her along Maidenhead’s high street.
She glanced at Fort, wondering if it would be possible to turn him to their side. He was furious at the moment, but she had to admit that any right-minded brother would be furious to find his sister wandering England dressed as a groom. Was there any chance of convincing him that their father’s plans for Verity were wrong?
She remembered the Fort of the night before when he’d been kind after his fashion; and the elder brother who’d generally been indulgent. She stopped dragging against his hold and he relaxed it a little.
When they turned into a side street, she asked, “Where are you taking me?”
“Father’s hired a house here.”
That made her pull away, and she almost broke free. He cursed and seized her.
“Fort, please let me go!”
“Why the devil would I do that? To let you play the harlot with some man? I can think of no other reason for you to be traipsing around the country in such a guise.”
Chastity almost protested that it was a lie; she was accustomed to knowing that the accusations against her were false. But last night she had played the harlot for a man.
“I’ll go straight back to Nana’s,” she promised desperately.
“You certainly will. Father will see to it, unless he has a stricter confinement in mind.” He dragged her onward and she had to go.
“Fort, I’m ruined! What purpose is there in keeping me close? Let me go to perdition my own way!”
He grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “You’ve already made our name a byword! Am I to let you loose to do your worst? I’ll see you dead first!”
He hauled her down another street and through an arch into a little close. Four quiet houses opened onto the tiny square, with something deserted about all of them. In fact, this enclave seemed set apart from the world. Anything could happen here undetected.
Chastity shuddered and pulled back. “Fort, no. You don’t know what Father can be like!”
“Don’t I, by gad? I hope to hell he does whip you, and thoroughly too!”
Fort forced her to a black-lacquered door and rapped. Chastity gave up hope when it was opened by George Lindle.
This man was officially her father’s secretary, but a quiet clerk did the actual paperwork. Lindle was more of a henchman, a bully-boy, though a suave and elegant one. His round, shining face broke into a wide smile. “Praise be,” he declared. “We have one lamb safe.”
Chastity noted that, as always, his eyes remained flat and cold. Her legs were turning weak at the sight of him.
Lindle had held her down or tied her up for her beatings, and for her deflowering, and he’d never stopped smiling. She’d begun to think there was something wrong with his mouth, and that he couldn’t stop smiling.
But perhaps he just enjoyed seeing people suffer.
“Yes, Lindle,” said Fort. “We have one lamb safe, which gives me hope we’ll soon have the other. I’ll take her upstairs. Send word to my father.”
“The earl has gone to discuss the search with the colonel of militia at Slough, my lord. I will send a message immediately, but it will be some hours before he can return.”
Chastity offered a fervent prayer of thanks.
Lindle turned away, but then turned back, a picture of the unassuming, willing servant. “Should we not take steps on our own to secure Lady Verity and her son, my lord? It would not do for them to come to harm…”
“True,” said Fort. “Well,” he asked Chastity, “where are they?”
“Why ask me?” She had a flash of inspiration. “Why do you think I’m here? I’m looking for them.”
“Why here?”
“For the same reason as you—Nathaniel.” She feigned alarm. “Do you mean no one has found any trace of her yet? Oh, lud! Perhaps she has thrown herself in the river. But why? Why? I tell you true, no one will convince me she is in despair because of the death of Sir William!”
She had them fooled, or at least off-balance. She hid her satisfaction as the two men exchanged worried frowns.
“I’ll put her upstairs,” said Fort at last. “You send that message.”
He took Chastity to an empty room. As soon as she saw it, her hopes of escape leaked away. The room had been prepared to hold a prisoner, and her father and Lindle did not make mistakes in such matters.
It had doubtless been a bedchamber, but now it was a shell, stripped of anything an ingenious soul could use for escape. There was nothing on the walls except marks where pictures had hung, nothing on the floor but a trace of dust. The one moderate window had no curtains, and she knew without checking that the frame would be nailed shut.
Glass could be broken, though.
There was a fireplace but no fire. Unfortunate, that, for she would not have hesitated to set fire to the house. The grate had been swept clean of even the smallest cinders. Could the chimney be climbed? She doubted it, but she’d give it some thought. She’d do anything to be out of this house before her father returned.
Her only hope was to enlist Fort, or at least keep him with her. The earl would not unleash his full range of cruelty before his son, and certainly would be sure not to fall into one of his rages. After all, the Earl of Walgrave was a model of dignity, nobility, and fairmindedness. The Incorruptible.
Chastity had never been fond of him, but she had believed his public image until she had fallen
afoul of him.
Fort looked at Chastity and sighed. “I don’t know how you’ve come to this pass, Chastity. Is it true that you don’t know Verity’s whereabouts?”
In the face of his genuine concern, Chastity found it hard to lie to him, but she managed it. “Yes. I hoped she’d be in Maidenhead, safe with Nathaniel.”
“She was safe in her home,” said Fort tersely. “I can’t understand why she would flee like that. And to run to a man. Do you know what the world will say?”
Chastity was all too familiar with the world’s way with a reputation. “She must have been desperate, Fort. She must have thought she was in danger.”
“In which case she would have come to her family. She and her child would have been safe with Father.”
This was tricky ground. “One would think so. Of course, she always loved Nathaniel, so he might have been first in her mind…”
Fort stared at her. “To run away virtually in her petticoat, in November, with a babe, and to run to a man she flirted with years ago? Nay, I fear she’s gone mad as well. I don’t know what the world’s coming to.”
“Don’t you see, Fort,” said Chastity earnestly, “she must have had a reason. What about Henry Vernham? He won the guardianship of the child, didn’t he? Perhaps he drove her to it.”
His lip curled at the name. “I’d believe almost anything of that cur, but not that he’d harm a Ware. The Vernhams are a disgusting breed, but not that stupid.”
“Disgusting!” Chastity echoed. “Then why didn’t you oppose Verity’s marriage to William?”
“Why the devil should I? He was Verity’s choice.”
“Verity’s choice? Nonsense. He was Father’s choice.”
“Father’s?” Fort scoffed. “Lord knows, it’s been the devil of a job for me to find a woman high and mighty enough for his taste. Why would he promote an alliance with the likes of Sir William?”
“Why would Verity want to marry a man like that? Fort, you know she always wanted to marry Nathaniel.”
He shrugged cynically. “She wouldn’t be the first woman to decide a title, even a paltry one, and a fortune—no matter how gained—are worth more than a handsome face. Nathaniel Frazer has next to nothing.”
Chastity wanted to hit him. Couldn’t he see what nonsense that was? “I tell you, Fort, Verity didn’t want to marry Sir William, and would cheerfully have gone to Nathaniel in her shift. You know her. Has she ever been interested in titles and fortune?”
Fort did look shaken, but said, “It makes even less sense for Father to have encouraged such a match.”
“He encouraged one between me and Henry Vernham.”
Fort laughed bitterly. “Only after the weasel had been found naked in your bed!”
Chastity gaped. Did he really believe that? He clearly did. The futility of trying to correct the error overwhelmed her. It was like trying to move a mountain with a spoon, especially as she would first have to convince him their august father was none so noble.
She abandoned the argument and pursued something Fort had said. Once she had believed what had happened to her had been a mere twist of fate, but recently it had become clear that there had to be a pattern. It was probably too late to salvage her own reputation, but if she could understand the events, perhaps she could save Verity’s.
“What did you mean about Sir William’s fortune?” she asked. “You said ‘no matter how gained.’ What did you mean?”
But Fort was looking at her clothes with a pained expression. “If we don’t want Father to skin you, we’d better find you some decent garments.” He went to the door and shouted for Lindle, but another voice called back that the man was out.
“Never mind, Fort,” said Chastity. “It won’t make that much difference. What about Vernham’s fortune?”
He shook his head. “Just that it’s common knowledge that he came into a lot of money after the ‘45. He was one of the special investigators sent to look into accusations of Jacobite sympathies, and everyone knows there were some Stuart sympathizers ready to pay to have their activities overlooked.”
Chastity remembered that Verity had remarked on the same thing, but there didn’t seem to be anything in it to explain events. She went to the window. It overlooked a small garden shielded from other houses by tall trees. Again, very private. A guard stood in the garden watching her. So much for that escape route. “How do you come to be here?” she asked her brother.
“Where do you expect me to be? Lounging in a coffee house? I’m here looking for Verity. When we found you’d disappeared, I thought she must be with you and reasonably safe. Now, I’m worried all the more. Do you swear you don’t know her whereabouts, Chastity?”
Chastity reminded herself that she didn’t know Verity’s exact whereabouts. She could be in any room of Mrs. Garnet’s house, or in the garden, or even out of doors if well-disguised. “I swear,” she said firmly.
Fort accepted it. He paced restlessly. “And I’d go odds Frazer was telling the truth when we asked him.”
“What was his reaction?”
“Great concern. He wanted to set off in search himself, but we persuaded him to stay here in case Verity tries to seek his help. Though why the devil she’d go to him, not us, I don’t know.” He turned and glared at Chastity. “I don’t know why you couldn’t stay where you were put, or why you’d want a worm like Henry Vernham in your bed—”
“I didn’t!”
“Then why the devil was he there?” he bellowed.
“How the devil would I know?” she shouted back.
He slapped her. “Watch your tongue, you trollop.”
Chastity covered her stinging cheek, tears in her eyes. During her masquerade she’d grown used to expressing herself as no young lady would.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m half out of my mind with worry, too, Fort.” Then she said, with all the intensity she could, “I didn’t invite Henry Vernham to my bed. I swear it. I detest the man. He tried to rape me!”
He was unimpressed. “So you claimed at the time, but it won’t wash, sister dear. No one heard a scream out of you until you were caught.”
“I was asleep until you all burst in!”
“You expect me to believe that a naked man climbed into your bed and half undressed you without you waking up?”
“Yes, I do. Others may not believe me, but you should, Fort. I’ve always slept sound. Don’t you remember the time you carried me fast asleep into the corridor and put me under the dragon-stand, so I screamed the house down when I woke to find its jaws about to engulf me?”
A smile twitched his lips. “True, but you were only ten then.”
“I’m still the same.”
He frowned over it. “But Henry Vernham could hardly have known that. If you didn’t invite him, he could only expect you to set up a screech, and he’d be a dead man. Look, Chastity,” he said quite kindly, “you doubtless made an error of judgment. No one would condemn you utterly for that, and he is a handsome man if you like that style. But you should have married him. It was your only choice.”
“‘Even if he sneaked into my bed with just that plan in mind?”
“How could he know he’d be interrupted, or that Father would take the kinder view and think of marriage?”
Because Father arranged it so, Chastity wanted to scream, but Fort would never believe it. “He had offered for me and been approved by Father.”
“Because you wanted him. You can’t play hot and cold, my girl.”
“Who said I wanted him?”
“Father.”
“Father was—” She bit back the word. “He was mistaken. Oh, Fort, believe me. Why would I want to marry Vernham? I don’t find him handsome, and he didn’t even have wealth and a title to sugar the dish.”
He frowned, and she thought she had finally made an impression. “Are you saying you’re still untouched?”
She opened her mouth to say yes, but then closed it and swallowed. She’d give up the past
night to be able to say yes, but her innocence was gone. “No,” she whispered.
She saw the pained disappointment set on his face. “But not Vernham?” he commented bitingly. “How busy you’ve been. Who then had the honor of my sister’s deflowering? Give me a name and I’ll see him dead.”
“I can’t.”
He grabbed her. “A name!”
She stayed mute. He shook her, then threw her onto the floor. “Did you roll in the hedgerow with a stranger, then? How many have there been since? God, you sicken me! Where did you come from, to be like this?”
He loomed over her, rage darkening his face, hands in big fists capable of smashing her bones. She thought he’d thrash her. Then he turned and slammed out of the room. She heard the key turn. She sank her head in her hands.
Unless her father condemned himself in his own words, neither Fort nor anyone else would believe the tale. It was just too incredible. She almost doubted it herself.
And now she had to worry about Cyn. If his part in this mess ever came out, Fort would tear him apart.
She had to get away. She doubted she could hold out against her father again, and she mustn’t let Cyn’s name pass her lips. She checked the chimney, but as she’d thought, it was too narrow. Only the smallest climbing boy could work his way up there.
Without much hope she considered the door. A squint down the keyhole showed the key was still in there, but she doubted it would do her much good. To test her hypothesis she knocked on the door.
“Yes, milady,” said a man quite respectfully. As she’d thought, there was a guard at both window and door.
“I would like something to drink,” she said, to explain her action.
“Right,” the man said, but he didn’t leave. She heard him call out. “Oy, Jackie, Lady Chastity wants a drink.”
Within minutes, they brought Chastity a wooden beaker of water, and some biscuits. No plate. They were being careful not to give her anything that could be of use.
Alone again, Chastity regarded a Shrewsbury biscuit sadly, and ate it slowly in tribute to Cyn Malloren. It wasn’t as good as the fresh ones they had bought in Shaftesbury, but the memories were sweet.
