A Road to Romance

by Barbara Cartland

  “What about the ’orse?”

  “We can come back for that later, if it’s still there. Anyway we’re not interested in ’orses, but in the money. That’s what ’is Nibs promised us and that’s what we’ll get if we takes ’er back.”

  He paused before he continued,

  “Now then you and me’ll do that job. We’ll pull the blanket off the bed, so she won’t feel cold in the back of the cart as I don’t suppose that she’ll ’ave anythin’ on but ’er nightgown.”

  “’Ow do you know all this?” one of them asked.

  “Because I’ve done this sort of thing before,” was the answer. “I got one woman out of prison when I were a soldier and no one knew she’d gorn until she were safely tucked up in ’er own bed.”

  “That were clever of you!”

  “It were somethin’ that paid well,” the man replied. “But this one’ll pay even better when we gets ’er back to ’is Nibs.”

  “We’ll do exactly what you tells us” the other two said in unison.

  “You’ll be wantin’ somethin’ ’ard in your ’and just in case ’er brother wakes up and gets nasty,” was the reply. “’E won’t be armed and, if you knock ’im down with the first blow, ’e’ll be unconscious until we’re well on the way ’ome.”

  “I’ll see to that. I’m goin’ to get somethin’ to eat. But I thinks it’ll be a mistake to put the ’orses away just in case we ’as to move quickly. Not that I thinks that old’un and his wife’ll be strong enough to stop a flea.”

  He walked out of the stable as he spoke and across to the man who was sitting with the horses.

  The Marquis did not move an inch until he thought that they would have gone inside.

  In fact, when he did move quietly towards the door, he saw that their horses had been attached to the pump in the centre of the yard and that food bags had been put over their noses.

  He let himself out of the stable door and then very quietly opened the door into the inn.

  Now he could hear all three men talking together in the dining room.

  Slipping off his black riding boots that he had dined in, he walked silently up the stairs.

  He was very careful as he did so not to attract the attention of the publican, who was in the bar, or his wife, who was in the kitchen.

  He had said they would leave early and he knew that early to them would mean perhaps six or half-past at best.

  He therefore thought it would be wise to give both Velina and the horses a rest before they escaped from the clutches of her enemies.

  He undressed and climbed into his Spartan bed.

  He left the door open so that if they tried to kidnap Velina earlier than he expected he would hear them before they opened her door.

  Because he had been in the Army, he had learnt not only to wake early but at the exact time he wanted to.

  But to make sure he would not oversleep, he drew back the curtains and pulled up the blind so that the first rays of sun would undoubtedly wake him.

  Then, although it would seem somewhat strange to anyone else, he fell asleep.

  Just as Velina and their horses were sleeping too.

  *

  He must have slept for four hours before he woke.

  He was aware that the stars were just beginning to fade in the sky and he looked at his watch and saw that it was four o’clock.

  He was quite certain that the men who were there to kidnap Velina would not consider the roads very safe while it was still dark.

  He dressed himself rapidly

  Going downstairs very quietly, he passed the dining room door.

  As there were no more rooms in the inn, the men were lying on the floor with blankets and cushions and one of them, at any rate, was snoring loudly.

  The Marquis saw that their horses were still tied to the pump, but their bags had been taken from their noses.

  He crossed the yard and woke up both Fireball and Samson. He gave them a good rub down and saddled and bridled them.

  Then he left them while he went back for Velina and walked up the stairs.

  He went into her room very quietly and found as he expected that she was fast asleep. She, too, had slept with the curtains drawn back.

  From the faint light coming through the window, he could see that her eyes were closed and her fair hair was falling, very attractively, over her shoulders.

  He bent over her and whispered,

  “Wake up! There is danger!”

  Just for a moment Velina did not move.

  Then her eyes opened and he whispered again.

  “You are in danger! Get dressed quickly without saying a word. We have to leave at once!”

  As he spoke, he put his finger against her lips and he knew that she understood him.

  Then, as she started to climb sleepily out of bed, he went to his own room and packed up his belongings. He then put on his riding boots, which he had not done when he crossed to the stable.

  When he returned to Velina, he found that she was already dressed except that her hair was still hanging over either side of her face.

  “Come along,” he muttered very quietly, “and don’t make a sound!”

  He then took her by the hand and drew her down the stairs.

  She must have heard the men snoring in the dining room as they passed it.

  The Marquis paused to put several sovereigns onto the table in the empty kitchen.

  Taking Velina’s hand again he drew her out into the yard and across it to the stable and she saw that the two saddled and bridled horses were waiting for them.

  She did not speak as the Marquis lifted her up onto Fireball’s back.

  As she rode into the stable yard, he jumped onto to Samson and followed her. There was no hiding the sound of the horses’ hoofs on the cobbled yard.

  Now the Marquis was moving Samson quickly and in fact he rode as fast as the stallion could manage down the lane and into the main road.

  Then they were galloping through the village until they were out once again in the countryside.

  Only then did the Marquis pull in his reins and take Samson down to a trot.

  Velina did the same.

  “What happened?” she asked. “Who were they and how did you know that they had come for me?”

  “I was lucky enough to hear them when they came to the inn, saying how they intended to spirit you away.”

  “Oh, you have saved me!” Velina cried. “How can I thank you for doing anything so wonderful?”

  “I think it was just chance they stopped there,” the Marquis replied. “Then they saw Fireball and knew that they had found you.”

  “But we have escaped,” Velina said, “you are quite certain that we really have got away from them?”

  “I think we have made a good start on them. But we know that they are following us and I think we would be wise to make our way North by the side roads, which might easily put them ahead of us, but that, of course, is immaterial.”

  “I think you are brilliant!” Velina exclaimed. “I don’t know how to begin to tell you how grateful I am.”

  “You must keep all that until we arrive safely,” the Marquis answered. “But we must keep ahead of them if we can and make sure before you reach your aunt that she is not prepared to give you up to them.”

  “I am quite certain that Aunt Cecily will do nothing of the sort,” Velina said. “But they might overpower her even though she has quite a large household.”

  “We will fight that battle when we come to it,” the Marquis added. “But now I want to leave this road and go to Yorkshire by another route.”

  He did not wait for Velina to answer. He just turned round at the next cross roads.

  He vaguely remembered that there were a number of different ways of reaching the North, but, when he was driving, he had always kept to the main roads because they were easier for his horses.

  Now he told himself there was nothing to prevent them from riding over the land, which was cert
ainly safer than the roads.

  In future he would need to be much more careful in choosing where they slept.

  He admitted to himself that it would be stupid if she was being followed to stay anywhere on the main road.

  He had in fact thought it unlikely that her stepfather would send these rough men to actually kidnap her rather than ask her politely if she would return home with them.

  She must, he reckoned to himself, be part of a very strange family.

  Or perhaps there were other more sinister reasons why her stepfather was so anxious for her to marry a man she disliked and feared.

  ‘If the Duke does not think this is an adventure,’ the Marquis thought to himself, ‘then I am certain that neither he nor Alfred could find a better one.’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The Marquis and Velina rode along a great many small narrow lanes that twisted and turned continually.

  He guessed, as he had a good sense of direction, that they were moving North all the time.

  They passed through a number of villages until they found one with a nice-looking black and white inn on the village green. It was much the same as the one they had stayed in the night before.

  As they were alone in a small room, which was called the dining room and no one could hear them, Velina exclaimed,

  “You were so wonderful, Neil, in getting me away from those men! I was terrified when you told me what was happening.”

  “They sounded particularly rough and uncouth,” the Marquis said. “Why should your stepfather employ such people?”

  “I expect they were men who were working in the fields. There have been a number of very strange workers at home since the war was over, when so many men were killed. The farmers, as they are so desperate, are prepared to take on anyone who has a pair of hands.”

  The Marquis knew this to be true.

  But it told him that her stepfather had an estate, although he was not prepared to ask whether it was small or large and, because he had no wish to talk about himself, he was careful not to sound too inquisitive.

  At the same time, because she was so beautiful, he was curious to find out more about her.

  It certainly seemed strange that any man whom one could call a gentleman should employ such rough common men to find his stepdaughter.

  The more he talked to Velina the more he became convinced that she was a lady from the top of her head to the soles of her feet.

  Her manners were perfect and the way she spoke was without a mispronounced word,

  But she was obviously totally innocent of the world outside her home.

  They were given a rather unimaginative but edible luncheon, which was usually provided by the inn and they both drank cider.

  When they had finished, ending with cheese, which was surprisingly good, the Marquis suggested,

  “I suppose we must get on. We still have a long way to go, as you well know, Velina.”

  “I keep thinking how lucky I am to be with you,” she replied. “I know it was wrong to speak to a stranger, but I was so frightened that my stepfather would send men after me and, of course, as happened last night, if they had not recognised me, they would know Fireball.”

  “He is certainly a very good-looking horse and you are lucky to have him. I am sure that he and Samson will survive this long and arduous journey better than we will.”

  “I am not so afraid of it now I am with you,” Velina said. “Thank you again, Neil, for being so kind to me.”

  “You can thank me when I deliver you safely to your relative and that will not be for some time.”

  He rose from the table as he spoke and Velina did the same.

  He was about to pay the publican when she said,

  “Please, I ought to give you some money for my expenses. I did think about it this morning when we were leaving the inn, but we were in such a hurry to get away I did not like to delay things.”

  “We were lucky,” the Marquis answered, “to have such a good start. I think that the best arrangement would be that if you do owe any money, which I think is unlikely, we add it all up when you are safely at your aunt’s home.”

  Velina smiled at him.

  “I am so very very lucky to have found you and I think it was because I prayed frantically as I left home. Apart from anything else, I really did not know the way.”

  “Well, we may easily make a mistake,” the Marquis said, “considering all the twisting and turning that we have done already. So the sooner we set off now and find a quiet place to stay the night the better.”

  “We must make sure that those men don’t find me,” Velina murmured with a little shiver.

  The Marquis did not answer.

  He merely called the publican of the inn over and paid him for their luncheon.

  He also asked him which was the quickest route to the main road North and he learnt that it was only a mile to their left and the road connecting to it was after they had passed the next village.

  Listening to him, Velina thought that he was being very clever in making the publican, in case he was asked, think that they were taking the easiest way North.

  When they went outside and collected their horses, Velina said as they rode off,

  “Now we know we are going in the right direction. But I think the men will be hurrying as fast as they can on the road we are avoiding. They would not wish to admit to my stepfather that they found me and then lost me again.”

  “I think that we are doing the right thing and you are not to worry about it,” the Marquis replied. “Just leave it to me and try to enjoy the sunshine and forget that there are three unpleasant-looking creatures searching for you.”

  “I will try,” she answered, “but I am so petrified of having to go back.”

  “We will avoid that if nothing else,” the Marquis assured her. “Leave it in my hands, which I promise you, are very capable.”

  “I think you are so marvellous,” Velina murmured. “Every time I think about it, I say a prayer of thankfulness that I was brave enough to speak to you.”

  “I suppose it did not strike you that, as I was just a stranger, I might have taken you back to your stepfather, believing that he would pay me for doing so?”

  “I did not think of that at the time,” Velina replied, “but I did notice the horse you were riding and thought that only a man who loved and understood horses would own such a fine specimen.”

  The Marquis thought that this was an astute answer.

  As they rode on, he continued to talk to Velina, not about personal matters, as he knew that they would be embarrassing, but of the history of the County they were riding through.

  This led, as some of the houses were Elizabethan, into the history of England itself.

  He learnt, as he expected, that she was extremely well educated. Combined with her beauty and the horse she was riding, he was certain that her family were well off and well bred.

  Because he spoke to her very skilfully, extracting interesting information from her without her being aware of it, he found it one of the more amusing conversations he had ever taken part in.

  Before, when he had been with a beautiful woman, she had insisted on talking about love and their feelings for each other.

  Velina spoke completely impersonally and it told him that she had never learnt how to flirt with a man. In fact she had no idea of how to do so.

  *

  They had ridden for nearly an hour when they came to a very pretty little village.

  The cottages had thatched roofs and small gardens, which were filled with flowers and everything seemed very spick and span.

  There were few people to be seen at the early part of the afternoon and Velina knew that this would mean that the men were out at work, whilst the women were resting before they fetched their children from the school.

  It was then she became aware that one of the packs hanging from Samson’s saddle had come loose at one end.

  She pointed this out to the Marquis, say
ing,

  “Don’t move! I know what has happened and I will put it right. Otherwise Samson will find it banging against him all the time.”

  Before the Marquis could protest that he would do it himself, she had dismounted from Fireball, handed him her reins to hold and went to the side of Samson.

  “It’s not broken,” she told him. “It has only come undone as you could not have tied it on as tightly as you should have done.”

  The Marquis thought that it was something he was not used to doing himself and therefore it was not at all surprising that he had made a mess of it.

  But he did not say so. He only thought how agile Velina was in the way she moved and the quickness of her fingers.

  Then, as she tied the pack tightly so that it would not fall again, there was a sudden yelping of a dog from the cottage near where they were standing.

  A small dog, still yelping loudly, came rushing out through the open door.

  It was obviously in pain and the man following it had a whip in his hand.

  “You get out of ’ere and stay out, you varmint!” he shouted in a thick voice, which made the Marquis aware that he had had too much to drink.

  Then, as the man struck the dog again, it squealed as it ran down the path to the gate.

  A small boy came running after it, crying,

  “You’re not to ’it ’im! You’re not to ’it Jimmie.”

  “I’ll ’it ’im and I’ll ’it you ’ard if I ’as any more nonsense from either of you,” the man screeched.

  As he spoke he raised his whip and brought it down hard on the boy’s shoulders.

  He screamed and the man hit him again.

  This time the boy fell over onto the ground.

  Then the man went back into the house, staggering drunkenly as he did so. He slammed the door shut and they heard the sound of him locking it.

  Almost before the Marquis realised exactly what was happening, Velina had leapt from Samson’s side.

  Opening the garden gate, she was crouching down and putting her arms round the boy.

  He was sobbing from the dreadful violence that had been unleashed on him and the dog was whimpering.