Rupert came plunging out into the road, hot and dishevelled, just in time to see the coach disappear round the bend in the road, in the direction of the village.
He had suspected at first that Léonie was only teasing him, but her second cry had held a note of genuine alarm, while now there was no sign of her. With characteristic impetuosity he went headlong down the road in pursuit of the coach, never stopping to consider the wisdom of returning to the stables for his horse. Full-tilt he went, hatless, with torn ruffles, and wig askew. The coach was out of sight, but he ran on until he was blown. Then he dropped into a walk. When he had got his breath back he ran again, and had a grin for the comic figure he knew he must be cutting. He had no idea who had seized Léonie, or why, but he felt certain that she was in that coach. His fighting spirit was aroused, and, incidentally, his love of adventure: he determined to catch the coach if it cost him his life. So, alternately running and walking, he came at last to the straggling village, three miles distant, and seeing the first cottage, broke once more into a weary jog-trot.
The blacksmith was working in his yard, and looked up in astonishment as Rupert’s well-known figure approached.
‘Hey, there!’ Rupert panted. ‘A coach – passed this way. Where went – it?’
The smithy rose and touched his forelock.
‘Yes, my lord.’
‘Devil take you! The coach!’
‘Yes, my lord, yes,’ said the puzzled smith.
‘Did – it – pass here?’ demanded Rupert in stentorian tones.
Light broke upon the smith.
‘Why, yes, your lordship, and stopped at the Arms. ’Tis gone this twenty minutes.’
‘Curse it! Whither?’
The smith shook his head.
‘Beg pardon, your lordship, but I was not watching.’
‘You’re a fool,’ said Rupert, and plodded on.
The landlord of the Avon Arms was more communicative. He came bustling out to meet his young lordship, and threw up his hands at sight of him.
‘My lord! Why, your lordship has lost his hat! Your coat, sir –’
‘Never mind my coat,’ said Rupert. ‘Where went that coach?’
‘The French gentleman’s coach, sir?’
Rupert had collapsed on to the settle, but he sat bolt upright now.
‘French? French? So that’s it, is it? Oho, M. le Comte! But what the deuce does he want with Léonie?’
The landlord looked at him sympathetically, and waited for him to explain.
‘Ale!’ said Rupert, sinking back again. ‘And a horse, and a pistol.’
The landlord was more perplexed than ever, but he went off to fetch ale in a large tankard. Rupert disposed of it speedily, and drew a deep breath.
‘Did the coach stop here?’ he demanded. ‘Did you see my brother’s ward in it?’
‘Mistress Léonie, my lord? No, indeed! The French gentleman did not alight. He was in a mighty hurry, sir, seemingly.’
‘Scoundrel!’ Rupert shook his fist, scowling.
Mr Fletcher retreated a pace.
‘Not you, fool,’ said Rupert. ‘What did the coach stop for?’
‘Why, sir, the reckoning was not paid, and the moossoo had left his valise. The servant jumps off the box, comes running in here to settle the reckoning with me, snatches up the valise, and was out of the place before I’d time to fetch my breath. They’re queer people, these Frenchies, my lord, for there was me never dreaming the gentleman proposed to leave to-day. Driving hell for leather, they was, too, and as good a team of horses as ever I see.’
‘Rot his black soul!’ fumed Rupert. ‘The devil’s in it now, and no mistake. A horse, Fletcher, a horse!’
‘Horse, sir?’
‘Burn it, would I want a cow? Horse, man, and quickly!’
‘But, my lord –’
‘Be hanged to your buts! Go find me a horse and a pistol!’
‘But, my lord, I’ve no riding horses here! Farmer Giles hath a cob, but –’
‘No horse? Damme, it’s disgraceful! Go and fetch the animal the smith’s shoeing now! Away with you!’
‘But, my lord, that is Mr Manvers’ horse, and –’
‘Devil take Mr Manvers! Here, I’ll go myself ! No, stay! A pistol, man.’
The landlord was upset.
‘My lord, it’s a touch of the sun must have got into your head!’
‘Sun at this time of the year?’ roared Rupert, thoroughly exasperated. ‘Go find me a pistol, sirrah!’
‘Yes, my lord, yes!’ said Fletcher, and retreated in haste.
Rupert set off down the road to the blacksmith’s, and found him whistling to himself as he worked.
‘Coggin! Coggin, I say!’
The blacksmith paused.
‘Yes, my lord?’
‘Hurry with that shoe, my man! I want the horse.’
Coggin stared, open-mouthed.
‘But – but ’tis not one of his Grace’s horses, sir –’
‘Tare an’ ’ouns, would his Grace own such a brute? Do ye take me for a fool?’
‘But ’tis Mr Manvers’ roan, your lordship!’
‘I don’t care if ’tis the devil’s own chestnut!’ cried Rupert. ‘I want it, and that’s enough! How long before you have that shoe on?’
‘Why, sir, twenty minutes, or maybe longer.’
‘A guinea for you if you hasten!’ Rupert searched in his pockets and produced two crowns. ‘And ask it of Fletcher,’ he added, stowing the crowns away again. ‘Don’t sit staring at me, man! Hammer that shoe on, or I’ll take the hammer to knock sense into your head withal! Stap me if I won’t!’
Thus adjured, the smith set to with a will.
‘The groom’s walked on to Fawley Farm, my lord,’ he ventured presently. ‘What will your honour have me say to him when he comes back?’
‘Tell him to present Lord Rupert Alastair’s compliments to Mr Manvers – who the devil is Mr Manvers? – and thank him for the loan of his horse.’ Rupert, walked round the animal, inspecting its points. ‘Horse, is it? Cow-hocked bag of bones! A man’s no right to own a scarecrow like this! You hear me, Coggin?’
‘Yes, my lord. Certainly, sir!’
‘Hurry with that shoe, then, and fetch the animal up to the Arms.’ Away went Rupert up the road again to the inn, where he found Fletcher awaiting him with a large pistol.
‘’Tis loaded, sir,’ Fletcher warned him. ‘Indeed, my lord, and are you sure your lordship is well?’
‘Never mind! Which way did the coach go?’
‘Making for Portsmouth, sir, as I judge. But surely to goodness your lordship isn’t of a mind to chase it?’
‘What else, fool? I want a hat. Produce me one.’
Fletcher resigned himself to the inevitable.
‘If your lordship would condescend to take my Sunday beaver –’
‘Ay, ’twill suffice. Make out the reckoning and I’ll pay – er – when I return. Damn that fellow Coggin! Will he be all night at his work? They’ve nigh on an hour’s start of me already!’
But Coggin came presently, leading the roan. Rupert stowed his pistol away in the saddle holster, tightened the girths, and sprang into the saddle. The smith gave vent to a last appeal.
‘My lord, Mr Manvers is a testy gentleman, and indeed –’
‘To hell with Mr Manvers, I’m sick of the fellow!’ said Rupert, and rode off at a canter.
The borrowed horse was no fiery charger, as Rupert soon discovered. It cherished its own ideas as to a suitable pace to maintain, and managed to do so for the most part, to its own satisfaction and Rupert’s disgust. Thus it was close on four in the afternoon when he came at last into Portsmouth, and both he and his mount were very weary.
He rode at once to the quay, and learned that the private schooner anchored there for the past three days had set sail not an hour ago. Rupert dashed Mr Fletcher’s hat on the ground.
‘Blister me, I’m too late!’
The harbour-master
eyed him in polite surprise, and picked up the hat.
‘Tell me now,’ said Rupert, dismounting. ‘Was it a French scoundrel embarking?’
‘Ay, sir, ’twas a foreign gentleman with red hair, and his son.’
‘Son?’ ejaculated Rupert.
‘Ay, sir, a sick lad it was. The moossoo said he was suffering from a fever. He carried him on board like one dead, all muffled up in a great cloak. I said to Jim here, “Jim,” I said, “it’s a shame to take the boy on board, ill as he is, that it is.”’
‘Drugged, by Gad!’ exclaimed Rupert. ‘I’ll have his blood for this! Taken her to France, has he! Now, what in thunder does he want with her? Hi, you! When does the next packet sail for Le Havre?’
‘Why, sir, there’s no boat for the likes of you till Wednesday,’ said the harbour-master. Rupert’s ruffles might be torn, and his coat muddied, but the harbour-master knew a gentleman when he saw one.
Rupert glanced ruefully down his person.
‘The likes of me, eh? Well, well!’ He pointed with his whip to a ramshackle vessel laden with bales of cloth. ‘Where is she bound for?’
‘For Le Havre, sir, but ’tis only a trading ship, as your honour sees.’
‘When does she sail?’
‘To-night, sir. She’s lain here two days too long already, waiting for the wind to turn, but she’ll be away with the tide soon after six.’
‘That’s the ship for me,’ said Rupert briskly. ‘Where’s her master?’
The harbour-master was perturbed.
‘’Tis but a dirty old boat, sir, and never a –’
‘Dirty? So am I dirty, damn it!’ said Rupert. ‘Go find me the master, and tell him I want a passage to France this night.’
So off went the harbour-master, to return anon with a burly individual in homespun, with a great black beard. This gentleman eyed Rupert stolidly, and, removing the long clay pipe from his mouth, rumbled forth two words.
‘Twenty guineas.’
‘What’s that?’ said Rupert. ‘Not a farthing more than ten, you rogue!’
The bearded gentleman spat deliberately into the sea, but vouchsafed no word. A dangerous light came into Rupert’s eyes. He tapped the man on the shoulder with his riding-whip.
‘Fellow, I am Lord Rupert Alastair. You shall have ten guineas off me and for the rest I’ll see you damned.’
The harbour-master pricked up his ears.
‘I was hearing, my lord, that his Grace has the Silver Queen anchored in Southampton Water.’
‘The devil fly away with Justin!’ exclaimed Rupert wrathfully. ‘He was always wont to have her here!’
‘Maybe, sir, if you was to ride to Southampton –’
‘Ride to hell! I’d find them painting her, like as not. Come now, fellow, ten guineas!’
The harbour-master took his colleague aside and whispered urgently. Presently he turned, and addressed Rupert.
‘I am saying, my lord, as how fifteen guineas is a fair price.’
‘Fifteen guineas it is!’ said Rupert promptly, thinking of the two crowns in his pocket. ‘I shall have to sell the horse.’
‘Six o’clock we sets sail, and don’t wait for nobbut,’ growled the captain, and walked off.
Rupert rode into the town, and by good fortune was able to sell Mr Manvers’ roan for the sum of twenty guineas. The sale being accomplished he went to the inn on the quayside, and refreshed himself with a wash, and a bowl of punch. Thus fortified he boarded the sailing vessel, and sat him down on a coil of rope, thoroughly enjoying the adventure, and not a little amused.
‘’Fore Gad, I never was in such a mad chase!’ he remarked to the sky. ‘Here’s Léonie spirited off by Saint-Vire, the Lord knows why, or where, for that matter – and myself hot on the scent with five crowns in my pocket, and the landlord’s hat on my head. And what am I going to do when I find the chit?’ He pondered deeply. ‘It’s a plaguey queer business, so it is,’ he decided. ‘Justin’s at the back of it, I’ll be bound. And where the devil is Justin?’ Suddenly he flung back his head and laughed. ‘Damme, I’d give something to see old cousin Harriet’s face when she finds me gone off with Léonie! Hey, hey, here’s a pretty coil, to be sure, for, faith, I don’t know where I am, and I don’t know where Léonie is, nor she where I am, and at Avon they don’t where any of us are!’
Eighteen
The Indignation of Mr Manvers
Madam Field was worried, for it was after six in the evening and neither Léonie nor Rupert had returned. Considerably flustered at length, Madam sent a messenger to Merivale to inquire whether the truants were there. Half an hour later the lackey returned, with Merivale riding beside him. Merivale went swiftly to the withdrawing-room, and as soon as he entered Madam Field sprang up.
‘Oh, Lord Merivale! Oh, and have you brought the child home? I have been in such a taking, for I never saw her after eleven in the morning, or maybe ’twas later, or perhaps a little earlier – I cannot say for sure. And never a sign of Rupert, so I thought mayhap they were with you –’
Merivale broke into the flood of words.
‘I’ve not seen either of them since this morning when Rupert set out to come here,’ he said.
Madam’s jaw dropped. She let fall her fan, and began to cry.
‘Oh dear, oh dear, and Justin telling me to have a care to her! But how could I tell, for sure ’twas his own brother! Oh, my lord, can they – can they have eloped?’
Merivale laid his hat and whip on the table.
‘Eloped? Nonsense, madam! Impossible!’
‘She was ever a wild piece,’ wept Madam. ‘And Rupert so scatter-brained! Oh, what shall I do, my lord? What shall I do?’
‘Pray, madam, dry your tears!’ begged Merivale. ‘I am convinced there’s naught so serious in this as an elopement. For God’s sake, madam, calm yourself.’
But Madam, to his dismay, went into a fit of the vapours. My lord turned to the servant.
‘Ride back to Merivale, my man, and request my lady to join me here,’ he ordered, with an uneasy eye on the prostrate lady. ‘And – and send madam’s abigail here! Mayhap the children are playing some trick on us,’ he muttered to himself. ‘Madam, I beg you will not alarm yourself unduly!’
Madam Field’s maid came running with salts and presently the lady recovered somewhat, and lay upon the couch calling on heaven to witness that she had done her best. To all Merivale’s questions she could only reply that she had had no notion of such wickedness, and what Justin would say she dared not think. Came my Lady Merivale, in her chaise, and was ushered into the withdrawing-room.
‘Madam! Why, madam, what is this? Anthony, have they not returned? Fie, they are trying to frighten us! Depend upon it, that is it! Never fret, madam, they’ll return soon.’ She went to the agitated chaperon, and began to chafe her hands. ‘Pray, madam, hush. It’s no such great matter, I am sure. Mayhap they have lost their way somewhere, for they are out riding, you may be sure.’
‘My dear, Rupert knows every inch of the country,’ Merivale said quietly. He turned again to the lackey. ‘Be good enough to send to the stables and see whether my lord and Mistress Léonie have taken the horses.’
Ten minutes later the man returned with the news that Lord Rupert’s horse was in a loose box, and had been there all day. Whereupon Madam had a fresh attack of the vapours, and Merivale frowned.
‘I don’t understand this,’ he said. ‘If they had eloped –’
‘Oh, Anthony, can they have done that?’ Jennifer cried aghast. ‘Oh no, surely! Why, the child can think of no one but the Duke, and as for Rupert –’
‘Listen!’ said my lord sharply, and raised his hand.
Outside they heard horses, and the scrunch of wheels on the gravel. Madam started up.
‘Heaven be praised, they have come back!’
With one accord Anthony and Jennifer deserted the ailing lady, and hurried into the hall. The great front-door stood open, and into the house stepped his Grace of Avon
, elegant in a coat of fine purple velvet, laced with gold, a many-caped greatcoat, over all, worn carelessly open, and polished top-boots on his feet. He paused on the threshold and raised his eyeglass to survey the Merivales.
‘Dear me!’ he said languidly. ‘An unexpected honour. Your ladyship’s devoted servant.’
‘Oh lord!’ said Merivale, for all the world like a rueful boy.
His Grace’s lips quivered, but Jennifer blushed fiery red. Merivale went forward.
‘You must deem this an unwarranted intrusion, Duke,’ he began stiffly.
‘Not at all,’ bowed his Grace. ‘I am charmed.’
Merivale returned the bow.
‘I was summoned to Madam Field’s assistance,’ he said. ‘Otherwise I should not be here, believe me.’
Leisurely the Duke divested himself of his greatcoat, and shook out his ruffles.
‘But shall we not repair to the withdrawing-room?’ he suggested. ‘You are saying, I think, that you came to my cousin’s assistance?’ He led the way to the withdrawing-room, and bowed them in. Madam Field, seeing him, gave a shriek, and fell back upon her cushions.
‘Oh, mercy, ’tis Justin!’ she cried.
Jennifer went to her.
‘Hush, madam! Calm yourself !’
‘You appear to be strangely afflicted, cousin,’ remarked his Grace.
‘Oh Justin – oh cousin! I have no notion! So innocent they seemed! I can scarce believe –’
‘Innocent! Of course they were!’ snorted Merivale. ‘Have done with this elopement foolery! It’s mere child’s talk!’
‘Oh Anthony, do you think so indeed?’ said Jennifer thankfully.
‘I do not wish to seem importunate,’ said the Duke, ‘but I should like an explanation. Where, may I ask, is my ward?’
‘That,’ said Merivale, ‘is the very root of the matter.’
The Duke stood very still.
‘Indeed!’ he said softly. ‘Pray continue. Cousin, I must request you to cease your lamentations.’
Madam’s noisy sobs abated. She clutched Jennifer’s hand and sniffed dolefully.
‘I know nothing more than this,’ said Merivale. ‘She and Rupert have been absent since eleven of the clock this morning.’
Georgette Heyer - [Alastair 01] Page 17
