As he walked into the woods, brushing over his footprints as he went, he acknowledged that without her, he would have been in a much worse state. But with his wounds dressed, food in his stomach, and a night’s sleep behind him, his strength had begun to return. Although, perhaps he was more delirious than he thought because the ridiculous plan that came to him first and made him grin, seemed to be the one with the best likelihood of success.
In easy stages, resting frequently, he walked back up to the vicinity of his prison and the village beyond. There appeared to be no extra soldiers around it any more. They were, no doubt, watching the coast as Anna had told him. And the guards from the fort had obviously returned to watching their remaining prisoners.
The village inn was a coaching establishment. While imprisoned, Louis had made it his business to learn when the stagecoaches arrived and departed. He chose the busiest time for the inn staff when they were all rushing around, changing horses and drivers, and fetching ale and breakfast for hungry stagecoach passengers.
Wandering into the inn yard as though quite familiar with it, Louis went straight to the kitchen and helped himself to a loaf and some cheese while the cook was screeching at someone to get out of her hair. In the tap room, he found a disreputable leather coat abandoned on a stool. And outside again, on the coach box, he found what he really wanted—a pistol and some powder. And as a bonus, a tatty, floppy-brimmed hat. Stuffing those all into his pockets, he clambered awkwardly down again and growled at the man who seemed about to ask what he was about. Apparently satisfied, the man returned to harnessing the horses and Louis went to the stables, where the boys were busy brushing down and feeding the tired horses who had just arrived. They ignored him, so he led out a large nag and saddled her in front of them before mounting and riding off.
He had often found that if you did the outrageous with enough conviction, no one questioned you. He was glad he had not lost his touch during his months in prison.
*
Some hours later, dressed in the stolen coat and hat, riding his stolen horse, he lurked on the main road between Blackhaven and Carlisle. He was so bored waiting for the perfect carriage to hold up that he would have welcomed any traffic at all. He wanted a wealthy young man of about his own height and build, alone. Someone who could be robbed and relied on to exaggerate the story of the hold-up beyond recognition of the actual facts. Instead, beyond a couple of farmers’ carts and a few cattle, he saw barely anyone at all. It was not a busy stretch of road. A couple of private carriages had passed earlier, but since their occupants were elderly and female, he rode straight past them without stopping.
Time was running out and he did not wish to spend another night in the open. So, when he heard the sounds of another approaching carriage, he sprang out of his hiding place to see a hired chaise and accompanying postilions. Without troubling to observe who was inside it, he rode recklessly into the road to force it to halt.
The driver and outriders slowed from instinct. Even before he raised his pistols, he must have looked a disreputable sight in his tatty and torn leather coat, his fair hair hidden under his stolen floppy hat, which he had pulled low over his muddied face.
“Stand and deliver!” he shouted in a rough London accent, brandishing his pistol as he grabbed at the lead horse’s head and all but dragged it to a complete standstill. His wound protested, sending sharp pangs of agony through him. Ignoring the pain, he levelled the pistol at the driver.
“Come down. Everyone, dismount and stand over there.”
“I say,” an irate male voice sounded in the chaise doorway as a young man stepped out. “What the devil is the hold up?”
“Exactly that, young sir,” Louis said amiably, noting with some pleasure that his victim was well-dressed and close enough to the same build as he. “This is indeed the devil of a hold up. Got anyone else in there with you?”
A scream went up.
“Oh God, she’s having hysterics,” the young man cried in despair, clutching at his already disordered locks.
Louis changed position until he could see the young lady prostrate upon the seat inside, drumming her heels as she wailed like a banshee.
“Looks more like a tantrum to me,” he said judiciously. “But either way, I don’t envy you. Tell you what, young sir, just hand over the blunt and your baggage. I’ll spare the lady’s.”
“Thar’s damned good of you,” the young man said nervously. “Only how can we elope with no money?”
“Live on true love,” Louis advised, accepting the young man’s fat pocket book and his portmanteau. “Here, we’ll share it,” he added, seeing just how much money was inside the wallet. He kindly handed a wadge of it to his victim and pocketed the rest. “Best be off! And take my advice and don’t stop on the way. You’ll never get married once you start involving the law, whichever side of the border.”
“Good point,” the young man said, climbing back into the coach with a wary glance at his rigid beloved.
Louis waved everyone back to their proper places and let the chaise go. Only when one of the postilions paused to level a pistol at him did he raise his own. The man turned back and rode on, presumably deciding that discretion was the better part of valor.
Louis dragged himself and his horse off the road to investigate his plunder.
*
It was growing dark by the time Louis disturbed the peace of Henrit, the snug country estate of Mr. Winslow. In truth, by then, he was so tired and his shoulder ached so abominably, that he all but fell off his horse without acting and called imperiously for the help of a magistrate.
“I’ve been robbed! Highway robbery!” he told anyone who would listen, until Mrs. Winslow gave him a cup of tea in her drawing room. This at least told him he appeared to her to be a gentleman is his second set of stolen clothes. A few moments later, the lady’s husband came bustling in with some concern to hear his tale.
As though pulling himself together, Louis uttered an apology for bursting in on them. “My name is Lewis. Sir Lytton Lewis, at your service,” he said more calmly. “I was told you were the local magistrate, and in truth, I don’t quite know what to do. I’ve never been robbed before. I was travelling to Scotland for my health—I’m told the air is more bracing—and now I’m stuck here with neither vehicle nor baggage! I was lucky just to find that nag wandering around, for it happened in the middle of nowhere.”
“It is quite outrageous how lawless the local roads have become,” Mrs. Winslow agreed. “Why, only a few weeks ago, a lady was shot on the Carlisle road! And now this! What can be done, Mr. Winslow?”
“Well, we’ll make a search for your belongings and the fellow who took them, but between us, sir, he is likely to be long gone, probably into Scotland! There is a hotel in Blackhaven, if you have the wherewithal to put up there for a couple of nights while we investigate.”
Louis allowed himself a small smile. “I confess I hid some funds against just such an event as this.”
“The hotel is very good,” Mrs. Winslow assured him. “Also, there is a bank close by which can help if you find yourself short. And if you are travelling for your health, sir, many people swear by the Blackhaven spring waters.”
“I’m overwhelmed by your kindness,” he said, allowing a faint look of shame to cross his face. “I apologize for the rude manner of my entry. I’m afraid I am not at my best…”
“Have some tea with us,” Mr. Winslow invited, “and then I’ll drive you into Blackhaven. I’m going anyhow. Now, how would you describe this ruffian?”
“He was a big, dirty brute, wearing a long, tatty leather coat. I couldn’t see his face. I think he’d deliberately smeared mud on it.”
“Didn’t have a French accent, did he?”
Louis raised his eyebrows. “French? Lord no. London gutter, I’d say. Why would he be French?”
“Oh, it was just a thought. We had a prisoner of war escape from the fort a few miles away, and we can’t find a trace of him. But it seems we
have a highwayman, too!”
*
The amiable magistrate was kind enough to enter the Blackhaven Hotel with Louis and explain his lack of baggage. As a result, he was given a decent, front-facing room and the best of service.
By the time his dinner had been brought to him in his bedchamber, his whole body ached and he wanted to fall into bed and sleep for a week. Worse, as he eased himself out of his stolen coat, he saw a little dried blood on his bandage. But at least the stitches appeared to be holding. If he could just avoid infection and fever over the next few days, he might just survive. By the time Gosselin came, he should be recovered enough to kill him. That he would come, Louis did not doubt.
He would have to, for he could not trust such work to anyone else. The news of his escape would reach France via the maze of spies and dupes Louis himself had set up from excisemen and other officials to smugglers. And Gosselin, who must have been furious at his escape into British custody, would come to finish his self-appointed task. And that would be his final mistake.
The trouble was, Louis needed to do more than wallow in his bedchamber for a fortnight. To hide was to invite investigation. He needed to be seen again, to establish himself more firmly as Sir Lytton Lewis.
At the last moment, he asked the maid to buy him some laudanum.
As she scampered off to do his bidding, he eased himself onto a chair by the window, tore off his badly tied neckcloth, and began to eat his dinner while he watched the world of Blackhaven pass by in the well-lit street below.
Blackhaven was a growing spa town, newly fashionable with the wealthy who attributed all sorts of cures to the spring water that flowed there from the nearby hills. And although the chills of a northern English December must have driven off many health-seekers, enough remained to give the town an air of bustle.
A few carriages trundled up the street, while on either side of the road, respectable working folk hurried home, avoiding the gentry who strolled along the swept part of the street in their furs and finery, no doubt on their way to dinner parties or the theatre.
The maid returned with his laudanum so quickly that he gathered the hotel kept a supply. He took the bottle, setting it down on the table by his dinner, and thanked the girl with a coin. She curtsied, and he turned back to the window in time to see a familiar figure below.
He leaned forward, fatigue falling away from him like a discarded coat. She wore an elegant evening cloak trimmed with fur over a pure white gown that hung like silk over her graceful person. Her gleaming, raven hair had been piled high on her head and held with a wisp of some glittering net that may have been sewn with jewels. She took his breath away all over again, even before she laughed at something uttered by the handsome if carelessly dressed gentleman beside her.
“Wait.” Louis managed to stay the maid just as she reached his bedchamber door. “Do you know who that lady is?”
The maid, perhaps scenting romance, bounded back to the window.
“The black-haired young lady across the street, walking with the hatless gentleman and the fair lady,” he said, keeping the urgency from his voice with some difficulty.
“No idea who she is,” the maid said regretfully. Somehow, he hadn’t really expected a different answer, although he’d hoped. “But the other is Lady Serena—well, Lady Tamar as she is now. She’s the Earl of Braithwaite’s sister. From the castle. And Lord Tamar is the gentleman with them.”
“Ah. Thank you,” Louis said vaguely, and nodded dismissal.
He watched the raven-haired lady as she walked the length of the street with her companions, until they vanished around the corner. His whole body hummed with excitement, with the fresh plans forming in his mind.
He could justify those plans, of course. His meeting with her in the wood was unlikely to have been an accident, and so he needed to know how she fitted into the web of his enemies. And if he could make her an ally instead, this woman who walked with such careless, aristocratic grace, as though no street dirt would dare cling to her pristine white gown. Who appeared to face enemies, gory wounds and solitary rides in the dark with quiet efficiency, and yet flinched at his lightest, most unthreatening touch. Not so fearless, perhaps, as she pretended. If so, he could not but admire the calm manner behind which she hid the fact.
And it could have been that admiration which really lay behind his new plans. He wanted to see her again.
*
Anna, while furious to find her Frenchman gone, and annoyed to discover no trace of him around the shepherd’s hut, had not quite given up hope of discovering him again. If she truly had lost him, this would be her first failure. Unfortunately, it was also the most important task she had yet been given.
She’d been foolishly overconfident. But he should not have been capable of leaving the hut as he had. Her one hope was that he would still need help and look for it somewhere she could find him.
And so, she swallowed her ill-nature and returned to her other, self-appointed task of investigating Rupert’s marriage, which meant accompanying him and his wife to the dire musical evening at the vicarage. Of course, the idea of Rupert and herself in a vicarage at all, was amusing. Until she met the vicar’s wife, the stunningly beautiful Mrs. Grant.
Anna recognized Mrs. Grant as the one-time Lady Crowmore, the “Wicked Kate” who’d scandalized London for years, hovering on the verge of social ruin. Not that Anna had ever moved in such exalted circles–until now—but Kate Crowmore had been pointed out to her in the park and in the street. The idea of this dashing lady as the vicar of Blackhaven’s wife should have been funny, or even tragic, but neither Mrs. Grant nor her guests appeared to find it so.
Rupert certainly seemed to be on friendly terms with her, but then, so was Serena. And when Mr. Grant finally walked into the room, the way his wife’s whole face lit up left Anna in no doubt that Wicked Kate had eyes only for her dull vicar.
Who turned out not to be so dull. He made a point of welcoming Anna to Blackhaven and to his home.
“I hope you will sing or play for us, Lady Anna,” he invited. “Our evenings, as you see, are quite informal, a fun way to raise donations. You merely put your donations in the bowl at the back to show your appreciation of each performer.”
“Of course,” said Anna, smiling. She had no money with her and none at all to her name except the small sum Henry had given her—and that she might well need to pursue her Frenchman into Scotland.
“Tamar, you have all the money,” Serena said unexpectedly. “Divide it up and let us choose our own favorites!”
The idea of Rupert with any money at all was an alien one to Anna. But he had married an heiress. Exchanging banter with his wife, he duly emptied his pockets into Serena’s lap and let her divide the coins evenly between the three of them. Anna, watching their faces rather than listening to their nonsense, was surprised to find not only contentment but fun there. They liked each other.
Well, Rupert deserved that. Although she didn’t understand it, she was glad he had married for more than the money, and glad, too, that Serena seemed happy with the outcome.
I have nothing to do here. I can chase my Frenchman into Scotland, or I can go home… Neither prospect explained her restlessness, her unspecific discontent.
When invited, Lady Serena sang first, without any show of reluctance or embarrassment, and yet with a pleasing modesty that proved flattery had never gone to her head. There was a lot to like about Serena. That, too, was unexpected.
When Serena’s song was finished, Anna duly dropped some coins into the bowl. They collided with those thrown at exactly the same time by a quietly dressed man who gave her a conspiratorial and rather charming smile.
Almost immediately, her attention was distracted by Mrs. Grant, who introduced her to Mr. and Mrs. Winslow and their daughter Catherine.
“And so, you have come from London to visit your brother?” Mrs. Winslow said as they strolled toward a sofa. “How charming! My daughter is going to London for the season
next year. Perhaps you will look out for her.”
“Oh, I don’t go much into society,” Anna said. “I live quietly with my sister and her husband.”
“Oh, well, but you might at least meet in the park,” Mrs. Winslow said, disappointed but making the best of it.
“I shall bow to you,” Anna assured Catherine. “And I won’t be the least offended if you give me the cut direct.”
Catherine laughed nervously, betraying that she knew exactly how Anna’s family stood in the world. At least before Tamar’s extraordinary marriage.
“I would hope my daughter incapable of such rudeness,” Mrs. Winslow said, bridling.
“Lady Anna was joking,” Catherine said hastily. “Will you sing tonight, my lady?”
“If anyone’s brave enough to listen. But I believe it is your turn, Miss Winslow. Mrs. Grant is beckoning you.”
Catherine turned out to have a pleasant voice, well enough trained to reach all the right notes so at least there was no difficulty in complimenting the proud parents.
“And are you coming to our masquerade on Friday?” Mrs. Winslow asked. “I shall be sure to send a card to the castle for you. It’s the first time I remember such an event in Blackhaven!”
“You do seem to have an exciting town,” Anna observed, “what with masquerades and escaping prisoners-of-war!”
“And highwaymen,” Mrs. Winslow added.
“Highwaymen?”
“Why yes, only today some poor man was robbed on the Carlisle road.”
“Goodness!” Anna had no need to pretend her avid interest. “And who is this villain?”
“Well, we don’t know! He doesn’t appear to be a local ruffian, but my husband, who is the magistrate, thinks it likely that wherever he came from, he has vanished into Scotland.”
“I was thinking of travelling north myself to visit other friends,” Anna said. “You must give me the description of this villain before I do!” She hesitated, then, “I don’t suppose he is your escaped prisoner?”
“We thought if that,” Mrs. Winslow admitted. “And I suppose he could be, although he did not speak with a French accent but with a low London one. Do you think he could have copied such a thing?”
Blackhaven Brides (Books 5–8) Page 46
