“Where are you going?” he muttered.
The Radley family travel coach slowed and pulled in a little way behind the hack. James waited. He did not wish to startle his quarry.
He delayed stepping from the coach until Leah had climbed out of the hack and walked toward the door of the coffee house. He sighed with relief when she didn’t look back. If she had, she would have seen the Strathmore crest emblazoned on the side of his coach. The game would have been up.
After she had gone inside, James took the opportunity to check the mews. The coffee house was a well-known staging place for the mail coaches travelling to the west country of England. Next to the stables at the back of the building stood one solitary mail coach. It was being loaded with boxes and bags.
The driver from his own coach climbed down and hurried over to James.
“If that young lady is doing a flit, then it looks like she is taking that coach. It is the only coach ready to leave the yard. The other mail coaches usually go late at night so that the mail can be delivered early in the morning. Do you want me to go inside and take a look?” he said.
All of James’s plans to go to Derbyshire and take up his new career as a painter came to a sudden halt. Before him stood his very last chance to come to Leah’s aid, to show her what she really meant to him.
She may well have succeeded in fleeing the church, but she was now alone. And she was still in great danger. Any moment now, someone could come into the yard looking for her. And if that someone was Tobias Shepherd, he would seize his daughter and drag her back to the church. Her father would force her to marry a man she detested.
Here and now, James would do what he should have done all along. He would stand up for the woman he loved. He would protect her. Today, he would become the hero she needed.
Nothing else mattered.
James nodded. It was too great a risk for him to venture inside. It was critical at this moment for him to be slow and steady with his moves. Leah had to think she had escaped undetected, all the while he would be standing guard just in case one of her family members came looking for her.
He dug into his coat pocket and pulled out his leather coin pouch, handing it over to the coach driver.
“If you can find out where Miss Shepherd is travelling to and then purchase me a ticket for the same coach trip, I would be most grateful. Your discretion, of course, would be appreciated,” he said.
The driver raised an eyebrow, then nodded.
At that moment, the trip to Derbyshire evaporated.
While the driver headed inside, James and the driver’s mate pulled his travel trunk down from the roof of the Radley family coach. They set it down on the other side of the coach out of sight. If Leah did happen to come back outside, James did not want her to spot his trunk also with its Strathmore coat of arms emblazoned on the side.
With the collar of his coat turned up to hide his face, James stood in front of the door of the coach and covered the Strathmore crest from view.
The driver returned within a few minutes. “She is booked on the Salisbury mail coach, which is the one over there,” he said, nodding in the direction of the partially laden coach. He handed James a ticket and his coin purse. “That was the last ticket. The coach leaves at the quarter of the hour, so we had better hurry if we are to get your things onboard without the young lady seeing you.”
James grabbed his travel bag, while the driver and his mate hauled his travel trunk across to the Salisbury mail coach. Once his luggage was lifted onto the roof, the next problem presented itself. How to get onboard the coach and keep his identity secret from Leah for as long as possible. She had to think she had made clean her escape. Only then could he confront her and get to the bottom of what was going on. To help her with her plans.
“Could you please take the coach back to Fulham Palace and when my father returns home, let him know that I have had a change of plans. I must find out what is happening with regard to Miss Shepherd. I fear she is in grave danger.”
He quietly slipped both men a handful of coins. They were well enough paid by his father, but he wanted to thank them personally for helping him. No one made mention that he was also buying their silence.
With the Radley family coach now gone, James climbed aboard the Salisbury mail coach. There was little to reveal his identity with the collar of his coat turned up, a scarf wrapped around his head, topped off with his hat, and finally a book strategically placed in front of his face. He would just have to pray that Leah was too busy with her own concerns to be bothered attempting to make small talk with the other passengers. If she was half as clever as he hoped she was, she would be endeavoring to keep a very low profile.
In the meantime, he would wait. Keeping her safe from a distance. Then once they were far enough away from London, he would remove his disguise.
James continually checked his pocket watch as he waited for Leah to arrive with the rest of the passengers and board the mail coach. His hand nervously tapped out a fierce beat on his knee. Time seemed to pass at an endless, slow pace. Every second that ticked by, he kept a watchful eye on the entrance to the yard. If Tobias Shepherd or Guy Dannon suddenly appeared, James was ready to leap out of the coach and race to Leah’s side.
His friendship with Guy had once been important to him, but now, protecting Leah was his everything.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Leah sat quietly in the passenger waiting room of the Gloucester Coffee House, her head lowered but her gaze fixed firmly on the door. Mary Radley’s cloak covered her fair hair and wedding gown.
Every time the little bell above the door tinkled as it opened, she gave a start. Until she was safely on board the mail coach and bound for Salisbury, there was the real chance that someone from her family would come looking for her.
Knowing Guy and his truculent pride, she doubted he would lower himself to the grubby task of hunting down his wayward fiancée and trying to convince her to marry him. He would leave that up to her father. And if Tobias Shepherd did indeed march through the door, it would be with the sole intent of finding his daughter, dragging her out of the coffee house, and hauling her back to St George’s church, where he would then stand over her and make certain she signed the wedding register.
Her hopes now lay in the false clues she had left behind at the family home. She prayed that they would be enough to throw her father off the scent and have him looking elsewhere while she made her initial escape. Her luck just had to hold; she remained hidden from view in an out-of-the-way corner of the room just in case it didn’t.
When the driver for the mail coach came inside the waiting room and rang his hand bell, crying, “All aboard for the Salisbury coach!” Leah could have wept. She slowly rose from the long wooden waiting room bench, careful not to make any sudden movements lest she attract unwanted attention.
With the cloak still covering much of her head, she followed the three other Salisbury-bound passengers outside into the yard. Her steps were measured and unhurried. Her group of fellow passengers consisted of an elderly couple who seemed more concerned about the box of cakes they were carrying than actually speaking to anyone else, and a young naval officer who had been busy studying a book of naval flag signals while he sat inside the coffee house. Leah was pleased; they seemed the perfect passengers to her mind. All three were busy with their own concerns and therefore unlikely to remember a young woman in a black cloak who kept to herself.
When she caught sight of the mail coach standing in the yard, her heart sank. It was a very small coach. Boxes and trunks were piled high on its roof. She had travelled some distance from London in her life, but usually it was in a private travel coach with room to spare. With four passengers onboard, it was going to be a very cramped journey to the west country. She quietly consoled herself. If she could make it all the way to her grandfather’s estate, the discomfort would be well worth it.
Climbing aboard, she noted a fifth passenger was already seated. The unexpected
presence of another body in the small space had her flinching as she stepped inside. Her nerves were still very much on edge.
This new passenger had claimed the nearest corner on the left-hand side of the coach and had his nose already firmly in a book. He made no sign of acknowledging the other passengers as they took up their respective seats. Instinctively, Leah headed for the corner diagonally opposite to him and took her own seat. Drawing the hood of her cloak fully down over her face, she made it look as if she was intending to go to sleep.
While the mail coach driver and his mate busied themselves with tying down the last of the load, Leah sat quietly, taking in long, slow breaths. When the coach finally pulled out of the yard and turned onto Piccadilly, she put a hand to her face and wiped away a tear. The constant fear and self-doubt she had endured over the past weeks now fell away. In their place now sat quiet determination.
She had done it.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Trying to remain incognito and spy on Leah at the same time was proving more difficult than James had first imagined. The cramped conditions in the mail coach didn’t help matters. They were seated a matter of feet away from one another—too close for a casual study of her.
The young naval officer who sat shoulder to shoulder with James looked up and around the carriage every so often before going back to his study of naval signals. James was grateful that he did not attempt to engage him in conversation.
When his arm eventually tired from holding the book up in front of his face, James pulled his hat down as far as he could in order to maintain his disguise. He ventured a sneak peek at Leah at one point, but she still had the hood of her cloak drawn over her face. It was like they were both playing a game of hide and seek.
His nerves remained on edge. His brain constantly churned with the question of not why she had fled the wedding—he could easily answer that one—but where she was headed. From the moment he had seen her flee the church and leap into the waiting carriage, it was clear to him that Leah had a plan in place.
He wanted to help her with that plan. But in order to do so, he had to find a way to gain her trust and get her to bring him into her confidence. That was easier said than done. He had already failed her once before.
The Salisbury-bound coach stopped briefly several times on the way out of greater London, picking up and offloading parcels and letters. Each time, the passengers remained onboard. At the call of each stop, James made a mental note of how far they were from London.
At some point, they would be far enough that he could risk revealing his identity. But as the miles grew, he remained hidden, unsure of what he should say to Leah when he eventually approached her.
In the wildest of his imaginings, he had never thought he would experience this. Had never thought that his prayers for a miracle to help change her future would actually be answered.
A good fifteen miles from London, the coach stopped to change horses. The passengers all alighted. Some of the little group went in to the nearby coaching inn and availed themselves of the facilities.
James bought himself a hot beef pie and a small tankard of ale while keeping an eye out for any sign of Leah venturing in from the stable yard. From the window, he could see her standing close to the coach, her cloak still covering most of her face. She boarded the coach as soon as the fresh horses had been hitched into place. She wasn’t taking any unnecessary risks.
He was proud of her for having planned beyond the mere detail of buying a coach ticket. It was obvious that she had put some thought into the problem of where dangers still lurked even this far from London. If she ventured into the coaching inn, people would see her. And if someone was to enquire, the people who worked at the coaching inn might even recall seeing a young woman in a long black cloak who appeared to be travelling on her own. They may even remember which mail coach she had been a passenger onboard, and where it was headed.
Finally, at Basingstoke, some fifty miles west of London, James decided it was time he spoke to Leah. He would have been content to have remained hidden for a few more miles. The greater the distance from London, the less chance she would panic and flee from him. But the worry that she had not appeared to have eaten or drunk anything since they left town some eight hours earlier now gave him cause for concern.
The mail coach pulled into the mews of the main coaching inn at Basingstoke, and all the passengers alighted. To his relief, and no doubt hers, Leah made her way over to the outhouse.
While she was gone, James went inside and purchased two cold pork pies. Uncertain of what Leah would drink, he also bought a large tankard of watered down cider. He then headed out into the mews.
She was wisely standing to one side of the stable yard, the hood of her cloak partly pulled back. Her gaze shifted constantly as she observed the hive of activity which buzzed around her. There was a steady stream of mail coaches arriving and departing, many of them at a fast clip. In the fading light of the late afternoon, it was a dangerous place for anyone to be wandering about and not paying full attention.
With the scarf still hiding much of his face, James walked calmly over to her. She glanced in his direction. She nodded, then turned away. He was pleased that she was still being cautious.
Standing next to her, her offered her one of the pies. While she looked down at the food, James took the opportunity to remove his scarf and reveal his face.
“Leah, you need to eat,” he said.
Her hand, which was part way to reaching for the pie, suddenly stilled. It was as if she had turned to stone.
James. James Radley. But how?
“Please, Leah. Have something to eat and drink. Then we can talk,” he said.
She lifted her head and looked either side of him, frantically searching for any sign of her father or Guy. All this time she had thought she was making good on her escape, and James had been sitting a mere five feet away!
“Who are you with?” she asked, her voice quivering as panic gripped her.
He shook his head. “No one. And no one but me knows where you are.”
Her hand dropped to her side; the pie forgotten. What was it with this man? He was always crashing into her life when she didn’t expect it. On this occasion, she could only think of one reason why he would be here. He was trying to win back Guy’s trust.
“I can’t marry Guy. I’m sorry, James. I know he is your friend. I beg of you, please don’t make me go back to London. I would rather die than marry that man,” she pleaded.
He laid a hand gently on her arm. “It’s all right, Leah. I am not here to make you do anything you do not wish. I promise, I am not going to send you back to London. The last thing I want in this world is for you to marry Guy.”
She looked at him, unsure as to whether she had heard him correctly. He didn’t want her to marry Guy. If that was the case, then why had he followed her all the way from London?
“Please take the pie,” he insisted.
Her empty stomach growled a second time and she relented. Hunger won. She accepted the pie and took a bite. She rejoiced as the taste of the soft flaky pastry and cold pork meat hit her taste buds. It tasted like heaven. When she had finished the first mouthful, James offered her a large tankard.
“Drink this; you must be parched. I haven’t seen you drink anything since we left London.”
She accepted the tankard and took a sip. Sweet cider kissed her dry lips. She then took a long drink. After taking a second bite of the pie and chewing it, she washed it down with more of the cider. Eventually the pie and a good amount of the cider was gone.
“Thank you. I was absolutely famished. I’ve been sneaking looks at that box of cakes which that elderly gentleman has been nursing on his lap all this time,” she said.
She handed him back the tankard. James drank some more of the cider, before passing it to a nearby stable boy who then wandered off toward the inn, downing the last of the drink as he went.
They were now alone in the stable yard; the dr
iver of their mail coach and his assistant were still inside the inn, along with the rest of the Salisbury-bound passengers. Now was the time for her to ask James the first of a number of pertinent questions. That first question being, how the devil had he come to be on the mail coach with her?
“You were already on the coach when I climbed aboard in London. How did that happen?” she asked.
“I was arriving at St George’s when I saw you coming out of the church. I followed you. I got one of my servants to go into the Gloucester Coffee House and find out where you were headed. Once he knew where you were going, he purchased a ticket for me. I had to hide out on the coach just to be certain you would not recognize me and get spooked,” said James.
That explained how James had come to be standing next to her in the middle of a coaching inn some fifty miles from London. The reason why, she suspected, was something else.
The rest of the passengers for the mail coach appeared from out of the inn and headed in their direction.
“But why?” she asked.
James leaned in close. “I was serious when we spoke yesterday. I want to help you, Leah. We have another thirty miles to go until we reach Salisbury. I suggest we both stick to our established routine within the confines of the coach until then. It might draw undue attention to us if we were to suddenly start talking to one another. At Salisbury, we can continue our discussion and then make some decisions. Does that meet with your approval?”
She nodded, slowly. They both knew she had little option but to do as he asked. Attempting to escape from James would only draw attention to them both, and her plans did not include her being stranded in the middle of Basingstoke with only a handful of coins to her name.
They both climbed back into the mail coach. Leah did as James requested, and put the hood of her cloak over her head once more. She immediately discovered that there were new benefits to be had from hiding under it. With the pie and cider now settling comfortably in her stomach, she could close her eyes and grab some sleep. And with her line of sight to James blocked by the heavy woolen hood, it also meant she couldn’t fall prey to the ongoing temptation of chancing a look at him.
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