The highwayman was placing a number of canvas bags in his saddle and Denzil was doing the same.
Then, taking the pistol from Lady Roysdon’s hand, he pointed it at Sir Francis and the curses died away.
There was now an expression of abject fear in the Baronet’s eyes.
“I have taken what you denied possessing,” the highwayman said quietly, “but I have been merciful in that I have not injured either you or your servants. When the time comes for you to show mercy to others, do not forget what you yourself have received.”
“Curse you!” Sir Francis hissed beneath his breath, but he was obviously too afraid to say it louder.
He stepped into the carriage and the highwayman shut the door.
Jake moved out of the way, but before the footman knew what was happening, he had lifted the blunderbuss from his knees.
“You can be on your way,” the highwayman said and the carriage moved off, the coachman whipping the horses as if in sudden terror.
Lady Roysdon would have spoken, but the highwayman led the way ahead and they were all riding back through the wood the way they had come and still without speaking.
Then they were galloping Westwards towards Brighton.
They crossed the main road as they had done before, only this time it was so dark there was no need for them to take any precautions.
Although there had been a moon last night, it now appeared only intermittently between drifting clouds that came from the sea.
Yet there was still enough light for the highwayman to find his way and, when they reached the spot where he had held up Lady Roysdon’s carriage the previous night, he drew his horse to a standstill.
He looked at her and she knew that he was smiling in a way that was peculiarly his own as he said,
“You are satisfied?”
“I have my friend’s necklace. That is all I wanted.”
“There is a great deal more for her as well.”
“What was in those bags?”
“Money – a great deal of money.”
“Averil told me Sir Francis was spending the day with Solicitors and land agents – so I imagine that he had sold some property and intended to take the monies he received back with him to London.”
“I am sure that your friend will find a use for it.”
“But what about – you?”
“What happened tonight is nothing to do with me. This was your robbery, not mine.”
Lady Roysdon laughed.
“So if anyone is hanged on a gibbet it will be me!”
“Of course. But I have a feeling that you will escape as you have escaped so often in the past.”
“I found it very exciting, although I was afraid when Sir Francis fired, afraid too that the footman on the box would use his blunderbuss.”
“Now you understand that these sort of operations have to be thought out carefully, not rushed into without due preparation.”
“I did what you told me.”
“And very ably. There is always a position for you as an outlaw if you finally grow tired of the plaudits of the bucks and rakes of St. James’s!”
“Thank you,” she answered mockingly. “And now, I suppose, I should go home.”
“It would be wise, but impress upon your friend that she should not be seen wearing the necklace.”
“Of course. She is not as foolish as that! And what am I to do with the rest of the plunder?”
“What do you suggest?”
She thought as she spoke how strange it was that she should be asking a highwayman the sort of question that she would in the past have asked the Earl.
He thought for a moment before he said,
“If Lady Dorridge places it in the Bank in her own name, there is always the chance that Sir Francis might try to take it away from her.”
“That is true,” Lady Roysdon agreed. “I always disliked him, but tonight I realised how utterly despicable he is. Averil must certainly be protected from him.”
“In that case I think the wisest thing would be for you to create a Trust with the money for Lady Dorridge’s children.”
Lady Roysdon looked at him in surprise.
“That will mean my depositing the money in a Bank.”
“And the best place for it! Even a highwayman would find a Bank difficult to rob.”
She laughed.
“You can think of a reasonable explanation as to why you are carrying so much gold about with you,” he went on. “I imagine you have a fertile mind.”
“Are you suggesting that I should take it back with me now?”
“Why not?” he asked. “And besides would you be wise to trust me with such a fortune?”
“You know the answer to that. As you said yourself, I trusted you tonight with my reputation.”
She spoke lightly and then, as if it suddenly occurred to her, she added,
“Perhaps in your eyes that is not anything of great value.”
“I will tell you about that another time,” he answered.
“Another time?”
“I have something to return to you.”
She knew what he meant and said quickly,
“There is no need.”
“Indeed there is. You have now become my partner and you must know it is very unethical to rob one’s associates in business.”
“I should be very glad to have my emeralds back.”
“Would you rather I sent them by messenger?”
“No, of course not.”
She waited. Then, as if he had suddenly made up his mind, he said,
“Would you, my Lady, honour me by being my guest at dinner?”
“I enjoyed our meal this evening.”
“I can do a little better than that when it comes to choosing a menu, but I am afraid that the situation must be the same. It would cause too much comment were you to be seen with me in the dining room of The Castle Inn.”
Lady Roysdon smiled.
“It would also not be nearly so amusing.”
“Then when may I expect you?”
She had a feeling as he asked the question that, although his tone was light, he was as anxious as any other man of her acquaintance might have been to know if she would really accept his hospitality.
“Tomorrow I dine with the Prince Regent,” she answered, “but the night after I am free.”
“Then I shall be waiting for you.”
She wanted him to say more, but instead he signalled to Denzil and together they moved all the bags they had taken from Sir Francis from the saddles of their horses on to Jake’s.
There were so many that he sat uncomfortably with his legs forced apart.
Then the highwayman walked to the side of Lady Roysdon’s horse and put up his hand.
She gave him her fingers and he raised them to his lips.
Just for a moment she felt his mouth against her skin and remembered the strange sensations his kiss had evoked in her last night.
Then because she was shy, because she wanted to hold onto him, to stay with him, and because she was frightened of her desires, she turned her horse.
She rode towards the lights of Brighton, not looking back but wondering if the highwayman was watching her go.
It did not take them long to reach the road at the back of the mews.
Lady Roysdon dismounted and Jake put his hand into the hole in the wall and brought out her cloak.
She swung it round her shoulders before they discussed how she could enter the house without being seen.
Finally Jake, leading the two horses, walked around the corner and in through the gate into the Mews.
The stables were silent except for the sound of the other horses moving in their stalls.
He opened the doors of two loose boxes and put the horses inside while Lady Roysdon waited in the shadows. Then they moved quietly to the back of the house and Jake unlocked the kitchen door.
This was the dangerous moment, Lady Roysdon knew, when she must avoid
being seen by old Danvers or any of the other servants.
The basement was in darkness except for one candle flickering in an iron sconce.
There was the sound of a man, doubtless Fulton, snoring loudly and Lady Roysdon knew that the noise made it easier for her to walk quickly down the flagged passage and up the stairs without being heard.
She reached the first floor and with a sigh of relief slipped into her bedroom carrying the jewel case under her cloak.
The candles were lit and her nightgown was laid ready on the turned-back bed, but there was no sign of Hannah, who had obviously obeyed her instructions and retired for the night.
Lady Roysdon pulled off her boots and the male attire she had borrowed from Mrs. Hermitage’s sons, put them in the bottom of a chest-of-drawers and turned the key.
Tomorrow when no one was about she would put them back in the attic.
On one thing she was already determined that, when she dined with the highwayman, she would be dressed as a woman.
She released her hair, letting it fall over her shoulders. Only when she was wearing a thin diaphanous nightgown trimmed with lace did she open the jewel box, which she had tossed carelessly onto the bed.
The diamonds sparkled in the light from the candles and she thought what a difference the possession of them would make to Averil Dorridge’s life.
Then even as she contemplated them there was a faint knock on the door.
She stiffened, but before she could reply the handle turned and a small sack was placed inside the door before it closed again.
She realised that it contained the money that Jake had carried on his saddle. She had been so intent on getting into the house without being seen that she had almost forgotten about it.
Now Jake had brought it to her, for nowhere else would it be safe from inquisitive stable boys.
She crossed the room to pick up the sack. It was heavy and, because she was curious, she pulled out two of the bags.
One contained sovereigns, the other was filled with bank notes, some worth ten pounds and others twenty pounds.
Lady Roysdon drew in her breath.
This was a haul she had not expected and she knew that she had been right in thinking that Sir Francis had sold some property.
‘This is justice,’ she thought, ‘justice that he should give back to Averil the allowance that he deliberately took away from her.’
The highwayman’s advice was right. She would set up a Trust so that there could be no question of Sir Francis ever getting his hands on it again and Averil would be safe for life.
With a little money and the children provided for it would be easy for her to find another husband.
‘It is wonderful! Everything has turned out so well!’ Lady Roysdon told herself with delight.
Then she knew it was not only the excitement and the adventure of what had happened tonight which had been so wonderful – it was the man she had been with.
He was, she told herself frankly, quite different from any other man she had ever met before.
She thought of his grey eyes looking searchingly into hers, the things they had said to each other in the wood.
She tried to go to sleep, but kept thinking that it was a long time to wait until the day after tomorrow when she would see him again.
Chapter Four
The drawing room of the Royal Pavilion was crowded with guests.
After a long but superlative dinner the majority of them were sitting down to play backgammon, whist or any other card game of their choosing.
Lady Roysdon looked around and realised that there was no one in the Chinese-style fantasia that the Prince had created at so much expense whom she had not met before.
Two guests always amused her. One of them was the exquisitely meticulous Beau Brummell, who had established his reputation for Social elegance and wit while still a schoolboy at Eton.
The Prince Regent had presented him with a Coronetcy in his Regiment when he was only fifteen.
Afterwards their friendship became closer until the Prince’s admiration was unfeigned and he accepted Brummell’s views on fashion with what seemed a deep reverence.
It was said that His Royal Highness’s graceful way of opening a snuffbox with one hand was copied from Beau Brummell, although he did not really like snuff.
He had, however, an astonishing variety of valuable snuffboxes, many of them set with diamonds and other precious stones.
Lady Roysdon was glad that Beau Brummell was present this evening because she knew that the conversation would involve a competitive exchange of wit and the Prince would therefore wish to hold the attention of all his close associates who included the Earl of Sheringham.
The other guest whom Lady Roysdon particularly liked because he had so much character and was not in the least impressed by pomp and circumstance was gruff old Lord Thurlow.
He was a very different character from George Brummell.
He was always dressed in bulky old-fashioned clothes with long ruffles and a vast wig despite the fact that all the younger men had now discarded them.
He had big bushy black eyebrows and a voice that Lady Roysdon thought was like a roll of thunder.
Lord Thurlow was known as being the politest man in the world to ladies, but he could be frank, almost to the point of rudeness, to men.
This meant that he did not always mix very well with some of the other guests at the Pavilion, but Lady Roysdon liked him.
She had been talking to him after dinner until the Earl of Sheringham deliberately drew her away towards a sofa at the far end of the room where they were out of hearing of the other guests.
“Why did you not wish to see me this afternoon?” he asked. “I called, but was informed that you were not at home.”
“I was indeed out,” Lady Roysdon answered. “So it was not just an excuse for refusing to see such an old friend such as yourself.”
“Where were you?”
“I have had a busy day,” she answered with a faint smile.
He turned sideways on the sofa to look at her, his narrow eyes searching her face.
Deliberately she did not look at him, but stared across the room to where the Prince was holding forth and making everyone laugh.
“You look different,” the Earl said. “What has happened?”
“What do you mean – different?” Lady Roysdon asked.
“I cannot explain it,” he replied, “but I noticed it the moment you entered the room before dinner.”
“I hoped that I was looking my best.”
“There is something in your eyes,” the Earl said as if he was speaking to himself. “But it is not only in your face.”
“You are being very analytical, D’Arcy. I suppose I should be flattered.”
He went on looking at her in a manner that made her feel slightly uneasy.
Then he asked,
“Why did you cheat on me the other night?”
“I told you I wished to go home in my own carriage.”
“I wanted to escort you.”
“I knew that, but I was too tired to have a scene.”
“You did not travel on the main road.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I would have overtaken you. My coachman, when he came to the front door, told me that you had just left, so I could not have been far behind you.”
“I went by the other road. It is less crowded.”
“But far more dangerous,” he replied. “You must be aware that it is foolish for a woman to travel alone at night without a man to protect her.”
“However, as you see, I reached home safe and sound.”
The Earl did not reply, but she was aware that his brain was busily thinking over something that he sensed rather than saw.
“What is it in you that has changed?” he asked after a moment.
“Am I changed? I am not aware of it.”
“It is as if you had come alive,” he said slowly.
; “It must be the sea air,” Lady Roysdon smiled. “You have always decried Brighton, but now you can see the effect it has on the Prince.”
“I am not concerned with the Prince,” the Earl said. “I think another change in you is that you appear happy.”
“I am happy!” Lady Roysdon replied positively, “and the reason for that, since you are so curious, is that I have been able to make one of my friends happy and that pleases me.”
She thought as she spoke that she would give him a bone to gnaw on.
He was, as she had found in the past, exceedingly perceptive where she was concerned and, although she told herself it was absurd, she was afraid he might guess too much and that would be dangerous.
“A friend?” he asked sharply. “A man?”
Lady Roysdon laughed.
“There is no need for jealousy, D’Arcy, that I can promise you. No, it was a woman friend, so you can cease to cross-question me. You are not really in a position to be my inquisitor.”
She hoped that she had satisfied him. At the same time it really was true that Averil’s happiness had given her great pleasure.
She had visited the Bank early in the morning and set up a Trust as the highwayman suggested, telling the Bank Manager that she had won the money at the gaming tables.
He was not in the least surprised at being handed bags of gold and notes. It was Lady Roysdon who was astonished at the value of them when they were all counted out.
“Eighteen thousand pounds !” she exclaimed.
“Eighteen thousand and nine pounds, ten shillings to be exact.”
“I had no idea I had won so much.”
“Your Ladyship should consider that you might equally well have lost it,” the Bank Manager said almost severely.
“I should certainly have been very distressed if I had.”
She then proceeded to sign the papers he had made out for her which ensured that Lady Dorridge’s two little daughters were the only persons who could touch the capital after they came of age.
Averil Dorridge could hardly believe her ears when Lady Roysdon told her what she had done.
“But, Galatea, how can I accept your money? You know – ”
Lady Roysdon put her hand on her friend’s arm.
The Outrageous Lady Page 7
