Georgette Heyer (49 page)

  It was not until some time after eight o'clock that Colonel Gounter reached his home. He was met in the big, wainscoted hall by his wife, who had been preparing supper in the kitchen, with the assistance of Robert Swan. She came hurrying across the hall, as the Colonel tossed his plumed hat on to a chair, and began to unbuckle his sword-belt. He looked up when he heard her footstep, and smiled, and held out his hand. 'All's well, Kate! You see before you a free man. What's the news with you, good sweetheart? Whose nags are those, put up in our stable?'

  She stood on tiptoe to embrace him, for he was a tall man. 'It's your cousin, Tom Gounter, with a gentleman from Devonshire, who is wishful to have speech with you. But, oh, my dearest, my heart much misgives me, and I fear they mean to draw you into some dangerous coil of theirs!'

  'Your heart misgives you because Tom is come to see me?' he said, holding her away from him, and looking down into her face in surprise.

  'No, but this Mr Barlow! I am sure he is other than he appears, for he has such an air, and a fine London servant besides! Oh, George, promise me you will not engage upon any rash undertaking!'

  'Why, Kate, what's this farrago of nonsense? What rash undertaking should I engage upon? I promise you, I know of none. Go you in now, and tell Tom I will be with him as soon as I have pulled off my boots.'

  He gave her shoulder a little pat, and let her go. She went reluctantly, and delivered his message. Ten minutes later, his firm, brisk tread was heard crossing the hall towards the parlour door; he came in, a soldierly figure, with a tanned face, a swift smile, and rather stern grey eyes. 'Well, Tom! Give ye good den!' he said, shutting the door behind him. 'You are come in a good hour, for I am just arrived from settling my plaguey affairs.' He clasped his kinsman's hand, as he spoke, and looked keenly at Wilmot, who had risen from a chair on the opposite side of the wide fireplace. My lord stood just outside the circle of light cast by a branch of candles upon the table, but as Tom Gounter spoke his assumed name, he moved slightly, and the Colonel saw his face. A startled expression leapt to his eyes; he stood quite still for a moment, and then went up to my lord, saying: 'You are very welcome, sir.'

  Wilmot took his hand, and contrived to draw him a little apart. 'I see you know me,' he muttered. 'Do not own me!'

  The Colonel cast a wondering glance at his cousin. Apparently he really was in ignorance of his old commander's identity, for his countenance was quite dis interested, and he very slightly shrugged his shoulders as he met the Colonel's puzzled eye.

  The Colonel turned to the table, which had some bottles and glasses upon it. 'You'll take a glass of sack, Mr Barlow? Have you ridden far?'

  'No, from Mr Lawrence Hyde's, where I am staying. I believe we have some friends in common, Colonel. You are acquainted with Dr Henchman, are you not?'

  'Yes, I know Dr Henchman,' the Colonel replied drawing the cork out of one of the bottles, ''Sdeath, what's this?'

  A couple of small hornets most unexpectedly flew out of the bottle. They created a not unwelcome diver sion, no one being able to decide how they had got into the bottle in the first place, or had managed to survive there. While these problems were under discus sion, Mrs Gounter slipped out of the room to lay the covers in the dining-parlour. She presently summoned the gentlemen to supper, and, when they sat down at the table, again looked very closely at Wilmot.

  Robert Swan waited upon the company; and, when the meal came to an end, the Colonel almost at once offered to conduct my lord to his bedchamber. The hour was already considerably advanced, and my lord, saying that he would be glad indeed to seek his bed, followed his host upstairs to the room which had been prepared for him.

  Tom Gounter, yawning prodigiously, said that he also would go to bed; and Mrs Gounter, who was more than ever suspicious of her unknown guest, took up a candle and accompanied the three men to Wilmot's chamber. Here she made a parade of turning back the coverlet, of snuffing a candle, of assuring herself that the windows were all shut to keep out the night air; but when she had performed these tasks, the Colonel told her to seek her own bed. 'I will follow you there very soon, for I promise you all this riding about the country has made me mighty sleepy. Tom, do you be off too! I will wait upon Mr Barlow.'

  The younger Gounter needed no persuasion, but Mrs Gounter went very reluctantly, lingering in the doorway to whisper a warning to her husband. 'I am positive of a disguise! Do not let yourself be drawn in!'

  'I shall be with you before you have had time to get between the sheets, good sweetheart,' he replied lightly. 'Nay, go now, Kate: enough!'

  He shut the door upon her, and, turning, showed Wilmot a face from which the smile had quite vanished. He said abruptly: 'My lord, how may I serve you? How do you come to be in my kinsman's company, and how is it possible that he knows you not?'

  'But I am travelling in disguise!' Wilmot said, a little hurt. 'You see how plainly I am dressed, surely! I have put off my ornaments, and have no lace upon my collar, besides having my hair almost uncurled.'

  'I think my cousin should have known you,' replied the Colonel, with a slight smile. 'Indeed, you may trust him, my lord. But how came you in his company?'

  'I was directed to him, and to you, Colonel, by Dr Henchman,' said Wilmot, looking anxiously at him.

  The Colonel met that look rather searchingly. 'Yes, my lord? To what end?'

  Wilmot hesitated for a moment, and then, drawing a long breath, blurted out: 'Colonel Gounter! The King of England – my master, your master! The master of all good Englishmen! – is near you, and in great distress. Can you help us to a boat?'

  The Colonel stood perfectly still, his eyes fixed on Wilmot's face. He did not answer immediately, which a little discomposed my lord, and when he did speak it was to say: 'Is he well? Is he safe?'

  'He is both,' Wilmot replied guardedly.

  'God be blessed!' Gounter ejaculated. He saw that Wilmot was watching him suspiciously, and added: 'I asked, because if he should not be secure I don't doubt I could secure him till a boat be got. Now tell me the whole, my lord, and show me wherein I can serve his Majesty! Where is he lodged?'

  Again Wilmot hesitated, but after a little pause he said: 'I do trust he is out of danger at this present, having gone to Heale, with Colonel Robin Phelips, but I know not what course has been taken for securing him there. Indeed, what security can there be for him in all this ungrateful country? Oh, my dear sir, if you but knew the danger he has passed through, the checks we have met with!' He sank down into a chair by the table, clasping his head in his hands. 'It is more than a month since we bore him off from Worcester, and still I can find no means to transport him overseas! Some times I think I must grow mad with the fear, always with me – yea, waking and sleeping! – that he will be taken!'

  His voice had risen; he broke off, shuddering. The Colonel repeated: 'Tell me the whole, my lord.'

  His quiet, the firm note in his voice, seemed to inspire Wilmot with confidence. He raised his head from between his hands, and began to recount some part of the King's adventures. He found the Colonel a silent, but a sym pathetic listener, and was soon impelled to unburden his mind of its fears. 'No one knows what I have lived through during these weeks!' he said, at the end. 'He chose me to go with him: me alone, mark you!
He
laughs at his danger, but he is young, and of that disposition which – He does not comprehend the dreadful burden which I must carry every moment of every day! But let that go: if I can bring him safely off, I shall be content. Three times our plans have miscarried! Now I come to seek your aid, believing you to be one who can help the King to a boat, as knowing many sea faring men.'

  'My lord,' the Colonel said seriously, 'I will be very plain with you. For all I live so near the sea, I must believe there is no man living so little acquainted with these kind of men.'

  A groan broke from Wilmot. 'O God! What to do, then?'

  'Will you trust me? I, as you, am bound to do my utmost to preserve the King. I give you my word that somehow I will acquit myself of this duty, and that with all possible expedition, which I account to be the very life of such a business.'

  Wilmot embraced him, kissing his cheek, his own wet with tears. 'Oh, my friend, God will surely reward you! But where will you go? How will you find an honest seaman?'

  'Nay, my lord, leave that to me, and do you rest secure. You are overwatched, and wearied out. You may sleep in my house without fearing to be taken in your bed.'

'But you? What shall you do?' Wilmot persisted.

  'I shall seek my bed too,' said the Colonel, with a smile. 'In the morning, I will ride to the coast, to a little port, called Emsworth, which is some two miles from this place, and see what fortune I meet with there.'

  'Shall I go with you? Would it be wise, think you?'

  'No, your lordship were much better to remain here,' Gounter replied in his decided way. 'For I shall go very early, and take with me only one John Day, that is a trusty man and a very loyal subject, and was formerly my servant. He is related to seamen of good account, and I think he may serve our turn. Your lord ship must await me here. I will return to you as speedily as I can, I promise you.'

  'Well, I will do so,' Wilmot said, sighing. 'But to stay kicking my heels is the hardest thing of all to do, Colonel.'

  'Ay, that is true, but your going with me will serve no purpose, my lord. Be patient! In good time, all will be well.'

  He took up his candle as he spoke, and bidding Wilmot goodnight, went away to his own chamber. He found that his wife was sitting up for him, still fully dressed, and with an expression in her face that boded no good. He smiled at her. 'What, Kate? Not abed?'

  'Who is that man?' she demanded. 'What is his busi ness with you, George?'

  'My dear heart, it is nothing concerning you, nor am I at liberty to disclose it to you.'

  She twisted her hands together. 'You cannot put me off so. I know there is more in it than you would have me believe, enough, I doubt not, to ruin you, and all your family! And in that, George, I am concerned!' Her face puckered; she burst into tears suddenly, rocking herself to and fro, and sobbing that they had had trouble enough, and she would rather he killed her than let her live to see him utterly undone.

  His attempts at soothing her only made her weep the more, and after a minute or two he took up his candle, and went out of the room, back to my lord's chamber.

  Wilmot was undressing, and looked round with instinctive alarm as the Colonel's knock sounded on the door. When he saw who it was, his suddenly stiffened limbs relaxed, and he said: 'Oh, it's you! Why, what's amiss?'

  'This is amiss,' said the Colonel, 'that my wife suspects you of being other than you seem, and is put into a very passion of weeping for dread lest I engage myself upon some unlawful business. I know her, my lord: there will be no appeasing her, except I disclose the truth to her. I dare pass my word for her loyalty, and, indeed, for myself, I would acquaint her with the whole. But it is for you to decide. Without your allowance, she shall know nothing.'

  Wilmot, a little dismayed, but thinking that a woman labouring under a suspicion would be more dangerous than one in possession of the truth, replied hastily: 'No, no: by all means acquaint her with it!'

  When he entered his chamber again, the Colonel found his lady still sobbing, and wringing her hands. He went to her, and took her in his arms, removing her handkerchief from her grasp, and drying her cheeks with it. 'Enough, Kate! I will tell you the whole, but you must leave crying, and keep a still tongue in your head. I am going upon the King's business.'

  'The King's business?' she faltered, her voice thick ened by her tears. 'Oh, George, what can you mean? How can you be going upon his business?'

  'Listen now, my heart! The King is lying concealed in your good sister-in-law's house at Heale, in what desperate plight you may guess. Unless a ship be found to carry him to France, he must soon or late fall into the hands of his enemies.'

  She was rigid with shocked surprise. Involuntarily, she exclaimed: 'Ah, that, God forbid! But you – you are to find a ship?' He nodded. She said, looking search ingly up into his face: 'Who is that man?'

  'He is my Lord Wilmot. He has been the King's sole companion in this perilous adventure, and was sent to me by Dr Henchman, who believed that I could help him to a boat. You know the truth now, Kate: what would you have me do?'

  There were still tears on the ends of her lashes, but she blinked them away, and forced her lips to smile. 'Alas, alas that you should have been singled out! I must say, Go on, and prosper! Yet I fear you will hardly do so.'

  He pressed her hand gratefully. 'I must endeavour, Kate, and will do my best, leaving the success to God Almighty.'

  She shook her head sadly, but said nothing to dissuade him from his duty. He told her in what a state of breaking nerves he had found Lord Wilmot; and discussed with her for some time which of the Sussex ports would be the likeliest for his purpose. She lay awake for long after he had fallen asleep, torn between loyalty and fear; but when he left her side very early in the morning to ride to Emsworth, she did her best to conceal her dread, and sped him on his way with resolute cheerfulness.