Sally James (15 page)

‘I’m for Richmond,’ she said briefly and set a punishing pace he found difficulty in matching, so he was too far behind to question her.

Susannah halted at last at a posting inn in Richmond and told Sanders to find himself some refreshment when he had seen to the horses.

‘I shall want to see you again in half an hour,’ she said crisply.

‘Miss Susannah, the mare is almost blown!’ he protested.

‘I know better than to ruin my cattle. I said I wanted to see you, not that I wanted the horses again. See to it.’

Before he could argue she swept into the inn and commanded the bowing innkeeper to serve coffee and rolls immediately. After her swift ride she was hungry and more able to appreciate her food than when she had tried to breakfast earlier. Now she knew what was happening, or at least suspected she did, and having the prospect of action before her felt more like her normal self, despite the lack of sleep.

‘I need a chaise,’ she told the landlord. ‘Can you arrange it? And if possible a couple of stout outriders. I must send my groom home with my own horses and I do not care to drive alone.’

The landlord looked doubtful, but said he would see what could be done. He returned to say he could provide a chaise, with a reliable postillion, but the outriders were not to be had.

‘It’s only a small stable,’ he apologized, ‘and there’s little call for such. I’ve no men to spare, for one of my lads is off with an ague and another broke a leg last week.’

‘Oh, well, I might be able to hire some later,’ Susannah replied, wishing she possessed a pistol such as Lord Chalford’s if she could hire no better protection.

‘You’ve little fear of highwaymen,’ the landlord said, intending to offer comfort, and Susannah could hardly reveal it was not to protect her from such hazards but for a much more unusual purpose that she had hoped to hire a couple of men with guns.

The next hurdle was Sanders and since he had known her from her earliest years she did not anticipate it would be easy to persuade him to do as she wished. He came to her at the appointed time, and as she expected, objected to her instructions.

‘Miss Susannah! I cannot leave you here. ‘Tis not to be thought on!’

‘Neither can you leave the horses in strange hands,’ she said patiently. ‘I merely have need to go to The Hall, to fetch something, and took it into my head to go myself instead of sending someone.’

‘Let me take your message, or fetch whatever you want,’ he suggested. ‘You could wait here until I get back. It’s a respectable looking inn.’

‘No, you could not find it and neither could any of the maids left there,’ she replied.

‘It isn’t safe for you to drive alone!’

‘I’ll have the postillion, so I won’t be alone.’

‘The master will never forgive me!’ he groaned.

‘He need not know, and even if he does discover it, you do it at my orders, so no blame can attach to you.’

‘Highwaymen! A wheel might come off? Job chaises are worse than job cattle!’

She laughed. ‘Then I’d have to ride one of the beasts to the next posting house. I have my habit on, so I am prepared. Now, Sanders, you are being tedious and delaying me. My mind is fully made up. I am going and wish you merely to take the horses back to Brook Street when they are sufficiently rested. I left a note for my cousin to explain what I am doing so they will be expecting you. They will be more concerned if you do not return in good time than at my absence, which they know about.’

Eventually he was persuaded and she set off in the chaise, not to The Hall, as she had told him, but to West Place, Sir William’s house, which lay some two miles nearer to London. It was pointless to worry until she knew exactly what had happened, she told herself firmly and occupied her thoughts with plans of what she could do once she arrived.

Chapter Nine

Amanda had been almost as restless as Susannah, but just before dawn she had fallen into a deep, exhausted sleep. She emerged from this only when Jane, having discovered her mistress’s absence and the note left for Amanda, knocked urgently on her door.

‘Who is it?’ Amanda said sleepily and then sat up swiftly as the recollection of the previous evening’s events swept over her.

Jane opened the door and peeped in.

‘Oh, Miss Amanda, I’m sorry, I’m sure, for disturbing you, but Miss Susannah, she’s gone from her room and left this for you.’

By now Amanda was fully awake.

‘Come in, Jane. What time is it?’

‘Barely ten, Miss. I always go to Miss Susannah, even after a late night, because she never likes to sleep too long in a morning.’

Amanda was scanning the note rapidly.

‘Had you any notion she intended it?’ she demanded.

Jane shook her head and gulped back a sob.

‘She said when I undressed her she would have her chocolate at ten. Oh, Miss, what’s she done? Where is she?’

Knowing Jane was utterly devoted to Susannah and completely trustworthy, Amanda did not try to conceal her worry.

‘She says she has to go to Sussex. Lord Horder may be in trouble, for he has apparently gone to West Place with Sir William Andrews and there was a quarrel between them. Jane, you must not breathe a word of this, but please send Annie to me and then try to discover when Miss Susannah went out, if there was anyone with her and whether any message came for her.’

As she dressed, Amanda ate a thin slice of bread and butter and swallowed a mouthful of chocolate. She learned from Jane no message had been brought for Susannah, but she had gone riding, attended by her groom, very early, and then had come back briefly to the house before departing again. She was by now so distracted she felt her only course of action was to confide in her father and she descended to the morning room to look for him. The footman on duty informed her Mr Grant had left the house early, not saying when he would return. Amanda considered going to see her mother, but if she hoped to follow Susannah Mrs Grant would be helpless, ill as she always was in a carriage. Amanda stood pondering the problem when there was a sharp knock on the front door.

Filled with a sudden hope this might be Julian, Amanda flew to open it and Lord Chalford, his eyebrows raised and a smile at the corners of his mouth, bowed elegantly to her. She blushed furiously and stepped back.

‘Oh! You!’ she stammered.

‘I came to beg the honour of a few words with your cousin, Miss Grant,’ Lord Chalford said smoothly and with a smile and a nod to the footman, hovering uncertainly behind Amanda, gently guided her into the saloon and firmly shut the door.

‘Susannah is out, my lord,’ Amanda gasped and then without warning burst into tears.

‘Pray sit down, my dear, and when you feel calmer tell me what disturbs you so. I may be able to offer assistance. Here, take this,’ he added and Amanda, finding herself firmly pushed onto a small sofa, thankfully took the large serviceable handkerchief he proffered and abandoned the abortive search for her own wisp of cambric.

‘Susannah wrote she was going after Julian,’ Amanda said when she was calm enough to speak, her desperate need for help outweighing any considerations of the wisdom of confiding in one who, besides being almost a stranger, was suspected of some complicity in the theft of the jewels.

‘Where might he be?’ Lord Chalford asked calmly.

‘Your uncle. Sir William. Susannah wrote he had taken him to Sussex, but if that is so, and he didn’t just follow him, it means he caught him and Julian will be in dreadful danger!’

By astute questions and surmises, Lord Chalford gradually sorted out the tangled account Amanda gave him, including the suspicions which had been directed at him after the discovery of some of Julian’s father’s jewels in his possession. He looked amused and Amanda, half regretting her confidences now that she was calmer, grew angry.

‘Julian and now Susannah are in danger!’ she stormed at him, ‘and you just sit there laughing!’

He looked at her and shook his head.

‘If it is as you suspect, he dare not harm them until he had contrived some semblance of an accident,’ he said reassuringly. ‘Do not fear, before that can happen I will be there. Will you be all right if I leave you now? Shall I call your maid? Where is your mother?’

‘Are you going after them?’ Amanda asked, clutching at his elegant riding coat as he began to rise from the sofa.

‘Of course. I came to ask Susannah to ride with me, and have my own horse outside. Fortunately he is fresh and I will be at West Place soon after her.’

‘Oh, take me with you!’ Amanda said urgently, but he shook his head.

‘You could not keep pace with me, and besides, you’d be a confounded nuisance,’ he said bluntly and gently detaching her hands from his coat lapels turned and strode out of the room, ignoring her cry of protest.

The footman was opening the door to another caller and Lord Chalford glanced at him as he paused to pull on his gloves. It was Richard Grainger and he was asking whether Miss Rendlesham was in and would see him. Before the footman had time to speak, Amanda ran towards Richard and seized his hand. He stared at her in amazement.

‘Miss Grant? What has happened?’ he demanded.

She pointed at Lord Chalford.

‘He - is going after Susannah and won’t take me! Oh, Mr Grainger, he must not!’

Richard looked swiftly from one to the other.

‘Where is Susannah?’ he asked curtly.

‘In Sussex, I apprehend, and if you would be so kind as to step aside, sir, I shall the sooner be able to follow her,’ Lord Chalford said smoothly.

‘I forbid you!’

Lord Chalford looked him up and down slowly.

‘Indeed?’ he drawled. `Pray what have you to do with any of my actions?’

‘I forbid you to have any dealings with Susannah!’ Richard said, becoming angry at Lord Chalford’s scarcely veiled contempt.

‘By what right?’ Lord Chalford asked, a steely note now present in his voice.

‘Because I intend to make her my wife!’ Richard retorted.

Lord Chalford’s eyes narrowed, then he suddenly smiled.

‘My felicitations. Possibly I shall see you too in Sussex.’

Before Richard could move he had bowed to them and stepped round Richard and through the door still held open by the gaping footman. Richard looked after him, took a step towards the door and was halted by Amanda clutching his arm.

‘Oh, pray, take me!’ she begged and Richard was just about to argue when he caught sight of the footman’s goggling eyes fixed on him and realized the impropriety of the scene which had just taken place. He looked about him wildly, saw the open door of the saloon and dragged Amanda inside, shutting the door in the face of the disappointed servant.

‘Why is Susannah in Sussex?’ he demanded, but Amanda shook his arm, to which she was still clinging, impatiently.

‘Oh, you must not waste time! If you mean to go after her, I can explain to you on the way. If - if you don’t take me I shall set out by myself!’ she announced and after staring at her for a few moments, baffled, Richard shrugged and conceded defeat.

‘As you wish,’ he said. ‘Fetch a cloak quickly. I have my curricle outside. Ought we not to tell your parents?’

‘I will leave a message,’ Amanda promised as she darted out of the room and, as she found Jane hovering on the landing outside her room, she did tell her to inform her parents she had followed Miss Susannah to Sussex, but they were not to be concerned for she was with Mr Grainger.

Jane’s eyes grew wide at this development, and as she confided later to Annie, she could have been knocked down with a feather. ‘For I’d have sworn it was Miss Susannah he’d got his eyes on, not Miss Amanda!’

Preoccupied with guiding his horses through the traffic, it took Richard considerably longer than Lord Chalford to understand Amanda’s story and she was almost weeping with frustration when, after his slowness at grasping important points, he poured scorn on the whole notion that Sir William could be a murderer and thief.

‘He may not be a very attractive person,’ he said judiciously. ‘I have not considered it greatly, for I have not known him intimately, and I can think of others far less pleasant, but he is, after all of impeccable lineage. You must not spread such unfounded slander, my dear Miss Grant!’

‘You may find him pleasant, but he does not wish to marry you!’ Amanda retorted.

He glanced at her consideringly.

‘Are you being pressed to accept his suit?’ he asked and when she nodded, frowning, smiled. ‘Then I can see why you are prepared to think the worst of him,’ he said understandingly. ‘You should not allow your judgement to be swayed by your dislike of such a match, however. A man of his birth would not stoop to murder.’

‘Henry the Eighth was quite well born too!’ Amanda snapped. ‘Oh, can’t you hurry! Why don’t you overtake this wretched coach?’

Richard compressed his lips and decided it was impossible to argue rationally with females.

‘I am accounted a tolerable whip,’ he said calmly. ‘I do not, however, place my cattle or my passengers in peril. There is a bend approaching, which obstructs my view.’

Amanda muttered something which sounded suspiciously like a slur on his courage, but Richard, resisting the urge to reply heatedly, reassured her they would be in good time and she was not to fret. Amanda huddled into her cloak as far away from him as possible and forbore to answer. She maintained the silence apart from refusing his offer of refreshment at one of the inns where they changed horses and even stifled her protest when he lingered an extra minute to drink a glass of wine he asked to be brought to him, but as they drew nearer to West Place she became more and more agitated as she let her imagination range freely over the possible calamities that might have befallen Julian and Susannah.

They eventually reached a small town some miles short of their destination and Richard drew into the yard of the only posting inn for a final change of horses, only to discover there were no fresh cattle to be had.

‘Uncommon busy we’ve been this morning,’ the ostler told him. ‘If your honour drives on about three miles, they might have some at the Bull. Never known so many people stopping afore,’ he went on to himself.