To Win the Lady (29 page)

They found the
track they were looking for and dismounted to lead their mounts, walking
cautiously. In a very few minutes they discovered a clearing and in the middle
of it, bathed in moonlight, was a dilapidated cottage with smoke coming from
its chimney. ‘That’s it,’ Richard whispered, tying his mount to a tree. ‘Leave
the horses here.’

Daniel was
tethering the cob, when Richard put a hand on his arm and he froze. Coming
towards the cottage from the opposite direction was a man Richard recognised.
‘Jem,’ he whispered. ‘Is that the man you saw?’

‘I reckon so,
though I didn’t get a good look. He must ha’ got tired of waiting for you.’

‘He maybe
thinks I’ve given up. He’ll be going to the Barley Mow to look for me and lure
me out here with some Banbury tale.’ He grinned in the darkness as the man
disappeared inside the building. ‘Wonder how many of them there are?’

‘If they’re the
same ones as held up his lordship’s coach, there were three to start with and I
slipped the wind of one o’ them. And maybe this Charlie he talked of is
another. He’s likely left him on the road to watch out for you.’

‘He’s got a
long wait, then,’ Richard said grimly. ‘But we won’t take any chances. I’ll
take a look first.’

There was a
shack near by which was probably used for storing logs, for there was a pile of
them next to it and an axe stuck in a chopping-block. They crept forward and,
once they were out of the shelter of the trees, darted for the cover of the
logs. Behind them, in the shack, they heard the restless chomping of a horse.
Richard left their hiding place to take a look. ‘It’s Warrior,’ he said,
returning. ‘You keep under cover while I go and take a look around.’

He looked about
him, then quickly crossed the open ground until he was in the shelter of the
wall of the cottage. Bending low, he moved along and peered in the window. Jem
and Lord Barbour’s son were sitting at a table, deep in conversation. There was
no one else to be seen.

He ducked down
and went round to the back. The window there was shuttered. He peered through a
crack and could just make out the figure of someone sitting on a bed, someone
in a woman’s riding habit. He was just about to pull it open when he saw Jem
come into the room and untie her from the bed. Then, with her hands still bound
behind her, he pulled her roughly into the other room. Richard returned to the
Corporal.

‘She’s there.
One man and the boy. You let Warrior out. Make as much noise as you can to draw
them out. Lead them away; give me a bit of time.’

‘Yes, sir.’
Daniel was once more the soldier, obeying orders; he felt comfortable with
that.

‘Wait for me to
get into place. I’ll throw a stone as a signal.’ Then he was gone again,
scampering to the cover of the cottage wall.

‘Sit down,’ Jem
commanded Georgie, pushing her into a chair at the table. ‘He ain’t come; seems
he couldn’t get another mount after all, so we’ll just have to invite him
here.’

‘Who?’ She had
recovered from the shock of her capture but she was still very frightened
because she had suddenly remembered where she had seen his watch before. It had
been taken from Lord Dullingham by the highwaymen!

She had thought
at the time that there was something strange about that hold-up. The men had
strewn their belongings about the road and taken the jewellery they had been
wearing and the money on their persons, but they had made a poor job of
searching the coach. Experienced high tobies would have realised that his
lordship would have hidden his money and anything of real value and they would
have made him tell them where it was. And they had said something about making
it look good.

She looked up
at Jem; the servile look he had adopted while working at Rowan Park had gone
and now he was scowling. ‘What are you talking about?’ she asked.

‘Who do you
think? Your lover, of course.’

‘I have no
lover.’

‘No?’ he
sneered. ‘That ain’t what the tattlers are saying.’

So, Lord
Barbour had spread that malicious lie after all. For a moment she forgot her
own predicament in her concern for Felicity. Poor girl! But would she believe
such duplicity of the sister who loved her so much that she would sacrifice
anything for her? But she did not know that, did not know Georgie had given up
all hope of happiness for herself. ‘What care I for gossip?’

‘I reckon
you’ll care afore another day passes. It will get worse.’ He seemed delighted
by the prospect. ‘Now you are going to write a letter. A love letter.’ He put a
sheet of paper, an ink-well and a quill on the table in front of her and untied
her wrists. ‘Write what I say and no funny business.’

She made no
move to obey and he picked up the quill and put it in her hand. ‘Write, unless
you want to taste the back of my hand.’

She looked up at
him, frantically searching her brain for some way of including a secret message
which Richard would understand. It was to the Major she was writing, she was
sure.

‘Let me see;
how shall we begin?’ He turned to her. ‘Now, how would you begin a letter to him?
My darling, or dearest, or dear heart, which is it to be?’

‘It might help
if I knew to whom I was writing,’ she said coldly.

‘Major the
Honourable Richard Baverstock, heir to Viscount Dullingham, who else? Mind you,
he’s only lately become the heir and that’s his misfortune. Before that it
was...’ He shrugged. ‘Enough of that. Address the letter to him.’

She wrote ‘Dear
Major Baverstock’ and looked up at him for further instructions.

‘I am in a
little trouble,’ he dictated, then laughed. `You might as well tell the truth.
It will serve. Tell him you are being held hostage and if he wants to see you
again he is to accompany the bearer, who will bring him to you.’

‘He might not
come.’

‘And pigs might
fly. He’ll come, especially when he sees it is Lord Barbour’s son who brings
him the message. They are old adversaries.’ He nodded to the boy who was
sitting in a rocking-chair by the fire, rocking himself back and forth in a
kind of contained glee.

‘Supposing the
Major has continued with the race? He might be long gone.’

‘He doesn’t
have a mount, not one that’ll carry him far. Besides, I’ve got someone on watch
on the road. He’ll stop him if need be. Now write.’

‘And if I
refuse?’ She didn’t really want to know the answer, but she needed time to
think.

But she was not
to have that time and neither was he. There was a great commotion outside, a
heavy rumbling followed by the snorting of a horse and then hoof beats. Warrior
had got loose and was creating mayhem! Jem threw open the door and went chasing
after the stallion, falling over the logs which had tumbled from their pile and
were rolling all over the place. The boy looked at the man, who was swearing
and trying to get to his feet, then back at Georgie, obviously wondering what
he should do, but before he could make up his mind Jem straightened up and
found himself face to face with Daniel Batson. A couple of swift punches, one
to the head and one to the belly, were enough. He sank back among the logs. The
boy abandoned Georgie and tore off through the woods.

‘Let the boy
go, man,’ commanded a familiar voice. ‘Go and get the other villain while I tie
this one up.’

Georgie, who
had been sitting at the table half mesmerised by the action taking place in the
yard, scrambled to her feet just as Richard came in the door, grabbed the rope
which had been used to tie her and went outside again to truss Jem up. That
done, he returned to Georgie. She flung herself into his arms.

‘Hush, my love,
it’s all over,’ he said, holding her close against him, stroking her hair from
her face, feeling the wild beating of her heart against his chest. ‘No harm’s
done.’

‘How did you
find me? Oh, Richard, they were going to kill you. I couldn’t have borne it.’
She shuddered. ‘My blood runs cold to think of it.’

He leaned back
to lift her chin with his finger so that he could look into her eyes. ‘You do
care, don’t you?’

‘Of course I
care.’

‘Weren’t you
worried about what they would do to you?’

She smiled
weakly. ‘Terrified. But I don’t understand what it was all about. It wasn’t
just the race, was it?’

‘No, I don’t
think so. Oh, my darling, I am so sorry you had to be mixed up in it. Why did
you bring Warrior instead of sending him?’

‘I just wanted
to see a little of the race.’ She smiled again, feeling stronger with his arms
so comfortably about her and his face, so full of concern, looking down at her.
‘The boy stopped me, pretended he was in trouble, then someone hit me on the
back of the head. The next thing I knew I was here. Where are we?’

‘In the wood
not three miles from Baldock. Corporal Batson overheard Jem talking to Lord
Barbour. He came back to tell me.’

‘Back? Do you
mean you abandoned the race?’

‘Yes. When no
one turned up with Warrior, I knew you must be in some sort of trouble and you
are far more important to me than any race. You are...’

‘But you must
go on.’ She was almost desperate to stop him saying any more. It could not be;
it just could not. ‘We’ll find Warrior, he won’t have gone far.’

‘No. We have to
talk. I must know.’

‘No, no. You
must go on.’

He stepped back
to take her shoulders in his hands and look down at her. ‘Georgie, look at me.’

Slowly she
raised her eyes.

‘I love you.’
He bent his head to kiss her. She shivered as the kiss deepened from a simple
meeting of lips to something that held the fire and passion they both felt. Her
whole body cried out for him and she clung to him, returning his kiss,
abandoning herself to the delightful sensations his touch aroused. It was some
time before he gathered his self-control and lifted his head, though his arms
remained around her. ‘Oh, my dear. You do feel it too.’

If it was meant
to be a question she did not answer and he did not repeat it. Instead, he said,
‘We can’t go on like his.’

‘Like what?’
Her voice was flat with the effort of trying to control her overflowing
emotions. To have been abducted and threatened then rescued by the man she
loved so much, to be kissed and know that he loved her too, and then to have to
spurn him, was too much. But spurn him she must.

‘I need to know
if you love me,’ he said.

Unable to look
into his eyes and lie, she lowered her gaze. ‘You are betrothed to my sister.’

‘I am not. I
haven’t seen her. I tried, believe me, but she seems not to want my advances.’

He had hoped to
be able to go to Georgie after the race and tell her he was free to ask her to
marry him, but he had been unable to see Felicity. She was a little out of
curl, he had been told, a slight indisposition, nothing to worry about, but she
was staying in bed for a day or two. He suspected she was doing to him exactly
what Georgie had done to Lord Barbour - avoiding him in order not to have to
receive his offer. He could not dangle there while she made a recovery; he had
left to start the race, knowing his failure would annoy Georgie.

He gave a
strangled laugh. ‘All I wanted was to give her the opportunity to turn me
down.’

‘She wouldn’t
do that. She knows what a good match it will be for her and...’

‘And how much
you have sacrificed to bring it about? I am not blind, Georgie, even if you
are.’

‘Don’t you have
any regard for her at all?’

‘Of course I
do, because she is your sister. I admit when my father and your aunt began
pushing me towards her I complied like a dutiful son, but it did not take me
long to realise it just would not do. It is you I love.’

She felt
drained of energy and there were no tears left in her to shed; they had
evaporated, leaving her like a dried-up shell, devoid of feeling. ‘So, you want
to defy your father again,’ she said, moving away from him to put enough
distance between them for her to be able to control her turbulent emotions.
‘You would break Felicity’s heart and make us all the subject of the most
horrible gossip?’

‘Do you really
think she will be heartbroken?’

‘You can’t mean
to back out. She will be mortified with shame.’

He looked
miserable, cursing the strict code of etiquette which forbade him to withdraw
with any honour, even though he had not actually made an offer of marriage. ‘I
know I can’t, but if she were to refuse me...’ He paused and said softly,
‘Georgie, you must tell her...’

‘I can’t
possibly do that.’

‘You are the
most infuriating woman I have ever come across, do you know that? You will make
three people miserable for the rest of their lives, perhaps four...’

‘Four?’

‘There may be
someone who loves your sister very much and she might love him...’

‘Do you know
that for a fact?’

‘No.’