Sally James (18 page)

‘Not so fast, Uncle William,’ Lord Chalford drawled, leaning out of the coach window. ‘The coach and its passengers are going nowhere with your villainous friends.’

‘Adams!’ Sir William exclaimed urgently and the man addressed nodded, and keeping to the far side of the coach, began to approach the other door, followed by his companion, while the coach driver, more concerned with his horses than what anyone else was doing, was busy examining their legs for possible injuries.

‘Do not come any further, Adams!’ Susannah ordered as he came into her sight, and showed him the pistol she held. For a second he stopped and then laughed.

‘You’d not shoot me with that toy!’ he scoffed and took another step forward.

Susannah aimed carefully and fired. The shot caught him in the chest and he spun round, a startled expression on his face, before crashing to the ground. His accomplice, openmouthed in dismay, soon recovered his sense of self preservation. He backed warily away until he could retreat behind the corner of the coach, when he turned and fled, ignoring Sir William’s shouted command to give assistance.

Amanda was screaming, and Richard was frozen momentarily into immobility, unaware of who had fired the shot and who had been hurt. Then as he moved to run behind the coach to investigate, Sir William dragged his own pistol from his pocket and sharply ordered him to wait.

Lord Chalford fired and the pistol flew uselessly out of Sir William’s numbed hand.

‘Seize him!’ Lord Chalford ordered, throwing open the coach door and leaping towards Sir William.

Richard was nearer, however, and pounced on Sir William as he was struggling to drag another pistol from his other pocket. As they swayed together Sir William wrenched his arm free and with a vicious upward jab caught Richard on the jaw, forcing him to release his hold. Lord Chalford was there, however, and within a short space of time had overcome Sir William, twisting his arms behind his back and forcing him to drop the second pistol.

‘Susannah, bring me those cords!’ Lord Chalford commanded and she came across to him, handing him the cords which had so recently been about her own wrists, and helped him to secure Sir William. Then she picked up the pistol, and with a wavering smile, handed it to him.

‘I - I think I’ve killed Adams!’ she said, a tremor in her voice.

Lord Chalford tightened the knot he was tying and grinned up at her.

‘Were you so concerned when you thought you might have killed me?’ he asked softly, then looked at Richard, ruefully nursing his jaw. ‘Be a good fellow, Grainger, and see whether there’s aught we can do for the villain Susannah shot.’

Richard looked at her in horror.

‘You shot him?’ he exclaimed.

‘What would you have me do, wait for him to recapture me and send me out in a boat to drown?’ she retorted with rather more of her normal spirit and Richard, shaking his head, walked round the coach to discover Adams’s body, clearly in no state where earthly help could cure him. Richard also discovered Amanda, forgotten in the stress of events, sobbing hysterically as she still sat in the curricle.

He went across to her and took the reins out of her unresisting hands, blessing the lethargic horses which, despite the noises of shots about them, had remained where they were, partially enclosed by the trees amongst which Richard had driven them.

‘Everything is safe now,’ he said calmly as he tied the reins to a tree. ‘Come, Susannah needs you. You must pull yourself together to help her. She - she has been through a great deal and needs another female to take care of her.’

‘Is she hurt?’ Amanda demanded, swallowing her sobs and permitting Richard to hand her from the curricle.

‘No, no,’ he assured her hastily. ‘She is upset, naturally, at being involved in anything so violent.’

‘Where is Julian?’

‘Julian? Why, I do not know,’ he confessed, at which Amanda abruptly left him and ran round to the side of the coach where her cousin and Lord Chalford were tying Sir William Andrews up with cord.

‘Where is Julian?’ she demanded and Susannah, a guilty look on her face, turned towards her, the pistol still in her hand. Amanda shrieked and backed away. ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, do be careful!’ she pleaded and sought for the comfort of Richard’s arms, protectively placed about her.

‘Oh, don’t be so hen witted!’ the sorely tried Susannah exclaimed. ‘I’ve handled pistols before. I won’t put a hole through you. Julian is in the coach. He was unconscious, Sir William’s man knocked him senseless,’ she added with what Amanda thought callous unconcern.

‘Unconscious!’ Amanda exclaimed and turned to find Julian, decidedly unsteady on his feet, clinging to the door of the coach from which he had just descended.

‘What the devil’s going on?’ Julian demanded. ‘Why are you here, Amanda? And Grainger. Everard! Oh, God, my head!’

‘We’d best all get along into the house,’ Lord Chalford said, standing up after securing the last of Sir William’s bonds. He looked about him, seeing what none of the others had been aware of, a collection of Sir William’s servants huddled together a discreet distance off.

He beckoned them over and ordered two of the men to carry Sir William, instructing them to take him to his room.

‘Grainger, will you see that they take the horses in? And best take the body to the stables too,’ he suggested and, before Richard could answer, had turned to help a still shaky Julian traverse the hundred yards or so to the house, leaving Amanda and Susannah to follow.

When Richard, after making what speed he could, went to the house it was to find the girls and Julian seated in the drawing room.

‘Where is Lord Chalford?’ he asked.

‘Gone to make certain his uncle is properly locked in,’ Julian said offhandedly. ‘Well, he admitted almost everything and I don’t think he has sold many of the jewels,’ he continued to Amanda, who was sitting beside him cradling his hand in hers. ‘Your father will not be able to refuse me now.’

‘Will you charge Sir William?’ Richard asked and Julian looked at him blankly.

‘I suppose I shall have to,’ he said slowly. ‘I hadn’t thought much about that. Lord, what a stink it will make!’

‘Would he return the jewels without?’ Susannah asked. ‘There is also the charge of murder, if we can prove it after so many years.’

‘I know,’ Julian sighed. ‘I don’t want to cause scandal, and unless he admits it, it would be very difficult to prove. Yet I am determined to get the jewels back. They are rightfully mine!’

‘I think all can be arranged quietly,’ Lord Chalford said and they swung round, none of them having heard him come into the room. ‘I’ve been making certain suggestions to my precious uncle, who’s as reluctant to face a court as you are to prosecute, Julian. This estate will be sold to pay off his debts. He has agreed to return all the jewels to you, with compensation for those he has already disposed of, and to retire abroad. I shall make him a small allowance so long as he remains there. I shall also administer his affairs for Augusta until she marries, and with what is left made over to her she will not be forced into any distasteful marriage. Are you willing to accept that solution, Julian?’

‘Everard, will he really do that? That’s marvellous! I don’t want anything except the jewels, because they will enable me to offer for Amanda.’

He put his arm about her and she sighed blissfully.

‘What about Adams?’ Susannah said quietly. ‘How shall we explain his death?’

‘The servants here can be relied on not to mention Sir William’s dealings with him. A notorious smuggler, shot while attempting to abduct Julian and hold him to ransom? No one will be much concerned about that. The coachman was one of my uncle’s own men and I’ll see to it he tells the man who ran away that he’d best keep his mouth shut if he doesn’t want to be charged. That need not concern you.’

‘But will the servants not wonder why Sir William is confined? Might they not release him?’

‘I’ve told them he’s gone off his head, so none of them will dare. After all, they saw him threaten me, his own nephew. He’ll go abroad for his health.’

‘We owe you a great deal,’ Richard said smoothly. ‘Can we rely on you to settle matters here? I think Julian and I ought to convey the girls back to London before there is any scandal attached to this affair.’

‘Indeed,’ Lord Chalford said unhelpfully and Richard continued, a little stilted.

‘Susannah, where is your chaise?’

‘Returning for me in two hours,’ she answered mechanically. ‘Gracious heavens, has all this happened in less than two hours?’

‘Good. Julian, as I am sure you do not feel capable of driving yet, I would suggest that you return in the chaise, and since I apprehend that you and Miss Grant are, er, affianced, perhaps you would prefer to escort her home? I can take Susannah in my curricle.’

‘You’d not reach London until long after dark,’ Lord Chalford intervened, leaning negligently against the mantelpiece. ‘It would be better for Amanda and Susannah to go to The Hall and for you and Julian to remain here with me. I’ll send a groom with a message to Mrs Grant and he can take any messages you might wish to send too. I really think,’ he added as Richard seemed about to protest, ‘it would be less improper for us to arrange that than for you to be jauntering about the country, one couple in a closed chaise and the other in an open curricle. I cannot think which would be thought more unseemly.’

‘But Julian and I are betrothed, or almost so,’ Amanda said in surprise.

‘Your cousin and Mr Grainger are not, however,’ he replied, throwing Susannah a mischievous glance.

‘My lord! As to that,’ Richard began and then seemed to have difficulties in finding appropriate words.

‘Are you betrothed?’ Lord Chalford asked in simulated surprise. ‘I had not heard of it, apart from what you said in Brook Street, and I did not think that was at all a definite announcement!’

‘No we are not,’ Susannah said indignantly and at the same time Richard spoke.

‘I very sincerely hope Miss Rendlesham will now accept my offer,’ he was saying stiffly. ‘Miss Rendlesham is aware of my regard for her and also the difficulties I feel are attached to her situation while her father is abroad and I cannot apply to him in the regular way for permission to address her, but in the circumstances I hope you will all understand.’

Lord Chalford looked from his flushed countenance to Susannah’s stormy one. There was a gleam in his eye that made her catch her breath as she glanced at him.

‘Well, Miss Rendlesham, are we to congratulate Mr Grainger?’ Lord Chalford persisted in a bland tone.

Susannah glared at him and then turned back to Richard.

‘Richard, we discussed this last night,’ she said desperately. ‘I told you I did not love you.’

‘I know I was impetuous, my dear, and I realize you are acting most properly in refusing to answer me until your father gives his approval, but the circumstances are most unusual and I will not think the worse of you if you commit yourself now. I would not have anyone accuse you of impropriety!’

‘Oh, but she is most enchanting when she is behaving improperly,’ Lord Chalford interposed gently, laughing, and Susannah swung round to him, unsure of whether to laugh at him or deny the charge.

‘My lord!’ Richard exclaimed. ‘Susannah, I beg of you, permit me to escort you, as has been most sensibly suggested, to your aunt’s house. I will write to your father the moment I am able to and then it will all be set right.’

‘If you think that, then you don’t know Susannah,’ Lord Chalford commented lightly. ‘You may have scruples about offering for Susannah before approaching her father, but not everyone would. I doubt if her father would have any say in the matter. Susannah will marry whomsoever she chooses, with or without his approval, I feel convinced.’

‘When you have both finished discussing me, perhaps we could resume our consideration of more important matters,’ Susannah cut in sharply.

‘Later, my dear. Since Mr Grainger refuses to believe you can make your own choice, I think the only way you can disabuse him of the notion is to reveal you have already promised yourself to me!’

‘Susannah!’ Amanda exclaimed. ‘You never told me!’

‘Everard, by all that’s wonderful,’ Julian shouted, leaping up to clap his friend on the shoulder.

Richard, rather white about the lips, stared at him and then turned towards Susannah.

‘Is this true?’ he asked hoarsely.

Susannah was about to deny it indignantly when she caught the quizzical look in Lord Chalford’s eyes. There was something else there too, which caused her heart to turn over in a most dizzy manner. She closed her mouth, and as Lord Chalford crossed the room towards her and placed his arm about her shoulders, nodded quickly.

‘You were shameless,’ she scolded some time later.

Richard, having frostily refused the invitation to remain for the night at West Place, had departed and Julian and Amanda had unaccountably disappeared. Susannah was comfortably ensconced in Lord Chalford’s arms and had been dreamily listening to his assurances that he had known, when he first saw her playing the maidservant at Julian’s dinner party, she was the one girl he had been looking for all his life.

‘But you would not have married a servant girl,’ she reminded him teasingly.

‘I’d had very little chance of kissing you then,’ he retorted, making up for lost opportunities. ‘Who knows what I might not have done if you had treated me like this instead of fighting me and running away - with my horses!’

She gurgled.

‘Were you furious? I’ve been longing to drive them again, as it happens, and I think that must be why I accepted you!’

‘Oh, it is, is it? I’ll give them to you as a wedding present.’

She sat up at that, startled.

‘Your greys?’ she demanded incredulously. ‘You could not give them away!’

He pulled her back into his arms.

‘Life would have no savour and even the best horses in the world would be no consolation if I did not possess you, my love. I’ll give you anything in my power to provide, because I love you, my darling, and will never stop.’

‘Poor Richard,’ she murmured.