Sally James (7 page)

‘First you must send for a doctor. Is there one nearby?’

‘Aye, Dr Frome lives but four miles away.’

‘Then pray send a lad to fetch him immediately. I must speak with the man who helped me.’

The farmer was in the taproom regaling its inhabitants with a highly coloured version of the exciting affair, but he readily promised to send someone to fetch the black horse, and Susannah, telling him she was sure the injured man would wish to see him to thank him personally for his assistance when he felt better, smiled and went back upstairs.

She found the innkeeper’s wife, obedient to her husband but sullen, trying to force Lord Chalford to swallow some of the thick broth she had brought. He had just recovered his senses again, but it was clear he had no notion of what was happening and Susannah, after one look at him, sharply told the woman she would be more likely to harm than assist him with her broth. The woman flushed with resentment.

‘Well, of all the ingratitude!’ she said angrily. ‘If you want to stay here, Miss, you had best leave off those airs and graces.’

Curtly reminding her of her husband’s willingness to accept the gold, Susannah drove her from the room and returned to the bed, looking anxiously down at Lord Chalford. He was tossing restlessly and when she put her hand to his forehead it felt hot and dry. It was clear he had no idea who she was, for which she was thankful, realizing it might save some awkward moments. It would scarcely be of any assistance to them if Lord Chalford were to inform the innkeeper or the doctor that she was a gambling prize!

When they had undressed him the innkeeper and his man had removed the improvised bandage, and Susannah rolled up the sleeve of his nightgown to see the wound more clearly. It had almost stopped bleeding, but looked red and angry, and after a moment she rang for the innkeeper and demanded water and clean bandages. She had no salve to anoint the graze and was offered none, but decided it might be as well to leave the wound until the doctor could provide something. She set about cleaning it as well as she could, considerably hampered by Lord Chalford’s restlessness, but eventually she had it washed and bound and spent the rest of the time until the doctor arrived struggling to keep her patient quiet, for he tossed and muttered ceaselessly, trying to sit up or throw off the covers.

Dr Frome was a small, fussy man, but he appeared to know his business and after examining the patient gave him a dose of laudanum which quietened him, and then, after shaking his head over the wound and looking curiously at Susannah, who had offered no explanation of it, cupped Lord Chalford.

‘I will return in the morning,’ he said briskly as he packed away his instruments. ‘Someone should sit with him through the night, for he may become delirious when the effects of the laudanum wear off. I will leave another dose.’

‘I will remain with him,’ Susannah promised, thinking it most unlikely that the innkeeper would offer help and being very reluctant to trust him or his wife even if they did. Now the main responsibility of caring for Lord Chalford was in the doctor’s hands, she was beginning to suffer a reaction and think with horror of what she had done. She had almost killed a man and whatever his behaviour towards her she could not contemplate her part in the affair without a shudder. It behoved her to ensure that he recovered with as much speed and as little discomfort as was possible.

She had dinner brought up to the bedroom, but found herself unable to eat much. She then settled herself in a comfortable chair beside the fire and contemplated her own predicament. She was stranded in a village the name of which she did not know, with a man who had abducted her and whom she had almost killed. Julian, knowing only that she had been snatched away by supposed highwaymen, would be frantic and heaven knew what he would do. It was most unlikely any of them would come out of the affair with any credit left unless she could spin some acceptable story to preserve her reputation.

The bag of coins lay on the dressing table and Susannah went to count them. There was ample to pay the innkeeper and she would feel no compunction in taking some to provide her with the means of travelling to London. Her only problem was whether to go straight to her grandmother’s or return to Aunt Sarah.

Without knowing what Julian had done it was impossible to decide, and in any event, she thought, she could scarcely abandon Lord Chalford until he was in a fit enough condition to look after himself or send for his own servants.

At about midnight he became restless again and she forced the second dose of laudanum into his mouth. It quietened him for a time, but an hour later he was tossing on the bed and growing very feverish.

Susannah sat beside him, constantly bathing his face and trying to prevent him from turning onto the injured arm. Towards dawn he grew quieter and she found that if she held his hand in hers he lay still, his eyes peacefully closed. The fever seemed to have abated and she relaxed, letting her head rest on the pillows, and fell into an uneasy doze. It was full daylight when she awoke with a start, her arm cramped, and sat up.

She found she was still holding Lord Chalford’s hand, and tried to disengage it gently, for he lay still with his eyes closed. He was gripping it firmly, however, and as she tried to pull away he grasped her tightly, his eyes opening and regarding her with considerable amusement.

‘Have you sat beside me all night?’ he asked and she flushed.

‘Pray release me, my lord! I can see that you no longer need a nurse.’

‘Have I been a nuisance?’ he asked, retaining hold of her hand. ‘Tell me what happened. Was it a bad shot aimed at my heart, or an exceedingly accurate one designed merely to disable me?’

Susannah flushed.

‘I could have killed you had I wished it!’ she replied stiffly, forgetting the dismay with which she had realized how closely she had in fact come to doing that.

Lord Chalford laughed.

‘It is painful, but not enough to put me in a bed!’ he commented. ‘I take it I took a toss?’

‘I imagine your attention was distracted,’ Susannah said kindly. ‘And I doubt if the mare is accustomed to having shots whistle past her head.’

‘Congratulations my dear. You succeeded admirably in defending yourself. Tell me why, with so excellent an opportunity presenting itself, you did not take advantage of it and make good your escape? Can it be you have changed your mind and mean to accept my offer?’

‘I could scarcely leave you lying senseless in a field!’ Susannah snapped, again trying unsuccessfully to free her hand.

‘I am most grateful. I begin to hope.’

‘Then you need not!’

‘Why do you refuse?’ he asked curiously. ‘I offer you an utterly different life to the one you are accustomed to - pretty gowns, jewels, a maid to wait on you. Why reject them?’

‘Do you think they make up for having to become your mistress?’ Susannah asked bluntly and he raised his eyebrows mockingly.

‘Am I so repulsive? Somehow I have not previously been given to believe that!’ he said and suddenly pulled Susannah so that, taken unawares, she fell against him, her eyes only inches from his. He laughed up at her, having succeeded in getting his sound arm about her so that she could not escape. ‘Well, my lovely? Tell me you find my attentions distasteful! Deny your heart is beating faster this very minute! Admit, my sweet, you are not unmoved by my kisses!’

Susannah struggled, but to no avail as he pulled her head down to his and kissed her lips, lingeringly and sensuously. She was breathless when he finally released her and glared at him in baffled fury as she backed away from the bed.

‘You are despicable!’ she told him when she had recovered her breath. ‘I detest you, and will become no man’s mistress, least of all yours! I am sorry I did not leave you to die where you fell.’

He laughed, undeterred.

‘The very fact you did not makes me hope that, despite your protests, you want what I offer you,’ he said provocatively and Susannah turned angrily away from him.

‘Believe what you will, you will soon discover your error,’ she said curtly. ‘You are obviously fit to order your own life again, and so I will bid you farewell. I assume you will not object if I take from your purse the means to convey myself to London.’

‘Leaving me at the mercy of strangers?’ he asked with a grin. ‘Or did you send for my servants?’

‘I have not revealed who you are, but I will most certainly send for your people before I leave,’ she replied stiffly.

‘Such a pity to ruin this delightful interlude! My valet would be decidedly de trop here.’

‘It is I who am de trop,’ Susannah was beginning, when there was a tap on the door and the landlord’s wife entered the room. She looked closely at Susannah’s crumpled gown and heightened colour and sniffed.

‘I see your room has not been slept in, Miss,’ she sneered. ‘Doubtless you’d like breakfast together too?’

Susannah turned on her, venting some of her fury with Lord Chalford on the woman.

‘I’ll have none of your insolence, woman! Send a man to help the gentleman, and then breakfast for him. Bring some chocolate and bread and butter to my room and then I wish to be undisturbed while I sleep.’

Muttering, but cowed, the woman disappeared and Susannah, without another backward glance at Lord Chalford, whom she heard chuckling softly, stalked from the room in her wake. She slept for a couple of hours before being roused by the arrival of the doctor and hurriedly tidied herself to go out and meet him. He was just emerging from Lord Chalford’s room and nodded to her comfortingly.

‘He’ll do, but he must remain in bed for a further day at least. Knocks on the head are chancy things and there’s no sense in taking risks. I’ll come again tomorrow.’

He went briskly down the stairs and Susannah, realizing in annoyance that she had not abstracted the money she needed, was forced to enter the room instead of leaving without further speech with Lord Chalford as she had intended. He was sitting up in bed, propped against the pillows, and smiled at her with what she considered odious complacency when she walked into the room.

‘Welcome back, my love,’ he said softly, patting the bed invitingly. ‘Come and sit here and talk with me. You are a most astonishing girl, routing that old harridan so efficiently! I did not know you could act so like your mistress. Julian’s sister must be a most formidable creature.’

Susannah ignored him and walked across to the dressing table, where she removed some of the coins from the purse.

‘I will not offer to repay these,’ she said cuttingly, ‘since it was not by my wish that I came to be here, without the means to finish my journey. I came but to bid you farewell, my lord, and inform you I propose to ride your horse to the nearest posting inn and from there send a message to inform your people where you may be found. Doubtless they will arrive within a few hours to take over the task of attending to your needs.’

She could not forebear glancing at him as she turned back towards the door, and the colour rose in her cheeks as she found him eyeing her in amusement, no whit put out by her words. He did not seek to detain her, but she lifted her head high as she left, his mocking laugh echoing in her ears as she went to find the landlord and discover the way to the nearest inn where she could expect to obtain a seat on the coach to London.

She ignored the surprised looks of the ostlers when she ordered the black to be saddled and, when they pointed out it was a man’s saddle, curtly told them it was none of their business what saddle she chose to use or what clothes she wore. Then she mounted and rode off, thankful to be away from that inn and all of the people in it, but most of all thankful to have seen the last of Lord Chalford, and pushing from her thoughts the realization that she might find it difficult to avoid meeting him in London.

The posting inn she had been directed to lay a few miles north of Monkswood, which she had to pass on her way. She rode swiftly past the lodge, afraid that the black horse she rode would be recognized, but she met only the occasional farmer in a gig and once a pair of elegantly attired young ladies riding docile hacks and correctly attended by an ancient groom. Susannah rode past them, her head high, and tried not to overhear their astonished gasps as they saw glimpses of her ankles, revealed because in order to ride astride she had been forced to hitch up her skirts. This encounter made her chary of riding straight into the yard of the posting inn and facing the stares of ostlers and travellers at her unconventional arrival. She preferred to manage the somewhat indecorous business of dismounting away from what she knew would be amused observation, so when the inn sign became visible she drew up in the shelter of some trees and slipped down from the saddle. Any attempt to tidy herself there would be futile, she very soon realized. Looping the reins over her arm, she walked the short distance to the inn and handed the horse over to an ostler, then entered to find the landlord and request a room where she could set her appearance to rights.

She had just discovered that there was some time to wait before she could board a coach and had asked for a light nuncheon to be brought up to a private parlour when she heard an astonished exclamation behind her. Swinging round she saw Julian, his eyes wide and his mouth open, in the doorway leading to the coffee room.

‘Susannah! What the devil are you doing here?’

‘Julian. Oh, how thankful I am to see you! Landlord, bring food for my brother as well, if you please. Julian, we cannot talk here,’ she said urgently when he would have begun to ask indiscreet questions, and seizing his arm pulled him up the stairs in the wake of the maid who was leading the way to the room she had hired.

‘How did you come here?’ she demanded as soon as they were alone.

‘I hired a mount. It was Everard who carried you off, was it not?’

‘Yes, but did you recognize him when he held up the coach?’

‘Not immediately, but it was so unlikely highwaymen would have attacked us there, at that time of day, I smelled something fishy and thought of Everard. He hates being worsted, you know, and he would have been livid if you had repulsed him, as I take it you did, from what you said. I guessed he planned his revenge and, since he did not know you were my sister, must have thought he would be safe.’