A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting(82)

‘I say!’ he said loudly. ‘You can’t just take her – you might be a kidnapper for all I know! An abductor! I won’t stand for it, you hear!’

‘Keep your voice down,’ Radcliffe said softly, but with a sharp bite. ‘You have already almost caused irreparable harm to that young lady’s reputation; do not make things worse now. Now, listen to me. Listen. You are to stay here tonight – get yourself a room – and you are not to breathe a word of Miss Talbot’s presence here. You will tell people you were on your way to see a family member, when your carriage was damaged. I do not want a whisper of scandal to be attached to her name, do you hear me?’

Montagu swallowed, gulped back a retort, then nodded too. His dramatically tall pomade drooped upon his head.

‘I love her,’ he said, simply. ‘I don’t want anything bad to happen to her, ever.’

‘Then be glad I got here when I did,’ Radcliffe told him. ‘Now off you go.’

Lawrence was less than an hour behind, in the end. He must have been driving like the devil to manage it, but he supervised the changing of the horses with no sign of fatigue. They would have to leave Radcliffe’s horses here, at the inn, to rest, which Radcliffe knew did not sit well with Lawrence – and indeed, his eyes and tongue were equally critical as he lectured the stablehand on the horses’ care.

‘I’ll be back tomorrow,’ Lawrence stressed. ‘Once they’ve had a chance to rest. So don’t be lending ours out – they cost more than your life,’ he threatened.

‘That’s enough, Lawrence,’ Radcliffe said gently. ‘Remember it is they who are doing us a favour.’

‘Hmph,’ was all Lawrence said.

Radcliffe handed Miss Cecily into the carriage, followed by Sally.

‘I’d get in yourself too, my lord,’ Lawrence directed. ‘No point us both getting cold,’ he said cheerfully.

His own bay would also be left to rest with his carriage horses – and the inn did not have another to spare. And truth be told, Radcliffe was quite glad to have the chance to rid the chill from his bones. ‘I owe you a thousand favours,’ he told Lawrence.

‘I’ll accept a raise,’ Lawrence retorted cheerfully.

Inside the carriage, Miss Cecily fell into an uneasy slumber, while Sally looked out of the window into the dark, wide awake.

‘We’re lucky she didn’t get hurt,’ she said into the quiet. ‘I’ll be glad to get her home in one piece.’

‘You’ve gone above and beyond today, Sally,’ Radcliffe said, fighting an urge to yawn. ‘You have my thanks – and I’m sure Miss Talbot’s too.’

Sally nodded.

‘Why did you come to me?’ he asked, curiously. ‘I think you did the right thing, but why was I your first option?’

‘Well, I couldn’t get to Miss Kitty in time – although she would have solved everything in a trice you know,’ she said in a confessional aside. Radcliffe thought with some acerbity that he was not sure how Miss Kitty would have solved it any better than he had, but controlled the impulse to vocalise this.

‘And she trusts you,’ Sally finished. She looked at him narrowly. ‘Reckon she trusts you a lot, in truth.’

As soon as they left the house, as if by prearranged signal, Archie, Hinsley and Kitty began to run. There was no sound of pursuit, but they raced down the path nonetheless, feet flying over rock and stone. They raced through the gate, squeezed themselves three abreast into the curricle, and Hinsley drove the horses off at once. By the time they turned the first corner they were riding at quite ten miles an hour.

‘What was that?’ Hinsley demanded. ‘I told you to stay in the carriage!’

‘And I did, until it seemed you weren’t coming back out again,’ Kitty protested.

‘That is a barefaced lie!’

‘She was going to shoot him,’ Archie said, dazed.

‘I was not,’ Kitty insisted.

‘Give me that pistol,’ Hinsley instructed angrily, making a grab for it. ‘By George, do you have the faintest idea how to use it?’

‘Well, not really,’ Kitty admitted. ‘But as it turns out, neither do you – it wasn’t loaded, you dolt. I checked as soon as you left. Are you honestly a soldier?’

‘Dear God,’ Hinsley cursed. ‘Dear God.’

‘We were about to be quite trapped there,’ Kitty said – now that she was in the safety of the vehicle, she was quite regaining her usual self-possession – ‘there wasn’t much else to be done but threaten him most soundly.’

Hinsley let out a peal of wild laughter.

‘Hinsley – Hinsley, what on earth is going on?’ Archie asked weakly.

‘We came to rescue you,’ Hinsley said cheerily. ‘From certain ruin. Must say it’s the first time I’ve done a rescue with a woman onside, but credit where credit’s due – you performed most excellently, Miss Talbot.’

He gave a courteous little flourish of his hand in her direction, and she returned the gesture with even more pomp. ‘May I say that you did very well yourself, my dear sir.’

Archie began to think they had both gone quite mad. ‘Perhaps I ought to drive,’ he said cautiously, as they began to laugh again.