Emily Goes to Exeter (15 page)
Read Emily Goes to Exeter Online
Authors: M. C. Beaton
‘I am sure you are both wishing me gone,’ said Mrs Courtney with an artificial laugh but showing no signs of getting to her feet.
‘I could never bring myself to say such a thing.’ Sir George leaned back in his chair and smiled blandly
on Mrs Courtney. ‘But I fear you will find Miss Pym and me boring company, for we have so much to discuss.’
Mrs Courney bridled. The hint was too obvious. She rose to her feet. ‘But I am so sure I have met you, Miss Pym. Do not worry. I shall recall where and when. I have an excellent memory.’
‘And that is a threat,’ said Hannah gloomily when Mrs Courtney had left the shop. ‘She did meet me at Thornton Hall. She came to find out whether Mr Clarence planned to divorce his wife and quizzed me on the subject. I would have told her but I did not want to shame you by revealing you were taking tea with a servant.’
‘An ex-servant,’ said Sir George. ‘Of what were we talking? Ah, yes, the gardens at Thornton Hall. On your next return, Miss Pym, write to me of your arrival and I shall take you to see them.’
‘I should like that above all things,’ said Hannah, feeling as shy as a girl.
He smiled at her, thinking it was pleasant to squire such a grateful and entertaining lady.
Hannah did not want him to be the first to suggest that they leave, and so she reluctantly gathered up her gloves and reticule.
‘Where are you going now?’ asked Sir George as they stood outside in Berkeley Square. ‘Kensington?’
‘Now,’ said Hannah. ‘I shall go to the Bell Savage in the City and buy a ticket for the Bath coach.’
‘Then let me summon a hack for you.’
‘I would rather walk, sir,’ said Hannah, who was by
now so happy and excited that she felt she would burst if she did not get some exercise.
‘As you will, Miss Pym. All success and good fortune on your next journey.’ He raised his hat and bowed low and Hannah dropped a curtsy. She turned back, however, after a few moments and watched Sir George’s tall figure cross Berkeley Square in the dim light and stood there watching for quite a while after he had disappeared from view.
Then Hannah set out for the City. She wanted to jump, to skip, to shout aloud. He had invited her to see the gardens. She could enjoy her next journey without wondering whether he would remember her or would see her at all.
She stood under a street lamp and pulled a folded newspaper cutting from her reticule and studied it. It was an advertisement for the Bath coach.
As those desirous to pass from London to Bath, or any other Place on their Road, let them repair to the Bell Savage on Ludgate Hill, London, and the White Lion at Bath, at both which places may be received in a Stage Coach every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which performs the whole journey in Three Days (if God permit) and sets forth at five in the morning.
Passengers to pay one pound five shillings each, who are allowed to carry fourteen Pounds Weight – for all above to pay three halfpence per Pound.
She put it away and set out with a brisker stride towards the City.
Hannah no longer felt lonely. There was so much to look forward to. Lord Harley’s wedding, the visit to Thornton Hall gardens, and a whole new adventure on the Bath Road.
The wonderful thing about a stage-coach was that it was a great equalizer. The upper classes, although affecting to despise this mode of travel, often stooped to use it, for a lady, say, could travel with only her maid rather than having to use not only her own carriage but hire five attendants to protect her from the perils of the road.
Hannah finally reached the Bell Savage and purchased an inside ticket for the Bath coach. She stood for a little while afterwards in the bustle of the inn yard. The coach had just arrived from Bath, swinging into the courtyard on its high red wheels. She could smell it, that smell of wood and leather and horse sweat.
Her heart began to beat hard with excitement. She stayed watching and listening for quite a long time before setting out on the long road home. By the time she reached Hyde Park corner, she realized she was tired, but no driver of a hack was going to risk the perils of Knightsbridge Road in darkness and so Hannah forged on alone, nervously looking to right and left, dreading every moment she would be attacked and wondering why she had not gone home immediately after leaving Gunter’s.
But at last she wearily climbed the stairs to her rooms above the bakery. She made up the fire and sat
down exhausted in a battered armchair and kicked off her shoes.
Her eyes began to droop and once more she felt the swaying of the coach and the long blast of the guard’s horn as the Flying Machine bore her through the length and breadth of England.
M
.
C
.
Beaton
is the author of the hugely successful Agatha Raisin, Hamish Macbeth and Edwardian murder mystery series, all published by Constable & Robinson. She left a full-time career in journalism to turn to writing, and now divides her time between the Cotswolds, Paris and Istanbul.
The Travelling Matchmaker series
Emily Goes to Exeter
Penelope Goes to Portsmouth
Deborah Goes to Dover
Belinda Goes to Bath
Beatrice Goes to Brighton
Yvonne Goes to York
The Edwardian Murder Mystery series
Snobbery with Violence
Sick of Shadows
Hasty Death
Our Lady of Pain
The Agatha Raisin series
Agatha
Raisin and the Quiche of Death
Agatha
Raisin and the Potted Gardener
Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet
Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley
Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage
Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist
Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death
Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham
Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden
Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam
Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell
Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came
Agatha
Raisin and the Curious Curate
Agatha
Raisin and the Deadly Dance
Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House
Agatha Raisin and the Perfect Paragon
Agatha Raisin and Love, Lies and Liquor
Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye
Agatha
Raisin and a Spoonful of Poison
Agatha Raisin: There Goes the Bride
Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body
The Hamish Macbeth series
Death of a Gossip
Death of an Outsider
Death of a Hussy
Death of a Prankster
Death of a Travelling Man
Death of a Nag
Death of a Dentist
Death of an Addict
Death of a Dustman
Death of a Village
Death of a Bore
Death of a Maid
Death of a Witch
Death of a Cad
Death of a Perfect Wife
Death of a Snob
Death of a Glutton
Death of a Charming Man
Death of a Macho Man
Death of a Scriptwriter
A Highland Christmas
Death of a Celebrity
Death of a Poison Pen
Death of a Dreamer
Death of a Gentle Lady
Death of a Valentine
Death of a Sweep
Constable & Robinson Ltd
3 The Lanchesters
162 Fulham Palace Road
London W6 9ER
www.constablerobinson.com
First published in the US by St Martin’s Press, 1990
First published in the UK by Robinson, an imprint of Constable & Robinson
Ltd, 2011
Copyright © M.C. Beaton 1990
The right of M.C. Beaton to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from
the British Library
ISBN: 978–1–84901–907–1