Lady Jane (24 page)

24

The
carriage drew up before The Golden Crocodile, and Jane stepped down without taking the coachman’s hand so that he would not feel her own trembling.

“John, in a few moments I hope Lord Clinton will come out with William to wait for me in the carriage. If anyone—
anyone
—comes out and tries to take him back, you are to lash the horses and drive away. Don’t stop until you reach the house.”

John looked indignant. “I cannot leave you here, m’lady!”

“You will do it, John,” she replied in a voice that brooked no argument.

“Very well, m’lady, but I cannot approve,” he agreed stiffly.

She turned away and mounted the steps to the door, every faculty concentrated on her object: to safely remove her son from this house. She rapped smartly, and the door was opened immediately, by the same large butler, still displaying the same large obsequious smile. “My Lady Payton! Good day. If you will just step this way, Mr. Leach is expecting you.”

He led her across the hall she had last seen lit by hundreds of candles in the sconces and thronged with elegantly dressed people. Now, as such places do that are used for evening entertainment only, displaying a strangely desolate coldness. She walked past him into the room, but advanced only a few steps beyond the door. It closed behind her as Leach rose up from a large, winged chair before the fire. He grinned at her jovially.

“Come along up to the fire, Janey, and warm yourself.”

“Where is my son?” she said shortly.

“Now, now, girl, just be easy. We’re old friends, aren’t we? You know your son is safe with me. Fine little fellow.”

“Bring him to me at once.”

“In a moment—in a moment. I thought we could have a little talk together first, about old times, eh?” he grinned and winked insinuatingly.

She felt the heat of her suppressed rage rising from the very pit of her stomach and her fingers clinched convulsively around the heavy cold metal inside the swansdown muff. She took a deep breath. Not yet, she promised herself, not before you get Clinton out of here.

“I cannot be easy until I have seen the child. Surely you can understand that?”

“I hardly think you are wise to dictate to me in that hoity-toity way, my girl,” he warned.

Careful, she thought, don’t anger him. She forced her lips to curve up in what she hoped would resemble a smile. “I had not realized I was giving offense. You must put it down to a mother’s anxiety.”

“Ah, to be sure,” he replied, all smiles again, “you are all the same. I’ll have the lad brought in to make you easy and then we’ll have our talk.” He crossed to the door and Jane heard a low-voiced order given and footsteps going away. In a moment that seemed endless she heard them returning, accompanied by lighter steps. Her heart leaped as the door opened, and there,
oh, thank you, dear God!,
stood Clinton. His dark brows were drawn together rebelliously, but when he saw her the frown disappeared. “Mama!” he cried, the joy and relief in his voice bringing tears to her eyes. She knelt and held out her arms and he ran into them unhesitatingly, flinging his arms about her neck in a stranglehold and burrowing his face into her neck. She held the sturdy little body as close as possible for a long, blessed moment and swallowed the large lump in her throat She blinked back the tears, however, unwilling to allow Leach to see her cry.

“There, darling, there. It’s all right now. Help me to be brave before this man,” she breathed into his ear. Clinton pulled away immediately, and she rose, his hand securely in her own.

“Now, if you will tell me where my groom is—” she suggested.

“Ho—you want him too! Well, you may have him for all of me.” Leach motioned to the butler who still waited at the door and the man went away again, to return in another moment with William, a large clotted gash on his left temple. When he saw Leach he lunged at him with clenched fists, but was jerked back by the butler.

“Oh, you’d like another round, would you?” laughed Leach, “you’d best be careful, me lad, or I’ll give you a clout over the other eye.”

“William, take Lord Payton to my carriage and wait there for me,” Jane said authoritatively. William turned in shock at the sound of her voice.

“Here now—” began Leach, but she held up her hand with a little, artificial laugh.

“Good heavens, surely you cannot want to have our talk before all in company,” she asked, investing the question with as much suggestiveness as she could command.

He smirked. “Ah—
of
course—well, ladies must have their way, bless em, and we men must indulge ’em. Very well, I suppose there’s no harm in it now we understand one another. You—William—take the
boy
out to the carriage and wait for her ladyship there,” he ordered
grandly.

William gave her a frightened look as he came forward to take Clinton’s hand, but Clinton moved away from him.

“You go along, William. I will wait with my mama,” he said firmly, putting back his shoulders.

“Clinton, you will please wait for me in the carriage,” Jane ordered firmly, looking him straight in the eye. His brows contracted into a scowl and he stared back defiantly. Then, seeing no relenting in her look, he let go of her hand, took William’s and went away without much protest.

When the door closed behind them, Leach rubbed his hands together in satisfaction and went to the side table. “Now, my girl, just you go up to the fire and be comfortable, and I’ll bring you a glass of the best claret to be had. I ordered it especially for your visit.”

He went to the fireplace and turned to face him, as he came up to her with the glass of wine. She took it gratefully and sipped, for fear had dried her mouth.

“Lay aside that muff and take off your bonnet, Janey, and we shall make ourselves comfortable. No need to stand on ceremony with an old friend.” He sat down on a sofa and patted the place beside him invitingly.

“Why did you take my child?” she said, her voice tight with rage.

“Ah! Because I knew that would fetch you around smartly. Also, I didn’t care for the way you behaved to me that night the Montmorency girl brought you here and thought you could do with something in the way of punishment.”

“What is it you want with me?” she asked coldly.

“Why, to see your pretty face again, Janey, my girl. You’ve grown a treat, you have,” he added. his eyes sliding over her body lasciviously.

“I saw you in the Park one day in your grand carriage and made inquiries. Why, look at what our Jane’s made of herself, I says, now that’s a clever girl, if ever I saw one. I watched out for you after that. Surprised myself, I did, acting like a green lad gawping at a grand lady, hungering for a grown woman. You know my taste has always been for the young ones,” he added, leaning forward confidentially. “But you were always the prettiest little thing, and stap me if those fancy duds don’t make you better.”

Jane felt a wave of nausea and set the glass down on the mantel. “I mustn’t keep my son waiting in this chill—”

“Whoa there, girl! Not so fast then. Were to have a cosy talk—remember?” he protested, giving her an injured look.

“You have more to say?”

“Well o’ course! You think I went to all this trouble just to pay you a compliment on your clothes? I’ve a proposition to make to you, my girl, that I fancy you’ll like. You’re as smart as you can stare, Janey, and I admire brains in a woman.”

“You are mistaken. I am not in the least clever.”

“Ah, don’t try to cozen me, girl. Anyone who can parlay a pretty face and a good figure into a title and a fortune to go with it is clever as a roomful of monkeys for my money! I says to myself, there’s a woman could help a man. I’ve got a successful business going here, and you swanning around the rooms all classy like—why there’s no end to the money could be made!”

“You—you want to engage me as—as a hostess?” she said incredulously.

“Engage you?” He goggled at her for a moment and then burst into a great roar of laughter, slapping his knee gleefully. “Oh—oh—that’s a good one, that is. Here I’m proposing and she thinks I’m trying to engage her services.”

She felt a chill of horror at his words. “
You—
are—are proposing—to
me
,” she whispered, her voice expressing all the loathing she could no longer suppress.

He sat up, all traces of amusement wiped off his face in an instant. “And why not, I’d like to know? You’re no better nor me for all your airs and graces and your title. Underneath it all you’re still the little backstairs maid, the bastard child of another backstairs maid. Oh, smart enough to throw out lures to a crippled dwarf no one else would have and trap him into marriage, I’ll admit, but servant class for all that when all’s said. Why, I’ve only to drop a hint in the right place and you won’t be able to put a foot in any drawing room in town. So don’t you go turning up your nose at an honest proposal of marriage from me, my girl.” He stared at her with hard eyes, daring her to refute his words.

She stared back silently for a moment, then said flatly, “I’d sooner be dead.”

She walked rapidly across the room, but he moved even quicker. He grasped her upper arm and swung her around. “Here, not so fast, my girl. You’ll find it don’t pay to insult Jeremiah Leach.” He pushed her so hard she staggered back onto the sofa. He crossed and flung open the door. “Get that brat back in here,” he ordered, and turned back to her, a dangerous glitter in his eyes. “We’ll see how proud you are after he watches you raise your skirts for me right here—or perhaps you’d like a demonstration of how easy it will be to make him a cripple like his pa.”

Jane held her breath and sat very still. She heard the front door open, and then, almost immediately, she heard her coachman give a cry, and the crack of the whip, and then, blessedly, the sound of the wheels jolting rapidly away over the cobblestones. She let her breath go in a whoosh of relief.

The butler evidently returned, for Leach called out impatiently, “Well?”

“He drove off! I couldn’t stop him!”

“Idiot! Well, don’t just stand there! Close the door and get back to your own quarters and stay there. I don’t want to be disturbed, d’you hear? If anyone calls just ignore it, and no matter what you hear you just stay in your chair back there and mind your business.” He slammed the door and turned upon Jane. “So—you’d play little tricks on me, eh?”

She rose and whipped around behind the sofa. “Don’t come near me, Leach! I warn you!”

“Ha! Games is it? I know what it is—you’d like a little rough stuff first, like last time. Gets you all excited, don’t it? Been hankerin’ for it ever since, eh? Been wantin’ some more of the same? Couldn’t get it from the dwarf, could you?”

He leered at her, all the time advancing upon her, as she backed away around the sofa, her heart pounding, her breath coming in gasps.

“I—I warn you again, Leach. If you touch me I’ll—I’ll kill you,” she panted, her hand inside the muff clinching into place around the cold metal.

His hand shot out and clutched one of her breasts, his fingers digging in brutally. “Ha!” he cried triumphantly.

It was the last sound he made, for at the shock and excruciating pain of his cruel gesture, her fingers pressed the trigger of Sebastian’s pistol and the room was filled with an explosive roar that stunned all her senses momentarily. She and Leach stared at one another, his mouth still open from his last cry, the air between them filled with a snow of floating white feathers. Then, slowly, his hand fell away from her breast as his face sagged. He looked down in amazement. She followed his glance to see a large red blossom on his shirt front.

His knees began to sag and she watched him blankly as he fell, unaware of the loud voices in the hallway. As Leach hit the floor the door burst open violently and Jaspar stood there, pistol at the ready, the butler’s scared face peering over his shoulder. Jaspar took in the scene before him in a quick raking glance, reached back to jerk the butler into the room, and closed the door.

“Where’s the boy?” he rapped out.

“He—he got away, sir. She—”

“Who’s in the house?”

“A—a—a—”

“Quick, man,” Jaspar raised the pistol.

“Only me now, sir,” the butler replied with a gulp, his eyes riveted on the gun. “Staff only comes in evenings.”

Jaspar went to Jane and put his arm around her. She didn’t react, hardly seeming aware of his presence. Her eyes had never left Leach, who lay sprawled grotesquely at her feet, an obscene pool of blood forming on the floor beside him. Jaspar led her to the door. “Jane—Jane! You must go outside, get into my carriage, and tell my driver to take you home. Do you understand?” She did not respond. He shook her by the shoulders, then tilted her face up to his. “Listen, my love, you must hear me. Go out to the carriage and tell him to drive you home. Nod if you understand me.”

The blank, wide-open eyes staring up at him had regained some small spark of comprehension as he spoke and finally she managed to nod her head.

“Good girl. Here you go now.” He removed the tattered muff from her hand, carefully pried the gun from her fingers, and opened the door to push her gently from the room. “Go now, my dear. Straight across the hall and out the door. My man will drive you home.”