No Other Love (39 page)

“The one who accosted Lady Thorpe and Miss Montford this evening?” Sebastian asked. “Frightened them half to death. I say, Squire Halsey, crime seems to run rampant here. I meant to come see you tomorrow about it.”

“Not the one who ‘accosted’ the ladies,” Richard said, with a thin smile that made clear his disbelief. “’The Gentleman,’ he is called, and he was in gaol, but his accomplices let him out tonight while the gaoler was distracted…coincidentally…by Lady Thorpe and Miss Montford.”

“Exactly what are you trying to say, Exmoor?” Sebastian asked in a voice as hard as glass. “I warn you, you are treading on thin ice.”

“It seems an odd time for two young ladies to be out driving alone.”

“My wife is quite competent with the reins,” Sebastian said, “and when they left, it was still afternoon. Obviously they did not plan to stay out so late. In any case, what my wife does is my business, not yours.”

The two men glared at each other, the tension in the air rising palpably.

“Gentlemen, please,” the Countess interrupted crisply. “Could we return to the matter at hand? My granddaughters told us about the incident. It sounded quite harrowing, but I scarcely see how any of it has anything to do with this house. I am sure you can wait to question the young ladies until tomorrow, can you not, Squire? Surely they can tell you little to help you track down this escapee.”

“Perhaps not,” Richard replied, casting a long glance at Marianne and Alexandra, who gazed back at him blandly. “But I feel sure that Miss Falcourt can help us.”

“I fail to see how I can help you,” Nicola replied calmly. “I was not even with Marianne and Alexandra.”

“I am sure not. More likely you were at the gaol itself.”

“Are you saying that the escape of the prisoners was effected by a young gentlewoman?” Lord Lambeth asked, amusement tinging his elegant drawl. “Really, Exmoor…don’t you think that is a little far-fetched?”

“Not if you know Nicola.”

“Ah, but I do. I have known her for years,” Lambeth replied. “And I think I can say without doubt that Miss Falcourt was not in that gaol tonight.”

“Of course not,” Penelope spoke up. “She was here, with us, all evening. We were having a dinner party.”

Nicola waited, her entire body stretched with tension. What if Lady Ursula spoke up and pointed out that Nicola had not been here most of the time she had been in the house? Or even her own sister? Nicola wanted desperately to turn and look at Deborah, to send her a pleading, warning glance, but she dared not. Richard would see the look and know where to attack.

“I think we can all attest to that,” the Countess put in. “We had a small gathering of family and friends. Unfortunately, two of my granddaughters were delayed, but they did arrive, safe and unharmed, thank heavens. Is that what you wanted? A statement of our whereabouts this evening?” She turned an acid look upon the hapless Squire Halsey. “Perhaps you think that
I
was at the gaol this evening, unlocking prisoners, instead of here in my own home.”

Nicola relaxed. She did not think Lady Ursula or the others would say anything contrary to whatever the Countess said.

The Squire’s face reddened, and he looked as if he wished the earth would open up and swallow him. “My lady, please, no, you must not think that. I—I have only the deepest regard for you. And your family,” he added, glancing apologetically at Lady Ursula and the Countess’s granddaughters.

“Do you?” the Countess asked quizzically. “If that is true, why are you invading my home and asking my family and guests questions about an escape from gaol that we obviously had nothing to do with?”

“Quite right, Mama.” Lady Ursula said, rising from her seat and walking forward to face the Squire and the Earl. Tall, like everyone in the Montford family, and large, with that jutting bosom, Ursula was an imposing figure, and when she strode through a room, people tended to step back, especially when, as now, she was fairly quivering with indignation. “It’s damned impudence, I say, Squire Halsey, and I wonder that you have the nerve to come in here and insult my mother like that.”

“Insult!” The Squire looked as if he might faint right there. “No, no, my lady, I meant no insult.”

“It is bad enough,” Ursula continued, building up a fine head of steam, “that she should have to bear the insults of certain family members—” She shot a look at the Earl of Exmoor that would have felled many men. “But to have you add your presence to this—this inquisition—well, that’s the outside of enough. Do you think this highwayman is here with us? Perhaps you would like to search the house—paw through all our possessions. Or perhaps you intend to search us all, right here, just in case we have the fellow hidden about our persons.”

“My lady, please,” Halsey groaned. “No, of course not. We have no intention of searching the house.”

“That’s good, since you have no right to—and since you would have to go through us in order to do so.” Sebastian turned toward Exmoor. “If your purpose in coming here was to alarm and upset the ladies, then you have done an admirable job,” he said, ignoring the obvious fact that most of the women in the room, other than Deborah, looked more ready to engage in battle than give way to feminine hysterics. “What the devil do you have to do with any of this, anyway? I would think it is a job for the constable or the magistrate.”

“It is my goods upon which the thief has primarily preyed,” Richard snapped back. “So I hired a Runner to track him down.”

“The same one you hired to follow my fiancé a few months ago?” Lambeth asked with deceptive mildness.

“I don’t know what the devil you’re talking about.”

“I think we both know that you do. You know, I believe that I would very much look forward to talking to this Runner in person.”

“No doubt you will get your chance.”

“I think it is time for you to go, Exmoor,” Sebastian said, laying a restraining hand on Lambeth’s arm. “And take your mercenaries with you.”

Richard turned toward Nicola. “Congratulations, Nicola, you have managed to involve a great many illustrious names in your sordid scandal.” He looked at the Countess. “Given your dislike of me, my lady, I am sure that you were quite eager to help her play out this charade. However, I wonder how you will feel when you and our family name are dragged through the courts because you chose to join in Miss Falcourt’s scheme to save her highwayman lover.”

There were several audible indrawn breaths at his statement, and a small smile played over Richard’s lips.

“Ah,” he said. “I see that she failed to tell you that fact. Or you, Buckminster, when she persuaded you and the others to pressure the magistrate for his release. No doubt she told you only what a villain I was and how I had entrapped this poor man. But not a word of how he has been preying on commerce and travelers for the past few months. Not a word of how he and she have—”

“I say!” the usually easygoing Lord Buckminster barked, taking a step toward the man. “You better be prepared to meet me at dawn tomorrow if you missay my cousin.”

“Thank you, Bucky,” Nicola said with a smile.

“I am sure that Lord Exmoor is well aware of the consequences of saying anything slanderous,” Sebastian added warningly.

“It is no slander. Everyone knows that she ran to warn him. That is how we were able to capture the scoundrel. And obviously she knew where his hideout lay—and how else would she know it except if she met him there?”

“That is enough, Richard,” the Countess interrupted. “No more threats and posturings. Miss Falcourt has told me nothing,” she added truthfully. “I will not allow you to stand here in my own house and accuse me of lying. It is time for you to go. Past time. Squire Halsey.” She turned an icy stare on that poor man. “Take your friend and go. I suggest that you not return unless you are invited.”

This subtly veiled threat did not go unnoticed by the Squire, whose overbearing and socially ambitious wife would make his life a living hell if she were snubbed by the Countess during the upcoming wedding festivities. The man paled and beat a hasty retreat, hooking his arm through Richard’s and pulling him out the door with him.

The group they left behind stood in silence until at last they heard the front door close. They turned almost as one to face the Countess. Her piercing, regal gaze swept over her assembled family and came to rest on Nicola.

“All right, child. I suggest that you tell us exactly what is going on. And none of this twaddle that the lot of you have been talking so far. I want to know the truth.”

“Absolutely right, Mama,” Lady Ursula agreed, nodding her massive head. “A more silly story I never heard—out riding in the gig at dusk! Accosted by highwaymen!”

“Let them tell it, Ursula,” the Countess said calmly.

“Oh, my lady, I am so sorry!” Nicola cried, hurrying toward the Countess. “I should not have involved any of you. I should have done it myself. The last thing I wanted was to bring any harm to you.”

“I would like to see you try to have done it without us,” Penelope said stoutly.

“That’s right,” Alexandra agreed. “We all owed the highwayman a great deal. There was no chance that we were not going to return the favors that he has done us.”

“Who is this highwayman? What do you mean, you all owe him?” Ursula asked.

The Countess sighed. “I can see that this is going to take a long time in the telling. I believe I will sit down.” She did so, raising an aristocratic finger to point at Alexandra. “First you. How do you owe a highwayman anything?”

“He was the man who helped Sebastian and me when we were lost in that balloon,” Alexandra explained. “You remember us telling you about him.”

“Yes, of course.”

“He found us and gave us shelter and food, then took us to the village to catch the coach the next day.”

“Hardly sounds like a highwayman,” the Countess murmured.

“I know. He speaks and acts just like a gentleman. That is why they call him The Gentleman.”

“He did even more for Justin and me,” Marianne added. “If it had not been for him, we would probably have died in that mine. It was Jack who dug us out. So you can see that when we heard that he was in gaol, we could hardly stand by and let the man hang, even if he is a highwayman. When Nicola came to us—well, really, to Bucky—for help, we all insisted on helping her.”

“I see. It did not occur to you to help in the form of a good barrister?” the Countess asked. “Or in applying the pressure of several prominent families to obtain his release? You had to break into the gaol and haul him out?”

“We did try our influence first,” Sebastian protested, looking a trifle sheepish, but Lambeth only grinned and replied, “It did seem rather more fun.”

“Influence wasn’t enough,” Nicola assured her. “Bucky, Justin and Sebastian tried to help him because I asked them to, but neither the constable nor the magistrate dared go against Richard. He was adamant about seeing Jack go to trial—he has a personal vendetta against him.”

“Mmm. It sounds as if this ‘Gentleman’ had something of a vendetta against Richard,” the Countess pointed out.

“It’s true. He did,” Nicola admitted. “But he is not a bad man. I swear to you. Richard wronged him many years ago. Wronged him terribly. Richard almost killed him, and when he found out that he had not succeeded, he sent his men to kidnap Jack and give him to a press gang.”

“Good Lord!” Lady Buckminster exclaimed.

“That sounds vicious enough for Richard,” the Countess said. “What did he have against the man?”

“He wasn’t even a man then. He was a boy. Only a few years older than I. And the reason Richard hated him…” She cast a hesitant glance over at her sister.

“Go on,” Deborah said with a sigh. “I am well aware of how Richard felt about you.”

“Richard wanted me. He had offered for me. Then he found out that I was in love with Jack—he was known as Gil then, and…and he was a stable boy at Tidings.” She raised her chin defiantly. “I know you will think ill of me, my lady, for loving beneath my station. But I do not care for that! Jack was—is—the only man I have ever loved. He is a wonderful, good man—funny, handsome, brave, compassionate. I know that if you knew him, you would like him.”

“I think I would like to meet this young man,” the Countess responded. Nicola smiled, and the Countess continued, “But tell me what happened between him and Richard.”

“Exmoor found us one day where we would meet, up at the head of Lady Falls. He and Jack struggled. It was horrible, bloody, and I could not get them to stop, and finally Jack slid backward over the Falls. Richard said it was an accident, but Jack says it was not. He pushed him.”

“I do not doubt that.”

“We could not find him at the bottom of the Falls. I heard nothing from him for years. I thought he was dead. But he didn’t die. He was swept downstream and managed to crawl out. A farmer helped him. Jack—Jack sent me a letter, but I did not receive it. My mother got it and gave it to Richard instead. So Richard had him taken from the farmer’s house, and he told Jack that it was I who had betrayed him. All these years, Jack thought I was treacherous. I believed he was dead. I had nothing of him but the ring he had given me.”

“An engagement ring?”

“No. It is a man’s ring. Quite ordinary-looking, really, but it meant a great deal to Jack. You see, it was all he had of his father.” Nicola went up to her, pulling the chain out from beneath her dress and slipping it off over her head. She held it out to the Countess, saying, “I have kept it with me all these years. It—what’s the matter? My lady?”