Patricia Veryan - [Sanguinet Saga 08] - Sanguinet's Crown (27 page)

Redmond called, "The coast is clear now…"

"My regrets," said Guy, taking Charity's hand, "but we have
not the time to pause for wraps."

She smiled, undaunted. Watching her, a twinkle came into his
eyes. He asked gravely, "Do you really mean to keep the spear?"

Charity had quite forgotten she clutched the weapon and, with
a rather shaken laugh, dropped it.

They went outside. This level of the castle was encircled by a
drivepath that curved up to join the main approach road. A brisk breeze
was blowing, ice on its breath, but Charity was too nervous to notice
such a trifle. Hope was reborn in her breast as she followed Guy along
the drive, but she trembled with the fear that, just as this miraculous
chance was offered, it might be snatched away.

A closed barouche was before them, the coachman having
providentially walked his horses a little way while waiting. A groom
jumped down and opened the door, then let down the steps.

Guy handed Charity into the luxurious vehicle and she sank
into a corner, praying, "Please God, let them not come…"

Redmond climbed in, sat in the other corner, and looked out
the window. Guy entered and pulled the rug over Charity's knees before
sitting beside her.

The barouche lurched; the horses' hooves clattered on the
cobblestones.

They were moving!

A great tide of thankfulness welled up in Charity's heart. To
her horror, she burst into tears.

The Captain came into the luxurious saloon as the yacht began
to make its way along the channel towards the open sea. "One might
think," he grumbled, "one might think, I say, that Monseigneur would
have allowed us the small time of preparation!"

Charity turned from the porthole and Guy ushered her to a
chair. "When my brother says 'at once,' I do not argue,
mon
capitaine
. But if you tell me this cannot be done, I shall
be happy to convey your message to him."

"I do not say it
cannot
be done,"
answered the Captain, turning his very round and very red face from its
preoccupation with the channel and directing a hard stare from Guy to
Charity to Mitchell. "I only say it is odd."

"Odd?" Guy's brows lifted. "I brought you a message yesterday,
sir, that you were to provision and prepare
La Hautemant
for Monseigneur's imminent departure. You have, I presume, done this?"

''I have, of course,'' replied the Captain, his snowy whiskers
bristling. "But it was my understanding that Monseigneur was to board
us. Not''—his gaze turned pointedly from Charity's unlikely garments to
Redmond's bruised face— "others."

''My brother appears to feel he has the right to change his
plans,'' Guy said cuttingly. " He desires that his betrothed be
conveyed to England with the utmost speed, so as to await him there."

Captain Godoy was relatively new to the service of Claude
Sanguinet, a fortunate happenstance, since the former captain
of
La Hautemant
had known Charity well and been aware of the
circumstances of her flight from Brittany. Nonetheless, Guy's
nonchalant announcement of a betrothal he had never heard of caused the
fat little Belgian to direct another hard stare at this girl he judged
to be somewhat less than a diamond of the first water. Guy took up
Charity's left hand, on the third finger of which glittered the great
ruby he had appropriated from his brother. "You are not, I am assured,
doubting my word?"

The Captain knew that ring. He was fond of rubies and had in
fact admired the peerless stone. "I must return to the bridge,
monsieur," he said with an immediate and considerable lessening of his
annoyed demeanour. "It shall be as you say. Once we are clear of the
channel, we— Yes, Monsieur Esmon?"

A thin young man, resplendent in his officer's uniform, came
in and said in a high-pitched falsetto, "A boat is putting out from the
shore, sir. We are signalled to wait."

Godoy strode to the porthole again.

Charity gave a gasp. Redmond stood, his mouth becoming a thin,
hard line. Guy rasped angrily, "No! My brother distinctly ordered that—"

"These are Monseigneur's men, monsieur," the Captain
interpolated, peering shoreward. "We shall wait."

And so they waited, nerves stretched tight and eyes straining
to the small craft that came rapidly over the choppy grey water, her
six oarsmen rowing hard and the one passenger hunched over in the
stern. A man of small stature.

Frozen with despair, Charity thought, "It is Claude. He has
won, after all."

Redmond, his keen eyes fastened to the distant figure, his
body tensed for desperate action, let out his pent-up breath in a faint
hiss and said, "Your fiance is all consideration, ma'am. He sends your
little pet along."

With a leap of the heart, Charity cried, "What? You mean it is
not—"

"Alas, I fear Monseigneur could not himself come," Guy
interjected swiftly. "You will see him very soon, Miss Strand. I think
you know the messenger…?"

Watching the boat come alongside, Charity said, "Oh, it is
Lion! With Little Patches. How very kind in Monseigneur!''

Captain Godoy grunted and gave it as his opinion that he did
not like cats on board
La Hautemant
. "They bring
bad luck!"

"Nonsense," said Charity, her heartbeat subsiding to a gallop.
"You should be glad to have one on board, to keep down the rats."

"So you are to keep down the rats, are you,
petite
chatte
?" Guy stroked the kitten who purred ecstatically on
his lap. Laughing, he added, "A very small rat would make short work of
this one, I think."

They were gathered in the comfortable parlour of the private
suite to which they had repaired as soon as the yacht was well out to
sea. Guy was occupying a deep chair, Charity sat beside Lion on a small
sofa, and Redmond leaned against the bulkhead, arms folded, his eyes
turning often to the porthole beside him, searching the dusk for any
sign of a pursuing vessel.

"How glad I am that you brought her, Lion," said Charity. "But
however did you manage it?"

His eyes alight with excitement, the boy said,"It was pure
luck, missus. That there old fusty-faced maid of yours done it. I went
up to see if you might like to go for a ride, and that maid was so busy
jaw-me-deading that Little Patches went hopping off. Straight for the
basement steps she goes like a flash, and I runs arter her."

"I wonder why she kept going down there?" murmured Charity.

"Rats, probably," offered Redmond, without turning from his
vigil.

Charity laughed.

Lion went on, "Lucky I follered her. She ran to the first open
door, which was the war room. Strike me silly if ever I see anything
like that! People lying about all over the floor, moaning and groaning
something terrible."

"You must have been very close behind us if they were not up
and about," observed Guy.

"Well, I think I was, sir. But that Shotten cove was trying to
get up, so I thought I'd best slow him down.'' He grinned broadly and
said with relish, "I tore up his neckcloth and tied him up with it, and
I gagged him with his own stocking, and if that don't stifle him,
nothing will!"

Charity clapped her hands. Guy said, "Excellent rascal!" and
Redmond slanted an amused smile at the boy.

''Oh, I served them up very fine,'' boasted Lion."Did you see
that big net hanging on the wall? Monsieur Gerard told me Parnell
Sanguinet fetched it back from India, and that he'd used it once to
catch a tiger. Well, I trussed Monseigneur and his men up very tight,
and then rolled them one by one into the net, and I tied it to the
handle of the inside door."

"And the door opens into the corridor," said Charity, watching
Lion in awe.

''That will make it something difficult to open,'' Guy said.
"I salute you, my young friend. But—how if my brother's people simply
go around to the outer door?"

"I locked it on me way out," said Lion, "and dropped the key
in the channel. I rode as fast as I could go, with the kitten in me
pocket, and when I see the yacht coming, I told some sailors
Monseigneur had sent me with a urgent writing for the Captain. They
didn't believe me at first, but then they see the yacht and they didn't
dare take no chance but what I was telling the truth. So they rowed us
out. Me and Little Patches."

"How clever you have been!" Charity clasped his hand
impulsively.

Lion blushed scarlet and looked down in embarrassment.

''And now,'' said Guy, " we must decide what we do. How you
say, Redmond? It is to Birkenhead for us? Or do you think Gerard will
sail around Land's End to Portsmouth or Brighton?"

Redmond went to sit on a chest apart from the group. "Has
Claude another ship that could come up with us before we reached
Birkenhead?"

Guy frowned. "Had he
Se Rallumer
… even
so, is not impossible."

"I cannot feature his failing to give chase, and at sea we
will be very visible, and powerless if he signals Godoy. I think our
best chance is to make straight for the Scottish coast. Devenish, I
believe, has a cousin dwelling there who has already encountered Claude
and who will certainly help us."

"Major Tyndale!" exclaimed Charity. "Of course! And his wife's
grandfather is a general who must have great influence with the
authorities!'' Elated, she turned to Guy, and surprised a look of
sadness. With her usual warmheartedness, she crossed to sink to her
knees beside his chair. "Guy,
mon pauvre ami
. How
difficult this must be for you. We owe you our lives, but when we reach
England you must do no more. We shall ask no more of you, shall we, Mr.
Redmond?"

Redmond evaded, "Do you mean to return to France, Sanguinet?"

"Who shall say? As for tomorrow, Scotland it shall be." He
stood and with a forced smile asked, "For where must I tell our captain
to steer?"

Redmond hesitated. "The castle is in Ayrshire, but do you know
whereabouts, ma'am?"

"Good heavens!" exclaimed Charity, dismayed. "I've not the
least notion.''

Lion said, "I knows. It's Castle Tyndale, near a village
called Drumdownie. Sticks up like a bloomin' great lighthouse it does,
on the very edge of the cliffs. Can't miss it."

The following morning, however, it seemed that they would very
easily miss the castle. Charity had retired to her stateroom soon after
dinner and gone to bed after offering up some very grateful prayers.
She awoke to grey skies and pouring rain, conditions that prevailed all
that day.
La Hautemant
sailed on steadfastly, her
bow slicing waves that grew ever higher. By nightfall they were running
before the wind with shortened sail, but in the wee hours the seas
became less violent, and at dawn the winds died. They prowled the
Scottish coast at a snail's pace, bedevilled by mists that drifted
fitfully, threatening to thicken into fog.

Charity went on deck wrapped in one of the greatcoats that had
been hung in the wardrobe of Guy's cabin. The air was clammy, and
visibility had shrunk to less than a mile. Shivering, she peered at the
dark line of hills that was the coast of Scotland.

"You are up early, little one," said Guy, joining her at the
rail.

She turned to him with a smile. "Shall we land today, do you
think?"

"If our gallant captain can find your friend's castle."

For a little while they both watched the coast, then Charity
observed, "It looks very mountainous in places, Guy. Do we sail
northward?"

"I think the mists deceive us, and yes, we have had to go
south around Kintyre and the Island of Arran, but now we are off
Ayrshire. When the sun she come up, you shall see better.''

Charity laughed. "The sun! What an optimist! Is Lion awake?"

"
Oui
. And on the bridge, advising the
Capitaine
how to sail his ship. Redmond is there also."

They glanced at each other.

"He was not really afraid, you know," Guy said quietly. "It
was just the clever pose to make my brother's men relax their guard the
little piece."

"Yes. And it worked!"

A pause, and now although both stared at the coastline,
neither saw it.

"Charity," Guy said hesitantly, "has he spoken to you since we
came aboard?"

"A few words only. But I don't believe he has once looked
directly at me."

He sighed. "He avoids my eyes also."

"My sister once told me—" Charity began.

"Look!" Lion was shouting from the bridge and pointing
eastwards in great excitement. "There it is! There's Castle Tyndale!"

Wreathed with tendrils of mist, the great castle rose at the
brink of the cliffs. It presented a very different picture to that of
Tor Keep, for although massive, it soared high and gracefully.
Constructed of grey stone with large Gothic windows, three tall conical
towers and crenellated battlements, it looked majestic, and Charity
murmured, "Oh, how very beautiful it is. Like a castle from a fairy
tale."

Lion, who had run down to join them, said with a derisive
snort, "That ain't what Mr. Devenish thought of it, Miss Charity.
Monsieur Claude pulled all manner of tricks on him and Major Tyndale,
'cause Monsieur was using the castle for hisself and tried to drive 'em
out. Mr. Garvey said Devenish was so scared he like to died o' fright!"

Appalled by the awareness that Redmond had also joined them
and was standing close by, she said, "We all have an Achilles' heel,
Lion. Something that may cause the very bravest person to weaken, even
if only briefly.''

"Oh yus," the boy scoffed. "But a
real
man wouldn't never let it beat him. He'd be brave and stand buff, no
matter what, he would!"

"That would depend on how deep was his fear. Or how sensitive
his nature. We are all so different, you know. And surely, the
important thing is not that a man never be afraid, for such a one must
be a fool, but that, however afraid, he goes on and does his best.
That, I think, is true heroism, Lion."