Patricia Wynn (17 page)

As soon as they had gone, Susan raised herself out of the straw and turned to place her hands on Tom’s chest. He held them there and listened as she poured forth her anxiety.

“Oh, Tom!” she cried, unaware of the sudden lurch within him. “My poor, dear Lady Mewhinny! We must not let them do this to her! Why, they will have everyone thinking her mad!”

He nodded somewhat distractedly and, releasing one hand began gently to pluck the straw from her hair.

“What shall we do?” she continued, calming unconsciously at the touch of his hand.

Tom looked at her with an expression that was peculiarly apologetic. “I promise you, Susan, word of honour, that I shall not let these rogues harm Lady Mewhinny,” he said, smiling at her trusting look of relief. “But I find myself unable to do anything about it until I have tended to first things first.” And with that, he encircled her waist again with a strong arm and swept her into an embrace.

Susan had been so instantly reassured by his promise that she could hardly be ashamed of her reaction. But Tom had said all would be right, so she threw both arms around his neck and indulged in the most exquisite pleasure she had ever known. For a moment, all else was forgotten. The quickening of her heart, which she had attributed to fear for her ladyship, persisted in such a way that she was no longer in doubt as to its cause. And they kept on, bestowing kisses with such tenderness that Susan finally had to break away before she could stand no more.

Lord Harleston held her hands in his while they gazed into each other’s eyes. The joy in her own was clearly reflected in his, and she was deliciously disturbed by the rapidity of his breathing. But they had no time to say a word before another voice from the stable door startled them into action.

“My dear Susan!” uttered Lady Mewhinny in shocked tones as Susan hastily snatched her hands away. “What has happened?”

Susan regarded her ladyship in panic as she vainly searched for words to hide her confusion.

“Mrs. Faringdon,” Tom began, then paused to clear the huskiness from his voice. “Mrs. Faringdon slipped in the hay as she was coming to give me instructions, and I have just helped her to rise.”  Susan hardly expected Lady Mewhinny to accept such an obvious bouncer, but the kindly old lady did not take issue.

“Why, you poor, dear child,” she said. “It seems your stay with me has been fraught with a series of misfortunes. And look at your gown!” she exclaimed. “I fear it is ruined.”

Susan looked down hurriedly and saw that indeed another of her gowns had been soiled. “I am afraid Tom ’as not cleaned out ze stable properly, Lady Mewhinny,” she said, hiding a smile. “I shall ’ave to speak to ’im very strongly about it.” She allowed herself a glance in his direction, but had to look away quickly to avoid laughing at his false contrition.

“You certainly must!” Lady Mewhinny agreed, “but first you must come with me and see about laundering that dress. I was coming to look for Vigor, but I see he isn’t here. Never mind that for now. Come along, dear.”

Susan was swept away from the stables without a chance to speak to Lord Harleston about the change which had just come over them. At the door she did venture a glance over her shoulder and found that Tom was watching her depart with such a look as made her tremble with joy.

But Susan could not long indulge her newfound happiness. Although she did not doubt the strength of Lord Harleston’s affection, or certainly her own, she was obliged to remember her circumstances with respect to the law. As she lay in bed that night, after pleading a headache and retiring early to ponder the situation, she finally acknowledged its truth.

“I do love him,” she said aloud to the room. Indeed, she admitted, she had been loving him since the moment he first donned his groom’s attire to assist her with her troubles. How wonderful it was to have complete confidence in the support of another! His manly attitude, the risks and discomforts he had already endured with no more than a laugh at the consequences, and
all for her
—it was more than she had ever been taught to expect from any man.

And, now, she suspected that his endeavours in her behalf could have been at least in part the result, not of his duty to her father, but of his growing attachment to herself. She cringed at the thought of what might happen to him were he discovered to have taken part in this deception. The danger to Lady Mewhinny, as fearful as it was, was nearly eclipsed by the possibility that Lord Harleston, a member of His Majesty’s diplomatic corps, might be found to have assisted a fugitive from justice. And
she
had led him into it. Matters were becoming day by day more risky, as her immediate concern for Lady Mewhinny could lead to Lord Harleston’s exposure.

“I shall have to give him up,” Susan said to the nymphs playing on her ceiling. She could not look at them now without arousing the strangest and most delightful images of herself similarly engaged in the stable with Tom. But reason solemnly reminded her that he was not just Tom. He was Lord Harleston, and there could be no Lady Harleston with a stain like hers on her reputation.

Suddenly it occurred to Susan that she did not even know his name. She loved him, she had even kissed him with abandon, and yet she did not know his Christian name.

“He will always be Tom to me,” she told the nymphs, a tear rolling down her cheek. A fairy tale, no more.

Susan’s thoughts kept her awake for hours, but her future never became any clearer. As hard as she tried to find a solution to their worries, the answer was still the same. She must expose Mr. Petworthy to the authorities. In the process it would be discovered that she was not Mrs. Faringdon and she would go to prison, perhaps to the gallows. As the hour increased, so did her morbidity and her overwrought mind lingered on this point. She imagined a moving scene in which she stood on the fatal platform and was asked, with the prospect of saving her life, just
who
had been her accomplice. She, of course, would refuse to answer and Lord Harleston, in the full stature of his nobility, would come forward to confess and save her. But she would deny it, and go to her fate.

As she pondered this depressing picture, the clock struck twelve and almost immediately there came a gentle tap at the door. Susan sat up in bed with a jerk and, uttering a joyous cry, ran to the door and flung it open. Tom stepped quickly into the room and took her into his arms.

For a moment all her resolve was gone. Lord Harleston’s coming had all the drama of a last-minute reprieve from the scaffold. But she suddenly recalled her scruples and, determined to do what was right, drew back while gently removing his arms from about her waist. She dared not look up into his eyes.

Tom released her and smiled.
She is so beautiful,
he thought. If only they were married already—but they were not. He did not know how he was to stand the wait, but until then he must respect her maidenly reserve. The circumstances were already so compromising, and his baroness should have nothing which could be whispered to her detriment. She had not called him here. It was only his concern and his desire to be with her that had overcome his caution and prompted him to come.

He clasped his hands behind his back to avoid the impulse to take her into his arms again.

After clearing his throat, he explained himself. “I thought we must have a chance to speak as soon as possible after our experience of this afternoon.” Then he added with a smile, “We were interrupted before we had a chance to plan what is to be done.”

“Yes, we were,” Susan said, in her tone an involuntary hint of regret. She was thinking it was the last time he would hold her thus, but Lord Harleston mistook her thoughts to be more in line with his own.

This reflection caused him to clear his throat again. “We must make a plan about what we will do for Lady Mewhinny,” he said.

Susan nodded and took a seat on the stool from her dressing table. Lord Harleston took the remaining chair. As soon as he was seated, Susan lifted her chin and gave him a direct look before saying, “I have been thinking it would be best if I went to the authorities and reported Mr. Petworthy’s intentions. But I earnestly beg you, Lord Harleston, not to involve yourself in the matter. You may take the carriage and go on and I shall ask Vigor to accompany me.”

“Nonsense,” he said quite calmly, but giving her a look so loving that his remarks could not offend. “My dearest love, your brain is addled. Suppose you did go to the authorities, do you think they would not discover you are not who you say you are?” Susan lowered her eyes and stared at her hands in her lap, unwilling to admit that that had been her intention. But he went on.

“And when, my love, they discover you are not who you pretend to be, do you think they will give any credence to your opinion? Mr. Petworthy will respond with indignation, and the matter will be dropped while they devote their energies to prosecuting you. And that I will not allow! Besides, Lady Mewhinny’s activities appear distinctly peculiar to anyone who does not know her. The decision will not ride with you.”

As he explained this to her in the most patient of voices, Susan’s head came up and her eyes widened.

“I did not think of that,” she admitted when he had finished.

“That is why I am here to assist you,” he said to tease her.

Susan looked at him with entreaty. “But then what shall we do?”

His mind went blank. She looked so lovely there, wrapped in her dressing gown, her hair about her shoulders. It was all he could do to remain in his seat.

Shaking forbidden thoughts from his head, he quickly stood and paced the room, trying to keep his eyes from being drawn to her.

“Let us reflect for a moment,” he said, thinking aloud. “What Petworthy intends is to get two unscrupulous justices of the peace to sign a warrant committing Lady Mewhinny to some sort of institution for the insane. And it will all hinge on the word of this Mr. Sodporth—who, I suspect, has little to recommend him other than his own self-praise. What we need, it would seem, is a means of discrediting this Sodporth fellow.”

“But how are we to do it?” Susan asked eagerly.

His lordship pondered, but his love’s presence had done much to diminish his powers of reasoning. “I could appear as myself,” he ventured, “and run the scoundrels off.”

“Oh, no, no,
no!”
Susan
cried, horrified at the thought. She did not realize how she had parroted the words of Mrs. Faringdon at the customs gate. “That would not do at all! They would be sure to recognize you in an instant and then we both should be ruined.” She could not immediately understand why her remarks had brought a smile to his face.

“All right, madam,” he said, pulling his forelock. “But you needn’t strike me with your reticule this time. I will grant it was a foolish suggestion.” As he reminded her of their adventure, warmth spread over her cheeks, and the look Tom gave her would have filled her with joy had it not torn her heart instead.

She waited in silence for his next idea, not trusting herself to speak.

He resumed, “If only my manservant were here, I should have a means of finding out something about Sodporth, or even Petworthy.
That
gentleman’s actions would take on a different light if the exact details of his circumstances were known.”

“Could you not send a message to your servant asking him to do those things for you?” Susan asked.

Lord Harleston shook his head. “He is not in London at the moment, and I am afraid that by the time a message could reach him too much time would be lost.” He gave his full attention to the problem for a few minutes and then said with conviction, “What we need is our own medical man on the spot. If we could establish our own man down here at the inn in Heathfield, we could call on him whenever we wished. I could tell him to report to a Mrs. Faringdon up at the manor whenever he should be called. If he is in my employ he will not question my imposture, but I shall give him to understand that it was done in the interest of protecting Lady Mewhinny. And perhaps my man of business will have found out something unsavoury about Mr. Petworthy by then which will make him reluctant to pursue his scheme once it is proved to be known.”

He smiled at Susan regretfully. “However, it looks as if I shall have to fetch him myself.”

Susan’s eyes lit and she eagerly exclaimed, “That is an excellent plan! But there is no need for you to appear at all! You must simply engage a doctor, give him his instructions and send him to Heathfield. You might write to tell me when I can expect him.”
She
had not been able to convince him to leave her, but his plan would make it necessary. He need not run any more risks.

“I shall do nothing of the kind.” He spoke sternly. “Can you honestly believe, after today, that I would leave you to handle this alone?”

Susan’s eyes beseeched him. “My lord, it is precisely because of today that you must not return. If you must satisfy yourself of my safety, send your groom. He can fetch the doctor just as well, and there will be no masquerade to explain. But I implore you, do not return.”

He attempted to regain his good humour. “Any more such declarations, madam, and I may begin to suspect you do not want me.”

Susan stamped her foot in frustration. “I will not be teased out of this again, my lord! I have tried to make myself clear on any number of occasions, but you always... you make me laugh, or...” She dared not continue. She suspected he was well aware of his power to charm her. “You must stay in London. I will leave by post as soon as I am convinced that Lady Mewhinny is in no further danger.” She did not add that she would never see him again.

Tom was staring at her intently. His lips were compressed in an uncompromising line, but all he said was, “If I took the carriage, I could be in London by morning.”

Susan’s spirits rose at the thought of his being safely in London, but a dull pain filled her chest.

“Of course you must,” she said bravely. “It is the very best thing we could do for Lady Mewhinny. When Mr. Petworthy makes his accusations, I need only call for the doctor and he will give his opinion that nothing whatever is wrong with Lady Mewhinny’s mind.”