The Convenient Bride (23 page)

Back in the tack
room Big tied Max up again then held his gun on him while Youth and Ginger untied Charles.

“Same goes for you,” Big told his father
, as he took the duelling pistol from Ginger and levelled it at Max.

Charles
nodded his understanding.

“Why are you doing this?” Max asked once the others had left.

“I’ve got a family to feed.”

“Can’t you get work?”

“I had work, until the machines came in. They’ve fired half the factory since they started bringing those machines in.”

“I have a family as well,” M
ax said. “In fact, we’re not long married and we’ve already lost one child thanks to Marie’s schemes.

Big shot him a glare, proving Max’s theory correct.

“’Ow’d you know it was her?”

“Because she’s become obsessed with me. Please, I know you’re a good man, if you can help us escape or get word to the authorities, I’ll make sure you and your friends stay out of jail and I will personally find you employment.”

“Why should I believe a toff like you? You’re all only interested in money; don’t care nothing for regular folks.”

“We have two orphanages, one in London and one in Canterbury. My wife even volunteers there two days a week.”

“To ease your conscience, no doubt.”

“That’s not true. We’ve not long worked out a deal with five of our tenants so they didn’t have to be evicted or thrown in
debtors’ prison, and we have employed them on the estate so that their families can stay together.”

Big looked doubtful.

“I think you have some degree of affection for my father already, no?”

“He seems like a
n all right sorta fella,” Big grunted.

“He is, and he’s dying. Even if you won’t help me,
please get him out of here. It’s almost November and sleeping on a stone floor won’t be doing his consumption any good. Marie really only wants me, she won’t miss my father. If you do that, I’ll still honour our deal and won’t press charges against you and your friends.”

“He can’t disappear without you. Madam won’t like that at all.”

“Then help us both but please, my father has a year to live at most, who knows what damage keeping him here in the cold, and without his drugs and doctor might do?”

They stopped talking then as the others could be heard returning. Charles was tied up again and Big avoided both captives
’ gaze as he left.

Once their footsteps had faded, Max began rubbing his wrist bonds against the leg of the wooden horse they were tied to.

“What are you doing?” Charles asked.

“The rope looks
old; I'm hoping with a bit of work, I can rub through it.”

“I don’t think it’s
that
old, Son.”

“I can’t just sit here. Lucy will be going insane with worry, to say nothing of the frenzy Mother will have worked herself into.”

Charles nodded sadly and although he thought the attempt was futile, he didn’t say anything else. It must have been close to an hour before more footsteps approached but these were lighter. Charles and Max shared a questioning look and seconds later, the door opened to reveal Marie.

She strode into the room and gave a pitying look to both
men.

“How sad that it has come to this,” she said.

“You can drop the act,
Mary
, I know you aren’t French. In fact, you were born in Wiltshire, the illegitimate daughter of Lord Ashcroft.”

Marie shrugged. “That was then, this is now.” She still spoke with a French accent.

“So what’s your plan now?” he asked. “Are you going to kill me?”

“Of course not, Max, I love you too much for that.”

“Then what?”

She flashed him a wicked smile. “I'm going to kill Lucy.”

Max felt his heart stop for a moment as a cold chill ran through his body.

“Why?” Charles demanded.
“She has done nothing to you!”

“Because if I can’t have Max, no one can.”

She got down on her knees beside Max and tried to kiss him but he moved his head away. It was a futile attempt since he couldn’t move very far and finally she grabbed two handfuls of his hair and planted a big kiss on his mouth. Max kept his lips firmly pressed together and after a few minutes of trying to tempt him, Marie gave up.

“Oh Max, we could have been so good together, but you never appreciated me. I was always just your whore.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Max said. “I was never in love with you, not the way you wanted, but I was your friend.”

“I don’t need friends, Max.”

“You don’t have any friends,
Mary
, because no one knows who you really are.”

Marie s
hrugged. “But I can make any man I want fall in love with me; except you, the only man I wanted.”

“You should know that if anything happens to Lucy, I will hunt you down until my dying day.” His words were spoken calmly, and all the more menacing for that.

“Oh, I don’t intend to stay here, Max. Once I have the ransom, I can go anywhere in the world, start again, meet someone who is worthy of my love.”

“If you really loved me, you wouldn’t be able to leave me behind,” Max bluffed.

“But I can, because I know that you will be suffering as I have suffered, as I continue to suffer.”

“You call unrequited love suffering? You don’t know what suffering is but if you harm one hair on Lucy’s head, you will.”

“I was going to clean that cut on your head but I can see that you are just as stubborn and obstinate as ever.” Marie pursed her lips together and got to her feet, dusting off her dress as she stood. “Don’t worry, Maxwell, you will see your Lucy one more time before she dies. I intend to make you watch while Giles and my men make her scream, then when you have suffered enough, I’ll shoot her.”

“Do
n’t worry though, I’ll post a letter from the port I leave from, telling someone where you are.”

“And where are we?”

“My mother’s house.” She smiled. “Lucy should be here by tonight, so you will soon be reunited with your love.”

“Sh
e’ll never raise a ransom in a day.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that, you have told me how resourceful she is.”

“Giles will betray you, you know.”

“I know, but not if I betray him first.” She smiled.
“I’ll have some breakfast sent in shortly, you will need your strength to watch while Lucy dies.”

“My God, she’s insane,” Charles said once the door
had closed.

Max was slowly realising just how dangerous she was. Why had he never noticed her insanity before?

“We can’t be far from London,” Charles noted. “Lucy will need to collect the ransom from the bank before it closes, then to get here by dark, so we probably aren’t more than two or three hours from London, maybe closer.”

“Do you know how long it took us to get here?”

“I'm afraid not. They put a dark hood over our faces and by the time we got here, it was already dark.”

Max nodded. He knew from Mr Pennington that Marie’
s mother had lived near Croydon, in a house paid for by her lover, Lord Ashcroft. She had been dead for five years now but clearly the house was being kept up.

None of this helped him escape though, so he began sawing hi
s bonds against the wood again, more determined than ever to get free.

Big came back about half an hour after Marie had left, with a plate of bread, which he helped them to eat since their hands were bound. He knelt down beside Charles first and slowly fed him the slices.

“You know, Marie intends to kill my daughter?” Charles said to him.

His eyes grew wide with surprise. “She din’ say nothing; ab
out killin’.”

“That’s what she intends, she told us herself, after you and your friends rape her and make Maxwell watch. She’s a monster.”

“Lady Stark is your sister-in-law,” Big corrected.

“She is an orphan and has lived with my family for many years. I love her like a daughter.”

Big looked uncomfortable but didn’t make any reply. When he fed Max, he too didn’t say anything, believing that his father’s unspoken plea was enough to get this man thinking and if he pushed too hard, Big might just be bull-headed enough not to help.

He see
med intelligent, as if desperation had driven him to this action rather than malice, so it was better to leave him to make up his own mind.

The ransom demand arrived
just after breakfast the following morning, delivered by another tenant. It instructed Lucy to go to her bank in London to collect the ransom, then to her London home, where another letter would be waiting with directions for where to take the money.

Lucy worried about leaving the house, not only in case May and Donald sent a messenger but also
because of leaving Eleanor alone. She asked for Arthur to be saddled, as he was the fastest horse in the stable. When the groom objected since he wasn’t schooled to ride side-saddle, Lucy told the shocked groom that she would be riding astride.

Then she went in search of Eleanor’s lady’s maid, Mason
, and asked her to keep a close eye on her mistress, before changing into her riding habit and going to see Eleanor. She manufactured an excuse that a messenger had come with news that the business deal could be lucrative for her estate, as well as Charles’ but since it was in trust, she was needed to sign certain papers.

Eleanor was beginning to look suspicious but she just nodded her acceptance and wished Lucy
good luck.

Lucy headed to the stables to find Arthur saddled and knowing that she skirt wouldn’t allow her the freedom to ride astride, she shimmied out of it so she was clad in only her chamois breeches.
Whoever had saddled Arthur had also secured two saddlebags behind the saddle, and she tucked the skirt into one of them.

Since time was of the essence and the grooms were gaping at her, open mouthed, she urged Arthur into
a trot as she jogged beside him and used the momentum to vault into the saddle. As soon as she was seated, she urged Arthur into a gallop, even before she had found the stirrups.

It was Max who had taught her these riding tricks and Max who insisted she sometimes ride astride, so as to better keep up with him.

As they galloped, Lucy thought back to what she had read last night, about Madam Marie Poisson.

The investigators had discovered that her real name was Mary
Pond and that she was born in 1794; the illegitimate daughter of the widowed Lord Raymond Ashcroft and maid, Sarah Pond. Although she was 29, she presently claimed the age of 22.

It seems that
although Lord Ashcroft was over twenty years Sarah’s senior, he had a genuine affection for the woman and his child, keeping them in a very nice home with servants and visiting them as often as he could.

From s
peaking to former servants, Mr Pennington learned that Mary was a precocious child but as she grew older, became more insolent and insulting. Mary believed, they said, that she had as much right to enter Society as his legitimate children and had her mother been of higher class and her father of a higher peerage, she might well have but as the daughter of a housemaid and a Baron, she simply could not be presented at Court.

She received excellent
tutoring and as she grew, came to despise her mother for her lack of education and resented her father for prohibiting her plans. Angry at what she saw as their attempts to limit her, in 1812, aged 18, she stole her mother’s savings and ran away to London. Unable to gain an audience with the Prince Regent, she sought out his estranged wife, Caroline of Brunswick, who George IV had exiled from Society, although she remained popular with the people. Caroline lived at Connaught House in Bayswater and by buying herself some rather expensive clothes, Mary had been able to gain an audience with Caroline.

Unfortunately for Mary, while Caroline was sympathetic to her plight, she was the Duchess of
Brunswick, daughter of the King of Brunswick and wife of the Prince Regent, so she knew exactly how Society worked and agreed with Lord Ashcroft. Since she considered Richard Ashcroft to be a friend, as well as being a supporter of Caroline in her propaganda campaign against her husband, she offered Mary shelter for a few nights and immediately wrote to her father.

Lord Ashcroft arrived the following day, embarrassed and incensed by his wayward daughter
’s behaviour, and took her home.

He implemented a number of methods to try and control Mary but her behaviour only got worse with time.
No amount of locks and servants seemed able to hold her and she ran away a further four times.

Until that point,
Ashcroft had still harboured hopes that Mary could form a good marriage, and indeed he had offered a handsome dowry to that end but although many men tried to win her hand, none succeeded in turning her head. Befitting her station in life, none of the men were titled but they were all from good families, often in trade. That wasn’t good enough for Mary though and while he tried his best to hush up the scandal, news that she had been discovered in the bed of the Duke of Cumberwich (a cohort of the Prince Regent and a well known rake), the scandal destroyed his hopes for a good marriage.