Chapter 23 #3
It seemed an age they were frozen there. Would the men raise an alarm? Or were they too disreputable to call attention to themselves? Would the coachman try to stop them if they ran past him?
“Scylla and Charybdis,” murmured Lucien lightly. “Can we take them?”
“Psst!”
They all looked in astonishment at the nearest carriage house. A small figure appeared and beckoned urgently.
“Robin!” Beth gasped.
“Come on!” the boy whispered and beckoned again.
After a moment they ran towards him, Nicholas carefully moving behind them.
“Stop them!” bellowed Tom. “Thievery!”
“Oy there!” yelled the coachman. “Stop!”
They were in the coachhouse, “Follow me,” said Robin and darted through the vehicles towards the back.
Without question, they obeyed. He led them out an unglazed window and into a narrow gap between the coach house and the wall of a nearby house.
It was clogged with weeds, but they trampled along it after the boy.
He stopped and disappeared through the wooden wall into another building of the mews.
When Beth got there she found two planks were missing, allowing enough space for a person to squeeze by.
They were in a stable with three horses standing in stalls. The beasts shifted lazily. In the distance they could here the bangs and voices of their pursuers.
Robin silently pointed to a ladder. They crept over and climbed up to find themselves in unused sleeping quarters, dusty and almost pitch dark.
Robin moved the ladder over against a wall then reached up.
Getting his meaning, Lucien leaned down, with Nicholas and Miles anchoring his legs, and hoisted the boy up.
They shut the hatch and collapsed in the dark to get their breath back. Beth could hear someone, probably Nicholas, trying not to laugh. They could hear faint voices but none nearby.
There were two windows. They were very dirty but they let in some light and gradually Beth’s eyes adjusted so that she could see a little. She wriggled over into Lucien’s arms.
“Exciting enough for you?” he murmured.
She laughed softly. “Truth to tell, I’m enjoying myself.”
“So I gather. What did you do to poor Tom?”
“Knocked him out with a skillet. He was taking liberties.”
He stifled his laughter against her shoulder.
“To what do we owe the pleasure of this rescue?” asked Nicholas of Robin.
“Oh, allow me to introduce you,” said Lucien. “Nicholas Delaney, Robin Babson. What on earth are you doing here, Robin?”
“Looking after you,” said Robin cockily.
“Seemed too good of a night to be tucked up asleep, what with the battle and all, so I sneaked out to see some fun. When I saw you doing the same, I reckoned there was something up. You could have knocked me down wiv a feather when I saw you all togged up like that.” He looked at Beth and rolled his eyes. She giggled.
“I were behind you all the way here, and you never knew a thing. I knew you’d end up needing help. I heard a bit of your plan, and while you were striking the dub I sneaked around this place.”
“Well done indeed,” said Nicholas. “Wellington couldn’t have done better. We shall see you rewarded. If, that is, you can be relied on to stand mum.” There was an undeniable note of steel in his voice.
“You can depend on me, milord!”
“Plain Mr. Delaney. What do you want?”
“What?”
“What reward do you want?”
Robin looked blank. Beth quickly said, “I think he should be allowed to choose what profession he wants to train for.”
“He’s learning stable work,” said Lucien with the clear meaning that there was no other job on earth worth having.
Beth could see that Robin was torn between a desire to be away from horses and a fear of being away from his idol. “Perhaps you’d prefer an inside job, Robin,” she prompted gently.
“Perhaps,” he muttered.
“I have a fancy to have a page. Of course, you’d have to spend a lot of time with me and wear a fancy livery.”
He glanced up, wary but bright-eyed. “Might not mind.”
“And I’m afraid I would have to insist that you learn to read and write and all kinds of other things if you are truly to be of use to me.”
“Do you think I could?” he asked uncertainly.
“I’m sure you could. After all, you can’t stay a page forever. You may want to become a footman, or even a butler one day.”
“Like old Morrisby?” he asked, as wide-eyed as if he’d been offered the crown of England.
“Exactly. So if you cared for such a change….”
“Yes, please,” he said with careful good manners.
Lucien ruffled his hair. “Ambitious little imp, aren’t you? Now, if you want this glorious future, you’d better get us all safe away from here or we’ll be too busy picking hemp to assist you.”
“Gam!” scoffed the boy, grinning at them. “Not but what you’d have been in a bumblebroth without me. Wait here.”
He slithered over to the hatch and raised it a crack. Then he pushed it up carefully and swung himself down. Beth gasped at the drop, but they heard him scamper away.
In a few moments he was back. “All’s bowman. Here’s the jacob.”
Within minutes they were all safely down and the hatch closed. Lucien replaced the ladder against the wall. “There’s a back way out the mews,” said the boy. “Follow me.”
All went sweetly and soon they were on Park Street and working their way, a group out for a lark, to Grosvenor Square to tell Hal and Francis all was done. They turned onto the square and froze.
Hal and Francis were there, talking to the First Minister of England and the Duke of Belcraven. Francis looked over and gave a wild look.
The duke caught it. He turned, curious. His eyes passed blankly over the ill-favored group, paused thoughtfully on Robin, then traveled back.
Beth felt herself color up and hoped her garish face paint hid it. She could sense Lucien fighting laughter. He got enough voice to say, “Evenin’ guv. And a grand night for England!”
“Indeed it is,” said the duke and looked at Robin. “Don’t I know you, boy?”
“Who, me, guv? Nah.” True to his part he walked boldly forward. “Got a sixpence, mister, to help toast the duke?”
Blanche, the other professional, swayed forward. “Give me a shilling and I’ll sing a ditty.”
At the sight of her, the Earl of Liverpool grew red in the face. “Begone with you, you shameless hussy!”
But the duke laid a hand on his arm. “They are only out rejoicing on this great day, Liverpool.” He produced a coin. “Let me see … I wonder who is your leader.”
Without hesitation, Lucien dragged Nicholas forward. “Here he is, milord.”
“I might have known,” murmured the duke and passed over the five-shilling piece. “Be sure everyone gets a bumper, my good man.”
Nicholas groveled and touched his forelock. “Surely, Yer Honor. God bless your lordship. Long life to Your Grace….”
“Enough!” declared the duke, but he was clearly struggling to keep a straight face.
“Be on your way.” His gaze wandered over them again, pausing appreciatively on Blanche and even more so on Beth.
Quite clearly, he winked. “After all,” he said to the disapproving Lord Liverpool, “on such a night as this, are not all the people of England one big happy family?”
“This rabble is no family of mine,” said the earl haughtily. “I doubt they are even voters.”
“Don’t be so harsh. Who knows how even a small change in fortune could transform them.” He addressed the group once more. “Can I not depend upon it that you will improve yourselves rapidly, my good people?”
They all chorused their agreement.
“I do not think it beyond possibility, Liverpool, that one day soon these promising fellows could aspire even to a house in Grosvenor Square.”
“You’re mad!” said Liverpool. “Come along, Belcraven. The horses are standing.”
With a smile, the duke followed.
Beth called after him. “No reason a lady can’t aspire to live in Grosvenor Square too, Yer Honor!”
He turned back, laughing. “No reason at all. But you’re a saucy piece, aren’t you?”
Beth cocked her hip and ogled him. “I’m the apple of me father’s eye.”
“I don’t doubt it,” the duke said, and his glance encompassed both Beth and Lucien. “I don’t doubt it at all.”
Liverpool’s carriage rolled away, and they all, including Hal and Francis made haste to Upper Brook Street, where an agitated Tom Holloway was waiting with a carriage. There were two. Eleanor waved out of the second.
Nicholas, Lucien, Beth, and Robin scrambled into Eleanor’s hackney while Hal, Miles, Francis, and Blanche piled into the one driven by Tom Holloway.
A glance back at Deveril’s house showed it quiet and dark.
The guards had doubtless decided, no harm having been done except to Tom’s head, not to cause a commotion.
“What are you doing here?” Nicholas asked Eleanor as he drew her into his arms.
“I didn’t want to miss all the fun. Did you carry it off?”
“Only just. We had to be rescued by this gallant fellow,” he said, ruffling Robin’s hair. He passed over the dollar. “I think you earned this.”
“Thank you, sir!”
“But,” said Lucien, “you are not going on the Town to spend it tonight. Promising young men need their sleep.”
Robin glowered slightly but muttered, “All right.”
“Think, Robin,” said Lucien gently. “A change is a change. You’re not the same boy. If you came up with any of your old friends now, they’d roll you naked and sell every scrap you owned.”
“Reckon you’re right, milord,” said the boy, much struck. He gave a little sniff. “It’s hard, givin’ up what a person’s used to.”
Beth leaned over and put her hand over his. “It is hard, Robin. But life is change, if you want to make anything of it.” She smiled at Lucien. “And it is definitely worth it in the end.”
Nicholas smiled at his wife. “And here I’ve been persuaded to settle down.”
Eleanor surveyed his rough appearance. “You call this settling down?”
“Tamest of the tame. But we have finished our business and, praise be, can return to Somerset.”
They had arrived at Tom Holloway’s and went quickly in. When Beth went to change, however, Lucien said, “You could just put your spencer over that dress, since we are going to have to smuggle you into the house anyway.”
Beth looked down. She had long since forgotten to be conscious of her exposed state. “I could,” she agreed.
Lucien counted out ten guineas and proffered them. Face burning, Beth grinned, took the coins and dropped them down her bodice. She grinned at Nicholas and Eleanor. “I reckon I got to ensure me independence one way or another, eh?”
Lucien bundled up his good clothing and they slipped away, passing Blanche and Hal on the stairs.
“Get the money up front, luv!” called Blanche. Beth giggled. “Oh, I’ve certainly done that!”
Later, limp and content in Lucien’s arms, Beth said, “Can we go back to Hartwell?”
“Yes,” said Lucien. “After you’ve been presented.” He caught the protest on her lips with his own. “I’ve let you play the whore, Beth, and I haven’t even asked what Tom did to cause you to wrap a skillet round his head. Now it’s time for you to play the marchioness.”
Beth snuggled closer to his warm, hard body. “I don’t think there’s much difference between the two.”
“I’ll go odds the queen wouldn’t agree. You could always borrow Blanche’s dress for court and see.”
Beth chuckled. “Do they throw the highest aristocracy out for lewd behavior?”
“I’m not at all sure.”
Beth ran her hand along the fine contours of his arm. “What’s the duke going to say?”
“Nothing, I suspect. You know, I’ve never seen him laugh like that. He’s changed. It’s as if we’ve all changed since you’ve came among us, Beth.”
“For the better?” asked Beth.
“Indubitably. You’ve been like warm sun on frozen ground. My mother sings, my father laughs. And I … I delight in the wit and the strength and the spirit of my friend for life. More men should be as fortunate as I.”
“Clever men,” said Beth softly, “always will be. And clever women will appreciate a clever man when they meet one”.
The End