Chapter Five
After a bit of debate, they sent Havers to watch the side door, while Julia and Hilde ducked into the shadows beside the staircase. From here they could see the front door without being conspicuous.
“Won’t Edie come looking for you?” asked Julia.
Hilde shook her head. “She is occupied in writing of our adventures to her friend, Miss Bidwell.” Her mouth quirked. “With the hope that her friend will share the news with her handsome brother.”
“Are they sincerely attached?”
“Goodness, no. But Edie does admire him.”
“If the pair of you stay with us at the school—” Julia stopped as a piercing whistle sounded, echoing down the passage and causing everyone about to stop and look up.
“It’s Havers! That’s the same whistle she uses to call us up from the theatre when she doesn’t wish to descend all those stairs. Let’s go!”
“He came down the servants’ stairs and out this way,” the maid called as they approached. “Come! We must be off if we are not to lose him!”
They rushed out and Julia caught sight of Sax’s tall form striding down the pavement, toward the center of town.
“He’s heading for the Old Plough, I would guess.
It’s a pub for servants, clerks, and the like to gather.
A courier would be comfortable waiting there.
” She grabbed Hilde’s hand and set off after him.
“A little slower,” Havers ordered them, getting into the adventure of it. “If anyone is following him, you won’t want to draw their attention. You two must look as if you are out for a stroll, or heading to the shops. I’ll walk just behind you.”
Nodding, Julia took Hilde’s arm in hers. “Thank you, Havers. If we smile and talk, we can walk briskly and not seem out of place.”
But Hilde wasn’t smiling. “Why did Sax use the servants’ stairs and go out the side? It’s not something he would do at home, let alone at a place of business.”
“Unless something truly did happen earlier?” Julia wondered. “Something that makes him wish to be least seen?”
“You didn’t see him at all when you reached the top of that track,” recalled Hilde.
“No. And he would have had to run at a good pace to get so far down the coastal path that I couldn’t recognize him.” Julia pushed down a surge of worry. “Could he have been chasing someone?”
Hilde looked worried.
Julia fixed her eye on Sax. He seemed to be moving casually enough.
There were other eyes on him, to be sure, but likely that was because of the height and breadth of him, coupled with his tawny hair shining in the sun, the bold angles of his face, and the small scar over his right brow, obtained when they were battling at swordplay at ten years old.
He’d mocked the form of her lunge and she’d swung her next strike so hard that she’d sent him rolling downhill into a rocky stream bed.
Good heavens, but they had been competitive. But they had also been the closest of friends, the staunchest of allies, the deepest support of each other’s lives. He was hers and she was his—and she was abruptly and irrationally furious that someone would have the gall to threaten him.
“Oh! He is going into the Old Plough,” Hilde said, pointing. “Should we follow?”
“No. It’s no place for young ladies,” Julia told her. “We should wait and see if you recognize anyone going in after him. Here we are.” She pulled Hilde to a stop in front of the print shop. “We can pretend to peruse the latest prints.”
“That’s not exactly ladylike behavior either,” Havers grumbled, stepping in behind them.
“No, but the view of the pub is excellent.”
It took only a few minutes of lingering before Hilde tensed beside Julia. “Oh, saints alive,” she whispered. “You were right! That’s Pickett! That man right there, with his hat pulled low and the newspaper held high. Right there! Across the street from the pub.”
“Turn away.” Julia turned too. “We don’t want him to recognize us.” She moved to the side of the bow window. “I can see him in the glass.”
“I can scarcely believe it’s all true! What can we do?” Hilde straightened her shoulders. “I’ll go and talk to the dastard! Tell him we know everything. Run him off!”
“No.” Julia grabbed her hand. “He has a great deal at stake. He might just snatch you up. At the least, he will only try again. We need to finish this now.”
“But how?”
“We need proof. Witnesses. We need to catch him in the act.”
Hilde started. “He’s going into the pub! Do you think he saw us?”
Julia’s heart started to race. “I hope not.”
“He cannot do anything in such a public place? Can he?”
Julia’s mind was moving as quickly as the blood through her veins. “He could sneak in, start a fight, and hurt Sax in the chaos.”
Tears welled in Hilde’s eyes.
“No! We are not going to allow Sax to be harmed.” Julia turned to the maid. “Havers—you run to Mr. Chesil’s office. Belmont is there.” An idea was taking root and growing. “Tell him everything. Tell him to take reinforcements, if he can, and get to the top of the cliff, near the spa rooms.”
Havers blinked. “The high cliff? Because there is no trail down, no shore, just open water at the bottom? Where a body might be drawn out to sea?”
“Irresistible, if Pickett hopes Sax will disappear. I’ll go and fetch Sax. Pickett saw us together earlier and must know we have… unfinished business. Sax and I will move slowly along the coastal path, leaving Belmont time to get up there by the inland roads and find an advantageous hiding spot.”
Havers grimaced. “Beggin’ your pardon, Miss Julia, but Belmont is likely to think I’ve lost my marbles. He’ll never believe me! For that matter, I’m not sure the Duke of Riverton will believe you.”
Despite everything, Julia grinned. “Sax learned long ago to take me at my word.”
“Still, don’t be surprised or disappointed if he thrusts you aside and moves to deal with this without you. It’s what most gentlemen would do—out of care and concern, if nothing else.”
“Not Sax,” Julia said firmly. “If he did, he wouldn’t be the man worth risking all of this.
But Belmont? You might be right. He could be harder to convince.
” She gripped Hilde’s hand tight. “Go with Havers. Tell him what you know of Sax’s wife and this man.
Tell him what I heard and saw. And if he still hesitates, tell him I said this is a Deacon Allard level of danger.
” Mention of Belmont’s murderous enemy would get him moving.
Hilde gripped her back. “Will you be safe?”
Julia nodded and lifted her chin. “I’m a theatre aficionado, remember? I’ve been preparing for this role my entire life.”
*
Sax was speaking quietly with the courier. More than just a postboy, the man was a clerk with his solicitors’ offices and had been charged with the task of telling him privately that his wife had fled her father’s care and had yet to be located.
Grim enough news, but when coupled with the incident this morning…
He was outlining the instructions he’d written, just in case.
“The witnesses must be the priority. Montford may try to bribe or intimidate them. They must be secured. Hidden, possibly, until after the bishop’s hearing.
” He paused as the noise in the pub began to waver, laughter and conversation dying away in a ripple of silence.
He turned—and blinked in surprise to see Julia moving toward him with purpose, a fiery determination in her gaze.
He felt the shock of it first—it was still so unexpected, seeing her alive and in reach, instead of just in his dreams. But the band of worry and unease around his chest eased.
She’d come to him, as he’d asked. As he’d hoped.
Unforeseen and in slightly controversial circumstances, of course, but she was here—and he recognized that expression.
She stopped before him and searched his face. He waited, drinking in all the ways she was different, but still the same, glad to see the pale, insubstantial version of her he’d found in the assembly rooms had been banished.
“The monsters are at the walls,” she declared.
She’d shocked him again. “Indeed, they are. But how did you know?” He paused. “Ah, you spotted me on the cliff top. I should have known you would.”
“A knight is ever vigilant, especially with the welfare of someone she loves.”
Beautiful relief and exultation stole his breath. He hoped she never stopped surprising him. He closed his eyes, then opened them to meet her direct look. “I will never forget the complete happiness of this moment,” he whispered.
“We’ll live many more such happy moments,” she promised. “But first, there is a bit of misadventure to get through.”
“A quest,” he murmured. “The perfect way for us to begin again.”
Light blazed behind her eyes. “I knew you wouldn’t shove me aside and try to deal with this on your own.”
“Do I look like a fool?” He laughed. “You have the best riposte I’ve ever seen. Why would I not take advantage of it?”
“The first step is getting you out of this pub. Will you walk with me while I explain?”
Sax cast the courier a look. The man nodded his understanding—of everything, leaving Sax free to offer Julia his arm. “The first step,” he corrected her, “into the rest of our lives.”