Chapter Twenty-four #3
Hero, tumbled without ceremony on to the padded seat, picked herself up as the chaise moved forward, and found that she was laughing and crying together. The sight of the indignant Pug, panting on the floor of the chaise, effectually dried up her tears.
‘Oh!’ she gurgled. ‘Oh, you horrid little dog, how like Sherry to have thrown you in on top of me!’
Mr Tarleton, meanwhile, riding behind the chaise, was congratulating himself on the success of his outrageous plan to abduct the lady he desired to make his wife; and Sherry, already dressed for dinner with his wife, was seated at his dressing-table, impatiently assuring Lord Wrotham that no foreigner, Greek or otherwise, had had any finger in his having come to Bath.
‘Well, I can’t make it out!’ George said.
‘No making head or tail of what Ferdy says! Seems this fellow was at Eton with him. Never knew there was any Greeks there, did you? Sounds to me like a devilish rum customer, too. Always creeping up behind a man, and giving him a start. He says Duke knows him.’
‘He may do so, but I don’t!’ replied the Viscount.
‘I wish you will stop teasing me about it, and go away! Go and do the civil in the parlour! Dare say Isabella may be there by now. You’ll find Gil, too.
Came to pay his respects to my mother, poor devil, and she’s had him buttonholed this past hour, listening to what some curst doctor has told her about Russian Vapour Baths. ’
‘I own, it was in the hope of seeing Miss Milborne that I called,’ said George ingenuously. ‘The thing is, though, that your mother don’t like me above half, and I’d as lief you came in with me to make all smooth.’
The Viscount, who was putting the finishing touches to his cravat, said that he was a cowardly fellow after all, but if he would wait a moment, and not prate of mysterious Greeks, he would do his best for him.
But even as he spoke, a knock fell on the door, and, when he called Come in!
the dowager entered, clasping, ominously, her vinaigrette.
She acknowledged Lord Wrotham’s presence by a slight inclination of her turbaned head, but addressed herself to her son.
‘Oh, Anthony, I am so thankful you are not yet gone out! I am in such anxiety over dearest Isabella, and fear that some mishap may have occurred! She assured me she should be home by five o’clock at the latest, and here it is, half-past six already, and no sign of her!
And, as though that were not bad enough, I am quite overset by having this instant received Mr and Miss Chalfont, who called here to set down Isabella’s scarf, which she was so careless as to drop in the inn at Wells.
My dear Anthony, it appears that she and Sir Montagu set out to drive back to Bath by a different road quite half an hour ahead of the others in the party!
What can have become of them? When the news was broken to me, I had such an attack of palpitations that Mr Ringwood – so very obliging of him!
such a gentlemanly man! Oh, there you are, dear Mr Ringwood!
Well, I am sure –! As I was saying, he was obliged to summon my abigail, with some hartshorn and water to revive me!
For, you know, I am responsible for dear Isabella, and how I should ever be able to face her Mama if any accident were to befall her – There is nothing for it, Anthony, but for you to set out instantly in search of her in your curricle! ’
‘Oh, isn’t there, by Jove!’ said the Viscount.
‘No, I thank you, ma’am! I warned Bella not to go jauntering about the country with that fellow, and if she would not heed me she may take the consequences!
I am dining with my wife in Camden Place at seven o’clock, and you may judge how likely I am to break that engagement for any start of Bella’s! ’
George, whose expressive eyes had been fixed on the dowager’s face throughout her speech, stepped forward at this point, saying in a low, vibrant voice: ‘You may leave the matter in my hands, Lady Sheringham! This concerns me more nearly than Sherry! I shall set forth on the instant, and you need have no fear that I shall not only restore Miss Milborne to you, but I shall certainly call Revesby to answer for whatever carelessness or – or villainy he has committed!’
He bowed briefly and strode towards the door, such a look of ferocity in his face that Mr Ringwood protested. ‘No, really, George! Really, I say! Ten to one it is due to some trifling accident, and they will arrive here at any moment! Dash it, Monty would not – George!’
Lord Wrotham, casting him no more than a contemptuous glance, vanished from the room.
Mr Ringwood turned to Sherry. ‘Think I’d better go after him, dear old boy!
’ he said. ‘You know what he is! Don’t like Monty, but can’t let George murder him – for that’s what it would be: sheer murder!
Very obedient servant, Lady Sheringham! Wish you good fortune, Sherry, dear old boy! ’
The dowager sank down upon a chair, quite overcome by the sudden twist of events.
She raised her handkerchief to her eyes and was just about to bemoan her son’s approaching reconciliation with his wife when a servant came to the door to announce the arrival of the Honourable Ferdy Fakenham, who had been invited to dine in the Royal Crescent.
The Viscount, glad to escape a more than ordinarily foolish jeremiad from his parent, bade the man invite Ferdy to step into his room, and turned his attention to the far more pressing problem of the choice of a fob to finish off his toilet.
Ferdy, upon his entering the room, was at once regaled by his aunt with a tearful account of the disasters which, she was convinced, had overtaken them all.
He shook his head and said that Monty was a Bad Man, and there was no saying where the havoc created by that old Greek fellow would end.
This attracted the Viscount’s interest, and he was just going to demand an explanation of his cousin when Bootle entered the room, looking offended, and informing him that Jason, whom he freely designated a Varmint, insisted on having instant speech with him.
‘What the deuce can he want?’ said his lordship. ‘Where is he?’
‘Here I be, guv’nor!’ responded the Tiger, diving under Bootle’s arm. ‘Out of breath I be, what’s more, loping after a rattler fit to bust meself!’
‘You’re boozy!’ said his lordship severely.
‘I ain’t! You send that fat chub off, and I’ll tell you something as you had ought to know! Yes, and don’t you go putting your listeners forward t’other side of the door!’ he added.
Bootle was so much affronted by this admonition that he stalked from the room without another word, shutting the door with meticulous care behind him. The Tiger looked at his master, real trouble in his sharp eyes. ‘It’s the missus!’ he blurted out.
The Viscount dropped the fob he had selected. ‘What?’ he said quickly. ‘What has happened?’
The Tiger shook his head sadly. ‘Piked on the bean, guv’nor!’ he said simply.
‘What!’
‘So help me bob, guv’nor, it’s Gawd’s truth! Loped off with that well-breeched swell I seed her with t’other day!’
The Viscount had the oddest impression that the floor was heaving under his feet. He put out a hand to grasp the edge of his dressing-table, saying hoarsely: ‘It’s a lie!’
‘I’ll wish myself backt if ever I told you a lie, guv’nor!’ Jason said earnestly. ‘Nor I wouldn’t tell no lies about the missus! Fit to nap my bib, I be!’
In proof of this statement he drew the sleeve of his jacket across his eyes and sniffed dolorously. The Viscount, white as his shirt, said: ‘How do you know this, rascal?’
‘Seed her with my werry own daylights, guv’nor.
’ He shifted uneasily from one foot to the other.
‘I was waiting in Camden Place, that Maria – that saucy mort what is maid to the missus – whiddling the scrap to me that the missus takes the dog what belongs to the old gentry-mort for a walk every evening. Seemed to me if I was to go and tell the missus as how we miss her mortal bad – but I never had no chance to open me bone-box! There was a rattler a-standing in the road, and this cove as you knows of, guv’nor.
So I lays low, and keeps my daylights skinned.
And along comes the missus with a dawg on a string.
Then I seed that well-breeched swell put a mask over his phyz, and I’m bubbled if he didn’t catch hold of the missus and start a’kissing of her!
And afore I could get my breath he threw her into the rattler and jumped on to a niceish piece of blood, and the whole lot starts off! ’
The Viscount started forward. ‘You damned little fool, did you do nothing to aid her ladyship? You watched her being forcibly carried off, and you –’
‘Guv’nor, it ain’t no use bamming you: she weren’t carried off, not agin her will she weren’t! For I seed her put her arm round the cove’s neck, hugging him like you never saw, and she didn’t struggle, nor let a squeak, not once!’
‘I knew it!’ declared the dowager.
‘No, dash it, ma’am, can’t have known it!
’ Ferdy expostulated, much moved by the stricken look on his cousin’s face.
‘Sherry, dear old boy! Depend upon it, all a hum! Kitten wouldn’t go hugging fellows in masks!
Might kiss George, but not a fellow in a mask!
Wretched Tiger of yours has shot the cat! ’
Sherry shook his head dumbly. Jason said: ‘I ain’t shot the cat!
What’s more, I loped after that rattler – ah, right through the town, I did, and I know the road that leery cove took, and it ain’t the road what leads to his own ken, neither!
Gone off with the missus on the Radstock road what leads to Wells, he has, but he won’t get far, not if I know it, he won’t! ’
Sherry raised his head. ‘Why won’t he?’
‘Acos I forked the cove while he was a-waiting for the missus,’ said Jason sulkily. He added in a defensive tone: ‘You never telled me not to fork that cull, guv’nor, and if he’s a friend of yourn it’s the first I heard of it!’
Sherry was regarding him intently. ‘What did you steal from him? Come, I’m not angry with you! Answer me!’
Jason sniffed, and reluctantly produced from the breast of his jacket a bulging wallet, and a purse with a ring about its neck, both of which he handed over to his master.
The wallet was found to contain, besides a handsome number of bank-notes, a special marriage-licence, and several visiting-cards, inscribed with Mr Tarleton’s name and direction; and the purse held some guinea and half-guinea pieces.
Sherry restored the notes to the wallet with a shaking hand.
‘He may have some loose coins in his pockets, but you are right!’ he said.
‘He won’t get beyond the first stage, if he’s travelling with hired horses.
He doesn’t know the truth: he thinks she is free to marry him, of course.
You are positive he took the Radstock road, Jason? ’
‘Take my dying oath he did!’ responded the Tiger.
‘Wedding at Wells – yes, very likely! Get my curricle round to the door as quick as you can now! Off with you!’
‘Anthony!’ intoned the dowager, rising from her chair as Jason sped on his errand. ‘Will you not listen to your Mother? Do you need further proof of that wicked girl’s –’
‘I beg you will say no more, ma’am!’ he interrupted, with a look so stern that she quailed.
‘Mine is the blame – all of it! I have come by my deserts, and I know it, if you do not! My folly – my neglect of her, my damnable brutality have led her into this flight! Lady Saltash must have compelled her to consent to my visiting her to-night, and rather than meet me –’ He broke off, his lip quivering.
‘But she must not – I cannot let her run off with this man before I’ve – before I’ve arranged to set her free!
I must find them – explain the circumstances to Tarleton – bring her back to the protection of Lady Saltash! ’
Ferdy, who had been lost in profound meditation, looked at him earnestly. ‘Sherry, dear old boy, you know what I think? All a mistake! Ten to one that fellow of yours don’t know what he’s talking about! Might have taken Kitten to a masquerade. Mask, you know.’
‘Ferdy, I was to have dined with her!’ Sherry said in a voice which cracked.
‘Must have forgotten that. Dash it, deuced easy to forget a dinner engagement! Done it myself. Mind you, quite right to go after her! Not the thing to be driving about with a fellow in a mask: ought to have warned her! But no getting into a miff, Sherry, and frightening the poor little soul half out of her wits!’
‘No, no! Though how I am to keep from choking the life out of that Tarleton fellow – But I shall do it, never fear!’
Ferdy took a noble resolve. ‘Tell you what, Sherry: I’ll come with you,’ he said. ‘Dash it all! not one to leave my friends in the lurch!’