At the Highwayman's Pleasure (23 page)

There were gasps and cries from the audience, a muttering that swelled to a roar of disapproval. Charity put up her hands for silence.

‘Please, my friends, I am most gratified by your reaction, but it must be.’ She began to speak the words her father had insisted upon and that she had sworn upon her honour to repeat. That she had sinned to show herself so brazenly on the stage, to allow men to lust after her body. That the plays encouraged fornication and lewdness and should be denounced by any true Christian.

The audience went quiet as the oration continued, listening to her with growing uneasiness. Angry mutterings began to run around the auditorium and someone from the pit called out, ‘This ain’t you, my dear. You don’t mean what you’re saying.’

She recognised the voice as that of her leading man, Will Stamp, and glancing down she saw that there were people standing in the aisles between the benches—people who looked suspiciously like her fellow players, although they were dressed in the rough clothes of working people. A woman ran forward, a shawl thrown over her head. It was the actress who earlier that evening had played Mrs Malaprop.

‘Aye,’ she shouted now, ‘she’s been bullied into this!’

Her heart swelled at their support, and it gave her courage to finish her speech.

‘I am returning to my father’s house,’ she concluded, raising her hand towards the box where Phineas and Hannah were sitting in regal splendour. She drew herself up, curling her lip and declaring with all the derision she could convey, ‘My father, Phineas Weston, Justice of Beringham. An
honourable
man, committed to bringing God’s will to this land!’

Her voice rang to the rafters and was followed by a stunned silence. Peering past the flare of the limelight, she could see Hannah and Phineas leaning forward and smiling, her irony quite lost upon them.

‘Weston’s tyranny more like!’ cried a man from the benches, jumping to his feet.

‘He won’t succeed in Allingford!’ shouted another.

‘No! By God, he can’t browbeat you into leaving us!’

The protests were growing. The wrathful audience turned their attention away from the stage and began ranting at the box.

Charity slipped into the wings. Hywel was waiting for her.

‘Did you plan this?’ she said, catching his hands. ‘I fear you may have caused a riot.’

‘I could not let the audience think you were doing this willingly.’ He hurried her to her dressing room. ‘Quickly now. I have a coach—’

He broke off when he saw the three men waiting outside her dressing room.

Sir James Fryton stepped forward and made a bow.

‘Ah, Mrs Weston. Hutton, Keldy and I are here to escort you to your father. Good thing he arranged it, for the crowd is rather boisterous tonight, what?’

* * *

Lights were blazing from the magistrate’s house in Beringham as Phineas Weston’s elegant travelling coach pulled up at the door. Charity ignored her father’s hand as she alighted from the carriage and walked into the house with her head held high. Her nerves were at full stretch. She had spent the journey from Allingford crushed into a corner of the carriage while Phineas and Hannah gloated over their success, but beneath their smug laughter Charity felt the animosity growing and she wondered just what horrors awaited her.

Hannah led the way into the study and ordered Charity to take off her cloak.

‘Hmm, very nice.’ Hannah snatched if from her and threw it around her own shoulders. ‘It will do very nicely for me, since you will not be needing a satin-lined wrap in future.’

‘And just what have you in mind for me?’ asked Charity, shocked by the hatred in the other woman’s glare. ‘A sackcloth gown, perhaps, or a hair shirt? And am I to sleep amongst the ashes?’

‘It would be no more than you deserve,’ growled Phineas, coming into the room and closing the door. ‘But my wife is inclined to be merciful.’

‘Yes,’ added Hannah, although there was nothing merciful in the poisonous look she gave Charity. ‘You shall be my personal servant. I thought of putting you in the kitchens, to help the scullery maid, but then who would know how low you had fallen? No, it is better to keep you with me, so that when we have visitors or when I am out of doors, others might see your disgrace.’

‘As you wish,’ said Charity. ‘But it is past midnight, can we not continue this tomorrow?’

‘We will discuss this whenever I choose!’ snapped Hannah. ‘And you will address me as “madam” in future, and with a curtsy. Do you understand?’

‘Yes.’

Charity’s head snapped back as Hannah slapped her cheek.

‘Insolent girl!’

‘It seems my daughter is still very proud, and “led away by divers lusts”.’ Phineas pushed her roughly down onto a chair. ‘She needs humbling.’

Charity cried out as he grabbed her hair, pulling her head back so that she was forced to stare up into his savage, cruel face.

‘Fetch me the scissors, wife. Let’s see how proud she feels once her head is shaved like any doxy!’

She protested and he put his hand around her throat, squeezing tightly.

‘“Let a woman learn in silence”,’ he snarled. ‘“I suffer not a woman to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence”.’

He released her. Charity struggled to breathe and fought off the encroaching blackness. She would not faint.

‘Here.’ Hannah handed him the scissors. ‘Cut off her hair, Phineas, but cut it at the root, the wig maker will give us good money for such fair locks.’

He was tearing the pins from her hair, all the time muttering texts from the Bible. Charity felt the familiar, shuddering terror freezing her blood, just as it had when she was fourteen, and she had sobbed, cried and begged for mercy. He had given none then and there would be no mercy now, especially not with Hannah at his side, urging him on. Summoning every ounce of courage, she threw herself out of the chair and ran behind the desk. Phineas lunged for her, his fingers missing her by inches.

As he came after her she grabbed the lectern and sent it crashing down across his path. He tried to jump over it, but the heavy Bible caught between his legs and brought him to his knees. It gave her the precious seconds she needed to reach the window and throw up the sash. She tried to recall what she had seen from this window when she had come to the house in daylight. A high wall, but not too high to be scaled, although her skirts might be a hindrance, but before that there was the drop into the yard. Twelve feet, fifteen perhaps, and she was likely to break a leg in the fall.

‘Stop her!’ screeched Hannah, helping Phineas to his feet. If she was going to jump, it must be now.

Phineas came roaring forward and made a grab for her just as she swung herself over the sill and dropped into the darkness below. Her heart had time to lurch up into her mouth, but no more. Instead of the bone-cracking jolt of hitting the ground, she found herself caught in a pair of strong arms. There was a grunt as someone took the full weight of her fall and she heard a dear, familiar voice mutter, ‘Faith, sweetheart, must you be always escaping from windows?’

Chapter Twelve

‘R
oss!’ With a sob, she threw her arms about his neck. ‘What are you doing here?’

Steadying his breath and uttering up a prayer that she was not hurt, he set her on her feet.

‘I’ve just arrived from York with a party of officers to arrest your father. We came to the back of the house to make sure there was no means of escape and saw you at the window. When I realised what you were going to do I thought I should try to catch you.’ His arms tightened. ‘Foolish girl, you might have broken your neck.’

‘I had to get away.’ She shuddered against him. ‘They w-were going to c-cut off my hair.’

He buried his head in the heavy locks falling over his hands, breathing in that subtle fragrance that was all her own. He loved her hair, but the idea of her risking her life to save it brought the rage boiling up.

‘Your hair will grow again, but your neck would not mend, little idiot!’ Immediately he regretted his harsh tone and held her close. ‘Ah, love, forgive me, it is not you that deserves my anger. Come along, let us go into the house. The true villains should be under arrest by now.’

* * *

Charity was thankful for Ross’s strong arm supporting her as the men with him forced the door into the house and they made their way up the service stairs. Anxious servants were pushed aside and two men detailed to round them up and explain what was happening. When they reached the main floor, raised voices could be heard in the drawing room. Ross held her back as the others surged towards the door.

‘If you would rather not—’

‘No.’ She gave him a tremulous smile. ‘I want to see this through, Ross. I am no longer afraid of Phineas, not anymore.’

They went in to find the magistrate standing in the middle of the room, his wrists shackled, and Hannah slumped on the sofa, sobbing quietly.

‘Ah, so this is the young lady you told me of, Ross.’ One of the officers limped towards her, smiling. ‘Captain Armstrong at your service, madam. Thanks to your efforts we have stemmed this flow of secrets out of the country.’

‘So Phineas
was
spying.’

‘Yes,’ affirmed Captain Armstrong. ‘The Admiralty had set up an embargo around Yarmouth and was watching the coast for signs of anyone trying to send information
out
of the country, but they only made cursory checks on the cross-country mail, and no one questioned the mail sent to a magistrate in Beringham, innocuous family letters that attracted no attention at all until you spotted the discrepancies, ma’am.’

‘I don’t understand,’ put in Phineas. ‘What has she to do with this?’

‘Mrs Weston memorised that last letter you received from your supposed brother,’ said Ross. ‘She knew it was lies, that you have no family.’

‘But how did she see it, when—?’

‘When she came to see me,’ said Hannah, slowly. ‘The witch inveigled her way in here and I left her alone in the study. But only for a moment. Phineas, I swear it was no more than five minutes.’

Secure with Ross at her side, Charity spoke up.

‘That was all I needed. I wrote it all out as soon as I could.’

‘And Durden brought it to me.’ Captain Armstrong grinned. ‘The navy can move fast enough on land when it has to. That letter was sufficient for us to arrest the French spy in Yarmouth, and enquiries at Filey soon revealed the fishermen who were carrying the information to France.’

‘So even in this you defy me.’ Phineas glared at Charity, his face suffused with rage.

She met his look boldly. ‘Especially in this. But why should you help the French? Why would you betray your own people?’

‘My people? Hah!’ Phineas spat out the words. He began to pace the room, speaking almost to himself. ‘This is a godless country. I have known for years that England is beyond redemption. Soon it will be consumed by the fires of hell and Bonaparte will be the means of it.’ He stopped and glanced at the incredulous faces around him. ‘You do not believe me? It was Bonaparte who reestablished freedom of worship after the Bourbon king had suppressed it. Bonaparte will ensure that the papists will no longer rule France, nor any of the countries under his dominion.’

‘Nonsense,’ said Ross. ‘Bonaparte is using religion for his own ends.’

‘No, I have proof—letters, assurances—that it is so,’ declared Phineas. ‘People are free to worship as they please, whereas here, the government is going out of its way to appease Rome!’

‘But is that reason enough for you to turn spy?’ asked Charity.

Phineas looked at her in surprise. ‘I am no spy. It is only a matter of time before the Emperor is victorious. I am just doing what is necessary to speed up the matter. The sooner we are united under Bonaparte and this godforsaken government is brought down the better.’

‘And just when did you start helping the French?’ demanded Armstrong.

‘Let me guess,’ put in Ross. ‘Five years ago, was it not? That is how you came by the money to buy this house and turn yourself from a poor preacher into a wealthy magistrate. You turned traitor, took French silver like a Judas. How do you reconcile that with your conscience?’

Phineas shrugged. ‘It is the Lord’s work and He moves in mysterious ways. I merely passed on the information when it came, and the money I received I made use of. I am helping the emperor restore righteousness to the world. I will be acknowledged as the new St Cuthbert, bringing light—’

Ross uttered a snort of derision.

‘You deluded fool, you would betray your fellow countrymen for that?’

‘What would you know of it?’ snarled Phineas. ‘True Christians will revere me—it was because of my efforts, my exhortations, that the emperor did away with the Republican calendar last year—’

Charity shrank closer to Ross, staring in horror at her father’s crazed face.

‘He is insane.’ She whispered the words, but Phineas heard her and drew himself up.

‘I am the Lord’s instrument. I have turned Beringham into a God-fearing place—’

‘You have turned it into a drear, despondent town where people are afraid even to smile,’ retorted Ross. ‘The poor resort to illegal drinking dens and mills, while those who can afford it go to Allingford for their entertainment.’ He put his hand on Charity’s shoulder. ‘And even there you would deprive them of their brightest star. But no more.’ He stepped back. ‘Take them away, John. The game is up, Weston. You and your wife will stand trial—’

‘Not me!’ screeched Hannah, jumping to her feet. ‘I knew nothing about his spying.’

‘But you colluded with him in every other way,’ retorted Ross. ‘You schemed with him to ruin me—’

‘He forced me to it! Phineas wanted Wheelston. He came to me when I was nursing your mother, told me to run it into the ground so he could buy it cheaply.’

Captain Armstrong grinned at Ross.

‘There’s your proof, Durden. A confession in front of impeccable witnesses.’

Hannah flew across the room and threw herself against Ross. ‘He forced me to give you up, Ross. He forced me to bring the blasphemy charge against you, he told me what to say, which phrases would do most harm, and he paid Sir James, and Keldy and Hutton to bear witness—’

Ross put her away from him, saying with contempt, ‘And did he force you to marry him, too?’

‘Yes! How could you think I would prefer him to you?’

‘Easily, since he was so rich.’

Hannah clutched at his hand and gazed up at him.

‘I was frightened of him, Ross. Terrified. But now he is found out and I shall be free, free to come back to you—I have always loved you.’

He shook her off and turned away. ‘Pray do not shame yourself even further, Hannah. Anything I felt for you died a long time ago. You killed it.’

‘So you will go back to that slut! She is a servant, the contract is signed, you will have to wait seven years for the harlot—’

‘Enough, madam!’ Captain Armstrong’s voice cracked like a whip across the room, bringing immediate silence. ‘You have said enough to convict yourself of perjury. You will be taken to York, together with your husband, to answer all the charges.’ He waved to the other officers to take them away, waiting until the door closed behind them all to turn to Ross.

‘A good day’s work, my friend, and it will be profitable, too, for you. With the woman’s confession I think you have every chance that your prize money will be returned, and there is a reward for breaking up this little spy ring. Besides that, I visited, er,
friends
while I was in London. The blasphemy charge has been stricken from your record and you are reinstated as a captain in his Majesty’s navy.’

‘But the Dark Rider—’ put in Charity.

Captain Armstrong regarded her with a serious gaze.

‘Madam, I know of no evidence to link Captain Durden with highway robbery, do you?’

‘Why, no, none at all.’

‘Then the allegations are merely further evidence of Magistrate Weston’s malicious intent to smear the name of this honest officer. And as for you, madam—’ his eyes softened ‘—you need not worry about that contract. It was signed under duress and is therefore worthless. You are free to return to the stage, Mrs Weston. I saw you play at Scarborough and, if you will forgive my saying so, it is where you belong.’

‘Oh, no, it isn’t.’ Ross took her hand. ‘She belongs with me, as my wife.’

Charity had been listening to it all and feeling slightly bemused, but now she tried to collect her wits. Her heart clenched as she saw the warm glow in Ross’s eyes.

‘Are you sure?’ she asked him anxiously. ‘Are you sure you want to marry someone whose father is a traitor?’

He pulled her closer.

‘My darling girl, I have never been more certain of anything in my life.’ He drew her into his arms and kissed her. She responded eagerly, leaning into him, feeling the hard arousal of his body against her own.

When he released her mouth she remained within the comfort of his arms, her head thrown back against his shoulder. He raised one hand and ran his fingers through the tumbling golden locks.

‘“If a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her”,’ he murmured lovingly, then said with a sigh, ‘I should take you home.’

She gazed up at him and said shyly, ‘I am home, Ross. I am with you.’

She saw the flame leap in his dark eyes. He swooped on her again, kissing her with a ruthless efficiency that left her weak.

‘Ahem.’

They broke apart, Charity flushing vividly and Ross giving a self-conscious laugh when they remembered Captain Armstrong’s presence.

‘I take it you will not be escorting the prisoner to York, Durden?’

‘Ah, no. I have a more pressing engagement, unless you have need of me?’

‘I shall leave a couple men here to search the house, but I think a half dozen sailors will be able to get those two safely to their destination.’ He looked at them, a quizzical smile in his eyes. ‘May I be the first to wish you joy?’

‘Oh, no,’ cried Charity, flustered. ‘That is—’

‘Yes,’
Ross interrupted her, grinning. ‘Thank you, John!’

‘Good. Then I will be off—’

‘Wait, John, I—’ Ross turned to Charity. ‘Do you have a cloak, dearest?’

‘Y-yes, it must still be in the study.’

‘Then fetch it, my love, while I accompany Captain Armstrong to the door.’

* * *

Charity missed the warmth and strength of Ross’s arm about her as she made her way to the study to collect her cloak. The room was in chaos, papers and pens scattered over the desk where Phineas had tried to reach across and grab her, one chair overturned and the lectern still on the floor. The family Bible was half-hidden under the desk, one of the covers hanging off. She had challenged her father, fought against the terror he had always instilled in her, and she had survived. He could not hurt her anymore; she could forget him and get on with her own life. Turning away, she picked up her cloak and went back to the hall.

Ross was in the doorway, talking earnestly with Captain Armstrong, but they broke off when they saw her coming towards them. The captain gave her a smile and a brief salute before striding away. Ross opened his arms and she walked into his embrace as if it was the most natural thing in the world. For a moment he held her close, his cheek resting on her head, then he took her arm and said briskly, ‘Home, then, my love!’

* * *

It took some time to find a carriage to carry them to Wheelston, and dawn was already breaking by the time they arrived.

They spent the journey wrapped in each other’s arms, and in the short periods of time between kisses Charity explained to Ross just what had happened to her in the days they had been apart.

‘So Phineas never harmed you?’

She heard the anxiety in his voice. ‘No. He had to let me go back to Allingford to prepare for my final performance.’ She shuddered. ‘If Hannah had not been so desperate to have the money from that as well as everything else, he would have shaved my head as soon as I had signed the forms.’

‘Poor love.’ His arms tightened into a crushing embrace. ‘Phineas will never harm you again, I promise you that.’

‘And you,’ she said when she could speak. ‘What have you been doing?’

A laugh rumbled in his chest.

‘Riding! I went to London and met up with Armstrong, who had already arranged the whole, so then it was back here to arrest Phineas—praying all the time that he had not hurt you.’

‘He did not,’ she told him as the carriage bounced over the Wheelston drive and came to a halt. ‘Not a mark.’

‘No?’ He jumped down and held out his arms to her. ‘I am going to inspect you, inch by inch, to make sure that is true.’

She shivered deliciously, and with a laugh he stole another kiss before leading her into the house. A shadowy, expectant silence wrapped around Charity as Ross led her up the stairs. He stopped outside the door to the room where he had held her prisoner.

‘I meant it, Charity, when I said I want you to be my wife. I love you, you know.’

She felt the light, breathless flutter of her heart when she heard those words, but anxiety shadowed her happiness. She could not believe he had considered the consequences of marriage to Phineas Weston’s daughter. She reached up to cup his face with her hands, lovingly scanning every detail of his face.