Fated Folly (7 page)

‘
Yes, indeed. Yet I can't imagine when she left the house, though she must have been gone for some little while.'

‘
Probably before I came home myself,' agreed Rupert, resuming his progress up the stairs.

‘
I think so, for I was home before you. Only when I looked in on her all was in darkness, and I did not wish to disturb her if she was sleeping. So stupid. She may have been away even by then.'

Rupert wasted no more words in speculation, but strode through the open door of his niece's bedchamber to find her snivelling maid distractedly picking up discarded articles of clothing and laying them on the bed. At a barked command, she gasped out her story.

‘
Miss Pippa come home, sir—ever so early it was, not yet eleven—holding her head and saying as how all she wanted was her bed. I offered to fetch up a tisane or some such, sir, but she didn't want it. So I put her to bed and—and left her, sir. Miss Pippa said—she said—' dissolving into hiccuping sobs ‘—I weren't to worrit her, sir, and—and I didn't. Only I come in for to make up the fire and—and it's like this.' A gesture encompassed the wild disorder about her, evidence of her mistress's inexpert hand at packing.

Rupert swore under his breath. Berinthia was probably right. At a guess, Pippa must have left the house even before her duenna returned. The cunning little brat. She knew well enough that Berinthia was far too timid—and far too kind, if it came to that—to break in on her slumbers if she was unwell.

‘
Were the curtains about the bed open or closed?' he asked the maid.

‘
They was closed this side, sir,' sniffed the maid. ‘Even with the mess all over, I never thought nothing, until I seen them open t'other side, and Miss Pippa not in the bed.' She turned to Miss Flimwell as that lady let out a shocked gasp. ‘Ever such a turn it give me, ma'am.'

‘
Yes, well, never mind,' Rupert said sharply, interrupting her threatening hysteria. ‘Do what you can with it. No blame attaches to you.' Then he turned on his heel, calling to his cousin to follow. ‘I shall have to go after her, Berinthia. My God, what a damned, conniving little idiot! I could willingly strangle her.'

‘
Shall I come with you?' quavered the duenna, hovering at his back.

Rupert paused and looked at her. ‘No. I'll travel faster alone, and in the curricle. Besides, my presence will be safeguard enough from scandal—if I catch them.'

‘
Oh, but you will. You must!'

‘
I shall hope to do so,' said Rupert shortly, ‘but they have some hours start of me. Four, at the least.'

Miss Flimwell followed him as he began swiftly to descend the stairs. ‘But in a—a coach, Rupert. And I am persuaded that young man cannot afford four horses. Can he?'

‘
It makes no matter. Even a coach and two will be well ahead—and they have already been together overnight.' A gasp of consternation made him turn his head. Evidently this aspect of the matter had not yet occurred to his cousin. He added quickly, ‘Have no fear, Berinthia. If it is within my power I shall overtake them today. And may God have mercy on their souls!'

***

 

An hour and more of hard driving through breaking dawn along the Great North Road had done nothing to improve Rupert's temper. By the time he drew in to the yard of the Green Man at Chipping Barnet for his first change of horses, he was in a mood ripe for slaughter.

The intelligence, conveyed to him by a sleepy ostler that, yes, a young lady and gentleman had stopped here last night, and indeed the young lady was, he dared swear, still in the inn (for he had not seen her come out again), sent him flying through the inn door.

He entered a kind of antechamber to the tap-room. A bleak light, given off by the grey morning coming through a wide casement, fell on a wooden settle to one side, upon which was huddled the cloaked figure of a female form.

Brought up short, Rupert gave rein to the thunder in his chest.

‘
Aha, so I find you, do I?'

The figure started up, emitting a small cry, and a pair of bleary and astonished eyes blinked at him out of a piquant face with a halo of tousled flaxen curls.

Rupert stared, fury giving way to amazement. ‘Miss Carradale? Good God!'

‘
Oh, drat,' she bleated in a resigned tone, sitting up and throwing her legs to the ground. ‘I suppose it had to come to this.'

The suppressed rage veered from his niece to the girl before him. ‘If there was one person I would have expected not to be mixed up in this affair—'

‘
I'm not mixed up in it,' she interrupted, yawning. ‘At least, I am in a way, but—'

‘
What the devil are you doing here?' he barked. ‘You are not alone, I trust.' His glance raked her, noting where the cloak had fallen away. ‘My God, you are in full evening dress!'

‘
Of course I am,' she returned, snapping now as she rose a little unsteadily from the settle. ‘There was no time to waste in changing, you know, if I was to catch them.'

‘
Then you do know something.' His severity deepened. ‘Catch them? Do you mean to tell me—?'

‘
Oh, pray don't keep on firing questions at me in that horrid way,' begged Clare, rubbing her fingers over her tired eyes. ‘How can I tell you anything at all if you will not give me an opportunity to open my mouth?'

‘
I beg your pardon,' Sir Rupert said stiffly.

A brief silence ensued as Clare yawned again and absently massaged her aching back as her gaze ran over the tight-lipped resentment in his features. Despite all, she felt her spirits rise, so much in keeping with her wishes was it to be in his company. She could not repress a twinkle.

‘
Quite the ogre today, Sir Rupert.'

With pleasure, she watched his countenance soften into amusement.

‘
Accept my apologies, Miss Carradale. I confess my temper is sorely tried.'

‘
To tell you the truth,' Clare confided, ‘I was afraid of that, which is why I came myself. Or partly why.'

‘
That was my next question,' he said drily. ‘If you had wind of this elopement, as I suppose, why did you not come to me? Or at least to your father?'

Clare bit her lip. ‘It—it is a little difficult to explain. You see, until I found Lord Ashendon at the inn—'

‘
Ashendon? So he was involved. I might have known.'

‘
Oh yes,' Clare agreed. ‘I am very sure he engineered the whole, though he has not admitted as much.'

‘
You've seen him then?'

‘
Seen him? He brought me here!'

Rupert stared at her. ‘I think you had better explain it all to me.' He noticed the way her hands were still working at her back. ‘My God, what a place to choose to sleep!'

‘
I didn't choose it,' she returned indignantly. ‘I—'

‘
No, don't rip up at me,' he interrupted as he took in her wan features. The poor child must have had little enough rest. He summoned a smile. ‘Let us wait until I have procured you some comfort. Then perhaps you—if you will forgive me?—will remain calm, and I will not become hopelessly confused.'

She laughed as he moved back into the corridor, where he almost collided with the landlord, hurrying down it.

‘
Ah, thought I heard voices,' said this worthy with satisfaction. ‘What can I do for your honour?'

‘
Good morning. Have you a coffee-room? And perhaps—' glancing back at Miss Carradale behind him for confirmation ‘—some coffee, certainly, and fresh rolls perhaps?'

She smiled and nodded, and, passing Rupert as he ushered her on, went through the door which the landlord had thrown open. He set a chair for her, and went off, leaving the door open at Rupert's instruction. Miss Carradale's situation was bad enough, he reflected, without being closeted alone with a nearly middle-aged male.

Clare shrugged off her cloak, letting it fall behind her. As she watched Sir Rupert divest himself of both hat and greatcoat, something about the way he swirled the coat as he flung it over the back of a chair arrested her.

It must be a trick of the mind, she thought, staring at the coat. For a picture had flashed across it—of just such a coat, being swirled in just such a way, and flung down onto...onto a grassy bank, with trees soaring high above it, and …

The image faded and she blinked dizzily, realising that Sir Rupert had seated himself and was speaking to her, and in a moment the brief memory—if it was a memory—was gone from her thoughts altogether.

‘
Now then, Miss Minx. Your story, if you please. And no roundaboutation.'

Thus adjured, Clare explained as simply as she could about the way Ashendon's visit to the Hill Street house with Pippa had aroused her suspicions. Having no proof, she had put Dobbin to work.

‘
You set your page boy to spy on your own brother?'

‘
What else could I do? I could scarcely follow Justin by myself.'

‘
Ingenious, Miss Carradale. And then?'

‘
Well, last night Dobbin was waiting for me when I got home from the party—from which, I may say, Pippa had left early on account of a headache.'

‘
Yes, I know all about that. A clever ruse. But where does Ashendon come into it? I know that he brought her home.'

‘
So he may have done,' Clare agreed, kindling with wrath, ‘but he certainly did bring her to meet Justin. For Dobbin knew it was he who had hired a coach yesterday morning for Gretna, and when I taxed Lord Ashendon with that, he did not deny it. And he was still at that Swan and Neck place—'

‘
You mean the Swan with Two Necks in Lad Lane?' interrupted Sir Rupert. ‘The devil! They have gone north.'

‘
Heavens, did you still doubt it? I was sure of it when I found your cousin at that inn, for there was no sign of Justin or Pippa.'

Sir Rupert's severity deepened. ‘Yes, we have now arrived at the very point on which I am most curious, Miss Carradale. Why, in God's name, did you go yourself to the City rather than to your father? Not that I suppose for one moment that the gross ineligibility of such an undertaking would deter you.'

Clare sighed. ‘I should have done so, I suppose. And I know females are not supposed to frequent such localities, but—'

‘
Don't tell me,' said Sir Rupert with a faint smile. ‘Circumstances obliged you to throw decorum to the winds.'

‘
Well, they did,' Clare said defensively, but with an irrepressible twinkle. ‘You see, Dobbin is very simple, and he might have got it all wrong. Then, too, I thought a lot of time would be wasted. Papa was already abed, you know, and I would have had to convince him, which would have lost precious moments in fruitless discussion. I had to make a decision quickly, and—and I thought if it was true, and if I could only get there in time to intercept them...'

Rupert hastened to reassure her. ‘Don't look so wistful. I appreciate the dilemma.' He could well imagine Carradale's disbelief, and probable vacillation. There was some justification for the child's choice of action, on that occasion. The rest, however, was another matter. ‘Obviously, however, you did not reach them in time. But that does not explain your presence here, does it?'

Miss Carradale's response was unexpectedly heated. ‘No, it does not! I dare say you mean to scold me, and so will everyone else. But I should not be here now, if it was not for your hateful cousin—' She broke off, adding gruffly, ‘I beg your pardon, but his conduct was outrageous.'

‘
I can readily believe it, and you have no need to beg my pardon,' Rupert soothed. He was glad to think she had not fallen victim to the vaunted attractions of his abominable young cousin. ‘But are you saying that Ashendon is responsible for your being here?'

‘
Certainly he is. But for his sneaky escape, I should undoubtedly be with my brother and Pippa at this very moment.'

Rupert threw up his eyes. ‘Miss Carradale, I am quite at a loss. Could you, do you think, contrive to be more lucid?'

‘
But I am telling you what happened, if you will only listen!'

He smiled. ‘I beg your pardon. You have the floor.'

She inclined her head in a manner as charming as it was ridiculously patronising. Warmth spread through him, and he was obliged to concentrate his mind as she resumed.

‘
By the time I arrived at the Swan place, Justin and Pippa had already departed, but Ashendon was still there, as I said. Not that he was of much use. He refused to answer any of my questions, but sat there smiling, in such a smug way, like the cat after cream. So I knew very well he was guilty. Indeed, I am persuaded that he paid for the coach, for when I got so little out of the wretched man, I questioned the landlord who told me a coach and four had been hired, and I know Justin had not the funds to pay for it.'

‘
A coach and four!' Rupert let out a groan. ‘My God, they will be halfway to Stamford by now.'

‘
Exactly so,' agreed Miss Carradale, adding in a tone that reminded him of an infuriated kitten, ‘Which is just why I am here. For your cousin had his curricle with him and I told him the best thing he could so was to drive me immediately to chase after my brother. For we were not long behind them then, and we could have caught them easily.'