Henrietta (21 page)

“Only the waltz,” said Henrietta, as he bent to retrieve her fan.

“Then I must disappoint you. The Captain begged me to inform you that he is… ah… somewhat under the weather. I shall stand in for him, of course.” He began to write busily in her card.

Henrietta gasped. “My lord, you have engaged me for so many dances. More than two would cause a scandal.”

“We shall sit most of them out,” he remarked with arrogant indifference. “But first of all, I have something of a serious nature to say to you, Henrietta. After the next waltz, please step outside with me. We must have privacy. Do not look so frightened. We shall take Miss Scattersworth with us.”

The strains of the waltz started up and he drew her into his arms, holding her much closer than the proprieties allowed. Henrietta shut out the past and the future and concentrated only on the feel of his arms around her. They danced in silence while the gossips turned to stare. Out of the corner of her vision, Henrietta could see the pouting and painted face of Edmund Ralston and then, after another turn of the waltz, the high-nosed stare of Lady Belding and the set white face of her daughter, Alice. Another turn, and Jeremy Holmes was at their side. Lord Reckford stopped and dropped his arms to his side and the sounds and sights of the everyday world flooded into Henrietta’s ears. “It’s time,” said Mr. Holmes simply.

“Come, Henrietta!” Lord Reckford’s hand was on her arm, but this time his grip was like a vice.

“Miss Mattie,” she cried, looking round the crowded room. A few curious stares were already being directed at their party.

“Miss Scattersworth is already waiting for you,” said Jeremy Holmes. She allowed herself to be drawn unresistingly from the ballroom.

She stopped in the courtyard outside and looked round. “But where is Miss Scattersworth?”

“She is waiting in that coach over there,” said Mr. Holmes in a soothing voice. “Lord Reckford wishes to talk to you in private but as you can see you will not be unchaperoned.”

Henrietta was too bewildered to question why the coachman was seated on the box and why the coach was flanked by two outriders if his lordship wished to be private with her. But she climbed into the coach… and then tried to draw back.

The light from a passing link boy’s lantern shone briefly into the darkness of the coach.

Miss Mattie Scattersworth was propped up in the corner bound and gagged, her eyes dilated with fright. Henrietta received an unceremonious shove in the back and fell forward into the straw at the bottom of the carriage. Lord Reckford jumped in after her and then thrust his head out of the window. “Spring ’em!” he shouted. The coach bounded forward and Henrietta slowly dragged herself up onto the seat. “You may un-gag your friend,” said his lordship in a quiet voice.

He was seated opposite Henrietta. The passing lamps showed his aquiline face set in hard lines. He held a long duelling pistol in his hand and it was pointed straight at Henrietta.

She put a trembling hand up to her mouth. “It was you. It was you all along…”

He did not reply. He turned his head and gazed indifferently out at the lights of the fast disappearing town.

But the long fingers which held the pistol did not waver by so much as an inch.

F
EELING SICK AND SHAKY
, Henrietta turned to loosen Miss Scattersworth’s gag. The spinster immediately opened her mouth to scream but shut it again as his lordship said in a voice like ice, “One word from you Miss Scattersworth and I shall blow Miss Sandford’s pretty little head from her shoulders.”

Miss Mattie shrieked in alarm and turned wide-eyed to Henrietta. Henrietta motioned her to be silent and turned, grim-faced, to her captor. “What are you going to do with us, my lord?”

“You are to be my guests for some time and provided you do not try to escape, we shall contrive to be comfortable.”

Miss Mattie gasped, “He is trying to force you to marry him.”

“Believe me, madame, marriage is the subject farthest from my mind at this moment,” said Lord Reckford.

The spinster clutched Henrietta’s arm. “Then he means to ravish you. He will keep you locked in a tower with only rats and bats for company and when he is tired of you, he will ship you to the West Indies as a slave.”

Henrietta fought down an insane desire to laugh. But Miss Mattie’s nonsense had a bracing effect. Her heart may be in pieces, but at least she knew her enemy.

“And where are you taking us, my lord?” said Henrietta in a deceptively calm voice.

“To my home,” he rejoined laconically. “To the Abbey. I am sorry it is not a hideous tower, Miss Scattersworth, but we do have dungeons.”

Henrietta folded her lips, determined to watch for a chance of escape. The hours passed as the strange trio, resplendent in evening dress, rocked and lurched with the motion of the coach, each with their troubled thoughts.

Miss Scattersworth had settled into a kind of heavy despair. She would never see Mr. Symes again and it must be some divine punishment for all her racketing around. Henrietta felt numb with misery. This was where all her wild romantic dreams had brought her. She now heartily wished that Mrs. Tankerton
had
bequeathed her fortune to Edmund Ralston. She would still be at the vicarage, humiliated and bullied, but safe and with her heart in one piece.

They made several stops at posting houses along the road. The two women were allowed to alight and snatch hurried meals, conscious all the time of Lord Reckford’s pistol which he had concealed beneath his cloak, Mr. Holmes who was riding beside the coach was similarly armed and his cherubic countenance looked grim and stern.

Henrietta tried to feign sleep as the night wore on but the hand holding the pistol never wavered. A pale grey dawn finally lit their weary faces and still the coach sped on, lurching and bumping along strange country roads, never slackening speed.

Just as she was thinking she would never sleep again, Henrietta’s eyelids drooped. When she opened them again, the sun was high in the sky, the heat inside the coach was nigh unbearable. The horses were slowing and she looked hopefully out of the window. But it was only another posting house.

“We will stop here for refreshments,” said the now hateful voice of Lord Reckford. “Remember, not by one sign or one glance will you indicate to anyone at this inn that aught is amiss. I will shoot you down on the spot Out!”

Neither Miss Scattersworth nor Henrietta had any appetite for the excellent meal that was put in front of them. Then they had to endure the humiliation of being escorted to the privy at the foot of the garden under the armed escort of Mr. Holmes who assured the landlord with a sweet smile that since both ladies were liable to fainting fits, he had better be on hand.

Henrietta was about to ten Mr. Holmes that she would never forgive him for as long as she lived and then realized gloomily that that showed every sign of being a very short span of time indeed.

Henrietta had been long enough in fashionable society to learn that, despite all the appearances of public law and order, the powerful aristocratic families were still able to do pretty much as they pleased on the privacy of their estates.

The long journey began again and night was beginning to fall as the coach lumbered up to the drive of the Abbey.

Both women were hustled into the great hallway, up the stairs and along a bewildering series of passages. Trying to keep her wits about her, Henrietta judged that they must be heading somewhere towards the east wing. At last Lord Reckford stopped outside a door and pushed it open. Both were thrust inside and then they heard the key turn in the lock.

Henrietta clutched Miss Scattersworth and then looked about her. They were obviously in what had once been a nursery. There were two bedrooms adjoining it and a small dressingroom. The key turned in the lock and two footmen came in. One stood guard at the door while the other laid a tempting tray of food on a small table and then lit the fire in the hearth. Both bowed solemnly and withdrew.

“I am going to eat,” said Miss Scattersworth. “I absolutely refuse to be frightened,” But her voice quavered piteously and she suddenly looked very old and frail. Henrietta began to feel very, very angry indeed. What kind of monster was this man who could make an elderly lady suffer so?

“We shall escape, Mattie,” she said firmly. “We shall eat well, sleep well… and we
shall
get away. Of that, I am determined.”

“But the windows are barred,” said Miss Scattersworth, “and the door is locked.”

“We will find a way,” said Henrietta, sitting down. To her surprise, she found she was very hungry indeed.

The door opened again and this time it was Lord Reckford, looking huge and menacing in the low-ceilinged room. Following him came the two footmen bearing an enormous trunk.

“These are your clothes,” he said abruptly. “I am sorry that you have to be confined like this but it is for your own good. Do not be frightened,” he added in a gentle voice. “It was necessary to terrify you on the road here in case you thought to escape.”

“You are mad,” said Henrietta, clearly and distinctly. “Stark raving mad.”

“As you wish,” he said coldly and withdrew.

Miss Scattersworth clasped her trembling hands together. “Oh, I am sure he means us no harm. There must be some explanation….”

“There can be no reasonable explanation,” said Henrietta in a flat voice. “It is all part and parcel of all these strange happenings. Now he has me in his home, caged like some animal. I repeat, I shall escape.”

Both women finished their meal in silence and then turned to inspect the trunk. It contained two complete wardrobes.

“He has excellent taste,” said Miss Mattie cheerfully, her mercurial nature unable to sustain the one set of emotions for long.

Henrietta surveyed the tumbling silks and satins sourly. “He probably got one of his doxies to do the shopping for him.”

Miss Scattersworth gave a delighted giggle. “Why, Mattie,” said Henrietta sternly. “I do believe you are beginning to enjoy all this.”

“I am,” said the spinster a little defiantly. “I have thought things over and I cannot believe ill of Lord Reckford. I shall simply enjoy the adventure and if he kills me, well then, I have not so many years left after all.”

“Well, I have, you selfish baggage,” said Henrietta with a grin. “Nonetheless, I shall wear something from his lordship’s wardrobe tomorrow and I suggest you do the same. We cannot make our escape in these evening gowns.”?

Henrietta did not feel so optimistic in the morning. She prowled from end to end of their tiny apartment looking for a loophole and then sat down in despair.

“We may as well be in prison,” she sighed.

The two footmen duly appeared with breakfast and Henrietta noticed that the one on guard at the door never took his eyes off them.

After the footmen had left, Henrietta smiled at Miss Scattersworth. “Come, Mattie! There is surely an idea in one of our romances to help us out of this predicament.”

Miss Scattersworth nibbled at her toast meditatively. “We could seduce the footmen,” she said, after a pause.

“Oh, really, Mattie,” Henrietta giggled. “Pray do think of something else.”

Again Miss Scattersworth thought furiously. “Eureka!” She screamed knocking over the coffee pot and bringing vividly back to mind Lord Reckford’s first call at their home in London. “In ‘The Courage of Lady Wimmerey,’ if you recall, the wicked Turk had her locked in the seraglio and she escaped by throwing pepper in his face.”

Both women looked at the large pepper pot on the table. Henrietta’s heart began to pound. “But there are two of them, Mattie.”

“Well, there are two of us. You take the one at the door and I’ll take t’other. What shall we hit ’em with?” Miss Scattersworth’s face was delicately flushed and her eyes were sparkling. Henrietta gave her a wondering look. “There’s the poker,” she said faintly.

“Good,” said Miss Scattersworth. “Now cup your hand and I’ll give you half the pepper.”

They heard footsteps in the corridor. They had not time enough, thought Henrietta, appealing silently to her friend not to make the attempt. Miss Scattersworth merely squared her cap and gave Henrietta a vulgar wink.

The door was opening. They were here!

Henrietta rose to her feet and started to sway. She moved towards the door. “I feel faint,” she said on a half sob. The footman noticed that she was indeed very white and held out his arms. Henrietta threw the handful of pepper full in his eyes. With superb timing, Miss Mattie dealt with her victim at the same moment and then moving like lightning, she rapped the footmen on their heads with the poker, wielding it competently with one scrawny arm.

“We need to tie them up with something,” wailed Miss Scattersworth.

“The sheets,” whispered Henrietta. “Quietly now, Mattie, someone might have heard the commotion.”

Both women tugged frantically at the sheets with no result. “
Honestly
,” said Miss Scattersworth petulently throwing down the crumpled linen sheet. “Ladies in books are always ripping sheets and petticoats and heroes are always ripping dresses or something. They can’t have heard of Irish linen.”

All seemed hopeless until Henrietta spied a little work table in the corner and triumphantly produced two pairs of scissors. Both women fell to work, Miss Scattersworth pointing out sensibly that if they imagined they were engaged in a household task, then it would be easy. “Like trussing birds,” she said, standing back at last to survey the two expertly bound and gagged footmen.

Wearing identical walking dresses and half boots (“The doxie did not realty throw her heart into the job,” Henrietta had commented acidly.) both women edged into the corridor. The great house seemed very quiet.

“We are in the east wing,” whispered Henrietta. “If we can descend to the bedrooms on the lower floor, I can perhaps find a back staircase which will lead to the gardens.”

They inched their way to the top of the main staircase. The stairs were narrower, descending two flights before they broadened out into a grand majestic sweep. Far away, a rattling of dishes from the kitchens made them jump. They crept to the next floor and waited holding their breath. Then they crept along the lower corridor and Henrietta stopped before a worn leather door and pushed it open. A steep flight of uncarpeted steps lead down.