The Corinthian

by Georgette Heyer

  He bowed himself out with a flourish, leaving Pen in a state of considerable trepidation. In the tap-room, he called for paper, ink, a pen, and some brandy, and sat down at a table in one corner to write a careful letter to Sir Richard. It took time, for he was not apt with a pen, and much brandy, but it was finished at last to his satisfaction. He looked round rather owlishly for wafers, but the tapster had brought him none, so he folded the note into a screw, wrote Sir Richard’s name on it in a flourishing scrawl, and told the tapster to give it to Sir Richard upon his return to the inn. After that he went away, not quite steadily, but full of chuckling glee at his own ingenuity.

  The tapster, who was busy serving drinks, left the twisted note on the bar while he hurried to the other end of the room with beer for a clamorous party of country-men. It was here that Captain Trimble, coming into the tap-room from the stableyard, found it.

  Captain Trimble, who had spent a fruitless day in attempting to discover some trace of Jimmy Yarde in Bristol, was hot, and tired, and in no very good temper. He sat down on a high stool at the bar, and began to wipe his face with a large handkerchief. It was as he was restoring the handkerchief to his pocket that the note, and its superscription, caught his eye. He was well-acquainted with Mr Brandon’s handwriting, and he recognized it at once. It did not at first surprise him that Mr Brandon should have written to Sir Richard Wyndham; he supposed them to be of the same fashionable set. But as he looked idly down at the screw of paper thoughts of the wild-goose chase upon which Sir Richard had sent him took strong possession of his mind, and he wondered, not for the first time during that exasperating day, whether Sir Richard could have had a motive in dispatching him to Bristol. The note began to assume a sinister aspect; suspicion darkened the already warm colour in the Captain’s cheeks; and after staring at the note for a minute, he cast a quick look round, saw that no one was watching him, and deftly palmed it.

  The tapster came back to the bar, but by the time he had recollected the note, Captain Trimble had retired to a high-backed settle by the empty fireplace, and was calling for a can of ale. At a convenient moment, he unscrewed the twist of paper, and read its contents.

  ‘My very dear Richard,’ had written Mr Brandon, ‘I am desolated to find that you have gone out. I should like to continue our conversation. When I tell you that I have been privileged to meet your nephew, my dear Richard, I feel that you will appreciate the wisdom of meeting me again. You would not wish me to talk, but a paltry twelve thousand is not enough to close my mouth, which, however, I am willing to do, tho’ not for a less sum than I have it in my power to obtain by Other Means. Should you wish to discuss this delicate matter, I shall be in the spinney at ten o’clock this evening. If you do not come there, I shall understand that you have Withdrawn your Objection to my disposing of Certain Property as I choose, and I fancy that it would be Unwise of you to mention our dealings in this matter to anyone, either now or later.’

  Captain Trimble read this missive twice before folding it again into its original twist. The mention of Pen he found obscure, and of no particular interest. There was apparently a disreputable secret in some way connected with Sir Richard’s young nephew, but the Captain did not immediately perceive what profit was to be made out of it. Far more arresting was the thinly veiled reference to the Brandon necklace. The Captain’s eyes smouldered as he thought this over, and his massive jaw worked a little. He had suspected Beverley’s good faith from the moment that Jimmy Yarde had been thrust on him as an accomplice. The matter seemed as clear as crystal now. Beverley and Yarde had hatched a plot to cheat him of his share in the fortune, and when Beverley had been raving against him for blundering – very convincingly he had raved too – he had actually had the necklace in his pocket. Well, Mr Brandon would have to learn that it was not wise to try to bubble Horace Trimble, and still less wise to leave unsealed notes lying about in a common tap-room. As for Sir Richard, the Captain found his part in these tortuous proceedings very difficult to fathom. He seemed to know something about the diamonds, but he was far too wealthy a man, the Captain considered, to have the least interest in their worth in terms of guineas. But Sir Richard had undoubtedly meddled in the affair, and the Captain wished with all his heart that he could discover a way to pay him in full for his interference.

  Captain Trimble was naturally a man of violence, but although he would have liked very much to spoil Sir Richard’s handsome face, he wasted no more than a couple of minutes over this pleasing dream. Sir Richard, if it came to fisticuffs, would enjoy the encounter far more than would his assailant. A more determined assault, on a dark night, by a couple of stout men armed with clubs, might have a better chance of success, but even this scheme had a drawback. Sir Richard had been set upon twice before, by hardy rogues who planned to rob him. He had not been robbed, and he had not been attacked again. He was marked down by every cut-throat and robber in the Rogues’ Calendar as dangerous, one who carried pistols, and could draw and fire with a speed and a deadly accuracy which made him a most undesirable man to molest.

  Regretfully, the Captain decided that Sir Richard must be left alone, for the present, at all events.

  By this time the tapster had discovered the loss of Mr Brandon’s note. Everyone in the room disclaimed all knowledge of its whereabouts. Captain Trimble drained his can, and carried it over to the bar. As he set it down, he said: ‘Isn’t that a bit of paper I see?’

  No one could see anything, but that might have been because the Captain bent so quickly to pick it up. When he straightened himself, the screw of paper was between his fingers. The tapster took it with a word of thanks, and gave it to one of the waiters, who had come into the tap-room for a pint of burgundy, and told him to deliver it to Sir Richard. Captain Trimble, quite as well-pleased as Beverley had been, betook himself to the coffee-room, and ordered a sustaining meal.

  Sir Richard, meanwhile, had returned to the inn. He found Pen awaiting him in the parlour, curled up in a big chair and eating an apple. ‘This passion for munching raw fruit!’ he remarked. ‘You look a very urchin.’

  She twinkled at him. ‘Well, I am hungry. Did you – did you have a pleasant day with my Aunt Almeria, sir?’

  ‘I hope with all my heart,’ said Sir Richard, eyeing her with some severity, ‘that you spent the day in the greatest possible discomfort. I wish it had rained.’

  ‘I didn’t. I visited my home, and I went to all the particular places Piers and I used to hide in, when people wanted us to do our lessons. Only I hadn’t anything to eat.’

  ‘I am glad,’ said Sir Richard. ‘Do you know that I have not only found myself in a position where I was forced to lie, and dissemble, and practise the most shocking deceit, but I have also been obliged to consort for five hours with one of the most commonplace young cubs it has ever been my ill-fortune to meet?’

  ‘I knew Fred would come with my aunt! Doesn’t he look just like a fish, sir?’

  ‘Yes, a hake. But you cannot divert me from what I wish to say. Half an hour’s conversation with your aunt has convinced me that you are an unprincipled brat.’

  ‘Did she say unkind things of me?’ Miss Creed wrinkled her brow. ‘I don’t think I am unprincipled, precisely.’

  ‘You are a menace to all law-abiding and respectable citizens,’ said Sir Richard.

  She seemed gratified. ‘I didn’t think I was as important as that.’

  ‘Look what you have done to me!’ said Sir Richard.

  ‘Yes, but I don’t think you are very law-abiding or respectable,’ objected Pen.

  ‘I was once, but it seems a long time ago.’

  She finished her apple. ‘Well, I am sorry you are feeling cross, for I think I should tell you something which you may not be pleased about.’

  He looked at her with misgiving. ‘Let me know the worst!’

  ‘It was the stammering-man,’ said Pen, not very lucidl
y. ‘Of course, I quite see that I should have been more careful.’

  ‘You mean Beverley Brandon. What has he been doing?’

  ‘Well, you see, he came here. And just at that very same moment, I chanced to walk into the inn, and – and we met.’

  ‘When was this?’

  ‘Oh, not long ago! You were gone out. Only he seemed to know me.’

  ‘Seemed to know you?’

  ‘Well, he said surely I must be your nephew,’ Pen explained.

  Sir Richard had been listening to her with a gathering frown. He said now, with a grim note which she had not before heard in his voice: ‘Beverley knows very well that the only nephew I have is a child in short petticoats.’

  ‘Oh, have you got a nephew?’ enquired Pen, diverted.

  ‘Yes. Never mind that. What did you reply?’

  ‘Well, I think I was quite clever,’ said Pen hopefully. ‘Naturally, I knew who he must be, as soon as he spoke; and I guessed, of course, that he must know I am not your nephew. Because even if some people think I have no ingenuity, I am not at all stupid,’ she added, with a darkling look.

  ‘Does that rankle?’ His countenance had relaxed a little. ‘Never mind! go on!’

  ‘I said that in point of fact you were not my uncle, but I called you so because you were a great deal older than I. I said that you were my third cousin. Then he asked me why we had come to Queen Charlton, and I said it was on account of family affairs, though I would rather have pointed out that it was extremely ill-bred and inquisitive of him to ask me such questions. And after that he went away.’

  ‘Did he indeed? Did he say what had brought him here in the first place?’

  ‘No. But he gave me a message for you, which I did not quite like.’

  ‘Well?’

  ‘It sounded sinister to me,’ said Pen, preparing him for the worst.

  ‘I can well believe it.’

  ‘And the more I think of it the more sinister it appears to me. He said I must present his compliments to you, and tell you that he perfectly understands your reason for coming to such a secluded spot.’

  ‘The devil!’ said Sir Richard.

  ‘I was afraid you would not be excessively pleased,’ Pen said anxiously. ‘Do you suppose that it means that he knows who I am?’

  ‘Not that, no,’ Sir Richard replied.

  ‘Perhaps,’ suggested Pen, ‘he guessed that I am not a boy?’

  ‘Perhaps.’

  She thought the matter over. ‘Well, I don’t see what else he could possibly have meant. But Jimmy Yarde never suspected me, and I conversed with him far more than I did with this disagreeable stammering-man. How very unfortunate it is that we should have met someone who knows you well!’

  ‘I beg your pardon?’ said Sir Richard, putting up his glass.

  She looked innocently up at him. ‘On account of his being aware that you have no nephew or cousin like me, I mean.’

  ‘Oh!’ said Sir Richard, lowering the glass. ‘I see. Don’t let it worry you!’

  ‘Well, it does worry me, because I see now that I have been imprudent. I should not have let you come with me. It has very likely placed you in an awkward situation.’

  ‘That aspect of it had not occurred to me,’ said Sir Richard, faintly smiling. ‘The imprudence was mine. I ought to have handed you over to your aunt at our first meeting.’

  ‘Do you wish you had?’ asked Pen wistfully.

  He looked down at her for an instant. ‘No.’

  ‘Well, I’m glad, because if you had tried to, I would have run away from you.’ She lifted her chin from her cupped hands. ‘If you are not sorry to be here, do not let us give it another thought! It is so very fatiguing to go on being sorry about something which one has done. Did you order any dinner, sir?’

  ‘I did. Duck and peas.’

  ‘Good!’ said Pen, with profound satisfaction. ‘Where has Aunt Almeria gone, do you suppose?’

  ‘To Chippenham, and then to Cousin Jane.’

  ‘To Cousin Jane? Good gracious, why?’

  ‘To see whether you have taken refuge with her, I imagine.’

  ‘With Cousin Jane!’ Pen exclaimed. ‘Why, she is the most odious old woman, and takes snuff !’

  Sir Richard, who had just opened his own box, paused. ‘Er – do you consider that an odious habit?’ he asked.

  ‘In a female, I do. Besides, she spills it on her clothes. Ugh! Oh, I did not mean you, sir!’ she added, with a ripple of sudden laughter. ‘You do it with such an air!’

  ‘Thank you!’ he said.

  A waiter came in to lay the covers for dinner, and presented a small, twisted note to Sir Richard on a large tray.

  He picked it up unhurriedly, and spread it open. Pen, anxiously watching him, could detect nothing in his face but boredom. He read the note through to the end, and consigning it to his pocket, glanced towards Pen. ‘Let me see: what were we discussing?’

  ‘Snuff,’ replied Pen, in a hollow voice.

  ‘Ah, yes! I myself use King’s Martinique, but there are many who consider it a trifle light in character.’

  She returned a mechanical answer, and upon the waiter’s leaving the room, interrupted Sir Richard’s description of the proper way to preserve snuff in good condition, by demanding impetuously: ‘Who was it from, sir?’

  ‘Don’t be inquisitive!’ said Sir Richard calmly.

  ‘You can’t deceive me! I feel sure it was from that hateful man.’

  ‘It was, but there is no occasion for you to trouble your head over it, believe me.’

  ‘Only tell me! Does he mean to do you some mischief ?’

  ‘Certainly not. It would, in all events, be a task quite beyond his power.’

  ‘I feel very uneasy.’

  ‘So I perceive. You will be the better for your dinner.’

  The waiter came in with the duck at that opportune moment, and set it upon the table. Pen was, in fact, so hungry that her thoughts were instantly diverted. She made a very good dinner, and did not again refer to the note.

  Sir Richard, maintaining a flow of easy conversation, seemed to be wholly devoid of care, but the note had annoyed him. There was very little fear, he considered, of Beverley’s being able to harm Miss Creed, since he could have no knowledge of her identity; and his veiled threat of exposing Sir Richard was a matter of indifference to that gentleman. But he would certainly meet Beverley in the spinney at the proposed hour, for it now became more than ever necessary to despatch him to London immediately. While he remained in the neighbourhood there would be no question of delivering Pen into Lady Luttrell’s care, and although Sir Richard had not the least desire to relinquish his self-appointed guardianship of that enterprising damsel, he was perfectly well aware that he must do so, and without any loss of time.

  Accordingly, he sent her to bed shortly after half-past-nine, telling her that if she were not tired she deserved to be. She went without demur, so probably her day spent in the open had made her sleepy. He waited until a few minutes before ten o’clock, and then took his hat and walking-cane, and strolled out of the inn.

  There was a full moon, and not a cloud to be seen in the sky. Sir Richard had no difficulty in seeing his way, and soon came to the track through the wood. It was darker here, for the trees held out the moonlight. A rabbit scuttled across the path, an owl hooted somewhere at hand, and there were little rustlings in the undergrowth, but Sir Richard was not of a nervous disposition, and did not find these sounds in anyway disturbing.

  But he was hardly prepared to come upon a lady lying stretched across the path, immediately round a bend in it. This sight was, indeed, so unexpected that it brought him up short. The lady did not move, but lay in a crumpled heap of pale muslin and darker cloak. Sir Richard, recovering from his moment
ary surprise, strode forward, and dropped on to his knee beside her. It was too dark under the trees for him to be able to distinguish her features clearly, but he thought she was young. She was not dead, as he had at first feared, but in a deep faint. He began to chafe her hands, and had just bethought him of the tiny stream which he had observed that morning, when she showed signs of returning consciousness. He raised her in his arms, hearing a sigh flutter past her lips. A moan succeeded the sigh; she said something he could not catch, and began weakly to cry.

  ‘Don’t cry!’ Sir Richard said. ‘You are quite safe.’

  She caught her breath on a sob, and stiffened in his hold. He felt her little hands close on his arm. Then she began to tremble.

  ‘No, there is nothing to frighten you,’ he said in his cool way. ‘You will be better directly.’

  ‘Oh!’ The exclamation sounded terrified. ‘Who are you? Oh, let me go!’

  ‘Certainly I will let you go, but are you able to stand yet? You do not know me, but I am perfectly harmless, I assure you.’

  She made a feeble attempt to struggle up, and succeeded only in crouching on the path in a woebegone huddle, saying through her sobs: ‘I must go! Oh, I must go! I ought not to have come!’

  ‘That I can well believe,’ said Sir Richard, still on his knee beside her. ‘Why did you come? Or is that an impertinent question?’

  It had the effect of redoubling her sobs. She buried her face in her hands, shuddering, and rocking herself to and fro, and gasping out unintelligible phrases.

  ‘Well!’ said a voice behind Sir Richard.

  He looked quickly over his shoulder. ‘Pen! What are you doing here?’

  ‘I followed you,’ replied Pen, looking critically down at the weeping girl. ‘I brought a stout stick too, because I thought you were going to meet the odious stammering-man, and I feel sure he means to do you a mischief. Who is this?’

  ‘I haven’t the slightest idea,’ replied Sir Richard. ‘And presently I shall have something to say to you on the subject of this idiotic escapade of yours! My good child, can’t you stop crying?’