The giant, unbalanced by his opponent’s adroit evasion, immediately suffered from the immediate and skilful response to his lapse. A scything hook to his short ribs brought him up short; a perfectly executed right cross that looked like to fell him, left him staggering, with his brain in a tither; and a cross buttock throw finally saw him sent to the ground.
‘Richard.’ Clarissa flung herself into her saviour’s arms and began to sob with relief.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Explanations Due
The building was well alight by this time, and although it didn’t look as though anyone would be troubling them, Leighton acted quickly to spirit Clarissa away from the inferno.
He had a closed carriage waiting at the entrance to the yard, with Tom holding his place at the horses’ heads, and, while her lover assisted Clarissa into the vehicle, two other men closed in behind them. She immediately recognized Richard’s preferred tiger, Teddy, and one of Caroline’s footmen, the very lad who’d accompanied them on the abortive shopping trip earlier that day. Both were armed with vicious looking horse pistols and stout cudgels, and looked as though they were prepared to use them. No wonder no one was prepared to take up the chase.
‘Perhaps you can tell me what’s been going on.’ Richard had climbed into the vehicle with her and began the questioning as soon as they started to move. ‘I’ve been in the devil of a pucker since I discovered you were missing. This is a dangerous part of the city for green girls to explore.’
‘I was abducted.’ Clarissa found herself curiously calm. She had a story to tell, but it couldn’t involve her sister until she’d ensured Marianne’s reputation would be left untarnished. ‘Lord Dalwinton and his thugs took me unawares and imprisoned me in the attics of that filthy ale house, and I’m not the first to be incarcerated there, or so I’m informed.’ She stared directly at Leighton. ‘Did you know it was an opium den, too?’ She frowned. ‘In fact, how did you know I was there at all? Surely Dalwinton himself didn’t admit to kidnapping me.’
‘No. I haven’t seen him. Yet.’ Richard’s face was dark with anger at the dastardly antics of his fellow nobleman and he was determined to put an end to his schemes, by whatever means proved necessary. Even so, he was aware that Clarissa was missing out some vital parts of the tale.
‘We have John, Caroline’s young footman, to thank for your safe return,’ he carried on, outwardly calm. ‘When you went off with your young friend.’ He stopped and regarded her quizzically. ‘Who was he, by the way?’
‘Stephen.’ Clarissa knew she was giving away too much with the name, but she had to give him an answer of some sort. Although she was determined to hold back certain information, she wasn’t prepared to lie to Leighton, even for the sake of her beloved sister. He didn’t deserve that.
‘Marianne’s new swain, I apprehend. Are they living together?’ He stared at Clarissa’s face, meeting her mock innocent gaze with a testing examination of his own. ‘No matter,’ he decided at length. ‘Caroline saw you couldn’t be stopped, but neither did she intend to leave you alone with a lad she didn’t recognize. She retrieved the parcels from John and sent him after you. I gather from him that you were led to a somewhat dilapidated house in the suburbs, from which you emerged several hours later, and it was while you attempted to cross the park alone you were attacked.’
‘No fault of Stephen’s,’ admitted Clarissa, thankful her sister’s part in the affair wasn’t going to be challenged. ‘He escorted me as far as the park and would have remained at my side all the way home if I’d allowed it. It was I who thought it best to return alone. A single woman escorted by a man that late in the evening would hardly have been thought seemly if anyone had spotted us.’ She smiled ingenuously. ‘It seemed very likely that someone would see us together in the more respectable districts.’
‘Ah, I see. You may accompany a man you’ve never before met to a remote house without even a maid to keep you company, and yet your propriety is offended when he offers to escort you home.’ Leighton let his shattered feelings show. ‘You must forgive me for thinking that the both of you are to blame.’
‘Hardly. Stephen is still weak from his wounds, and he could never have fought off the dastardly footpads who abducted me even if he’d been fully recovered. Dalwinton would have seen to that.’
‘He was wounded?’ Leighton’s eyebrows rose again in surprise. ‘Indeed, now I come to think of it, Caroline described him as lame in one leg. An old war wound, I suppose?’
‘Another story entirely,’ Clarissa returned evasively. ‘I gather your sister’s footman continued to follow in my tracks once I’d been taken.’
‘He was too far back to interfere in your assault, largely due to avoiding Stephen on his return, but he freely admitted there were too many for any intervention to have been successful. He shadowed your journey as best he could, but lost you again when you were transported into the yard in which I found you. He waited around outside for an hour or two, then decided you must have been locked up for the night and returned to tell Caroline where you were. Fortunately I was with her, and the rest you know.’
Clarissa could imagine the rescue party steaming to her aid, and took up the story from her own point of view, describing both her incarceration and eventual escape, much to his amusement when he learned of how she’d deliberately set the building alight.
‘There’s something you’re not telling me,’ he questioned her gently. They were nearing the Markhams’ house and he feared he might never know the whole if he didn’t do something quickly. Clarissa was absurdly fond of her twin sister, and was entirely capable of swapping places at a moment’s notice. Once Marianne had returned to live with the Markhams the whole imbroglio would spawn more complex issues.
‘I cannot betray my sister,’ returned Clarissa brokenly.
‘Then it was Marianne,’ he decided, without any real surprise in his voice, and promptly began to kiss her.
‘Richard, no.’ Clarissa was allowed no more than a moment to catch her breath before he took her tenderly in his arms once more and commenced to kissing her thoroughly again. Though not averse to his masterly charms, she couldn’t help feeling his love-making was designed to make her tell the whole. As she most certainly should, she couldn’t help admitting to herself.
‘You’re right,’ she conceded the next time they surfaced, holding up her hands to stop him kissing her again. They were proceeding up the avenue in which the Markhams’ house was situated and if she didn’t confess it now, God alone knew when she’d have the chance to see him alone again. ‘Stephen was beaten near to death by footpads acting for Lord Dalwinton when Marianne came across him. She saved his life and stayed on to nurse him.’ The words tumbled out of their own accord, but constituted the major facts.
‘An assignation?’
‘Yes,’ Clarissa nodded. ‘Though not an elopement as many may think. The lad was set to return to his regiment and merely wanted to say his goodbyes.’
‘He could do that in public,’ objected Leighton.
‘He …’ Clarissa faltered uneasily, she didn’t see why she should excuse his conduct when she, too, thought it was wrong-headed of him to have done so, and all the more despicable was Marianne’s behaviour in assenting to the scheme. Instead, she continued to narrate the story, retelling her sister’s story as best she could in the circumstances. ‘I suppose you hate her for rejecting you,’ she finished. ‘I’m sure I can’t blame you.’
Leighton laughed. ‘I presume I might have in other circumstances,’ he confessed frankly, ‘but how could I cavil when her actions brought you into my life? You’re the only one I’ll ever love, Clarissa, and you’re the one I’ll marry. There’s no reason on earth why we can’t be betrothed immediately; she may have her soldier, and you’ll be my bride in her stead.’
‘We cannot. Oh, please believe me, we cannot.’
‘Why ever not?’ Leighton dismissed Teddy who was attempting to open the carriage door with an airy wave o
f his hand. ‘Marianne doesn’t want me, but I can’t believe you don’t. You’re too unpractised to return my kisses with such passion, and not mean it.’
‘I love you,’ she told him simply. ‘I have done ever since the moment I first met you.’
‘Then why?’
‘Marianne can never reject your suit, Richard. Not with any propriety. Too many people in society know of your engagement, for all it’s not been formally announced. If she should do so, then society would compare her to our mother, a married woman running off with her sister-in-law’s bridegroom. Like mother, like daughter, and I’d be tainted too. The disgrace would affect us all and Lord Dalwinton would be in a heaven of our own making. You’d be a laughing stock and our reputations in tatters.’ A single tear ploughed a furrow down her face and she brushed it away angrily. ‘Please, we must go in immediately. Uncle John and Aunt Eleanor will be distraught for my safety.’
Leighton nodded and opening the door, handed her down.
‘John,’ he called out to his sister’s footman. ‘Please return to Lady Burnett to assure her Miss Meredew is safe and well.’
The Markhams were indeed distraught. They’d just suffered the double blow of having their second niece go missing, neither of them for any good reason they could think of, and were inclined to kill the fatted calf on her return.
The story had to be told again and this time Clarissa missed out no detail of Marianne’s miraculous discovery.
The Markhams, though pleased to hear Marianne was safe, were as worried as Clarissa at how Leighton would take the news. Then they were surprised and relieved in equal measure when they found out he’d already discovered Clarissa’s deception and forgiven her.
‘It’s Clarissa, I’ll wed,’ he told them firmly, to Clarissa’s dismay and secret delight, ‘and no other. You’d better get used to that idea.’
CHAPTER NINETEEN
A Solution is Expounded
To Clarissa’s surprise Lord Leighton called on her early the next morning. She’d been exhausted the previous evening and hadn’t yet had the opportunity to discuss Marianne’s return to the fold with her aunt and uncle. It must be done today, she told herself, and then, more regretfully, considered her own position. I’ll be back home with Aunt Constance by nightfall, she decided.
‘My Lord.’ Clarissa’s greeting was too formal for Leighton’s taste when she greeted him in the morning-room.
‘My darling would have been more appropriate,’ he complained, striding across the room to take her in his arms.
‘Richard! The servants will see us,’ she protested, but lifted her lips to his kiss anyway.
‘They all know we’re to be betrothed in a couple of days and no doubt think it most romantic,’ he returned carelessly, slipping an arm around her waist and guiding her towards the window. ‘Why else do you suppose Downing so forgot his training as to inform you alone of my visit?’
In actual fact the butler had pocketed a handful of fat gold coins not to advise either of the Markhams of the viscount’s arrival. He would, in all probability, have allowed the lovers their privacy in any case, but Leighton was a man who liked to make sure of his ground, especially when he was engaged in such clandestine damage limitation.
‘How are you feeling this morning?’ he continued, holding her face up to the light. ‘If it were any other woman of my acquaintance, they’d still be in their beds swallowing a posset or some such thing.’ He’d wasted no time in speculating about any such poor spirited action from Clarissa, recognizing immediately that she’d be up with the lark, and raring to begin the ticklish process of sorting out her sister’s affairs.
‘My head ached abominably last night,’ she told him mournfully, ‘but I feel fresh as a daisy this morning. There’s still some slight swelling where I was hit from behind, but no lingering pain, and I also have a bruise developing under my hair, a souvenir of Lord Dalwinton’s assault.’ She winced perceptibly when she touched the side of her head where Dalwinton had struck her.
‘I intend to pay that cursed blackguard back for that.’ Richard looked so menacing and serious that Clarissa added a more humorous rider.
‘But worst of all,’ she complained, ‘is that my nails are ragged and broken from fighting my bonds and those damnable floor-boards.’
‘You’re luckier than you know, Clarissa. You should never have put yourself in such a position.’ Leighton was still dwelling seriously on the previous night’s events. ‘Dalwinton’s a fool to resort to kidnapping a woman in your position, but he’s still a very dangerous man for all that.’
‘I fought fire with fire,’ she told him, attempting to charm him out of such an earnest vein.
‘You certainly bamboozled him,’ Leighton admitted, ‘but at what cost if you’d perished in the blaze?’
‘Don’t remind me; I was in a fair way to believing they’d all flee the conflagration and leave me to die until Marston arrived.’
The viscount laughed suddenly, his eyes sparkling with a different light when he remembered how she’d freed herself. ‘Forget my mealy-mouthed words,’ he told her. ‘You were magnificent.’
‘Your tiger is walking your horses.’ Clarissa changed the subject abruptly when she turned her head to look through the wide windows that overlooked the square in front of the house. ‘I thought you’d rack them up as you usually do. Are you leaving so quickly?’
‘We, my darling girl,’ he told her with a quizzical look, ‘have an assignation this morning. You cannot have forgotten I engaged to show you all the sights? We go out together every morning, and cannot afford to give the gossips an opportunity for idle speculation by abruptly ceasing our excursions without any good reason being made apparent.’
‘I have too much to do to waste time driving out with you,’ Clarissa objected. ‘I still haven’t organized the details of Marianne’s return, let alone my own dispositions.’
‘Then we’ll organize together,’ he assured her. ‘I’ve already let Downing know we’ll be out, and if he should learn you’ve turned me down, it’ll be servant’s gossip by tonight.’
‘Don’t be so foolish.’ Clarissa’s face broke into a smile for all his bold words. Butler’s didn’t sink to tittle-tattling with the lower servants, and neither did she believe for a moment that Leighton would have furnished Downing with his plans. ‘Where are we supposed to be going?’
‘St Paul’s.’ Leighton drew an arrow at random. An excursion to St Paul’s was as good a cover for his real intentions as any.
‘We went there two days since,’ she told him frankly. They hadn’t, but a venture into the City to take in the wonders of the cathedral had formed that day’s cover for their all too real search for her sister, Marianne. ‘There must be a hundred other places to take our fancy.’
‘As I remember it, you enjoyed your visit to the dome so much, you wished to take another look,’ he quizzed her, telling the tale with such a grave face she was forced to laugh out loud.
‘Fool,’ she accused him.
‘Perhaps I am,’ Leighton agreed patiently, ‘but not such a fool as to allow the Markhams to welcome Marianne back into their home and dispose of you where they will.’ He raised his eyebrows questioningly. ‘Your Aunt Constance springs instantly to mind?’
‘Abominable man. Of course I have to leave. Two Mariannes in the Markhams’ household would be one too many for society to bear. Even an identical twin sister would be difficult to explain away, especially if Dalwinton decided to spread his wicked gossip.’
‘Lord Dalwinton will be unable to do any such thing,’ Richard assured her confidently, ‘and neither will you return to Bedfordshire while I draw breath. Are you ready to leave?’ He surveyed her attire with a critical, and entirely knowing eye. ‘I see you’re not,’ he decided, ‘but let me tell you my horses are too precious to wait around for much longer.’
‘Where are we really going?’
‘To lend countenance to your sister’s liaison with Stephen,’ he inform
ed her and, taking hold of her shoulders, spun her around and propelled her towards the door with a playful swat on her behind.
Clarissa squealed out loud and turned reproachful eyes on him, but wisely refrained from the stinging admonition she’d prepared. Instead, she held her head high and swept out of the room, blushing when she realized she’d actually enjoyed the sensation.
Clarissa’s toilette was completed in record time, and she returned to the morning-room dressed in charming, if somewhat severe, attire. A dark travelling suit, made up in the military style, complete with epaulettes, matched to stout, leather half boots and a Russian bonnet to hide the bruises that had resulted from her brush with the previous night’s thugs.
‘Does Teddy know the way?’ They were travelling in a closed carriage with his groom driving, rather than the curricle they normally employed, when he usually took the reins himself.
‘He does. John’s description of the route was most precise.’ Richard continued to bring her up to date on his plans. ‘We’ll take a walk across the park, if you don’t mind. I’d rather not advertise our visit to such a run-down house.’ He smiled and reassured her. ‘There’s precious little chance of Dalwinton’s men attacking us in broad daylight. Besides, they’re more likely to be raking through the ruins of their ale house.’
‘Ruins?’
‘When I reconnoitred the site earlier this morning the entire building was gutted and smoke still hanging over it, though I couldn’t discover that anyone had died as a result of the inferno.’
‘I haven’t thanked you enough for coming to my rescue,’ Clarissa admitted. ‘Nor do I see how I ever could.’
‘I think something could be arranged,’ returned Leighton, and the girl coloured becomingly when she saw the glint in his eyes.
A Fraudulent Betrothal Page 17